Step One

finding a good name

It’s intimidating for the novice domainer. How can I find a marketable domain name that isn’t already snapped up; aren’t all the good names already taken?

The simple answer is no.

The mathematics of name combinations mean that even the coveted .com domains are nearly unlimited.

Here’s how it works.

Every time you add another word (usually a descriptive adjective) the number of possibilities multiplies. As an example (one I’ll use throughout this article) I chose ‘poker’ and ‘casino’ as my root names. Then, I started coming up with add-ons. With just two ‘root’ nouns going in, and seven adjectives, I get 14 names to try. By combining adjectives (see: honest and play used together below), I multiply by 6 more to get a total of 14 times 6 = 84 combinations.

I couldn’t get through most of them before I had five unregistered names.

After about 10 minutes of playing with a look-up utility, I had these in hand:

1. HonestCasinoPoker
2. CasinoPokerNow
3. HonestCasinoPlay
4. LegalPokerOnline
5. TheCardsTalk

(I didn’t register any of them, help yourself.) The point is that there is no end to available names- even in as popular an area as online poker.

Step Two

It’s just a name until you make it "good"

Because new names are so easy to construct, most names aren’t valuable all by themselves.

You make a name worth more by adding value.

Online, the number of visitors and revenue a site generates measures value. Both of these are helped by search engine ranking and connectivity.

Since connectivity itself helps search engine rank (and increases visits), I’ll mostly cover that.

What I mean by connectivity is broadly covered in the term networking. You raise your visibility online by becoming a part of as many existing networks as you can. That means linking to popular sites, cross-linking to affiliate sites, and linking between your own sites.

Having multiple, related domain names is key to the networking strategy- each feeds into the others. Blog material, articles and other content are shared between domains, so that a click on a ‘blog’ link in HonestCasinoPoker takes a visitor to the blog posted at LegalPokerOnline and so on.

Good domain developers limit pay-per-click ads to a reasonable level and look for a variety of cross-promotions that keep a site fresh and give it the appearance of being a useful resource, worth bookmarking.

For instance, co-marketing with e-books, poker supplies providers, online casinos, and others can be handled in a ‘reviewed’ format:

• Books we recommend: Beginner, Novice, Advanced.
• The best online tournament sites:
• Latest ebooks worth checking out:
• Where to buy your home poker supplies online:

It’s not hard to one-up the usual parked site with a little effort and attention.

Step Three

Keep it fresh

You can link to current poker/tournament news items and, by arrangement, post actual articles on your site as long as you include a link or ad from the article owner.  This is one way to get new and useful content.

A blog is another way, and you can present teasers (the first couple of paragraphs of a blog posting) with a link to the actual blog (which you may or may not own yourself).

The point of this is mining good, useful information and keeping the clutter to a minimum. It takes some effort to turn your new name collection into a revenue generating network of interlinked sites, but once you do it you have a couple of excellent options:

1. Sell the group or sell individual domains from the group at a high profit, either to one of your affiliates or at auction- you will have the site stats to make it attractive.
2. Keep the group cooking along for a long-term income stream.

Either option is a great end-point.

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