Domain name for book promo website?

metamemoir · Jun 6, 2011

I'm still a ways away from completing my memoir, but I'm about 90% sure about the title I want to use, so I was thinking about buying a domain name in case I eventually make a website to help promote the book.

Unfortunately, simply www."Title".com is taken, I'm trying to decide what the best alternative would be. I'm shy about giving away the title at this point, hehe, but say the title is "Twilight."

Should I go with:

www.twilightthebook.com
or
www.twilightbook.com

Or are there other ideas I am overlooking? I am only writing this memoir, and I don't really plan on writing additional books, so it seems the focus should be on the title and not my name/author's name, but I already reserved the domain name for my full name, FWIW.

veinglory · Jun 6, 2011

I would suggest going with your pen name. The title could still change even if you self-publish. Any url with an obvious tack on looks a tad cheesy to me.

Alessandra Kelley · Jun 6, 2011

veinglory said:
I would suggest going with your pen name. The title could still change even if you self-publish. Any url with an obvious tack on looks a tad cheesy to me.

Maybe. But there are sites like tomsmithonline.com, because if your name is Tom Smith, what else can you do? Short of tomsmiththatotherfolksinger.com, I mean.

I agree that the title could change, and then where would you be?

thothguard51 · Jun 6, 2011

One of the first things you do when registering a domain name is complete a search. I would not do this until you are ready to go live.

According to articles I have read, just doing a search alerts domain jumpers that a name is being searched for. They could then register the name and or derivatives of and offer to sell it back to you for many times what you would normally pay.

veinglory · Jun 6, 2011

If your pen name is very common it might warrant adding a middle initial or something like that. But then, as weird pen names go I may well have taken it too far

I think domain names per se are not so important for SEO as they used to be. But they are still a part of your 'look'. And again, IMHO, a url with a tack on just isnt a good look.

Alessandra Kelley · Jun 6, 2011

thothguard51 said:
One of the first things you do when registering a domain name is complete a search. I would not do this until you are ready to go live.

According to articles I have read, just doing a search alerts domain jumpers that a name is being searched for. They could then register the name and or derivatives of and offer to sell it back to you for many times what you would normally pay.

Does Googling it alert them also, or just doing a domain name search? If Googling doesn't alert them (and can you imagine someone registering every bizarre Google search as if it were a domain name? It tempts one ...) then you can at least check it on Google.

thothguard51 · Jun 6, 2011

You can register all the names you want, but until it is used it will not come up on a google search, so googling a name is no gaurantee it has not been registered...

Alessandra Kelley · Jun 6, 2011

thothguard51 said:
You can register all the names you want, but until it is used it will not come up on a google search, so googling a name is no gaurantee it has not been registered...

Oh! Good point. And of course, domain name squatters will have lots of names they don't use.

I'm not sure what you mean by used. I have a funny little domain name I put up a placeholder page on, but never submitted to Google or linked to or even mentioned online, and yet somehow it showed up on a Google search (when I was doublechecking for similar names). How'd they even get to it?

Anyhow, a memorable page name without extraneous suffixes is probably best.

macdonald79 · Jul 15, 2011

I don't think there's anything tacky about adding "book" to the end of your domain name; movie studios do this all of the time for their movies. But for my URL I'd either use a my name/pen name or a give the website it's own name, like booknerd.com or whatever.

Anne Lyle · Jul 15, 2011

Alessandra Kelley said:
I'm not sure what you mean by used. I have a funny little domain name I put up a placeholder page on, but never submitted to Google or linked to or even mentioned online, and yet somehow it showed up on a Google search (when I was doublechecking for similar names). How'd they even get to it?

If the name is registered, it is probably listed on a registrar's site somewhere, and I suspect Google uses such sources to find new websites.

I waited until I had confirmed the series title for my books with my publisher, before registering a domain (the individual book titles are a bit too long to be useful). Names may be a heck of a lot cheaper than when I first started working as a web developer (.com addresses used to cost something like $100 each!), but I'd still rather not throw money away on a domain name I'll never use.

Arpeggio · Oct 8, 2011

Late post but I just saw this thread and thought I'd point out that the two domains philip mentioned appear to have been squatted, the advertising on them put there to make some money for the squatter.

Never post domains that aren't owned yet when you are considering! Domain squatters probably have bots that search for domains and check to see if they don't link to a server.

www.giu2rn54g553iugnb.com

Domain name for book promo website?

metamemoir

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

thothguard51

A Gentleman of a refined age...

Alessandra Kelley

Sophipygian

macdonald79

Anne Lyle

Fantastic historian

Arpeggio