Monday, February 9, 2009

How You Pick Out Your Domain Name Matters and What to Do After You Get It

I see it time and time again. People are constantly registering dumb domain names. It amazes me that 90% of webmasters have no clue what they are doing when they pick out there domain names. What's more important; a .com that is brand-able or another extension that is keyword rich? The answer is, it really depends on the situation.

Everybody know that .com rules the world, and many search engines cater to sites that are using the .com extension.

Rule #1: Get a .com if at all possible, but not if it compromises Rule #2.

Rule #2: Research your topic and try to find the most relevant keywords that have the highest search volume and then search for a domain name that exactly fits the keyword your looking for. Most of the time you will not be able to find a .com and may have to settle for another extension. Preferably a .net, .org or .ws . .Info are okay when nothing else is available.

The reason why rule #2 is so important is because it will be much harder promoting a .com that does not have keywords in the domain name. By having a domain name with your keywords you will already have an edge on the competition. Your site will rise faster in the search engines.

Rule #3 Sometimes your keyword will not be available at all. Rule of thumb is to place your keywords a close to the beginning of the domain name as possible and use the least amount of characters as possible, or target a different keyword.

Rule #4 Now that you have found the perfect domain name, make sure you perform some sort of search engine optimization (seo) on your website. This means write quality unique content and use either a seo service or a free seo program such as WebCEO, which can be found by doing a search for it. SEO is very important and should never be ignored or skipped.

Rule #5 There is nothing wrong with using a brand for a domain name, just realize it will be harder for you to scale up to page one of the search results. Link building is the key either way. Do not let your site sit very long with no new link building efforts. Be consistent and you will be rewarded. Also don't acquire fifty links in one day. Spread out you link building efforts to make it appear more natural.

Acquire text links, image links, comment on blogs, submit to directories, write a article like this one to get you link out there or use some social networks and submit your website. A good tip is to try to arrange links on the high ranking sites that are relevant and appear under the search results you are trying to target. Bid Directories are better than free directories, even though you may have to pay a little to get listed.


Domain Name Speculation

Domain name speculation is the activity of purchasing expired or running domain names with the sole intention of retaining them, until a suitable time when speculators can sell them at exorbitantly higher market prices.

Expired domain speculation is becoming more popular and famous because of its because of the possibility of high returns. It is risky and uncertain nature, but people still wish to pursue the activity with all interest.

Expired domain speculation is similar to speculating in stock market and general commodities. In expired domain market, people are likely to speculate on almost all expired domains. Domain name speculation works well only in the short term run mostly, and excessive speculation could lead to negative and counter-productive consequences. Many a times expired domain traders do overestimate and exaggerate the real value of domains based on their appraisal or evaluation reports.

There was a time when it was risk free to invest in domain name speculation (the .com period), but like every thing that has a beginning, it had an end. But recently it's picking up. And you can partake in it. At times, a number of entrepreneurs made huge amount of money by correctly speculating on domain names, both expired and non-expired. Domain name speculation is absolutely legal and you can safely carry out this type of business activity without any legal entanglements.

On the other hand, domain squatting is an unethical and unfair form of business, where a cyber squatter illegal sells registered domain names. This is a type of business that is highly discouraged and may get you into trouble.


5 Reasons Why You Might Get Addicted to Buying Domain Names

Don't get addicted to buying domain names. I am addicted to it. Here's why buying domain names can be addicting.

1) High perceived value. It only costs $8 to buy a DotCom domain name. Wow $8 for a potential million dollar a year website? Awesome I'll have 20.

Often times you get so wrapped up in an idea for a website in your mind that you lose signs of reality. You think that the business idea is so good that you better lock the domain right now.

2) Sense of Urgency, what if someone else takes it? A domain is meant to be unique. That means only one person can have a particular domain name at a certain time.

That means that if someone takes your domain name that you've been eyeing for months, you are screwed. This with the fact that it only cost $8 for a domain, makes you think it's better to lock this domain name right now.

3) Plurals and misspellings. Man, if you get Booking.com you need to get Bookings.com too right? What if someone takes Bookings.com ? Half your potential traffic would go to them.

For any given domain, you can come up with many plurals and misspellings. For example Google.com. You can imagine people typing in gogle.com, or gooogle.com or googles.com, so Google should grab them all right? Wait I think they did...

The potential for misspellings and plural domain names, along with it's inexpensiveness makes you want to grab those as well.

4) .Net, .Org, .Info... man... if my site is Booking.com, shouldn't I grab Booking.net as well? What if a competitor of mine grab Booking.net?

Like the plurals and misspellings. You will often get paranoid about other people grabbing .org, .net, .info, .us version for your domain. You often feel that since it's so cheap, you should get those as well.

5) Keyword research can find you good domains. If you know about keyword researching, you know that it could give you ideas for phrases you haven't even thought of. Now for SEO you could by up those domain names and achieve better ranking.


How to Fine Tune Your Domain Trading Business to Earn More Money

Most of us buy a good expired domain at a hefty asking price and add that domain to our ever growing inventory of domains. But, we also forget to work on them immediately to make them commercially viable and profit making. Failure to turn your collection of expired domains into commercial entities will lead to a certain financial disaster. Smart expired domain entrepreneurs make it a point to subject their expired domains to all sorts of monetizing treatments, so that they can recover their investment within the shortest possible time. Once you purchase your domain and register it with a registrar, you may wish to start working on it immediately.

The most common method to monetize your domain is to follow these simple steps:

a) Create a min site of a page or two and add relevant content to the pages. Once this site is up and running, you can subscribe the portal to a lucrative program like AdSense. AdSense is a famous web site monetization program.

b) Another intelligent thing to here is to attract web site visitors to clock on some sponsored advertising banner in the form of an AdSense box.

Tips: Ensure that you are using latest and advanced SEO techniques while inserting content.

Note: You may also need to check the accumulated traffic in your site. If you perceive that the traffic generated is disappointing, then you may need to change the content to make it more suitable for the advertising.

Caution: Whatever you do, just ensure that you are recovering the cost of maintaining your expired domains like annual registration charges.

When you host an AdSense campaign, you have to make sure that the expired domains make enough money. You may wish to set a definite goal for each of your expired domains. As a starter, you can set a goal of around $10 everyday for each of your expired domains. Now, you will need to work towards making your goals a big success.

Here is a simple income generation scenario:

Let us say that you have 10 expired domain based AdSense web sites. Your main goal is to earn about $10 per site every month. If you compute the monthly income, the anticipated value is 10 x $10= $100 per month or $1200 per month.

Building traffic to your AdSense web sites: Targeted content composed with relevant keywords is known to bring more number of visitors. The content that you insert must ensure the following two objectives:

1) What people are looking for right now 
2) What are the most suitable keywords that an advertisers is likely to pay

Advertisers also look for those keywords that are in stiff competition among themselves; these keywords will get instant attention, as they are more likely to generate increased income. Keyword selection demand considerable amount of work and the most sensitive details include:

Top bid price suggested by competitors 
Traffic generated during a given period of time 
Average traffic generated during the time 
Perceived advertiser's competition suggested.

Profitable keyword selection seems to be the ultimate success mantra to your expired domain trading business. Research efforts focused towards finding the best possible expired domains should be your top priority.


Register a Web Domain Name Hosting That is Right For You

You have been thinking about starting your first website but you have no ideal what your domain name should be. All these ideas keep popping up in your head but you just can't settle on the right web domain name. Well, just what is the best name for your website any way? Register domain names that are either memorable or keyword friendly. Don't start hosting domains until you see the difference.

Take a look at the name Google or Yahoo for example. A simple one word name domain that gets millions of visitors a day. Why, because not only do they have good service but their domain name is easy to remember. That is why when people do searches on the web they use their sites the most. Hosting a catchy wed domain can stick in a customers head and when they are ready to do business they are more likely to go back to your site. So you can register a domain that is a little off beat and bound to become viral.

Now some people say, despite the success of a memorable domain name, you should use a keyword or keyword phrase that gets plenty of searches targeted to your website content. If your website is about cars then register a domain name like (customcars.com) or (nicecars.com) or any type of variation that a person would type in to a search engine. Do a simple keyword search with Google keyword tool to see what others look for. Then you register a domain that fits your website. Hopefully, when someone types in that phrase your website will show up first. It does not always work because you still need to do some SEO to get your site listed high but you will have a better shot with that particular keyword phrase.

Hosting a web domain, which ever way you choose, is still a tricky thing. Some people may have already beat you to the name you want so you will have to be creative to register a domain name that you really want. If you found that your name is already taken in (.com) form then try it in (.net) or (.org) form. You might just get lucky and get it with one of these options. If you have your heart set on that name then add the number 1, or 2, after the word like (www.example1.com). That way you still can you that keyword and your domain name. Sometimes you can put a dash in between two keyword phrase domains like (www.your-site.com) to register domain names that are hard to get. Play around with it until you find one that is not in use.

I hope this can help you register the proper domain name when you sigh up for web hosting. The wrong domain name can hurt you if you are not careful. Pick a name and stick with it. It will take sometime but your domain name can begin to catch on over time.


Residual Income - Domains Payday

Introduction 
If you are an IT specialist and are thinking of what kind of business to start, then try domain names services. You can turn your talent into a profitable business that can make you rich. Since you will be doing what you like it will be enjoyable and will give you the satisfaction that you require.

Opportunity 
With expanding use of the internet throughout the world; there exists millions and millions of websites; therefore finding a domain name that's not already taken can be a real nightmare to someone. But as the wise men say "one man's problem is another man's solution." Now this is where domain 'namers' come in.

What's in a name? 
Let us first of all understand what a domain names is. A domain name is a name that represents or rather identifies one or more IP address. Every domain name contains a suffix under which it can identify the top level domain it belongs to. Now, some organizations place a huge premium on identity. They will pay colossal amounts of money for the right name. Domain names like Asseenontv have fetched a tidy fortune for their owners.

Domain Firms/Agencies 
Domain name services is not just the act of registering domain names and the rest is handled magically by an ISP as many people think but a lot of things goes on or happens than just that. Anyway for that case some process must happen to translate all those host names into IP address.

Most of the naming agencies charge a certain amount of money depending on the type of websites one wants. Domain naming agencies normally helps their clients to protect their client's domain names by purchasing hyphenated & non hyphenated top level domain names. This helps me avoid chances of copying.

One good thing with such a business is that one can work from home and still work effectively and earn a living from it.

Summary 
Statistics have shown that the internet is the most popular mode of conveying information. It has even become bigger then television! As a result, more and more businesses are adopting this mode to reach out to their potential clients. This has in turn led to the developments of a large number of websites. There are thousands of websites which go live every other day. Due to the high competition between competing businesses, every one of them wants to have a domain name that will resonate with the target audience. As such, businesses will go to great lengths to make sure they get the right domain name that will generate business. Imagine what you make if you had such a name!
If you need money now, like I mean in the next hour, try what I did. I am making more money now than in my old business and you can too, read the amazing, true story, in the link below. When I joined I was skeptical for just ten seconds before I realized what this was. I was smiling from ear to ear and you will too.

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Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Domain Name Debate - Brand Versus Keywords

As prices have never been so low, you may consider buying multiple domain names as a cost-effective option to drive more traffic to your website.

When it comes to choosing a domain name, there are two schools of thought. You can either elect to register a domain name based on

1- a new or existing brand name e.g. business name, trademark, product brand name or

2- one or more keywords that you perceive will help your target market to find you.
Both methods have their pro's and con's.

(For this article, to avoid filter penalties, my domain name examples will start with a Capital letter and end with /.)

Domain name based on BRAND

The web is populated with unusual and recognised domain names e.g. Google/, Amazon/ and Yahoo/. Naming your domain using a new or existing brand name can be a powerful and rewarding long-term strategy. Developing a brand name from anonymity to stardom is any marketer's goal.

Pro's

A branded domain name may

- Attract attention for its originality and for being catchy e.g. Yahoo/ or Dogpile/.

- Stand out from competition e.g. compare Google/ with Searchengine/, Searchengines/ and Bestsearchengine/. Which one stands out? Sorry, no price for this easy answer.

- Facilitate direct search. Repeat visitors can guess your name and type it in the address bar or location field and find you directly, bypassing competitors.

- Encourage brand recognition. Each time people are exposed to your domain name, it reinforces your brand.

- Increase credibility and loyalty. In general, people prefer to be associated with a brand name rather than a generic name. If price is not a consideration, wouldn't you prefer buying Chanel branded sunglasses from Chanel/, Eyesave/ or Sunglassesportal/?

- Promote viral marketing. It is easier to refer someone to a domain name that you can remember and spell without difficulty.

- Provide flexibility. Your domain name can be used on business cards and offline promotions.

- Protect your intellectual property. Get in first before someone names their domain with your product brand, business name or title of your book.

Con's (for new brands only)

A domain name using an established brand name may not encounter the problems below. A domain name based on a new brand may:

- Be difficult to choose. Selecting a name to convey instantly business core values and benefits of website is a very difficult task.

- Need time, money and effort to break through the online noise and be recognised.

- Necessitate a strong unique selling proposition.

- Require an arsenal of internet marketing tactics e.g. linkage strategies and search engine optimisation to improve the search engine ranking.

Domain name based on KEYWORDS

Keywords are the words that web users enter in the search box of the search engine to retrieve information on a specific subject.

The current trend is for web searchers to enter a string of keywords or keyword phrase rather than single keywords e.g. a person may look for 'free family tree', 'decision tree software', 'artificial Christmas tree' instead of 'tree. This practice provides less search engine results but of better quality. Similarly, website owners are creating generic domain names made of a string of keywords to reach their target audience e.g. Paylesscarrental/, Collectorcartraderonline/ and Carbuyingtips/.

Pro's

On one hand, generic keywords domain names may:

- Generate instant results with drive-in traffic from search engines.

- Attract qualified prospects looking for your keywords.

- Communicate and position instantly your site's benefits and core values e.g. Justfreestuff/, Best-home-mortagage-loan/, Indoorgardensupplies/.

- Improve search engine ranking. (The use of keywords in the domain name is a strategy which you cannot rely on to increase your search engine ranking: it is only a very small part of search engine optimisation.)

Con's

On the other hand, generic keywords domain names may:

- Be perceived as boring, lacking in imagination and sometimes dubious.

- Require more effort to remember. This could lead to domain names being misspelled e.g. Barnesandnoble/ or Barneandnobles/ or placed in the wrong sequence e.g. Homefinancialservices/ or Financialhomeservices/. These common mistakes have prompted shrewd business people to piggy back on popular websites e.g. Ezinearticle/ benefits from spelling mistakes of customers from Ezinearticles/.

- Restrict the usage of the domain name. A long string of keywords does not look good on offline promotional material.

- Be wasted if you don't choose your keywords carefully. It is important to research the words used by your customers and not rely on your assumptions. Jeff, a Printer, had optimised his site for 'self-publishing' only to find that self-publishers were searching for printers using keyword 'printing'.

The best of both worlds: consider complementary domain name strategies:

1. Create a short, easy to remember brand name using keywords e.g. Diabeticgourmet/, Netdoctor/ or Houseweb/.

2. Purchase a few domain names made up of keywords and have them pointing to a main branded domain name. This strategy requires you to buy an URL forwarding option when you purchase your domain name. A word of caution: if you overuse this tactic, Google may respond negatively to these 'sneaky redirects'.

Henriette Martel is a website strategist, author of 200 Marketing Ideas for Your Website and director of the Australian Training Guide Australia's A to Z Training Database and Resources for Speakers, Trainers & Coaches.