When creating a website for your online business, you will need to acquire a domain name. A domain name is just the address that people type in to reach a particular website. 

To get one of these you will need to visit a registrar like 1and1.com. When deciding on what to choose, here are some key tips to follow.

1. Choosing your name

The domain name you choose should be kept as short as possible. Ideally you want one with two words that have a good ring to it and are relevant to your niche. Unfortunately especially in the make money online market, those are like gold dust and most likely unavailable.

Do not despair there are plenty to choose from, you can start looking for domain names with three or four words long. However, I would not recommend going longer than four words.

2. Hyphens

Quite often you will see websites with hyphens. So, is this a good thing to do if the domain you want has already been taken? Having a domain name with hyphens is definitely easier to read, however, there is a big disadvantage. How would you feel if people forgot to enter the hyphen and they were taken to your competitor's website? So, I wouldn't recommend using them.

The only time that I would use them is if you own both. Let's say you've decided to market the domain name with hyphens because it is easier to read. All you would do is re-direct the one without the hyphens to the one with. This way you would get all the visitors from your marketing efforts.

3. Extensions

When choosing your name you will be offered many extensions. You should only choose the .com above all the others that are on offer. The .com extension is the main one that people will automatically enter. So, if you use a different one, you may lose some visitors to your competitor who uses the .com extension.

For your website to appear online you will of course need to get a hosting account as well. Once you have both of these all you need to do is start creating your website.