Another step in the process of setting up an optimized niche site is choosing the right domain name. The basic idea here is to pick a domain that contains your main keywords, but not so long that it cannot be remembered.

In the previous step, HDTV was used as an example. That is a broad keyword term and can easily be narrowed due to its popularity and high competition. Many of the domain name variations for HDTV have been taken already. We can narrow the search a bit by trying a domain search using the keyword term HDTV LCD. It could take awhile to think up the possible domain names, so we will use a couple of free tools to help us.

The first tool is called Domain Suggestions. If you type in the term HDTV LCD it returns about 20 possible domain names based on the keyword entered and whether those domains are available for registration or not. The second tool is called Keyword Rich Domain Suggestion Tool. This suggestion tool seems to pick domain names based on actual keyword searches done in the search engines and returns more results, whereas, the first tool is more about name variations. Both will give some good ideas for domain names and show if the domain is available.

If you are starting out and don’t have a budget, then it might be okay to pick a more general domain name, such as the site you are reading now. Then instead of registering a new domain for each new niche, simply create keyword based subdomains. As long as the main keywords are still in the URL, the search engines will see that. So if a niche about HDTV is added to this domain, it would have a URL something like hdtv.niche-mkr.com. Most hosting providers treat subdomains as domains, so wordpress can be installed in each subdomain folder without putting a load on the server.

Once you have a domain name picked and it is available, it must be registered through a domain registrar. There are a ton of registrars. All you have to do is Google it to see what is available. Typically, it will cost $9.95 per year to register a domain name, but there are always specials available for a few dollars less. If you are planning on registering many domain names, then it will be better to do it with the same company so it is easier to keep track of them. Once you aquire a hosting account, you will need to go back into your domain registrar account and update the nameservers to point your domain to your host. Domain registration and hosting are two different entities.

Some of the more prominent domain registrars are:

Be careful of ads that offer registration for a couple of dollars. That is usually conditional and sometimes only applies to .info domains. The registrars listed above are reputable and should work fine.

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