Or the cybersquatter would monetize a site located at the domain name and make money from traffic intended to go elsewhere.

Either way, that changed in 1999 with the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (PDF). This law subjects cybersquatters to civil lawsuits, so you’ll likely see a big company pull a big lawyer out instead of their big wallet. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather stay away from a courtroom facing some big conglomeration. Makes me sleep better at night.

My advice? Stay away from domain names that contain another company’s name or a trademark.

I made that mistake early on. I did a search at a popular registrar trying to find a good name that I wanted to register the next week. I spent 30 minutes and finally found the perfect name. What happened when I went back? It was taken! Companies will snap up good domain names that were searched for but not registered. And sorry, but I’m not giving a few hundred bucks to someone just because they think they can gouge the price. Lesson learned.

So what do you do then? Normally, I take my possible domain names and type them into my address bar. If someone owns it and has a site there already, I cross it off my list. If there is nothing there, I circle it as a maybe. Just remember, even if there is nothing there yet doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been registered. Someone could own it already and just hasn’t had the time to build a site.

After getting at least 6 or 7 possible names, I ask my friends for their opinions. What may sound great to you may be ridiculous gibberish to others. Maybe they think it’s hard to spell or remember. If you have to explain what it means, you probably need to cross it off your list. (NOTE: Make sure you ask people that are familiar with your niche. If I had asked my mom about POD For You, she would have asked me what it meant. The people in my industry, however, automatically know that POD means print-on-demand and would understand the name.)

After you have your list of possible names, put them in order from your favorite down to your least favorite. IF you think that you’ll waffle on a name when it comes right down to registering it, do yourself a favor and cross it off your list now. You don’t want to wind up with a name that you’ll ultimately hate (I have 2) OR search to find it open, but be indecisive and kick yourself later for letting it slip away.

One good tip that I’ve used throughout the years is to use a keyword tool. Keyword tools, like Wordtracker and Good Keywords give you lots of ideas about what search terms people are using to find sites in your niche. Having a good domain name with keyword phrases that are searched often helps your site to place higher in the search engine ranks.

For example, I was searching for a domain name for an art review site. By doing a search, I realized that the words “up and coming” were used to search for new artists. I chose a domain name that included those words. I get several hits from terms like “up and coming artists.”

Experiment with the keywords and keyword phrases until you come up with several variations of a domain name that you like.

Domain names must be at least 3 characters, but not over 63 characters. Keep in mind, however, that domains with hyphens and longer domain names can be harder to remember. It’s very easy for a surfer to forget a hyphen and land on your competitor’s site. Shorter domain names are also less prone to typing mistakes.

Try to stay away from the number 0 which can be confused with the letter O unless it’s part of a bigger number like 1000. Also, try to stay away from domains that use 2 for the word “to” and 4 for the word “for.” It’s very easy to forget that the number was used instead of the word. People tend to think of words when typing internet addresses.