WTYM

How to search for and register domain names
for your book title AND, make that process
part of your overall book title strategy

On October 5, 2007, I gave you shortcut techniques for how to create available domain names you want for your book title—especially a one-word book title, which is usually more challenging.

Now, here is the bigger picture—a quick 5-Step Checklist for how to search, evaluate, and register domain names for your book titles, of any length!

The 5-Step Checklist

1.) Search domain names early--as soon as you start brainstorming book titles. You can do free domain name searches at http://www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com. If a book title idea you have in mind is taken already taken as a domain name, that’s a sign it could already be the name of a business or some other trademarked entity. Or, it could just mean that someone else owns it, but it is not being used for any particular website. To find out, key the domain name into your browser as a .com to see where it takes you. It will either take you to a website that is using the domain name, or take you to a website where the domain name is for sale.

2.) Investigate the competition. If the website using the domain name you want is for a product, service, or business in the same field as yours, don’t go any further. Start working on another book title and domain name choice. Here's why: You need to find a book title, and a domain name to go with it, that will help you build a unique presence for your book or product, one that stands alone and will not be confused with a similar offer.

3.) Ensure your success. If the .com you want is taken but represents a completely different industry or market, there is a solution. Add words to or otherwise modify the domain name so that you can find one that is available. See my posting on October 5, 2007, Book Cover Coaching: URLs for One-Word Book Titles

4.) Get the .com! It's worth the effort to register the .com for any domain name you plan to use to promote your book, build your brand, and establish yourself as the expert on your topic. It's often easier to find a domain name available as a .net, .biz, etc., but this seems second class. It says that someone else has the “real” domain name. It says that someone else was doing this first, and is doing it bigger and better. It says that someone else is more reputable, more of an expert. These are all things you want someone to think and say about you. So, don’t mess around--get the .com. Once you have that, then get the .net, .biz, and the rest to completely secure your brand.

5.) Register all possible versions of your domain name. Get the misspellings as well and as other derivatives ("2" and "two, to," etc.), including the domain name with the words separated by hyphens. Also, if you find an available domain name for a book title you are even considering, get it. Domain names are cheap. Less than ten dollars is a small price to pay for owning a piece of Internet property that may be the beginning of a powerful online presence for you and your book.

"People have bought my book based on the title alone," say many authors we work with. "My book title and cover got me picked up by a major distributor," says another. Just a few good words will do the same thing for your book. Go to www.BookCoverMarketing.com.

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Susan Kendrick, Write To Your Market, Inc. 715-634-4120.