How to Choose a Domain Name

Domain name investing has been all over the news lately. Names that were purchased ten years ago for $30 are now selling for millions. People are now catching on as to just how profitable investing in domain names can be. Real estate is always a safe investment, but with the market taking a downturn, people are looking into other options for investment.
There are millions of domain names available for purchase, so how do you know which one to choose?
To start, don't rush it. Choosing the right name is critical because you want to buy a name that is valuable to others and that will give you more room for negotiation.
The first thing you should consider if you actually do have a website and intend to use the domain name, is that you domain name be the name of your website. That sounds pretty obvious, but there are actually websites that do not match the name. The site should match your domain name so that people can find it easily. If someone else owns your domain name, and you are trying to get more business, the person surfing the internet for that name will go directly to your competitor and you will have lost a sale.
If you can't get the domain name you want, you may want to think about changing the name of your business. If you're already and established entity and think owning the name will further improve your business, you may have to spend big bucks to obtain ownership of that domain name. Find out who the owner of the name is and see what they are asking for it, it's worth a try if anything. They may not be willing to sell it at all and you'll have to look at other options for website names. If you own a business that is just starting out, changing the name of your company might not be a bad idea in order to match it with a website. The internet is too valuable a tool for marking and selling products and services to be missed out on.
Generally, the shorter the domain name, the better. They can be up to 67 characters long, but the person surfing the internet is likely to type in the shortest, most generic (unless it's a brand name) term. Shorter names are also easier to remember than long names or phrases. Short names that are abbreviated and/or with numbers in them are more difficult for people to remember. For example TES942 may be harder to remember than Teachers-Educating-Students.com. Even though TES942 is shorter, Teachers-educating-students is much easier to remember.
It is also better to pick domain names that have key words in them. Search engines are more likely to pick them up if the keywords are in the .com name.
Be careful when choosing hyphenated names. When people are surfing, they generally don't like to take the time to integrate hyphens in their surf. They might end up at your competitions website. When others are talking about your site, they are probably going to forget to tell them there is a hyphen in it, also leading them to your competitions site. The good news about hyphens is that search engines will be able to pick up on your name with the keywords, leading more people to your site. If the non-hyphenated domain name you want is taken, it might be a good idea to just go ahead and use the hyphenated version.