Ideally, you want a name that conveys your product or service. Think of your domain name as your identity online. You want your name to be eye-catching, yet simple and easy to remember.

As first thing your visitor sees, your domain name gives them their first impressions about you. The last thing you want is your visitor to form a bad first impression. Here are some general Do's and Don'ts when deciding on a domain name:

*Be Professional

The best domain names sound professional. People are impressed by quality and value, but above all else, they expect professionalism. You want your domain to project a high level of quality. The right domain name, coupled with a quality product at a genuine value, will not only prove you're a professional, you'll also earn your customer's loyalty and trust.

*Get a .com extension

You should always try to obtain a .com extension rather than .net, .org, .biz, etc. The reason is most people will automatically add .com as extension when they type an internet address. There is nothing wrong with owning other extensions, but if you own a domain with a .net extension without first owning .com extension, you will lose visitors.

*Use keywords

The downside to paid advertising, is that it costs money. Plus, not all paid advertising is quality advertising. A good example of low quality, paid advertising are so-called "safe-lists." Don't be taken in by their sales pitch, these lists are nothing but a waste of money. All they do is flood your in-box every day, with hundreds of junk emails that no one reads. It's like paying to be spammed.

The bottom line is, there are some good ways to advertise for free, and you can make money doing it. You'll just make a lot more if you pay for good quality advertising. Just make sure to track your ads, so you know where your ads work and where they don't. If you don't spend your advertising dollars wisely, you will lose your money.

In order to determine how effective your advertising is, you must use a tracking system. I cannot stress this point enough. By tracking your ads, you'll not only know exactly where your visitors are coming from, but which ads work and which ones don't. Simply put, if you don't track your ads, you're throwing your hard-earned money down drain.

When you know where your visitors are coming from, then you can stop paying for useless advertising and concentrate your efforts on effective advertising. For example, I placed an ad in ten different ezines and tracked results. Three of them gave me a whopping 20-24% response, while other seven pulled less than 3%. Needless to say, I stopped advertising in seven that didn't produce responses and spent my advertising dollars in three that did. It's really that simple, and will save you tons of money by showing you exactly where your paying customers are coming from.