15 Ways to Become a Better Domainer

December 15th, 2009
Rudy Hernandez asked:




The competition in the domain industry is steadily increasing as more and more people are becoming aware of it’s global impact in today’s financial marketplace. Professional investors and huge corporations are staking their claim of this internet real estate and have turned this once primitive name exchange into a booming multi-billion dollar industry.

Today’s domainers are needing take their domain investing to another level in order to have continued success and profitability. Below are 15 Ways To Become A Better Domainer.

Utilize the forums

As I’ve said in previous posts, the importance of domaining forums in the domain industry are vital and serve as a great resource for beginners and professional domainers alike. Whether you are looking for some honest appraisal opinions or asking questions that only another domainer would know the answer to, the domain forums are there to assist. 24 hours a day, 365 days a week, this constant stream of domain information has shaped many beginner domainers into today’s greatest professional domainers. If you’re not a member of a domain forum you should greatly consider joining one today.

Are you a domainer or a domain developer?

Are you buying domains for quick profit sales? Are you buying domains for the long-term traffic revenue? Are you buying domains to develop and birth new traffic? Whether you choose to do one or all three, you must come to terms and clarify a solid game plan when it comes to your domain investments. It’s reasonably okay to have a few domains being developed but your overall strategy needs to take shape and be narrowed down to a specific objective. Developing a domain name takes time, effort and more time, but the possible payoffs are always huge. Buying domain names in bulk for quick sales is also profitable but relies more on a constant sales initiative to be successful. Either way, you need a tactical approach on how you want to market your domains.

Dissect your portfolio

I once spoke to a guy who boasted a domain portfolio of over 3000 names. After hearing how he was considering selling a few of his “best” domains, I offered to peruse the list and maybe assist with finding some end users that might be potential buyers. He agreed and the next day he sent me a list of about 1000 of his best domains that he was willing to sell. To my surprise over 90% of them were, in my humble opinion, not worth much more than the reg fee. I contacted him back and explained that I was only to find about 75-100 names that could possibly be decent sales. He was stunned. He declined and stated that my appraisal was not correct and thanked me for my time. 3 days laters, I received an email from the exact same guy asking for assistance in selling the 75-100 domain names I previously found in his list. Seems that during those 3 days, he spoke to a few other domainers and received the same appraisal and evaluation of his so called “best” domains. This guy thought since his domains contained popular words like gamble, casino, sex and technology that it automatically made his domains super valuable. What he didn’t consider was the multiple hyphens and terrible combinations of typos and keywords. Don’t be the domainer with a huge list of terrible domains just to brag about how large your portfolio is. Trim your “extra” domains and streamline by selling or trading and use the profit for investing in quality names that are earmarked for immediate revenue or immediate development. Be proud of the overall quality of your portfolio and not just the number of domains it contains.

Know your rep

I amazed on how many people I encounter that in the domain industry that have no idea who their representatives are for such companies as Sedo, Moniker, Go Daddy and other big domain powerhouses. The representatives of such companies exist to assist their members who utilize their services and are hands-down the quickest and easiest way to get something resolved if you feel a mistake has been made. If you have domains either parked or offered for sale with a domain company, I highly suggest sending a quick email to find out who your representative is and do you best to maintain a professional and courteous relationship with them. It’s easier to ask assistance from someone whom you know and knows you than it is to ask a complete stranger. And don’t forget to vote for your favorite domain rep at next years Domainers Choice Awards.

Stay clear of Trademark Infringements

This should be a no-brainer. Time and time again I see domainers struggle with the headaches caused by trademark infringements and bad faith domain registrations. Not only do most of the trademark claims filed at the WIPO result in the domain being transferred to the appropriate party, but it also indicates that your choice in domains is questionable and therefore proving that you are still purchasing non-quality domain names. Domains that infringe on trademarks are not quality. Ask any lawyer. Save your registration fee and steer clear of legal woes.

Auto-renew

Now that your portfolio is streamlined and contains only select domain names, you definitely don’t want to lose or let any of them drop and take a chance of someone else buying you lovely internet real estate. Do yourself a favor and set your domains for auto-renew at your domain register where purchased. It’s a terrible feeling to have someone else scoop up one of your prize domains just because you didn’t or couldn’t find the time to renew the registration. Visit this great article by the Daily Domainer that explains the life-cycle of a domain name and don’t let accidental “drops” happen to you.

Limit the hand regs

Hand regs or hand registrations are domains that are purchased from a publicly available source at a regular registration fee and are either brand new (never been purchased) or have expired and no longer owned by the previous owner. Go Daddy is a domain registrar that is popular with domainers and consistently used for hand regs. The possibility of stumbling along a unregistered domain is always there and the opportunity for someone to register a new domain name that never existed and create value to it is also conceivable, but in essence, most domain names that are hand regged are simply non-researched, impulse purchases that pad a domain portfolio with non-value names. Distinguish yourself as a profitable domainer and limit the amount of hand regs you add to your portfolio. One good way is to wait 24 hours before registering a hand reg domain and then re-evaluating before buying. You may lose a registration every so often but in the long run you will save on unnecessary registration fees and useless domain name ownership.

Stay current with news and sales

To be successful is to be informed. The pulse of the domain industry is constantly evolving and therefore it is beneficial to a domainer to know exactly what is the next potential opportunity or trend being created within our industry. If you buy domain names, you are an investor. If you are an investor, you need to stay current with the news of your investments and other people’s investments. You can do this by monitoring the recent domain sales and news offered by many websites that are specifically geared towards todays domainers. One of my favorite websites is Ron Jackson’s DNJournal. You can find great articles, news and the popular Year To Date domain sales. You need to know what domains are selling, which domains are being bought and how much they are being bought for. Invest time in your investments and reap the rewards. Predicting the next big trend is priceless.

Blog around

Domaining blogs are sprouting up everywhere with domainers eager to share their experiences, setbacks, lessons learned and tips with anyone who wants to listen. We all need to take advantage of this free and useful information by visiting various domain blogs and getting another person’s perspective on our industry. And don’t forget to subscribe to their RSS feeds, if it is offered, and have all this new information sent directly to you to read at your convenience… for free. Subscribe to this blog here.

Diversify with other TLD extensions

While some domainers swear that .com is the only extension worth being bought, there are others, like me, who think it’s absolutely insane to dismiss all other TLD’s and only buy one flavor of domain name. The popularity of .TV and .Mobi and the ongoing success of ccTLD’s has risen and is playing a prominent part in today’s domain marketplace. Generic domains in any of these extensions are being recognized as a highly sought after commodity with no signs of slowing. Familiarize yourself with other TLD’s beside .com, .net and .org and evaluate your domain purchases on a global niche scale the next time you go to buy a domain.

Consider fractional domain ownership

Fractional domain ownership is simply a group of people that own a domain name and share in it’s profits, development and use. There is not one sole owner because it is owned by the entire group. Owning a portion of a high value domain is a great way for a newcomer to the domain industry to begin and understand the ins and outs of professional domaining and share in the profit growth associated with that certain domain. It also allows “regular” domainers to group funds together and own a very premier domain name without one person having to pay the entire purchase price. Look for this trend to boom in 2008.

Optimize your parked pages

Once you buy a domain name, it is up to you whether your domain will contain a fully-functional website that you can customize/adsense or whether you will “park” your domain and allow targeted content to automatically be placed and monetized per visitor. If you choose to park your domains, it’s imperative that you understand how domain parking works and how it can be optimized to bring better results. Sedo is a popular place for domain parking and allows users to see detailed stats and account information for each domain parked on the Sedo network. Revenue is shared with Sedo each time someone clicks on content on one of your parked pages and relies on consistent traffic to be a steady stream of income. Brush up on your domain parking information here.

Update your WHOIS information

The WHOIS database is sort of like a directory of purchased domain names that contains the owner’s contact information, purchase date and expiration of a certain domain. One use of this information is being able to contact a domain owner and inquire about purchasing the domain. Without the correct information in the WHOis database, a potential buyer may not be able to contact the current owner and allow an offer to be placed. Contact your domain registrars and make sure your WHOis information is current and correct. If you opt not to be contacted by potential buyers, you may consider using a service that purchases domains for it’s clients and keeps their information private. There is also an option to pay an additional fee at some domain registrars for private domain registration.

Contact more end users

So you have a great domain name that is considered gold in a certain industry. Great job. Now, if you have decided not to develop it and simply want to profit from a sale, I highly suggest contacting an end user. What’s and end user? An end user is someone who would use the domain name specifically for creating brand recognition in a certain industry. Here’s an example: Adam owns organicdogfood.com and Bob owns an organic dog food company in Texas but uses the domain BobsSuperGoodOrganicDogFood.com. Adam contacts Bob and offers a shorter, brandable and easier to remember domain name that can increase Bob’s exposure on the internet for people searching for organic dogfood. Adam has just contacted a possible end user. A domain name can usually be sold to an end user for more since it is valued more by the actual user of the domain instead of a regular domain buyer.

Change your views on the domain industry

Are there still opportunities to be successful in today’s domain industry? Yes.

Is there still time to take advantage of the booming domain sales? Yes.

Is it still possible for a domain newbie to come in and thrive even with a small initial investment. Yes.



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Domain Brokering - Profiting From Online Property

December 15th, 2009
Benjamin J. Thomas asked:




Have you ever wondered how people make money online “buying” domain names? During the big Internet boom of the early 90’s I was fascinated with domain brokering, however, it wasn’t until years later I actually learned how to make money as a domain broker.

Your first hurdle usually comes when you find out you don’t even own the domain name, rather you are merely renting it. You can rent the domain name indefinitely, but owning it isn’t an option.

The logical question from novice domain brokers is: “If you are renting a domain name, how can you make money brokering it?” After all, if you are renting an apartment you can’t make money brokering it to another renter. Can you? In a word, no.

But you don’t need to own domain names to make money with them, if you did, domain brokering wouldn’t be so popular. Using the apartment example, lets look at it like this. When you rent an apartment no one else can rent it. You live there. You take up that space, so nobody else can use it. The same goes for the Internet.

A top level domain name can only point to one website at a time, and that is where domain brokering comes into play.

Do you see how domain brokering works? You are essentially leasing or transferring the domain name rights to another company.

While you can theoretically broker any domain name, it helps if the domain you are trying to broker has some equity.

What is domain name equity? Well, lets look at it with another real world example. If you own property in Atherton, California (currently the most expensive city to buy property in in the US), it is likely to be worth more than property anywhere else in the United States. The Internet isn’t much different. In fact, most of the offline business models have online counterparts. Domain brokering is the equivalent to a land developer. Or at the very least a real estate agent.

When you broker a domain you sell the rights to that domain to another company, or you lease the name to them for a period of time. You make money, because the domain name has value, either because it is currently trendy, or it fits into the company’s niche.

Lets explore these options a little further.

First, take the trendy option. If you have been a part of the online community for a little while, you know which sites are currently the top hangouts. They’re trendy, and there are a lot of other sites out there offering supplementary services to these sites. They are often similarly named and styled. Often, domain name brokers will create derivative names for the “in” sites. These names are now in their portfolio. As popularity grows for the site, demand also grows for good domain names to offer supplementary services through. This is where the domain broker’s portfolio comes into play.

Brokering the domain names now will result in profit. The amount of profit depends greatly on the demand for the domain name, and the experience of the broker.

One case of trendy domain brokering is casino.mobi, which was brokered for $135,000. This isn’t an unheard of amount for domain brokering, some portfolios are worth millions. However, it was a milestone for the .mobi top level domain names.

What about niches? You know the expression: “find a niche and fill it.” Niches are what drives business on the web today. They are also lend themselves to domain brokering.

Let’s use a fishing example here. But before we do we will have to zero in on our niche. Fishing isn’t a niche, it is an umbrella term. Fly fishing is a niche, so is deep sea angling. The more granular you can make your topic, the more potential you have to dominate it on the Internet.

The deep sea angling niche is granular enough to rank in, yet still gives us some room to grow. And since it is our passion, we were able to build up a lot of content on the topic. We have even found like-minded people to share our passion with. We now have a community. This domain, let us call it YourDeepSeaAnglingSite.com, now has equity.

If you were looking into brokering this domain name now, you would see that it is more valuable than it was when you first got it. How much more depends on what you’ve done with it.

These are just two examples of how to make money in the large and lucrative domain brokering industry. Which is just one of many ways people make money online today. Hopefully you have enjoyed this article as much as I have writing it for you. And that it has helped to clear away some of the mystery surrounding domain brokering.



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Expired Domains With Traffic - Buying Tips

December 15th, 2009
John Khu asked:




Buying an expired domain with inbuilt traffic could be a risky proposition. Spending your hard-earned money on an expired domain without any meaningful incoming traffic could also be a big wastage of money. Once you decide that you want to invest your money in buying an expired domain with traffic, you will need to be very careful in selecting a domain that assuredly contains incoming traffic. You may face a number of risks and challenges while selecting and buying a domain expired with supposedly full of incoming links and traffic.

Most of the sellers who sell their traffic enriched domains by providing a number of screen shots or an excel sheet containing the traffic statistics or even a detailed spreadsheet containing details about the traffic. Some intelligent domain sellers even provide a link to a parking account for you to check the detail of the traffic. The main purpose of these actions is to provide you guarantee that the domains-expired you are going to buy indeed contains lot of traffic.

However, there are two important issues here that you must pay your attention before buying that domain name:

a) You will ensure that the statistics provided by the seller are not fictitious.

b) You will also need to confirm whether the statistics provided are sustainable over longer durations.

Some domain traders advertise their domains to generate some amount of traffic. Once they ascertain that traffic is coming to the domain, they will sell off the domain at a very high price. Soon after receiving the money from the buyer, they will stop the domain promotion program to save their money on advertisement. This may eventually lead to loss of traffic and a situation where the domain may even start losing its earlier traffic.

These domains are actually useless as the incoming traffic is just momentary and non-organic.

Never ever, fall in to this kind of trap! Never buy those expired domains that their original owner manipulated just for the sake of getting an inflated price. The traffic that comes with these kinds of domains is never sustainable and you will be paying for the traffic hype surrounding the domain. Here are some basic rules of buying traffic rich expired domain names:

i) When the domain seller has integrity then the statistics provided by him or her will also be right.

ii) Never ever, feel that the deal is very good. Do not jump into the conclusion that you will be losing your money if you do not buy that domain. You may be burning your fingers in the process.

iii) Trust your intuition and instinct. If you have doubts about their numbers, ask the seller for all possible details. Confirm that they are not promoting the domains just for the sale of selling them.

You may never be sure of what you are buying in the guise of an expired domain with lot of incoming traffic. When you are careful, you can easily buy a very good domain that actually contains real type of traffic.



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The Domain Name Gold Rush

December 15th, 2009
Lois S. asked:




All the good ones are taken. The really good ones, that is. But they don’t always stay taken.

Domain names often come back onto the market. Even before they do, domain name prospectors are sifting through them to find the gold domains among them.

Why domain names become available again

Thousands of domain names expire every day. Other domains are offered for sale. The reasons are varied:

Carelessness

The webmaster forgets to renew the domain by the expiry date.

The email address that the domain is registered with becomes invalid, and the domain name registrant doesn’t receive the renewal notices.

- Lack of need or funds

- The company that had registered the domain goes out of business.

- The website owner loses interest in or doesn’t have time for the website.

- The website owner doesn’t have funding to continue the website venture.

- The domain name registrant registered numerous domains on speculation and couldn’t afford to continue renewing unused domains.

Profit

- The domain name registrant may realize how much a domain is worth and decide to sell it.

- The domain name registrant may have registered the domain because of its potential worth, with the aim of selling it later.

What makes a previously registered domain name valuable?

In July 2005, the domain name website.com sold for $750,000, the highest-valued domain name sale this year. Why would anyone pay so much for a domain when they could register a new domain for under $10?

- Instant traffic

If the domain name previously pointed to a website, search engines have already indexed that domain name. Other websites probably still have links to that domain. If the domain is listed in directories, these links bring in even more traffic. You register the domain, and the work getting incoming links has already been done for you.

- Surf value

Sometimes web surfers search by typing generic words followed by dot com (or other extensions) into their browsers, for example, dogs.com. This particular domain name redirects to the website for a company that sells pet products and services. A domain name like this constantly brings visitors to the website without the cost and effort of advertising and marketing.

- Easy to remember

Your company name may not be memorable, but domains such as dogs.com and website.com are. People are more likely to return to a site or pass on the name to their friends when they can easily remember it.

How to find domains pending expiration

You decide to join the gold rush for valuable pre-registered domains. Finding expiring domains is the first step, but you also need to research domains that are about to come back on the market.

Lists of domains pending expiration

At these websites, among others, you can search for domains containing keywords you enter. At expireddomains.com, the results contain domains that are currently available, soon to expire, on hold, in the Redemption Grace Period (RGP), or for sale by their registrants. Extensions searched: .com, .net, and ..org.

The domainsbot.com database searches .com, .net, .org, .info, and .biz extensions for domains that are available, for sale, or expiring.

Domain research

You can find some (but not all) incoming links to a domain by entering “link:siteURL” (replace “siteURL” with the domain name) into Google or Yahoo. When you find the links, follow them to see what types of sites link to the domain. How would you feel about having these particular sites linking to your site?

Also look into any possible problems associated with the domain. Search engines may have banned the domain if the previous site had controversial search engine optimization techniques employed, such as the use of hidden text or links. Check the history of the site at a domain name via the WayBack Machine. If the domain previously pointed to a site with gambling or adult content or a lot of affiliate links, or if it employed questionable search engine optimization techniques, search engines may have banned the domain. Aside from the possibility of a domain being banned, you may not want incoming links from sites associated with these types of content.

How to register domains pending deletion

You’ve decided on a domain that you want. How do you maximize your chances on getting it?

At eNom.com’s Club Drop, you can bid on expiring .com and .net domains the day before they’re available to the public. You can also be notified when domains matching your search criteria become available.

The NameWinner system places bids on .com, .net, .org, and .info domains for you. It bids only as high as is necessary to maintain your high bid position up to your maximum bid.

How to profit from your domains

- Selling domains

If you have a domain that may be valuable and that you aren’t using, consider selling it at a domain auction. If you already have a buyer for a domain, you can transfer it securely through Escrow.com.

- Paid parking for domains

With paid domain parking programs, also called “domain monetization” or “monetize domains,” you can earn pay-per-click revenue via targeted advertisements. These sites offer domain monetization services:

- DomainSponsor

- Park Quick

- Domain Spa

- Google Adsense for domains

With the right knowledge, timing, and a bit of luck, you have a chance as a domain name prospector to hit pay dirt.



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Domain Types and Prices

December 15th, 2009
Chris Cornell asked:




Now that you’ve decided to become an internet entrepreneur, there are score of things you have to consider.  Your first job is to decide on a domain type and name.  Because there are quite a few from which to choose, you’ll have to have in mind a) your budget and b) what’s going to get you optimal traffic  flow.

The Trifecta:  The most common, most marketable, and easiest to remember domain types are .com, .net, and .org.  Any one of these three will invite investors to your site easier and certainly ensure maximum traffic flow.

Country-Specific:  Of course, if the domain name you desire has already been taken you can register your name with a country-specific extension.  These include .uk (for the United Kingdom, of course), .jp (Japan), .fr (France), etc.  Any country you can think of has an extension that you can use to differentiate your site.

Accepted Sub-Domains: If the country-specific domain names have dried up, there are some alternative names that have been approved by ICANN:  .aero, .biz, .info, .name, .edu, etc.  Not only are they more unique, they’re extremely specific.

Not-so Great Sub-Domains:  You could always get extremely unique and add a quirky sub-domain.  For example, if the name “Food.com” is already in use, perhaps make your website more specific:  “food.enteryoursmexydomainnamehere.com” –of course shy away from using a sub-domain even remotely resembling this one.  However, because these are essentially imaginary domain extensions, the chances of anyone actually knowing where to search is very small.

Price: Now depending in with which domain name registrar you register your name, you’ll end up paying anywhere between $6.99 and $15.75 per year; however, there’s been a recent decrease in domain prices, so if you act quickly you could get your name for less than $10.



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Experience Success with Your Domain

December 15th, 2009
Ryan Hudson asked:




The domain name that you choose might bring loads of prosperity and success for you provided that your choice is intelligent and focused effectively on business requirements. All you need to do is formulate a domain strategy keeping in mind your business type, size, products and services.

First of all before taking a plunge into the online world, think about the business you feel interested in and which you will be able to carry out efficiently as per your capabilities.  Then go ahead with choosing your domain name. Register multiple domain extensions so that your ardent competitors don’t gain profits from your brand name.

Now the million dollar question—what sort of a domain name can make your business flourish and take it to the next horizon?

Let us begin with the routine process of domain registration. The domain must be keyword based so that the web visitors get an instant idea about what your business is all about. A large number of big and renowned companies prefer to choose this strategy. The keywords are most often the words used by netizens to find products/services on the Internet as per their requirements.

The search engines display those results and as a result, your domain might rank high in the search results if its keyword oriented. There has been seen a remarkable rise in popularity of keyword domain names over a short span of time.

Another way is to opt for branded domains. These are generally short, easy to remember and get published. It is in fact a very effective strategy in case you want to create/popularize your brand name in the market instantly. Obviously, these kind of domain names are not vocal about your business but once they get infused in the minds of your target audiences then there is no looking back.

However, there is an easy solution to this kind of catch involved in such domain names and i.e., mixed domain names, which have eventually emerged as the best domain choices for small businesses around the globe. A mixed domain is a combination of keyword and your company name. It fetches you two advantages namely, keyword strength and brand image recognition.

With this information in hand, you must think of a good domain name and approach any good domain name registrar as LimeDomains, HostGator, Yahoo! Etc. to get your domain name registered. Start your online journey today and experience the joy of success!



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The Easiest Way to Create Articles? Use Public Domain!

December 15th, 2009
Tom Ambrozewicz asked:




There are many webmasters that find writing articles for their site to be a very tedious task. Many people who need to write articles also procrastinate as much as they can to delay the amount of writing they need to do. Many people dread writing articles because they find researching for the topic and writing down original materials will be too taxing on them.

You need to have your creative juices flowing and simply downloading an article would be plagiarism or tantamount to stealing, not exactly. Have you ever heard about public domain? These are articles written down by many authors that have declared their works to be public domain, which means anybody can use it for whatever purpose they want.

While most authors would prefer to copyright their work for their rights, there are also a number who does not mind sharing their work. Public domain articles are not owned by anybody and can be used and abused by anyone. The writers have waived their rights to their works and it is out there for the public to make use of.

You can use public domain articles in helping you write your articles. With the public domain articles you can simply edit them to your own style and rewrite them as you please to make it suitable for your needs. All the ideas are there already and its just a matter of finding the write article with the topic or subject you need.

This is probably the easiest way to write articles. You do not need to scour around the library or the internet for hours for information and start an article from scratch. For webmasters who are looking for articles to fill their site and to generate a high ranking for their website in search engine results, they can just modify the article by infusing keywords and keyword phrases related to their site.

A webmaster or website operator do not risk any chance of getting sued for copyright infringement because they are public domain, once again meaning that anybody can use it. Writing articles by using public domain wont require as much work as writing one from scratch would. You save a lot of time also.

One good factor in using public domain articles for your site or for any project is that you save a lot of money. You dismiss the need to hire experienced and seasoned writers that some website operators use to write their articles. While a single five hundred worded article would only set you down 10 to 15 dollars, this cost will drastically increase when you need hundreds of articles to fill the needs of your site.

For those who needs articles to generate newsletters or ane-zine, public domain articles will be very beneficial. You do not need to count on your contributors or pay writers to write down articles for your newsletter or e-zine. You can fill all the pages without any cost or the worry of being sued and sought after by the writers. You can simply copy the articles and place them on your newsletter and e-zine.

Public domain articles are a virtual untapped resource that many people fail to realize the true value. The power of articles, keywords and keyword phrases have been deemed invaluable these past few years for many internet based businesses and sites that want to rank high in search engine results.

The number of article and content writers have grown significantly due to the rise in the demand for articles. As newer and newer topics and subjects have arisen, there are many demands for new articles to be written. An industry has been formed and this is a worldwide demand.

Public domain articles have given a great alternative for those who are cash strapped as well as do not have the time nor the skills to do their articles for themselves.

Searching for public domain articles is as easy as 1 2 3. You can search for them in search engines and do searches in many directories for the topic or subject that you need. Read them and simpy copy paste them to a word processing program and simply edit them to suit your needs.



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Global Domain Registration

December 15th, 2009
Jikly Batista asked:




If you think websites are mushrooms that simply grow anywhere, think again.

Creating a website is sure easy with templates provided for you. Registering your domain name is an entirely different thing.

Purchasing your domain name through domain providers are e breeze as you only need to sign- up and pay their registration and monthly fees. However, to control domain registration, a body called Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was commissioned.

Specifically, there are also domain registration overseer bodies per country. Their task is to control and oversee the domains created.

This is important for business people like you as you have to be sure that your domain name is registered- because if not, your website and e-mail on that domain will not work.

The actual registration or domain registrar is not ICANN itself nor the end-user of the domain. There are registered and designated domain registrars that actually do the registration of domains. They are legitimate and legal as they are recognized by the higher bodies in domain name registration such as ICANN. They are also summoned to edit or modify and delete certain information about a domain name.

This is one of the primary reasons why domains are not free. They are purchased because a lot of technical registration has to be done by the domain registrar before the domain name actually works. Maintenance of the domain name is also another thing.

There are also scams in global domain registration. Some will say that they are designated registrar and legitimate sellers of a certain domain. Check with your local domain body.



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Understanding The Domain Registration Process

December 15th, 2009
Neron Smith asked:




When it comes to domain registration it is an essential step taken to have your domain name registered and be functional online. Furthermore, when you register your domain through registrars then no one else can use the name.

You should actually choose your domain name before you start with your Web design. Following this you should check the availability of the domain name and then have the domain registration process complete well in advance. This will allow you to start off with Web hosting as soon as your website is ready. Therefore, you will not actually waste time waiting for domain registration and checking domain name availability after your website is ready.

Domain Registration Process

With the tough competition online you will be amazed to see the number of registrars who vie for your business. You will be asked a few questions which include your contact details along with technical information related to your domain name. This information is stored in the main directory known as the registry.

This is the registry that allows you to get e-mail from consumers and clients along with letting them search for your website. You will have to sign a registration contract which will highlight the terms and conditions pertaining to the registration of the particular domain name you have purchased for your website.

Advantage Of Domain Registration

Registering a domain name basically entails that you can create a website from the computer that you’ve registered and allow people to access it from all over the world. This means that you have to have your contact details in the directory which is hierarchically organized and includes the entire domain names online along with the corresponding computers.

These computers are registered to individuals or companies who use the Internet. Each computer that accesses the Internet has its own Internet protocol address. Rather than using the numbers, the domain name actually helps Internet users in finding your the website more conveniently with a textual name.

Options For Domain Registration

There are two options when it comes to registering your domain name. One option is to utilize the domain registration and Web hosting services offered by your DIY site builder service provider. The next option is to utilize the services provided by ISPs where you can get free Internet access and storage space along with a basic number of e-mail addresses.

Domain Registration – Limited Leasing Of Domain Names

You must remember that when you purchase a domain name by registering with the service provider you’re not provided lifetime ownership of the domain name. In fact you will be using it for the timeframe that you have paid for it.

You can however keep renewing your rights of usage on an annual or three-year basis as per the terms and conditions of your package. However, if you let the package expire and do not renew your domain registration and domain name selection in time then in the event that a competitor finds the name catchy and useful they may be able to purchase it.

Therefore, it is essential to buy the domain names from a reliable service provider. They will be able to intimate you well in advance to renew the domain registration so it does not expire. This will prevent competitors or cyber squatters from purchasing the name that you want to be associated with your online business.



Get a Domain name

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Domain Names are Really Important

December 15th, 2009
Carson Danfield asked:




There’s a saying in the Real Estate business - they say that the 3 most important things are location, location and location. Well, in regards to a new internet business, it’s domain name, domain name and domain name. Yes, a domain name is that important.

In the early days of the internet, domain names were fairly easy. There were so many good names still available, but as more and more businesses migrated to the internet, the best names were taken. As the time passed, finding a good domain name to register has become increasingly difficult.

Why is a domain name so important? For one thing, a domain name can help you get the traffic to your website. If you don’t get traffic, you might as well not even have a website. There’s no doubt about it, if you want to make money, you need traffic.

A domain name can help you to get traffic in a couple of ways. First of all, if your domain name is catchy and easy to remember, that will help people to find your website and to return for future visits. It’s also a good idea if your domain name gives some indication of the type of business you have. For example, if you want to have a website that helps people consolidate their student loans, it would be a good idea to have a domain name that contained some or all of those words. You might do good with “studentloans.com” or “studentloanconsolidation.com” or something similar. You can even use hyphens in the domain name, like “student-loan-consolidation.com”, etc.

The point here is that your domain name should be descriptive of your business. After all, if you were looking for a new dentist, would you be likely to visit “BigBubbaMotorcycles.com” or “GreatDentists.com”? If Big Bubba is a dentist, he’s probably not going to get many new dental patients thru his website.

Let’s talk about the domain names with hyphens before we move on. Contrary to what many people think, having hyphens in your domain name does not hurt your search engine listings. Most of the search engines treat the hyphens as a space, so the hyphens make it a little easier for them to separate out the individual words.

About the only downside of using hyphens is that when people type in your URL, they may forget to put in the hyphens and go to a competitors website instead. Personally, I don’t think this is too much of a problem, since most people find websites thru search engines, so they’ll be clicking directly on a link to your website instead of typing it in by hand.

Again, it’s really important to embed keywords about your business into your domain name for good search engine ranking. Although some domains, like ebay.com or google.com do get a lot of traffic, it’s not because of any keyword in the domain name. What is an ‘ebay’ anyhow?

You’ll find that most of the high traffic websites with short, unrelated domain names get their huge amount of traffic thru paid promotional campaigns. They use radio & TV ads, high volume email advertising and other such methods that might be too expensive for a small business just getting started.

A good way to find your domain name is to develop a list of keywords that are strongly associated with your business. Write down as many keywords as you can think of, as long as they’re on your subject. Once you have your list, you can use one of the several free online tools to help select just the right domain name for your new website.

The domain name registrar at www.godaddy.com has a search feature where you can check the availability of domain names and the results will even show you other closely related domain names that are available. Another handy suggestion tool is at www.domainfellow.com Either one of these online tools will help you to find a good domain name that’s still available to register.

Here’s a good tip for you when trying to find a domain name that has your keywords in it - If you can’t find a domain name that has your keyword and is still available, you should consider using sub-domain names instead.

What’s a sub-domain name? A sub-domain name is a prefix to a normal domain name. Let’s say that you’re in the retail computer business and you want to sell computers at your website. That’s a fairly competitive business, so you’ll probably have a hard time coming up with a good domain name that’s not already taken.

An alternative would be to choose some sort of generic term for a domain name and then use a sub-domain for your computer business. For example, let’s say that you register the domain name “lowestprice.com” That’s pretty generic, wouldn’t you agree? Now that you have that domain name registered, you can create all the sub-domains you want, limited only by your imagination and the size of your web hosting account.

Remembering that you’re in the computer business, you could now have your website at the sub-domain “computers.lowestprice.com” Using this same approach, you could go into just about any other business and have sub-domains like “insurance.lowestprice.com” and so on. See how it works?

Another good thing about sub-domains is that they don’t require registration. You only pay to register the main domain name. By using sub-domain names, you can easily embed your keywords and it won’t cost you any more money. And the search engines treat each sub-domain as a totally separate entity, so your search engine ranking for one sub-domain won’t be dependent upon you having a high ranking for your main domain name.

Once you find your new domain name, you’ll need to register it. I recommend godaddy.com for registering. Their prices are reasonable and their service is great. However, there are many, many companies that provide domain name registration services, so pick whichever one you like.



Domain Registar

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