I’ve always been quite entrepreneurial in nature and constantly am thinking about new ideas for websites, blogs or businesses.  Needless to say that often has me frequently looking for good names to inspire me enough to go through with those ideas.  I always feel like if I can actually find an affordable name, it’s more likely that I’ll see them through.

Of course it goes without saying that finding a good domain name is incredibly hard these days.  Practically every .com you can think of is taken, but by using some incredibly useful tools and sites I’ve found over the years, with a little searching and patience, you’d be surprised at what you can find.

1. DomainHole.com – This is a newer site that I’ve found recently that I really like.  They’ve got a really nice suite of domain tools, and one that combines them all that make searching quite simple.  Very nice layout and intuitive.  Even some crazy game you can play that involves available domain names.
2. Wordoid.com – Sometimes you want a brand”able” or made up name that you can define.  This is a great tool to help you find something that is usually very difficult to find and helps you brainstorm a bit.
3. SnapNames.com – If you’ve got a few more dollars you’re willing to spend this is a great marketplace to search for names that are often a bit higher in quality.  You can also search out newly or soon to expire domain names.
4. Nameboy.com – Another tool I often use that lets you choose or combine words and provides a list of other suggested names you might want.
5. Sedo.com – One of the largest aftermarket domain sites out there.  I often find myself searching here when I need something I know is going to require a few more bucks to get.  Great search tools.

What tools have you used that you’ve found useful?  Leave your suggestions in the comments section and I’ll update this blog post with the best user submissions.

I’m always surprised at how many sites use questionable tactics with their websites that most certainly drive away readers.  In some cases these decisions are certainly centered around monetizing a site, but in others, they are simply mind boggling.  I’ve taken the past few months to really gather some feedback on how I’d like to evolve my blog in terms of making it more reader friendly and call to action oriented, but I can assure you that I would never consider any of the following tactics in any site I owned or consulted on.

1. Make them click through multiple pages for lists.  This always drives me nuts.  I get the idea here.  You usually catch this with bigger name sites and really all they are trying to do is drive up their web traffic numbers.  Let’s be honest, it’s not a good user experience, so the only reason to make people click through a new page for every list item is for the site owner’s own benefit.
2. Buy this, download this, or subscribe to this pop ups.  Pop up ads were all the rave back in the early days of the net, and the ugly beast seems to have been reawaken in the form of blog owners trying to get new subscribers  to their blogs.  Again, an awful user experience, and there are better ways to accomplish this (see Hello Bar).
3. Sites that “disable” the browser back button.  This is just maddening.  What could possibly be the reason for adding JavaScript to your site to make it so that I can’t back out of your website?  Do you really think this is going to either stop me from leaving or encourage me to stay?  Not a chance.
4. Go ad crazy.  I’m all for monetizing sites to continue to offer great free content, but not at the expense of monopolizing the screen real estate of a site.  Ads should compliment your site’s content, not be the focus.
5. Make it difficult to consume your site.  Whether it be bad font choices, colors, poor navigation or a lack of search, the harder you make it for me to consume your site’s content, the more likely I’m out of there.

One of the most frustrating things I experience on a regular basis is bad website UI.  The worst thing about it is that most times, websites do them on purpose to increase click-throughs or drive traffic to their websites.

1. Paged Lists.  I’m a fan of lists, who isn’t.  They are easy to read, usually generate high traffic, and make collecting your thoughts easier.  But what drives me nuts is websites that actually put each item on it’s own page making you click through every one to read the entire article.  The premise here is simple.  The website owner is trying to increase their page views, which in theory, increases the value of their ad space.  It’s an awful user experience, and I usually turn away anytime I come across one.

2. Walled Content.  Unless your charging for your content (and justifiably so), don’t make users register on your site to access content.  We already have enough logins and passwords to manage, and don’t need any more.  Exception here is if you use Facebook Connect or the Twitter API to allow users to use their existing social media profiles to log in.

3. Opening Links In New Windows.  Ugh, I don’t need you to control my browsing experience.  If I want to open a new window, I’ll take care of mmmm’kay?  Usually some websites will have external links open new windows, but the biggest perpetrators are the ones who actually feel like opening new browser windows for the same site is a good user experience.  Ummmmm, no.

4. Pop Overs/Unders.  This is just uncalled for.  Seriously, you want to monetize your site?  Fine, slap some ads on the actual page, but don’t litter our screens with pop up ads.  In addition to being a terrible user experience, the click through rate on these types of ads is beyond abysmal.  Not even worth it.

5. Splash Pages/Ad Intros.  I don’t need an official announcement to your site, I already know where I’m going, and I definitely am not interested in an ad before visiting either, I get enough of that on TV.

Those are my top 5 website pet peeves.  What are yours?