How to choose a good domain name for your appraiser web site.

1. INTRODUCTION

The name of your web site is called its "domain name". For example, the domain name of this site is valuedwebsites.com. Notice that I didn't say the tongue twisting www at the beginning. These days, the www is assumed.

TECH NOTE: Some people call domain names "URLs". URL stands for "Uniform Resource Locator". URLs are a little more specific than domain names, though they are essentially the same thing. The difference is that with a URL you include the http://www. prefix (ie http://www.valuedwebsites.com) and with a domain name you can leave this out and just say valuedwebsites.com.

2. DECIDING ON A DOMAIN NAME

A good domain name is catchy and easy to remember. It's also usually relevant to the topic of your website. For example, since your site is probably about real estate appraisal, assuming you were located in Akron, Ohio a name like akronappraisals.com would be great. However, a name like butter1978.com or even akron1978.com would not.

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A. RESTRICTIONS

There are a number of restrictions placed on domain names. These include:

• Domain names can be made up of letters, numbers, and dashes. The name can't begin with a dash.
• You can’t include special characters like spaces, apostrophes, periods, commas or ! @ # $ % ^ & or *.
• The name should not infringe on someone else's registered trademark.

Capitalization doesn't matter. It all looks lower-case to the computer even if you type the domain name all upper-case into the browser. To lessen the chance of people making typos when they type your site's domain name into their browser, the name should ideally be less than ten letters long, and definitely less than fifteen. This will also make the name easier to remember. Most people don't use dashes in their domain names these days.

3. RESEARCHING YOUR CHOICE

Unfortunately most of the good names are already taken, so you may have to settle for second best. And sometimes you can get a good name, but you'll have to settle for .net, .us or .biz instead of .com.

It's always best to go for .com if it's available, however, since most people think .com when they think of websites.

You may also want to consider buying mutiple versions of the name -- .com, .us, .net, .org AND .biz -- especially if your domain name is made of generic words or your company's trademarked name.

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A. WHOIS SEARCH

There’s an online tool called WHOIS that is used to tell if a domain name is already taken, and if it is, by whom. When you register your domain name with a registrar (Valued Websites recommends moniker.com ), you'll use their WHOIS tool when you choose a domain name.

If the name you want is already taken is, try variations on the theme. If akronappraisals.com is taken, try akronappraisal.com, then akronohappraisal.com, then akronohioappraisals.com, then bestakronappraiser.com, etc.

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B. NAME ALREADY TAKEN?

What can you do if the name you really absolutely wanted or needed was already taken? The first thing you should do is to type the domain name into your browser and see if there’s an actual web site there, or if it’s just a "coming soon" page.

If there’s already a web site there and it looks like someone's actually using it, there’s probably not too much you can do. The exception is if the name is your registered trademark, then you may have some luck in court (assuming the "domain squatter" is under your court’s jurisdiction).

If there’s no web site, or it looks rather outdated, you might have luck contacting the owner of the site and offering to buy the domain name. Prices range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars or more.

When you look up an existing domain name in WHOIS (see previous section) there will usually be enough information provided to track down the owner of the domain. Don’t sound too desperate, however, or you may get gouged.

There’s a whole minor industry that revolves around domain name speculation. People will buy up domain names that they think other people will pay lots of money for. If the domain name you want falls under this category, you may be able to pay lots of money for it. In fact, some web sites consist of only one page that says simple "Buy This Domain Name!"

4. SECURING THE NAME

Once you’ve decided on a name and confirmed that it’s available, it’s time to buy it. Prices for registering your domain name(s) range from free to $35 each per year, averaging around $10.

Valued Websites requests that you register your domain name yourself. This assures that you, not Valued Websites, will own the name. If you request that we register it for you, the fee is $25/year.

We recommend moniker.com for domain name registration. It costs about $10 a year. Just be careful about the multitude of services they offer in addition to domain name registration. Don't buy hosting or email services from them. Just the domain name. If you want privacy services, that might reduce some spam so that might be worth buying.

5. CONCLUSION

Getting a domain name is a small but very important part of your overall web site plan. Try to choose a name that’s catchy and easy to remember and spell. And a good idea is to use either your existing company name (if it's not too long), or has the word appraiser, appraisers, appraisal, or appraisals along with the area you service (city, town, county, state, etc.).

For more information or if you have any questions please email info@valuedwebsites.com.

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