Domain Names
Do's
Ideally your Domain should be no more than 8 digits plus the .com.au to make it easy to type in. If possible register both .com and .com .au. for maximum exposure
Using key words that represent your product is a big plus if you are optimising your site for the search engines, and makes a great association to your product. Eg www.dogfood.com.au.
Owning your domain allows you the freedom to host your site with a service provider of your choice and shop around to get the best deal for hosting your website.
Avoid
Using obscure domain types like .tv, or .info if you want people to remember your domain and words that don’t stand out as individual words. Eg. sites with names like www.rawweb.com can be confusing and deter people from visiting your site
Resist the urge to use the sub domain given to you by your service provider (eg www.phil,mace3.bigpond.net.au)You have no control over the name. This means that they can change your domain name at any time costing you clients( that can no longer email you), time and even stationery .
Registering your domain name and site
You are automatically allowed your own name as your domain name .In Australia you need to have a trading name to register your domain as com.au tells the user you are a legal entity. However, this is not necessay when registering the .com domain name.
You can register as many domains as you like but be aware that Google does not like sites that have a lot of domains diverted to them . There is a way around this by creating micro sites hosted separately which link via the navigation of the menu. This requires hosting your own server and can become expensive if you need to have some one support the server for you.