When I first launched this site I picked a domain that closely matched the company I was working at without being so close as to infringe on trademarks and such. My goal back then was to help my employer launch a blog to complement their corporate site. Mistake #1.
Unfortunately I left the company and so the domain name didn't make much sense so I changed it to AllThingsSEM.com. I liked this new domain as it gave me a lot of leeway in terms of topics I could write about. Afterall, SEM (search engine marketing) is the umbrella term that covers both paid search and search engine optimization. Mistake #2.
While those in the industry know that SEM is an umbrella term, those that buy SEM services actually think it equates to paid search or PPC. It's a lot like how social marketing has been adopted by many to refer to activities involving social media sites and content when its original meaning from the 70's is marketing with the goal of changing some aspect of society e.g. anti-smoking campaigns. So picking SEM was mistake #3.
I also had a grand vision of partnering with one or more people to augment the content I write about SEO. Ideally, that partner would be someone on the PPC side of things. I never found such a partner and so a majority of this site's content is SEO related. Mistake #4.
So what is the impact of all of these mistakes? Well, as an SEO I'm bummed that:
1. I don't have a decent ranking for SEO blog (yeah I've already included SEO in my title tag). That phrase is certainly competitive, but I even with passive link building efforts I figure I'd at least be in the top 50.
2. I do have a #2 ranking for SEM blog. Sadly, according to Google the number of monthly searches for this phrase are 16% of those for SEO blog globally and just 2% in the US.
Pick your domain names carefully! And if there happens to be a paid search blog owner out there that picked a bad domain with SEO in it please contact me. Maybe we can arrange a domain name swap 
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I'm sorry - but I simply don't subscribe to the idea that keyword in domain is the be-all and end-all for ranking. I do agree that it makes a difference (all other things being equal), but I can't understand this fixation on domain names for SEO. There are just as many examples of nonsense/irrelevant domain names ranking for terms that don't appear in the domain that ones that do...
Domain names aren't the be all and end all in the SEO game and I didn't mean to imply that. They are a potentially big factor though because people will link to you using anchor text based on your domain name (assuming there isn't a better option for them to pick). So in my case when I get a link it's very likely to include the keyword SEM instead of SEO which is what I'd prefer. Hence my ranking for SEM vs. SEO.
Now this can certainly be countered with an active effort at targeting specific anchor text which is part of what a good SEO effort will accomplish.
I agree with this point. Domain names are merely the starting point of an otherwise lengthy and eternal SEO campaign to leverage your site. I used this post as a reference in my latest blog post. You can definitely have a good website with high ranking SERP without a keyword in the domain name. The best examples: Twitter and Google. What the heck is a Google? haha
Great post Marios.
I would also like to add that the domain name can make a HUGE impact on click through and should therefore be reflective of the site content. In addition, the expectation that the domain name sets should be taken into consideration.
From my experience, the domain name plays an *enormous* aspect. Much more than I would expect it to. In fact, sometimes I'm shocked how sites with not a great deal of content, not a lot of incoming links, and very new, get a good ranking solely based on their URL. I don't know whether this is going to change at some point in the future, but currently it's playing a major role.
The domai name is very important if you need to focus fast your number one keyword but in the end of the day is the global SEO job you do make your web rank high. Like Marios Alexandrou say the domaine name is a potential important factor but the time is more important.
I know what you mean about picking the wrong domain name. I write about market segmentation so I picked StrategicMarketSegmenation.com
Then for my blog, I just added "/blog"
1. It's way too long.
2. There's not much search traffic for market segmentation.
3. Most of the search visitors for it (45%) are college students, but I target small business owners.
I have more than 300 pages and posts on long-tailed keywords about market segmentation, target marketing, and related marketing topics. So I think it's too late to change.
Looks like we're both in the same dilemma.
I too am a firm believer in your domain name being a very important first step in your overall SEO practices.