Domain names are important assets any one online business, blog or website. It is one of the basic online assets someone can own. A lot have been written about how to select a good domain name. Seth Godin also wrote a piece about naming your company that could also be applied to selecting a domain name.

If you are a Nigerian or anyone looking for how to select a good domain name, this article will be very helpful. First let’s start with

Types Of Domain Names

There are generally two types of domain names and many reasons why one would choose one over the other.

1. Generic Domain Names

These are domain names created from commonly used or found words, phrases or sentences. Examples of commonly used words and generic domain names are:

Cloth, new cloth, film, house, chicken, foods, chickenfood, how are you, etc.  If you pick and use any of these words as a domain name you have created generic domain names .these words are said everyday offline and are common.

Are Generic Domain Names Good?

Yes, but it depends on what you are using if for. It is not good for all situations. If you are using the domain name to build a niche site (non authority site) then it is okay.

Generic domain names are good for Adsense sites. Adsense sites are sites created for the sole purpose of making money online with Google Adsense adverts.

What Makes Generic Domains Good For These Types Of Sites And Blogs?

1.   SEO (search engines optimization)

Search engines optimization simply means how to get your website to easily appear in Google search results when people search for information related to what you write about on your blog or website.

SEO wise, with generic domain names you will most times have some edge over other blogs or websites competing for keywords found in your domain name.

Blogs And Websites Not Good With Generic Domain Names

Generic domains are not good for authority websites. An authority website is a website that is used by the owner for branding or showing authority in a niche.

A good example of an authority website is this blog, NairaCow.

The main reason why generic domain names don’t work for authority sites/blog is the fact that they are so common, hence, not easily remembered.

Websites Good With Generic Domain Names Are:

1.   Squeeze pages

Like mine at make money online from Nigeria.

2.   Sales pages

And generally for all kinds of online business activities that don’t require a lot of branding.

Brand Or Non Generic Domain Names

These are domain names that are non generic in nature. They may not be real words or may be words that don’t really make sense when read together.

Many popular online brands fall into this category.

Types Of Non Generic Domain Names

There are 2 types of non generic domain names.

1.   Non English words domain names

2.   A combination of 2 or 3 words to form words/phrases that don’t really make sense

(Don’t worry; I will explain what I mean)

1. Non English Words Domain Names

These are brandable domain names like Google, yahoo, zazzle ,bebo, zimba, zimbo, vava , bimba ,etc.

These kinds of domain names are usually easily remembered because they are not common, hence is great for authority websites and for branding purposes.

The only problem with these kinds of domain names is that sometimes it is hard to spell especially for people who come in contact with it for the first time.

2. A Combination Of 2 Or 3 Words To Create Words That Don’t Really Make Sense

Example are: FaceBook, MailChimp, TalkBox, RedMoon ,HubPages,NairaLand , TreeHugger, DollarCat ,etc. if you notice , these domain names are made up of 2 words that make sense but when placed together do not really make sense.

These domain names are really very good for online branding or for even naming a company because the can be easily remembered and spelled.

In my opinion, they are the best type of domain name for authority websites.

Generally Criteria To Be Considered For Choosing Authority Domain Names

If you want to buy an authority domain name, you should consider these points.

1.   It should be short as possible ( others kinds of websites and blogs can have any number of letters and words)

2.   Easy to remember

3.   Easy to spell

4.   Easy to pronounce

My Personal Experience With Buying Domain Names

I have bought over 15 domain names since I started my journey online .I still use some and I have discarded some. I made a lot of mistakes when I was buying some of them.

www.MakeMoneyFromNigeria.com is the generic one for my squeeze page.

I have other ones for other niche sites.

NairaCow.com is the domain name I am pleased with. It is brandable , easy to pronounce , easy to spell and easy to remember.

www.MkAkan.com is my other blog. It does not meet these criteria.

I created it from parts of my name, but did not notice it was not easy to pronounce. So learn from my mistakes.

By the way; I now buy my domain names from NameCheap and host my blogs and websites with FatCow.

What kind of domain name do you own?

Do you have any question about domain names?

Share in the comments.

Thank you.

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