How to choose a domain name?
1. See if you have the .com name . Even if you want to have the site at .org or .net or other TLDs, if you don’t have the .com available, it is not good for branding. Go for another name.
2. If you are really serious about brand value buy the .com .net .org and the TLD for your country in the beginning itself. When you site gets popular, it’s quite possible that some one else may cybersquat in these important TLDs. However, don’t spend too much on buying all TLDs or every possible variation of your domain name, unless you are Google.
3. If you are commercial, then .com name is the best. People by default think of a URL as .com . If you are non-commerical a .net or .org will do good. A country based TLD is best had as a mirror / redirect.
4. No hyphens. No numbers unless it is a part of your brand name. No suffixes like “online”, “live”, “4u”, “onthenet”.
5. Short. Clear. Catchy. To the point. Easy to remember. Spell correctly if you can.
6. Dare to have a unique brand name. Domain name is not the only way to SEO. How if Google was named http://thebestsearchengine.com ? Think about the sites you most use. How many of them have unique brand names?
7. Don’t tweak a popular site’s name. I don’t remember respecting any such site.