If you are starting a new business, embarking on a new venture, or simply building a web site for personal reasons, it can sometimes be quite hard to find a good available domain name. The trouble is that most obvious domain names, especially those ending with dot com, have already been registered long ago and therefore are no longer available for registration. That does not mean however it is time to give up looking, what is needed a little flexibility, a little adaptability, perhaps a small flash of inspiration, but most of all, use of the right search tools.

Here is the procedure that I use for finding good available domain names for new web sites.

1. First of all, I will think of all the obvious domain names. I will then do a domain search to see if the dot com version of that name is still available. Most of the time it isn’t, but once in a while you do hit pay dirt – so it is worth checking!

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When a domain owner fails to pay the renewal fee for a domain name it goes through an expiry process before eventually becoming available to the public to register again. The whole process can take several weeks.

* Initially, services to the domain are suspended although the owner may then pay the renewal fee to reactivate the domain name.

* Next, the domain enters a redemption phase where the original owner can pay a redemption fee (higher than the normal renewal fees) to reclaim the domain.

* The third step is that the depend is marked as “pending delete”. At this point, the domain can no longer be reclaimed by the original owner, however it alerts anybody interested that the domain is about to become available again.

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The simplest definition of a computer domain is an Internet location or address. It is simply the permanent location of information on the Internet. Most of today’s domains have recognizable names such as www.google.com or www.mydomainchallenge.com. In reality, the letters making up a domain name are substitutes for long strings of numbers that would be difficult or impossible to remember.

Mydomaincallange.com numerically would look something like this 123.345.567. That is called IP address. IP addresses are neither intuitive nor easy to remember. Use of a domain name that replaces a string of meaningless numbers makes it much more memorable and recognizable.

When you set up a website, you should choose a domain name that clearly lets visitors know what your site, or domain, is about. The most common domains end in .com, .net, .org or .edu. These last three letters are equivalent to showing the “neighborhood” of the domain. For instance, domains ending in .edu are all related to education and most are schools of some type. Domains ending in .org are often organizations such as non-profits, while .com and .net are used by just about anyone who sets up a domain .However .com is still considered most popular and sought after top level domain. Whether or not you’ve heard the terms “Top-Level Domains” or “TLDs”, you’ve interacted with them every time you type a web address into your web browser. A TLD is the group of letters that follows the final dot in a domain name. For instance, the TLD for Domain.com is “com”. Read more about top level domains.

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There is a service you may have heard of, TinyURL, that will assign a short little URL when you want to provide a short link instead of a 46-letter one. Now, that can be handy for forwarding links to pages that are deep down in the directory, especially on Twitter or other microblogging tools that only allow a limited number of characters. But some people actually use TinyURLs for their businesses. They also use the free hosting offered by their Internet Service Providers (ISP). Good idea?

Definitely not. From the first you get a URL that reads like random characters, and from your ISP you get one that lets you promote them first. You get few of the benefits of a real domain name. A lot of affiliate marketers use them, because their other choice is something like allnaturalgoo.com/biz/home/8992. None of these gives you a personalized business address that can work in your favor. If you’re an affiliate marketer, or starting a new business, and want a fighting chance on the Internet, you need to get your own domain name.

A domain name sets up an address for people to “stop by” and do business, and they are inexpensive, too. There are a lot of reasons to get your own domain name, but here are the Top 10 reasons to get your own domain name, in no particular order.

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