[joeljonathan]

What does "Amazon" have to do with books?

What the heck is a "Zillow" or "Trulia"? (Or a Google or a Yahoo for that matter?)

You make a great point in that brandable domain names like these can be a great way to go (especially if they are easy to remember, easy to spell, and easy to pronounce).

That being said, the one HUGE difference between all of those companies you mentioned and the average real estate agent is $$$ - lots and lots of $$$.

If you are one of the big players with lots of money to spend on building your brand then by all means go with a brandable domain name but if you are John Smith Real Estate Agent with a limited budget then buying a purely brandable domain name that doesnt sound like anything at all related to real estate could be a huge mistake.

One great strategy though for finding a brandable domain name is to start with your target keyword and then add some sort of unique name to the end (i.e. "Phoenix Real Estate" + "Pro" = PhoenizRealEstatePro.com etc.)

Here is a list of 25 tips for choosing a domain name if you want some more ideas.

There is a WHOLE lot more to it than domain names....

Definitely agree with you on this point although its important to keep in mind that as a smaller player a domain name can be one competitive advantage that is impossible for a deep pocketed competitor to duplicate (i.e. because every domain name is unique). It's easy for a Trulia or Zillow or someone to out market you because they have so much money - however, if you own a great keyword domain name that gives some small SEO benefit then that is something that they cannot duplicate unless they buy your domain name from you.

JoelJonathan's list is interesting, and points out that sometimes automated keyword tools aren't so swift. KingmanPhoenix.com? Those two cities are over 200 miles apart. Why would anyone want to rank for both locations?

Of course not every domain name in the list is good and maybe someone won't like any of them - the point is: I entered in my desired keyword ("Phoenix Real Estate") and in 15 seconds I got 50+ potential keyword domain names all of them exact matches to keywords that get searched in Google every month. Can any of us think of 50+ keyword domain names in 10 seconds? Of course we can't and of course we still have to put our brains to good use and sort through the domains and see if we can find any ones that we like.