7 Tips Before Choosing Your Domain Name

Your domain name is your business name on the Internet. This is a decision that will affect search engine optimization as well as your return customer traffic. Your domain name will also affect anchor text of inbound links and your search engine rankings.

Some companies have chosen to brand themselves with names that have nothing to do with their business i.e. Yahoo, Google, Amazon, and eBay. It’s not that they don’t understand search engine rankings but that they have deep pockets for advertising to help their customers remember their name.

Here are 7 tips to help you choose a domain name making you more memorable to your customers and search engines alike.

1. Keep your name as short as possible. People remember names of their favorite websites. If your domain name is short and memorable you have a better chance of return traffic. Advertising your name offline becomes easier when it’s something people can remember without writing down.

2. Be clear about the direction of your web business. When you start your business you may have an idea to sell widgets but as your business grows you may find that widgets, wickets and wonkets all sell well. Your domain name should be able to grow with your business.

3. Try to include 2 keywords in your domain name. When you design your domain name you should include at least one, if not two, keywords in the name. This helps to improve your search engine ranking and organic search traffic. Search engines will place a higher value to a site that sells widgets, has widgets in the name and has content that is optimized for widgets. The assumption is widgets will be the focus of your site and therefore provide valuable content to the searcher.

4. Include the location in the name if you are marketing and selling in only one specific location. Are you a realtor selling exclusively in Chicago? ChicagoExampleRealEstate.com, XYZExampleRealEstate-Chicago.com, YourExampleXYZRealEstateInChicago.com all have the keyword Real Estate and the location. However, if you sell widgets in Chicago but ship around the world you won’t put Chicago in the domain name. People searching for widgets will pass over your site if they believe, from your name, that you sell only in Chicago.

5. Avoid trademarked names. You’ve heard the stories of the little guy who buys a name the big company wants. He sells the name and spends the rest of his days retired on a private island. Those days are gone. Now the big companies are calling their lawyers. TheBestOnEbay.com or MicrosoftRox.com are just not good ideas.

6. Look legitimate and buy the variations. Avoid purchasing .biz, .tv, or .ws as your main site. The most respect is given to sites on .com, .net, and .org. On the other hand once you have a .com that you intend to grow you should also buy the other extensions and potentially even the .biz, .tv and .ws. Redirect those sites to your primary site. This way if a customer can’t remember the extension he’ll get to your site anyway. The new kid on the block is .mobi. This is the extension used for mobile devices and sites providing services on the mobile web. Opened for general registration on September 26, 2006 and sponsored by a consortium of companies including Microsoft, Google and Nokia this extension has already sparked criticism.

7. Ask for advice. You’d be surprised at how many times a domain names sounds absolutely brilliant at 1 am when you purchase it. However, in the light of day, when you’ve asked some of your friends, it makes no sense at all. Ask your friends, relatives and head over to a webmaster forum. You’ll get great advice, learn a few things you didn’t know and see your business from a new set of eyes.

These simple tips will help you establish a solid foundation for your Internet business and send you targeted qualified customers.

Premium Domains For Sale

WeValuer.com has just listed two more domain names for sale.  The two domains are current event names.

http://www.CurtHocker.com

http://www.AnNixonCooper.com

Curt Hocker is the golf phenom who was in the news for the past few weeks for sinking 4 holes-in-one in one week!  Ann Nixon Cooper is the 106 year old women that Barack Obama mentioned on election night in his acceptance speech.

For more info please visit the buy/sell page from WeValuer.com, http://wevaluer.com/domains.html

Domain Reselling and Investing

As the Internet grows and expands there always seems to be new ventures and ideas cropping up; this is especially true when it comes to aspects that revolve around the purchasing of domains and the building of new websites. So what does the world of domains and the Internet have to offer us now?

With the growth and expansion of the Internet domain reselling has came to the forefront and has been helped by many website design companies who offer the service of domain reselling. It is thanks to these website design companies that domain reselling has expanded and many of these domain reseller companies are now stand alone Internet businesses, but just what is this domain reseller business all about?

The companies who become the domain resellers provide registration of available domain names for their clients and often also engage in the process of acquiring expired domains from a drop registrar for later resale; so selling domain names as a reseller for an established registrar is a great solution for webmasters registering many domains, and a great money making opportunity for anyone on the Web.

Becoming a domain reseller holds great business potential. Whether you’re a web designer, developer or search marketing service, or you’re looking to establish your own domain management service, you could benefit from the help of an established provider. Many domain name registrars will offer reseller programs to any individual or business who wishes to sign up. If accepted, they can then register domains at lower prices through their parent ICANN accredited registrar and can then resell them to customers.

Whether you are hoping to become a domain reseller business or you are an individual or business who are wishing to make the most from using a domain reseller you will be giving yourself the added advantage of being able to use a range of tools which are available thanks to domain reseller programmes such as unlimited domain hosting and includes a range of added services such as search engine optimisation, load balancing and exchange email.

The basic idea of a domain reseller is to drum up more business for a registrar as the initial registrar will still take care of all the services such as registration and customer support; however the buyer pays the reseller and may even access the domain name control panel at the reseller’s site, the domain name is actually registered with the reseller’s parent registrar.

If you are looking to do business with a domain reseller company then you need to ensure that the domain reseller is trusted and the best way of ensuring this is finding out if the domain reseller is ICANN accredited. You should also do your research into your chosen domain reseller by finding out about their prices to see if they are competitive, provide exceptional customer service and have a state-of-the art IT infrastructure.

So for the latest when it comes to gaining a domain find out more about domain reselling and what it can do for you.

The In’s and Out’s of Domain Names

Domain names are basically the identity of a website in the virtual world of the internet. It is similar to the names given to each one of us, for identification. The only difference is that two human beings may have the same name, but two websites can never have the same domain names. The domain names are used in various ways, for identification, reference, uniform resource locators and they also appear after the ‘@’ sign in an e-mail address.

The naming of a domain is done through the DNS methodology. The DNS confers a unique name to a domain after the customary domain registration. The process of domain registration is done through the registrars. These registrars have the authorisation and accreditation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The ICANN is responsible for overseeing the process of the distribution of domain names and numbers for the internet.

Domain registration is done generally for a specific period of time. Generally the period of domain registration varies between one to ten years. The period of domain registration can be extended at any point of time before the end of the grace period.

The domain name registration system is an international process involving all the countries of the world. Once the domain is registered under the domain name registration system, the name cannot be altered. Although, a party can sell their domain to another, but again the second party has to get the domain registered under its name in the domain name registration system.

In the past few years, the whole process of domain name registration has been made simpler. Due to this simplification, we see many new domain spaces being bought and sold in the world market and this domain name registration has become a big business. Many individuals as well as big and small companies are coming forward to get their own domain space and to reach out to the world by developing their own websites.

Why Get A Domain Name?

Is there really a need to provide your website or online business a domain name? What difference will a domain name do to your website or online business? Domain name or the unique name that you chose for your website or online business – independent of ISP – is beneficial to webmasters, website owners, online business owners, online customers and online users. Domain names are significant in many ways. Listed here are some of the basic benefits of having a domain name.

Benefits of Domain Name

? Domain Name Allows You To Change Web Host or ISP Without Having To Change The Name.

It will be easier to change to a different web host or ISP if your website or online business owns a domain name. If ever you find a better web host than the one your site is using right now, you can easily transfer to it without the burden of having to change the name again. There will be nothing to hold you back from moving on towards a different web host since the name will remain the same.

In short, domain names are portable – you can literally carry it anywhere you want or in varied web hosts as you please. Now no one can hold you back from changing web hosts and ISPs. You won’t be tied up to your old web host or ISP again!

? Domain Names Provide Identity for Your Online Business.

Giving your website or your online business a domain name is actually giving it its own identity. Owning a domain name for your website or online business builds the credibility and image of the business. Even for the regular online users, visiting a site through its domain name is definitely better than visiting it through a free site with such a long name!

? Domain Names Give Your Site An Edge in Search Engines Submission

There are some search engines that do not accept submissions from a website with no domain name – meaning the ones hosted by a free site. Lucky if you find a good number of search engines that will accept your submission.

? Domain Names Make It Easy For Your Customers To Remember Your Company.

More often than not, it will be a whole lot easier for your customers to remember your company or online business if it has a domain name. Moreover, it will be easier for them to visit your website using a domain name. Having a domain name will be beneficial not only to you as a webmaster but to your customers and the general online users as well.

Domain names are essential for your website or online business in terms of identity, image, credibility, portability and search engine submission. But the benefits do not stop there. Giving your website a domain name also helps your customers.

Linking Domain Names and SEO

Domain and page names have an important connection to SEO for your websites. Domain names need to be highly recognizable and memorable when it comes to search engine rankings. The more relevant your domain is to your keywords, the higher it will be ranked.

Good, relevant domain names can still be found. Godaddy and Nathosting offer the best prices and easy search features for both domain name purchases and hosting. If you are going to buy a lot of domain names pick one of these and open an account. Not only are their discounts for account holders very good but the “preferred” customer service is excellent.

Your goal should be to own your domain rather than rent a subdomain. This allows you to perform SEO operations simply and easily and with better clarity. Most directories accept domain names only, as well. These are the sites that list sites on the web and you’ll want to submit yours to these for top SEO rankings. Directories that do not allow non-domain names are there to protect an investment.

How do you pick a good domain name? Start by choosing one that matches your website theme. Your domain name and URL should reflect what you’re trying to accomplish from your site. Choose one that will make people want to come to your site. Using the name of your company for your domain name also works. This is the fastest way of providing a good, quality description of what the visitor is going to see. Many visitors will actually consider your domain name the name of your company so name yourself well.

If there are several names and you can’t decide, pcik the safest one. Safe is a better choice with SEO, espcially if it’s your first website. You might consider getting some help from the people around you, as you never know what they might be thinking that could be great. You need to come up with a few ideas in case some are taken.

Many things with SEO optimization are fluid and change. Domain names are no exception. Stay away from hyphenated names and free domains. Google appears to be deleted these types of sites in the era of 2006 SEO techniques.

The preferred extension for domains is .com. Yes, there are losts of other extensions now but the “.com” designation is the most recognizable and today, still preferred. If you have to look at other use “.net” and “.org.”

Getting Started In Domaining

Domaining is a fascinating business and investment vehicle because once the initial investment is made, it is a business that requires minimal attention. This makes it one of the best models of a residual income business on the web. However, this is not to say that domaining is easy. Working as a domainer simply means that you have to invest all your attention, effort and money up front, while researching what domains to buy.

Definition of Domaining

Domaining is basically the business of buying domain names as an investment. When thinking about this business, a good approach is to think of domain names as real estate. Think of them as pieces of virtual internet-land that have some intrinsic value, where the majority of that value stems from their location and from their degree of development. Their “location” is akin to their visibility on the web. Short recognizable names have the best location, and so they are also the most expensive. The buildings on a piece of land are akin to a website developed at a domain name. The website is likely to attract visitors either through it’s content or functionality, and therefore increase the value of the domain name.

Like any mature property business, most of the valuable names have already been snatched up and are only available at a premium. Speculative names are still available, as are names with unproven extensions (.info, .biz, .us, etc.) A big difference in the domain world though is that new names with potential are available all the time, as new phrases and trends become popular, as old domain names expire, and as new technologies emerge.

Monetizing a Domain Name

There are a million way to monetize a domain name if you are willing to develop a website on it, but since this article is about the purest form of domaining, I will only address ways to monetize domain names without developing them.

Reselling Domains - As with any piece of property, your domain may be worth more to someone else than you paid for it. This may be the case if you develop a knack for coming up with brandable names ahead of time (ie. google, digg, myspace, zappos), or if you manage to snap up names related to a developing trend or idea (ie. bird flu, wimax, AJAX). This is a speculative way of making money from domains, but your initial investment of $6-9 per domain won’t break the bank and might create a hefty return. Once you buy a few domain names, list them for sale on websites such as Sedo to see if any of them get picked up. Remember, patience is a virtue.  You should always look to getting a domain name appraisal BEFORE you list them for sale so you know you are asking the correct price.  I have used WeValuer.com for my domain appraisals and have had great results, they are fairly inexpensive at only $14.95 per appraisal. 

Parking Domains - On the web, targeted traffic is worth money. Targeted traffic are simply visitors interested in a specific topic. If your domain names get traffic (more on this later) you can monetize that traffic by parking your domains with a domain parking service such as Sedo, DomainSponsor or Fabulous. You simply register with the service for free, point your domains to their DNS servers, and voila, you’re done. The service puts up a simple one page website on your domain that has advertiser links and information based on the keywords and category associated with your domain name. When visitors follow those links, you share the revenue generated with the domain parking service.

Finding Domain Names

There are many different strategies for coming up with and researching domain names to buy. There is plenty of (well researched) speculation out there, but there are also many domainers buying names with the intention of creating passive income. For this, the domainers buy domains that receive traffic that can be monetized.

The simplest way that a domain receives traffic without having a website on it is through type-ins. We’ve all been responsible for type-ins before when we went straight to the address bar and typed yahoo.com or money.com or bored.com. Sites such as cellphones.com and business.com get hundreds or thousands of targeted visitors a day through type-ins. Often, people will type their search terms directly into the address bar with .com, hoping to find information of interest. This behavior is characteristic of an internet newbie, but keep in mind that there are more newbies on the internet every day, and as broadband becomes more widely available, this is a trend that is going to continue.

Research time is the biggest investment a domainer makes before buying a name. A great free tool that I use for domain research is Domain All-in-One from DomainState. It allows you to quickly check the availability of domains, as well as look up keywords on Overture and domain popularity via Alexa. Below are a few strategies for picking and finding domain names.

Speculation - If you have a good head for names and can come up with catchy ones that might one day be a company’s next product or brand name, give it a try. Also try to spot upcoming trends and catch phrases, and register names related to them. Names in other languages, and names in other Top Level Domains (TLDs) such as .info, .us, .biz, etc. are also quite open to speculation. Remember though that speculation is just that, and there is no guarantee of a future payoff.

Type-in Traffic - Most obvious keywords and phrases have already been registered, but new ones are coming into the public consciousness all the time. New music trends such as reggaeton, new global scares such as bird flu, and new technologies such as wimax present the early bird with an opportunity to register keywords and phrases that are likely to get more and more type-in traffic. Keep your eyes and ears open and do a little research every day to see what is available.

Typos - Misspellings of popular domains get traffic through type-ins. This includes domains such as gogle.com or yahooo.com, but also less obvious ones such as celphones.com and homelaons.com. These domains can be lucrative because you can park these domains using the right keyword and create instant revenue. For coming up with likely typos and determining their likelihood, I’ve found SearchSpell to be a very useful tool.

Expired Domain Names - Domain names expire every day without their owners bothering to re-register them. Expired domains may have hosted websites, portals, blogs, or businesses beforehand, and as a result they may have incoming links from other sites and they may come up in the search engines. This means that they are likely to get some traffic, which you can monetize through Sedo or other means. Since this is a such a profitable strategy, you most likely will have to go through a drop-catcher such as Pool, SnapNames, or NameWinner and pay a premium for the expired domain at an auction. Also, keep in mind that the traffic numbers at these sites are likely to drop over time as they fall in the search engine results and users realize the old page is no longer there.

Buying Proven Domains - If you have some capital laying around and are willing to pay a premium for an income stream, then you can buy domains that already have establish traffic and income. These domains can cost anywhere from the 1999 bubble price of $7.5 million for business.com, to more reasonable 5- and 6-figure prices of proven domains today, to a few hundred dollars for a domain with a minor income stream. Good places to start looking are SnapNames, Sedo, and the For Sale forum at DomainState. In this case, your investment might take a few months to a few years before you generate a positive return, but the security of an income has always been an expensive commodity.

Next Steps

If you are new to domaining, take time to learn the business and hold on to your wallet for now. There is a lot of great information out there at resources such as DomainState and DNJournal. Their articles and discussions are a great way to avoid many costly mistakes yourself and to learn where to invest your time and eventually your dollars.

Once you have a grasp of the business and enough confidence to get going, go ahead and start experimenting! Don’t spend large sums of money up front or buy hundreds of domain names at once. But do get started buying a few; one of the beauties of starting in this business is that you can register a domain for the price of a burger. Check out 1and1 and NameCheap. Put them up on Sedo, advertise them for sale, see what you get. And if you want to take the development route, go ahead and put a website up on them.

Be consistent and have fun. Learn about the business daily and try out new strategies until you find one that you’re comfortable with. Play your cards right and you too could soon be making money while you sleep.

Appraising Expired Domain Names

Newbie expired domain traders often find it very difficult to asses the real value of their domains. In fact, judging the real quality of an expired domain that you are thinking of buying could be a hard game. However, when you understand the basics and fundamentals of expired domain industry, how it operates and works, how you can sell a good domain to a prospective buyer and how you can extract maximum benefits from an domain expired, then it becomes possible to create a blueprint for generating a substantial amount of online income.

Knowing more about the expired domain that you wish to purchase will help you in the long run. There are several tools that come handy, while you search for a very good expired domain. Here are some of them:

Using Wayback Archive: This is an excellent utility that can help you know more about the quality of expired domain that you are planning to buy. With this tool, you can inspect how a domain looked in the past, what was the main activity, what were the products sold or what type of information provided there. Knowing about the antecedent of an expired domain will help you in designing a solid future strategy for your business.

Using Linkpop feature: This is a tool that finds out the total sum of links to other productive web sites. This is a utility that also helps you detect the number of links and incoming traffic to a domain.

Overture with and without extensions: Overture Keyword Selector Tool is an excellent tool that displays how many times a search was made in one of the major search engines for a specific period, say one month.

Google Pagerank or PR: This is yet another tool that helps you find out a particular expired domain’s commercial importance, by the total number of votes it received by links and sources from other web portals.

Alexa Ratings: This web site ranks a particular web domain by the total number of visitors to a particular web site. The user must use Alexa dotcom web site tool bar to conduct the search.

These wonderful tools come very useful and handy, when you want to assess and evaluate the quality of a particular expired domain. However, the most important factors that you must consider before buying an expired domain are:

a)Accuracy of Linkpop estimates

b)Most probable incoming traffic and links

c)Overture Keyword tool evaluation to test what advertisers are paying for targeted traffic.

d)Checking to see, if the expired domain in question provides a click through rates of about 5%. This is often the most difficult part of the exercise.

In the end, the choosiest domain is the one that provides you an excellent opportunity to extract and squeeze the best possible income. A good expired domain is also the one that provides you an excellent click through rate when you expose it to a lucrative domain parking or PPC campaign.

If you are ever unsure of exactly how to value the domain you should definately get a domain name appraisal.  I have been using WeValuer.com for this.  I’ll get an appraisal on an expired domain name before I purchase it just to be sure I’ll make money selling it on the aftermarket.

GoDaddy domains, only .99 Cents?!?!?

Yes that is correct .coms for only .99 cents over at GoDaddy.com right now!  Dont miss this big opportunity to become a domain name owner!

Use the code: Test99

Enjoy this freebie, code is going around on the forums right now. Only works once per account and heard it works on transfers as well.

.org = confirmed

Expiration = Unkown

So get in QUICK!

Updated Look, WeValuer

            One of the hottest products on the market these days is internet domain names which makes sense in our technological age.  However, for people who want to buy and sell websites it can be a tricky thing.  How do you know you are getting a good price?  An accurate and reliable domain appraisal is key for this.  That’s where WeValuer.com comes in.  It’s crucial when buying or selling to know the fair market value of a domain name so that you can be sure you are getting the best deal possible for your money. 

 

WeValuer.com uses ten different value indicators as well as qualified appraisers to research and evaluate the merits of your domain name for the most accurate price available. They use not only computer generated information but real people actually research the domain to give you the most reliable estimate you can get. WeValuer.com also provides a list of domain names currently for sale for convenient one-stop shopping.  They will even list your domain for sale for free when purchasing an estimate. 

 

WeValuer.com is now remodeled and easy than ever to use.  With just one click you can have the most up to date and thorough estimate of the domain you wish to buy or sell.  If you have any questions or concerns friendly associates or there to help you with anything you may need.  WeValuer.com offers domain appraisals for just $14.95 and is a proud user of Google Checkout for the most secure purchases. 

 

When you are interested in buying or selling your domain, there’s only one place to go to be sure you are getting the most accurate estimate available… WeValuer.com.

–Amber Pulford