Is Your Company Name Killing Your Online Business?

Ahhh... your company name.

Your identity. What separates you from everyone else.

I would be willing to bet that you spent a good deal of time coming up with the perfect name for your company. Am I right?

Something catchy, easy to remember, and unique. How am I doing so far?

What if I were to tell you that your company name is possibly the single biggest hindrance to your business's success online.

Unfortunately, for many companies it is.

Choosing a name for your business online is much different than choosing a name for a brick and mortar business.

You see, in the real world, a business with a catchy, easy to remember name will get traffic simply from people driving by on the street or walking by in a shopping center even if they have never heard of you before.

Unfortunately, this is not how things work online. Online, there is no drive-by traffic, no people walking in to your business because they were next door shopping.

Online, you must be found among a pool of tens of thousands of other businesses.

Online, people don't casually browse with friends to pass the time.

Online, people search... and unless your name is Microsoft, Wal-Mart, or another extremely well known and well branded name, people are not going to search for your company name.

Studies show that approximately 80% of Internet users find what they are looking for by way of search engines (i.e., Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, etc.), and I guarantee you, they are not going to be searching for your wonderful catchy name, they will be searching for the topic they want.

Let me give you an example. Let's say you own a gourmet coffee business called "The Brewmaster" that you decide to take online. Of course you love your name and create your online identity around your offline name. You reserve the domain name "www.brewmaster.com," keep your company name, and title your site "The Brewmaster."

You've submitted your site to Yahoo as well as all the other directories and search engines. Ahhh... life is good. Orders should start rolling in any minute now...

Guess what? Unless you have a HUGE marketing budget for banner ads, etc., you've just doomed your business.

Let's look at why.

First, let's look at the...

*Site Title*

Whether you're dealing with a directory or a search engine, the site title is the single most important aspect of your listing. For search engines, the text found within the title tags of the page is given more weight than any other single factor on that page (i.e., keyword density, keyword frequency, heading tags, etc.). In a directory, your entire listing is comprised of two things, your title, and your description.

In both cases, if the keywords related to your business are not found in your title, your chances of coming up in a search are virtually non-existent. If your site is about "gourmet coffee" then those words, or at the very least, "coffee," should be somewhere within your title.

*The Company Name*

Just as your site title should have your most important keywords within them, so should your company name.

Why, you ask?! The answer... directories.

In directories, when a visitor uses the search function (which is what the vast majority use) you will only be found if the search term the visitor uses is found either in your site title or your description. Unfortunately, virtually all directories require your site title to be your actual company name. Remember that directories are powered by humans, not software. A human reviews the site, and assigns the title and description that he/she decides is correct. Yes, they all let you suggest a site title, but ultimately, regardless of what you submit, your title almost always ends up as your company name.

Looking again at the above example, this would mean that your title in almost all of the directories would be "The Brewmaster." This means the only place you would have left to put your keywords would be the description, and this again is up to the editor. This means that any site that has the search term "coffee" or "gourmet coffee" in both the title and description would come up far ahead of your site in the search results, costing you traffic and sales that could have been yours.

*The URL*

Here is another very much overlooked tool. Whenever possible, your URL should contain your most important keywords. Many engines and directories will give your site a boost if your keywords are found within your URL. Also, when you submit your site to the directories, if your URL, your company name, and your site title all match, that will virtually guarantee that you will get the title you requested.

Let's tie the three previous areas together with an example of what you could have named your site instead of "The Brewmaster."

Here's one possible alternative: "Gourmet Coffee Brewmaster."

The above alternative would give you a company name that includes your most important keywords and the perfect title for your page.

You could then reserve the domain -- http://www.gourmet-coffee-brewmaster.com -- giving you a perfect trifecta. The same company name, page title, and URL -- practically insuring that you get the directory listing you want.

Of course, this is only one possibility, but I think this should illustrate the point.

To Summarize

<ul>

<li>Unless you have a huge advertising budget or are an extremely well branded business, DO NOT name your online business something like the above example.

<li>Use a business name that contains your most important keywords.

<li>Use this business name as your site title.

<li>Use a URL that contains your most important keywords and whenever possible, is the same as, or as close as possible to, your keyword-laden business name.

</ul>

Follow these rules and you should have no trouble developing a very steady flow of large amounts of traffic from the directories, and you will be well on your way in the search engine arena as well.

About The Author

John Buchanan is the author of the book "The Insider's Guide to Dominating The Search Engines," and publisher of a FREE monthly newsletter "The Search Engine Bulletin." Visit us at <a target="_new" href="http://www.se-secrets.com/">http://www.se-secrets.com</a> for more information or to sign up for the newsletter.

The Sub-Domain - An Affiliates Friend

It's surprising, at least to me, the amount of Affiliates who aren't aware of the value and flexibility that the 'sub-domain' can give their promotional website activities. Set up in the right way, a single domain through a host who includes multiple 'sub-domains' in their hosting package can fill ALL the online needs of even the busiest and most diversified Affiliate.

Firstly, for those who need to know, a 'sub-domain' is simply a separate, individual web folder, which can be attached to a 'main' domain and treated in all respects as a separate entity online. It is similar to a 'sub-web', which most hosting facilities include except that it is, in it's own right, treated as a separate domain by the SEs rather than a sub-folder under a domain.

The way in which they are represented online as URLs is as follows:

For instance, if you have a domain name, 'domain.com' and you add a sub-domain named 'bubble', the URL to that particular 'website' (which is what each sub-domain amounts to, a separate website) will be 'bubble.domain.com'. No doubt, many have seen these types of URLs online and in promo emails etc. The 'dot' between the sub-domain and main domain is not to be confused with the 'dash' that can be used as part of a main domain. For instance, 'bubble-domain.com' would need to be registered and propagated in it's own right whereas, sub-domains can be created under a main domain in a matter of seconds, with their own FTP password, image, private and cgi-bin folders etc.

What makes them so valuable a tool, if it's not so obvious already, is that an Affiliate can create a separate website for totally unrelated products or services, fill each website with the necessary pages of content, links and facilities etc and promote each to the Search Engines and other directories, virtually as if it were a different main domain. As I've said, the SEs treat each sub-domain as a separate entity and categorize them as such. A very handy ability when it comes to Affiliate programs that supply a website or webpage for their Affiliates to use and promote. In such a case, you can basically make that page or site your very own in every respect, optimizing for SEs and presenting it how ever you please (provided no agreements are broken).

Obviously, having a 'generic' main domain name is essential to getting the best out of this cost, time and trouble saving method of creating multiple websites. If you have a main domain name 'pillshop.net' (perhaps your initial Affiliate endeavor involved promoting this type of product) it is really only going to be useful for the one type of product or service. Alternatively, something more generic like 'online-plus.biz' is going to be useful for promoting almost anything because it has no specific meaning. For instance, in the case of promoting a Singles Dating Affiliate program, something like 'singles.online-plus.biz' would work as well as 'pills.online-plus.biz' or even 'dogs.online-plus.biz'. However, 'singles.pillshop.net' just doesn't work, does it? (Although, I have seen some pretty weird URLs around!)

The only problem you will be presented with, concerns the traffic ranking facility Alexa. Alexa will read all sub-domains as their parent 'main domain', so the traffic ranking for each website will be the same, as will all the other Alexa information. However, this isn't such a great problem when you consider that the total traffic indicated for each website will actually be the total for ALL of them. In my opinion, not so much of a problem, at all.

So, for the Affiliate at least, choosing the right type of domain name and a hosting facility that includes multiple sub-domains in their package is very important, especially if there's any possibility that you're going to be venturing into promoting unrelated products and services. The first hosting facility I was involved with a few years ago, charged $10 to create each sub-domain. The one I've been with for the last couple of years, allows unlimited free sub-domains (contact me at one of my websites if you want to know who they are).

The 2005 Edition of Steve Brennan's popular ebook title <a href="http://www.ebooks.online-plus.biz" target="_blank">'The Affiliate Guide Book</a>' is available now. He also operates a number of Affiliate wesbites which include <a href="http://www.hair-loss.online-plus.biz" target="_blank">Hair Loss Remedy</a> and <a href="http://www.diet.online-plus.biz" target="_blank">Diet & Weight Loss Place</a>.

How to Win Expired Domains

Every day thousands of expired domain names come back onto the market. This is due to the owner not extending their registration. The reason for non registration of domains can be for a simple a reason that the owner forgot of no longer has any interest of funds to continue with the registration of their domain.

Once failure to re-register their domain it becomes an expired domain. If you are new to expired domains then this article on <a target="_new" href="http://www.namesearchdomain.com/expired-domains-explained.php">expired domains</a> will tell you all you need to know.

Now there are several reasons you may want to register an expired domain. Two good reasons to do so are that all of the current domains you have searched for are already taken. Or that the expired domain names already have a good link popularity in the search engines which means that for a time you will get lots of free traffic.

The first step to finding an expired domain is to search for it. There are several sites available that offer expired domain searches. You can find many by searching on Google. Here are a couple of expired domain search engines I have found useful, you can try <a target="_new" href="http://www.deleteddomains.com/">Deleted Domains</a> or <a target="_new" href="http://www.domainsbot.com/">DomainsBot</a>.

Once you have found some domains that are about to expire or have just expired then you will need to back order them to give yourself a chance of getting your hands on the expired domains that you have found. Backordering a domain can be done through many of the domain registration sites, however if you want to increase your chances of getting the domain name here is what you do.

The registry for com and net names gives each registrar a limited amount of bandwidth to attempt to register an expired domain name. Each registrar has a certain amount of affiliates; some have 1 affiliate whilst others have several. To increase your chance of successfully registering the domain you want you need to backorder with a service that has a greater number of affiliates.

To find out who has the most affiliates you can look at this <a target="_new" href="http://whois-search.com/deleting/who.php">whois search</a>. This is a list of affiliates for each registrar, by choosing registrars with the most affiliates this increases your chance of winning your back order. For example Pool currently has the most affiliates so registering with them will give you a better chance of succeeding than someone who went with Godaddy.

This technique by no means guarantees you will get the domain you are after, but it will improve your chances over someone else who has registered with fewer registers. However you will increase your chances of winning by having the greater amount of back orders with different registrars. This is something many people do not realise when they back order expired domains.

Allan is the webmaster at NameSearchDomain.com where you canfind out all about <a target="_new" href="http://www.namesearchdomain.com/">Domain names</a>.

How to Choose the Right Domain Name for Your Company

As the editor of DomainNameWire.com, I'm frequently e-mailed by people asking for domain name advice. Specifically, what should they look for when registering a domain name for their company? This may be basic for some of you, but I hope some of my readers gain value from this.

Let me start with the things to avoid when registering a domain name that will be used for your main company web site.

1. Never use a hyphen. If your domain is some-name.com, many people will forget the hyphen when typing your name into the browser or sending e-mail to you. This can result in lost business.

2. Avoid digits if possible. Using digits requires you to spell the domain name out to people. For example2.com, you need to tell people it's the digit &quot;2&quot; rather than the word &quot;two&quot; or even &quot;to&quot;.

Here are the positive things to look for in a domain name.

1. .Com extension. It's imperative that your domain name be available with a .com extension. I've seen businesses and major web sites try to get away with .net or .org, and perhaps half of their intended visitors land on someone else's web site. Or worse, confidential e-mails are sent to the wrong domain.

2. Easy to spell. Keep in mind that your spelling might be better than most people!

3. Short. Try to keep it to 2 words, 3 maximum and 20 characters or fewer.

These are general guidelines applicable to your main company domain name. There are instances where hyphens, numbers, and non-.com domain extensions are fine for secondary sites and search engine-optimized sites. But your company's main domain should follow these general guidelines. Good luck!

Andrew Allemann is editor of <a target="_new" href="http://www.domainnamewire.com">Domain Name Wire</a>, a news and opinions site for the domain name industry.

What is Domain Name Backordering?

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: <a target="_new" href="http://www.smartads.info">http://www.smartads.info</a>
Web Designers Directory: <a target="_new" href="http://www.3dimentionaldesign.com">http://www.3dimentionaldesign.com</a>

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

Liberalization of in-Domains?

Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran has -as Hindustan Times reports-some advice for Indian patriots: use in-domains for Websites and e-mail IDs to popularise Indian identity in the world.

With India emerging as a global "labor" for IT, Indian companies should change the domain names of their Websites and e-mail IDs to in-domains, just like other countries.

"In every part of the world, the practice has been to use the short form of the respective countries at the end of the domain names by companies and individuals," the minister said during his first speech as IT Minister.

"During my trips abroad, I have always noticed that people have their e-mail IDs with the initials of their country in the end. For instance, in Britain, the Websites or e-mail IDs have at the end .co.uk, in Singapore it is .co.sg, in Japan it is .jp, in Hong Kong it is .hk and even in Pakistan they have .co.pk. But in India, we are still reluctant to use .co.in or .in. Why this hesitation?", Dayanidhi Maran has asked in an interview.

Therefore the minister has been urging upon Indian captains of industry, heads of organisations and individuals to switch over to use in-domains in order to indicate that their website or e-mail ID originates from India.

"I have made this appeal to representatives of the IT industry here, which is considered the IT capital of India. Once the tech industry migrates to this new identity, it will set a trend for the rest to follow in letter and spirit. They need to change the domain names of their companies or organisations by registering their Websites or mail IDs only once for identifying themselves with their motherland," Maran says.

"Though we are not making it mandatory, we are coming out with a number of schemes for Indian companies or organisations to make this transition soon. The ministry will shortly come out with an action plan to enable a smooth migration to either .co.in or .in," the IT minister explains.

The Indian IT-minister seems to be aware, that it is very bureaucratic in the moment to register in-domains. Indian companies need a lot of paperwork in order to get a domain at co.in , .in itself is reserved for Indian providers, not open to all Indian companies. "Foreign companies", explains Hans-Peter Oswald, the CEO of ICANN Registrar Secura (https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html), ,,can only register the own name at .gen.in."

About The Author

Hans Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura

<a href="https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html" target="_new">https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html</a>, <a href="https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html" target="_new">https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html</a>; <a href="mailto:secura@domainregistry.de">secura@domainregistry.de</a>

How To Boost Affiliate Profits Using Secret Domain Tricks

Want to increase your affiliate link click-through rates and profits?

Then you'll need to learn how to master your domain.

One of my favorite episodes of Seinfeld was the "master of your domain" show where the gang bet each other as to who could hold out the longest without giving in to self gratification. Whoever 'caved in' would have to lay down the cash.

The question - will the domain master you, or will you master the domain? There is a price to pay if it master's you.

In today's power tip, of course, I'm talking about an Internet domain. One that describes your piece of Internet real estate. If your mother catches you mastering this domain, she may actually be proud of you! ;-)

If you're not using this technique, you may be paying the price of lost customers. So let's get right to it.

Affiliate programs are the most popular choice of making money online. However, they're so common that most people recognize an affiliate link and are less likely to click on one because of the selfish notion that they might be contributing to someone else's success. But that's another Oprah ...

I want to show you how to conquer this issue while looking like a pro.

Take a look at the following examples. Each are affiliate URL's. But 2 of 3 are 'masked'; you don't know that they're affiliate addresses.

<li>www.greatproduct.com/98765/aff?=dude

<li>www.mysite.com/greatproduct.html

<li>www.thegreatestproduct.com

In should not matter which link to click if you are compelled to click to find out more information. However, human nature says that we are guided by our emotions. Therefore, each link may portray a different image to you.

Here's how to make your affiliate link stand out in the crowd.

Typically #2 is the most widely used and is very easy to put into place using a redirect script on your own domain.

You simply create a new file on your domain server, name it (ie:"greatproduct.html"), copy and paste the script code. Then enter the affiliate url address (where specified) that you want to forward to.

Now when someone clicks on the new sub-domain you created (ie: www.mysite.com/greatproduct.html), their browser will redirect to the affiliate site but appears to the prospect that it is your site.

A simple redirect script can be obtained by sending any email to the following address <a href="mailto:script@6figuremarketing.com" target="_new">mailto:script@6figuremarketing.com</a>

Now here's a really cool technique as seen in example #3.

Get your own domain! It's the most professional strategy and will gain instant credibility and trust which can increase your rate of click-throughs. More click-throughs equals more traffic which means more eyes on your product or service, which means more cashflow in your pocket. Just be sure to sew up that pocket hole you've been neglecting since 1977!

Ok, here's the cool part and you don't even need your own website to pull this off.

Go to godaddy.com and search for the availability of your desired domain. Register the name, but be sure to choose the 'redirect' and the 'mask' option. Cost? About $9 for one year. In about 48 hours, your domain will be live and kicking.

In example #3, if you chose www.thegreatestproduct.com and someone types that address in their browser, it not only redirects to the site you chose, but will show up in the prospects browser window instead of the site's real URL www.greatproduct.com/98765/aff?=dude

Did someone break out the pixie dust? It's marketing magic at it's finest!

Use this powerful technique to add credibility and professionalism to sub-domains and affiliate urls or any url where you want to increase your conversion rates.

Tip: Use your domain solely for tracking reponse rates to specific advertising campaigns such as pay per click, etc.

Follow these techniques and you'll soon be the master of your affiliate domain!

Copyright 2005 David Lovelace

About The Author

Dave Lovelace an experienced Internet marketer, publisher, and product creator who holds the self-proclaimed title, "Third Laziest Man on The Internet". Subscribe to Dave's free course, How To Generate Free Traffic, Prospects, and Profits On a Zero Dollar Budget in 4 Easy Steps! Click here <a href="http://www.6figuremarketing.com" target="_new">http://www.6figuremarketing.com</a>.