1. If your first choice for a domain name is already taken, don't despair. Try a few other combinations and pick the one that meets your needs.

2. Try to purchase the top level and the regional domain name. Basically consider other country domain name extensions if your business is applicable in that regions. If your business is applicable in Australia as well then consider .com and .com.au domain extensions.

3. Short domain names are easy to remember. But sometimes if it's a catchy phrase then the long domain names are very good as well. Short domain names are the safer bet. But you might not always get the shorter one and then you might have to go for a longer one. Long domain names are fine as long as they are easy to remember.

4. Try to stay away from domain names that has a word with a difficult spelling them. Your web site visitors might type them incorrectly and end up on a different web site. Always pick something that is easy to type.

5. Try to have keywords in your domain name. Keywords are the phrases that people are searching for in the search engines. To find out what people are searching for (in any industry) go to wordtracker.com and download a free version of their keyword tracker. Use that to determine the keywords in your area of business. And if you find a domain name with a highly searched keyword then you increase the chances of your site ranking better in search engines. A good keyword in your domain name makes your domain name more ?search engine friendly?.

6. Hyphens in Domain name have both advantages and disadvantages. By having a hyphen in between two words you are clearly telling the search engine that they are two different keywords. This makes your site more search engine friendly. At the same time your customer or a potential customer might forget to put the hyphens and land on a different site or worse still on a competitor's website.

7. Plural of a word is again a tricky point. If your first choice word for a domain name is not available your registrar might suggest that you take up the plural of that word (if that's available of course). Again I prefer to stay away from plurals. The visitors might forget that it's the plural of the word that they should type and land up on your competitor's site.

8. If you have a popular product in your company then consider registering that product name as a domain name as well.

9. Check and make sure that you are not infringing any domain name trademarks when signing up for a domain name.

10. Go with a reputable internet domain registration company.

11. Also beware of the different spellings for some words in different countries. Which ever country is your primary customer base go with that country's spellings.

And finally don't miss the renewal dates for your domain name'If they expire then you have to start the process all over again. Set up appropriate reminders and renew your domain names before they expire.