Saturday, April 14, 2007

Productive Domain Names - Excell At Domain Names

What’s in a domain name? Well think about it – once you choose a domain name, you are kind of stuck with it. I mean, you could get a new one – but you really want to focus on building up a domain name branding.

There are some other things to think about when you are thinking about a domain name to choose.

You see, I think that too many people get all hyped up about a domain name – and the domain name is important – but they lose sight of the big picture.

What is the big picture? What are you in business to do? Is it to make money, is it to raise awareness?

I submit to you that everything in your web business revolves around two things – traffic and conversions.

I mean, think about it – you have to have conversions to make money online. You have to have conversions to build a list.

And you have to have traffic to get conversions. No matter how good is your sales page or your squeeze page, if you do not have any traffic, then you don’t have conversions, that is for sure.

So when you are thinking about a domain name, think about how it will impact traffic and conversions. Is it easy to remember? Is it easy to convert? Will people remember your domain name? Will they be proud to buy from a site with your domain name?

So think about these things. Think about how your new domain name is going to read in the articles you write, when you do article marketing, how it is going to look when you do list building, when people read your emails.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Domain Names - How To Get The Right Domain Name In Less Than An Hour

Now that you have an idea that you want to run with, you need a domain name. Dot com names are always a first choice. Names without hyphens are also the first choice.

The shorter the better but chances of nailing a one word domain name are slim to none unless you want to pay a million. Having a keyword in your domain is also desirable. If you run a golf site, fredsgolfworld is a lot better than fredsapplepies. This is where Domain Name Analyzer comes in handy. It can generate hundreds of available domain names in minutes. No need to keep trying different names trial and error style. Look over the list that is generated and pick the ones you like best. You will be surprised that some of those names are available.

Buying a domain from someone may be a good idea if the price is right. Most domains these days are not worth more than $100 and most are worth a lot less than that. I bought a good domain off Ebay awhile back for $10. I thought that was a fair price.

Once you have you domain name, you need to register it. For years I registered names at itsyourdomain.com. Great service, easy interface but they are twice as expensive as other sites. If you only have a few names I would highly recommend them. If you have a lot of names then there are other options. I currently have most of my name registered at registerfly.com.

The prices are good, every couple of weeks they have a sale and .com names can be registered for $6.99. But I find them very frustrating. Their interface is poor, hard to navigate. Support is fair. I have had them park my domains even though I had changed the name- servers. GoDaddy is popular and I have a few names there but I have heard some people have had problems. Namescheap and 1and1.com often come up as good places to register.

Be sure you always have total control over your domain names. Take advantage of any extra privacy protection they may offer. Some will offer whois protection so that spammers can’t get your contact info and if you lock your domain, it makes it harder to be hijacked.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Buying Domain Names

If you are planning to launch a kick butt product and you suspect that your website will take off like a rocket then you may want to consider what this article has to offer you before you buy the domain name.

Here’s the thing…

Lets say you’ve just completed a new product about “How to make money online”. Firstly, you’ll want to come up with something catchy and unique to your product for your domain.

Once you have that name – you may want to consider buying not only the .com but also the .org .net .info etc.

Also keep this in mind… Is it possible that your domain is plural?

For example: www.examples.com or www.example.com

If so you may also want to consider buying the domain name in both the plural format and without the plural.

Why?

Well, if you have a ripper of an idea, other marketers out there will try to “copy” your idea.

You’ve got to ask yourself, do you want to risk having a “copycat” steal your traffic? Because some people will mistype your domain name…

If the answer is “NO”… then it’s well worth your interest to shell out the extra costs of all those domain names.

All the best, and good luck with your project!

Smokin' Hot Domain Name Registration

Have you ever wondered what it takes to have your own domain name? Would you like to have your own .com? Well I am here to tell you how you can make that happen.

The first step in domain name registration is figuring out what name you want to register. It can be difficult to find a name that you like and one that is still available for purchase. I like to use Dotster.com to help me come up with a name and to check the name’s availability. Simply go to Dotster.com and enter in your idea, for example petnames.com. As you will see petnames.com is taken, but there are other alternative extensions that are available besides .com. There are also additional domain name suggestions for you to consider in the tab on the left.

This process can take a while as you are really trying to find the best name possible. I like to keep a list of available names as I go along and then choose the best domain name from the list when I feel like I have enough good candidates. I tend to have between 20 and 50 good domain name candidates listed.

When you have selected a name, then I suggest you go to a site like GoDaddy.com to save yourself some money on the domain name registration. GoDaddy is currently charging $8.95 for domain names while Dotster is charging $14.95. There is nothing wrong with Dotster, but domain name registration is a commodity service and GoDaddy has a better price. If you want to go even lower, Yahoo! is currently offering domain name registration for $2.99.

Once you have chosen your registrar, then you enter your chosen name and follow the directions to complete the transaction. There will be several pieces of information that you will need to give, like your name, address, email address, and phone number. I suggest you use an email address that you do not ever plan on losing. That way you will always be able to receive contact messages related to your domain name registration. Complete your purchase and you are ready to go. Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a new domain name!

So what is next? Well now you need to build your site, find a web host, and publish your site to your web host’s servers. Once you have that done, you need to update the DNS entries related to your domain name. Your website’s DNS records are kept with the company where you purchased your domain name registration. Now you are the proud owner of a published website. I have breezed through the whole build, host, and publish process because I plan on providing more details in a follow-up series of articles. Thanks for reading and have fun with your new domain name.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

How to Transfer Domain Names

Transferring domain names was like a foreign language to me up until recently when I sold one of my businesses. Then I had to take a fast track in learning how to transfer a domain name quickly!

And I’m assuming I’m not the only one out there that wouldn’t be sure on how to transfer a domain name. So if you are thinking of selling off some of your domain names but weren’t sure on how to do a domain name transfer, you may find this article helpful.

My experience with domain name transfers was with godaddy, so I’ll step you through the process I took to transfer my domain name to someone else using godaddy.

Make sure you have all their details, eg. Full Name, Address, and email account, phone number…

Then you just need to follow these 5 easy steps!

First Step. Log into your godaddy account

Second Step. Go to “Domain Names” and click on “My Domain Names”

Third Step. Click on the domain name you want to transfer

Fourth Step. In “Manage Domain Names” click on “Change Accounts”

Fifth Step. Scroll down and fill in the “New Registrant Name”

That’s it! All you do now is what for the new owner to “confirm” on his or her side.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Developing a Domain Name Strategy

If you don't have a well known brand-name or the resources to build a brand that people might search for, why register a domain name that gives you no advantage whatsoever in the search engines, where people search for your product or service? The worst offenders are small consultants who operate under the three-letter acronym names that mean nothing to most people. There is enormous value to picking a company name and domain name that contain targeted keywords for the benefit the search engines.

Unless you want somebody to steal your traffic, think about domain names that are already plural or that can't be pluralized by the simple addition of an "s." If you register frame-master.com, just wait a week. Someone will probably register frame-masters.com in hope of stealing some of your customers. One benefit of registering the plural form of a word is that you'll likely gain the ranking for the singular and plural forms.

The informational page serves as a navigational assist to the searcher who might not have located the site's content because they were not searching with the same language used in the website. Be sure, therefore, to register additional keyword-rich domain names for informational pages. Informational pages really become small navigational websites. They discuss a particular topic in some detail; perhaps they summarize some content area of the website and then link users to that area of the website. There is absolutely no reason why this informational content can't be placed on an external domain name.

How To Register A Domain Name

Once you have decided what you want your website to focus on, the next important step to take is that of selecting an appropriate domain name. If you are unsure as to what a domain name is all about, it can be likened to your residential or business address or perhaps your telephone number. Its purpose is to allow visitors to locate you on the Internet. So it is important that the domain name you decide to use is appropriate and depicts what your website is all about.

Before you can start using a domain name you need to check with a domain registry service to find out if the name you want is available. For domain names ending in .com the availability of distinctive and unique sounding names is practically non existent.

You will need to be willing to play with the words you want in your domain name to see if this helps you find one available that meets your specifications. You may need to change your wording to get a registered domain name. You will also need to think about this carefully as this name is going to depict your website and the services and products you are offering your visitors. An inappropriate domain name might result in less traffic to your site. Less traffic means missed opportunities to grow you online presence.

Trade marking your name is a wise decision but this is a more involved topic which should be dealt with by a qualified practitioner in this area of legal expertise.

Your domain name will form part of your web address. For example mybusiness@domain.com. Once visitors click on your web address they are immediately transferred to your web site. Naturally it is extremely important that the spelling of your domain name is accurate otherwise your visitors may end up on someone else's landing page.

To have your website operational it is not vital that you have your own domain name, however if your web hosting company goes out of business you lose your address and have to be transferred over to an alternative hosting company. This may prove a costly exercise if you then have to change your offline stationary to reflect the changes to your web address.

The length of a domain name is restricted to 26 characters. It is best to keep your domain name as short as possible as it makes it easier for your visitors to remember your domain name and keep on returning to your site. Lengthy domain names are less easier to remember. Please remember that domain names are not case sensitive and you can use a mix of upper and lower case alpha characters and numbers to make it easier to read.

Once your domain name is found to be available you will then need to register it with one of the domain registers online. Usually membership is for a two year period but 12 months registration is also available if you prefer this option. If you do not act immediately when you decide on what you want your domain name to be, it is fairly likely that the next time you check you may find that someone else has taken it.

With your domain name in place and your website concept decided upon, you are now ready to proceed to the next vital stage of actually deciding on the design of your website.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Registering a Domain with Godaddy

The World of Domains

One of the first things you need to consider when deciding to build a webpage is a domain name. The internet is made up of millions of domain names. What is a domain name? A domain name is your address on the internet. Your dot com, dot net, or dot org. It's what comes after the www. For example my domain name is oceanbox.net. People type www.oceanbox.net to get here. Your domain name can be whatever you want as long as it is not being used by anyone else you, which brings us to our next point.

Registration

You choose your domain name by going to www.godaddy.com. There are a few repudible companies out there who will set you up with a domain but GoDaddy is the best and cheapest way to go. Whatever you do, do not use Network Solutions. They've been around for the longest but their business ethics suck. GoDaddy is the largest internet registrar, being responsible for over 1/3rd of the US's new domain name registrations. Visit www.godaddy.com to register a new domain name

Choosing a Domain Name

When choosing a domain name, keep it short and mermorable. Long domain names are harder to remember, and harder to get people to come back to. Short & easy to remember websites such as google.com, amazon.com, and ebay.com keep people coming back because they are easy to remember. Also try to stay away from dashes. (e.g. something-something.com) unless it is neccessary. People often forget about the dashes, and end up somewhere other than your website.

Conclusion

Well that's all there is to it. Register your domain today and get start building your website.