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In the real brick-and-mortar business world, businesses strive to put their offices or storefronts on the right street. After all, it's all about location, and a prestigious, well-known street address is worth a fortune to a business. That's why all the best advertising agencies are on Madison Avenue in New York and the best stores are on Fifth Avenue.

The same goes for addresses in the virtual business world on the Net. Sure there are no streets, no parking issues, and no foot traffic. But your business address on the Net is just as important as a good physical business location. On the Net, your address is your domain name. The domain name is how people find your site on the web. Just type in the name, followed by a dot and a TLD (top level domain, as in ".com") and bam, you go to the website you're looking for.

Choosing an effective domain name is so very important, yet most businesses don't give them much consideration. They end up choosing domain names that are so long, convoluted and difficult to remember, that people have trouble getting to their sites. This costs them big time in lost traffic and potential sales. If your business' web site is set up to take orders or make sales, a bad domain name will cost you even more in the way of lost sales.

Some important points to remember when choosing your domain name:

1. Keep it short! The shorter your domain name, the easier it is to remember. And the less chance that someone will make a mistake when they type it into their browser. Abbreviations are OK, but only if they are easy to remember and make sense. It should be able to roll off your tongue without much follow-up to help in its spelling. If your company name is something long and wordy, like "Alpha Technology Systems, Inc", consider a domain name more like "alphatech.com". Remember the less characters the better, but keep the name coherent.

2. Make it memorable and catchy! If you're intend on using your domain name as part of your brand identity, make sure it's catchy and sticks in people's heads. Sometimes the best domain name for your home business may not have anything to do with the products or services you offer. Consider "Amazon.com", it's easy to remember, but says nothing about the company, nor that it sells books and retails products. "Ebay.com" is another solid example. The name is four characters long (not including the "TLD"), and for years has been part of pop culture lexicon. It says nothing really about being an on-line auction site does

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