There is no question, the domain game has gone mainstream. Everyone from the hardcore experienced developer to the fresh newbie, is in search of valuable nuggets.

Just like when searching for real gold you might get lucky and a very good domain falls into your lap with little effort. But for the most part it takes a great amount of knowledge and hard work to find domains that are truly worthwhile.

I see so many people that register domains that are basically worthless. Maybe these should be called fools gold. Everything from three word combos with hyphens to bizarre misspellings that no surfer would ever type in let alone remember.

When looking at a domain and trying to decide if it has value ask yourself two important questions.

If either of the answers to these questions is yes, register it. If you don't its only a matter of time before someone else does. If the answer to both is no, is there any reason to register it?

Now that you know the criteria, how do you go about finding them. What it really comes down to is having a solid knowledge of keyword analysis. Which can be summed up as understanding what keywords and phrases have value and are meaningful. Here is an exercise you can try.

Pick a subject matter. Then think of every keyword and phrase you can that relates to it. Go through them and come up with as many meaningful combos as you can. Then to see how sought after these combos.

Here is an example of the whole process. Lets say the broad subject is dating. Some keywords would be relationships, advice, date, personals, and of course dating. I can then think of combinations such as relationship,help, cyber,dating, california,personals. Then using Alta Vista and the Goto tool I can plug in these combos and get an idea of how popular they are. Using all the data at hand and common sense and logic, a decision can be made if the domain is worth registering.

Then repeat this process over and over and over again using as many subjects as you can and keep drilling down deeper until you find some good ones. Every time I have used these techniques I have always come away with some worthwhile domains.

Another technique is what I call "futuristic domains". This involves using foresight and looking at current trends to try and predict what keywords will be really hot in a year or two but aren't right now. If you can register domains in an untapped area that eventually becomes popular, you could have an enormous return on your investment. Some of these may never pan out, but at less than 20 dollars it is certainly worth the risk.

There is gold in them hills and its just a matter of finding it. Those who proclaim loudly that there is no good .Com's available just don't get it and probably never will.