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Domaining 101 Contents:

• Introduction
• Extensions
• Researching Keywords
• Registration
• Parking

What are Keywords?

Domain keywords are what make up your second level domain and give your overall domain the most value. Keywords are paramount when evaluating a domain name and should always be selected with careful consideration and research. As a domainer, you are almost always looking at your domains based on their keywords.

It is possible that a domain may contain absolutely no relevant keywords but could still be worth a good amount of cash. For example, Google.com is a relatively worthless domain when basing the value off of the keyword alone. “Google” was definitely not a notable keyword before the site was created and marketed, yet now it is probably one of the most valuable domains in existence. This is where the whole question of branding, establishing a memorable presence for your website thus adding value to the domain, comes into play. There are some domains that people consider “innately brandable.” These are typically short, one-word domains that are easy to remember and catchy. However, as a domainer the majority of your portfolio will most likely consist of keyword-oriented domains since these have more obvious value and appeal better to search engines.

Follow the Trends

In case you’ve been under a rock your entire life, I’ll let you in on a little secret: the world revolves around trends. They’re fickle and seemingly random. I remember the first time my little brother showed me Pokemon. The Christmas after it was released, Pokemon trading cards (which were worth a dollar or two each in the beginning) were selling for $200 a pop. They got so hot that shady-looking guys in pimped out Hondas started selling them out of the trunks of their cars in the High School parking lot. Despite the widespread popularity of Pokemon, today you could buy the entire collection for a couple hundred dollars. The trend died out just as fast as it started.

Like with every industry domaining sometimes has trends where particular keywords or keyword matchings become very popular. These domain trends often follow popular culture of the “real world” and can be picked up early and monopolized.

A great example of following domain trends is Clark Siegelin’s registration of multiple 360 .com domain names (keyword360.com). Although these domains have no obvious advantage in my eyes, Clark saw an obvious brand in them and decided to corner the 360 domain market. According to an article on Sedo, Clark was able to sell cash360.com and firm360.com for thousands of dollars each.

For Mr. Siegelin the value of the brand was obvious so he registered every possible 360 related domain he could think of. Half-hearted investment wasn’t an option. Deciding to corner the 360 market was just as obvious as the value of the brand.

The article also states that Clark is still receiving offers in the thousands for his 360 domain names. Since Clark’s success there has been an increase demand of 360 domains. 360, a seemingly low-value suffix before Clark’s success, is now a very targeted one.

Other trends are easier to spot ahead of time and rely much less on luck. A popular trend domainers like to follow is watching which new pharmaceuticals are released. Concurrently keeping an eye on any medical research and jumping on new findings and treatments is a good way to get premium domains. Other popular trends, at least right now, include poker or gambling-related, travel, investment, medication, and home business domains.

By keeping an eye on trends and being ready to capitalize on them as they occur you have a great opportunity to acquire premium domains at extremely low prices to sell for an amazing profit or park for good revenue.

Keyword Effects on SEO

Before I get into all of the delicious SEO tools, let me explain the reasoning for using these typically “SEO only” tools in the realm of domaining.

Domainers should always, and I mean always, be aware of search trends when researching domain keywords. Domain keywords are an integral part of search engine optimizing; therefore, they should be picked carefully and always with SEO in mind. In addition, keyword search tools are necessary in determining the popularity of keywords. Researching search trends is a good way to assess the potential traffic of a domain as well as to get ideas of how well that domain could be monetized.

Keyword Search Tools

There are a ton of nifty tools out there that are ignored by up-and-coming domainers everyday. I’m going to go ahead and say it: there is no magic secret to domaining. Every tool you need to succeed is out there waiting to be used. All you have to do is get up off your butt and use them. The following tools are used more heavily in SEO than in domaining, but as I’ve said before, SEO is an integral part of domaining. Molding your domains around popular keywords adds a huge amount of value and should always be considered when domaining.

Overture Suggestion Tool
http://inventory.overture.com/

One of the most important factors to look at when deciding on keywords for a new domain is the search popularity for those keywords are. Overture Suggestion Tool does just that. It archives searches from actual users on a monthly basis and allows you to sift through these searches to find the most popularly searched keywords. This tool is a must in determining the popularity of potential keywords and cannot be ignored. The only setback when using this tool is that it displays search results from Yahoo only. It still shows the trends fairly well, but it should also be noted that Yahoo owns a small portion of the search engine market. However, as a domainer you should never rely on just one tool.

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/

Aaron Wall’s SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool takes results from the Overture Suggestion Tool as well as other tools (including results from Google and MSN) and displays it all in one central location. This is typically the first place I look when researching new keywords for domains. It’s a fantastic tool that is complex enough for the most experienced domainer yet simple enough for first-timers to pick up.

Google Trends
http://www.google.com/trends

What better place to research potential keywords as they relate to SEO than Google, the number one search engine on the net? Google Trends allows you to compare keywords for their performance in Google. It displays the results in an easy-to-read graph. One aspect of Google Trends that many other tools don’t have is that Google Trends allows you to view keyword trends over the last three years. This lets you see if popularity for certain keywords are continuing to rise or if they’ve already reached their climax and are losing value.

Other Keyword Search Tools
Keyword Discovery - http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/
WordTracker - http://www.wordtracker.com/
NicheBot - http://www.nichebot.com/
Digital Point Suggestion Tool - http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
Adwords Keyword Tool - https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
NicheTaxi - http://www.nichetaxi.com
Google Keywords - http://www.goodkeywords.com/
SEOChat SEO Tools - http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/
Google Zeitgeist - http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Lycos 50 - http://50.lycos.com/
Yahoo Buzz - http://buzz.yahoo.com/

Using all of these tools for every domain you purchase may seem like overkill, but I cannot stress enough how important good keyword research is in domaining. Research will save you time and time again from making bad decisions. You may see a domain up for sale that your gut tells you has good potential but after doing a little bit of research you may find that there are little to no searches for terms related to that domain.

As a general rule of thumb you want to nab domains with a good amount of searches. However competition must also be taken into consideration, which is why I considered the Adwords tool for example. If you find a term that only gets 25,000 searches per month, for example, but has little to no competition then it may be prudent to register and develop a related domain. It’s a balancing act between keyword popularity and competition.

Domain Name Generation Tools

Keyword-based Name Generation Tools

Okay so now you have a little list of keywords that you want to register a domain with. That’s all fine and dandy, but how do you use those keywords to come up with a brandable domain name? Sometimes it’s hard to sit down and brainstorm ideas for domain names centered around your keywords, so domainers often use Keyword-based Name Generation Tools.

Simply put Keyword-based Name Generation Tools take whatever keywords you want and assort them in every possible way to give you a list of possible domain names. These tools also allow you to choose from synonyms to use for your keywords.

One of my favorite Keyword-based Name Generation Tools is Domainsbot. Domainsbot allows you to sort domain suggestions based on extension, availability, and by synonyms. It’s a fantastic tool that I use quite often. I’m not going into a whole lot of detail here since it’s honestly pretty self-explanatory. The best way to get used to using a name generator is to sit down and play with it.

Other Keyword-based Name Generation Tools
Nameboy - http://www.nameboy.com/
Domainfellow - http://www.domainfellow.com/
Dotster’s Namespin - http://www.dotster.com/register/namespin/
123 Finder - http://site.123finder.com/
Raining Names - http://freeserve-v1.domainnames.com/advanced.asp
E-gineer’s Domainator - http://www.e-gineer.com/domainator/
SnapItNow - http://www.snapitnow.com/
Mozzle - http://www.mozzle.com/
Whoix - http://www.whoix.com/wizard.html
Webmaster Toolkit - http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/domain-name-generator.shtml

Random Domain Generation Tools

Random Domain Generators are tools that basically spit available domains out of nowhere. Sometimes they come up with short, nifty, brandable domains but usually they just pop out worthless words. Sometimes, keep in mind this is a very very rare sometimes, they generate a domain that you may think has a lot of value and is worth registering. For the most part though, these things are nothing more than novelty.

However, since these tools are so very popular, I’ve created a short list of random domain generators for you to enjoy.

Outer-Court Randomizer - http://blog.outer-court.com/domaingenerator/
DomainsAreFree - http://www.domainsarefree.com/random-names.html
SnapItUp - http://snapitup.net/

I’m sure there are a lot more, but I’m not going to spend much time on these since, as I said, they’re rarely that useful.

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