Beginner's Guide to Building a Profitable Website: The Name Game

The hardest part about setting up a profitable website is picking the subject. Not that it's hard to pick a profitable one, it's just hard to narrow down the choices!

I recommend you pick a subject you love because you're going to be spending a lot of time with it. Start with your hobbies or what defines you - are you an artist, a mom, a teacher?

The trick is to pick a subject that's not too broad and not too tight. Here are some examples.

You love to read so:

Books! (Bad idea. You'll never compete with Amazon, Borders, etc.)

The Books of Obscure Writer No One Has Heard Of (Bad idea. Too small a niche.)

Mystery Novels with Female Leads (Good idea! Lots of leeway without being too big)

Here are more ideas to get you started:

Baby clothes, educational toys, Marilyn Monroe, gardening, Elvis, Irish Lovers, wizards and magic, goth, WWII, teen novels, crafts for kids, exotic cars, baseball, ballroom dancing, Reality TV, classic movies, horses, butterflies, flower arranging, fitness, gourmet cooking, cats, dogs, travel. . . . the list has no end.

Once you start to narrow down your subject you can test your grand idea using the Overture Keyword Tool.

This tool is made to choose keywords for search engine ad bidding but it's also great for you. Type in a word like gardening and check out the most searched terms in that topic. In this case it's Organic Gardening. Hey, there's an idea for a site!

Once you have an idea, it's time to register the URL, you know, the www.mygreatidea.com.

I suggest you go to Godaddy.com to register. There are dozens of other places but they've always been fast and easy for me and they're not too expensive. Yes, there are cheaper places but right now hundreds of web owners are crying over URL's registered with a site called Registerfly that is now being investigated for fraud. Cheap isn't always better.