Choosing The Right Domain Name

February 17, 2009 at 11:30 am (Available Domain Names, Domain Name Basics, Domain Names, Internet)

Once you are comfortable with working online, you should find a domain name for your site or sites. Domain name registration, if you do it right, is one of the key components of having your site rate high in the search engines. The right domain name is memorable, and can get your site to rank higher than other names. The wrong domain name won’t do you any good at all.

The first thing you have to do is come up with a good domain name for registration. Don’t even think about a one-word domain name; they’re all gone at this point. Instead, come up with dual-word combos. If you’re putting together a professional site, try your name before anything else.

Don’t get fancy with spelling when selecting your domain name registration, or use 2s and 8s to represent their sounds. You can try the number 1; that sometimes works. You can also try the names of products you offer, or a description of your site content offerings: Romanceforgirls, popcornpalace, fluffykittens. Memorable is always better; short and memorable is best, but very difficult to accomplish.

Come up with a couple of dozen names that will do for your site, and test them on a registry. Don’t buy a domain name for which the .com extension is gone, but you have access to the .net or .info. These domain names are not by any means as valuable as the .com. If you pick up the .com, though, and you expect the site to be lucrative or have a lot of competition, it’s not a bad idea to pick up the other extensions as well. Domain name registration is NOT expensive, and if you register in bulk you can get an even better price.

This doesn’t mean you should avoid anything but .com. If you have a business in the United Kingdom, you have access to the .uk domain name set, which UK customers are likely to look at before anything else for UK-specific businesses.

If you anticipate most of your business will come from British customers who are aware your business is in Britain, the .uk extension may be a better choice than the .com; and if your customers are unhappy with Internic’s control of Internet domain registration or they are very pro-Britain, the .uk extension is certainly a better choice.

If you’re fortunate enough to find both extensions for your domain open, and if you run a British company, it doesn’t cost much to buy them both, and you definitely should.

Tips for Domain Name Registration

Have a website ready to plunk into your domain as soon as you buy it, and submit it immediately to the search engines. The search engines take time to index new sites and your domain name registration is only as valuable as the search engines make it.

You can also have more than one domain name pointing at a single site. If you’ve bought multiple extensions for your domain name (as in the previously-suggested .com/.uk combination), you can set up your site under one domain name and then direct traffic from the others to the main site. This is called web traffic forwarding and has been around for years. It may be as simple as parking your domain name on a server and putting a line of code on the page, or as complex as going through another website to use their online web forwarding services.

When you do register a domain and start building traffic to it, go out and renew for multiple years before your renewal is due. It is surprisingly easy to forget to register your domain name on time, and if someone else sneaks in and registers it, you’ve just lost a ton of work on that domain.

By making your domain name memorable, you will help other webmasters remember your site easily when building anchor texts in their links- a crucial component of SEO.

Final tip: don’t just think about price when looking for a domain registration company- also think about quality of service. While you shouldn’t be paying over the odds, it really is better to be safe than sorry and go with the more established registrars. Then you can have peace of mind that should any problems arise, you will be well looked after.

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How To Create A Memorable Domain Name

December 20, 2006 at 8:56 am (Domain Name Basics, Domain Search, Name Ideas)

An article about finding available domains at typedHype.com

Read some knowledgeable recommendations about how to start your domain name search:

http://www.typedhype.com/index.cfm/2006/10/12/How-To-Create-A-Memorable-Domain-Name

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How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Business

December 14, 2006 at 10:38 am (Domain Name Basics, Domain Names, Internet, Names)

Choosing an appropriate domain name is the first step in the process of building online credibility. Remember to choose carefully because this online address may be where your business resides for the rest of its operating life. Now, some important tips to consider before choosing your domain name:

Choosing Your Domain Extension

A domain extension or top level domain is simply the suffix of your website address: (.com, .net, .org, .ca, etc.) Most Internet users are familiar with the “.com” extension, and will generally use this extension by default when typing an address into their browser. Choosing a “.com” extension should be your fist choice in case your potential customers forget that your address is “www.mybusiness.NET”, and visit your competitor at “www.mybusiness.COM” by mistake. Choosing the “.com” extension gives your website the most credibility in the eyes of your customers.

If your business only caters to the local community, then it makes sense to get a country specific domain name, such as the “.ca” extension. A country specific domain benefits you in two ways: both your customers and search engines such as Google will know that your website is registered to a Canadian and operates in Canada. Potential customers will feel more comfortable knowing that they are dealing with a Canadian company, and not a U.S. based business pretending to be a Canadian company. Also, search engines will give your website higher placement in the search results when a user is performing a Canadian specific search.

I personally recommend that my clients, if possible, register both the “.com” AND “.ca” extension. This way, your Canadian based website will benefit from using the “.ca” extension, while at the same time ensuring that they reach your website if they accidentally type the “.com” extension into their browser.

Using Your Business Name

The first choice for any domain name would be your business’ name. This ensures that your customers will remember your website’s address. You can’t expect your potential customers to remember a phrase that just relates to your business.

Choosing Choice Keywords

Including specific keywords in your website’s address will help your rankings in popular search engines such as Google or Yahoo. It is best to choose a keyword that you think your potential customers will use to search for your business. A search engine optimization (SEO) professional such as Cost Effective Design can assist you in choosing your keyword(s). These type of domain names are used in instances where the client does not want to use the business name because it is either already registered by another company, or the company name is simply too long. Any company that is serious about generating traffic through search engines should acquire a domain name with a keyword in addition to your business name.

Don’t Confuse Your Customers

If possible, try not to use domain names that include: “2” for “To” or “4” for “For” or “u” for “You”. These may make your domain look “cool” or “hip”, but in reality they are not very practical. These domain names create a problem when directing your clients to your website verbally or over the phone. For example, if you owned www.UsedCars4U.com, every time you verbally directed someone to your website, you would have to specify that the URL uses the actual number 4, and letter U.

To Use, Or Not to Use Hyphens

Given that more and more businesses are registering domain names every day, getting the website address you want is becoming increasingly difficult. One or two word domain names are usually already registered, forcing new registrants to choose URLs containing three or four words. To some people, these URLs can look like a big mess of words. Using hyphens in between the words can make them visually more appealing. For example, “www.used-cars-for-you.com, looks better than “www.usedcarsforyou.com. The jury is still out on hyphenated domain names. The advantages are that they look better and search engines can easily distinguish the separate keywords for better search placements, but the disadvantages are that they are difficult to verbally communicate and type.

The best solution would be to register both the hyphenated, and the un-hyphenated version of the domain name to ensure that there is no confusion.

Domain Name Length

Even though you are allowed to use 67 characters for a domain name, the general rule of thumb is: shorter is better. Although, in some instances, the website address may be more memorable if it is more descriptive. For example a domain consisting of initials only, such as “www.waa.com”, may not create a lasting impression compared to the domain name “www.windsorautoassociation.com”. Therefore, it is best to choose a name that, while short, contains enough description for your customers to easily remember.

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Domain Name Registration Prices of Industry Leaders

December 13, 2006 at 3:47 pm (Business Names, Domain Name Basics, Domain Name Resources, Domain Names, Internet)

Here is a comprehensive list of current domain name registration and web hosting prices.

The list is comprised of the preferences of domain industry professionals, marketing experts, small business owners etc. In addition to price info it contains details about each provider’s basic hosting plan.

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How To Choose A Good Domain Name?

December 13, 2006 at 3:40 pm (Domain Name Basics, Domain Names)

In the E-World your domain name is your first assessment of what your site is about.

It’s not just your site name but it is the first criterion of your success on the Internet and when it comes to a point of success you must hold it tight. It can make your business stand out in the crowd, or just float aimlessly in space. Well many of us think that it merely plays any role but it’s not the truth. Think if nobody remembers your site name or see no visual look of what your site is about.

The temptation of a good domain name is so powerful; that’s why some companies even paid ridiculously high prices to get the name they want. The domains Loans.com and Wines.com were both bought for $3 million each. Telephone.com was acquired for $1.75 million, while Bingo.com sold for $1.1 million.

So the main question is, what points we should consider when we choose a domain name. For better results, your domain name should be memorable and easy to remember. Remember the following tips when creating a domain name.

* The domain name should be short.

* The domain name should be simple.

* It should be suggestive of your business category.

* It should be unique.

* It should be easy to interpret and pronounce.

* It should be personalized.

* It should not be difficult to spell.

* It should not be difficult to remember.

Domain names can be registered through many different companies (known as “registrars”). You can register for 1 to 10 years – prices can vary anywhere from $10 to $20 per year. Most web hosting companies, will handle the registration process for you, but make sure that you are properly listed as the owner of the domain when it is registered.

If you have registered a domain name for a specific period, make sure you renew it in time. You can be surprised at the number of cases, where site owners have let a domain name slip by if they have not renewed in time.

How to use expired domains:

Did you know you can use expired domains to skyrocket your traffic? Let me tell you about expired domains first. Thousands of webmasters invest time, effort and money to promote their site and build up traffic. Many of them then lose interest and move on, leaving their site active. That means that although they still own the domain, they’re not actively promoting it.

All the automatic marketing systems they’ve put in place are still bringing in traffic. The site runs itself. Now, at some point the ownership of those domains is going to expire. If you snap up those domains once they come back onto the market, you’ve got a pre-built stream of customers. You can either rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to your domain. You could set up an affiliate program get paid for users someone else paid for.

Its that easy.

Websites such as www.expiredtraffic.com or www.deleteddomains.com are doing great job for expired domains. They actually do all the legwork and let you reap all the rewards. Even you can back-order a specific domain name also.

Do be careful when using other sites though. There are some swindlers out there that will sell you subscriptions, provide you with outdated lists, take your money and keep the good domains for themselves.

There are tons of options, and lots of easy ways to make lots of money with very little effort. Opportunities like these are everywhere. All we need a strong determination to succeed, and a good mentor.

Copyright 2005 Raamakant S.

About the Author: Raamakant S. is Author of “The e Success Code”. An “entire Internet Marketing Encyclopedia” covers almost every topic of Internet marketing. If you’ve ever dreamed of having your own Internet Business that produces thousands of dollars each and every month, visit: http://www.theesuccesscode.com/

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How The Right Domain Name Can Improve Your Sales

December 12, 2006 at 9:35 am (Business Names, Domain Name Basics, Domain Names)

So you’re starting a website and have visions of making hundreds, even thousands of dollars in sales a day.

You’ve done your market research, found a profitable niche, planned your website’s theme and layout. Now all you need to do is build the site, buy a domain name and – voila – the cash starts rolling in.

Hold on there cowboy. While making lots of money with your website is very possible, it’s not as easy as it used to be.

Increasing competition, fickle web searchers and crazy search engine algorithms make earning money from your website a little harder than it used to be.

Don’t get me wrong though: If you’re serious about making a living online and you work hard, you can make more money than you ever dreamed possible. The key is that you have to realize that every little decision you make in your web business helps propel you to the top and give you that edge.

One way to get an edge over your competitors and and keep your customers coming back is to choose the right domain name. (Your domain name is the unique name that identifies your Internet website.)

Here are the top 3 ways the right domain can help you build a killer cash generating website.

#1 A good domain name helps your customers remember your website.

How many times have you found a great website, forgotten to bookmark it and then completely forgot the name of the site? While some Internet users do use the bookmark function, many other Internet users do not.

They assume they’ll be able to return to a good website by remembering the URL or through the search engine where they found it. But that’s not always the case. Search engine rankings fall; people forget which search engine they used or which keyphrase your website came up under.

Tip: Choose a domain name primarily for your target audience. Make it simple – preferably 2 words only or 3 short ones at most. Try to choose a .com or a .net or even a .org ending – people just don’t remember a funky extension like .name, .tv or even .biz.

If you can, make it an action phrase that describes what your website can do for your customer. For example, if you repair laptops, something like: www.fixlaptop.com would be a lot easier for your customer to remember than www.laptopland.com

Why is this easier? Because people don’t have time to remember your URL. They are focused on what THEY want to do (i.e. ‘fix laptop’.) therefore it’s much easier to remember your URL if it describes what they want to do.

Choosing a domain name like this also has the added advantage of telling your customer EXACTLY what you can do for them. No questions or confusion. (‘Do they sell laptops? Do they sell laptop parts or add ons? Do they fix laptops?’)

#2 A good domain name helps the search engines rank you for your chosen keyword.

Although this is still up for much debate, many webmasters and SEOs think that a domain name with your top keywords in it is much better than a domain name without your keywords.

They think that search engines use the domain name to help rank your website. So, in theory, someone with a website about affiliate programs would rank higher (all other things being equal) if their domain name was http://www.affiliateprograms.com than if their domain name was http://www.makemoneyonline.com.

Tip: Try to include your top keyword or keyphrase in your domain name if you can – but not at the expense of your audience. If they can’t remember it, they probably won’t come back or recommend it to anyone.

#3 A good domain name establishes you as an authority on your specific niche.

I was advising someone just the other day who wanted to start their first affiliate marketing website. They were about to make the same mistake almost all newbies make: choosing a domain name that was way too general.

Here’s the thing: Unless you have the resources of Amazon, Yahoo or shop.com, you just can’t compete with the overly general sites. Successful marketers will tell you that the most profitable websites are found in the niches. A good domain will reflect your niche and, as such, establish you as the authority in that area.

Think about this, if you need a part for your Toshiba Laptop, would you rather go to a website named www.laptops.com or a website called www.Toshiba-laptop-parts.com? Which one do you think will have a larger selection of Toshiba laptop parts? Which one do you think is the authority on Toshiba laptop parts?

Choosing a good domain name can help you stand apart and keep your customers coming back to buy more. By following these three tips, you can choose the right domain name and skyrocket your website sales.

About the Author: Kate Fox is contributing writer to Web Conversion: How To Sell More With Your Website
For more free tips and articles on how to improve your web conversion rate and make more sales, visit:
http://www.web-conversion.com

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Search Engine Optimization – Search Engine Friendly Domain Name

December 12, 2006 at 9:32 am (Domain Name Basics, Domain Names)

Having your own domain name is now become so important. It is not only representing professional and credibility of your company, but it is also make your url being indexed by search engine much easier.

There is another important role of domain name that being forgot by web masters.

Search engine friendly domain name is influencing in search engine placement. If you do want to get the top in search engine, then name your domain with this kind of domain name:

1) Use domain name that represents prior keyword of your site. This is very important step in optimizing your web site. At least, this step has 2 positive impacts on your site:

# Your domain name will be much easier to be being remembered by visitors, since your domain name represents prior keyword that they want to know.

# You will have good positioning on search engine because url has it’s important roles for search engines. This kind of url is also called with url-keyword.

For details about url-keyword, you can read our free guidance in SEO-ing web site.

This kind of url will also influence PR of your site, since another web sites which want to link to you are forced to enter your prior keyword as url in texts-link on their web page.

2) Abbreviate some words with numeric:

Eample: 2 = two

4 = for

This will also makes your url in good positioning on few search engines that sorts url based on initial-numeric domain name.

3) Make your domain name as short as possible. Long domain name will only makes your url difficult to remember and easily being forget by visitors, so this should be avoided. In the opposite, using short url-keyword will make your url memorize-able.

4) Use Popular TLD only as much as you can. The reason why it is recommended is, because popular TLD not only will make it easy to remember, but it also represents credibility of your business.

5) If your url consists more than a single word, then use minus (-) sign as the separator. This will avoid misspelling, mistype and make ease in spelling.

About the Author: Endar is a SEO copy-writer. Visit his site for the more info about effective search engine optimization to make your site listed on the top of free search engine. http://www.2search-engine-optimization.info

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Acceli Web Solutions launches an intelligent Domain Name Generator

September 27, 2006 at 3:48 pm (Business Names, Domain Name Basics, Domain Name Resources, Domain Names, Domain Search, Internet, Screen Names)

Press Release August 28, 2006

Acceli Web Solutions launches an intelligent Domain Name Generator at www.makewords.com The new domain search system at www.makewords.com contains a variety of features that speed up your quest for unregistered domain names.

Acceli Web Solutions, a New York web development company, announced today the launch of its next generation domain name suggestion tool and search engine at www.makewords.com

Unregistered domains can now be easily found with several new methods, like the random phonetic word generator, using different language rules, synonym search, popular affixes and more.

“At some point almost everyone needs to come up with a name for their startup business, personal website or blog,” said Tauno Novek, Chief Operating Officer of Acceli. “We faced the same question when we were looking for a name for our company. That’s when the idea about the domain name generator was conceived.”

The domain search engine was developed using the new Microsoft.NET Atlas framework that takes advantage of the AJAX (shorthand for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) techniques of the web.

“We’ve been running it for a while now and the results are astonishing. Within minutes the search engine returns 5 and 6 letter domain names that sound good, are brandable and memorable! Apparently there is still an infinite number of good names out there, its just a matter of finding them, ” said Novek.

About Acceli Web Solutions

Based in New York, Acceli – www.acceli.com – is a privately owned web design and development company that uses the latest web technologies to build innovative and unique websites.

To learn more about the MakeWords Name Generator, please visit http://www.makewords.com

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How Domain Registration Works

September 27, 2006 at 3:46 pm (Business Names, Domain Name Basics, Domain Names, Internet)

Domain name registration is not something for anyone to feel intimidated by.

First, you have to choose a company that offers domain registration. There is a number of domain registrars out there, you’ll be safe with one of he big names like Yahoo, GoDaddy, 1 and 1 or Network Solutions. The price for a one year’s domain registration shouldn’t be more than $10. If it is, there is probably some extra services or a web hosting plan included.

This process can be different from site to site. It depends upon the site and how they are set up. Registering a domain name is a necessary process, an on-line contract that proves that the domain name is yours and no one else can use it. It is a set group of terms and conditions that you and all others must adhere to. Some sites take care of this for you and you are required to do nothing; while others require you to fill out a long and detailed form regarding the domain name registration.Generally it is a straightforward step-by-step process, where you just have to follow the instructions on screen. No technical knowledge is required, you only have to fill out your contact information. When you start building a web site, your web developer will know how to make your website appear at your domain name and will take care of it. No technical knowledge is neededSometimes you may be asked for a Name Server. This is important if you are already using a web hosting service that is not your domain registrar. You can ask your tech people to contact that web host and find out what the name servers are, or you can register your domain with the default name servers. This information can always be changed later.

When you register a name, you need to decide for how long you wish to reserve it. Every domain name registrar, has a pricing chart. Note the longer you reserve your name upfront, the more you’ll save.

See what else is included in the price

Some providers may offer free extras with the domain registration. If they are primarily a web hosting provider, the domain name is part of a web hosting plan, which you are going to need if you are planning to get a website. Another popular feature is Private Registration, when you have an option to hide your registration information from potential spammers. This costs just a couple of bucks more, if you hate deleting tens of spam messages from your inbox every day, we suggest you take it.

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