Today, so many domain names are registered merely for owning the real estate (or, virtual estate) and it’s really hard to find a good name. It seems almost anything that’s a real word is taken.
One of the best tools for easily creating a large list of potential names – and finding if they are available is http://www.BustAName.com (of course that’s an affiliate link. But you can find your own domain registration and hosting…)
They let you enter words, or groups of words, and it conjugates them – and checks their availablity instantly. It even helps you find synonyms (but I usually look that up myself) and can add words to the beginning or end. E.g. DropBox’s site is getDropBox.com, campfire chat is CampfireNow.com, etc, so it can help you do lots of that stuff automatically.
If you need to find a domain name, then use http://www.BustAName.com to make it possible!
p.s. check out his 12 Tips for Finding a Great Domain.
For years, I’ve waffled on suggesting a web host. My current host has been pretty much fine for me, but I’ve seen lots of complaints from others and official messages about servers being down.
So when I’ve constantly heard about HostGator having amazing uptime, that sounded like a good bet, so of course that’s my affiliate link.
There are lots of companies that offer shared web hosting, and lots that offer amazing uptime guarantees, but HostGator has such amazing features – at such low prices!
It’s just $6.95/month (if you prepay for a year) for unlimited space, bandwidth, and their awesome installers – and almost everything your developer could want – php, ror, mysql.. (except ASP – email them if you need it) for one domain.
Need more domains? It’s just 9.95/mo, or $8.95/mo for 2 years – then you can host an unlimited amount of domains!
They also let you easy install just about any open source software, including wordpress, drupal, joomla, phpbb3, shopping carts, wiki’s..
They have 24/7 tech support, too.
So if you need uptime, want features, and don’t want to spend a ridiculous amount, then try http://www.HostGator.com.
p.s. If you already have a host but want to move, HostGator will even help you move over your current web site – files, scripts and DB – for free!