My recommendation to all my clients is to use GoDaddy.  They have U.S. based customer service, and you won’t go through the useless script many tech companies force you through.

When you purchase your domain, you are really just renting it. Like a phone number.

I recommend a one or two year registration, since you want to stay on top of the renewal, and when it comes up for renewal, you will receive an email.  Many people change their email address over the years – you want to receive that email.

Some things I like to consider:

Does it use a common extension, like .com or .net ? I know you can get .biz, .us, .ws, .info, … but for the most part .com and .net and .org are the ones you want to consider.

Is it easy to say?  You’ll be saying it alot, so say it out load, and see if it’s easy to say and understand. If you have to spell it all the time (I have to spell my last name ALL the time), then maybe think about some other names.

Is it easy to understand and remember? Long nonsense acronyms don’t make for good domain names. Maybe OK for an email address, but lists of letters are hard to remember, and you will have sound out each one for the person you are talking to.

Your registrar is another important thing to consider. Are they easy to work with?

I favor GoDaddy for domain registration. GoDaddy.com