Entries Tagged 'Domain Names' ↓

What is a domain name? A domain name is the location of your website on the Internet. Your domain name will be what you become known by online so it’s important to get it right.
Each website on the Internet is labelled with something called an IP address which is the actual address of the website online. A typical IP address looks like this: 159.134.27.64. Remembering a string of numbers like that is difficult so a domain name translates all those numbers into something like www.amazon.com. This is far easier to remember.
#1 Dot what?
Each domain has what’s called an extension. The most well known of these extensions is .com. This, however, is not the only type of domain extension available. There is also:
.net
If you can’t find your preferred .com domain name you could always choose the same domain with a .net extension. It might not have the same ring as a .com but is still as just useful as a .com.
.org
These domain extensions were orginally designed for educational and more formal websites. Anybody can register a .org however so you have more options for domain selection.
.info
A more recent introduction to the domain name game are .info domains. Many of the valuable .info domains were bought up overnight but there’s still a huge range of good .info domains available. With a little creativity you could really make a .info work for you e.g. www.moviereview.info.
Bear in mind that most web surfers tend to remember .com more easily than anything else.
#2 Branding vs Business Name
There is an age old debate on the whether or not you should establish a brand name online or use a domain that more actually reflects your real business. Let’s look at Amazon as an example. Amazon sells books online. Most people setting up a business would have chosen say www.booksonline.com instead of www.amazon.com. Amazon has since established itself as a brand name of global recognition - proving the value of building a brand name.
You’ll need to choose between the two. Brand name or your own business name. Consider how your domain sounds, how it might look on a business card and how well it relates to your business.
There’s no one right answer to this question. You need to choose what makes most sense for you, your website and your business in general.
#3 Hyphenated or not
This is another area of debate. Should your domain be one single word or should the words be separated by hyphens? There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Single word domain names can be easier to explain, use on header paper and lend themselves to brand names very well.
Single word domains are in very, very short supply.
Hyphenated domains names can be slighltly more difficult to explain, may not look as well on headed paper and possibly harder to establish as a brand name. There’s no shortage of multiple word domains.
The single biggest advantage a hyphenated domain has is that searche engines can “read” the domain more easily. For example in a domain like www.foreignholidaysonline.com the search engine can only read the first word “foreign” and that’s it. It can’t tell anything else about the website domain name.
If you hyphenated that to www.foreign-holidays-online.com the search engine can read “foreign”, “holidays” and “online” as separate words and therefore knows that this website is about foreign holidays.
A well chosen hyphenated domain name can be just as effective as a single word domain name.
#4 Your Domain Registrar
These are the people you pay to register the domain for you. There are dozens if not hundreds of these companies out there so which one do you choose? This takes some research but things worth checking are:

Do you retain sole ownership of the domain or do the registrar keep some level of control over it?
Search Google for any horror stories relating to the registrar
Does the registrar allow you to transfer the domain to another registrar?
Is there an online control panel for domain administration?
How easy is it to change the domain Name Servers?

Shop around for domain registrars. What you really want to find is a previously satisfied customer to ask questions before you buy.
#5 Cheap Domain Names
You can save a lot of money on the domain names you purchase. A typical .com domain costs about $15 to register from most registrars. However you can get the same domain for as little as $7.95 from other, very reliable, companies.
Oddly enough some of the cheaper domain registrars are more reliable, have fewer horror stories and offer equally good customer service as their more expensive competitors.
Are there any disadvantages in using a discount domain registrar? Will it affect your website in any way? The answer to both is a definite No.
If you’d like more information on choosing and setting up your domain name then visit http://www.affiliate-advocate.com for our Domain Guide.

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 penalized, 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.

Ah, the poetics of domain names. The meaning of a domain name depends on how you scan it:

There are other classic mispronounced domain names. One is the site WhoRepresents.com, with the unfortunate alternate enunciation of WhorePresents.com. But, since its in the performing artist arena, maybe its not just a misnomer. Another is TherapistFinder.com, for those looking for California marriage and family therapists. Unfortunately, the wrong clientele might stumble upon the site as TheRapistFinder.com. And then there is PenIsland.net, where you can buy custom pens.

Hilarious Domain Name Mispronunciations

Author: Charlene Davis

What’s in a name? Everything! A domain name is the first thing that pops up when people are exploring through a search engine or directory, so it’s important to come up with something clever that also spotlights the focal point of your business. By “clever,” we don’t mean a silly pun that will cause your face to turn red with embarrassment in a year or two after the novelty has worn off. Your domain name will be your “Internet identity,” so it will be helpful if it closely matches the name of your business, product, or service to make it easier for people to remember and find you; thereby distinguishing you as leader in the marketplace or business.

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Let’s just take a quick glimpse at what we’ve done so far:

We’ve used www.wehavethem.com , www.DeletedDomains.com or www.namewinner.com to locate names that are about to expire or have expired. We’ve located consumer site names with a large amount of traffic in the past month. We’ve grabbed them either personally or using an automated grabber to ensure we get the names we want.

That whole process has taken you less then an hour. Just a quick search to locate a name and then register it. Easy. (incidentally if you are confident that a name you have purchased is valuable, it may be worthwhile securing the .com, .co.uk, .net,.org, .info forms of the name as well. That way no one can undercut you by bofering it cheaper. And chances are the buyer will want all five names. That means FIVE TIMES THE PROFIT!

Now it’s time for the real exciting bit. Selling the name.

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Author: Jonathan Street

This truly is the business to get into in 2005. It’s a red hot opportunity that savvy investors can make a killing on when you know how. And this article will walk you step-by-step through the money-making process.

Don’t be put off by the term “investors”. I’m not talking big money down here. As long as you’ve got a spare £5 a week then great money can be made for only half an hour of your time. Like the sound of that? Thought so.

There’s a few ways you can make money buying domain names and selling them on for profit. And I mean PROFIT. You’ll see why people will be scratching at your door to buy off you in just a moment.

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Author: Lois S.

You go to work every day at the store you own, and one morning, your key to the door doesn’t work. You look in the window, and the display items have changed. A stranger is behind the counter. But when you call the police, they can’t do anything because the company papers now indicate that the store belongs to the stranger.

The above scenario isn’t likely to happen with a bricks-and-mortar store. Because of insecurities in the domain registration system, however, information highwaymen could take over your online business.

As with identity theft, domain thieves steal your identity — the identity used to register and configure your domain name. After that, your website, your email, your online business, and possibly your reputation are theirs.

Domain names at risk of theft

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Domain Name Scams: Have You Fallen for One?

Author: Scott Karlo

Have you received information regarding your domain name through postal mail? Did you receive numerous invoices regarding your domain name? Ever been stuck in a contract for well over a year? If any of the above apply to you, you may have fallen for a domain name scam.

Domain name scams occur when a domain name registrar sends you and “invoice” to renew your domain registration, but it really is an agreement to switch to their services.

Scott Karlo, founder of Internet Know How (IKH), LLC, offers these helpful tips on how prevent your company from falling for domain name scams.

Prevent Domain Name Scams by:

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Author: Stanley Spencer

A very important question arises in the early stages of development of a web site – what would be the most appropriate domain name? Domain names are representative of the address for a web site, and there is a rising trend of incidents of disputes over domain name registration with increased usage of Internet.

There are numerous factors that have led to a crisis of domain registration disputes and this, in turn, has led to a rapid increase in the reported cases of infringement of domain names. Several companies have taken legal action against other companies or individuals over alleged copyright violation on the domain names.

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Author: Emma Kalson - littlefishwebdesign.com

Cybersquatting - The Problem

Cybersquatting, or registering a domain name in bad faith (usually a variation or mis-spelling of your domain name) an cause untold damage to a company and is a major problem on the Internet, where registering a domain is a quick and automated process. Legal recourse is costly and time-consuming and not always effective. Cybersquatting can occur in various guises:

1. Competitors - Any potential customer of yours getting your domain name wrong ends up as a customer of theirs!

2. Unhappy customers and (ex-) employees - All their complaints about you get posted, whether they are justified or not.

3. Opportunists - They set up pages that redirect you, or affiliate pages, often linked to pornography, in order to make money or to spread viruses. Other opportunists may try and sell these similar domains back to you at vastly inflated prices.

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