Ever searched for that ultimate domain name you just came up with, only to find someone has taken it? … and worst still, that someone is simply sitting it on a parked page?

Well now the fun (or frustration begins).

You have the awesome website idea, but just need a short, easy domain which your visitors can remember and spell correctly. You need to find it, your life depends on it!

Here’s what to do:

1. Open Firefox… please tell me you use Firefox and not that other bug-ridden, security-holed, zero-tabbed alternative
2. Tab 1: www.dotster.com - I love this site. It allows you to search up to 50 different domains all at the same time. So I usually enter in as many as I can think of, hit search and see what’s available. NB: To be on the safe, click search again if a few of those “that would be such an awesome domain” comes up as being taken… as I’ve noticed on some occasions it says a particular domain is taken when it’s actually available.
3. Tab 2: www.nameboy.com - Another great site. Simply enter in a word or two, hit “go nameboy go!” and a pretty long list of mashed together words will come up and tell you whether they are available or not. This is a great way to find that available domain.
4. Tab 3: www.domainsbot.com - A recent site I just found which looks up domains, variations and whether or not they’re available or for sale on Sedo all on-the-fly using a neat AJAX script.
5. Tab 4: www.dictionary.com - This has two uses. One, searching the dictionary for a particular word, as sometimes the definition of the word can reveal some additional words that may be useful. And two, type in your word, click the “Thesaurus” option and search for alternative words.
6. Tab 5: www.rhymezone.com - This site is very useful for creating those domains that are remember-able. Enter in your word and a bunch of rhyming words are returned. Mash the two together and see how it sounds.
7. Tab 6: www.godaddy.com - Time to buy the domain. I use GoDaddy, but of course there are literally thousands of other places you can register a domain. GoDaddy is cheap and has a good reputation, so I tend to use them. Their checkout process is very slow, requiring each domain to be entered separately, and then there’s all the “Would you like to also buy…” stuff which you can just click “No Thanks, Continue to Checkout…”. One tip I’ll give you which I always use is to make use of the discounts. By this I mean listen to or watch Diggnation, which is not only hilarious and interesting, but at the end of each show they have a GoDaddy code (usually “DIGG”) you can use to get 10-20% off. When you get to the final checkout page on GoDaddy, there’s a little box which says “If you have a promo or source code enter it here:**”, simply enter in the code and click “Apply Code” and get a discount.

OK, that should get you most of the way over the line to creating and snapping-up that perfect domain name. If you’re still having trouble at this point, grab a piece of paper and write down every single word you can think of that relates to your business/website. The words can be directly related to what you sell, or can be words related to how you want your customers/visitors to feel about your website when they visit it… basically anything.

I’m not very creative when it comes to developing completely new words to use for a domain name, but this is another approach if you’re still having trouble finding an available domain. The word can come from anywhere. I have heard of people using words they heard their 1 or 2 year old child say, and moulding this into a domain name.

There are many pros and cons for and against creative domain names. Some pros include that it is an excellent way to create a brand when using a creative domain and it’s also a lot easier to find a short and available .com (something rare these days). Some cons are that some say search engines will rank your site higher if you have keywords in your domain name. (e.g. so when someone searches “cars”, your domain includes that keyword). A creative domain may also be difficult to spell or remember. It’s all really personal preference. If I found the perfect creative domain I’d grab it.

Now when it comes to domains, I’m paranoid. So if I find a name which I think is awesome and could fit well with an idea I have, then I buy it immediately. The reason being that if you leave it till a month or years time, it it most likely that someone will have taken it by then. It hurts the funds, but I figure if I need to I could probably turn my $8 *investment* into a couple of hundred or thousand dollars by simply selling the domain on somewhere like www.sitepoint.com. But if funds are an issue, then hold off until you can afford it.

Anyways, that’s all. Hope there were some helpful hints in that. Have fun searching, it’s an addiction.

Update: I’ve recently found a very interesting blog on brand naming which may also help with the domain naming/finding process.

Nathan Waters
Domain Paranoia

It’s 3AM here in the middle of the week, I’ve been working non-stop all day and have only left the comfort of my computer twice for the past 12+ hours. Last night I did the same and was up till 4AM.

Why?

I’ve been working/coding/stressing/cursing to try and finally get this pixel site out that I’ve been working on and off for the past few months. I can tell you it’s looking pretty damn good, and only a few more little issues are standing in the way of launching.

I’ve been finding the almost-all-nighters are a great way to get things done. Beverages have been a mix of beer and pepsi, munchies include some dry nutri-grain. Though a dual monitor setup and coffee/hot chocolate machine would be awesome.

Anyways, I thought I’d do a little write-up on a few scripts I’ve found and been implementing into this upcoming site.

They include:

• Form Fields (US$29.95) - a form generator which has the awesome ability to add data directly into a database as well as emailing me a copy
• Zookoda (FREE!) - a mailing list, newsletter management and RSS-email system. So I can allow visitors to signup to a newsletter and I can integrate my blog posts into the newsletter or setup email notifications as alternatives to RSS. I was looking at using DaDa Mail (FREE!), but was also looking for an RSS-email alternative.
• sNews (FREE!) - a blogging platform like Wordpress and Blogger, but it is all contained in a single PHP file, and is very easy to integrate into existing site designs by simply adding in a small code snippet.
• Simple Tell a Friend Script (FREE!) - a quick popup, allows users to tell a friend about the site and they can enter multiple friends’ email addresses

So they’re some great little tools. I found it quite hard to find these, despite the fact that I think they are the best around.

I’m still looking for a very, very simple “Tell a Friend” script where a visitor can simply enter a friends email, click submit and voila, an email is sent to that address. I’ve found a few, but they go too overboard with multiple fields and options.

hmm, now I just have to decided whether I should continue working on this site, catch up on some sleep or do some uni work (haven’t done that in a long time). Argh, I’ve got a lab report due tomorrow which I have to start and a Physics test on Thursday which I’ll have to start studying tomorrow. Fun, fun.

Nathan Waters
Nocturnal Creature

Well, well, I know I’ve been letting down my readers with the severe lack of regular posts and I apologise. As I’ve mentioned before I need some serious time management implemented and haven’t had time to get around to doing that

So anyways, here’s a quick list of the things that are taking up my time:

• Uni, argh, you’ve got to hate it. 30 hours+ a week
• Wiki/business network of sites. These are basically finished except for a little coding that needs to be completed… and it needs content.
• My pixel advertising site with a twist… again still a little bit of coding to do like adding a blog, newsletter and submit script. I’ve put together a very rough list of things I will do to market and advertise the site.
• Partnerships! Through the YE forums I’ve found/been asked to join a few partnerships, one a rather big and large potential business idea with a guy in Spain (can’t mention too much but it has the potential to be a multi-million dollar business), and another a partnership with another guy to setup a website aimed at a specific niche (which also has potential). And I also got an offer from Daniel (aka Akula) to help with marketing his new site HiveResume, but I haven’t received a reply back yet, which is probably understandable as I didn’t get a chance to reply to his last PM for a week.
• Ning! The last week during the Easter break I went crazy with this site and created a whole bunch of social apps which I will begin to add content to and start getting the word out there.
• Young Entrepreneur organisation. This was something myself and Tristan were thinking of setting up next year, but I noticed a thread on YE that showed a great deal of interest. We already have an awesome name and domain name, and so I might take charge and get together a bunch of people to make it happen. If you’ve got some solid interest in this and/or know how to go about starting an organisation, drop me an email.
• Another big arbitrage idea I can setup fairly quickly and I think will be fairly big (have some great domains for it too… 143 domains total so far, eating away at my funds :()
• Another awesome wiki idea I thought more about today (and had come up with a while back)… I’m probably going to work on getting this up soon with Tristan.
• An MLM opportunity that looks very legit and profitable, that I’m also thinking of getting into.
• And many other awesome ideas that keep plaguing me, making myself wonder why I am “wasting” my time at uni

That’s it

Stay subscribed (or if you aren’t, please subscribe) to my blog and I’ll promise to keep you updated on all my projects and launches.

Nathan Waters
Let’s Get Busay!

I recently found a great little blog post which described a couple of “The Barriers to Starting Your Own Business“.

Funnily enough I found myself nodding to each ‘excuse’ commonly made (myself included).

Time, money, procrastination and lack of experience in either programming or business are the big three. However this post reinforces the fact that these shouldn’t make terribly much of a difference between you starting a business and shrugging it off.

Here’s a list of the points and my take on them:

1. Lack of Time. This is a big one I’ve been using quite often being a full-time uni student. However I have met a few people so far at uni that are full-time students, work a 30-hour-a-week job and also have business projects. So it is possible, it all just comes down to effective time management which is something I am planning on employing soon. The book, getting things done was mentioned as a good read for learning about good time management techniques.
2. Risk and/or lack of money. Business can be risky, but when executed in the right way, it doesn’t have to be. Many businesses can be started with very little capital. Start small, THINK BIG!
3. Procrastination. I know everyone has had a bad case of this at some stage. It’s a habit which for me started way back in primary school and continues to plague me. When this bad habit transfers over to business it can be costly. It could mean the difference between getting that idea/product/beta out before the competition or losing out on that chance of success, glory and dollars. So I think a good way to get over procrastination is through time management and embedding that little voice in your head that says “Oh no, I better get this out before the competition do”
4. Lack of experience. That’s the awesome thing about business and running one. There is no set formula for success. If you have a basic grasp of business concepts, sales and customer relations the rest basically comes down to your innovation and ability to change to meet the market. Experience is the best form of education when it comes to business and entrepreneurship. Learn to both accept and avoid failure. Sure you are most likely to fail at business ventures during your lifetime, but take note of what you did wrong and learn from those mistakes in your next venture.

Other excuses I can think of include the fear of failure, something which should not be a problem as failures should be seen as excellent learning experiences. And another one is people basically not being able to come up with a ‘good’ business idea… if you’re in this category checkout my post on How I Come Up With Business Ideas.

Nathan Waters
Excuses, Excuses

Finally! After signing up twice for an invite, I finally received one this morning and set it all up for www.nathanwaters.com

I must admit that I haven’t actually been using any traffic tracking software at all so far for this blog which probably isn’t/wasn’t very wise. I originally thought that my web host may have had an inbuilt tracking feature but I haven’t been able to find one.

It takes up to 24 hours for the data to start coming in, but it should be interesting to see how many people actually visit this blog. I tend to get the feeling that I do have a few people who checkout what I’ve been doing every now and then as I do get a few comments. Although it would be obvious that whatever traffic I was getting before would be very little now since I haven’t been posting regularly. Also the fact that this blog doesn’t specifically have a niche means that it’s a little random in content and so a little random in visitors. But I don’t mind.

My intentions for the blog at the very start were to make money… I have to admit it

Since starting this blog to today I can tell you that I’ve made a grand total of US$126.50 (all from adsense), of which $100 was from an Adsense referral which meant that someone very kind signed up to adsense through the little button on the right, they made $100 from Adsense and so Google gave me $100. Yay!

But I’ve since realised that it’s unlikely that it’ll make good money unless I target a specific niche or I become successful. I mean even people like Yaro who have 1000+ subscribers are not making much money from blogging, but he is building a great reputation, skills and a large advertising/marketing platform.

So for the mean-time I figure I’ll just continue to post whatever I feel like, which is hopefully at least a little interesting to those of you reading this. The blog should eventually become a great place to launch my new ventures and projects, it’s great for networking, good for building a reputation and perhaps one day if I do become the next Branson, I’ll be able to use this blog as a complete online diary and history of my quest and my journey.

Nathan Waters
Analytically Analysed