Avoid letting huge numbers of visitors slip through your fingers because of spelling, domain extensions or just hard to remember domain names. I have a couple of personal experiences that I thought I’d share. I’m certainly not new to choosing and buying domains, yet I wouldn’t consider myself a domainer. I currently own a little over a hundred domains.

DOT COM

I’m sure many will argue with this point but even in 2008 I believe it’s better to own a .com whenever possible if it’s going to be a main site. There are many other options and it’s nice to have so many new and exciting choices but, personally, I’d rather have a longer .com than  a short .net, .org or other extension when building a site I plan to keep. There are many exceptions, of course, but as a general rule I recommend a dot com.

My first website, CheapAzz.net (no longer a site) is a great example. If I told someone to go to cheapazz.net many would go to cheapazz.com. There were times when I would actually be there to see someone type in .com seconds after I said .net.

SPELLING

When looking for a domain name, always consider the spelling. You don’t want to use a name that many can’t spell. Common words that directly relate to your niche are best. Be sure the spelling is correct. Even intentionally miss spelled domains can be a problem.

Back to my first domain. CheapAzz.net is a prime example of a spelling hassle. If I told someone to go to cheapazz.net many would go to cheapa@#.net or even cheapa@#.com. I had to get in the habit of saying, “Go to Cheapazz AZZ .net “. I wish I had a nickel for every time I said the three letters ‘AZZ’!

This could have been avoided with better planning in the beginning before I actually purchased the domain name. Once it was up and running with a nice visitor count and quite a few newsletter subscribers it was too late to turn back. In the beginning I was either too new or in too much of a hurry to really search for the perfect domain name. That’s probably why I do it as a hobby now in what little free time I have left.

Another example of an easily miss-understood domain spelling is our main corporate site CSC4U.com. If you say, “CSC4U” verbally people could easily think any one of these:

CSC4U.com
cscforyou.com
csc4you.com
cscforu.com

As you can see, things are never really as simple as when we first imagine our site. We solved the problem by registering all of the domains but we were lucky they were still available. CSC stands for Common Sense Communications by the way.

So whether you’re telling someone on the phone, in person or through a radio ad, you’ll lose traffic and waste time if you can’t convey the proper spelling for your site.

Here’s an embarrassing admission about a miss-spelled domain of my own. I was just wasting time searching for cool domain names when I ran across NitchDomains.com (no longer a site). I couldn’t believe my luck. Right in the middle of the niche domains for profit craze and I find nitchdomains.com available. Right away I logged in and made the purchase. I held my breath waiting for the confirmation page hoping no one got to it before I did. Once I officially owned my new find, I began the process of setting up a quick intro/placement page until I could decide what cool site I’d build there. I went online to see example sites and to my horror I realized my huge blunder. Niche isn’t spelled ‘nitch‘ it’s niche! Now I am the proud owner of nitchdomains.com - whatever nitch is. This would have been the ideal domain had I been the owner of NicheDomains.com. Self SEO’s Keyword Popularity Tool shows the keyword ‘nitch‘ is searched for three times a day! Wordtracker’s FREE keyword suggestion tool shows seven.

BOTTOM LINE

If you are new online and considering your own site or already have one using one of the free site or blog hosting sites, I recommend you get your own domain. If you plan on keeping your site online for a while a domain is important. You can still register a .com for less than ten dollars a year and hosting shouldn’t be a big financial issue either. Don’t wait too long, good dot coms are harder to find each year. Unless you are will to buy one that is.