Regardless how good your web project is, it’s worthless without a good domain name, to go with it. Today it can be very frustrating to get just the domain name that you would want, since they all seems, taken.

There are firms that only sell and buy domain names, there are even firms that take a dictionary and just registers all the words that are not already taken. Then they directs them to a parking page with ads. As I said, it can be rather frustrating to find a good domain name.

Of course, you could always contact the owner of a good domain name and ask to buy it. However, don’t be surprise if they want you to pay fantasy prices, for it.

Well, is there other ways to get a really good domain name then? Yes, there is, actually!

First, you need to decide if you want to have a generic/brandable domain name or a keyword rich domain name.

Keyword Rich Domain Names

A common assumption is, that a keyword rich domain name will give you a higher ranking in the search engines, that’s not the whole truth, actually.

Alone, a keyword rich domain name is not a guarantee, that you will rank high in the search engines. There are plenty of other factors, that outweighs the domain name factor. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that a keyword domain is useless. It could be good, especial for a brand new site.

A brand new site, does not have any incoming links or anything else that can help it in it’s ranking. Then, if you have your main keyword in the domain name, will help your sites ranking, but don’t expect to get to the top pages, in Google, just because you have a keyword rich domain name. That will not happen. However, after a while, when your site has received a fair amount of incoming links and you have filled your site with unique and relevant content. Then, since both your title and domain name is a 100% match (just to name one factor), you will see that your keyword domain, will do pretty good.

Nevertheless, there are some negative reasons, that you should think of, before buying a keyword rich domain name, that you should consider, before buying a keyword domain. For example, let say that you buy thepinktgadget.com. Now, you visitors could have a hard time remembering your domain name. Was, it the-pink-gadget.com, thepinkgadgets.com or what was it…? Because that problem, you will soon find yourself, buying all those variations of thepinkgadget.com, that you can think of. If you don’t, your competitor will! That will cost your new website, a lot of money, that you could have used in a, much better way.

Generic Brand Domain Names

A brand domain name is a name that must be easy to remember and type in. You would like it to get stuck in the visitors head, once they have visited your site. Such domain names are, Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Ask, Digg etc. These domain names can, over time, start living their own life. Since it’s so easy for your visitors to remember it, chances are good that they start to tell others about it, too! Also, since they remember your site, they might even come back to it. It’s much easier to remember and type in Google, than it is to remember thepinkgadget.com, isn’t?

I have a rule, when it comes to decide which type of domain name, I will chose, that I think is simple and easy to follow. The rule is, if I build a site that I plan to have returning visitors, I go for a brandable domain name. If I build a site, that will only have one stop visitors, like a site to sell an e-book or something like that, I’ll go for the keyword rich domain name.

To wrap this up, if you want returning visitors, help them out with a short, easy to remember domain name. Such a domain name, could eventually, build credibility and start to market itself. If you are going to sell or market one specific thing, select the keyword rich domain name.

Now, to the fun part, how do we get our hands on the domain name that we want? It’s not that hard actually, all it takes is a bit of creativity and fantasy. I will show you some of the tools that I use to get inspiration for a good domain name.

Domain Name Tools

One of the best tools when it comes to hunt down keyword rich domain names are Google’s AdWords Keyword tool. Just type in your main keywords, and see related searches and search frequency, for those keywords.

For example we can take the phrase, weight loss. The top search phrases for that keyword phrase are (ordered by search volume),

weight loss
weight loss diet
weight loss programme
fast weight loss

Copy the phrase, weight loss diet, and visit Bust A Name and paste the search phrase inside the word combiner and click add. This excellent toll would now go to work and show you all available domain names, that includes those keywords.

Now, it doesn’t, comes as a surprise that those combinations of keywords are already taken. However, it’s not over yet! Bust A Name has some great features, that might help you get your keyword rich domain name!

You can tell Bust A Name to add a prefix, suffix or both to your keywords. You can also select how many keyword Bust A Name will use, to create your domain name. If that isn’t enough you could tell Bust A Name to throw in hyphens, pluralize nouns or to just drop the last vowel. At last, you can hover your mouse over the little blue marker, to get suggestions on synonyms, for that keyword.

Play with the options, for a while and you will notice that Bust A Name will create some nifty domain names, containing our keyword phrase.

After you have played around with this, free domain name tool, you will see how powerful and helpful, Bust A Name really is, when it comes to get, a good keyword rich domain name.

Tools for brandable Domain Names

Now, things will be a bit trickier and here is where your imagination and creativity will be important. However, there is some good tools floating around the net, that will help you discover the next Google type domain.

First we have, the random word generators. These generators create totally random words, from nothing or from words that you type in. One that I like to use is, Sean Puckett’s Random Word Generator at .

The toll works like this, you enter at least 10 words, real or not and then you click at the slice and dice button. You will now get a quite impressive list, with totally random words. Some of those words can be used as brandable domain names. One other cool feature with this tool, is that you can save your list of words, for future use. Also, you can take advantage of the lists that other users has already created, too.

When you have found a word that you think feels right, just check if it’s availably, with the Bust A Name Tool.

At last, I hope that you have gotten a rough idea on how to find a good domain name for you’re upcoming website project. The best way to find a good domain name is through your own imagination and creativity. Also, remember that a good domain name, doesn’t make a killer site, on its own, but it’s a good start!