10 Sensible Steps To Take Before Choosing Your Domain Name

With such a huge growth in the number of websites and the resulting difficulty in finding an available domain name, it is tempting to grab the first one that sounds like it might do the trick. However, a small amount of homework will pay big dividends – follow the ten steps below to obtain the optimal domain:

1. AVAILABILITY
If it’s not available you can’t have it – simple!

2. COPYRIGHT
Ensure that you do not breach copyright or infringe trademarks with your choice of domain.

3. EXTENSIONS
It’s widely acknowledged that the best TLD (top level domain) is .com. However, in the UK, web users are more than used to .co.uk so this is equally acceptable for UK websites. If .com isn’t available and you use .net instead (for example), check that .com isn’t either a competitor or that the .com site content is acceptable! Always try to get the .com, your country TLD or .net in that order. Web users are still not used to .biz or .info.

4. BE GREEDY!
If more than one TLD variant is available, buy as many as you can afford and set them all to point to your website. This is a form of brand protection and prevents unscrupulous competitors trying to cash in on your hard-earned web traffic.

5. BE MEMORABLE
Make sure that potential web users will remember your domain name and that they can spell it properly.

6. BE PRONOUNCABLE
Try telling people your web address over the phone – can they understand what you tell them? Or do they give up and try someone else’s website.

7. BE DESCRIPTIVE
If you are a new business, very few people will remember or search for your domain name if it is your company name. Try choosing a domain name that is descriptive of your products instead e.g. cheap>.com. Try testing it with a hyphen as well as using just one word.

8. OFFLINE MARKETING
Use your domain name in your offline marketing literature and ensure that it is as visible as possible. However, if your domain name consists of more than one word, that isn’t hyphenated, try using capital letters e.g. which is easier to read – littlefishwebdesign.com or LittleFishWebDesign.com? Domain names are not case sensitive so your clients will find your site whichever version they use.

9. BUY YOUR DOMAIN FOR LONGER
Search engines are now looking at less obvious information such as how long you have bought your domain name for. Domain names owned for less than two years are though to be penalised, so buy your domain for as long as possible.

10. OWN YOUR DOMAIN NAME
If you use a web designer or third party for your domain names, ensure they are registered in your name and that you have a signed agreement with the company that they will release all the details (including password) to you, quibble free, if you choose to move to another design or hosting company.

Domain Registration For Great Search Engine Ranking

A solid keyword domain name is the key to establish a strong presence and making the resources of the Internet more reachable. With a great name, it's always easy to reach new and existing clients. Therefore, a number of companies are ready to spend a large amount of money to get hold of and promote a good keyword rich domain name.

Choosing a keyword domain name can be vital to the success of a website. In order to take advantage of search engine traffic, people choose keyword domain. By selecting a domain that is equivalent to a keyword search, websites are able to rank higher for targeted keywords and thus benefit from added traffic and more potential clients. Whether to opt for a brandable domain or a keyword domain is a choice one must make in accordance with their business plan.
Follow these simple rules to maximize the benefit of a keyword domain, accomplish success in directory submissions, and enhance site keyword density:

Structuring
Order the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in such a manner that more vital keywords are listed before those that are less important. For example, if he target keyword is "money" then money-online.com would be more effectual than online-money.com.

Length
1. A majority of studies confirms that a number of people use two words or more in a search; as a result phrases are very useful.
2. Always stick to two-three keywords, with hyphens in between.
3. A lengthy, complex URL is more likely to be rejected by directory editors’ sites from which one would like to receive links.

Correct English and Must Make Sense
1. In order to execute directory submissions and link popularity campaigns, the URL should be grammatically correct.
2. When examined by an editor, "money-online-white.com" might sound like a less-reliable resource while "white-money-online.com" sounds more justifiable and is less likely to be questioned.

Put together "power words"
In order to create a distinctive domain name that is still available, one way is to add another less important word to the mix. A few examples include: now, top, just, goto, pro, guide, online and find etc.

Avoid using most popular keyword phrases
There is intense competition for keywords in the marketplace, so stay away from the most popular keyword phrases. It is impractical to think that a new website could rank number one on a popular phrase like “Shop Online”. A number of well-known companies who have been on the Internet for a few years will have the big advantage of link popularity and click popularity.

Try to register a .com domain
Always use ".com". In case it is a business website, avoid using domains ending with "ru" or "org". At once, one can consider registering a ".net" domain, but as most people are familiar with ".com", it is better to stick to convention.

In addition to the above, an understanding of the domain name system (DNS) is also vital while choosing a domain name. The DNS is set up to make regular words map to IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. In order to connect all computers on the Internet, an IP address is used by networks. A domain name can be up to sixty-three characters, comprising of letters, numbers, or the dash symbol. For example, in the world of computer networking, the web address fishing.com becomes the IP address 124.133.1.1. However, it's the domain name that people around the world use when looking for Web sites or sending an e-mail.

Finally, it is very important to choose a keyword phrase very carefully. This can be considered as one of the most critical decisions one will make regarding the success or failure of a website. One must identify the exact phrase that searchers will use to find a website. The more targeted the campaign is, the more increase in sales will be achieved.

What Is A Domain Name And Where To Register?

Domain name is an alias for an IP address. Now what is an IP address? An IP address is a numeric code that signifies where to look through the Internet for content. An example of an IP address would be 22.226.141.25. Rather than typing in a long and easily forgotten IP address, a domain name helps you by typing an easily remembered name to access the same site.

For example, http://www.domainsatretail.com/ is a domain name that points to a specific IP address. People can remember a domain name such as http://www.domainsatretail.com/ much easier than they can a long numeric code.

Domain names are everywhere as many use it everyday. Think of search sites. Google and Yahoo both have corresponding domain names http://www.google.com/ and http://www.yahoo.com/. If you have ever sent an email you have used a domain name. For example when sending an email to user@sympatico.ca, sympatico.ca is the domain name.

Now that we have a better understanding of domain names, we need to know which domain name to pick and where can we register it. The domain name chosen for a web site can be a very important decision of marketing your company on the Internet. Its quite easy to just say pick a catchy domain that everyone will remember to use and you are set. In most cases it is that simple and you are set on your way to register the domain. However, at times the domain name you want has already been taken. And then you must think of a secondary name that you wish to use that will be just as catchy as the first.

OK, now you have picked your domain name you want. What is next? You need to choose a registrar for you domain name registration. There are many registrars who sign up and are available for the year, but you get no service from them whatsoever. Here are two domain name registrars that I would recommend for completing your domain name registration.

1) Domains at Retail – my own registrar that registers domain names. We provide great service and have 24/7 customer support. .com domain names are normally on sale for $8.75 US / year, however they are currently being run on promotion for $7.95 US / year. Visit Domains at Retail at http://www.domainsatretail.com/ for Cheap domain registration and excellent customer service.

2) Domains at Cost – excellent registrar with very competitive prices. I use this registrar for my .ca domain name registrations and renewals. They offer an excellent price ($14.41 CDN per domain name registration) and I am always able to get someone on the phone and my questions answered. Please Visit Domains at Cost at http://www.domainsatcost.ca/ for .ca Domain Name Registrations!

Good Luck with your domain name registration process and your start to your online marketing!

Is Expired Domain Registration Still Profiotable?

After the dot com crash, expired domain names and expired domain name traffic have been a source of potential income. It is important to inexpensively obtain the automated tools required to track the thousands of domain name registration and abandoned websites that are removed from the domain registry and become available for purchase.

Expired domain registration and the expired domain name traffic associated with them have been only available to those who had an automated system and tools.
Now, automated tools and resources are available for identifying, appraising and even buying these domain names on autopilot.

Expired domain names are those that had previously been registered to another owner. These domain name registration are available to the open market because of non-payment of the domain name renewal fees. Such domain names are returned to the open market about forty-five days after the expiration date.

Many domain names even point to fully functioning websites while many are registered for speculation. These names are registered by speculators in the hope of obtaining a profit on the resale of the domain name.

Numerous other domain names are registered for website development, but do not appear online. In a number of these cases, the domain name owners do not follow through with respect to the website development and allow the domain registration to expire.
However, there are a number of expired domain names with fully functioning websites, receiving daily traffic from the search engines, links and banner ads. The expired domain names that get this daily traffic can earn revenues if these are redirected to another website or marketed with affiliate programs.

Earning Profit from Expired Domain Names & Expired Domain Name Traffic:
1. Buying for speculation - There is now a large and highly profitable market for reselling domain registration at present, and speculators are looking out for developing technologies and trends. Evolution is constantly taking place in technology and trends. There are markets, being watched closely right now, that are expected to grow exponentially within a short span of time. It should be a good idea to locate and register expiring domain registration that are related to new trends, technology and markets in order to earn substantial profits.

2. Buying expiring domain names and redirecting the targeted traffic - Targeted keyword domain names can help to get traffic from those simply typing in keyword rich domain names into the address bar and hitting the enter key.

3. Buying expired domain name registration and putting up generic websites - Using tools like easy website building software, third party payment processors, auto responders and other applications, even a novice could put generic websites online with keyword rich domain names that should appear in the search engine rankings. These websites can be built using expired domain names to drive traffic to them and the domain registration and the developed website could then be sold together with the domain name, as a value added commodity.

4. Buying expiring domain names of websites that are already online – A number of expiring domain names are, actually, already functioning websites. The owners of these websites either did not renew their domain registration for some reason or simply stopped operating the website. In fact, quite often, these websites already have traffic from links to other websites, search engine rankings and even directory listings.

5. Buying expired domain names and using them for marketing affiliate programs - Affiliate programs are a good way to acquire an online business without even having a product. Affiliate marketers redirect traffic from the affiliate website to the website of the actual product or service and charge a commission or a fee when any of the redirected traffic results in sales. Affiliate programs have become an automated turnkey solution for a number of entrepreneurs, especially novices.

One can locate and register expired domain names that closely target the market of the affiliate programs and then draw that targeted traffic into the website with expired keyword rich domain names with content that satisfies the informational needs. Then the users can be led onto the sales page of the product

Domain name hijacking

Domain names are becoming “hot” property - as in *theft* for resale. More and more companies are finding they cannot get their trademarked names as a domain name because so few good names are left. But sometimes it’s outright extortion as when a Fortune 500 company name is reserved by someone that has no intention of developing a site under the domain, but simply “parks” it somewhere and waits to be contacted by the big boys to purchase the name for astronomical fees.

A more lucrative market for domain names exists in short, memorable generic names like Loans.com or Homes.com which can apply to an entire industry as can be seen in recent news.
One of the lesser known and more frustrating issues is when a small business name or new product domain name is reserved by someone hoping to make a buck or two. Here’s a question faced by small business owners getting started online.

“I’ve trademarked a name, but the domain name is taken, it was reserved by another company right after I registered my trademark. Do I have a legal right to the domain name?”
The following link is to a page titled “Domain Names, A Trademark Owner’s Nightmare”
http://www.mdweblaw.com/home/domainnames.html
It discusses legal issues and cites two cases that have been taken to court over domain name hijacking.

People who do this may be doing it intentionally or innocently, but generally, you don’t have a case unless you’ve got a long established use of the trademarked name and can prove that the registrant was intending to extort excessive fees from you in the hopes you’d buy the name back from them.

You can take it to court if you like, but it’s not likely to do you any good unless you can prove that the registrant had the intent to squat on the name and not use it, hoping that you would be willing to pay excessively to get it back.

Still, the case may cost you more than it’s worth.
This is an unresolved battle with more and more companies. Until laws are passed (not likely) there will be no way to protect a domain name other than being the first one to reserve it. You may have a case if they are harming your business in some way by the inappropriate use of that name. But if they are simply using for another purpose, you might consider selling them the trademark instead. ;-)

Contact the registrant of http://www.your-trademark.com/ to see who it is, there’s a way to find the registered owner by going to this address and typing in the domain name.
http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois/

It will return a registrant name, host name and the name servers. You might consider contacting them and simply explaining your trademark situation, your desire to own the name and then simply ask if they would consider a reasonable solution. Possibly something as simple as a suggestion that you’d like to avoid a court battle and make it worth their time to sell it to you by offering twice what they paid for it.

If they have not spent large sums developing a branding strategy for the name, they may be willing to give it up. If it’s only few months old it may be possible that they haven’t begun to develop their site or their strategy yet. You may be assuming the worst but then be confronted with a friendly and accomodating person willing to look for an equitable solution!
Good luck with your own names and trademarks!

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Making Money with Parked Domain Names

Have you ever typed in a domain name and came to what looks like a default page of a domain name registrar that reads, “http://www.thedomainyoutyped.com is under construction”. Well it is time to stop advertising your domain name registrar’s site and start using that parked domain name for making money

How do I Make Money with my Parked Domain Names?
The first step is to make sure that your domain registrar offers “Forwarding” or “Redirection” service. If you do not know what “Forwarding” or “Redirection” is let me explain. Forwarding a domain name means that your domain registrar will forward anyone that types a domain that has forwarding on it to another domain. For example if you set up forwarding on yourdomain.com to yourotherdomain.com, when anyone types in or clicks a link to yourdomain.com they will automatically be sent to yourotherdomain.com. That’s it! I use GoDaddy to register domains and they offer the Forwarding for Free.

Finding the right affiliate program.
After you determine that your domain registrar offers Forwarding you will need to find affiliate programs that are directly related to your parked domain names. For example, I have a domain name BuyLasVegasShowTickets.com. Now I would want to look for an affiliate program that sells tickets to Las Vegas Shows. It is best to find affiliate programs that are directly related to your parked domain name. You will find a higher percentage of affiliate sales will be made that way. If a visitor is already interested in the same subject of your domain, it does not make sense to send them to something they are not looking for.

I joined an affiliate program...now what?
After joining an affiliate program you will be given a “Referring URL” that contains your id in the URL. Next you will go to your domain registrar’s site and set up the forwarding of your domain to the referring URL. Continuing with our previous example our fictitious referring URL is http://www.youcanbuyshowticketshere.com/id=me. Remember this is fictitious for example only. So I go to my domain registrar and have BuyLasVegasShowTickets.com forwarded to http://www.youcanbuyshowticketshere.com/id=me. Now when someone clicks on a link or types in BuyLasVegasShowTickets.com they are automatically taken to site they can buy show tickets at, and since my referral id is in the URL, I will get credit for any sales made. It is that simple.

What are you waiting for?
I know there are thousands (if not millions) of you out there, who own domain names that sit around collecting dust. Why not put them to use and start to make money with them?

Good Domain Names

No matter what domain name you buy its unlikely to be worth $ millions straight away, but with some careful though and preparation you can maximise your domain names potential.

Using hyphens
Almost every word in the dictionary has been registered already so its more than likely that you will have to register a combination of words. Should you buy a domain name with a hypen in it? Generally speaking the answer is no. There are several reasons why not. Describing a domain name with hyphens can be awkward. Customers have a habit of forgetting the hyphen and typing in the wrong URL. It’s a misconception that hyphens improve search engine rankings, the leading search engines now concentrate on content and pay only limited attention to the URL itself.

Consider a ccTLD
There is no evidence that Country Code Top level domains (ccTLD’s) are treated differently by Search Engines, though there can be advantages and disadavantages if your business is regional Submitting your domain to search engines Once you have configured your domain to point to your Web site, you will need to ensure that search engines are aware of it. If they aren’t, your site will receive very few visitors - even if you have managed to find a memorable, snappy domain name.

This can be achieved by either directly submiting your URL to the search engines through using a submission service such as the free submission service on our site . Free submissions
Please be careful when using automated submission tools as the Search engine are penalising sites submitted in this way. Ours is manual for this very reason.
Or by linking your site to others, this is the preferred way for search engine to “discover new sites”.

Ensuring you own your domain
Just because you buy a domain name doesn’t mean you own it. Some less reputable suppliers register domain names in their own name. You can see who owns a domain name by using a lookup call a WHOIS search e.g WHOIS If you look at the registrant details the name here is the legal owner. For example if you enter discountdomainsuk.com you will see the legal owner is us – Discount Domains Ltd

Selling your domain name
Is your domain name near to expiry? Don’t let it lapse without offering it for sale first, there are lots of good sites who only charge if your domain sells. You might be pleasantly surprised, domain names have fetched a $1 million before now!

Choosing Effective Domain Names

Domain names are no longer a web address these days. Many profitable companies have been built around their domain name making it the brand and the company. Choosing the right domain should be as important as naming your product. Given that status, here are some pointers how to find a name that will see you through it all.

Branding vs. Keywords
This is probably the most difficult to determine. Yet, should be the first place to start because the rest of the considerations will one way or another relate to this. There are two schools of thought. One group believes you should have your keywords in the domain so that search engines pick up on the keywords and rank you better. To what extent this really affects your search engine ranking is not clearly known or proven. Consider why you are putting the website up in the first place. Most likely it’s for your customers or visitors. So choose a domain that also puts your audience first.

The other group believes a webmaster should go for brand. Most successful companies start off with a brand, including online companies. Brands make the product memorable, create differentiation and encourage loyalty. In the early days of the Internet, everyone wanted a generic domain like searchengine.com, books.com, auctions.com and the likes. Today, very few of those are truly successful sites that rival Google, Amazon and eBay.

A branded domain also ensures consistency throughout your marketing efforts. As one web user describes, “Every time the company tells me to visit their generic website, they lose the opportunity to reinforce their brand name in my mind”.

Whether you use keywords or brand for your domain depends much on what you aim to do. If you plan to build a business or website that is going to have staying power, branded domains are a better choice. It might not be easy or cheap to build a brand but there are no shortcuts when it comes to branding either. It’s a slow process that can be very rewarding if done right. Don’t choose a domain simply because of its keywords. First class content, links in and clever optimization are more important to good ranking than anything else. Having said that, a brand name made up of keywords could be best, and you would have the best of both worlds – literally. Take CancerComforts.com. Owner Kathy Browning chose the domain because of its keywords. But apart from being keyword rich, CancerComforts.com is also very marketable and can be a strong brand.

If you are building a resource website, a website for affiliate programs or one that’s temporary in nature, keyword rich and generic domains would be a better choice. Finally, there is no harm in buying both branded and keyword domains that point to the same site. Just make sure you only use one for submissions, directory listings, link exchanges and promotion. This way you build your link popularity.
You should also, make sure the site title or name matches your domain. If your domain is ExtremeBiking.com and your site name is Smith Brothers Biking Tours this makes visitors and directory editors wonder if this is the correct website. It also causes confusion. People who know you tend to look for a domain that reflects your brand and not extreme biking. If you have yet to establish a company name or a site name, it might be a good idea to name it after you find a domain name. This is sensible, consistent marketing.

Company Name
This is the most common because in today’s increasingly small and competitive world, businesses tend to have rather creative and catchy names. On the other hand, if your business name is very nondescript such as The Smith Brothers, you might want to take the approach that combines part of your company name and a keyword. Although the importance of brand name was emphasized earlier, here the situation is slightly different. Non-descriptive company names aren’t particularly helpful to audiences. Someone looking for you would find it difficult to differentiate your company and the other company with a similar name. In this case, keywords tied to your name are worth considering.

Domain Length
Short domains are supposed to be best but it’s increasingly difficult to find one without paying someone a lot of money to take over the domain. There are alternatives though, such as expired domains which we will explore a little later on.Just because a domain is a little longer doesn’t make it bad. For example, TrashToTreasure.com is meaningful, to the point and memorable even though it is rather long. On the other hand, ThisIsAnExampleOfAVeryLongDomain.com is too long, difficult to remember and prone to errors. The other extreme is needless abbreviation. TTT.com is meaningless because TrashToTreasure.com works much butter. Aim for some balance while taking into account ease of use.

.Com, .Net, .Info
Most people will agree a .com is best. A web user told us, “Whenever I can’t remember the domain name but I know the site name, brand or company, I’ll try for a .com first”. If you have no good .com alternative, start with .net and .org first. Also, be sure to consistently promote your website as a .net or .org whatever you may choose.

Hyphens, Suffixes and Prefixes
Hyphens aren’t necessarily evil especially if it’s in your brand name or is the correct way to write a word. However, they are difficult to remember, type and prone to user input mistakes. Avoid them as much as you can.Suffixes and prefixes are i’s, e’s, the’s and numbers usually suggested by domain search tools when your desired domain is unavailable. If you choose such a domain, be very consistent in your promotion. Promote the domain as a whole, do not leave out the suffix or prefix. You might also want to avoid domains with very little difference between them. These are usually between plurals and singulars. Aim for singular names whenever possible. For example, petfood.com and petfoods.com; If petfood.com is taken, resist the temptation to opt for petfoods.com because people tend to leave out the ‘s’.

Can You Say It?
This isn’t always a top consideration but it makes sense you should have a domain name that can be verbally communicated. Take your list of chosen domains and tell it to someone. Does it confuse them? Do you find yourself having to constantly repeat it or spell it? If that is so, move on or go back to the drawing board.

Copyrights and Trademarks
In this day and age, many companies particularly those with strong brand names are increasingly protective of their trademarks. Avoid the trouble and expense of a lawsuit by spending some time to research your chosen name. Start by looking up the name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov/) and your state’s trademark database. A More in depth look at this issue can be found here (http://www.bcentral.com/articles/legal/109.asp).Expiring DomainsAnyone who has looked for a domain name finds out soon enough more than half the desired names are taken. If you cannot find a suitable one despite numerous searches, why not explore expired domains? Expired domains are those whose original registrant fails to renew commonly are due to website closings or companies going out of business. Within the list of expired domains are some real gems. There are many services that allow you to monitor expired and soon to expire domains for a fee. Before you sign up for them, a good place to start researching for free is DeletedDomains.com (http://www.deleteddomains.com). Some believe recently expired domains with good traffic and rankings allow you to benefit from someone else’s hard work and give your site a head start. Theoretically, that may be true. Realistically, you shouldn’t expect that to last. People consistently return to a website for a reason. If your topic is very different from the original site, visitors will stop coming back because the information or resource they previously had access to is no longer there. If you assume such a domain and want to convert as many visitors as possible, make sure your content is very closely related or similar to that of the old site. You might want to also check that the old site has completely ceased operations. If the previous site still exists under a different domain, loyalists eventually find their way back there; Word gets around among them and could create a negative image on the old domain that’s now yours.

Ownership
When you do register as domain, have it registered under your name or your company. If you are registering through your host, remember a lot can happen within a short space of time. Companies go out of business or you change hosts, scams, scandals and more. Making sure you own the domain reduces the risk of losing your domain name in the future. Check your host’s domain registration policy. If there are unnecessary expenses to transfer your domain, try to register it yourself instead. Registering a domain is a very simple and straightforward affair. Some good registrars to try are Enom (http://www.enom.com/) and GoDaddy (http://www.godaddy.com).

Finally, when you do find the best available domain, get it immediately. Any delays no matter how minor may cost you. Finding the right domain is not easy. It takes a lot of brainstorming, patience and creativity. Once you find it, don’t let it slip.