Forbes.com just published a piece entitled “Get A Domain Name Without Bankrupting Your Startup”
Here’s the highlight of the story
“I’m sure you have all been frustrated at least once by not being able to get the Internet domain name you want for your company. Who owns all of these names, and should you ever buy one for a premium? The simple answer is that if you want to be found on the Web, the perfect domain name can be well worth a few thousand dollars, but don’t pay a fortune for one”.
“The market for domain investors has been in the doldrums for the last few years”
“Gone are the days when people like Frank Schilling and Kevin Ham built $300 million empires by speculating on premium domain names, since the possibilities are now endless:”
“Only one sold for 7 figures in 2012 (investing.com sold for $2.5 million), and the average is now down to below $5,000″
“.The current record was set in 2010, when sex.com sold for $13 million.
The right place to start is to target today’s average of approximately $8-$10 per year for a .com domain name from GoDaddy or one of the hundreds of other domain name registrars. Certain extensions such as .tv and .vs range in the $20 to $40 range for a year registration, but you can find sales on certain extensions for as little as fifty cents per year.
So how do you decide if you should be looking at the low end or the high end of these ranges? I suggest following these steps to get the name you need for your business:
- First pick the right company and matching domain name. The names don’t have to match, but it sure makes branding and recognition easier if they are at least similar. Starting and name a company today is a world-wide decision. Make sure the names don’t have negative and even obscene connotations in another language.
- Register the name and related suffixes, if available. Registration of the domain name is easy and simple through most hosting sites, if nobody already owns it. It’s a good idea to also buy between three and twenty names with spellings and suffixes that are close to your primary address, or that could be confused with it.
- Rename your company to match an available domain name. With today’s pervasive Internet searching and shopping, the domain name may well be more important than your company name. …