There's more to this step than meets the eye. There's deciding on what we are going to sell, and some about how, and about how we are going to distinguish ourselves from the pack. We would then like to get a catchy, easy to promote domain name that reinforces the business model.

I wish I had received this advice back in the 90's when I started jbv.com. Having a three-letter domain name (my initials) shows that I was out there early, when there were still a lot of very desirable names available.

Let me describe how the rest of my current domain collection has evolved (accumulated?) over the years. I'll keep it brief, but if you would rather skip this part, click here.

Back then, I owned a wholesale distribution business, and got the idea of a portal for distributors named distribnet.com. I signed up some buddies who are in the software business and we built a nice site. At the time we were all  too busy to really work the concept, and some well-funded entries quickly surpassed us. We folded it down, no harm done.

Soon I sold the distribution business. I was teaching entrepreneurship, developing material that would become The Entrepreneur's Fieldbook, and building up the jbv.com site as an information resource on entrepreneurship.

With a lot of the good domain names taken, I tried to recast the letters jbv. The best I could come with was "Jumpstarting Business Ventures." That's a little too much of a stretch.

Since I have gotten a bit more serious about making a living on the Internet, I realized that I had developed enough material to publish an eBook, and that became "Release Your Inner Entrepreneur." This got me going on the path that gained me the experience that is the background for the guidance I am offering you.

Next, I decided that I am now semi-retired. (I have since registered the domain  "semi-retirement.com"). I don't want to work for anyone else, I want to work from home, with the freedom to travel frequently.

Second, I realized that I have accumulated a lot of useful information over 25 years of self-employment and 10 years of college professorship. I think I have a lot to offer to my students, whether they are in a classroom or out over the Internet.

Third, I decided that I have at least 20 more years of considerable vitality, so I had better do something challenging. Hopefully, this effort will also reward me for my time.

It is my hope that you can connect with these motivators. I think the desire to work only for yourself is what rouses most people's inner entrepreneur. The  prospect of greater financial rewards also attracts its share. 

 Let's get back to Step 1.

We'll review the questions we need to answer to complete Step 1:

• What we are going to sell, and some about how,

• how we are going to distinguish ourselves, and,

• a catchy, easy to promote domain name that reinforces the business model.

Let us say that you want to be an e-publisher, that is, you will sell e-books from your web site. You will possibly have authored one or more, but you are also willing to supplement your offerings in a commission arrangement with other authors. Your products will be offered only online.

We could be generic book-sellers, but let's say we are going to specialize in information about planning for retirement, to include traditional books, e-books, and multimedia (audio/video CD/DVD). We don't have to limit ourselves, but this gives us a "niche" where we can probably achieve a clearer identity than by selling e-books in general.

We know that Amazon and Barnes and Noble are formidable competitors, but if we can get noticed, and do what we do very well, we'll get some action.

Let's look at related domain names that we may wish to use by keying them in the address bar of our browser.

ebooks.com claims to be the world's leading online source of ebooks; e-books.com is also taken. epublish.com and e-publish.com  are inactive, but are not available.

So we change our approach a little. Rather than a name related to what we do (e.g., we e-publish), let's look at names that our prospective customers might use to find us.

"Domain registration through Yahoo! Small Business is the easiest compared to other providers... New Web entrepreneurs benefit most: As you go through the steps to register and create a simple site, you get contextual help on screen at all times. We also liked the diversified and multi-tiered sets of services you can buy."

Ready? Click the button, and come right back after >>>>