Following are some tips on how to secure and brand the ideal domain name for your business.

1. Register the domain name early - while your business is still just a concept. Cheap Domain names are easily available, and the market is bustling. Even if you opt out later, you can still profit by reselling the domain at a higher price than what you originally paid.

2. Don't announce your company brand name until you've found an available domain name. If you name your business before you purchase a domain, you'll inevitably feel disappointed when the domain you had hoped for is already owned by someone else. Do your domain name availability search first. You can do it now!

3. Keep it short and simple. Your domain name should be short enough to function as a graphic (including the dot-com tag). Shorter domain names (three words or less) tend to stay with the reader far better than long, cumbersome ones. Say what it is. Suppose you're a software programmer and you want to communicate that quickly in your domain name. You could try: SoftwareProgrammer.com, TheProgrammingGuy.com.

4. Register multiple domain names that sound very similar to yours. Take into account those unintended surfing flubs. How likely is it that your future customer is typing a similar phrase into the browser that is actually NOT your domain name, but a hair's distance away? Each one should mask the original domain name, so that traffic is redirected to your site in all instances.

5. Register misspelled versions of your domain name. Ever attempt to visit your favorite website, accidentally misspell the name and land on some other site instead? That's a sleazy internet marketer trick that capitalizes on the fallability of the web surfer. You don't want someone else profiting from your customers' accidental typos, so do register a few misspellings of your domain and forward them to your main domain.

6. Select a domain name that's "catchy yet nonsensical." GoDaddy illustrates this example perfectly. What does "Go Daddy" mean, anyway... and what does it have to do with domain name registering? Absolutely nothing. But it's short, it's a standout, it's been virally marketed to death and it won't escape the memory of the target customer. That's domain name branding at its absolute finest!

7. Avoid hyphens and underscores. Hyphens look sloppy in print and don't viral market well at all. Pick a domain name that represents you well. Your brand starts working around the clock the minute you go live with your website.