Hi all,
This is what I do for a living (domain buying, web design, internet marketing), so I thought I would chime in.

Never get a domain from a free site because they really "Own" the domain.

Personally I use Namecheap.com which is about 9ish a year plus they give you free whois protection which hides your contact info from prying eyes. You want that because it keeps spam away.

Also for browsing for domains, try http://www.domainsbot.com/. Its a great tool for brainstorming for available domains.

If you found a domain that is already taken but is for sale, you can expect to pay 250 to 500 for it if your lucky. I just move on if it's for sale. I never sell my domains for less than 350. I have a few that are probably worth about 20k and the rest are small change for now (I own about 200 domains).

You definitely want the domain to have the word puppet or puppets in it for Search engine placement reasons.

What about a twitter account?  Someone has approached a friend trying to buy their twitter account name. This is a guy with a nationally syndicated radio show, and he needs their name.  Anyone had this come up? What did you charge?

Why would you buy a twitter account? (Sounds like a scam to me) I can understand domain names, because you have to purchase them anyway - actually lease - but Twitter is free. Even if they want a really specific name, it's not like the person would have had to buy it in the first place...

Then again, people will offer anything so they can have the perfect name, even if it is for a free service like twitter.

I can understand being offered money for a twitter or even other free account if your name is big enough and someone else has already registered the name.

   Maybe I need to go and register my name at all the free services so when I become famous I'll own them. Oh never mind .... when I become famous I'll most likely change my name anyway. 

But Twitter also now has special accounts that are background-checked for 'authenticity' (ie. so famous people don't have fake accounts set up in their names by other people). So it's also likely that this person could set up such an account and have it authenticated; thereby receiving more legitimacy than if they'd just had the exact name they needed.

Sorry, I just don't get it. I mean, is twitter just *that* important to your business life, especially if you're already extremely well known and have a bunch of fans? If you're that successful, surely none of your followers will care if your username's not an exact match.

Twitter accounts are being sold because many people got good twitter names when the service started and resell them to late entries to the game.
I am not sure what's a good price for a twitter account because I haven't sold any but I alway say force them to make an offer. Their first offer usually will be ridiculously low.

My friend is a pastor and this is their church name. The radio guy hosts a program with the  same name and wants his Twitter account to match.  I can see the point, name recognition is important. I would be far more likely to remember a name that is the same as the show, rather than something that has been changed a bit.

What you could possibly do is sell that one (money to church), then start a new one with a slight alteration to the name. Like if you twitter name is christianlifecenter, then change your twitter to christianlifecenterchurch...etc.
Unless the church is really big and the twitter is in use a lot. Then keep it.