Link: http://www.lowcost-webspace.com

Selecting a domain name.

The selecting of your domain name is very important. It should give some indication of what you are doing.

If you specialize in promoting/selling plastic toys then it would be no good having a domain name like joeswoodentoys.
You could settle for joestoys but then that is too ambiguous so even better would be Joesplastictoys, his is then targeting exactly what you are promoting/selling.
Naturally the chances of people doing a search on "Joes plastic toys" will be nil, as you are not yet known. However the chances of someone searching for "toys" or "plastic toys" is much more likely and because you have both words in your domain title this will increase (but not guarantee) the chances of you getting listed in the search results.
This is one of the building blocks that play a part in Search Engine Optimization according to some SEO experts although others disagree.

So once you decide what you are going to do with your web site try to come up with two or three options just in case the one you want is already taken.

Next we need to find out if the domain name is available. To do this go to a domain registrar site. Personally I recommend NameCheap.com. They are very good and unlike GoDaddy, which most automatically go to, will not suspend your Domain name at the drop of a hat.

Once on the site you can then put in the name you want and it will tell you if it is free or not.
If it is you can go ahead and make the purchase. If not try your alternatives.

So What if you find that the .com version is already taken but the .net, .org, and so on are free.
There are mixed views on this but I personally would not take the .net or the .org, because in most cases if someone has heard the name but hasn't got it written down to look at they could well type the name in with the .com TLD and go to your competitions site instead of yours.

On the other hand if you find one of your other alternatives free and buy it. On top of this you could also buy the .net and .org of the original name you wanted and simply have them pointing to your own site, in the hope of picking up some passing trade from your competition should one of their visitors type in .net or .org by mistake instead of the .com.

Taking this possible action into account it is not a bad idea if you have sufficient funds to buy the .com, .net, and .org versions of your site name at the same time. You do not need to host all three.
All you do is host the .com site and have the other two point to it. This will stop others doing to you what I just suggested you could do to them.