Domain Names using Special Characters

[ledeanio]

Hi,

I'm looking to register a domain name for my business, but the obvious is taken. There are alternatives, but it is using special characters.

Which one would be prefable and which one is a no-no:
(below isnt the actual domain name, but an example)
dean-richardson.com
dean_richardson.com
dean-and-richardson.com

Are hyphens OK in a domain name as i think it makes the name stand out, but can be a pain to type.

Cheers,

[Peter]

If your choice is restricted to these three options then I would suggest dean-richardson.com, Domains with underscore, i am not too sure whether you can register while 2 hyphens in a domain is a strict no-no. In some cases people don't even remember 1 hyphen in the domain, let alone 2.

[sanderson]

I will suggest first one.

As it is easier to type than underscore and

not only that but even search engines

like google will consider it as two key-words while searching.

Go for it, the first one.

[rich]

Yea right,,'ll back Peter and Sanderson on their choice. Option

number 3 is completely chucked out according to me. If i was

you i would have definitely chosen the first option due to its

simplicity as compared to the other two but at the end of the

day the choice is your's mate ATB

[Ryan]

Since the obvious choice is already registered, why don't you look for some other non hyphenated alternatives? I think a domain with no hyphens and no special characters is usually the best.

Nevertheless if your choice is restricted to special character domains, I think the one with single hyphen would be ok.

[Alex]

Almost everyone is suggesting to go for #1 Domain Name. What about you LD? Have you got some more attractive ones or are you too going for #1.

[sanderson]

Also I don't think you will be able to register domain name with special character, underscore.

Only letters, numbers and hyphen is allowed.

dean_richardson.com

[shane]

I would even suggest you to go in for dean-richardson.com, i think it will be fine, but keep one thing in mind, it should be easier to understand and in not too complicated when typing the same.

Eye-catching features makes a lot of difference when it comes to a domain name.

[harry]

One more vote for domain name with hyphen ( dean-richardson.com )
as all said it easy to type and remember a single hyphen, also you get double benifit from Google as it treats for url like word1-word2, the page that can be returned for the searches word1, word2, and even for “word1 word2″ this is not the case with using underscore.