Choosing A Domain Name To Use...

i've always sent people to the site, and it became the artist site. now i want to switch it over, can't find the option to do so, i thought it was right in front. and i can't figure out how its done...

anyway, i send people with the http://www.MikeSavad.com because its easier to spell and looks more professional. giving someone a link that looks like the way it does - kkjkj.artist etc doesn't look professional.

i do have a website but i don't really do much with it.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I've always read that it's best to use your name, but mine is too long, complicated, and chronically misspelled. So, I went with art166.com, which has proven a LOT easier for my would-be patrons to remember and type in.

In your case, the 'parks' url might be more searchable, but using your name would allow you to start building a brand that would encompass all of your art . . . which may or may not matter to you, at this point.

How about something like - adamjewellnationalparks? Looking at it, that seems long and complicated, too; and how many people will misspell 'Jewell'? (I'm betting -- lots.)

How about - nationalparksbyadam? Long, but easy to spell

Oy . . . I'm not helping . . . ;-/

adamjphotography

Glad you started this thread. I've been trying to figure this out, too. You are lucky if you can use AdamJewell.com!! My name is already taken, so I can't use it. When it boils down to it, isn't your name what you want people to remember when they see your art? You also have a memorable name. If I were you, I wouldn't hesitate to use that.

My name was taken too but somebody was willing to sell it to me for $35,000.00. Don't think so. Ended up with AllenPhotoArt.com as a domain that forwards to my AW site here.

@Mike Savad

Mike, you can change the artist website domain by logging into the new version, go to "Behind the Scene," go to "General'" then to "Custom Domain Name."

$35K for a URL? It better come with a lot of traffic!

Mary, what name were you looking for? maryjoallen.com is available or maryallen.net

My name is also available as a .net but not as a .com. I've never understood the difference. I think .com is more popular, but I may go with .net just to be able to keep my name. Amy Tan, the author, uses amytan.net. But I've never seen any other artist use it.

David I could not find, "Custom Domain Name."

Conor

artistwebsite
VERSION#2
BEHIND THE SCENES
Custom Domain Name

I think it's really great that Sean is giving us credit for sales and traffic to our AW sites. It wasn't that I resented directing traffic to FAA it was just the remembering of the name for clients. And looking professional in publications. This is definitely your cake and eating it too.

btw: I host through godaddy if anyone needs help with their record redirects.
-- mary ellen anderson

@ Patricia -

I had the same problem - my name is also taken by a doctor who treats hair loss. I contacted him to see if he would release it or if I could buy it from him and he said no because it's his daughter's name. He's owned it for at least 3 + years... It's a landing page with a link to his real site which isn't much of a site at all. Seems like such a waste of a good name.. lol ;)

I decided to use my own name and add the word "art" after it. I'm glad I did because i think that's how people remember you.

@ Adam - I think if you can get your own name, go for it. It's a name you'll never regret owning :)


--Donna Proctor
donnaproctorart.com

@Donna - I've got adamjewell Adam-Jewell adamjewel and maybe others all .com

All the other Adam Jewell's will have to change their names.

LOL Adam - yep, if they want ".com", too bad since you have it all sewn up! ".net" and others were available to me but I think most people automatically remember ".com" so for me, the others would be a waste of money IMO.

I was looking around deciding on a new domain name, and apparently there are a lot of folks out there with my name, and a bunch of them are photographer also. Plus, there's also a MMA wrestler, a video DJ, etc. etc.

I've got an eye on my new domain... just have to pull the trigger.

I think that using ones own name as a domain is really a bad choice unless your name is an established brand. Lawyers come to mind, they love to get their name out there and in a domain name even if it's 20 characters long and impossible to pronounce. The domain experts suggest using a Key word domain, is it any wonder why domain names like Car.com, or Law.com cost millions of dollars? They are huge keywords, a good domain name might be tied to a service or a product, art.com, pictures.com, paintings.com, but never your own name unless maybe you are Donald Trump, or some other famous brand, building a brand cost lots and lots of money, choosing a high searched key word and having it as part of your domain does not cost more than $10.00. JoeAlvarezLawFirm.com vs Divorcelawyer.com, which domain do you think gets more traffic?

Here are some examples of what I was talking about in my last post.

These are some examples of domain names to a few of my own sites:

www.miamibeachmodel.com

www.imiamiart.com

www.imiamidade.com

www.etravelgear.com


Notice that these are also geo-domains, now if a geo-domain is not available you can add an i or e in front of it and the search engines will usually treat it the same. You can do the same to any key word domain. Geo-domains meaning domains for keywords in your own geographic area.

Mario, I think it depends on what you are selling. Don't most artists want their names known?

My domain name was parked at Go Daddy! Oh the horrors.

bridburg.com

I just found something somewhere tonight that Abbie wrote and put
in the IP address etc at Go Daddy to redirect my AW.

I will be in business sometime tomorrow.

Dave

Patricia are you selling art or are you selling your name? I happen to agree with your statement "it depends on what your selling" Lawyers are selling a service so a Vanity name will do little to promote that lawyers website, a spice company sells spice's so adding my name to the domain name will do little to bring customers to me Unless I was Mr.Mccormick, it sounds nice wanting your name out there but let's face it, it's not easy to make your Name a household name and much easier to associate yourself to highly searched Key word, the bottom line is do you want fame or fortune?

Fame, of course.

But, Mario, it is difficult to obtain a highly-searched keyword. Unfortunately the i's and e's don't cut it. NOBODY actually searches for a term with an "i" or "e" in front of it.

I don't use my own name because it is too long (BillSwartwoutPhotography.com) and so easy to misspell. So I now use an old domain I've owned for many years - but never really developed. (But I do own BillSwartwoutPhotography.com - just in case.) My blog, however is based on my name, BillSwartwout.com.

@ Patricia - Yes, fame....agreed.

------------------------------------
~ Bill
~ US Pictures .com

Bill the thing is, that the search engines often ignore the e and i, then you also have the option of geo-domains with keywords. which domain do you think would get more traffic?

marioCartaPizza.com or Mariospizza.com or CrystalriverPizza.com?

CrystalRiverPizza.com is a domain I have, as much as I like my name Mario Carta people are more likely to search for pizza in crystal river by typing crystalriverpizza.com

I'll type in whatever is required to bring pizza to my door. 100 letters, with dashes? I'm on it! ;-)

Thanks Isabella.

@ Mario - "...which domain do you think would get more traffic?
marioCartaPizza.com or Mariospizza.com or CrystalriverPizza.com? "

Actually, it's the one with the best content (narrative) describing Mario's Pizza in Crystal River. It's been about two years since the Big G stopped putting much weight on keywords in a domain. BingHoo still has some emphasis on that - but the search engines are not trying to focus on what a site actually has to say - that is actually meaningful to a potential reader/visitor.

Much more weight is put on the Title of the site. It is probably the most important "single element" to consider for SEO. The caveat being that the narrative needs to support the title (and vice-versa).

The two basic SEO rules that I follow are to NEVER design a site for the search engines and to ALWAYS design a site to benefit the reader. YMMV

---------------
~ Bill
~ US Pictures .com

Artists are their brand name. Would it make sense for Ansel Adams or Art Wolf or Picasso to not have their name as a domain name ilandscapeprints.com or something like that?

That e or i at the start of the domain is one more thing people have to remember to type in and will screw up a good percentage if the time.

If you specialize in say, Yellowstone then maybe a domain related to Yellowstone is good or if you can find a domain name like landscapeprints.com or something simple and memorable like that.

Either way, if you are an individual photographer your name is going to be the brand. A keyword loaded domain name isn't a bad thing to have and can certainly be a good thing to have. Keywords in a domain name don't carry the weight in search rankings that they used to.

When talking to people interested in buying prints they seem to be much more likely to remember my name than NationalParksPhotographer and it is easier to find me be name than that domain. They have to remember that it is 3 words, they have to spell it right and they have to type it in the address bar and not search for it or something close to get it to come up.

If they do a search there are tons of other people trying to come up for keywords related to national parks and photography so there's a decent chance they'll end up on someone else's site. If they search for my name and butcher it or adamjewell.com chances are they'll still find the site because there will probably be only one photo focused site among those results and it will be mine.

@ Adam - Right on target.

I am actually using two domains. One is my photo blog on MyActualName.com. The other is for my A/W and is easy to remember. Both appear on my cards and other marketing collateral. On Facebook I use FB.com/BillSwartwoutPhotography because my personal page uses my FirstLast name. But on my Facebook photography page everybody sees USPictures.com in my profile picture. I also have both appearing on my AW: Bill Swartwout is who I am and US Pictures is what I do.

I use my name for my domain www.crystalwightman.com
My husband uses his name for his domain www.garywightman.com

We had our name domains for years and plan on keeping it that way, for as long as we are willing to pay for the domain/hosting. :) We both prefer to use our names, instead of some keyword in the domain. We don't have to be famous people to have our name domains. We are just us and that's all it matters. Could there be another Crystal Wightman out there, who is way more important then I am, who would love to have this domain. I am sure there is. But, they are not getting my domain because it works better for their career... Dr. Lawyer, Celebrity etc.. I am not going to change my domain, to make it better searchable towards photography.

Using my name as my website, I can do whatever I want. I can design it however. Sell whatever. If I no longer wanted photography and decided to blog about recipes (which will never happen) I can do that, because my domain is my name, not a specialize name towards photography or the arts in general.

Adam, I know you have traveled and have photographed National Parks. But, is it going to be the only pictures you will have on your site, to have a domain such as NationalParksPhotographer? If not, then that's something to consider also.

I one time made the mistake of trying to brand my business as -- I am almost embarrassed to say -- Signature Digitale Photography -- with signaturedigitale.com as the domain. I quickly realized the idea had not been a good one. Anytime you have to spell the name out and then explain the spelling, it's not working.

It's towards the end of the video, but he say's the only people that care about your name are your parents and your self, nobody is searching for your name,people search, products, services, businesses,information, but not your name.

Interesting video. He forgot to mention that the actual domain name (today) has very little effect on search results placement. He is pushing real estate services and must be a real authority on that topic - I note that his video has 199 views in the last 13 months. Actually he didn't "forget" - that video was produced about a month before Google changed their algorithm to reduce the influence of a domain on actual SEO.

Sooo, speaking of Real Estate as in that video example - it "may" be better to use his method to focus on real estate in a particular market - say Ocean City Real Estate (BTW, I own the dot-org). But, maybe not - a Google search for those exact keywords brings up a page of "known" brands (Realtor, Coldwell Banker, Zillow, ets) plus ONE local real estate agent (likely the most successful in town) who uses his first name and last initial for his domain. MarkF.com. Interesting...

One other thing... What about "his" domain - PLACESTER??? Maybe that's why his video only gets one view every other day. In addition, his domain has "private" registration so no one can see who actually owns it (a credibility-breaker for a serious business).

I believe that an artist "should" be promoting his/her name. Having their name in the URL adds a bit of credibility to their website and their business. The search results depend far more on what is presented on the page (as opposed to any key word in a URL).

With all THAT said, what works for me may not work for you and vice-versa. YMMV

OK - sorry for the verbosity- time for me to stop...

I'm doing a brief search on photography domain names and came across this. The site seems dated, but the advice here seems spot on even if, for eample, the web site it came from was up in 1999 --

A good domain name:

•is related to your name, business, or slogan
•will be as short as possible (for when you type it, put it on a business card, etc)
•can be easily spelled (for when folks hear it out loud)

(EDIT -- Not saying the web site was from 1999, just making a point.)

http://wp-photographers.com/domain-names/

Another site mentioned that if it's something beside your name, it should be really easy to remember. The writer has a web site at havecamerawilltravel.com. That's pretty easy. He also talks about having something beside .com such as .photography or .camera and mentions that it may be easier for folks to remember a basic .com instead.

http://havecamerawilltravel.com/photographer/photography-top-level-domains

On the following site, someone asked about what their domain name should be. The first reposnder is right down our alley --

"I am a photographer, writer, artist, designer. My name IS my business. That's why I registered robinremaley.com for my portfolio. —robinremaley" (Note -- I checked and that domain appears to still be active. Appears because this computer won't let me get there. Don't tell anyone, but I'm at my day job. Can't seem to find Robin here though.)

http://webdesign.about.com/u/ua/domains/Should-Your-Domain-Name-Reflect-Your-Business.htm

I've wondered about hyphens. My domain will not have them and it seems that most here also don't, so I include this link just as more info

http://bloggingconcentrated.com/the-hyphenated-domain-name-dilemma/

Me? I agree with Robin Remalley. One thing we always tell folks here is to put your own name in the keywords. It seems very logical that you would want a domain name that has your name in it.

I'm not sure anymore, how important domains are these days,since once they've visited your site, they have a link and will use that. National Park Photographer is good and probably will get the search hits, vs Adam Jewell.

I've got a few domains, some just sitting, like greatamericangallery.com and a recent new one,RichFrancoCars.Com which I use to direct people to my car images here and of course, an older, Rich Franco Photography .Com, which is still an active web site, but not for long..........

Rich

If you are selling pizza, or shoes, or some other commodity online people probably don't care about your name.

A domain with keywords in it might help you get found in a search initially but so will a site that is just yourname.com if you have the content to target keywords.

Ideally you want to be easily found when people search for your name and for xxxx photos, prints, watercolors or whatever.

A lot of it depends on what you are trying to achieve. If it's an affiliate site for hotels or cloud hosting services or something like that then nobody will care much about the person behind it but if it is you selling your own artwork then your name is important.

It will be interesting to see if the new AWS will rank in Google and Bing and be seen as a separate entity or at least different enough from FAA to rank.

The smug site does rank for some terms so hopefully the AWS with a domain will too.

Adam,

What do you mean by "It will be interesting to see if the new AWS will rank in Google and Bing and be seen as a separate entity or at least different enough from FAA to rank."? Is that a question now,about getting ranked on the AWS? If so,why is that happening,becasue it's just a "mirror" of the FAA site?

Rich

Adam

That is the beauty of the new sidebar sections. We get to add completely different content :)

Up to this point, I think the AWS has had the exact same content as Pixels, FAA and whatever other domains are out there. Same images, same titles and descriptions which is why I would guess that FAA and occasionally Pixels come up in Google searches and AWS site (almost?) never seem to.

Those two may also have a lot more links than the AWS domain which would tend to make them come up first.

I haven't had a chance to even look at any of the new stuff yet.

I would think Google would see different domains with the same images, keywords and descriptions and a little different window dressing as essentially duplicates and pick one.

On the other hand there are lots of sites like trip advisor that take one big mass of content, mix it up in different ways, use country specific domains and get the same content to rank on a bunch of different domains so who knows.

Anyway I'm anxious to get to play around with it all in a couple weeks with a roof over my head that's not the car or a tent.