As time goes on it’s getting harder and harder to find a good domain name that’s available. When all the names you keep trying are already registered, it can be very frustrating and time consuming.

I haven’t got a magic bullet I’m afraid, but I would like to share a number of useful tips and free tools with you, that will help speed up the choosing process, and free up your time for more important things.

If you have to, one option is always to try your keywords with hyphens ‘-’ in between the words. I have some domains like that, but I always prefer domains without the dashes in them, because they look better and are easier for your visitors to remember.

1. Thesaurus - An obvious place to start. I often use the one I have as part of Microsoft Word. If you don’t have that, you can’t do much better than going to http://www.thesaurus.com.
2. Check Out Your competitors - Go to Google and type in your main keywords for the site you want to register. Look at the domains being used by the sites that come up in the listings and AdWords ads.

   Directories like the following are also a great place to browse and see what names other people are using: http://dir.yahoo.com, http://directory.google.com, http://dmoz.org. Check out the descriptions in the listings for more keywords and phrase ideas.

3. Keyword map - try typing in your main keywords into the search box at: http://www.kwbrowse.com. It comes back with a keyword map of interrelated phrases that a thesaurus won’t provide you.
4. Article Directory - Here’s another way of getting your competitors to give you ideas. Go to http://www.ezinearticles.com, and browse the category listings for your niche. Then scan through the article headlines looking for keyword and phrase ideas.
5. Amazon - When I’m looking for inspiration I often find myself browsing Amazon. Do a keyword search and see what titles and descriptions the top selling authors in your niche are using.
6. Forums - This is a great place to find out what keywords and phrases people in your niche use and respond to.
7. NameBoy - Type in a couple of keywords into the search box at: http://www.nameboy.com, and they throw back a load of domain name options using similar words. They also provide a tick sheet showing you which domain name extensions are available to register.
8. Brainstorming Tool: http://uk2.net/uk2_name_machine.shtml. With this tool you can type in up to 15 different keywords, and it will return all the available domains using any two words in combination.
9. Domain Suggestions - http://domain-suggestions.domaintools.com This is another useful tool I like, and it really does throw up some cool names that you might not have thought of. Again, with the added bonus of telling you which domain extensions are available for each suggestion.

I hope this gives you a few ideas if you’re struggling to find a good domain name.

Jason Lewis

Do you use private label articles and ebooks?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve got tons of articles and ebooks on my hard drive.

It is getting harder to keep on top of, and know exactly what I’ve got and can use.

That’s why I was pleased to test out a new free software tool for managing PLR content.

It helps you keep track of all the PLR content you have on your PC, plus all your membership login details and even how much you are spending on everything each month.

I partcularly liked the feature where you can type in a keyword and it’ll scan all your PLR content, then it lists all the articles which contain that keyword.

It’s a very simple tool, but it does the job.

The more PLR content you have on your hard drive, the more you will appreciate this free tool. It’s a great time saver ;-)

Note: You will need to fill out an opt-in form to get to the download page, and the link is emailed to you when you confirm.

Download it here:

http://www.BusinessBrainwaves.com/PLR_Dashboard

Jason Lewis

I use a lot of software tools to help speed up what I do and make my life easier. I wanted to share a few of my favorites with you, which are all free…

Google Desktop

Google Desktop uses the power of Google’s search capabilities, but instead of searching the web, you search the files stored on your own PC.

Windows already provides you with a search function for scanning your PC, but that’s really like comparing a Mini with a Rolls Royce. Google Desktop is lightening fast, and allows you to display the search results in order of either date or relevancy.

How do I use Google Desktop?

• I use the Warrior forum a lot, but the search function there is pretty useless. Sometimes I want to refer back to a post I read previously, but I can’t find it. Using Google Desktop I can perform a search and it will return all the web pages I have viewed containing that particular phrase.
• Sometimes I’ll create a text file or a web page, and either save it to the completely wrong place, or give it some stupid file name. Then when I go looking for it later I can’t find it. If I can remember one or two phrases in the file, it usually only takes a few seconds with Google Desktop to track the file down.
• I get a ton of email newsletters, and often it’s difficult to remember who it was that sent me a useful tip, a link or a recommendation that I want to go back to. With Google Desktop I can narrow my search to just emails, and can instantly get a list of all the emails containing the keywords I search for.

I’m sure you get the picture by now. This is one of those tools that you won’t really appreciate until you start using it regularly. I use it every single day, and rely on it heavily.

Tip1: If you use the Google Toolbar which I also highly recommend, click on the ‘options’ button and enable the Google Desktop icon. This saves you from having to go to the Desktop homepage every time you want to use it.

Tip2: You can use the same advanced search options with Google Desktop, as you can with their main web search engine. So for example; putting your keywords inside inverted commas like this: "search phrase", will return pages and files which contain that ‘exact phrase’. This can save you time and help narrow your search.

http://desktop.google.com

KWBrowse

This is a very cool research tool for uncovering keywords and hidden niches, that you might not otherwise had thought of.

Type in a keyword phrase and KWBrowse presents you with 2 lines of 10 keywords, which interconnect with each other. The first line usually consists of phrases containing the keywords you typed in, or at least most of it. The second line contains keywords and phrases that are different but related to your initial search.

It’s the related phrases which I find very helpful. Even when you think you know a niche very well, this tool can still throw up keywords and ideas that you have overlooked.

Occassionally KWBrowse does throw you a few curve balls, where none of the phrases seem relevant, but on the whole it’s usually spot on, and definitely a tool worth bookmarking.

http://www.kwbrowse.com

Favicon Generator

A ‘favicon’ is the little graphic you sometimes see next to a website address in your browser. See example below:

When you have a site to your favorites folder, you will also notice the same little icon graphic displayed next to the bookmark. A favicon graphic can help make your web page stand out amongst all the over bookmarks fighting for attention…plus it also looks cool!

Why not add my blog to your favorites now, and see my favicon in action ;-)

A new free service now makes it incredibly easy for anyone to convert normal graphics into favicons. You just browse to the file on your PC and click ‘generate icon’. Download it, then upload it to the root folder of your website and you are done.

http://www.favicongenerator.com

ColorPic

Sometimes you’ll see a web page or graphic, and think that color is just what you need for your own design, but you don’t know exactly what color they are using. ColorPic is a really handy free tool that will show you the color code of anything you hover your mouse over.

Fire up ColorPic and point your mouse to the exact part of the screen you want, and ColorPic displays all the relevant color codes for you.

http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/

Jason

I’d like to tell you about a very cool piece of free software, which you can use to make professional looking movie slide shows, complete with customized soundtracks.

After downloading the software I was able to create a fantastic looking and sounding movie slide show of my kids, in about ten minutes.  This included adding a few funny voiceovers for each picture.

My wife and kids absolutely loved it, and couldn’t believe I’d only downloaded the software ten minutes earlier.  I’ve just burned it on to a CD, and it’ll make a great keepsake.  I’ll also give it to the grandparents as a nice gift.

Now…all this from a free software program, that I’d been using for just ten minutes.  With your imagination, I’m sure you could come up with a ton of ideas to make videos from images and pictures you already have or could obtain.
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One of my Business Brainwaves subscribers: Jason Bradley; recently created a cool free software script called Article Dashboard.  It helps you to quickly build your own highly automated, feature rich article directories.

This is the third time I’ve used ‘free’ already on this page.  I just wanted to make it clear that this will not cost you a penny.  Alright, I know I’m going a bit over the top, but when you see how powerful this software is, you’ll be convinced that it’ll cost you at least $150-$200 plus!

This is definitely worth a look…

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