.com, .club,.org etc etc etc

[Noi657]

Hi all,

Wanting to build a website and I need a domain name.

The name I'm after already has the .com unavailable

I really need advice on what to choose as there are loads

I'm not really computer savvy but managed to build a basic website in the UK via vista print.

Also do you have any advise on the "do it yourself" website builders?

Thank you in advance

[CharlieH]

Best one I have ever found and have been using for over 5 years now is this one http://www.wysiwygwebbuilder.com/

in case you dont know, the wysiwyg means "what you see is what you get" .

Easy to use, also youtube tutorials on the more tech/advanced stuff.(if you want)

Very easy and straight forward with great results (IMHO)

[anon467367354]

.com is king and a domain name that is a high search low competition keyword is always best.

skip the hyphens and abbreviations, long tail keywords are what people search.

[ravip]

Here are some tips...

https://www.godaddy.com/business/10-tips-for-choosing-the-right-domain-name.aspx

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239872

Edit

And something interestring >>> http://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/235913

Edited February 24, 2015 by ravip

[GrahamMaddison]

As far as domain names go, the best option is always concidered to be .com followed by .net and .org.

There are many new TLD's being released (Top Level Domains) and one you mention is .club ... this really is suited only for membership type websites.

In order to build a website, you will need first to find somewhere to host it..somewhere where all your website files are stored and managed and made available to the www.

There are places where you can host your website for free, but if you are serious about your website/ business, these are not recommended for a multitude of reasons.

A very popular website hosting company is "Hostgator" which has been the preffered company for many internet marketers for many years until it was taken over recently by another company. But as a starting point, I would certainly recommend them as you can get hosting for less than $5 a month and their hosting plan offers "cpanel" interface which makes it easy to use even for novices.

As far as website builders are concerned, I would recommend "Wordpress" 100% and it is totaly free. There are thousands of Wordpress videos on youtube which can help guide you to set things up.

Whichever hosting company you choose, they in most cases have simple install scripts such as "fantastico" which will at the click of a mouse install the complete wordpress installation for you. You only then need to find a theme (thousands to be had for free) and simply add your content ...... really ... there is a small learning curve, but it is the way to go in my opinion.

Hope this helps.

Graham

[ozyjon]

www.wix.com

I built a few websites with this website, dead easy to build and

very professional looking web site, the only downside is that

they offer lots of other things to get you to pay more and push

up the so called search ladder but you pay for what you want.

As a photographer i had all the imaged plus the text i wanted

and it was a matter of drag and drop,, have a look, remember

now it has to work across all platforms and don't use FLASH

as the standard now is for html5.

Good luck

[MauiSteveBKK]

Only use .COM as others have stated.

Use variations of the key words you want to use.

I use Godaddy.com to host for me, and I am a horribly inept user of Dreamweaver MX.

The software is over-kill for most of us.

Find something usable and easy.

Add lots of content and a lot of pictures.

I develop travel web sites -- maui-tourist.com (if you want to see a true novice)

I just bought three URL's at Godaddy.com

Used different combinations of the words: K1 - VISA - Fiance - Thailand

Be creative.

Suggestion: I often buy 3-4 URL's because they are cheap to guy.

Then I use the "Forward" capability to forward the URL to just one web site.

My SEO thinking is that it will pick-up many combinations of my keywords, and what better way to try and gain exposure than buying cheap URL's.

Just my 1 1/2 cents worth.

Good luck.

[jagfx]

Noi657, I agree with what others have said with regards to .com being the daddy of website extensions. But having said that, it also can depend on who your target audience are so a .com may not necessarily be the best option for you. For example if I was targeting Australians only to sell a large physical product that required delivery locally (or even a local service), then it would be in my best interest to go with a .com.au as that is what Aussies are comfortable with. Or in the UK, you may go with .co.uk If this is not your thing, then .net or .org maybe the way to go.

These days websites are quite easy to build, and very cheap. I am a big fan of Wordpress and if I have any difficulty in figuring something out, I just go to a site like Fiverr.com and pay someone a few $ to work it out for me. Plenty of options out there. Good luck with it all.

[bangarang]

Noi657, I agree with what others have said with regards to .com being the daddy of website extensions. But having said that, it also can depend on who your target audience are so a .com may not necessarily be the best option for you. For example if I was targeting Australians only to sell a large physical product that required delivery locally (or even a local service), then it would be in my best interest to go with a .com.au as that is what Aussies are comfortable with. Or in the UK, you may go with .co.uk If this is not your thing, then .net or .org maybe the way to go.

These days websites are quite easy to build, and very cheap. I am a big fan of Wordpress and if I have any difficulty in figuring something out, I just go to a site like Fiverr.com and pay someone a few $ to work it out for me. Plenty of options out there. Good luck with it all.

Fiverr? seriously? You get what you pay for. You pay cheap you get crap results. Just like those website builders as well. They are horribly built and are terrible with SEO. If you dont care about SEO and how its coded... thegrid.io seems to be getting A LOT of buzz lately.

Yes .COM is king... but thats really only in the eyes of the people. Its more about brand trust with .COMs because its the original. Other domain extensions will index just as good in google as long as you're website is built with at least the basics of SEO in mind. If your after a specific name only and the .COM is taken then you could get creative with the new domain extensions. On some of the keywords that I focus one of my sites on I see a .INFO and .ASIA site mixed up with me around the top 5. Even typing in "Grid" into google you see that 'thegrid.io' is #1, so anyone who tries to tell you that google prefers .COM over any of those new domain extensions is dead wrong.

Like others mentioned, I also use godaddy, but I just get from them because they usually have coupon codes floating around the net which makes them super cheap to buy.

Someone mentioned buying different URLs that redirect... That is only good if you think someone might mistype your URL. That can only hurt you later on for google ranking results if thats the reason why you are doing it.

[chrisbacke]

Domain names, I know =)

Yes, the .com is king - but you may be surprised how cheap your preferred name can go for. Assuming you can find contact info, try reaching out and making an offer. Alternatively, employ the thesaurus or your preferred alcohol to come up with new ideas on names - most decent two-word .com are probably taken, but certainly not all. No more than three words, though, and for the love of whatever god you believe in, no hyphens =)

Also, consider .co (originally for Columbia, now used as a generic worldwide) - they're great for URL shorteners (think t.co, which Twitter uses to shorten links).

[jagfx]

bangarang,

Fiverr can be a bit of hit and miss, just like elance and odesk etc. I have found some good contractors on all of them, but there are some cowboys amongst them. The review system makes it a little easier as you can't believe everything they tell you about their skills. Have saved plenty of dollars using these services for small jobs that were completed to my satisfaction. Everyone to their own I guess. Cheers.

[khunPer]

Depending of what you website target is, .info may be the best alternative to .com.

You can also try to find another variant of your website name that will be free as .com.

WordPress seems to be the state-of-the-art for website builders. You can read more at wordpress.com/. Some says that it is a bit difficult to do the initial set-up. Most web-hotels offers wordpress free-of-charge, if not already installed, you can do it with a few clicks in your web-hotel’s cPanel (if Apache/Linux hosting). You can also download and install the free version of WordPress yourself, but that may require a little bit of it-knowledge. There are plenty of templates and other features available for WordPress, and if you go professional – upgrade to the paid version – you will have thousands extra.

Another possibility for easy “wysiwyg” is RV SiteBuilder, that is also included in most web-hotels; you can see more info at rvsitebuilder.com/. There is also a pro-version (paid for) available.

Wish you good luck with your website project.

[flyingdoc]

I was faced with exactly this problem, and like you, set out to buy a website design kit and hosting. After a while I gave up and contacted a local website designer I was recommended to, paid the equivalent of 5,000 baht and got a really good job done, with one or two suggestions thrown in by my whizz-kid computer friends, such as inbuilt Google translation, and away we went, without any payment gateways at this stage! Most people seem to approve: www.betaglucan-worldwide.org though .com defaults to it as well.

[platofrank]

As i am also building on a webshop.. thanks for all the usefull info!

To get a feeling of what i want i use a free websitebuilder weebly.. to get it fitted to what i really have in mind i am now looking for someone build the 'dummy' in wordpress. What amount i should reserve for that to get a proper high quality webshop? Any indications?

[Noi657]

Appreciate all of your replies, thank you.

[phazey]

Careful when searching domain names with Go Daddy. They've been known to register searches and then put placeholders up in the past, in an effort to bump up prices. I should be able to dig up a discussion thread about this..

Edit: this; http://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-that-someone-at-GoDaddy-stole-my-domain-name

Edited February 26, 2015 by phazey

[maidee]

is it an important website ? otherwise just use google free blog system ?