Archive for January, 2009

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Domain Name: Why Do You Need One Anyway?

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Domain Name: Why Do You Need One Anyway? – Domain-NamesI come across sites all the time that are obviously hosted for free. Why obviously? Because they have no domain. Having no domain can cost you big time.

You have taken the time to put together a great website. You have collected pictures, designed or bought a nifty template, and filled it with great text. Your website is ready to go. Everything looks great ? until you decide to host your site on a free hosting account provided by your ISP. Big mistake.

Having no domain name is no big deal if all that you will ever do with the website is post family pictures. A domain name is mandatory though, if you plan to do business online. If you don’t take your business seriously, why should anyone else?

Domain names build trust in your website visitors

One of the biggest barriers to doing business online is the lack of face to face communication. When people can’t look into your eyes and size you up in person, they are slower to trust you. In the absence of being able to talk face to face, your website and everything about it, communicates trust, or the lack thereof.

Registering a domain name is an important first step to building the trust your visitor has in you and your company. Always keep in mind that trust is much easier to lose than it is to build in the first place. It takes a long time to build trust but it takes no time at all to destroy it.

Domain names are portable

When you go with a generic website address from your ISP, the few dollars you save per year are far less costly than the lack of mobility to you get with a free website address. You may have hopes that your part time web project will one day lead to a full time income. When you have a free website address, you are stuck to that ISP. In contrast, when you own a domain name, you can take your domain name to any web hosting company you choose.

As the traffic to your website builds and your website climbs in the search listings, changing its name later is impossible without taking a big traffic hit. When you have a domain name however, changing hosts will have very little effect on your traffic. This is even more important if your website is suddenly hit with a major increase in traffic. You may need to change web hosts but if you don’t have a domain name, that traffic may disappear. On top of that, if you start using too much bandwidth on your free hosting account, your provider will most likely pull the plug.

Domain names make it easier for your prospects to email you

When you have a domain name, it looks more professional. Having an email like jack@yourdomain.com looks far better and is easier to remember than jack.lastname@yourisp.com. Easier for your prospect translates into more money earned for you.

Domain name registration is a no brainer and something you should do right away.

Joe Duchesne is president of Yowling. Business web hosting and domain registration are two of the services they offer. Reprint freely as long as you keep both clickable links found in this resource box.

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Domain Name Registration – Key Tips

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Domain Name Registration – Key Tips – Domain-NamesDomain name registration is a necessary, easy, and strategically important first step in establishing an online presence, whether for business or otherwise. A well-chosen domain name registration can set you up for success with your new site in so many ways, the most prominent of these being increased search engine traffic. Here’s some vital elements to consider when executing your domain name registration.

A good domain name registration, particularly for an online business, (which is the main focus of this article) is easily done, but at the same time requires choices that will impact your site’s effectiveness. So here, in no particular order, are some things to bear in mind when doing a domain name registration.

The extension – Will it be a .com, .net, .org, .info etc. Any of these will get spidered and indexed by the search engines, but if you can get a .com for your chosen name you’d be better off, as this extension is more common and carries an air of legitimacy with it.

Try not to have you domain name registration with your web host. The reason being that should you decide to part ways with your host, (and this isn’t uncommon!) it’s potentially a massive headache to move your domain as well. Split them up: you’ll be glad you did!

Your domain name registration, purchased from a reputable company should run you somewhere between $1-10, depending on the extension and the amount of time you sign up for.

Probably the most important aspect of your domain name registration is the choice of keywords to use in your domain name. Try to use the main keyword or phrase you’d like to optimize the whole site for, and see if you can craft a domain name around it. The search engines seem to favor keyword-rich domain names. Nuff said.

Keep it short if possible. A shorter name is easier to remember than a long one.

Don’t use your company name unless it has your keywords in it. There’s no point in ranking high for your name if no one is looking for it yet.

Try to keep your domain name registration topically relevant. As search engines get smarter and smarter, sites that display total relevance will rank higher than catch all sites.

Lastly, be sure to avoid other companies trademarks and copyrights in your domain name. For example, let’s say you’re an affiliate of The Sharper Image. It’s tempting to use some version of that name to promote your affiliate site, but don’t do it, unless of course you’d like to meet their lawyers!

To sum up, your domain name registration is easy to do, but important to do well. It can make the difference in whether you get found or not!

Keith Thompson is the webmaster at Domain Name Registration Today where you will find the latest news and information on domains.

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Domain Name Forwarding and Search Engines

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Domain Name Forwarding and Search Engines – Domain-NamesYou own a single site, but several domains – perhaps you wanted to make sure that even if your customers misspelled your domain name they’d get to your site, or perhaps you’d like to have a specific domain name direct to a page deep within your site – whatever the case, there are some important considerations surrounding multiple domain names routing to a single site and search engine submission.

Search engines like Google and Yahoo won’t always wait around for you to submit a site – Googlebot and Yahoo Slurp (which you may recognize from your server logs if your site has been up for a few weeks) are constantly running across new domain names to index. It’s a good thing – unless your domain names are being forwarded incorrectly.

What constitutes and incorrect forward?

Many major domain name registrars offer a “Domain Name Forwarding” feature which, while it may be the easiest way to forward your domain, can cause some real problems when search engine spiders like Googlebot or Yahoo Slurp visit your site.

Here’s what happens:

  • The search engine spider pulls your domain name (usually from http://www.whois.sc/ )
  • The spider visits your website, using the domain name forwarded through your domain registrar
  • Your domain registrar is using a Temporary Redirect (most likely because it’s assumed that you’ll point the domain name to a new hosting account sooner or later), frames, or other incorrect forwarding method
  • The spider indexes your site

    But what went wrong? Your domain name registrar did its job, and sent the spider to your actual site when it visited the domain name you registered. The spider did its job and read the content of the page or pages it found, and then incorporated them into the search engine index. Everything’s copacetic, right?

    When the search engine spider read the page, it associated it with your alternate domain name, the one that was supposed to be forwarding to your primary domain name. This means that the search engine has effectively tracked down what it will quickly identify as duplicate content – and, after years of dealing with sites trying to sell Viagra on the sly by duplicating their content across hundreds of pages, today’s search engines will respond to duplicate content with a drop in your ranking.

    Given enough time, you may find your site has been banned from the search engine index.

    What’s the solution?

    Your domain names need to be routed from the domain name registrar to a hosting account – from the hosting account (and this varies – consult your technical support provider for the account) you’ll need to set a Permanent Redirect to your main site.

    A Permanent Redirect is logged as a code ’301′ (thence, it is often referred to as a ’301 Permanent Redirect’) – if you have multiple domain names which you wish to direct to a single site, it may be especially useful for you to consider a website hosting account which offers multiple add-on domains and subdomains to accommodate all the domain names you’ll need to forward.

    Dan LeFree is a Web Design and Development Consultant specializing in database applications for e-Commerce storefronts, custom realtor websites, and other small business tools.

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    Do You Have a Good .Com Name? What is One So Important!

    Friday, January 30th, 2009

    A domain can leave an imprint on the mind of a prospective client. Just like a catchy phone number, it is easy to remember and can be send out loud in a rhythm. Whenever someone sees your domain name for your company it must be able to stick with them throughout the day so they can easily check out your site when they get a chance. Sometimes this may not be till the end of a long day at work, so having a domain name that stays in the mind of a client is very important.

    What makes a good domain you might ask? Is it the length, how it is spelled or is there something that I missing?

    Well the length is important, something short and sweet can do the trick, but if your domain names is something like “INeedATunaFishSandwhich.com” that may work as well. Yes it is a bit on the long side, but it is very easy to remember and so there fore, easy for a person to type in at the end of a busy day. It stays in the mind and can be thought of in a second.

    Unusual domains can work as well, as they can catch the viewers attention allowing them to also remember them without much problem. Such domains as eBay, Paypal and others have only a few letters, but you will never forget them when you go to type them in. A site I like to visit to find out about updates on currency and other information is XE.com . Yes, just two simple letters to represent their site, but to type it in, is just like second nature to me because it is so simple.

    Another important part is to watch how you spell words for your domain. Yes it may sound like one word, but people may here it as something else. Allot of people like using “Nex” or “Nx” because it sounds like the word “Next”, but when you say to someone “go to my website at NexInformation.com”(just an example site) do they really go to your site or NextInformation.com(not the extra “T”), totalling missing your site all together because of one letter. This also happens even if they see it in plain view, as we all have mistyped a domain name before.

    Also make sure your domain name says what your company does or is your company name. If people can connect the domain with your business, then you are already one step ahead.

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    Anthony Jewell has over 6 Years experience in the Web & Graphics World. You can visit my business at http://www.logo2d.com

    ?Copyright 2005 Logo2D.com : Feel free to use this article freely but please keep in the copyright

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    Dot Com or Dot Net, Which is the Best Domain Name to Settle for?

    Friday, January 9th, 2009

    When seeking domain names most people get confused over whether to settle for a dot com address or a dot net one. More so in recent times when dot net addresses have risen in popularity and usage on the net.

    There are a few important facts that one needs to realize before they opt for a dot net address. Quite often when people need to commit the address of a website to memory, they will not remember the dot net and the first place they will check is the given address with a dot com ending. Many times when they do not find it there, they will hardly ever think of using dot net to repeat the search. That is a lost visitor and maybe even potential client.

    What is even more worrying is that there is increasing evidence to suggest that an increasing number of people end up at a website after hearing about it either from a friend or acquaintance, or by seeing an advertisement on Television or hearing about it on radio or reading something about the site. When committing the website address to memory very few will distinctly remember the dot net address if that is the domain name that you have chosen.

    Having said that, let us also appreciate the fact it is becoming increasingly difficult for anybody to land a decent dot com address. After years of use, there is hardly any short catchy name that you can think of that will not have been already taken up. Do not even mention search-engine key word friendly domain names which will be virtually impossible to get. This is the reason why folks often settle for a dot net address. Others do not even bother to start their search with dot com domains. This is a big mistake despite the unavailability of good dot com domains, which we have already acknowledged.

    Exhaustive efforts should be made to try and secure a dot com domain before you give up and move to dot net. For example you can try and search for abandoned domain names. In fact by making an effort to be really creative and not hurrying the process, it is quite possible to secure a reasonably good dot com domain. You can be sure that it will be well worth the extra effort and time you put into it which will result in better success when you begin to seek traffic. Of course if you just cannot get a dot com domain, a dot net one is a good second choice.

    About the author: Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for Website Source, Inc. http://www.websitesource.com. Her established writing skills coupled with experience in the website hosting industry have provided internet professionals with marketing, product and service ideas for many years.

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    What is Domain Name Backordering?

    Friday, January 9th, 2009

    Domain names are the hottest net-real-estate on the internet. It’s no wonder services like: “Domain Name Backordering” is available to the public. Can someone really backorder your domain right from underneath you? Guess again… So what is Domain Name Backordering?

    This is a service that allows anybody on the internet to reserve a domain name if and when it goes up for sale! This doesn’t seem harmful does it? Guess again…

    Companies all over the internet are ordering this service for website url’s that seem to be popular! What if by chance you just happen to forget to re-order your domain name? Let’s say that you go on vacation and neglect to check your emails that are now telling you to renew your domain name? In this case, another company on the other side of the planet sees the fact that your domain name is soon up for grabs, so they order a backorder on your domain name and simply wait to see what you do with it.

    So here you are coming back from a very long vacation and what is this? Someone else now owns your domain name because you simply neglected your duty to keep your net-real-estate up-to-date!

    Unless you own a Canadian domain name protected by the CIRA, or you have a trademark on your domain name or business name, you are “really” out of luck. Once you are at this point, it may take months before you can prove to the courts that you simply forgot to renew your website address.

    Should This Service Be Allowed?

    That is a very interesting question. Some would say yes simply because there are literraly 1000′s of websites that aren’t going to be renewed next month. On the flip side, some of those websites are simply a mistake. I think the point here is; avoid making that mistake and renew your domain name for atleast 5 years.

    Google is apparently looking through the “WHOIS Data Base” to see which websites have the staying power online and are serious by registering their domain name for more than 1 year at a time.

    Again, should domain backordering be allowed?

    I say no! Just like a patent for an invention, you should have up to 1 year to claim that domain unless you transfer the domain name to another company or individual. This way we would have less domain name theft and less “hick-ups” from companies who simply forget their important responsibility.

    Protect Your Net-Real-Estate!

    Your website address is the most important commodity you have online. It is as important as your business name itself. It is what ties your company offline to online. People know you through your domain name. Potential clients may end up visiting your website later on, you woudln’t want some other company in your place?

    Please be careful when give out the access information for your domain name to anyone that isn’t within your trusted circle.

    I hope this article has helped you out!

    About The Author:

    Martin Lemieux is the president of the Smartads Advertising Network. Smartads helps small to large companies with their offline and online marketing needs.

    International: http://www.smartads.info
    Web Designers Directory: http://www.3dimentionaldesign.com

    Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article only if it remains the same.

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    Domain Name – How To Pick One

    Friday, January 9th, 2009

    Picking a domain name should be easy, right? Why, I’ll just use my business name. Not so fast, Sparky. A good bit of thought should be given to selecting a domain name.

    A Cautionary Note

    Picking a domain name is like getting married. You are going to have to stick with it till the bitter end. People that use your site will come to know it by the domain name. Repeat visitors will often simply type in the domain name to get to the site, better known as “type in traffic”. As an example, do you search for “Amazon” when you want to buy a book or do simply type in amazon.com? If Amazon were to change its domain name to Desert, there would be a lot of confusion. The same goes with your domain. Once you pick something, stick with it.

    Your Choices

    Well, the obvious choice is your business name, but it may not be the best. There are four significant issues to consider.

    First, is there something about your business name that makes using it as a domain an unwise choice? This situation typically arises if you have a long business name or have plural words. “Halstatt’s Rip’n Marketing Campaigns, Inc.” is going to be a horrible domain name. Clients are going to find it difficult to type in such a domain name.

    Double letter problems are a second issue that is entirely unique to the Internet. What if Sams Salon wants to use its business name as a domain? The “s” at the end of first word and beginning of the second can cause confusion. Is the domain name Samssalon.com or Samsalon.com? Confusing your users is a bad way to run a site.

    The third issue concerns the nature of your site and search engine optimization. If you are shooting for a particular keyword phrase, you may be better off using that keyword phrase in your domain name. Google, for instance, looks at the domain name when evaluating a site. If the words in your domain name are spaced with dashes, many believe it will help in the ranking process. This is why you see so many xxx-xxxx-xxx.com domain names on the net. If your business focuses on a very specific area, strong consideration should be given to using relevant keywords in your domain name.

    Finally, your domain name should end in “.com” and I don’t want to hear any argument or see any rolling of the eyes. The simple fact is that when people think of sites, they always type in .com. Yes, there are other extensions and .us, .net, .biz, etc., may seem unique, but it kills your traffic. Pavlov and his dog experiments had it right. People have been mentally conditioned to type in .com, so don’t select any other ending. If you do, a smart competitor will register the .com version of your name to get some free traffic. If you are really lucky, a porn site will do it!

    Take a breath before you select a domain name. Like a spouse, it can be either a good or bad choice.

    Halstatt Pires is with http://www.marketingtitan.com – an Internet marketing and advertising company comprised of a search engine optimization specialist providing meta tag optimization services and Internet marketing consultant providing internet marketing solutions through integrated design and programming services.

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    Cheap and Easy Domain Name Registration

    Friday, January 9th, 2009

    Just like any business, your identity is very important. On the World Wide Web, your domain name is your identity. Of course, you can opt for a subdomain name that comes with many free web hosting like http://yourdomain.netfirms.com. But if you are serious about being successful on the Internet, you have to get your own domain name, like http://www.yourdomain.com.
    Top 10 reasons to have your own domain name
    # Please note that all domain names listed in italic are ficticious: It is cheap and easy to get your own domain name (less than $15/year in most cases)
    # You own the name (as long as you pay the annual fee)
    # You are not dependent on one web hosting company to let you use a subdomain, or worse, a subdirectory
    # Your web site promotion effort does not go to waste if you change your web hosting company (because the domain name remains the same regardless of what host you use)
    # The domain name can be optimized to your business, like www.best-used-cars.com
    # Your web site is more professional
    # The domain name is easier to remember. For instance, www.best-used-cars.com rather than www.geocities.com/web/public/business/auto/best-used-cars/
    # It is much easier to sell a web site with its own domain name
    # A good domain name can be an asset
    # It is cheap and easy to get your own domain name (this one is worth repeating)
    How to register for a domain name
    # Please note that all domain names listed in italic are ficticious: Think of appropriate name for that suit the theme of your web site. For instance, an online dating service may find domain name like www.loveconnection.com, more desirable than say www.best-used-cars.com
    # Search for domain name availability. Every domain name registrar will provide you with a search tool; although some search tools are better than other. You will have to do a lot of searches because a lot of domain name that you wish to have is probably already owned by someone else (very common).
    # As you come across available domain names that you like, jot them down. Keep searching until you have about 3-5 different domain names to choose from.
    # Choose a domain name and register it at a domain name ICANN Accredited registrar.
    Other factors to consider

    * Initially, you will want the .com version of your domain name. If your internet business takes off, you may want to consider registering other first-level domains (i.e., .net) of your domain name and perhaps even similar domain names to prevent mistaken identity
    * Use domain name registrar that will register the domain under your name under all contacts information (perhaps with the exception of technical contact). It should be clear that you own the domain name.
    * Use domain name registrar that provide good online account support.
    * Use automatic domain name renewal if you are planning to own the domain name long-term

    Pinyo Bhulipongsanon is the owner of GreatNexus Webmaster Resources offering visitors with features such as webmaster forums, webmaster directory, webmaster dictionary, programming scripts, and webmaster articles.

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    How to Sell your Website

    Friday, January 9th, 2009

    There are hundreds and thousands of websites on the internet today being bought and sold and there are many places you can sell your website such as ebay and website brokers. Though this article we will explore each of these possibilities in greater details.

    Ebay – Selling a website on ebay can perfect for some and completely useless for others. As most people know ebay, it gets millions of hits every minute from people looking for everything from hair nets to race cars. For starters this is a great way to get word out that your website is for sale. It has lots of people viewing your ads but keep in mind your competition is feirce as so many people post sites for sale on ebay. To sell your website on ebay it has to stand out from the rest.

    Forums – Forums tend to be a great place to sell websites. They tend to ask alot more questions about statistics and revenue than most other places but if you have a quality site you can sometimes get alot more for it buy selling your website in forums. Good forums for this include sitepoint.com, geekvillage.com and webhostingtalk.com.

    Website Brokers – Website brokers normally go out and try to get you the best possible price for your website. They tend to have contacts in the industry and will get into contact with people you can’t or dont even know exist. They generally charge a fee of around 10%-15%. There are a few websites around where you can post your website up to brokers – kind of like a cross between ebay and a brokers firm.

    Sell to your visitors – A commonly used technique to get a good profit from the sale of your website is to post a ‘site for sale’ link or image on the frontpage of the site for sale. This targets the audience to people interested in the topic of the site. But be warned not all of these people are or want to be webmasters.

    Personal Contact – If you have a low budget, selling your website though your personal contact can be very rewarding. This takes everyone else out of the equation and you pay no broker fees or ad fees. If you plan on selling your website this way make sure you know enough people who would be intrested in the site.

    Website Checklist

    Before you get to putting up website for sale ads and hiring a site broker, there are a few things you will need. Firstly, find out in detail your statistics. This including unique visitors per day or month, bandwidth used per month and current and past revenue for the website. Most people who are in the industry will ask for the pagerank of the website too. You can find out your page rank by downloading the google toolbar and re-visiting your website. A pagerank is considered by most webmasters as being a large factor.

    About The Author

    Matt Dobinson is the owner of PageBrokers.com – A website dedicated to buying and selling websites online for the best possible price.. He also runs WebmasterFreebie.com – an online community for webmasters.

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    Customer Excellence Returns to Web Site Hosting!

    Friday, January 9th, 2009

    For those of you with Web sites, you probably know what a “host” is. It’s a company that provides a location, or address, on the Internet where your Web site resides.

    In other words, just like a physical business needs an address, so does a Web site. You can’t have a Web site and just “stick it up” on the Web. Unless you want to set up your own server, you have to go through a hosting company who gives you that address, including server space and bandwidth, that enables the search engines and visitors to find your site.

    Let’s look at some common problems we often have with hosting companies:

    • You can never find an actual person to talk to! They may have a 24-hour customer service line open, but you can never get through to a real person.
    • Hosting companies often think that the “lowest price” will always get the sale, but they fail to realize that what people really want is excellent customer service, servers that are up almost 100% of the time, and a variety of services that come with the hosting package.
    • Many hosting companies don’t provide any other functionality other than Web site hosting. They don’t provide a “control panel” full of goodies such as PGP secure e-mail, shopping carts, log analysis, database creation, etc.
    • Guess what? Technical support people often don’t make the best “customer support” people. They may be technical gurus, but their main interest lies in their high tech servers and other functionality, rather than solving the simple problems of their customers.

    In other words, weak customer service is a major problem with the majority of hosting companies these days. Solution:

    I recently had the pleasure of being introduced to Combustion Hosting Company, and to say I was impressed is a vast understatement.

    Here are some things that struck me as unbelievable. When the phone rings, whoever answers the phone is required to stand up to answer it and talk. After all, the sheer act of standing up requires that they’re alert and are listening to your problems and concerns. And, you actually speak to a “real” person!

    With Combustion, if you have a problem, they don’t just “tell” you how to solve it, they solve it for you! Also, their services certainly aren’t limited to “hosting.” They can set you up with an account to where you can access the Internet through local access numbers no matter where you travel.

    Their prices are extremely reasonable — much better than I had been paying previously. Plus, the “extras” I’ve received by going with Combustion are amazing.

    But the one thing that makes Combustion shine over most Web hosting companies is their devotion to providing good customer service, and this is an area in which they truly excel.

    So, if you’re in the market for a new Web site, or if you aren’t pleased with your current host, consider Combustion Hosting. It will be one of the smartest moves you could ever make for your Web site. http://www.combustionhosting.com/moreinfo

    If you want further proof as to the benefits of using Combustion, read: this article.

    About The Author

    Robin Nobles is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Workshops with John Alexander. They teach 2-day beginner, 3-day advanced, and 5-day all-inclusive “hands on” search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe. She also teaches online search engine marketing courses through http://www.onlinewebtraining.com, and she’s a member of Wordtracker’s official question support team. With partner John Alexander, she’s co-authored a series of e-books called, “The Totally Non-Technical Guides to Having a Successful Web Site.” And, they opened a networking community for search engine marketers called The World Resource Center for Search Engine Marketers.

    robin@searchengineworkshops.com

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