Entries Tagged 'Domain Names' ↓

Author: Tom

If you are looking for a domain name for a website, or if you want to invest in domain names, it can be difficult to figure out what to register. There are so many domain name extensions. What is a domain name extension? A domain extension, or tld (top level domain), is the final part of a domain name, the part that comes after the dot on the right. Examples of common domain name extensions are .com, .net, .org, .info, and .biz. These are also called gtlds (generic top level domains). So, for example, with the domain name somename.com, somename is the name and .com is the domain extension (tld).

There are also country code top level domain extensions (cctlds). Some examples of these are .us (USA), .cn (China), .in (India), .de (Germany), and .co.uk (UK). .TV (Tuvala) is also a country code extension but it is often sold as a general tld.

The most common and well known tld is .com. .Com was the first extension to be used extensively by businesses online. It is considered by many to be the king of all tlds because of how recognizable it is, the clout it’s use offers and because it is the extension most likely to be typed-in (people will actually type the .com domain name in their browsers to go directly to the site even if they are not familiar with an actual site that may be there – this is free traffic in a sense). This can occur because people may assume all sites end in .com or that .com somehow is part of any name or it can occur due to “bleed” from other tlds – people see a name with some extension and when they go to look for it or type it in, they put .com instead. For many, .com truly is the internet.

.Net has generally seen less use than .com, but many still consider it to be the second most valuable extension. Many isps do use it. .Org is used by many non profits, various organizations and government related sites. Considered by some to be the second or third most valuable tld, in terms of recognition and resale price level. .Com, .net and .org are the original general use internet tlds. They are sometimes collectively referred to as CNO. They have been with us since the mid/late 80’s.

New tlds were released starting in late 2001 with .info. This was soon followed by .biz. .Info, like the previously discussed tlds, is a general use tld that can be registered by anyone without restrictions. It is considered by many to hold great promise (in terms of it gaining recognition with internet users), because of the concept that it represents, information, which is a big part of the reason the internet exists, as a medium to transmit and retrieve information. It has seen some early success in terms of use and resales. A domain name resale is a domain sale by a registrant usually for much more than the registration fee.

.Biz was created with the goal of having an extension explicitly for business. It has the restriction that it only be used for bona fide business purposes. Some people are less enthusiastic about .biz, feeling it is slangy, while others feel it will do well in time because of its specific desigation as the business tld. It is seeing growing use and even some good resales.

CCTLDS were recently made available at the second level with three major countries – the USA, China and India (.us, .cn and .in). These were all previously heavily restricted or only available at the third level. Of these, .US does require us citizenship or a presence in the us for registrants. Many feel these extensions will do very well in time because of their indentification with the country they represent. One cctld, .de, has been extremely successful, with registrations rivaling .com and seeing some very high priced resales. Some feel these other cctlds could also do well in time.

Which domain extension should you choose and register? Most would recommend .com, and if it is avaliable in the name you want, .com should be the tld you get. If the name that you want is not available in .com, then you may want to consider the other extensions such as .info, .biz or one of the cctlds. Some feel that other extensions in time will develop .com-like recognition and be typed-in and be well known as they are advertised by businesses that start to use them. Others feel that this is unlikely to happen to any great extent due to the strength of the .com brand. In any event, it is a good idea to register the .com (if available) even if you want the new tld name (and it is available) because some people may make a mistake and go to the .com (as previously discussed). If you register the .com, you prevent someone from registering it and profiting from this traffic.

As far as the actual name goes, it may be good idea to get a name that describes your business in the shortest way. It ideally should contain a keyword related to your business. This way it may be easier for people to remember your site.

In addition to registering new domain names, you can also register expired domains using a domain drop catching service or you may be able to buy a domain name from a registrant through a domain name broker service, if not directly.

About the author: Tom is a webmaster. Visit the expired domains guide for more information about domains and expired domains.

Originally posted 2005-04-02 10:55:59. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Author: Niall Roche

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.

About the author: Affiliate Advocate is run by Niall Roche. The site offers reviews of affiliate marketing ebooks and software as well as advice and tips for new and existing affiliate marketers.

Originally posted 2005-03-29 12:37:41. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Use a thesaurus to lookup domain names and you’ll have to work pretty hard to run out of ideas

Author: Syd Johnson

.. and you’ll have to work pretty hard to run out of domain names

You have a couple of words in mind but they’re all taken. You try one of those online suggestion tools and you can get your domain name if you add xxyz to it. Don’t give up. Get a Thesaurus. Go to any online Thesaurus and you’ll have to work pretty hard to run out of ideas. Why does this method work so well?

1.Find similar words with the same meaning

2.Find short and longer words that you can combine to make a unique domain name

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2005-07-24 17:39:33. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Author: Charles L. Harmon

Due to my other Internet activities I had relegated my hundreds of domain names to a low priority and seldom gave them much thought. The exception was for some minor research for topics to create websites for a small number of domains. Fortunately, a registrar who caters to those with many domains managed most of my names. Part of their service is providing a number of statistics on each domain name. In addition, the names (URL’s) host a directory website where I can make a few cents (if I’m lucky) if visitors to the website click any of the links.

A few days ago I decided to take a quick look at some of those domains. I had a new idea for a few possible websites and wanted to see which ones were getting enough hits to warrant further consideration. As I created a report showing traffic on some of my domains I was amazed to find one of my domain names had a lot of impressions (website page views). Where normally that name had a few impressions each day it had several hundred that day along with several dollars of profit where there usually was none.

That was the first time I had noticed such a drastic change in one of my domains in such a short period of time – one day. The previous day there were the normal few views and no money to be made from that domain name. I asked my co-worker if he heard anything in the news involving video games since the domain name showing unusual traffic was related to video games. He said no, he had heard nothing. Since he was a thirty-something and was usually aware of such things I first thought it might be just an aberration, but it was unsettling nevertheless. As a stock and options investor, I am very familiar with the effects of news on those financial instruments so news was the first thing to cross my mind that might change the activity on a domain name so fast.

Later that evening, right before turning off my home computer, I thought of that domain name again and took a quick glance at its statistics. Wow! There were a lot more impressions and many more dollars showed as profit off that surge of hits.

About that time my son, nineteen and an ex video game fanatic, who was in Korea (I was in Southern California), came on and sent me a message via Instant Messenger. We conversed a short while then I asked him if he had heard any news about Xbox because by then I was suspecting something big must have been said in the news related to that specific video game platform. My domain name XboxStars.com was going wild with hits, compared to its usual half-dozen hits or less each day. He said, “Dad, I think they announced they are coming out with an Xbox 2”. Immediately I knew that was why my domain was getting so much action. It was reacting to the news! Maybe even over reacting. The news had probably been released that day. I never really saw the actual news related to that announcement, but I later checked some of the video game sites and their forums and there was lots of talk about Microsoft’s announcement related to Xbox2 to have some games created in Japan and speculation that some version or prototype of Xbox 2 would be at a well known game convention the next week.

I followed the impressions and clicks for the next few days and sure enough, the action had it been graphed, would have looked like a huge peak, rising very high and then falling like a rock in just a matter of a few days. Until that day I had never realized a domain name could react to news. Here is how it played out.

Date Domain Impressions Earnings 02-25-05 XboxStars.com 1 $00.00 02-26-05 XboxStars.com 1 $00.00 02-27-05 XboxStars.com 4 $00.00 02-28-05 XboxStars.com 1 $00.00 03-01-05 XboxStars.com 261 $97.77 03-02-05 XboxStars.com 483 $30.33 03-03-05 XboxStars.com 404 $28.15 03-04-05 XboxStars.com 569 $22.05 03-05-05 XboxStars.com 2 $01.22 03-06-05 XboxStars.com 4 $00.00 03-07-05 XboxStars.com 4 $00.00 (as of 03-07-05 9:00 am)

I had noticed some domain names had ups and downs before, but never associated that with potential news affecting the domain name. One especially, but with not so pronounced activity, I did a cursory check on, and found out the name is related to football. Although initially the name Insidend.com didn’t sound related to a sport I guess the “inside” and the “end” could be construed as being related to inside linebacker and end zone, defensive end, or tight end, etc. That’s a far stretch, but then again football is an extremely popular sport and is often in the news during football season. Whether or not football is affecting this particular domain remains to be seen, but now I’ll be on the lookout for such possibilities when I register new domain names or see huge changes in activity on any of my domain names.

I had better do some follow up research on other domain names that seem to have a lot of fluctuating activity. Take a hint from my experience. If you have any domain names that could be subject to reaction to news events you may be able to plan a strategy to capitalize on certain events depending on the circumstances. This could be especially profitable if you are selling something on a website with such a name.

About the author: Charles is a computer programmer and developer turned web entrepreneur. He has written software for many major U.S. Corporations as well as written and sold his own software. He is currently developing a soon to be published website for his many domain names and another on top-rated eZines. Charles can be reached via the contact form at www.z-cashflow.com or his sister’s www.KLTGallery.com.

Originally posted 2005-03-23 12:04:55. Republished by Old Post Promoter

Lookup domain names using name generators to save time and find common keyword combinations

Author: Syd Johnson

Many reputable domain registration services on the web have added little domain name generators to their sites. There are also entire name generation programs that have been popular in the marketing and branding industry for years. If you have exhausted your other possibilities and need some help with brainstorming, the software route is an easy time saver.

What can name generation software do for you? 1.Save time. You can enter your parameters and have hundreds, even thousands of possible domain names in a few seconds.

2.If you want a particular word to be a part of your domain name, the software can twist the word by adding other terms, abbreviations, acronyms, rhyming words etc. to get a brandable domain name.

3.Name generation software can take a topic and spit out random word combinations that describe items or services around that topic. You can get hundreds of possible keyword rich domain names in a short period of time.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2005-07-24 16:19:56. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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.

Let’s start with the basics.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2005-09-18 15:17:06. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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.

Continue reading →

Originally posted 2005-09-19 07:28:57. Republished by Old Post Promoter

To date I’ve been happy with GoDaddy as my domain registrar. Then came today.

Going to one of my sites I found myself seeing the words “This domain is parked free courtesy of GoDaddy.com!”

Huh? I change the nameservers as soon as I register a domain.

Then I remembered reading last night that GoDaddy had a new option to consolidate domain expiration dates. Anything to make managing the websites easier sounds good to me. So I had domain expiries brought to a common date.

I guess that was the cause of the nameservers being reset. Needless to say I was angry. How many visitors will I have lost across those domains?

What a screwball error!

But not something that is likely to be repeated. I sent my complaining email and imagine GoDaddy will fix their problem.

I’ll be sticking with them for now. Pity they don’t give you a rebate or a few free registrations when they err.

I emailed GoDaddy about the problem and feel a mite peeved by the generic response I got:

Thank you for your feedback and suggestion on our consolidation service. As we highly value your new ideas, I will forward your information to our developers for consideration. Feel free to e-mail us at any time with any further suggestions you have.

So, what was my new idea? Asking them to not mishandle my domains?

I replied to the first tech support email with clear displeasure. This one arrived later.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. The issue you have experienced should not have happened. If you are still having problems with your name servers please let us know and we will be happy to assist you with the issues.

Originally posted 2005-04-06 22:48:51. Republished by Old Post Promoter

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.