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Website Design And Promotion Advice

Let's face it. Many of the simple, easy to remember domain names have already been taken. So what do you do if you have a product or business name that you want a domain for, and it's already taken? There are several different options.

Many domain name registrars will also suggest alternative names if your domain name is taken. Go Daddy is one of those registrars. Those names are generally not imaginative, and may or may not work for your business. The suggestions consist of adding the following words to the front and/or end of the domain name you requested: online, home, site, web, live, best, new, my, the, official.

I have run into some cases where that worked fine. My personal web page is www.thepriebes.com. In that case, my wife and I ended up liking that option even more than our original choice. Another example is this very blog. I originally tried for www.GetASite.com. (Terrible design work on that site, by the way.) As it was taken, the domain name www.GetASiteOnline.com was suggested.

Of course, you can try your own variations of this. One possibility is to tack the name of your city on the end. Two examples include an Arcade in Oklahoma City (www.cactusjacksokc.com) and a non-profit organization that provides free clothing to needy children (www.urspecialedmond.org). Another is to use some word that works well with your industry. I was designing a site for a comic book called Haven, and haven.com was taken. We ended up going with www.havencomic.com.

You might also simply change the domain to something more unique about your company. If PetStore.com is taken, you can try for VisitOurPets.com, or something like that. The key is imagination.

If you absolutely must have a specific domain name, remember to check some of the less used domains extensions. (Remember, an extension is the .com or .org, etc.) Some to check include .us.biz.info.ws.name.tv. A complete list of top-level domains is available at the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority website. However, not all domain registrars sell all the domains.

Tim Priebe

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners.