Friday, June 15, 2007

Domain Names - 3 Top Ways to Make More Money With Domain Names

With the ever increasing number of web sites on the World Wide Web, the competition amongst the web sites is on a rise. It has become very important for all the web sites today to stand out of the crowd. Those websites which do not pay due attention towards highlighting their businesses often fail to stay in competition with their rivals. There are many things which are important when it comes to staying in business and to make money in the online world. Domain names are very important in this regard. If your website has a nice and attractive domain name, your chances of staying in business increase. Domain names are important in this regard.

It is not possible for human beings to remember the numeric URLs of the websites. To solve this problem now we have domain names. A good domain name is the one which is closely related to the content of the website. If you have a domain name which can suggest the nature of your business, the chances of getting searched by the search engine are higher when any internet surfer performs a related search through the search engine. Thus choose a good domain name which is related to the nature of your business. This will ensure that you will be noticed by the search engine and the chances of getting quality web traffic will increase. Also, you must use domain names which are easy to remember. Very literary but difficult to remember domain names may not be able to pay you a lot.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Making Money with Internet Domains

There are thousands of ways to make money Online. Almost all of these methods start with an Internet domain since your domain name tells people where to find you Online. Domain names can be purchased for as little as eight or nine dollars. This small investment can pay off many times over.

The usual model for making money from domains involves buying domains and selling. As with physical real estate, or any investment, the objective is to buy low and sell high. While a few people have made millions selling domains with this method, there is not usually a lot of demand for an individual domain name. Domains may sit for years before they get a single interested buyer and that offer is often too low to take seriously. Other models for earning income from domains have developed in the last few years, foremost among them being domain parking.

Pay-per-click domain parking has been a lucrative way for some to earn money from domains. This white paper will emphasize this approach. The domain parking services described here provide no-cost hosting of your site and pay you every time someone clicks on a link.

Where should you park your domains? These sites differ in important ways, and one company will likely work better than another for your domains.

Affiliate income programs allow you to sell a product on your site and keep a percentage of the profit. You can do this from a site you build, or you can redirect a domain to an affiliate page created for you by the merchant who is hosting the offer.

Developing your domain into a complete, stand-alone website can sometimes make the most money. It is also the most labor-intensive.

Evaluating PPC Domain Parking Services

Paid Domain parking, the easiest approach, is often the best. ParkQuick.com is a site that features objective reviews of domain parking services. Domain Parking Services are different from each other in significant ways. Some services require that you own a minimum number of domain names, and others do not. Changes appear immediately with some services, while others require approval in advance. (All of these services provide free hosting.) In some cases you can earn cash when someone simply views your page (pay per impression), or when they click through to another site (pay per click). Some of these services will automatically optimize your sites based on what people search for. RPM (revenue per thousand impressions) is not the whole story. Some companies make it easy for you to use single-click landing pages, while others do not.

These parking services change their sites and payouts often to keep up with rapid changes in this field. All have ways to detect click-fraud, and your account will be canceled if click-fraud is ever suspected. Never click on your own links. ParkQuick's monthly Name Monetizer newsletter will keep you up-do-date on the most recent changes. You can also read the most recent recommendations for small and large domain portfolios owners.

Some newsletter readers have asked whether they can send paid traffic to their pages. Most parking services forbid all paid traffic because it generally does not result in sales. Some parking services do allow you to buy AdWords or Overture ads and send that traffic to your domains. This is usually not cost-effective, however. Unless you are extremely careful you will end up in the red by paying more for the clicks than you will earn off the parking.

There is actually a good deal of overlap among people who consider themselves to be "domainers" and those who consider themselves Online marketers. In both cases men and women are trying to make money Online, often with the goal of "quitting our day jobs" to live off a passive income stream. We earn money when someone visiting our sites takes some action based on content on one of our sites. We earn money when they click, or when they sign-up for a service, or take some other action.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

The Dangers of Searching for Your Perfect Domain Name

Beware! There are some things to watch out for when selecting your domain name. The domain landscape is incredibly crowded. There are over one million domains registered daily (there were 1,263,695 domains registered on 8 Jun 07 according to Domain Tools). The good news is that domains drop, expire, and come back into circulation. You can also still come up with some great names. The bad news is that there is a segment of the domain industry that is more than willing to snatch your domain idea if you take one misstep.

One of the most popular ways to search for the availability of a domain is to type the name directly into a registrar like GoDaddy. It makes sense to check there, because if you confirm the availability, then you can simply register the name right then and there. If you do this, there is absolutely no problem. However, and this is a huge however, if you decide to wait and think on it, you run the risk of losing this name to a domain squatter. In fact I can almost guarantee if you have even a remotely useful domain name, it will be gone. Domain squatters are doing absolutely nothing illegal. They are simply staking a claim of internet real estate albeit with a little inside knowledge garnered from your seemingly innocuous search. Instead of paying $6.95 and some change for that great domain, you’ll be faced with a request for $500 and up depending on how desirable the domain is.

Here are some ways to prevent this. First and foremost, if you even begin to consider looking up domains names, and I don’t care where you look it up, have a credit card in hand and pull the trigger! Buy the name right then and there. If you decide not to develop it, you can sell the domain, park the domain for future use, or let it drop back into circulation losing only the initial $6.95 investment.

Second, if you aren’t ready to buy the domain and prefer to search and mull it over, then do not use a registrar like GoDaddy to search for domains. Using the GoDaddy search option, I lost FossilCreek.com and Webistics.com literally the day after I looked them up. I naively thought it was a freak coincidence. I have since been educated.

It is also important to note that GoDaddy is doing nothing wrong. Their search mechanisms often place previously searched names in the domain suggestion fields on future searches. They just do what they do best, and that is sell a whole bunch of domain names for a low cost. A lot of domaineers use Moniker.com to do domain availability searches and swear by the authenticity and security of Moniker. I haven’t personally used this site, but it has been recommended to me by several different esteemed sources. Again, the best policy is to register the domain if you even remotely like the domain.

In closing it is a real drag to come up with a great domain just to lose it the very next day. When I came up with the name, I had two credit cards in hand with my registrar account information all ready to go. I for sure was not going to lose this one. I don’t know what happened to the FossilCreek website, but I followed up on the Webistics domain name and learned that it sold for $100. Thankfully, it wasn’t thousands of dollars, but it’s still $93.05 that could have gone to my pizza and Diet-Pepsi fund! If you have any questions, tips, or suggestions, please feel free to email me.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Domain Names - Their Significance And Types

The term ‘domain’ is probably the most known word in the world of internet. It is probably the most important word as well. Your domain is what differentiates your website from others.

Even though domains are widely accepted as one of the most important aspects of your internet presence, a lot of users still don’t know what exactly a domain is, or the different kinds of domains that are available and the significance of each type.

Let us first look at what a domain is. Firstly when you host your website with a web hosting service provider, your website is uploaded to the servers of your web hosting company and each server on the internet has its own address called as an IP address. A typical IP address looks something like this: 192.168.1.12. Now obviously remembering such numbers are quite hard and quite impractical as well. Also such numbers cannot be branded as well by website owners. Hence the need for a domain name arises. Your domain name is a easy to remember name referring to your company name or product or services you are selling or any other name you choose which you feel sounds right and can be developed as a brand.

The domain that you register points to the IP address of your server so instead of typing the confusing and complicated server IP address, one can simply type your domain name in their browsers to access your website.

Domain names are of course much more than mere names that make it easy to access your website. Choosing the correct domain name could mean make or break for your online venture. A domain name that is easy to remember, offers excellent branding opportunities, refers directly to your products and services or contains keywords that people generally use to search for similar products and services could make a whole world of difference on how successful you are on the internet.

Apart from your actual domain name, there are plenty of different extensions available. The most common and sought after extension is the .com extension. This is typical what anyone wanting to register a domain searches for first. But even if you don’t get your desired .com extension, you need not worry anymore since there are plenty of other choices available. Some of the other extensions besides .com are .net, .org, .edu, .info, .mobi, .biz, .tv, country specific extensions like .com.au if you are living in Australia etc.

Although each of the extensions have their own purposes, but nowadays doesn’t matter what your purpose is, if you want to register your domain and you don’t get your desired .com extension, you can easily register your domain with any of the other extensions without making any difference to potential users of your website.

Nevertheless lets take a look at some of the other extensions mentioned and the purpose for which they were originally meant for: .net – This extension was meant for companies doing business on the net or internet service providers. .net.au - The Australian version of the above. .org – This extension is meant websites of non-profit organizations. .org.au – The Australian version of the above. .edu – As the name suggests, this extension is meant for educational institutes .info – This extension is meant for websites that provide information about any particular topics. .mobi – This is relatively a new extension and is meant for websites that want to be accessed via mobile devices such as your cell phone or PDA. .biz – This extension is meant to denote that your website is a business website. .tv – This is the country extension for Tuvalu but it is used mainly for those websites that are related to the media or specifically to television.

As mentioned before although each domain extension had its own purpose, you can go ahead and register them doesn’t matter what your goal is for your website. In fact most companies or even individuals prefer registering their domains on all the available extensions to help in branding and exclusivity for the main domain name. No matter what the extension you choose, you should always choose your main domain name carefully since it could make the biggest difference in success or failure of your online venture.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Sell Your Domains At The Best Places - Tips To Sell Domain Names

Looking to sell domain names? There are several tips you should follow to make sure you get the best deal you can when you sell domain names.

First, attempt to sell the domain name on your own. Use forums, such as Digital Point or DNForum, and write up a good post. Put it on the forums, and after awhile you will find some people interested in purchasing the domain. If you don't get the price you want though, don't worry, there are plenty of other options you can choose from. First, try and use a domain broker. However, consider this as a second option,because they will usually take a fee. If you still don't get the right price from a broker, I recommend you go back to these forums and try a different sales approach. For example, if you didn't put the domain name in the post where you were trying to sell domain names, you may have attracted less views to it. Put the domain name in the post. If you put the starting price at $50, drop it down to $10. The more bids you get, the better your post looks. Would you rather choose a post with 10 replies or one with 50 replies? The hotter your post is, the more potential buyers you may have.

My last suggestion would be to attempt to sell domain names on eBay. Although eBay takes a small fee, there are so many people out there that you may find the right person to sell domain names to. If you are set on a fixed price, make sure to choose a fixed price format, instead of auction format. Remember, if you put it up for auction and don't end up getting the price you want, you are still obligated to sell the item. All in all, I suggest that you be patient when you sell domain names. Just because no one wants to buy it now, doesn't mean they won't want to buy it in 3 weeks. Just know that there is always someone out there who is ready to buy your domain name, you just need to find them.