Top five tips to choosing the right domain name

If you’re a start-up business, it’s unlikely that you’ll be rushing to get one of the new top-level domain names that have been made available.

 

While a US start-up called Donuts generated headlines this week after applying for 307 domain names, the business had the rare luxury of having $100 million in the bank after a capital raise.

 

With the new domains, which replace suffixes such as .com with monikers such as .hotel, .baby and .shop, going for up to $185,000, it’s not surprising it has been the likes of Google, which is reportedly after .google and .youtube, that have led the charge.

 

But even if you can’t afford such a suffix, that doesn’t mean that your website domain name shouldn’t be a carefully thought-out choice.

 

So if you’re in the process of choosing a domain name, here are five top tips to help you along the way:

 

1. Go local first

 

There are countless domain suffixes out there, ranging from the familiar .com and .com.au to .biz, .tv, .info and so on.

 

So, which one to go for? As a rule of thumb, .com.au should be your priority, followed closely by .com if you hope to sell your products or services overseas.

 

“The best known suffix for Australian consumers is .com.au,” explains Fred Schebesta, founder of Finder.com.au.

 

“It brings trust with it, because you need an ABN to get a .com.au suffix. Google recognises this and trusts it more. Other countries don’t have this requirement, so it’s harder for spammers to use a .com.au site.”

 

“Suffixes such as .info and .biz are a little salubrious and known for spam. Anything with hyphens doesn’t look good, either.”

 

Scott Robinson, founder of digital marketing agency The Box, adds that Australian businesses looking to expand into overseas markets should look at whether their domain name is available with the .com suffix.

 

“You need to be careful not to have 50 different derivatives, as it will cost you a lot of money and you won’t get much value from it.”

 

2. Keep it snappy

 

Look at Google, eBay, Amazon. All short, snappy and memorable titles. Even if your business name is, for example, Total Sydney Network Solutions Ltd, that doesn’t mean that you need to include all of this in your URL.

 

“Ideally, you want to keep your domain under seven characters,” says Schebesta. “If someone asks for your website and you tell them something that’s 15 characters long, there’s no chance they will remember it.”

 

“We used to be Credit Card Finder, but once you get it down to Finder.com.au, it’s easy. It sticks in people’s minds.”

 

“If you are building a particular brand name, you may not want certain key words in the domain but if you, say, are selling designer jewellery, you will want the keyword ‘jewellery’ in there somewhere.”

 

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Review: ‘Come Fly Away’ a amatory reverence to Sinatra, romance

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“The physique says what difference cannot.”

The late dance fable Martha Graham might have avowed this philosophy, though one of her students, 70-year-old Tony Award-winning choreographer Twyla Tharp, breathed life into it with her latest ballet-meets-modern-meets-musical production, “Come Fly Away.” The salute to love’s forays and frustrations, told by choreography to Frank Sinatra songs, done a Pittsburgh premiere Tuesday during a Benedum Center, Downtown, as a initial uncover of a Pittsburgh CLO season. It runs by Sunday.

The inhabitant furloughed association peels behind a wall of a ’40s-flavored nightclub, finish with bar, cocktail tables, live rope and shelves of margarita eyeglasses and champagne flutes. For 80 mins (with no intermission), assembly members turn other faces in a swarming room, examination as about a dozen or so dancers embark on an dusk of erotic encounters, hilly event and flirty initial kisses.

Where: Pittsburgh CLO during Benedum Center, Downtown.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets: $10-$65.75. 412-456-6666 or www.pittsburghclo.org.

It opens with a recording of Sinatra crooning an a cappella delivery of “Stardust,” as dancers drip into a bar donning brief slinky dresses and suits with fedoras suggestive of ones ragged by Ol’ Blue Eyes. Their interactions tone a jazz dilemma with a picturesque aura: Some down (imaginary) drinks during a bar, a integrate snuggle cheek-to-cheek during a dilemma table, and a few group eye intensity dance partners.

Like other crossover ballets by Ms. Tharp (such as a 2002 “Movin’ Out” to Billy Joel tunes), no lines are spoken. And who needs them? Dancers’ gestures, facial expressions and character-to-character chemistry clearly communicate a lax narratives Ms. Tharp reserved to any performer, while withdrawal some room for interpretation. This adds to a clarity that assembly members are bar congregation examination a amicable theatre unfold. If they were doing so during a genuine club, they wouldn’t be means to hear other couples’ conversations over a music. As in a show, they contingency interpret physique transformation to theory a scoop.

Sinatra’s lyrics and a concomitant choreography serve clear a stories tied to any character. “Let’s Fall in Love” sets a theatre for a barkeeper to try to woo a bubbly brunette. Through awkward rises and comical-yet-cute stumbles, a span preciously embodies a unrestrained and confusion that can tone a budding relationship. In “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” a male pirouettes and pleads for a lady — as she glides about a dance building in a arms of another man. Aggressive partnering tosses and erotic embraces prominence a aria and doubt of a twin in “That’s Life.”

To Ms. Tharp’s credit, she doesn’t only underline a integrate for one strain and dance and afterwards trifle a performers behind into a ensemble. Pairs are revisited via a performance, permitting a assembly to watch their adore grow, pulp or be expel aside for new admirers. These sum make a characters some-more three-dimensional and a uncover value saying again and again.

The athleticism and behaving of a artists — dual with ties to Pittsburgh, Stephen Hanna and Ron Todorowski — carried such self-assurance and frail execution of Ms. Tharp’s melting pot of ballet, lyrical, complicated and jazz choreography. The heartbeat of a opening came from a large band-style instrumental ensemble, that resurrected Sinatra’s classics with magnificence and some punch.

Although a Sinatra strain book dates behind decades, a prolongation was impressively uninformed and contemporary. The costuming and view featured retro hints, though a stories they helped demonstrate could have taken place during a jazz cafeteria in a ’50s or final week during a nightclub in a Strip District.

“Come Fly Away” might be true dance, though a characters and choreography are crafted with such glamour and abyss that a longtime adore of a art form is not a exigency to conclude it. It’s for anyone who’s ever stomached a butterflies of a crush, who’s played tough to get, who’s longed for someone else’s swain or who’s desired deeply and mislaid deeply — and isn’t fearful to remove and adore again.

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