In my experience it does not affect it. I have many hyphenated domains and most rank very high

I have hyphenated domain names that perform well.

Note that I would pick a hyphenated exact keyword .com over a nonhyphenated exact keyword .info or .biz any day of the week.

It makes no difference at all in the search engines eyes.

Only downfall is getting people to come back to your website or getting traffic by word of mouth because the domain is less memorable.

Hyphenated-domain-names-look-spammy to users...

but to the search engines they are perfectly fine.

Having a hyphen won't affect your rankings at all. I always tell clients to do the "radio test" to their domain names. This is is simply making sure someone who hears the domain on the radio will be able to remember it. For example:

fast food places dot com is easier to remember than
fast hyphen food hyphen places dot com

i would go for it if you have searched and searched and could not find a suitable non hyphenated dot com for the keyword you are trying to rank for.

at the end of the day i don't believe domain name is nearly as important a factor in the serps as many claim it is. content and quality links are MUCH more important.

My experience is that Search Engines sometimes treat domain names with hyphens a little better than those without because the words are nicely separated. Sometimes their are unintentional words hidden within a couple words smashed together in a domain name - and the spiders get a little confused. (just a little)

Of course, we all know that without the hyphens, the domain is a lot better for your users.

If you are really concerned about it, you might try buying both and redirecting the domain without hyphens to the domain with them - that way you get the best of both worlds - word of mouth & slightly better SEO. Good luck!

Thank you very much everyone for your responses

thmgoodw - that makes sense. That's why I went with a keyword rich name but with hyphens.

Hanksays - that was my worry, but I couldn't resist the name when I saw it was avail.

mloveridge17 - that's very interesting, I have trouble separated words that seem to run into each other at times.

Again, thanks everyone - I was away over my birthday/week and took me forever to track down my thread.

Cheers,
Terri