How to select a good domain name?

Sad but true… most “good” domain names have already been taken. However that doesn’t mean that you can’t get a money making domain name.

There are 2 places to get a domain name:

From an aftermarket source. There are several website that publish domain names that are already registered but that are available for the serious buyer. When visiting such sites, don’t freak out on the prices as they usually know that there will be some negotiations/bargaining during the sale process so they publish prices way higher than what they’re really looking for.

From a registrar/reseller. If it’s a domain that hasn’t been registered or that was left to expire and was released, then you can go directly to a registrar or reseller (resellers are also called SRS operators) and register it for just a few dollars.

Ok, so now, how do we now if a domain name will actually make some money??

Almost every single domain name can bring some income, however a good domain name will save us a lot of work. The basic rules to select a domain name are:

1. Try to look for domains that have only 1 or 2 generic words. For an instance, cars.com works perfectly, while carsandtrucksforsaleinmytown.com doesn’t.
2. Select words in the same language as your target audience. It’s no secret that domain names in english attract more advertisers and therefore have higher PPCs.
3. Avoid hyphens or middle numbers.
4. See if the domain was registered before and left to expire, if so, try to figure out why the original owner let it expire, maybe the domain isn’t as good as you think.
5. Go for .com domains, if it’s not available, try the .net counterpart, and so on. Never take a not-so-popular extension as your first choice.
6. If it’s a typo (a mis-spelling of a well known domain) please make sure that it’s a common typo and not something that needs too much luck to get visitors. For an instance, yaho.com would be a nice typo, while yahdc00.com wouldn’t.

I hope this helps to select some good domains so that you can start your portfolio.