I also don’t agree with much of it. I don’t advocate much of what Tim suggests and promotes. There’s value in much of it, yes indeed. There’s also a lot of extremism, so… yeah.

Cheers and happy Easter weekend!

http://www.pcnames.com/tools/

Go there and click on “word search.”

It starts off by giving you a list of random domain names that are available.

Then type in a keyword (let’s say “writer”) in the search bar. You can then choose the “advanced search” option next to the search button. There you can say which TLDs you’re interested in (.com, .net, .biz, .org, etc.) and you can say whether you want that keyword to start or end the domain name (or let it search anywhere in the domain).

Every now and then some domains are taken and not removed from the list quickly enough, so I always double check with a registrar.

For example, some that show up are:

MagsWriter.com (if you ran a blog about magazine writing, that might appeal to you)

GuyWriters.com (if you run an all-guy writing team, you may find that brandable)

WriterInYou.com (could be a brandable domain for a blog on writing itself)

EarthWriters.com (if you work with a team writing on green issues)

TravelsWriter.com (if you write about traveling / trips perhaps)

There are a lot of interesting things that pop up. Like I said though, double-check before getting your hopes up – just run it through a registrar search on GoDaddy.com or another registrar’s site. It’s an addictive little tool, but has turned up some pretty decent domains I’ve been able to build on in the past. Have some fun with it.

As James said, look for a host with Fantastico. If you plan to host several sites, Hostgator.com is an excellent option (for shared plans – they’re not known for great dedicated servers). Godaddy is fine for registering domains, but Netfirms is a better option (usually a bit less, but they also give you free privacy protection if you choose to enable it, which many other hosts charge another $10 per year or so for – to keep your name, address, and telephone number out of the public WHOIS databases).

Even if the host you want doesn’t have Fantastico, some others offer one-click Wordpress installations if you’re looking to host a blog rather than a more traditional static website – Fantastico simply makes it easy to install a variety of scripts (blogging platforms, forums, content management systems, etc., without having to manually upload and install the scripts to run those things).

Self-hosting means that you buy a domain name and sign up with a host server. The host server provides you with the space to store and display your files online – ie, your website or blog (or both).

There are many, many registrars out there as there are hosts. We’ve been working with In Motion Hosting for over 8 years now (http://www.inmotionhosting.com/domains.php), and you can get both a domain name and sign up for hosting there. Top service, fast support, great guys. Other people like GoDaddy, thought their website is a virtual nightmare.

Make sure your host has Fantastico.

If you’re located in Canada, we recommed Netfirms.ca

Visit either In Motion, GoDaddy or Netfirms (or other) to do some domain name searching – you don’t have to buy your domain name there, but you can use their search tools. Start typing in names, and away you go.

The best domain names are short, snappy, easy to remember, easily pronounced out loud and easy to type. Keep them relevant to your services, too!

Thanks for any help.