How to Start a Real Home Based Internet Business

[If you need help in choosing a niche or topic for your business, you might want to start here.]

Proper selection of a domain name is very important and can help ensure the ultimate success of your real home based internet business.

This is true because a well-chosen domain name can help you achieve better rankings in the search engines, and thus can generate more traffic for your site in the long run.

However, there are several different methods or theories relating to how you should choose your name.

Dashes or no dashes?

The theory is that, by doing so, you gain a little extra advantage with the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN). This is because the domain name is one of several factors search engines consider when determining the relevancy of sites to a given search phrase (and thus how much traffic will flow to your real home based internet business).

I have found this theory to have a good deal of merit. In fact, I tested out the theory recently by registering a domain name that consisted of two keywords I was targeting, "ripped abs". The domain I chose for this test was rippedabs.org (the .com and .net versions were already registered).

I simply registered the name, through up a quick single web page, and placed a link from another site to that page. Then I waited.

Within two weeks, this site was listed in the top five Google search results for the term "ripped abs", and it is still there a couple months later. (And this is a competitive keyword with over 15,000 searches a month, according to Wordtracker.) You can see those results in the screen shot below.

Granted, the above example is best case scenario, and I find it only seems to work well for "keywordphrase.com", "keywordphrase.net", and "keywordphrase.org", and these versions of a domain name might already be registered.

Lesson I learned from my little experiment is that keyword rich domain names CAN really influence your site's position in the search results, and this can help you get a head start in establishing your real home based internet business.

In the case of domain names with three or more words (like my site's domain name, profitable-home-based-businesses.com), it is frequently recommended that you include dashes between the words, since they make it easier to read, and they also make it easier for search engines to see the words, since they interpret dashes as spaces (NOT underscores, which search engines view as characters rather than spaces.

SO, the basic rule is, if your site concept keyword is one or two words, and the .com, .net. or .org version of that keyword is available, GRAB IT and move on to building your real home based internet business.

If your keyword phrase has three or more words, register the domain name with dashes between the words (e.g., profitable-home-based-businesses.com). And if THAT version is taken, consider adding a modifying word that helps describe the theme of your site, such as "ripped-abs-fast.com".

An alternate theory for naming you domain

While this method will not give you the same boost in search engine rankings that the above method will, it can work out better in the long run, especially in terms of drawing repeat visitors to your site. (It is easy to remember a name like google!)

This method is equally valid. You must decide whether it is worth it to you to sacrifice short term search engine rankings for a name that has better branding potential down the road (meaning your domain name might become an easily identifiable brand).

So, it is up to you to decide. A keyword rich name, or a unique, brandable name? Once you decide, you can move on to checking your domain name's availability.

Is your domain name available?

This will search for the domain through the domain name registrar, 1and1.com. This is the registrar I use for most of my sites, because they have the best prices ($5.99 per domain for .com, .net, and .org), and I have found them to be a reliable registrar (though I would not recommend using them as to host your web site, but more on that later).

So go ahead and see if your proposed domain names are available. If your the .com, .net, or .org version of your keyword is available, you might want to register it right away to have it under your control. If it is not, take the time to come up with a version that you like (for instance, "sexy-ripped-abs.com". Have fun with it!

So that's all there is to registering your domain name. The next step in building your real home based internet business is finding a web host, so let's move on to that!