Sunday, 13 November 2011

Don't Be Afraid to Lay Claim to Your Domain

Your domain name is essentially a virtual identification card in that it is the way that people can confirm your online presence. Too many people make the mistake of thinking that even if their domain name isn't a good one it's better than no domain name at all.


In actual fact a bad domain name can prove to be a problem and can even result in the loss of customers. A bad domain name causes you to have an air of unprofessionalism about you whereas a good one tends to make a better impression and can even instill a feeling of trust in your customers.


If you choose your domain name carefully your website will also enjoy a higher ranking in the search engine results. This in turn means that your site is seen by more people. Because the name you've chosen will also be on your letterheads, business cards, etc. (assuming your business isn't solely online), you need to be sure that you have chosen a name that will reflect well on your business.


Again, choosing a good domain name really is vital. Once you understand this you can draw up a list of some names you might like to use for your domain. Remember, you do not have to stick to the company name.


All things considered choosing a name other than your company's name is sometimes best especially if the name is a long one or is difficult to spell. A company with a difficult to remember name decided to launch their website with a different name for one of their most popular products and discovered that their customers were more able to recall the domain name. Not only did this result in better customer conversions it also got them a higher ranking in the search engines because more people were searching for the product instead of for the company.


If you are the face of your brand it could be a good idea to use your name as your domain name. Two good examples would be Martha Stewart and Donald Trump since they are the faces of their respective businesses. If this is the same for you then use your name as well but don't neglect to use a keyword in your niche.


When you have drawn up your list of potential names for the domain you should narrow it down by crossing off those that are too long. Ideally you need to not exceed twenty characters. Anything longer will make the domain name too difficult to remember.


Also cross off any of the possibilities that could be construed negatively. If you are going to use more than one word write them down without spaces between so that you can see if your domain name could in any way prove offensive to anybody.


When you have crossed out the ones that won't do you can now list the remaining names in order from your favorite to your least favorite. Use the Internet and research which of the domain names are available for you to use.


This is easily done through popular domain registers such as GoDaddy or NameCheap. When you have found an available name don't buy it until you go to Google. You need to be sure that nobody else is using a name that is similar to it especially for something that is dishonest, spammy, or possibly offensive. It might seem like a waste of time but you do not want people to confuse your business with some other website that isn't ethical or has bad connotations.


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Saturday, 12 November 2011

A Beginner's Guide To Domain Name Selection

A domain name is essentially a website's identity on the internet. If you are considering starting a website then you should put considerable thought into selecting the right domain. Too many enthusiastic new internet marketers rush into creating a website and they don't take the time to do research and select a proper domain for their site. More often than not they are setting themselves up for failure. Keep reading to find out how to select the right domain for your website.


The first thing to consider is who your website will be targeting? Is the website for a company that already has a well-known company name? If so, then you may want to consider purchasing a domain with your company name included in it. This is because many times people will search for a well-known company by entering the company's name into an internet search. For example, if are looking to purchase curtains from Wal-Mart's website, you would most likely search for "Wal-Mart" instead of "curtains".


If you don't own a company or if your company is better known for its products or services than the name of the company itself, then you may want to select a domain that includes the keywords you will be using to optimize your site in the search engines. The reason for this is search engines heavily favor sites with the keywords included in the domain. For example, if you own a blog about car care and maintenance, and your main keyword is "vehicle repair tips", then you may want to look for domains such as: "vehiclerepairtips.com" or "freevehiclerepairtips.com", etc. Whatever you do, don't guess your keywords. Failure to do proper keyword research could have disastrous results for your website.


Another thing to keep in mind when selecting a domain name for your website is the extension. When most people think about a website, they think of a dot-com extension. This is because the dot-com extension is and always has been the most popular website extension. For this reason, it is important to get a dot-com extension for your site. If someone already owns the extension you want, then consider slightly changing the domain until you find one with an available dot-com extension. If you absolutely cannot find a one that will work, then the next choice should be dot-net.


Once you begin to get a reasonable amount of traffic to your website, you may want to consider purchasing the remaining popular extensions such as dot-net, dot-org and dot-info, and redirect these extensions to your main URL. This prevents people from buying these domains in attempt to mimic your site and take your visitors.


Selecting the right domain for your website is extremely important for your site's success. Just make sure you do the proper research first, and try to get a short, catchy domain with a.com extension if possible. Follow this advice for proper domain name selection and you can rest assured that your chosen domain name will not hinder the success of your website.


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A Domain Name Search Can Save You Hundreds

If you receive an unsolicited email offering to sell you a domain name that grabs your interest, read on as this tip might just save you hundreds of dollars.


Reports are popping up around the web about a domain registration "scam" of sorts. It's not really a scam, but appears to works on the premise the target will overlook carrying out a simple check before parting with their money.


The email starts off by asking if the recipient would be interested in a particular name. Sometimes the name will be in a sector related to the recipient's own domain or line of business in order to make the offer more appealing.


The note then mentions acquiring the name could help in terms of search engine optimisation. It will at times state the number of searches carried out on keywords in the name on certain search engines.


The person then goes on to say he/she will be offering the name to a number of related sites and companies for $500 (or another amount) and the domain will go to the first company that registers its interest in acquiring it.


While $500 isn't all that much to pay for a good domain name when you consider that many will pay thousands, the catch is the name isn't even registered.


If you do express an interest in the name, the person/parties behind this campaign register the name for a fraction of that amount; then sell it to you at the greatly inflated price. For the approaching party, it's a transaction and business with very little risk and outlay.


Some people wouldn't think to run a domain name search first to check out the domain's registration status and no doubt some will fall for the ploy; paying hundreds more for a domain name they could have registered themselves with just a few clicks and in just a couple of minutes.


While the person making the approach about the name doesn't mention they are the registrant, or make false claims about their association with the name, nor states others want to register the domain, so "get in quick"...they certainly don't mention the domain isn't registered at that point.


It's unlikely you'll be offered a ccTLD such as a com.au domain name in this way due to various .au eligibility criteria and the fact registering a Australian name for the sole purpose of resale is forbidden. The strategy is being used most commonly in connection with other extensions; such as those ending with com, net, org, biz and info.


Michael Bloch is an online business consultant with years of experience in the web hosting and domain names sector. Michael is currently consulting for Australia-based Domain Registration Services - start your domain name search.

Friday, 11 November 2011

Fast As Well As Short Suggestions About A Website Name Search For A Video Marketing Business

Would you rather go the cheaper (normally) route of getting an unregistered website address and build it up yourself?


That is simply the very first of many queries you must ask yourself. I will break it down a bit so you have a much better idea of which option is the very best one for you and your business online.


First things first, take into consideration just what your financial budget is for your website address. A new, unregistered domain name is around $10 annually. You can save on that price in case you register it for several years and/or you buy multiple domain name at a time. If you buy in bulk you could generally get a per domain price of around $5 or $6 dollars, maybe much less.


In case this is the way you want to go then you have to find a listing of key phrases that are directly relevant to the topic of your business enterprise. For example, if you are starting a niche site on the subject of bird baths you have to do some keyphrase research so you can make a good big list of highly searched search phrases associated with bird baths.


Once you have this listing, you could visit the domain address registrar online and discover which online sites are readily available There are many web address registrars out there such as GoDaddy.com, DomainCheapsters.com or NameCheap.com to mention just a few.


Try and obtain a.com extension whenever possible but in case you have a really great keyword that obtains lots of searches every month, going with a.net should work out very well for you too.


In addition, try and obtain a domain address that just has the search term in it and if possible, no other words. Though, again, if the search phrase you're targeting is quite common you must not pass it up. So in case all you are able to get is a domain address with something like the term 'best' or 'easy' and so on, before or after the search phrase, you must probably go for it.


In case you are searching for an expired domain name that presently has a high page rank and lots of search traffic every month you must visit an online domain auction site. There are plenty of them around and many of the domain registrar businesses will sell off expired domain names.


Be sure you know what you will get should you follow this path. Most of the time you are just getting the website address and not the actual online site. Also, carefully consider the amount of traffic the site is currently getting and try to estimate what your monthly revenue will be for that website, so you don't spend too much.


As you can tell, there are several options with regards to your domain name search for your video marketing enterprise. To a degree the option you select would depend on what your budget is. Spending some time to carefully look into all your options before you make an acquisition is a very sensible idea.


Video Marketing is actually a scheme which facilitates and encourages people to pass along marketing video clips about services and products available. This could be successfully done by using Social Media Marketing, a great method that provides links, attention as well as huge numbers of page views by advertising your website or organization through social media channels.

Using Expired Domains to Your Advantage

People with websites will want to know how to constantly generate traffic for themselves. In the process of touching all those bases, domains are often forgotten about. In fact, a large number of people don't even bother about it. But a little know fact is that domains too can generate a serious amount of traffic. Here is how you can go about.


Your first step in getting yourself some traffic is to find domains. There are several tools online that will help you worth this search. Look for domains that have a similarity or a connection of some sort with your site. Only then will you be able to use it to generate some traffic for yourself. Once you have narrowed down on a couple of expired domains, you will want to check and see how popular these domains were when they were actually in use. Evaluate this, the same way you would your own blog - check the daily traffic it had, its Google ranking etc. The more popular the site was, the better your chances of getting good traffic from it.


Once you have chosen an expired domain to best suit your needs, you can just go about updating your site like you normally would. This would be in terms of good content, pictures etc. You will immediately be able to appreciate the kind of traffic that you will get.


Another good way of using expired domains to help you gain better traffic is to redirect traffic from it. What you can do is buy the domain and then put in a php code that will allow all traffic there to redirect to your site automatically. The php code to use is easily available online. One other great thing about working with expired domains is that the site probably had its own set of backlinks with it. This means that these links are still active and people are still being directed to them. You could use these backlinks to get some traffic for yourself.


The trick here is to find an expired domain name that is similar to ours and which had a decent amount of traffic. Else, you will not be able to make the most use of it.


Choosing the right expired domain can take a while. It is important that you do your research and evaluate each of the sites that you are looking at. Only then should you commit.


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How About Flipping Aged Domains As an Online Home Business Opportunity?

Aged domains, as the name suggests, have been around for awhile either as addresses for active websites or as parked sites attracting traffic and profits for the owner based on their name alone.


Buying these pieces of virtual real estate at auctions on domain directories and then selling them immediately for a quick profit can be a very lucrative home business model to adopt online. There are 5 important considerations you should keep in mind when you're searching for older domains to purchase from the different directories on the Web to resell for a profit and here they are:


1. You should make sure you aren't infringing on any trademark regulations before you register an aged domain. If you decide to build a website around a keyword name for example, and then sell it at a later date before checking for any trademarks you run the risk of having your web page seized by the company owning the rights to the name. You may also be sued and found liable for trademark violations by a court of law and ordered to pay a dollar amount to the owner.


2. You should always try to find keyword rich domains which will turn up on the first page of search results in the major search engines online. If people are using your domain as a search term in Google the value of your find will increase significantly giving you an excellent return from your investment upon resale.


3. Before making an offer on an aged domain you should check to see if there's any residual traffic still flowing to it. This of course will add to its value because when you sell it and someone constructs a website using your address they will have instant traffic flowing to it from its previous existence.


These could be natural, organic visitors sent by Google and company or people finding there way to the new website via existing back links on the Internet.


4. As with any new name you should also consider the domain length with an aged address. Two words is usually the cut off point because anything any longer is more difficult to remember and is more prone to errors when someone is trying to type it into the browser's address window thereby making it more difficult to find on the Web.


5. Try to find out as much as possible about the history of the aged domain before you buy it. For example, was the name used on a sales page or on a blog? Was the domain associated with a positive and popular website or did it have a bad reputation online. If it was related to a negative situation then this could reduce its value drastically and make it very difficult to resell.


If you keep all of these points in mind when you're looking for an aged domain to flip for a quick profit you're more likely to make a wise and profitable purchase for your online home business.


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Thursday, 10 November 2011