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Domain Parking

If you have a domain name which gets some traffic, but is no longer a part of your project, you can park the domain name to earn some money. Sedo.com and Google AdSense provide the best domain parking services.

When you park your domain name, advertisements relevant to the market of your domain name will appear all over the page. For example, a domain name such as FatLossPoint.com will display ads related to the weight loss industry.

You will earn money whenever people click on the ads. If your domain is newly registered, it will likely not produce significant earnings due to low traffic (though it would probably produce enough to cover at least the yearly registration charges of the domain name).

Choosing the Right Domain Name for Your Project

The domain name is the only part of your website that cannot be changed in the future. You can change your web design, your business model and your content, etc., but you cannot change your domain name. You should make certain that you choose the best possible domain name for your project before investing any time and money on that domain.

The best way to come up with a list of potential domain names for your project is to brainstorm various combinations of words related to your market. You may want to write them down on paper so that you can refer to this list as you check upon the availability of these domain names. A domain name which looks good for you, however, may not have the same impact on others. Therefore, it is a good idea to ask your friends to help you choose the best domain name from a list of potential names, or even ask them to suggest some creative names for your domain to give you even more ideas.

There are many free domain name suggestion tools on the Internet which generate a list of available domain names based upon your selection of categories and keywords. These are simply computer programs, and the names they come up with are not meaningful — and are, therefore, unworthy of use. The best tool I have come across so far for determining an appropriate domain name is that which sits between our ears. Use this tool, along with the following guidelines, and I am sure you would find a good domain name for your project.

1. Descriptive: Your domain name should describe clearly the type of website you are running. For example, if your website is about pets, your domain name should be something along the line of pets.com, onlinepets.com or petsinfo.com. When people see the domain name of your website, they will immediately understand what the website is all about. Even though many of the obvious domain names have been already registered, you should try your best to get a descriptive domain name — instead of naming the website with your name or some word which has no immediately apparent link to the purpose of the website.

2. Keyword Rich: If you are expecting to get traffic from search engines, it is recommended that you include keywords in your domain which are most frequently and regularly searched for on the Internet. For example, if your website is about digital camera reviews, it is a good idea to include the keyword ‘review’ in your domain name. Your website will have more weight in the eyes of search engines if you use these types of keywords in your domain name, as compared to one which does not.
3. Get a ‘.com’: The top three domain name extensions are ‘.com,’ ‘.net’ and ‘.org.’ Out of the three, ‘.com’ is the most used and preferred option. A longer domain name with a ‘.com’ extension is more preferable than a shorter name with some other extension. This is true because when people come to know about your website through different channels, most of them will type the name of your website followed by ‘.com.’

If your domain name is on some other extension, you could end up losing a percentage of visitors to the ‘.com’ version. If your website targets the audience of a particular country, it is recommended that you register your domain name with an extension specific to that country. For example, websites targeting audiences from the U.K. have domain names such as website.co.uk. If the ‘.com’ version of the same domain is available, it would be an excellent option to register it as well and then redirect the visitors to your country-specific domain.

4. Avoid Hyphens and Numbers: When deciding upon the various possibilities for your domain name, it is important that you avoid hyphens and numbers. For example, if you are trying to register a domain name like GardeningTips.com, and that domain name is already taken, you should not be tempted to register Gardening-Tips.com, if it is available.

The chief reason for this is that many people will forget the hyphen while typing in the domain name and you will lose your visitors to someone else’s website. Also, you should avoid choosing domain names with numbers, such as GardeningTips4u.com. Most people will simply get confused when trying to access sites with names such as these and will end up typing in things incorrectly.

5. Brandable Domains: Many of the obvious ‘.com’ domain names, with words from the dictionary and simple descriptions, have been registered already because the Internet has been around for quite some time. If you have tried your best to come up with all the possible domain names for your business and found that all of them have been taken already, it can be quite frustrating. I have been in that situation many times. The next best alternative then, is to register a brandable domain name. A brandable domain name may not mean anything specifically, but will be one that is easy to remember and to pronounce. For example, consider the two biggest and most influential websites on the Internet – Google.com and Yahoo.com. Neither of these domain names describes the purpose of these websites. Neither company named these sites for what they actually are, such as SearchEngine.com; yet each of these sites is highly successful. When you come up with ideas for a brandable domain name, make certain it is easy to pronounce and spell to reduce the chance of people misspelling the domain name while trying to visit your website.
6. Future Scope: When you register your domain name, visualize how your website is going to be 10 years from now, or even longer, and make sure your domain name gives you permission to expand your project to wider markets and audiences. For example, if you plan to start a website about small cars, you may register a domain such as SmallCarReviews.com; but after a few years, you may want to expand your website to include reviews of sport sedans of SUVs and your domain name will not allow you to do so.