If you do business online then you already know that securing the right domain name can be a vital component in the success of any online enterprise.

Your domain name helps people to find you on the web, it’s part of your brand, your identity… a fundamental part of your online business.

So, given that the right domain can be such a vital business asset, just how much are people prepared to pay to get the perfect domain name?

Quite a lot, as it turns out.

In 1999 the domain name Business.com took the top spot as the world’s most expensive domain when it attracted a whopping US$7.5 million. The domain reigned supreme until 2006, when sex.com was put on the open market and finally sold for between US$12-14 million (depending on who you talk to).

In late 2009 the record changed hands again when Insure.com was snapped up for a cool US$16 million.

While the market for domains isn’t as hot as it was in the dot.com boom years, it’s still a buoyant and lucrative one. Every year tens of millions of Euro change hands through the resale of internet domains.

What are the ten most expensive domain names in the world?

1. Insure.com, sold for $16 million in 2009.
2. Sex.com, sold for $12-$14 million in 2006.
3. Fund.com, sold for $9.99 million in 2008.
4. Porn.com, sold for $9.5 million in 2007.
5. Business.com, sold for $7.5 million in 1999.
6. Diamond.com, sold for $7.5 million in 2006.
7. Beer.com, sold for $7 million in 2004.
8. Israel.com, sold for $5.88 million in 2004.
9. Casino.com, sold for $5.5 million in 2003.
10. Toys.com, sold for $5.1 million in 2009.

Luckily you don’t have to pay that much to bag yourself a really great domain name. There are still plenty available for under €10 – grab yours from letshost today – it could be the best investment you ever make!

Getting the right domain name for your budding online venture can make a huge difference to its success. Here are a few suggestions to bear in mind when researching your perfect domain name:

• Make it catchy, memorable and relevant: choose a catchy, easily identifiable domain name that’s relevant to your business and easy for people to remember.
• Use a country specific top level domain (ccTLD) to appeal to a local audience: if your market is local, it often pays to register the local version of the domain (.co.uk or .ie, for example) instead (or as well as) the more generic .com, .net or .org. If you’re appealing to an international audience, a generic TLD may serve you better. Of the generic TLDs .com is by far the most universally accepted and popular – making it the most valuable one to secure.
• You can buy multiple domain names: there’s nothing to stop you buying more than one domain to prevent others from registering them. You can then redirect or park the secondary domains so that they point to your main website. Another option is registering country specific domains to give yourself an online ‘presence’ in each country you do business in. You can then deploy a regionally tailored version of your website to each of those domains (the preferable option), or redirect them to a localised section on your main website.
• Keywords in a domain name can be beneficial: you may decide to incorporate one of your keyword phrases into your domain name. Opinion varies on the significance of this in terms of its impact on your search engine ranking, but it may help both search engines and users to establish what your site is about right from the start.