This is part two in the series - Setting Up an eShop Using Wordpress.

If you already have a website, and have purchased your own domain name, you have already completed this step. Congratulations! If you don’t have a website and are selling on eBay, etsy or another site and you want to start your own site, then you need to decide what domain name you are going to purchase.

Established Store Name

If you are already selling on eBay or etsy you may already have store name recognition. If the name of your business is New Moon, consider adding another noun to explain what you are selling. If you sell jewelry, how about New Moon Jewelry?

Choosing a New Name

If you do not already have an established name, or you would like to try something new, consider a domain name that reflects what you are selling. The best way to use good key words in your domain name is to do research. The best product that I have found for keyword research is Market Samurai. I use this product to search keywords and phrases and find their search popularity. For example, if I own a business that sells kids clothing, I can actually put “kids clothing” into Market Samurai and find how often this phrase and similar phrases are searched. This helps me not only choose a good domain name, but can help me name my product posts as well. Market Samurai offers a free trial download so you can try before you buy, plus videos to help you get started.

My Name is Taken!

What if your name is taken? You have a number of options. First, you can try and buy the domain from the current owner which may end up costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars. You can try buying the domain with a different extensions such as .net instead of .com, but remember, that customers will most likely type in the .com address and be sent to your competitors site. You can choose to hyphenenate your name, i.e. cool-jewelry.com, and again you will probably run into the problem of sending customers to another site. You can change your business name to reflect a domain name that you CAN purchase. This may be more paperwork than it is worth. Or, you can choose a new domain name.

If you are selling jewelry then try and have jewelry in the domain name. If my business name is cool jewelry, yet I can’t get that domain name, I might choose funjewelry or I might choose a catchy name, such as pinkhippojewelry or just pinkhippo. Some experts suggest that your domain name must have a distinguishing keyword, but I think a catchy name, once associated with your product, can give you an edge.

Think It Over

Don’t be too eager to jump on the first domain name that you find. Think over all your options. Ask friends and relatives for suggestions and comments. Search the web using Google with your chosen domain name. Don’t choose a name that may be associated with an adult site or non-family friendly site (unless that is your niche).

Buy It

I suggest using www.GoDaddy.com to purchase your domain name, because it is easy and GoDaddy has been around for a while. However, you do not need to host your domain with GoDaddy. Hosting your domain will be covered in a future article.

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