Criteria For Selecting a Hosting Company

What should you look for when evaluating web hosting companies? Some of the criteria to consider are the age of the business, company size, price, customer service, features, and uptime. No single criterion is more important than another, except as it relates to your needs.

The most common mistake is to judge hosting companies solely on price. The difference between most company's prices are insignificant. We'll examine the cost calculations in more depth in another entry. Undoubtedly, a hosting solution that costs $100 a year is more expensive than one that costs $75 a year, but that doesn't make a better choice. If all things were equal between the two companies, then the $75 annual commitment is a better deal; however, all things are rarely equal.

How To Select a Domain Name Registrar

You have several options in selecting a company that will register your domain names. Many web hosting companies will provide domain name registration services in addition to hosting that domain. Some of those hosting companies, such as GoDaddy and HostGator, will register one name for free, if you subscribe to their hosting services.

There are also some domain registration services that specialize in registration such as Namecheap and Network Solutions. Do a Google search for domain name registration services. Visit their sites. For the ones that interest you, do a Google search for the registrar's name along with the word "review." Read the reviews from several sources.

You want a company that has been around for a while and that has a price that entices you.

Thoughts On Hyphens In Domain Names

When some one else has already registered the domain name that you want, you may want to insert hyphens into your domain name. Often the name already taken is available with hyphens. As I've noted before, the conventional wisdom frowns on hyphenated domain names. The bulk of that conventional wisdom appears oriented towards the problems searchers might have in guessing your domain. They're correct to some extent.

There's another reason to avoid hyphens in whatever you've selected. Google suspects that any name with more than one hyphen is a spam domain. And if Google suspects that your site is a spam domain, it will adversely affect how Google indexes and ranks your site.

If you put only one hyphen in the name, Google won't discriminate, but searchers will have an even more difficult time remembering. "Thisismydomain.com" is much easier to remember than "This-ismydomain.com."

What Should You Do When The New Top Level Domains Become Available?

The group that controls how and what domain names get registered (ICANN) has decided to allow the creation of an entirely new group of top level domain (TLD) names. This process may create TLDs such as .nyc, .food, and .deals. The potential is exciting. A creative person could get a lot of mileage out of .ion. For instance attorneys might like http://www.litigat.ion/ and off-roaders might enjoy http://www.tract.ion/.

You could waste many hours thinking up new combinations of words and partial words and new TLDs.

Will or should any of these changes matter to your selection of a domain name in the first place? I doubt it. First, the new TLDs are not yet available. Second, there will be an auction process to give someone ownership of each new TLD and the prices are expected to run over seven figures. Most of all, though, people will still think of .com as the most likely domain name when they go looking. If you're not at a .com domain, the chances of a user finding your site diminishes.

Someday these new TLDs may gain the upper hand in name recognition, but for the foreseeable future .com remains your best bet.

More Thoughts On Using a Top Level Domain Other Than .com

A common problem in selecting a name is that someone else has already picked the name you want. You can go with a different top level domain (TLD) as I discussed in an earlier post. In addition to the reasons I already mentioned why you might not want to do it, there's one more reason. You could run into legal problems.

If your domain name is the same as someone else's trademark, attaching that name to a TLD other than .com does not eliminate the risk that you're infringing that trademark. Trademark law is not something to dabble in at home. It's quite complex and still evolving with respect to the Internet. You could seek legal advice. A competent trade mark attorney would guide you through the minefield that this area has become.


On the other hand, you could save your money and considerable aggravation by thinking up a different name.

Should I Consider Top Level Domains (TLDs) Other Than .com?

Conventional wisdom mandates selecting .com as the top level domain (TLD) to accompany your domain name -- especially if establishing a commercial site. The .com TLD wins the recognition contest hands down. Site visitors will assume that your site is something.com when they know you have a web site. Dot com is the most widely TLD used in domain names. So why even question using it?

Many desirable, potential .com names have already been taken. You wanted something.com, but somebody else has already registered something.com. What should you do?

You could use another TLD such as .org, .net, .info, etc. This approach could work -- especially if the other TLD could be part of your marketing strategy or sales pitch.

For instance, you're going to establish a web site about micro mosaics (very tiny mosaics). You've decided that you want "micromosaic.com," but "micromosaic.com" is taken. Take a look at micromosaic.com and determine the focus of the site. If it's a commercial site and you want a site devoted to sharing information about micro mosaics, then a .org domain name might yet work. Your site would be devoted to people who want information or who have information about the mosaics and the .com site is where someone else sold micro mosaic-related products.

On the other hand if your site is to be a commercial site, then merely changing the TLD to .org or .info is likely to cause confusion. Many of your potential customers would go to the dot com site. While your marketing aims to drive traffic to your site, instead you might benefit a competitor more than yourself.

Another potential way to use the site name you want along with the .com TLD is hyphenation, using hyphens to separate the key words in your domain name. Continuing the micro mosaic example, you could check the availability of micro-mosaic.com. If micro-mosaic.com were available, you could use it. Nevertheless, the conventional wisdom disfavors this approach, although I've never seen a rationale for the dislike. For me, it's actually easier to separate each keyword with a hyphen, but that's likely a minority view. Since most domain names don't take the hyphen approach, hyphens seem the less desirable approach even if available.

The third approach is to look for another name to register with a dot com TLD. Keep looking until you find a name that's available.

If your desired domain name is available with the .com TLD, register it and stop looking. If unavailable consider one of these other approaches. In my own search, I decided to keep looking.

Should The Domain Name For My Book Be Specific or General?

In my last post I decided that I should have a site domain name closely connected to my book. Should the name I select be the specific title of my book? Or should it be more general, such as a category of books that I might write?

For instance, the current book I'm writing is about how to write the first draft of a book quickly. So if my book's title is Fast First Draft, should I go for fastfirstdraft.com?

Using the book title for the domain name would seem the best for promoting the book and making the site easy for people to find. Few people are likely to search for my book by using words such as "books about writing." Someday, though, if I've built a reputation for books about writing, a more general name such as booksaboutwriting.com might be worthwhile.

Some people remember only part of a name. Those people might search with only part of the name. They might search for fastdraft.com or firstdraft.com. So while using the book title appears to be optimal, should I consider variants of that title in order to catch searchers who might be using slightly different search terms? Does it make sense to have a firstdraft.com com or fastdraft.com? What about draftfast.com?

Should I Choose The Name Of My Book (Or Product) For My Domain Name?

Although I'm thinking about a site for one of my books, the process and considerations are similar to building a site for a product other than a book. I think that what I say in this post about books would also relate well to any product.

If I pick the book name or some derivative of it as the domain name, I'll need a separate name for each book. If I select a broader name, such as my own name or a topic name, then I might be able to get by with only one. If cost is a primary consideration, then one domain name is the way to go.

On the other hand, domain registration is available for $10 - $12 a year. An extra $12 per year doesn't seem too much for each book. Rather than being a question of cost, isn't name selection more likely to be a function of the purpose of having a site in the first place?

My purpose in building a site for a book is to market the book or to market me as an author. Either way, cost should not control selection of the name or how many names, but rather how many names are needed to accomplish my primary purpose.


As I've been writing this post, I've realized that I seem unable to decide whether I want a domain for the book specifically or for me as an author. If I'm realistic I need both. Each domain should complement the other. Some visitors to my site might come because they are familiar with me as an author. Others may discover me as an author by my marketing of the book.

So I need a domain for my book and I need a domain for myself as the author. If you think of my book as the product and myself as the manufacturer or distributor, then I need a domain for the product and one for the manufacturer or distributor.

Choosing A Domain Name -- The Name Itself -- Part 1

In choosing a domain name I need to consider at least the following issues:

1. Should I choose the name of my book for my domain name? So I would need one domain name per book.

2. Should the name I select be more general and descriptive for a category of books that I might write? For instance, the current book I'm writing is about how to write the first draft of a book. Should the domain name focus on the general category of writing books?

3. Should I use my name, so that all my books will be under the general category of me, the author? If I use my name and write books on several unrelated topics will this cause confusion?

4. Most people recommend that a domain name be memorable, easy to spell, and devoid of hyphens. Does this make sense? Why are hyphens such a concern?

5. Most people recommend a top level domain (TLD) of .com. Is the .com TLD the only way to go? Why is there so much reluctance to use other TLDs?

Reasons For Wanting My Own Domain

In my "real" career, I'm a professional. In my "other" career, I'm an author -- two books published by a New York mega publisher.

Unlike many other authors, my experiences with a big publisher were good. They treated me well. Nevertheless, in publishing through the traditional method, there were some disadvantages. I would like to circumvent those disadvantages for my next books.

Consequently, I've decided to try my hand at publishing my own ebooks. I need to set up web sites to promote and distribute those books. I need the sites to market my books. The next step is to choose a domain name.

The Reason For This Blog

I've been using the Internet since 1993; however, I've never selected my own domain name, picked a web hosting company, or until this blog, even had my own web site. For a number of reasons, I've decided to take the plunge.

I need to select domain names, choose a hosting company or companies, and determine what, if any, features and offerings of a particular hosting company are important.

I've been unable to find any step by step guidance on the entire process. Some of the issues I've encountered are a bit daunting. In this blog I intend to chronicle my investigations, report my findings, and (I'm hopeful) get others to ask questions and make suggestions so that all of us can benefit by sharing our information and experience.