allergies

Is Your Company Name Killing Your Online Business?

2009-02-05T06:20:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-05T01:20:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-04T04:30:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-04T01:40:00.001-08:00

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 "2" rather than the word "two" or even "to".

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?

2009-02-03T02:18:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-02-02T06:30:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-01T08:40:00.001-08:00

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!

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>.

Domain Name - How To Pick One

2009-01-31T12:40:00.001-08:00

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 <a target="_new" href="http://www.marketingtitan.com">http://www.marketingtitan.com</a> - 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.

Sub Domains - An Inexpensive Solution to Grow Traffic

2009-01-31T06:20:00.001-08:00

Read this brief article that reflects what we learned about subdomains and their important role in effective internet marketing.

A sub-domain is a section of your main web site, set up and recognized as it's own cyber real estate. There is usually no cost or very low cost to set up multiple subdomains on your hosting account. Sub-domains are folders located within a directory of your main site and carry a pre name to your existing domain.

Example ..

<a href="http://www.masteradvertising.com" target="_new">http://www.masteradvertising.com</a> is our main domain name.

But we use many sub domain names for our research areas, script testing and growing development areas.

Such as ..

<a href="http://traffic.masteradvertising.com" target="_new">http://traffic.masteradvertising.com</a>

(for our traffic exchange)

<a href="http://mail.masteradvertising.com" target="_new">http://mail.masteradvertising.com</a>

(for our members free mail service)

<a href="http://team.masteradvertising.com" target="_new">http://team.masteradvertising.com</a>

(for our admin team members) and so on ...

To best utilize your subdomains, it is important that they all remain o?n the same subject area or theme. Our site pertains to online advertising. It would not benefit us to launch a pet store under <a href="http://pets.masteradvertising.com" target="_new">pets.masteradvertising.com</a>.

Each subdomain can serve as another gateway into your main establishment, for visitors, testing marketing strategies, and search engines too!

Since creating content for a website takes time, often webmasters simply modify the existing text of the main site and reuse it on the subdomain site. It is important that the content is not exactly the same and that the subdomain does not simply redirect to the main site. Otherwise, search engines may not index them and you may even may even get tossed from the engines database.

Subdomain websites can be submitted to the search engines just like your main site. If your website is doing alright in the search engines, then imagine having five more websites out there for the spiders to find. Five more listings means that web surfers have five times as many ways to find yournetwork of websites.

More and more search engine algorithms take into consideration the number and ranking of sites that link to you. By linking your sub-domains to your main site and to each other, the ranking of all of your sites is improved.

Your subdomains provide a great area for testing banner exchanges and other advertising resource mediums, without cluttering up the main site. Each sub domain will carry it's own traffic statistics, and campaigns can be tracked efficiently by ones self with server stats or other preferred tracking methods.

Get creative and branch your services and products out between your subdomains yet centering them around and connected via your main site. It will increase your keyword density and rankings per sub domain and most consumers are more comfortable working with a specialized area then a o?ne-stop shop.

About The Author

Dawn Wentworth

<a href="http://www.masteradvertising.com" target="_new">http://www.masteradvertising.com</a>

Resources and Research into Traffic Generation

<a href="mailto:submit@masteradvertising.com">submit@masteradvertising.com</a>

Domain Squatting Explained

2009-01-29T20:10:00.000-08:00

The one thing that annoys me most about the topic of domain names is when trying to find a domain name for a new site only to find most of the names I come up with are already taken. Even more annoying is that these names are not being used for a site that relates to the domain name.

Domain squatting or cyber squatting is the term used for someone who registers a domain with no intention of using it, that would otherwise be used for a site relating to the domain name.

Let me give you an example, recently I came up with an idea for a site and there was a couple of domains that were ideal, keyword1keyword2.com and the plural version, so I checked to see if they were available. I found that both the names I thought would be perfect were taken. Both domain names were directed to a generic search page whose sole purpose is to make money off of direct type ins.

Now I haven't given the names as I don't want to give away my idea and I don't want to give the sites any free advertising. This is not a one off incidence but something that happens quite often, especially with domain names with good or popular keywords. This activity is not illegal unless you use a trademark name, but it is against the ethics of what the internet is about.

There is a difference between domain squatting and domain parking and that difference is intent. If you register the domain with the intent of using it in the future for a purpose relating to the domain name then you have just parked the domain. If you register a domain with the sole intention of making money from reselling it or getting revenue from people typing in the domain name then that is domain squatting.

As I have explained it is not illegal it is just unethical, it is a free market economy and people are motivated by profit. I do not agree with domain squatting as it forces webmasters like myself to use domain names that are far from perfect, take this site on <a target="_new" href="http://www.namesearchdomain.com/">domain names</a>, this name was far from my first choice. It also misleads internet users as the expect a site to be related to the keywords in the domain name making the internet less user friendly.

Find out more about <a target="-new" href="http://www.namesearchdomain.com/">domain names</a> and get some advice before registering your next domain.

Five Ways To Profit From Public Domain Information

2009-01-27T08:10:00.001-08:00

Ever wondered why Walt Disney never got sued for intellectual property theft?

C'mon, the guy ripped off so many Hans Christian Anderson and Grimm Brothers' fairy tales! And he never paid the said authors any royalty fees! Granted that they're dead, but shouldn't their families be entitled to proceeds from their works? Such would be a small price to pay, considering the accumulated wealth of Walt Disney's billion dollar enterprise.

But alas, Mr. Walt Disney, you see, is a marketing genius. He knew how to exploit the allowable usage of public domain information, and he built for himself an empire in the process.

And if Walt Disney can do it, so can you! After all, we all have access to public domain information. We don't even need a touch of that famous Disney magic. We just have to weave our own creative spin on things.

But first, the basics?

Public domain information is defined as any body of creative works and other knowledge that is not protected by US copyright laws. Copyright protection needs further verification, but by force of statute, works done prior to 1923 are public domain information. The law also includes works done prior to 1978, for as long as the life of the author plus seventy years does not exceed the current year.

The term "body of creative works and other knowledge" includes literary works, music, movies, artworks, scientific ideas, and inventions, just to name a few. So, quite literally, public domain information is an ocean of many promises and splendid discoveries for anyone who would decide to dip their feet in its inviting waters.

And public domain information is free. Everything that you'll earn from it is net profit!

Walt Disney made good use of public domain information by making updating old classics into movies for the new, during his time at least, generation. That was the creative spin he used to market works that are quite archaic to make them seem new and fresh. He found his audience, and he made his fortunes. There's no reason why you can't do it.

Ah, budget constraints you say. But we are internet marketers, dear friend. That's the beauty of the web, you see. Seldom do we have to spend a substantial amount to invest on something. Many avenues are available for us to make good use of free public domain information!

Here are some ways to use public domain information. They would surely earn you significant gains!

1. Republish old literary works as e-books. The classics you see in bookstores are prime examples of earning from public domain information. The publishers did not have to buy the rights for the books they have decided to distribute. You could do the same with e-books. Search your local library for old works, and scan them. Convert the images to text with a text bridge program, edit errors, package them nice in .pdf format, and you're all set to market a royalties-free product!

2. Republish old articles as special reports. Granted that you're not likely to find an internet marketing articles circa 1923, but there are still some interesting pieces from that era. Just the other day, I saw a person make 43 sales for a special report he made out of a 1914 article on dog grooming.

3. Make downloadable albums of old songs. Here's your chance to make MP3 downloads that are actually legal. However, please bear in mind that only the songs are free game. The performances of certain versions (i.e. the London Philharmonic Orchestra's version of a Beethoven classic) are separate copyrights in themselves. It would be best to make your own version from the public domain compositions.

4. Offer downloadable movies. Just like Walt Disney, Ted Turner has made a killing with public domain information. One of his channels, Turner Classics, shows pre-1923 movies which he can rebroadcast without having to pay any royalties. You could do the same by offering old movies for download.

5. Make posters of timeless masterpieces. You could also search the web for high quality images of classic paintings and sketches. These digitized masterpieces can easily be reproduced as posters which you could sell to the millions of art aficionados worldwide.

Cedrick Reese is the webmaster of <a target="_new" href="http://www.eclectic-info.com">http://www.eclectic-info.com</a>, Start an easy Home-Based Business through Affiliate Marketing and Adsense. Other sites include <a target="_new" href="http://www.Your-RealEstateCourses.com">http://www.Your-RealEstateCourses.com</a> and <a target="_new" href="http://www.PremeirHosting.com">http://www.PremeirHosting.com</a>

The net-Domain: Backbone of the Web

2009-01-27T01:30:00.001-08:00

We do not always realize that figures are just quantity and can deceive about quality.

In spite of the fact that the net-domain is only the No. 4 in terms of the number of domain names registered, it works as a backbone of the web. The net-domains build the largest Top Level Domain by number of hosts, or machines connected to the Internet. More than 44 percent of name servers use net-domains. We presume, that programmers and other technical experts have a more narrow emotional relationship to .net than to .com. Their sympathy for .net is just greater than for .com.

Historically .net was once reserved for providers. This might have still an influence to the technical use of .net and the importance of this use. Every programmer and hostmaster has an idea of .net, but not every programmer and hostmaster has an idea of .com. In some way .net stands for the web.

Other facts:

-- 31 percent of all page views are dependent on a net-domain for resolution

-- 32 percent of all B2C e-Commerce in 2004 is dependent on a net-domain for resolution. <a href="https://www.domainregistry.de/net-domain.html" target="_new">https://www.domainregistry.de/net-domain.html</a>

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN Registrar Secura

<a href="http://www.com-domains.com" target="_new">http://www.com-domains.com</a>; <a href="mailto:secura@domainregistry.de">secura@domainregistry.de</a>

The Sub-Domain - An Affiliates Friend

2009-01-26T18:30:00.001-08:00

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

Eu-Domains For Everybody

2009-01-26T17:10:00.001-08:00

Cologne,10 July 2004. ICANN accredited registar Secura announces today, that the company is accepting applications for the sunrise and real time period of eu-domains (<a href="https://www.domainregistry.de/eu.html" target="_new">https://www.domainregistry.de/eu.html</a>).

Sunrise Period

You should send now to your applications to secure your rights at the new eu-domains. The eu-domains will be the most important event since the introduction of com-domains.

There will be a Sunrise Period (Phased registration for those holding prior rights to a name) at the eu-domains.

The Sunrise Period of eu-domains will have two phases:

The EU Regulation stipulates that the registry must make a sunrise provision at eu-domains to allow those with 'prior rights' to a name to apply for registration of eu-domains in advance of beginning general registrations. The PPR states that the sunrise period (phased registration) of eu-domains will take place in two phases each lasting two months.

During phase one, public bodies and holders of registered Community or national trademarks will be able to register their names.

During phase 2 those who may register in phase 1 may register their eu-domains as well holders of other rights recognised under Community law or the national law of an EU member state. Eu-domains registered during the sunrise period must be an exact match for the prior right claimed and documentary evidence must be supplied to proof the right.

Live Registration: First comes-first serves

Some weeks after the Sunrise Period eu-domains goes live and general registrations of eu-domains will begin and registration of eu-domains will be done on a first come first served basis for any eu-domain not taken during the sunrise period.

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited registrar Secura GmbH

You can reprint or republish these articles for free if these three lines are at the end of the articles:

<a href="http://www.com-domains.com" target="_new">http://www.com-domains.com</a>

<a href="https://www.domainregistry.de" target="_new">https://www.domainregistry.de</a>

<a href="mailto:secura@domainregistry.de">secura@domainregistry.de</a>

Free eBook: Business Domain Names

2009-01-26T05:50:00.001-08:00

Since every website needs a name, Dr. Steve Baba has written a free ebook that will help you obtain a brandable, memorable domain name at a reasonable cost, which will contribute to your brand equity and profits. The ebook, downloadable from Seemly.com, explains how to select and buy an elite domain name. You will be able to obtain a better name than your competitors have.

There are at least 10,000 words in a dictionary that would make great domain names plus at least 10,000 proper names and 10,000 great short coined-words. With a supply of 30,000 great names and millions of good names, obtaining a good name is easy.

There is no need to pay more than a few thousand dollars for a great one-word domain name, and many good domain names are available for free. This book provides you with the information needed to beat domain name speculators at their games.

Both naming methodology to identify great domain names and negotiating/purchasing methods to obtain great domain names at low prices are covered. After a couple of introductory sections, the book starts with domain naming goals or the criteria for choosing a great domain name: image, memorability, trademark-legal, and price. Then quality domain naming strategies are discussed. Inferior domain naming styles, which you want to avoid, are then discussed.

The second half of this book explains how to buy a great domain name. Auctions, expired domains, speculators, and other sources are discussed. Finally, many other topics are expanded on.

Steve Baba has a Ph.D. in Economics and ebusiness experience. The ebook on domain names is available at www.seemly.com, for free. No registration is required. The ebook is a PDF file of approximately 250K. The free ebook is advertising supported. The following paragraphs are book excerpts. Generic names, arbitrary dictionary words, coined or made-up words, modified generic names (generic plus) and unrelated two-word names are quality domain naming strategies. But, each quality strategy has strengths and weaknesses. There is no such thing as a perfect name.

Generic names are highly controversial and expensive. Examples of generic names are Hotels.com, Shoes.com and Furniture.com. The generic name strategy was always controversial and peaked during the dotcom bubble.

The generic naming strategy is virtually never used offline, but a very few small stores do business under generic names such as the "Mattress Store" in Annapolis, Maryland. Offline, anyone can use the same generic name and open a store name "Mattress Store." Online, ownership of the domain name MattressStore.com can only prevent competitors from using the same exact domain name.

Since, generic names cannot be trademarked, competitors can use Hotels.NET, Rooms.com, Hotelrooms.com, Motels.com, Hotel.com (singular), Inns.com Hotels.us, and so on. Often, there are a half dozen simple generic names for each industry not to mention generic names with a prefix (e, i) or suffix such as eHotels.com.

Since competitors can use similar generic names, developing a distinct, memorable brand is difficult. Memorability or the need to spend less on advertising is often an argument for high domain name prices ? but this argument is only half true. At the same time, with only a few first-rate generic names in each industry, the generic domain names may be unavailable or overpriced, and are rarely bargain-priced. A generic name also hampers brand extension beyond the generic category ? Hotels.com selling plane tickets?

Another quality strategy is unrelated, arbitrary dictionary words. Examples of unrelated dictionary word names include Amazon.com Yahoo.com, Google.com, Target and Staples. Both the words yahoo and google are in the Oxford dictionary, but were rarely used prior to becoming famous brands.

Compared to generic names, it was not immediately obvious what business Amazon, Yahoo or Google was in. On the other hand, Yahoo can legally prevent competitors from using similar names such as FreeHoo via trademark laws.

SearchEngine.com would be the generic name for Google. "Fast" and "All The Web" are used as trademarks by another search engine. But "fast" and "all the web" are not unrelated or arbitrary. Other search engines can also claim to be fast, speedy, quick, the entire web, or something similar.

The key to having the most trademark protection is to choose an unrelated, arbitrary word. Descriptive words, such as fast, are unlikely to earn much trademark protection. Instead of fast, it may be possible to use a suggestive name such as jet, rocket, or race.

With 10,000 good, short, easy-to-spell dictionary words, it is always possible to find one for a few thousand dollars. Shorter four or five character dictionary words are more expensive. Three character dictionary words are extremely expensive.

Coined or fanciful words are words such as Exxon or Kodak that had no prior use. In theory, coined words are the best from a trademark-legal point of view, since no one has used the word before. Ideally, a coined word is totally new and unrelated to any other word.

But, memorability requires a short name, which has led to a number of similar coined names such as Duron, Enron, and Micron, which diminishes the legal advantage, since confusion is possible. LexIs sued LexUs.

While the legal protection is not perfect, the legal protection is considered the strongest of any category. But from a marketing point of view since no one has used the word, coined words may be as difficult to remember as nonsense syllables.

With a supply of thousands if not tens of thousands of short, coined words, it is always possible to find one for a few thousand dollars or less ? often free.

Because of the lack of trademark protection for generic names, the lack of distinctiveness, and the cost of many generic domain names, many businesses have used a "generic plus" or "modified generic" naming strategy.

A prefix, suffix or second word can be added to the generic name. Examples of this are Carmax, CarMart, eCars, CarDepot, CarOne and CarLand.

This works if the generic word, such as car, is short. Longer generic names, such as CarpetCleaningMax.com, can be too long. But many of the longer generic words have common abbreviations. For example, computer is often abbreviated "comp" as in CompUSA. Software is often shortened to "soft" or "ware" in names. Tech is a common abbreviation for technology, overused in names.

These names range from virtually generic, eCars.cars, to nearly coined, QuanCars.com, with descriptive, suggestive and arbitrary second-words in-between. Since the generic word lacks any trademark protection, the trademark strength depends on the trademark strength of the "plus" part of the name.

The generic plus strategy is often an attempt to have the benefits from both a generic and a distinctive name, but may have the problems of both if one is not careful. At worst, it could infringe on someone's trademark based on the second word such as CarsRus or CarBay. The generic part of the word is usually trademark safe.

Another strategy is to use two unrelated words in a name. Examples of two unrelated words are RedEnvelope.com and BlueTooth.com. The two unrelated words strategy differs from the generic-plus strategy in that neither word is related to the generic product. Technically red is related to envelope by being an adjective, but neither word is closely related to the product or service being sold.

The main advantage to this method, two unrelated words, is that it's cheap and often free. With 30,000 single words, there are 900 million combinations of two single words (30,000 x 30,000).

The main disadvantage is that two unrelated words are twice as difficult to remember as one. Two words that are commonly related to each other such as "happy birthday" or "hot wire" are easier to remember, but rare and may be as expensive as single words.

From a trademark viewpoint, it could be twice as risky. It could infringe on someone's trademark based on either the first or second word. If you are RedDog.com selling computers, either Red Computers or Dog Computers could consider trademark action against you.

About The Author

Steve Baba has a Ph.D. in Economics and ebusiness experience. The ebook on domain names is available at <a href="http://www.seemly.com" target="_new">www.seemly.com</a>, for free.

<a href="mailto:eeeni@aol.com">eeeni@aol.com</a>

Expired Domains Explained

2009-01-26T05:30:00.001-08:00

It is annoying to find that you have a great idea for a site but when you start searching for a domain name to match you find every possible combination has been registered. Don't worry all is not lost there are still the expired domains to check.

Not everybody reregisters their domain names. For whatever reason, financial or otherwise good domain names come back onto the market. These are expired domains and you can get your hands on them.

The first stage of an expired domain goes through is the registrar hold. This is a period of up to 45 days where the registrar may pay the renewal fee for the domain in the hope that the expired domains owner registers the domain name again. The registrar may wait the full 45 days or decide to let the registry know sooner that the domain fee has not been paid. This means the name goes into the redemption period.

The expired domain is now in the redemption period which lasts for 30 days. The domain is now back in the hands of the registrar as the original owner has not paid the renewal fee. For the original owner of the expired domain to get their domain name back they are likely going to have to pay a hefty fee to the registrar.

The domain is now in pending delete which is the final status. This means that expired domain is back on the market. On the 6th day on pending delete the domain name is now available to everyone.

The expired domain is back on the market. Now is your chance to grab the domain you are after. I will talk about the best way to increase your chances of this in my next article at <a target="_new" href="http://www.namesearchdomain.com">Name search domain</a>.

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 Make Great Money Part Time Buying And Selling Domain Names - Part One

2009-01-26T05:20:00.001-08:00

This truly is the business to get into in 2005. It's a red hot opportunity that savvy investors can make a killing on when you know how. And this article will walk you step-by-step through the money-making process.

Don't be put off by the term "investors". I'm not talking big money down here. As long as you've got a spare ?5 a week then great money can be made for only half an hour of your time. Like the sound of that? Thought so.

There's a few ways you can make money buying domain names and selling them on for profit. And I mean PROFIT. You'll see why people will be scratching at your door to buy off you in just a moment.

Let's start with the basics.

All domain names are only registered for a limited amount of time.Registrars can choose to use the name for a period of between 1-10 years. After this the rights to these domain names expire and the user has to renew the name again. If they don't do this it will be placed on hold for a short time and then deleted. This means it is then availible for anyone who wants to buy it!

This Is Where You Can Cash In!

20,000 expired domain names are made availible each and every day. Some of them are very attractive and well-established names.

Example. Last year the owners of Race.com carelessly didn't renew their registration fee. It was grabbed (the term used to describe purchasing an expired name) by a savvy 'investor' for a few pounds and sold for thousands and thousands back to the old owner.

The owner was willing to pay huge sums for to the investor because he had built up qualified traffic over X amount of years and didn't want to lose all the previous custom.

Now I admit that making a sale for thousands is rare, but is certainly possible.

The likeliness is that you can buy a domain name and register it for ?5-?50 and then sell it on for anything from ?150 - ?1000. Do this with five domain names a week, and your looking at a big sum of money for only a couple of hours work.

It's not just businesses that have carelessly let their domain name that will buy off you. It's other businesses too that will buy the name to get the old owners' traffic. It's a legitamate way of increasing your customer base.

And if the old owner and a new potential owner get into a bidding war...well..the sky really is the limit.

So there's two main reasons why people will be willing to pay YOU a couple of hundred pounds for a domain name.

a) They carelessly let the domain name expire. That means that they will pay you to get the name back to ensure that they don't lose their existing traffic that they may have built up over years and years.

B) They are a business in the same field as the one that has let the name expire and therfore will pay you to secure the exisitng custom of a rival.

Here's step-by-step how you go about this fantastically profitable part time business.

There are several sources of expired domain name information and reserach tools, some free and some that require a payment of a fee.

www.wehavethem.com supplies lists of names due to be deleted. Www.DeletedDomains.com allows you to do some searching free and more extensive searching for a $99 annual fee.You can search for names that are due to be deleted and also allows you to bid on newly deleted names that have already been grabbed by other 'investors'.

What you are looking for is an expired domain name with traffic in the last month of anything over 1500. Ensure that the site is an actual consumer site. There's no point buying a domain name if the previous site wasn't selling any goods.

If you see a site that had tens of thousands of visitors in the last month GET IT. The likeliness is that the previous owners will be itching to get their name back off of you due to its obvious success.

Also if you see a name with a large qualified traffic thats due to expire and has a high traffic volume use an automated grabbing system such as www.snapnames.com and www.pool.com. These will ensure the second they become availible you will have registered them. The cost is about $60 but only if they get the names for you. Definately worth it in my eyes.

Remember you could easily sell the name for hundreds, maybe thousands.

In part 2 we'll take a look at how you go about selling the names once you have acquired them. But in the mean time here's a few domain names which were up for sale at the time of writing this article. Now obviously not all names sell for this much, but it's a very real possibility that you could stumble across a gem in your business.

my.com $750,000
lovelife.com $350,000
fights.net $16,000
diet.us $35,000
askdoctors.com $7,500
dietary.info $6,000
lovemaking.info $10,000
textmeassage.net $17,000
ejobmarket.com $1,800
smokers.tv $5,000
teens.org $22,000
raregifts,com $20,000

The profits in this business are like no other. Now it's your turn to get your hands on your share in the billion dollar industry of buying and selling domain names.

Until next time...

Jonathan Street

Jonathan Street is a master at making vast sums of money for very little investment. Direct mail, mail order, selling domain names, eBay...you name it - he's making money from it. He's also the author of "How To Make ?5,000 - ?10,000 A Month From Home". A book which he invites you to get for free from his ever popular web site.

For FREE info and to get a copy of Jonathans book go to: <a target="_new" href="http://www.millionaire-enterprises.com">http://www.millionaire-enterprises.com</a>

Choosing A Domain Name

2009-01-26T01:20:00.001-08:00

--About Domain Names--

Choosing a domain name for your web site is a major step for any individual or organization. You need domain names that are sticky, short, meaningful, easy to remember and at the roll of your tongue!

It is very easy to choose a domain name but difficult to find a good name, simply because of the fact that most of the good domain names are taken up by organisations. These domain name organisations take up hundreds of thousands of domain names and treat them as investments. It is not as easy to choose a good domain name. Sometimes, even web professionals spend hours at their computers to find good domain names!

Domain name registrations are cheap to maintain and subscriptions typically last a year. The subscriptions are renewable and paid to registrars by the design companies.

The most common domain names end with .com, .net, etc. Country specific domain names will end with com.au, co.uk, .co.jp, etc. For organisations, domain names will end with .org or be country specific- .org.au, .org.uk, etc.

Not sure about domain names and web sites? Seek web professional help.

Lester Boey works in an Australian SEO and Web Design company (<a target="_new" href="http://www.definiteweb.com">Australian Search Engine Optimization and Web Designs Company</a>). His life revolves around SEO; providing full-time and freelance seo services to US and Australian businesses. Email: <a href="mailto:projects@definiteweb.com">projects@definiteweb.com</a>

A Winning Domain Name

2009-01-25T15:20:00.001-08:00

The domain name is one of the most important decisions you will make when trying to win over the search engine dilemma. Try using at least one of your best keywords within your domain name.

The search engine and the directories give higher preference when your domain name is relevant to your site content or theme.

Let me give you an example of three different ways you could look at your domain name and how the major search engines will view them for indexing.

www.trafficnmore.com

www.trafficNmore.com

www.traffic-N-more.com

Which one would you have chosen?

www.trafficNmore.com, Right!

The search engines may not necessarily see it that way.

Even though trafficNmore.com is easily understood by the eye of the visitor, the search engine will not see the difference between trafficnmore.com and trafficNmore.com.

Both are good ranking for a site dealing with traffic issues.Even though you have the approval of your visitor looking for your information, you could get a higher ranking with the search engines by using www.traffic-N-more.com and still keep the eye appeal for your visitor.

Here is why.

The hyphen breaks up a longer domain name to reveal the major keywords that describe your website content or theme. This makes it easier for the visitor to understand and most importantly allows the search engine to detect your keyword for indexing right off the bat. Cool, huh?

Moral of the story, give your visitor a break, be nice to the search engines and they'll be nice to you and give you lots of reoccurring traffic for free.

Debra Gravelle
Free Traffic. Free Download.
<a href="http://www.traffic-n-more.com/toolbox.htm" target="_new">http://www.traffic-n-more.com/toolbox.htm</a>
<a href="mailto:admin@traffic-n-more.com">admin@traffic-n-more.com</a>

About The Author

Debra Gravelle has been a business consultant and planner for 22 years.

E-Business: Domain Names - Bad Faith

2009-01-24T21:50:00.001-08:00

Ian McMillan registered the internet domain name TrivialPursuits.net and won the right to continue using it, after a challenge from Horn Abbot, the makers of the board game, failed to stop him using the domain name. The makers of the Trivial Pursuits board game failed to obtain the TrivialPursuits.net domain name from the person who said he registered the name to lament life's loss of individual creativity.

This decision has gone against the long established principle that once a brand is "well known", the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)1 part of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), would be able to effect the transfer of the name. However, in this case, the panel was unclear about the intentions of the respondent, and his motive for registering the domain name. The panel did not believe that there was enough evidence to support an application for bad faith activity on behalf of the respondent.

Respondent Ian McMillan informed the WIPO panellist that he bought the name with with the intention of creating a website dealing with "the 21st Century's unique trivial pursuits, specifically the fact that most aspects of life now involve a commodity as opposed to individual creativity, from sex to salvation via surgery and sweeteners". Currently, the site is only one page long, and refers to the WIPO case as "a fine example of a quite unnecessary and utterly trivial pursuit," adding that more content will be added, "but at the convenience of my lazy nature."

There was little evidence of bad faith found by the panel, although McMillan does not appear to have intention of using the website.

Comment: Usually in cybersquatting cases where there "is no use of a sign in the course of trade" plus difficulty in establishing trade mark infringement or passing off, the UDRP approach is the recommended recourse as it is far cheaper and sometimes quicker.

If you require further information contact us.

Email: enquiries@rtcoopers.com

? RT COOPERS, 2005. This Briefing Note does not provide a comprehensive or complete statement of the law relating to the issues discussed nor does it constitute legal advice. It is intended only to highlight general issues. Specialist legal advice should always be sought in relation to particular circumstances.

Rosanna Cooper is a partner in RT Coopers Solicitors. The firm is a full service commercial law firm covering areas such as E-Business, Education Law, Commercial Litigation, Data Protection, Intellectual Property, Corporate Finance and Commercial Contracts.

Contact us at <a href="mailto:enquiries@rtcoopers.com">enquiries@rtcoopers.com</a>. visit our website at <a target="_new" href="http://www.rtcoopers.com">http://www.rtcoopers.com</a>

How to Register an Expiring Domain

2009-01-24T10:50:00.001-08:00

Understanding the process and options involved with registering an expiring domain can be a confusing task. How, Where, When?

This article will explain the basic steps to researching an expiring domain name, and the many different options (or should I say necessary steps to insure success).

<ul>The normal domain expiration process for .com .net</ul> (domain deletion cycle):

Phase 1. Active Domain

A domain is registered for a time period of 1-10 years. During this time the domain owner has unrestricted use of the domain.

Phase 2. On-Hold

At the end of this time period, the registrant is required to pay a renewal fee to the registrar to continue to use the domain. If the domain is renewed go back to phase 1, if not the domain is placed in an onhold (on-hold) status for 1-45 days (each registrar has determines how long this period lasts). During this time, the registrant (owner of the domain) can still pay the renewal fee and continue to use his/her domain name. During this onhold period the domain resolves to the registrars website or does not resolve at all.

Phase 3. Redemption

After the 1-45 day onhold period, the domain then enters redemption status (RGP - Redemption grace period), which lasts for 30 days. During this time the registrant of the domain name has the option to pay a redemption penalty fee (redemption fees generally cost between $100-200 depending on the registrar) and renew the domain. If the domain owner renews the domain go back to phase 1. During this redemption period the domain resolves to the registrars website or does not resolve at all.

Phase 4. Pending Delete

After the domain completes the 30 day redemption period without being renewed, it then enters a 5 day pending delete period. During this the time the registrant no longer has the ability to renew the domain name. The domain will be released to the general public and be available for registration on the sixth day at 2pm eastern.

(This drop process does not hold true for exclusive backorders)

Domains are an ever changing industry. Over the last 2 years, many things have changed including many variations of the domain deletion process. The above mentioned process is the norm, but every day more and more registrars are starting to have exclusive drops.

An example of an exclusive drop: A domain is registered with Network Solutions. The registrant fails to renew the domain within 60 days of the expiration date. The domain is then auctioned off at snapnames.com (a domain auction site).

Each registrar has their own time frame for exclusive drops. Current registrars that are participating in exclusive drops are: network solutions, godaddy, wild west domains, blue razor, bulk register, dotster, and enom. Domains registered at network solutions or bulk register must be backordered at snapnames. Domains registered at godaddy, wild west domains, or blue razor must be backordered at godaddy or a wild west reseller such as domainut.com. Domains registered at dotster must be backordered at namewinner Domains registered at enom must be backordered at club drop (if at least on backorder is placed at the above services the domain will stay with the original registrar, if no backorder is placed, the domain will follow the normal drop process) A backorder is the process of signing up at a drop catching service and making a request to be the next owner of a domain. The prices at each drop catch service vary. Pool.com - Backorders start at $60. Pool uses a pay for performance business model. If pool does not catch the domain when it expires then you are not charged. If you are the only person that backordered a domain and pool catches it, you are awarded the domain for $60. If the expired domain was backordered by more than one person, the domain is then up for private auction. People that backordered the domain prior to Pool catching it are only allowed to bid in the auction. The auction lasts for 3 days. SnapNames.com - Backorders start at $60. Snapnames uses a pay for performance business model. If Snapnames does not catch the domain when it expires then you are not charged. If you are the only person that backordered a domain and snapnames catches it, you are awarded the domain for $60. If the expired domain was backordered by more than one person, the domain is then up for private auction. People that backordered the domain prior to snapnames catching it are only allowed to bid in the auction. The auction lasts for 3 days. Enom Club Drop - Backorder start price is optional$10 or $30. Enom uses a pay for performance business model. If enom does not catch the domain when it expires then you are not charged. If you are the only person that backordered a domain for $10 the domain then goes to public auction, but if you backordered it for $30 or more and enom catches it, you are awarded the domain. If the expired domain was backordered for $30 or more by more than one person, the domain is then up for private auction. The auction lasts for 3 days. Namewinner.com - Backorders start at $30. Namewinner uses a pay for performance business model. If namewinner does not catch the domain when it expires then you are not charged. If you are the only person that backordered a domain and namewinner catches it, you are awarded the domain for $30. If the expired domain was backordered by more than one person, the domain is then up for private auction. People that backordered the domain prior to namewinner catching it are only allowed to bid in the auction. The auction lasts for 3 days. Godaddy.com or any Wild West Domains Reseller - $18.95 first come first served (only one person can place a backorder on any one expiring domain, if or when the domain expires and godaddy catches it, the backorder holder is awarded the domain.) It is always best to fully research an expiring domain name. There is no sure fire way of knowing if a domain will receive traffic, or how much a domain is worth. But by checking to see how many sites link to a domain (linkpop), how many people searched for the domain in the previous month (overture with extension), how many people searched for the terms that make up the domain in the previous month (overture without the extension), what the google pr is (google page rank), and what the domain was use for in the past (wayback archive), you can get a rough idea of how much traffic you should expect.

Once you have completely researched a domain, you should then decide if the domain is worth backordering at pool or snapname for $60, at enom or namewinner for $30, at godaddy or a wild west reseller for $18.95, or enom for $10. Remember to cover all your bases if an expiring domain is worth at least $60 to you, then backorder at all of the above services. If it is only worth $30, then backorder at any service that is $30 or cheaper (but remember someone else may backorder it at the $60 service, and then you have no chance at getting the expired domain, if you don't have a backorder placed at that service.)

For more tutorials and information by Sidney Parfait, owner of the best domain resources on the web (<a target="_new" href="http://www.startname.com">StartName.com</a> <a target="_new" href="http://www.ParkingIncome.com">ParkingIncome.com</a> and <a target="_new" href="http://www.dropwatch.com">DropWatch.com</a>)

A Little Secret About Public Domain Treasures

2009-01-24T03:50:00.001-08:00

I bet this little secret is going to get YOU excited... just like it did me. I just discovered public domain treasures and it's a perfect business opportunity for many new internet entrepreneurs.

Did you know there's a little known loophole in US law that allows anyone to distribute, resell or give away expired copyrighted content? Officially, its called public domain, and savvy marketers "borrow" it to publish instant products.

Public domain refers to anything that is NOT protected under US copyright law. This includes all works published before 1923 and under certain conditions, works published up to 1978. A "work" can be anything, a book, movies, plays, songs, photographs, instruction manuals, posters, courses, reports, etc. You could take these works, repackage them and sell them for a profit. By tapping into public domain content, all the nitty gritty work has been done for you.

There are almost an endless number of ways that you can make money with public domain content. Let me suggest 10 different models you can use to activate and tap the public domain treasures.

Model 1: Resell It.
You can re-publish public domain content exactly as it is. Whether it's a book, a movie or even music, you can take this content and quickly turn it into a product. Just copy it as it is and start selling it.

Model 2: Website Content
You can take the text of the public domain work which relates to a product you are selling or an affiliate program that you are promoting. You then create web pages and include links back to your product page.

Model 3: Repackage
You can repackage a public domain work into a new product. You can use the ideas and some of the content of public domain works to create new and better products.

Eg. Walt Disney characters Snow White, the Little Mermaid were all stories from the public domain.

Model 4: Multimedia
You can change the books in print into a CD or even a video set. Add to the perceived value of the product by offering ways to consume the information. What was once simply a "book" can now be a complete home study course or training program.

Eg. The famous "Think & Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill has been made into an audio CD which is a more convenient format.

Model 5: Reprint Rights
You could sell your version of the information product along with marketing materials. People love reprint rights and it's a quick and easy way to make tons of money immediately. You can sell reprint rights only to a derivative product you have created from the original public domain material.

Model 6: Upsell
You can use public domain works and use then as an "upsell" to a regular version of your best selling product. You simply present your buyer with an additional opportunity to "upgrade" their order or add something to their order.

Model 7: Bonuses
Simply use the work as a bonus to your main offering. People love bonuses and will buy a product just for the bonus, if its unique and not something they've seen all over the net already.

Model 8: Viral E-books
You simply take parts of the book and turn it into a viral e-book by allowing others to pass along or even sell this e-book as their own. Once you trigger the "virus" its nearly impossible to make it stop because people keep passing it on and than these people keep passing it on etc, etc.

Eg. Rebecca fine from Seattle, WA used this exact technique to accidentally launch her six figure business with an interesting book, written in 1910 "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D.Wattles. You can "super-size" this strategy by creating a viral e-book with the material and then including affiliate links that pay you commissions anytime someone buys from your recommended resources.

Model 9: Google AdSense
You can use the material to create an information-rich website and then place a tiny piece of code from Google to run their AdSense program on your site. You'll essentially partner-up with Google and get paid a percentage for everyone that simply clicks on the ads Google places on your site.

Model 10: Articles/ Mini Courses
You could use little contents from public domain works and create a mini-course that people would subscribe from your site. You just load a series of 4 to 10 articles into your auto-responders and it delivers it on a total auto-pilot.

You can also use the material into 500-800 word articles to distribute for free publicity and traffic to your sites. Editors of e-zines and owners of web sites are always looking for hot fresh content and in exchange they'll send you over targeted traffic.

Eg. Matt Furey discovered a little unknown book on "Catch Wrestling" and turned it into a complete manual and video e-course of 12 lessons for his market of fitness and wrestling buffs. He had earned over $1million dollars in sales from this one book.

Among the topics available in the public domain treasures are:

Health & Fitness

Fun & Games

Sports & Recreation

Hobbies & Crafts

Education & Self Improvement

Food & Cooking

Animal & Pets

Home Garden & much much more.

Public domain works provides a huge opportunity to newbies in the internet world to tap these vast treasures. Simply put, you can use these works to instantly create e-books, manuals, articles, reports or any other type of information products in a snap. GOOD LUCK!

You'll find step-by-step advice on 19 killer internet business and internet marketing models as marketed by TOP internet Entrepreneurs at <a target="_new" href="http://www.e-HomeBiz.net">http://www.e-HomeBiz.net</a>. It is one of a kind mini-encyclopedia with Master Resell Rights.

Warning: Your Domain Name Could Infringe On Trademark Rights!

2009-01-23T21:20:00.001-08:00

If you have or are about to purchase a domain name, YOU could be in trouble and you don't even know it yet...

See, what the domain sellers won't tell you is that the domain name you are purchasing or have purchased can possibly infringe on trademark rights and you can lose that domain name or even worse.

Trademark and servicemark laws apply not only off-line but on-line as well and they even apply to domain names.

Now, a trademark generally applies to goods where as a servicemark applies to services. For the purpose of this article I will refer to trademarks as the same rules apply.

A trademark can be a word, name, symbol, or device and it is used to distinguish and indentify the goods and services from one person or company from that of another.

The purpose of a trademark is to prevent confusion in the eyes of the consumer relating to particular goods and services. Basically, they are in place to prevent unfair competition.

So with that said, just because you purchased a particular domain name it does not necessarily mean you have exclusive rights to it.

If there is a trademark in your domain name, the mark owner has a legal right to send you a "cease and desist" letter and possibly take that domain name away from you.

If you don't believe a word I've said so far then I offer myself as proof because it happened to me. I recently lost one of my domain names under this exact same circumstance.

For legal reasons I can't tell you the domain name as I agreed to make no further references to it, but there were two words in my domain name that were associated with a trademark.

Now, I wasn't aware of this when I purchased the domain name. And I definitely wasn't aware of trademark laws.

Don't be ignorant on the subject like I was. You can avoid any potential problems by educating yourself and thereby preventing the samething from happening to you.

Don't make the same mistake that I did!

Do your research before you buy a domain name and make sure there is NO trademark associated with that name.

There are trademark search engines where you can type in a word or a phrase and it will tell you if it is a trademark.

You can visit the United States Patent And Trademark Office (USPTO) website to do a trademark search:

http://www.uspto.gov/

Now, in my case I chose not to fight the trademark dispute and gave up my domain name voluntarily. I felt it just wasn't worth the time, money and headaches to launch a fight over this.

If this should ever happen to you, you do have rights and there are proper channels to go through to settle the dispute. Contact a lawyer who specializes in this field.

And don't even think for one minute that this sort of thing can't happen to you. Trust me. If you have a trademark in your domain name it is only a matter of time before you get that letter in the mail like I did.

There are numerous cases all over the internet concerning disputes over trademark and domain names.

Don't you be one of them...

If you would like more information on the subject of trademarks and domain names then I highly recommend you visit this website:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/domain

This article and any links associated with it are for informational purposes only and not intended as legal advice. As always, speak to an attorney who specializes in this field in the event of a dispute.

Al Martinovic is the publisher of the Millenium Marketers Newsletter where you will find powerful concepts, killer strategies, useful tips and no bull business advice: <a target="_new" href="http://www.milleniummarketers.com">http://www.milleniummarketers.com</a>

Domain Name Registration - Key Tips

2009-01-22T09:40:00.001-08:00

Domain 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</a> where you will find the latest news and information on domains.

Detagged Domains

2009-01-22T06:30:00.001-08:00

What is a DETAGGED domain name? We get asked this question regularly.

Only UK domain names can be detagged. A domain name that has been DETAGGED is no longer hosted on valid name servers.

What happens if there are no longer valid nameservers showing against a domain name?

If no valid name servers are showing this means that any services such e-mail or a web site will no longer work.

Who can DETAG a domain name?

Only a domain registration service or agent can DETAG a domain name. This happens if the relationship between domain name owner and agent expires, for example if the registration fee or renewal fee is not paid.

When are domain names detagged?

Domain names can be detagged at any point after registration. Detagging signifies the end of the relationship between the registration agent and the registrant.

It is not necessarily an indication of whether a domain name is paid for or not.

How can I tell if a domain name is DETAGGED?

You will probably notice that the email or web site associated with the domain name has stopped working.

You can check the status of any registration by doing a WHOIS look-up that will indicate that the domain name is DETAGGED.

How can DETAGGED domain name be retagged?

To restore a DETAGGED domain name, the registrant will need to pay a tag change fee of ?15+VAT as of January 2004 to nominet via a registration service. Nominet charge a higher fee to deal direct with the owner.

Can I register a DETAGGED domain name?

A DETAGGED domain name is still registered to the original registrant, and it remains as such until it is either renewed by the current registrant, or it is cancelled. Once cancelled, it immediately becomes available for registration on a first-come, first-served basis.

How long does it take for a DETAGGED domain name to become available for registration?

Nominet contact the owner of each domain that is detagged and confirms if they wish to renew or allow each name to lapse.

If the domain is allowed to lapse then the domain name will be suspended after 21 days and then cancelled between 6-8 weeks after that.

For further information please visit Nominet <a href="http://www.nominet.org.uk" target="_new">http://www.nominet.org.uk</a>

By Clare Lawrence 29th September 2003

Clare is the CEO of Discount Domains Ltd a leading UK Domain name registration service.

About The Author

Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd ? A leading UK provider of Domain name registration and Web Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to <a href="http://www.discountdomainsuk.com" target="_new">http://www.discountdomainsuk.com</a> Clare can also be contacted on <a href="mailto:clare@discountdomainsuk.com">clare@discountdomainsuk.com</a>

10 Things to Ponder when Picking Your .com

2009-01-22T05:10:00.001-08:00

1. Proper names VS Common Names. First of all there are two different kinds of names, proper names (unique words, person, place), or common names (things like cars or cheese.) The types of names that will have good lasting effect on the internet are proper names. Think of some of the biggest sites on the internet, such as yahoo or google, why are they the most popular search engines in the world and not searchengine.com? Simple, the average consumer will group names of things with there .com names. If the names are too similar they get lost in the mix. That is why no one names there car dealership cars. Sure cars are what they sell, but image the conversation, Frank asks "what dealership did you buy your car from?" Jim replies "cars" as you can image it would get really confusing. A lot of dealerships use proper names such as XYZ Motors. That is why a lot of sites such as cars.com aren't doing as well as say vehix.com.

2. Real world Brands. The most successful brands on the internet are not "real world" brands. That is why amazon.com does over three times as much business as Waldenbooks.com or Borders.com combined. Internet branding is something completely new. In my opinion, the sites that are going to last on the internet are the ones with proper names. Proper names can be anything, names, and unique words. Use your imagination just as long as it is catchy and unique. It was a good idea to put www.what you are selling here.com back when the internet was young. People used the URL as a directory tool. This is a dying fad.

3. KISS Method. Keep It Simple Stupid. The best sites out there have simple easy to remember names. Alexa.com Excite.com you don't see many popular names like incrdiblesearchingpower.com

4. Shorter means better. If there is a shorter way to use your name do it. There is a reason cnet.com isn't computernet.com and schawb.com isn't charlesschwab.com. The less I have to type in the search box the happier I am.

5. Spelling 101. Make your .com easy to spell. Back when your product was mailed by the postal service spelling wasn't as important. You could get away with misspelled words and it would still be delivered. But now you have to enter your .com name exactly right for it to work.

6. What is in a name? Words that are better for search engine names and brand names all together have less total letters. That is why Datsun which has 6 letters to make there name changed to Nissan which has 4. As general rule brand names do better with the lower this number is. Such as Yahoo it takes 4. Google, it takes 4.

7. Abbreviate. Take a look at America Online. They didn't make there site www.americanonline.com they made it AOL. Other abbreviated names include, MSN and Cnet. This goes with the keeping it shorter rule but it is another possible helper.

8. Name it after a person. In 1987, PC's Limited changed its name to Dell Computer Corporation. In 2003, the company became Dell, Inc. Dell, Inc. became the most profitable PC manufacturer in the world. Dell sounds a lot better than PC's Limited.

9. Hidden meanings. Most names have hidden meanings such as Amazon which is the largest River on earth, is the largest book store on earth. I recommend you take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies

10. Run names by friends and relatives. They can be your best source for ideas, and best of all they will tell you if something sounds good to them or not. Ultimately what ever .com you choose it has to sound good to you!

I decided to pursue my passion, internet marketing. I have spent countless hours reading books, and listening to lectures. I finally decided to take the plunge. I created <a target="_new" href="http://www.awesome-possum.com">http://www.awesome-possum.com</a> June of 2005. I hope in time to be a webmaster and internet marketer full time. I hope this article was helpful and informative. Email me <a href="mailto:webmaster@awesome-possum.com">webmaster@awesome-possum.com</a> anytime. I am always happy to help.

Thanks Ryan Churchill

Selecting a Domain Name Registrar - How to Avoid Getting Burned

2009-01-22T02:10:00.001-08:00

When it comes to registering your domain name you want to pick a domain name registrar that will work with you, help you choose the best domain name, not overcharge you, and provide you with all of the information you need to make the best possible decisions regarding your registrar account. There are thousands of domain name registrars on the net and most of them offer the service legitimately and at an affordable price. However, there are certain sites you will want to look out for and the following suggestions will give you some information on questions you should ask and answers you should have in writing before doing business with a registrar.

* Make Sure You Own It

First of all, when you register and buy your domain name you want to make sure you are buying it and that it is yours. You don't want to simply register a domain name under someone else's control. This looks unprofessional and does not give you the presence on the web you are looking for. Instead, ask the registrar if you are buying the URL and if you will own it, the answer might surprise you.

* ICANN Accreditation

No matter what domain name registrar you choose make sure they are accredited by ICANN, which stands for the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers. If they are accredited, then they are more than likely a legitimate registrar with which to do business.

* Expiration Date

You also need to ask how long you are buying the URL for and what the expiration date is. There is nothing worse than not knowing how long your registration is good for and then all of a sudden having you URL expire. Don't let this happen to you! Instead, register your domain name for as many years in advance as possible and if the address is about to expire let your registrar know you expect to receive notification.

* Contact Information

Contact information for your domain name registrar should be readily available and they should be available at all times that they say they are. You might want to test this to make sure they are available before you buy from them. There is no particular registrar you must buy from, so if you are uncomfortable with one simply move on to another.

* Hosting

Another important question to ask your domain name registrar is if they offer hosting services as well. Many of them do and frequently a two in one package is an easy and effective way to go. However, make sure you have all the information and answers you need before buying a domain name or signing up for hosting.

Michael Turner reveals step-by-step how you can <a target="_new" href="http://www.powertraffictactics.com/">increase search engine traffic</a> in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it now at <a target="_new" href="http://www.powertraffictactics.com/">http://www.powertraffictactics.com/</a>

Domain Name Registration and Privacy

2009-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

The internet is a wonderful thing, except for a few small details. When you register your first domain name, you get your introduction to one of them. There's a lot of information they want. Your name, your email address, your physical address, your phone number. For each of 4 separate categories, and the Registrant, Admin and Technical categories are publicly available (for almost all TLDs - Top Level Domains, with the possible exception of .ws - Western Samoa).

Email addresses, which must be valid, phone numbers and physical addresses which also must be valid. I personally think it's both absurd and dangerous to make this information so easily available. Once again the right to privacy of law-abiding individuals is being abridged supposedly to help catch lawbreakers. Since this information would be provided under a court order, making it publicly available just invites abuse.

Spammers, scammers, stalkers and the idle whacko can easily get this information. And it's a nice start on identity theft, too. However, for most people, the most likely result is an increase in the amount of spam you get. But, much worse can and has happened.

So what solutions are there? Basically there two ways to protect your privacy if you are a private individual without access to a legal entity such as a company to own the domain name (note that if it is a company, you must provide accurate information. This only moves the problem to a slightly less personal level).

First you could lie. No, that's not one of the ways. Unwise and illegal too, and you are a law-abiding type, right? So, first, a proxy registration is one alternative.

Essentially you make a binding legal agreement with a company which will register the domain name as if they owned it and then provide their own information to meet the requirements. For each domain, they will set-up a special email which they will monitor and forward to you, usually after spam filtering, if you want them to.

They, of course, retain your data and will also monitor physical mail. You will be notified of first class mail which appears to or could be legal documents or if registered or couriered mail arrives. They will, for a fee, ship such to you, if you agree and pay. Generally such items would be sent by courier. Phone callers will be directed to use the email or physical address shown in the WhoIs record

Of course, under subpoena or other specified conditions they will provide your details. You will have full rights as owner - as long as you behave and don't violate the agreement.

The other alternative, usually called "private registration", is a little different. Here your name would still appear as registrant. You would provide the names of the admin and technical contacts. But the address, email and phone number would be provided and monitored by the organization handling the private registration in essentially the same manner as a proxy registration. Thus with this alternative you remain in full legal control of your domain name since it is registered in your name rather than the name of a proxy.

On the face of it this second alternative sounds better, but your name is hanging out there on view and you may have valid reasons for not wanting that (perhaps the company you work for takes a dim view of moonlighting, or you have had a stalking problem or are doing something perfectly legitimate but don't want your name linked to it).In that case, a proxy registration is the only real alternative.

In case you're thinking you can hide out and do whatever sort of bad stuff behind a proxy or private registration, don't even dream about it. These outfits take it very personally if you misbehave and the legal agreements spell it out.

If you decide to pursue a proxy or private registration, make very sure that you are working with a legitimate company with a track record. A domain name can be a very valuable possession. Both your registrar and, if it's a separate organization, the entity that does the proxy or private registration must be quality, legitimate outfits. Registrars offering extremely low prices which are way out of line with the going rates - unless it's a special - just might be after your credit card and identity. Also, this time, actually read the agreement and TOS so you do know what you're doing and what could happen under what circumstances.

Wondering why I'm writing about this? Well, it's because I'm getting more and more spam and I started doing some research on possible solutions. And I figured, I wan't the only one looking to do something about the problem. And then, I discovered that some registrars will provide free proxy or private registration with your domain name purchase. So think about it and do some checking before you buy a domain name. Your privacy is a precious possession.

Richard teaches, trains and consults, on and off-line. And he writes a lot. Visit <a target="_new" href="http://www.AboutWebHosting.info">http://www.AboutWebHosting.info</a> for articles, information, resources and links related to web hosting and domain registration and <a target="_new" href="http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites">http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites</a> for more on eCommerce in particular.

Free eBook: Business Domain Names

2009-01-21T00:10:00.001-08:00

The second half of this book explains how to buy a great domain name. Auctions, expired domains, speculators, and other sources are discussed. Finally, many other topics are expanded on.

With a supply of thousands if not tens of thousands of short, coined words, it is always possible to find one for a few thousand dollars or less ? often free.

A prefix, suffix or second word can be added to the generic name. Examples of this are Carmax, CarMart, eCars, CarDepot, CarOne and CarLand.

The main advantage to this method, two unrelated words, is that it's cheap and often free. With 30,000 single words, there are 900 million combinations of two single words (30,000 x 30,000).

About The Author

Steve Baba has a Ph.D. in Economics and ebusiness experience. The ebook on domain names is available at <a href="http://www.seemly.com" target="_new">www.seemly.com</a>, for free.

<a href="mailto:eeeni@aol.com">eeeni@aol.com</a>

How Do I Get My Domain Name Appraised?

2009-01-20T09:50:00.001-08:00

What's your domain name worth?

Perhaps it is better to ask how much a potential buyer would be willing to pay to acquire your domain name. If there was some interest in your domain name, you ought to, at least, have some kind of idea of its value. Generally, is the domain good or bad? If good, how good is it?

If you were to visit any domain reseller sites, you will find literally thousands of ridiculous names. If you scrutinize their asking prices, it will leave you shaking your head in amazement. They run into the thousands and even millions. Names like ApeChatsWorth.com.....It would be better to let them expire or sell cheap if you can find a 'fool'.

So how do you tell if you have a winning name?

I know someone will be quick to say, "That's easy. Get them appraised."

Well, you could do that. But the problem with domain appraisals is that there are no industry standards. And you simply cannot put a market value on it and give an accurate appraisal by any standards. Perhaps, in that sense, a domain name is different from real estate because it is not something you can see or touch.

There are numerous companies and sites on the web that will evaluate your domain and give you their opinion on what your domain name is worth. Their services cost anywhere from between $10 to $50. They give you a nice certificate online. But let me tell you that, an appraisal certificate may not necessarily do anything for your domain name.

As can be expected, a single domain name can have vastly differing values when evaluated by different appraisers. Values can differ by tens of thousands of dollars.

You have probably heard it being said over and over again that a domain name is only really worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Or what the buyer and seller can agree on to make a deal. So even if a domain name has been evaluated at $2,000 but if no one wants to pay out more than $200 for it, it is obvious the real value of the name is far less than the perceived value that it was originally appraised for.

If you have absolutely no idea what your domain name is worth, getting a professional appraisal may be useful as well as to give you a basis for an asking price if there was indeed someone interested in the name or simply to decide what you want to do with the domain name. A potential buyer already interested in a domain name you have, may be further swayed towards your position by an independent appraisal.

However, let me caution you to be careful. There are a number of thriving scams on the internet designed to play on your emotions and get your money. One instance is when a so-called "buyer" feigns interest in your domain name but requests first for an appraisal from a particular appraiser, just to be sure of the market value, he claims. Then, insists that no other appraisers will do. It doesn't take a genius to see through this. If you pay for the appraisal, the so-called 'buyer' suddenly disappears, no doubt to fleece his next victim. Many fall for this cruel trick in their ecstasy imagining that finally, there was actually someone wanting their domain name. Before you spend any money, check out feedback on the website's services from other customers. You can do this at Alexa.com. Simply enter the name of the website and you can see reviews and feedback from other customers.

A genuine buyer who wants your domain name is interested in it, NOT because some appraiser says it is worth a princely sum. But only because he himself sees it's intrinsic value and/or has specific plans for the name. Keep this in mind.

There are a number of free domain appraisal services you could try just to test the waters around your name.

A number of domain name forums have active appraisal boards where you can post your domain names and someone will evaluate it for you. A search on your favorite engine will give you several options.

You may also have come across automated computer scripts online that give you a free instant evaluation of your domain name when you put in certain required details about your name. Those give you a ballpark figure but sometimes do grossly inflate the value. It is after all a script.

If you do decide to get and pay for a professional appraisal, make sure you are engaging a reputable company or you would end up blowing your money.

If you're still undecided, let me take a look at your domain name and I'll evaluate it for free. No obligations. See http://www.OpenForSale.com/ to submit your domain name.

Edwin John is the author of the top-selling domain ebook, "How I Sell My Domain Names." A guide that teaches domain owners how to find buyers for their domain names. Visit: <a target="_new" href="http://www.OpenForSale.com/">http://www.OpenForSale.com/</a>

Choosing A Domain Name

2009-01-20T05:10:00.001-08:00

--About Domain Names--

Choosing a domain name for your web site is a major step for any individual or organization. You need domain names that are sticky, short, meaningful, easy to remember and at the roll of your tongue!

Domain name registrations are cheap to maintain and subscriptions typically last a year. The subscriptions are renewable and paid to registrars by the design companies.

Not sure about domain names and web sites? Seek web professional help.

Whats In A (TLD) Name?

2009-01-20T04:40:00.001-08:00

They're pushing for a top level domain (TLD) exclusively for porn sites. I'm quoting from this article at http://www.babnet.net/en_detail.asp?id=1224: "There is also concern that the existance of .xxx will lead to legislation making its use mandatory for sexually explicit material, leading to legal conflicts over the definition of "sexually explicit", free speech rights, and jurisdiction."

That's like saying that the Louisville Slugger company in Kentucky shouldn't make bats anymore because they can be used as weapons. Just because something can be dangerous when placed in the hands of one intent on doing harm, doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist. And to tell you the truth, the adult industry and the government are already - and always - at loggerheads with each other when it comes to the First Amendment.

Let me start off by saying I agree with the article in this respect: the existence of an .xxx TLD would be a God-send to parents trying to prevent their children from accessing pornographic sites.

But the reason ".xxx" is not for me has nothing to do with the above-mentioned quote. Not that everyone thinks along the same lines that I do, but, according to the article, in order to use the .xxx TLD, you'd have to download certain internet explorer plugins; plugins that are categorized as spyware and adware. Spyware and adware? No thanks. Lord knows how many hours I've spent trying to rid my computer of popup-inducing software and applications.

And $60 to register a domain (I hear that in the UK that it'll cost about 40 pounds)? Unless you as a webmaster are trying to cover all your bases (e.g. you currently own mypornsite.com, my-porn-site.com, mypornsite.net, etc, and would like to own mypornsite.xxx), why bother paying that much? If you're not purchasing a popular, high-traffic domain directly from another webmaster, any decent domain can be had for less than $20.

Moreover, ".com" is so entrenched in the layman's mind, no other TLD comes even close to its popularity. I find that people don't remember your website URL as well if it doesn't end in a .com. I think that's why, with all the television programming out there, .tv is not such a household name as far as TLDs go.

And, not to spread rumors or anything (so remember, you didn't hear it from me :-)), I don't think that the .nets, the .bizs, and the .infos of the world do as well in the search engines. However, the .orgs and the .govs, where the search term is appropriate, seem to have no problems ranking well in SERPs (search engine results pages). That's just my personal and un-scientific opinion.

Go on and try it: search for popular and generic words on your favorite search engine, and see how many listings come up .tv, .net, .biz, or .info. Or maybe it's the old "chicken and the egg" puzzle; maybe there are no results to be had because many prospective webmasters fear registering those less popular TLDs in the first place.

The author is affiliated with <a target="_new" href="http://Sex-Toys-Videos.com">Sex-Toys-Videos.com</a>, and writes regular porn and sextoy articles for his blogpage.

Liberalization of in-Domains?

2009-01-19T12:50:00.001-08:00

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.

About The Author

Hans Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura

How Can You Choose the Best Domain Name?

2009-01-19T00:40:00.001-08:00

It's all in the Name

The domain you use for a particular site can have a huge impact in the way that humans and search engine spiders perceive it. Domain names were once so expensive that only those wanting to protect a brand or who could afford them owned them, now they are commonplace and if you know where to look, you can pick up a domain name for free.

Now that they are much easier to obtain, it is hard to take any site that does not have it's own domain name very seriously. Without a domain name, a company is likely to be passed off as amateurish or seen to want to cut corners to save money. If you have a company site and you still haven't got a domain name for your website, then you might want to think about getting one!

Make it Memorable

The best domain names are those that people can remember, because if your visitors can remember it, they are more likely to come back. If you do not already have a company or other name selected for your site, then it is often a good idea to make your domain name the brand for the site. Tying your site name to the domain is just one way you can help your visitors remember how to find you again.

Tips for choosing the most memorable domain name. keep it short and easy to spell.

make use of keywords or popular search terms whenever possible.

generic terms are like gold dust if you can get them.

the more unusual but familiar sounding a domain, the better.

add a twist, some domain names are remembered for being different to what you would expect to find there (e.g. monster.co.uk)

One of the major problems of trying to promote a specific domain name is that in general, people (or sometimes browsers) assume that they end in a .com. If your site uses a domain other than a .com, then you may want to make the domain your site identity, otherwise you could have your visitors remembering the domain name but not the extension and going to related site that isn't your own!

Domain Branding

If you purchase your domain with the intention that it will become the brand that you promote, then it is worth taking into account the specifics of the domain. Keywords can play an important part in your brand, particularly if it is specific to your industry, as they will help to make your domain name memorable while improving your search engine rankings. In the case of directories such as Yahoo and DMOZ sites are usually listed in alphabetical order, so anything starting with A, B or C has a much better chance of being higher on the list than those starting with X, Y or Z, and so is more likely to be noticed. Don't however be tempted to use a domain that has been "padded out" to get a high position in an alphabetically sorted list; not only will it look tacky and amateurish, but most directories use human editors who would pick up this obvious trick and either correct it or ignore the site altogether.

Top 5 Web Hosting Review - www.pickto.net

Online Business Partner(<a target="_new" href="http://pickto.net">http://pickto.net</a>) - our website provide web hosting guide, Web hosting review and business plan tips to user.

Domain Names Explained

2009-01-18T23:00:00.000-08:00

If you are totally new to the internet then you may not realize that the web address you type into your browser is known as a domain name. A domain name is an easy way for humans to understand and navigate the internet.

A domain name is a string of characters used to make a name. There can be up to 63 characters in a domain name which can consist of all the letters in the English alphabet plus the numbers zero to 9 and the hyphen or dash symbol. The name can consists of a mixture of these characters but they cannot start or end in a hyphen. The hyphens are used to separate words within a domain name to make them more readable for humans.

All domain names must have a top level domain suffix. The top level domain extensions are the characters at the end of your domain name after the last dot. This extension is used to describe the country or type of website that the domain name represents. The most popular top level domain extension is com and this will probably continue to be so for some time due to it's ingrained relationship with the internet. Web business's are mostly referred to as dot com's.

Domain names can be purchased from a domain name registrar. Domain name registration is a process of registering a domain name, much like you would register a new car or the birth of a new baby.

The cost of domain name registration will vary depending on the registrar and the domain extension that you choose. To register a dot com name you should expect to pay about ten dollars for a years registration. You can register a name for up to ten years and you would usually expect to get a small discount for this.

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

8 Tips for Choosing a Domain Name

2009-01-18T20:20:00.001-08:00

If you're just starting out on the Internet, choosing a domain name is one of the first major decisions you will have to make. I won't say that choosing a name for your site will determine the overall success or failure of your online business. It will, however, affect almost every aspect of your business. Finding a good domain name requires extensive planning.

I would like to offer some tips for successfully choosing a domain name:

1) Use the .COM extension. This is still the number one choice for the majority of online businesses. While, .NET,.ORG,.INFO,.BIZ, and .US are viable alternatives they are not as widely recognized as .COM. The .COM extension will immediately give you and your business more credibility. Also, because we are creatures of habit many people automatically include .COM when typing in almost any web address, so why not capitalize on human nature?

2) Keep it Short. Whenever possible your domain name should not be longer than 13-15 characters, numbers, or hyphens. It is much more difficult for the average person to remember longer variations of a web address.

3) Make it Sticky. You want your domain name to be easy to remember. Make it stick out in people's minds. Be creative. Be Unique.

4) Minimize Confusion. You should never lose a prospective customer because they misspelled your domain name, or they used the wrong extension. If you can afford it, register other variations of your domain name and have them redirect to your main site.

5) Include Keywords in Your Domain Name. Try to include at least 1 and if possible 2 keywords in your domain name. Many of the experts believe this can help with the way some of the search engines index and rank your site.

6) Be Descriptive. Your domain name should have something to do with your business. Make it descriptive of your site, your product offerings, or your service.

7) Search for Deleted Domain Names. Domain names that were once registered but have expired turn up every day. With some research you might be able to find one of these names that would be a good fit for your business. You can search for deleted domains at <a href="http://www.deleteddomains.com" target="_new">http://www.deleteddomains.com</a>

8) Check for Trademarks. You should do this before registering your domain name. Search as many existing trademarks as possible and look for possible conflicts. Obviously you want to choose a name that is unlikely to cause you any legal problems. Trademark research can be done at the following sites:

U.S Patent and Trademark Office - <a href="http://www.uspto.gov" target="_new">http://www.uspto.gov</a>

Thomas Register - <a href="http://www.thomasregister.com" target="_new">http://www.thomasregister.com</a>

The Trademark Association - <a href="http://www.inta.org" target="_new">http://www.inta.org</a>

Nameprotect - <a href="http://www.nameprotect.com" target="_new">http://www.nameprotect.com</a>

If you need help with researching your domain names try the following websites:

1)Nameboy - <a href="http://www.nameboy.com" target="_new">http://www.nameboy.com</a>

2) GoDaddy - <a href="http://www.godaddy.com" target="_new">http://www.godaddy.com</a>

Both Nameboy and GoDaddy are well-known registrars and will allow you to search for and register domain names.

You can register a domain name today for less than it costs for a nice lunch. There is really no reason not to put forth the effort and money to register a domain name that you can begin building your online presence with.

Your domain name is your first chance to build credibility with your visitors. Keep in mind that you never get a second chance to make a great first impression.

Remember, choosing your domain name is one of the most important first steps you will take in building your online presence. Make it a step forward. Happy Hunting!

About The Author

David Cooper is the editor of the 1Source-WebMarketing Newsletter. David specializes in helping people with their internet marketing efforts by offering real world tips and strategies. Subscribe to his FREE newsletter at: <a href="http://www.1source-webmarketing.com" target="_new">http://www.1source-webmarketing.com</a>

<a href="mailto:dave@1source-webmarketing.com">dave@1source-webmarketing.com</a>

Information on Domain Names

2009-01-18T07:20:00.001-08:00

It's been two years since John started his online business. He is very much satisfied with his current web host whose services he acquired one year ago. Today John is relaxing in his chair and thinking about the initial days when he spent many hours on the Internet collecting information related to web hosting. Like him there are many John's out there who are in search of information everyday, visiting this and that website hoping to find the most illuminating advice. The problem is that common topics of interest can be found on most of the websites whereas other relevant issues are not dealt with everywhere. This article is going to touch on one of those areas: various concerns related with domain names.

What is multiple domain hosting?
Many times you will see that a web host offers multiple domain hosting. In simpler words it means that on buying an account you will have the ability to get multiple websites. For instance, if the plan provides you with five domain names, you can use one domain for your website and you will still have four domain names leftover to use. The advantage of this scenario is that you can resell these four domain names to your clients.

What is Domain Parking?
If you are planning to build up a website and have decided on a name for it you then must purchase that domain name from a domain registrar: i.e. your domain name gets placed on a name server so that you can use it later on. This is known as domain parking. Even if your website content is not ready, it's better to park your desired domain name. Otherwise, it might be possible that in future somebody else acquires that particular domain name.

What are sub domains?
Sub domains are 'third level' domains in the sense that they are used solely to organize your website content. They are simply folders under your root directory, but to access them a special URL is used.
For instance, http://www.m6.net is a regular URL without a sub domain.
http://features.m6.net is an URL with the sub domain name: "features".
Here the:
.net: is the first level domain,
m6: is the second level domain,
features: is the third level domain

For how long does a domain name belong to you?
Generally when you register a domain name it is registered for a minimum of one year. However, you can register it for more years, as there is no hard and fast rule as such.

What is Domain Renewal?
After one year you need to renew your domain name so that your website doesn't get lost. Generally when your domain is about to expire your domain registrar will send you a reminder mail regarding the domain renewal.

What happens when your domain name expires?
When your domain name expires you can renew it within one month. If you don't renew it in this period it goes into a redemption phase. It stays in this redemption phase for 15 to 30 days before it is then available for purchase again at a normal price. Getting a domain name out of redemption phase is like buying fifty domains as it can cost around $200!

How to find out the owner of a domain name?
To find out the owner of a domain name, use the WhoIs search tool on the Internet .For E.g. Go to http://centralops.net/co/ and type the domain name under Domain Dossier. It will show you the name of the registrant/domain's owner/web host.

What is WhoIs record?
WhoIS record is a domain name search engine/Internet program where users can enter an Internet entity (e.g. a domain, a network, some hosts) and it will give detailed information on the domain registrar, the owner of the domain, and respective DNS records.

Priyanka Agarwal
<a target="_new" href="http://www.m6.net">Hosting evangelist
<a target="_new" href="http://www.m6.net">http://www.m6.net</a>

Domain Names Explained

2009-01-18T00:50:00.001-08:00

Domain names can be purchased from a domain name registrar. Domain name registration is a process of registering a domain name, much like you would register a new car or the birth of a new baby.

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

Get Your Own Domain Name Or Die Online

2009-01-17T15:20:00.001-08:00

Would you buy from someone with an "@yahoo.com" e-mail address? I wouldn't. And the clients I've had the most trouble with use yahoo addresses or other free addresses. I understand that you don't want your regular e-mail address in ads that your run on free ad sites to prevent spam, but lets use some common sense here.

If you don't buy anything from yahoo's off line why would you buy from a yahoo online? If you're serious about your business you have to show it in your actions. The first action to take is to buy your own domain name and use it for all of your e-mails.

Lets say there's a Bob Jones who starts up an online company. Will you be quicker to buy from him and trust him if his e-mail address is "bob@starpower.com" or if you read an ad from "bobjones711@yahoo.com?" He's the same guy, but which address makes you trust him more and believe he's a legitimate business?

Even if you're not ready to put up a site (which you should be if you're marketing online), at least create a professional presentation with your e-mails. They're your main form of communication online and it's the main brand people see when you communicate. Everytime you send an e-mail you're advertising. Do you realize this? You'll never make decent money online if your e-mail address ends with "@aol.com."

When you come up with a great name for your site or business get a ".com", not a ".net" or ".info" or ".tv" or ".someotherwordpeopledontthinkoffirst." If you can't get a ".com" for your name, then come up with another name.

Since my main site is www.NetMarketingMastery.com and that's a bit long to type out, I also use www.nmmastery.com for people to get to the same site and use sopan@nmmastery.com for my e-mail address.

There are 877 and 888 numbers that do the same thing as 800 numbers, but what do you think of first?

Have ever you ever heard anyone talk about 888 numbers? How many times? Okay, now how many times have you heard people talk about 800 numbers? 888 and 877 numbers are known as the step brothers and sisters of 800 numbers.

Similarly, when you want to send a package overnight what company do you think of first? Probably Federal Express because they were the first company to do overnight shipping. You can use UPS or Airborne Express or some of the other smaller companies, but FedEx is the company that gets the most business because they're thought of first. You need to have a ".com" domain because that's where visitors will go first no matter how many new domain endings are created years and years from now.

If you have ".net" domain name then you'll be setting yourself up to lose visitors to whoever has the ".com" domain for your name. Outside of earthlink.net how many ".nets" come to your mind right now? On the other hand, how many ".coms" can you think of?

When you hear about a cool company and want to see if they have a website do you try their name with a ".com" or with a ".net" or ".info" or ".tv" 0r ".anythingelsebesidesa.com?" I'll bet money that you try the ".com" first everytime and you always will because it's always going to be your first choice.

So if you haven't already, go buy a domain for your birth name and get crackin' on coming up with a great name for your business and go buy a domain for that name before it's taken. Honestly, we're talking about a $15 a year investment. If you're not willing to invest $15 into your business then you don't have a business. If you want to be taken seriously you have to have your own domain name or you will die online trying to make money. Period, end of story.

About The Author

Sopan Greene, M.A. is a marketing & life coach & editor of the Net Profits newsletter. Grab Your 2 FREE eBooks & a FREE report: "Million Dollar Emails" "How To Start Your Own Traffic Virus" & "The 13 Deadly Internet Marketing Mistakes Almost Every Business Is Making..." mail to: <a href="mailto:webmaster87-5956@autocontactor.com">webmaster87-5956@autocontactor.com</a>

<a href="http://www.NetMarketingMastery.com" target="_new">http://www.NetMarketingMastery.com</a>

Signing up for a Domain Name? Consider Private Registration

2009-01-17T14:20:00.001-08:00

A plethora of websites exists to register a domain name. Google 'register domain names' and have a fun-filled time comparing prices. Though price is definitely a consideration when choosing a domain name registrar, it is also important to find a registrar who offers private domain name registration.

Registering a domain name requires that the name, address, email address and telephone number of the owner be provided. For an individual this will be their home address information. A company will provide their main business address. Once this information is provided, it is accessible by anyone doing a WHOIS search.

PROTECT YOURSELF!

Register privately. Private registration usually costs another $8 to $9 dollars on top of the cost of a regular registration. A normal registration at some registrars can cost $15-$20. However, finding a registrar where the regular fee is less then $8 is relatively simple. Adding a private registration will make the total cost back in the $15-$16 range. You might as well get the most bang for your buck if you are going to shell out $15.

Once registered privately, all personal information is hidden. A WHOIS search will reveal the name and address of the third party company that is holding the private registration.

Private registration may not be as big a concern for companies. However, it can be very useful to individuals who desire to keep their personal and private information (address and telephone number) exactly that, personal and private.

Is it worth it to register privately? The answer to that question depends on how much you value your own privacy. For some, registering privately is no big deal. For others, who already have had problems with hackers, spammers and the like, a private domain registration offers them additional security. At the very least, it is helpful to know that this option does exist. Not all domain registrars offer this service, but it is growing in popularity.

Paul Stefanski develops <a target="_new" href="http://www.recommendedwebtools.com">Recommended Web Tools</a>, a resource for those just beginning to develop their own websites. Learn more about <a target="_new" href="http://www.recommendedwebtools.com/index.php/domain-names/">private domain registration</a>.

How To Really Profit from Domain Names

2009-01-16T20:20:00.001-08:00

Have you heard about domain names that sold for over a million dollars? Inspired by this, you imagine registering a great domain name, hanging onto it for a while, and then selling it off to become the next multi-millionaire. It could happen, but don`t count on it!

First of all, many of the truly great domain names are already taken. Second, the dot com bust took some of the wind out of inflated domain name prices. (If you sell your domain name for millions of dollars worth of stock in a publicly traded dot com flop, what is the name really worth?)

The cybersquatter buys domain names totally on speculation. Sometimes he will register names of famous brands, companies, or individuals. Time and again, these domain name speculators learn the hard way that they must respect intellectual property rights. They hope that some large corporation will pay big bucks to them for the use of the company`s own (already trademarked) name. Instead, they end up with threatening letters from a law firm for their attempts at extortion.

However, you can still make money from domain names if you are sensible in your approach. Here are some suggestions on ways to profit.

1. Affiliate Programs: Use your domain name to promote an appropriate affiliate program. Either redirect to the affiliate site or write a review that links to them.

2. Informational Sites: Create content and then profit from it by earning advertising revenue through Google AdSense or a similar program.

3. Redirect to Your Own Site: Some reasons you might want to do this include preventing competitors from using a particular domain name and benefiting from searches some users perform by domain name. (For example, if they wanted to order flowers, they might just type "flowers.com" in their web browser. You could get some traffic and sales this way.)

4. Product Sites: Create your own or sell someone else`s product appropriate to your domain name.

5. Park Your Domain Names: You might feel that your name has real potential for resale value. There are companies that will allow you to park your domain on their servers, advertise that your name is for sale, and split advertising revenue with you.

The trick is to generate traffic for your domain name. That traffic in turn will create revenue. Then, when you go to sell your domain name, you will have a few things going for you.

First, you will have a fully developed website. A fully constructed building on a piece of land increases the value of the real estate property. Similarly, the value of your domain name is enhanced by a complete and operating website.

Second, you have traffic. Just as a shopping mall with no traffic results in no sales, so a website must have traffic to generate income.

Third, you have income. An income property, such as an apartment building, can be appraised on the basis of its income (as well as other factors). Similarly, the gross income, net profits and cashflow of a website have value. For example, if someone offered you $1,000 for your domain name and website when it was generating $10,000 per day in profits, you would likely laugh at him.

You really can profit from your domain name investments by adding value and properly developing your web properties.

For further information about profiting from domain names, visit <A target="_new" HREF="http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/domain-names.html">http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/domain-names.html</A>

RESOURCE BOX:

J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., <a target="_new" href="http://www.popeconsultinginc.com/">http://www.popeconsultinginc.com/</a> has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.

For valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit: <a target="_new" href="http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/">http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/</a>

Public Domain - Internet Gold Mine

2009-01-16T07:20:00.001-08:00

With the advent of the internet and the ease of which information can readily be downloaded and compiled you would think that more people would realize that the public domain is a source of wonderful wealth that can be tapped into for huge profits.

I have spent the last 4 years "discovering" little known secrets of this information that is readily available to those who know where to look. Or should I say "prospect". That's exactly what it is. It's Mining. When you mine the internet, you are not mining little rocks in a quarry or dredging a cold river looking for that elusive nugget of gold. You are searching for the gold of the future, and of the past. Information becomes your ore. You now become an information prospector. A "Millennium-Age Gold Miner."

The tools of your trade are much different today than in the days of old. Your "pick-axe" has evolved into your mouse, and your "gold pan" is your hard drive. Your computer is the dredge and your internet connection is your "claim". In the old days when a prospector found gold he would drive a stake in the ground and this would become his claim. You are doing the same thing when you sign the contract for your internet connection. You are staking a claim to the largest source of wealth in the world. Public Domain Information.

You transcend the boundaries of the physical world by entering a realm in which it is possible to find riches in the deepest recesses and crevices of the web. The public domain is the undiscovered country of the information age. It's mysteries are deep as oceans and it's knowledge as expansive as the universe. The public domain now becomes ultimate natural resource.

Information has always reigned king since the beginning of time. There are millions of us who know not the sheer power and value of the information that is freely available to anyone who knows where to look.

The new millennium, and the information-age is very much like the GoldRush of 1849 in which hundreds of thousands of people rushed westward in a stampede of gold seeking pioneers. Some were young, some old, some in between, but all sought a common goal. Gold. Only this time it is different, the gold we seek in this age is information, and it's not mere thousands, but hundreds of millions people who are on this new quest blazing new trails and forging great new paths to wealth.

Information is abundant and widely available. You can mine this gold at anytime, from any place in the world. You do not have to travel vast distances facing the perils of the land to stake your claim. All you need is a computer and a connection to the web. From anywhere in the world you are able to seek out, find, download, and refine your treasure from the warm and cozy comfort of home.

Never before, in the history of man have you been able to procure such wealth so quickly. You are able to locate information on any subject in an instant, and your results are displayed before you faster than you could have ever imagined.

Your "gold pan" quickly become full of the valuable information-ore. Each time you find a nugget it motivates you to find more. You become entranced with the new found riches and it almost becomes obsession. The desire to find more pulses through your veins like a hot drug, steadily increasing your craving for more. The more you find the more you want. It the realization becomes obvious that you have "Gold-Fever" and now you can't stop searching for more information.

This is what the public domain is. It's an internet goldmine chock full of free information ready for the taking.

Stake your claim!

Eric Wichman is founder of <a target="_new" href="http://www.pdtimes.com">PD Times</a> a public domain resources site specializing in free resources for web content and references for webmasters, researchers, marketers, and businesses alike. Be sure to tell your friends about this great new resource for businesses using the public domain.

Public Domain - Internet Gold Mine

2009-01-15T20:50:00.001-08:00

This is what the public domain is. It's an internet goldmine chock full of free information ready for the taking.

Stake your claim!

Protecting Your Domain Names

2009-01-15T06:10:00.001-08:00

Domain Dispute is no longer news unless a Madonna or Julia Roberts type of celebrity gets involved. However, greater now than ever is the risk for domain registrants to lose their domain names when they get involved in a domain dispute. The risk is originated from the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (the Policy) approved by ICANN and the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) passed by U.S. Congress. The direct risk comes from reverse domain hijackers, biased panelists, and the unprepared registrants themselves.

Innocent registrants are prone to ignoring measures to protect their domain names. They tend to think they are safe and would win even if some party would complain to WIPO-the worst arbitration organization for innocent registrants. Thus, they often do not take steps to protect their domain names. As a consequence, they are likely to lose their domain name(s) in a domain dispute. Preparation both BEFORE and AFTER you receive a complaint is equally important. Generic domain names are no exception. <a href="http://Net-firms.com" target="_new">Net-firms.com</a> (<a href="http://usid.com" target="_new">usid.com</a> received a complaint from <a href="http://netfirms.com" target="_new">netfirms.com</a>) and <a href="http://netlearning.com" target="_new">netlearning.com</a> (the registrant received a complaint from NetLearning, Inc.) are just two examples proving how easy it is for a common word domain name to get hijacked.

The following suggestions may be useful when preparing yourself for a potential battle for your domain name(s).

1) Make sure your domain record, including the ownership and administrative contact information, is complete, correct, and current. If it is incorrect, the panelists will take it as evidence against you. Therefore, check your domain record often to see if any change is made without your authorization.

2) Write down your idea or business plan about what you would use your domain for and get it notarized.

3) If possible, register your domain name, i.e., <a href="http://yourdomainname.com" target="_new">yourdomainname.com</a>, as a trademark with the trademark authority in your country. If you registered your domain name as a trademark successfully, it is to your advantage. Once you establish your rights to your domain name(s), your domain name is entitled to legal protection even if it is stolen.

4) If you start up a business, register and or use your domain name as your business name, if possible. Use your domain name with the TM sign on your letterhead, envelope, business card, or wherever possible. When you design your web site, make sure to put the TM sign with your domain name. Print a copy and have it notarized by a local Notary Public. If your site is designed by others, make sure to get a certificate that shows your domain name on it.

5) When you do advertising, make sure your domain name shows up in the ad. If you do online advertising, even with <a href="http://goto.com" target="_new">goto.com</a>, print a copy of your link ad that is properly dated. Keep a copy of that ad and all communications between you and your ad service provider as evidence.

6) If you are not planning to use your domain name in the near future, register it as an intent-to-use trademark with your trademark authority. For coveted domain names, i.e., mostly single worded and popular, yet generic names, you may not be able to get them registered as a trademark. For those domain names, use them as soon as possible for any legitimate purpose, such as for business, non-profit, or even a personal or fun activity.

7) When using a domain name, try to use a fee-based web hosting service that would enhance the impression of seriousness of your business. Free web hosting is costly because it will harm your business in various ways.

8) Never merely put simple links on the pages and never link your domain to porn sites. By doing so, you will be doomed if you come across some self-authorized or puritan panelists.

9) If you consider selling your domain, do not sell it until you establish your rights to it. When you receive any offer to purchase your domain name, do not answer unless you know who the person is. The inquirer may be a spy. Again, talk to a lawyer if possible before you do anything.

10) When challenged directly by a company or individual, you should never answer until you consult a legal professional. Any of your good-willed answers may be used as evidence against you later or help your challenger to shape a plan against you. Do not put out a web site for your domain in a hurry as a response to the challenge you receive. Such an action may prompt some panelists to believe you have done some thing wrong.

11) When you receive a complaint from WIPO, you should RESPOND if you want to defend your domain name(s). Many panelists would treat you lightly and rule in favor of the complainant if you fail to respond. If your domain name is critically important and you are well financed, hire a COMPETENT lawyer! The fee can be anywhere between $1500 and $5000 per response. Or, some lawyers will charge on an hourly basis, usually between $200 and $500 per hour. Do some searching and ask for references when you choose a lawyer. Furthermore, you should consider paying $1500 to have a three-panelist panel. With WIPO, you are likely to lose if only one panelist is assigned to your case. When you request three panelists, you have the right to designate one panelist for the dispute panel. By carefully choosing a registrant-friendly panelist, you will increase your likelihood of winning.

12) If you lose at WIPO, you have 10 days to appeal to your local federal court or the court that has jurisdiction over the registrar. 13) If the challenger goes directly to court to sue you, you should file your response timely. Do not get scared because the plaintiff may do this simply as a tactic to scare you by the fact that a court action is more expensive than dispute arbitration. The most important thing is to establish your rights to your domain name. Keep any and all evidence that is indicative of your using your domain name for a legitimate activity. And finally, be careful to avoid the traps that would endanger your rights to your domain names.

The tips in this article are intended for reference only and should not be construed as legal advice.

About The Author

Dr. Peter Liu is a consultant to <a href="http://Marsgerm.com" target="_new">Marsgerm.com</a> web hosting service at <a href="http://marsgerm.com" target="_new">http://marsgerm.com</a>. He runs <a href="http://www.domainmanual.com" target="_new">http://www.domainmanual.com</a>. Contact him at <a href="mailto:shopseek2@yahoo.com">shopseek2@yahoo.com</a> if you have any comment.

<a href="mailto:new@domainmanual.com">new@domainmanual.com</a>

10 Things to Ponder when Picking Your .com

2009-01-15T02:50:00.001-08:00

3. KISS Method. Keep It Simple Stupid. The best sites out there have simple easy to remember names. Alexa.com Excite.com you don't see many popular names like incrdiblesearchingpower.com

Thanks Ryan Churchill

Domain Names 101 - A Dummies Guide to Choosing Great Domain Names

2009-01-14T21:03:00.001-08:00

When it comes to choosing your domain name, do not allow yourself to get stressed out or worry over choosing the perfect domain name that will make your website a success. When it comes down to it, there are several things you can do to ensure you choose the best type of domain for your business, and after that any number of domain names will work effectively for you. However, you need to read the following suggestions and follow them in order to avoid any costly mistakes to your traffic and business due to a bad domain name.

Tip #1 Short and Sweet

You will want a domain name that is short and sweet. There are many reasons for this, however if you have a short domain name it will be easier for people to remember and revisit not to mention tell others about. Also, if your domain name is short, other websites linking to your site will not have to worry about broken URLs and invalid web pages.

Tip #2 Make a List

You should definitely make a list of the domain names you like the most, but it is best if you make a list of themes rather than exact domain names. The reason for this is there are so many domain names on the Internet that finding an easy one is not so easy. So, come up with themes you are interested in and then start searching from there.

Tip #3 Be Open

Do not set your heart on one particular domain name, especially if it is a generic one because odds are it is taken. You will only be disappointed and unhappy with any other domain name. Do not set yourself up like this and realize ahead of time that you will need to be really creative with your domain name and open to new ideas and options.

Tip #4 Search for Options

Once you have your list of themes and ideas you want for a domain name you can start searching online. There are plenty of websites that will allow you to search and register different domain names. Most likely, several that you search for will be taken and the program might suggest you take that domain name with a really large number on the end or other variations that are available. In general, you do not want to do this because it is more difficult to remember your URL and you will get a lot of your traffic misdirected.

Tip #5 Dot Com

There are many kinds of extensions or suffixes available for URLs from com to .net and .biz to .info. While all of these are options and your particular desired domain might be taken under .com and available under tv you should consider long and hard before doing this. The reason for this is everyone knows about .com and if they are thinking of your website they will probably search for it as .com first. So, having a .com will keep people from getting confused. Also, if your keyword URL exists as a .com and you choose .net, you will probably lose customers and traffic to the other site because people know to go to .com.

Get Your Own Domain Name Or Die Online

2009-01-14T12:20:00.001-08:00

Since my main site is www.NetMarketingMastery.com and that's a bit long to type out, I also use www.nmmastery.com for people to get to the same site and use sopan@nmmastery.com for my e-mail address.

There are 877 and 888 numbers that do the same thing as 800 numbers, but what do you think of first?

About The Author

<a href="http://www.NetMarketingMastery.com" target="_new">http://www.NetMarketingMastery.com</a>

Choosing A Domain Name

2009-01-14T10:20:00.001-08:00

--About Domain Names--

Choosing a domain name for your web site is a major step for any individual or organization. You need domain names that are sticky, short, meaningful, easy to remember and at the roll of your tongue!

Domain name registrations are cheap to maintain and subscriptions typically last a year. The subscriptions are renewable and paid to registrars by the design companies.

Not sure about domain names and web sites? Seek web professional help.

Public Domain - Internet Gold Mine

2009-01-14T05:50:00.001-08:00

This is what the public domain is. It's an internet goldmine chock full of free information ready for the taking.

Stake your claim!

Investing in Great Domain Names when They Come for Sale

2009-01-14T00:00:00.001-08:00

Domain names are not just online identities anymore they are the most important asset an online company owns. There are businesses being spun out because the owner stumbled on a good domain name. These folks are minting money like hell that they use this revenue to build more and better businesses. Have you invested in stocks and found that a small bad news would completely change the value of the stock? Rather invest in online domain names they are relatively easy to acquire and maintain. The initial acquisition cost is sometimes high but most often in the right hands this will be gold mines that can bring in 10 times more revenue per year than the initial investment each year. Have you owned real estate property as investments? You know that their value goes up slowly but surely. The domain names are similar to the land you buy, you can change the home you build on top as many times while the land value goes up. Acquiring land is important like that the domain names are important to buy when one good one becomes available. For example patriotism is a good theme and it is evergreen, owning a domain name that deals with patriotism it is a good investment. Like this there are many common themes that you can invest on which are long term great investments.

There are many ways where you can go to find good domain names that come for sale like afternic. But you got to constantly look for the good ones. More so often the owners don't want to reveal that their domain name is for sale. So you got to maintain a lot of contacts who can bring you the news about the great domain names for sale. When you buy the domain names, be sure to transfer the name immediately and create a website for it. You can park these domain names and make more money through redirect traffic as well. Don't pay the asking price try to get more details on how long the person has owned the website and whether it is listed in a blacklist. This is critical blacklisted domains are cheaper as they take time to heal. Also you may don't want to miss out the domain names which have good websites that has been drawing traffic. The other important factor to look for is the pagerank of the website the higher the PR the more valuable the domain name is. You may also want to make sure they are listed in search engines. This will ensure you can have some good free traffic while you work on the business model.

There are many additional factors that determine the value of the domain. But there is the additional perceived value for a domain name that when factored in will either diminishes or increase the value. The rough equation for looking for domain value is
(Domain Name quality) + Page Rank + SERP + (perceived value) + current relevance
You got to understand the last factor as well. The domain name may be a hot cake now or in some yesteryear and the search engines give it good placement for keywords for thing that were popular like John Kerry a few years back now it doesn't have value. So make calculated judgment and be a good businessperson while negotiating. Take into consideration how important the domain name is for your long term business aspirations and its short term value. You should also take into consideration the investment potential.

One example of a great domain name that is for sale on the <a target="_new" href="http://www.patriotic.com">Patriotic<a> theme is patriotic.com. You can find similar dictionary domain names rarely but look out on the Internet for great domain names like this.

Author does freelancing through the no fee free <a target="_new" href="http://www.freelancefree.com">Freelance<a> website freelancefree.com

ICANN or I CANNot that is the Question

2009-01-13T05:20:00.001-08:00

Well, it seems we should all be very busy registering new domain name extensions as soon as we can, irregardless of whether we feel this is necessary or not. With ICANN bringing on an additional bevy of new domain name extensions, there are more possibilities to celebrate and party.

With Google now indexing .otherdomainextensions much higher than .com extensions irregardless of relevance to the topics or subject, it seems to be one of the few solutions to attaining top ranking positions.

I guess this is the way the web is going to go at present; at least for the time being - until Google realizes (or maybe not) that it doesn't help any of us to find top ranking .co.uk, .travel or .other domains with very little relevant information and a lot of affiliate links than to find a really well informed .com domain with tons of useful information (presently ranking much lower than a .otherextension domain with much less useful information).

I assume that Google will find a way to get around this but for the time being, having other domain extensions will put you in a much better position for getting tons of traffic. The newer they are, the better your traffic will be since the quantity of sites on any specific extension seems to also have a considerable impact on placing in Google.

Combined with the newest craze of blogging and RSS feeds, why not get a foreign based blog or RSS instead of a .com blog or equivalent? Your profits are sure to hit the roof.

With each new domain extension, the possibilities for Internet marketing remain boundless. Which reminds me, I got to get up and start building the only two other domain extensions I own other than the (now seemingly becoming useless and defunct) .com domains.

Ann Louison is owner of a few gambling and casino portal sites and is dedicated to providing useful information on various topics.

Whats in a Domain Name?

2009-01-13T02:20:00.001-08:00

You've decided to start up your own website. You've weighed all of your options, and have come to the conclusion that you want to purchase web space for your site. Good job; you're one step closer to having your name on the world wide web.

You've looked at different hosting companies, comparing all of the plans and packages they have to offer, and have chosen the perfect one for you. You've filled in all of the important information pertaining to you and your site, and have come to the screen where you're asked to come up with a domain name for your site.

Now what? What are you supposed to put in the box? Do you choose a .com or .net? .org, .biz, .info--what are you supposed to do? So you decide to move on and choose that later. Maybe one will sound better with the domain name you're about to choose.

What next? If your website's titled "My Super-Duper-Brand-Spanking-New Site", are you going to have a domain name like "mysuperduperbrandspankingnewsite.com"? No. That would be ridiculous to type and even harder to remember. You want something that is catchy and easy to remember. Something that'll stand out, but is still relevant to the content of your site.

You decide that "superduper.com" would be perfect for your site. But lo and behold, it's already been taken. Now what do you do? You spent hours deciding that "superduper.com" was the best domain name for you. It just doesn't have that same zing to it when you say "superduper.net" or .info. So now what are you supposed to do? Try adding a hyphen in between the words to see if the name's taken that way. It's a little harder to type because the hyphen's a little awkward when one's typing in a URL quickly, but it'll do the trick if you really want certain words.

So now you've come to the conclusion that "super-duper.com" is the perfect domain name for your site and buy it. Congratulations, and welcome to the world wide web, "super-duper.com"!

Alisha Annas is an 18-year-old student at California State University, Fresno. She's currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Music Education. She's used computers since she was two years old and has been designing her own websites since the age of ten. She likes music, reading, writing, and surfing the web.

Five Ways To Profit From Public Domain Information

2009-01-12T08:40:00.001-08:00

Ever wondered why Walt Disney never got sued for intellectual property theft?

But alas, Mr. Walt Disney, you see, is a marketing genius. He knew how to exploit the allowable usage of public domain information, and he built for himself an empire in the process.

But first, the basics?

And public domain information is free. Everything that you'll earn from it is net profit!

Here are some ways to use public domain information. They would surely earn you significant gains!

How To Buy And Sell Domain Names Part Time For Profit Part 2

2009-01-12T01:50:00.001-08:00

Let's just take a quick glimpse at what we've done so far:

We've used www.wehavethem.com, www.DeletedDomains.com or www.namewinner.com to locate names that are about to expire or have expired. We've located consumer site names with a large amount of traffic in the past month. We've grabbed them either personally or using an automated grabber to ensure we get the names we want.

That whole process has taken you less then an hour. Just a quick search to locate a name and then register it. Easy. (incidentally if you are confident that a name you have purchased is valuable, it may be worthwhile securing the .com, .co.uk, .net, .org, .info forms of the name as well. That way no one can undercut you by bofering it cheaper. And chances are the buyer will want all five names. That means FIVE TIMES THE PROFIT!

Now it's time for the real exciting bit. Selling the name.

Once you have grabbed your domain name the simplest way to find a buyer is to register them in your name. This can be as little as ?5 for two years. (.com names tend to be slightly more expensive the others). A simple search can put you in touch with tons of registration services.

Now your registered it's time to positively market your name. You can do this in one of two ways:

The Direct Approach - Making a direct approach to a buyer is a bit tricky. You could rent a mailing list of companies who are in the area your domain names are out and send them a simple sales letter. EG. If you had www.cheapplanetickets.com you would rent a mailing list of a travel agency.

Whilst this approach does work, it's both time consuming and if your sales letter isn't up to scratch your going to lose out.

So now to the way I do things - the lazy mans way to make fantastic money from selling domain names.

Using Brokers And Agents - Domain name brokers and agents will list your names on their books and try to find a buyer. They do this by either a fixed price or via auction.

As this business is fairly new ensure that you find an experienced brokers. Find out the following:

Their charges: ie commision, listing fee etc.

How many names are already on their books.

And what prices domains like yours are going for.

There is no limit on the brokers you list with if you want to increase the amount of people who see your offer.

I like to use www.sedo.co.uk or www.afternic.com. But many can be found via a google search.

You can also sell domain names on eBay. (They get just everywhere don't they!). Simply go to www.ebay.com and search for domain names. Be on the look out for any high quality names to buy as well. You see because this bsuiness is so fairly new people just don't realise the sort of money that can be made.

Once you've made the sale all you need to do is use your list brokers to act as a thrid party escrow service,. This basically means they will accept the payment for your name from whoever it may be you are selling to and then register the domain name to the new owner. All you have to do is sit back and wait for the funds to go into your account. It's THAT easy.

What Price Should You Sell At?

This is a vital aspect of this business. Pitch too high and you won't make a sale. So don't get too greedy. The price you get depends on the quality of the name, how much someone else wants it and how quickly you want to sell it. If your willing to sit back and wait for a big offer then that's fine. But if like me you want to make cash in the fastest possible time the key is to selling a name at a reasonable price and with a few names a week. It'll take a maximum of a few hours strat to finish per name.

The ideal affordable price range is in the rgion of ?100/?500/?1000. At these figures people will be scrambling over eachother to get their expired names or the names of others. It's alot easier for a company to buy back from you at these prices then to either come up with a better name or try to rebuil their traffic at a new domain name.

Now remember that your overheads in this business are so very low. If you bought a name for ?5 and sold for ?500 thats a profit margin of TEN THOUSAND PERCENT!!!

There's so many reasons why I love this business.

The money to be made is incredible. Five domain names a week a would take you approx five hours. And if you even sold them at the minimum of ?150 that's still ?750 PART TIME.

I strongly reccomend you get into this business yourselves. It's simple, hugely profitable, and can be worked part time around a current job. Please. I ask just one thing of you. Try this idea once. Just once. It'll cost you just ?5. When you see how easy it is then you can really go into it all guns-a-blazing! And if you found it wasn't for you what are you out? Just five measly pounds.

There's just one difference between those who achieve real success and those who float from day to day in relative financial obscurity. That's ACTION. So come on. Take that vital first step to making great money from home for just a few hours a week and see for yourself why buying and selling domain names is the opportunity of 2005.

All the best in your new venture.

Jonathan Street.

J.S.T Information

About the Author Jonathan Street is a master at making vast sums of money for very little investment. Direct mail, mail order, selling domain names, eBay...you name it - he's making money from it. He's also the author of "How To Make ?5,000 - ?10,000 A Month From Home". A book which he invites you to get for free from his ever popular web site. For FREE info and to get a copy of Jonathans book go to: <a target="_new" href="http://www.millionaire-enterprises.com">http://www.millionaire-enterprises.com</a>

Is Your Company Name Killing Your Online Business?

2009-01-11T21:50:00.001-08:00

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.

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.

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*

*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.

*The URL*

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.

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

What is a Domain Name and Where to Register?

2009-01-11T19:50:00.001-08:00

A domain name is an alias for an IP address. Now what is an IP address? An IP address is a numeric code that signifies where to look through the Internet for content. An example of an IP address would be 22.226.141.25. Rather than typing in a long and easily forgotten IP address, a domain name helps you by typing an easily remembered name to access the same site.

For example, www.domainsatretail.com is a domain name that points to a specific IP address. People can remember a domain name such as www.domainsatretail.com much easier than they can a long numeric code.

Domain names are everywhere as many use it everyday. Think of search sites. Google and Yahoo both have corresponding domain names www.google.com and www.yahoo.com. If you have ever sent an email you have used a domain name. For example when sending an email to user@sympatico.ca, sympatico.ca is the domain name.

Now that we have a better understanding of domain names, we need to know which domain name to pick and where can we register it. The domain name chosen for a web site can be a very important decision of marketing your company on the Internet. Its quite easy to just say pick a catchy domain that everyone will remember to use and you are set. In most cases it is that simple and you are set on your way to register the domain. However, at times the domain name you want has already been taken. And then you must think of a secondary name that you wish to use that will be just as catchy as the first.

OK, now you have picked your domain name you want. What is next? You need to choose a registrar for you domain name registration. There are many registrars who sign up and are available for the year, but you get no service from them whatsoever. Here are two domain name registrars that I would recommend for completing your domain name registration.

1) Domains at Retail ? registrar that registers domain names. We provide great service and have 24/7 customer support. .com domain names are normally on sale for $8.75 US / year, however they are currently being run on promotion for $7.95 US / year. Visit Domains at Retail at http://www.domainsatretail.com for Cheap domain registration and excellent customer service.

2) Domains at Cost ? excellent registrar with very competitive prices. I use this registrar for my .ca domain name registrations and renewals. They offer an excellent price ($14.41 CDN per domain name registration) and I am always able to get someone on the phone and my questions answered. Please Visit Domains at Cost at http://www.domainsatcost.ca for .ca Domain Name Registrations!

Good Luck with your domain name registration process and your start to your online marketing!

Michael Kralj is owner of Emenki Web Solutions and Domains at Retail. Emenki Web Solutions are web site designers and programmers based in Hamilton, Ontario, providing businesses with an informative and strategic approach to establishing an online presence on the web.

Please visit <a target="_new" href="http://www.emenki.com/">Emenki Web Solutions & Web Design in Hamilton, Ontario</a> on the web <a target="_new" href="http://www.emenki.com">http://www.emenki.com</a>

Please visit <a target="_new" href="http://www.domainsatretail.com">Domains at Retail - Cheap Domain Name Registration</a> on the web: <a target="_new" href="http://www.domainsatretail.com">http://www.domainsatretail.com</a>

Domain Name Goldmines: Expired Traffic Investing In The 21st Century

2009-01-11T18:10:00.001-08:00

I get pretty frustrated when thinking back to the days of seven-figure domain name sales. However, I was only a little kid, but still, I spent hours on the computer playing Descent II with my friends. Oh yes, those hours could have been spent convincing my parents to help me buy domain names like cd.com, tv.com, local.com, interact.net, isp.net, and other incredibly valuable domains. Sadly, other people got to them first, making millions very fast.

Some who fail say that the time to make money in domains is over. They are wrong indeed, as the wealthy domain investors are still buying those domains that will have permanent type-in traffic. Traffic equates to so much easy money that these people don't even develop websites to maximize sales potential. The key concept is to buy the names with traffic, and redirect them to a Pay-Per-Click system that will display PPC ads and pay the owner a percentage of advertising earnings from visitor clicks.

I've picked up a few decent type-in traffic domains such as ecommerc.com, but I simply don't have the money to invest in the names the big dogs are buying. If you have some extra money, I suggest that instead of risking it in something like gambling or trading on the foreign exchange, you should study up on domain speculation, and get started.

You'll probably have to spend thousands of dollars on a wise domain investment, but the return on investment will last a lifetime; or else you can sell it in a couple years for a great profit!

Ian Mason, owner of OPAffiliates.com, your source for <a target="_new" href="http://www.opaffiliates.com">Online Pharmacy Affiliate News</a> and revenue generation techniques.

Ian studies health, weight loss, exercise, and several martial arts; maintaining several websites in an effort to help provide up-to-date and helpful information for other who share his interests in health of body and mind.

Contact Ian Mason by e-mail at <a target="_new" href="mailto:ian@shoppe.md">ian@shoppe.md.</a>

ICANN Registrar: Great promotion by is-domains!

2009-01-11T07:30:00.001-08:00

ICANN accredited registar Secura is announcing today, that the company offers is-domains to persons and companies outside from Iceland.

The is-domains, which are the domains from Iceland, belong to the domains, which become more and more attractive.

The is-domains are specially interesting, because in English, "is" has a meaning. You could make a combination with files, which form sentences like http://www.tommy.is/at/home or http://www.tommy.is/superman.

ICANN accredited registrar Secura can register an is-domain at once, if the domain name is available.

Only companies from Iceland can register is-domains. A company from Iceland acts as trustee and is registering the domain for the customer. The company from Iceland confirms, that you have all rights at these is-domains.

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura

<a href="https://www.domainregistry.de/is-domain.html" target="_new">https://www.domainregistry.de/is-domain.html</a>

<a href="mailto:secura@domainregistry.de">secura@domainregistry.de</a>

10 Things to Ponder when Picking Your .com

2009-01-10T18:00:00.001-08:00

3. KISS Method. Keep It Simple Stupid. The best sites out there have simple easy to remember names. Alexa.com Excite.com you don't see many popular names like incrdiblesearchingpower.com

Thanks Ryan Churchill

Got a Small Business? Choose the Right Domain Name

2009-01-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

Choosing a domain name can be daunting. Research the subject (after all, you're the type of marketer who researches, right?) and you'll be hit with a landslide of opinions, most contradictory. There is, however, two points that everyone agrees on:

Pick your domain before you launch your business.

This is especially true if your market niche has lots of competition. Research your domain before you commit to a business plan.

Don't wait too long if you like a domain.

While you're researching, you'll likely come across a couple of domains that attract you. You might be tempted to wait, since you haven't finalized or refined your business plan. Don't. A handful of domains isn't going to cost you much at an affordable registrar like GoDaddy, and once they're gone, they're gone. Chances are you can even resell the rejects at cost, if not a profit. Or "develop" them with unique content and point them to your main site for extra traffic.

Now that we have the easy part of the way, let's wade into murkier waters.

Q. Which TLD (top-level domain) is best?

A. If you're a juggernaut in the business world with a giant ad budget, the answer is dot-com (.com). If you're a smalltime business struggling for search engine positioning, the answer is still dot-com.

People do disagree on the value of a dot-com TLD. Some assert that dot-coms have no particular value in the search engines, which may be true.

However, the fact is, if you haven't yet seared your brand on the collective brow of the planet, dot-com makes you easier to remember. If you eschew dot-coms, then in some deep dark place inside, people will remember you as "that hard-to-remember URL with the ending that isn't dot-com." What's worse, if you pick an otherwise memorable domain ending in dot-net, -us, or (God forbid) -tv, some of your traffic will end up at that competitor who snagged the dot-com version of your domain. Okay, that's settled. Now for the controversial stuff. Which is best: the "keyword" domain, or the "creative-genius, snappy and brandable" domain?

Keyword Name vs. Creative-Genius Brandable Name

A Keyword Name is the boring, workhorse kind of domain. You seem them everywhere. They bristle with hyphens: "best-anchovy-pizza-in-siberia.com." Or "super-labrador-accessories-and-golfballs.biz." On the face of it, they're hard to brand. They're hard to fit on business cards. They're really hard to explain over the phone to Aunt Martha.

On the other hand, a Creative-Genius Brandable Name is the sexy kind of domain. The successes are sparkling: Yahoo!, Google, Amazon.com. You can shout these URLs across the room and the other guy will probably get it right. But note: the dot-com road is littered with hip, snappy business who failed to brand their product successfully, or get listed high in the search engines. Now their URLs all point to the same page: "server not found ?"

The debate rages on, but the first question you must ask yourself is:

How will people find YOU?

It was recently reported that "direct navigation" web traffic has started to outnumber search engine traffic. In other words, more people visit sites by typing in the URL directly than they do by combing search engines for results. So more gurus are recommending 'brandable' domains.

But think about this. As a small business owner, how will people find you? Word of mouth? Billboards on I-95? "Corporate sponsorships" on hockey arenas? Probably not: they'll find you through search engines. They'll type in "cheap purple widgets," and as a smart marketer, you will offer them a website optimized for the keywords "cheap purple widgets."

Still, this doesn't imply you should automatically pick a keyword domain. There are pros and cons to both types.

BRANDABLE: ADVANTAGES

The brandable domain is great for business cards. In fact, it's nearly compulsory if you're planning on offline marketing. In other words, if you're printing up stationary at Kinkos, you want a brandable domain name.

If you're also a marketing genius, this is a fit challenge for your talents. Finding a memorable, apt domain to brand your business is something no software-driven suggestion tool can do.

Most "hybrid" domains -- ones that are really crosses between keywords and brandable names -- are long gone. But if you create a unique idea for your brand, you can probably snag the dot-com name for yourself. Now all you have to do is burn that brand onto the world's collective forehead. If you do, you'll benefit from type-in traffic. That means that if someone hears about you, they can probably find you just buy typing in your domain.

BRANDABLE: DISADVANTAGES

The brandable name requires solid marketing skill, research and luck. Your name should be so catchy, it's almost viral. It should also convey your actual business ? or you'll have to work hard (often meaning, spend money) to associate the two. Your name should be "tested" on coworkers, cousins and dishwasher repairmen to ensure it has no undesirable connotations. Finally, your name should be available as a domain, and not suffer from competitors with similar domains. Sometimes, pulling all this off is difficult.

KEYWORD: ADVANTAGES

By keyword names, we're not talking about the glorious generic keywords ? the one-keyword kings such as drugs.com or business.com. No, we're talking keyword names you can afford.

This is where you buy the domain name www.cheap-purple-widgets.com in hopes of getting a top search ranking for cheap purple widgets.

Advantages are many. First, more keyword names are available. (They're ugly, and many people feel an aversion to hyphens.) Also, they do help you place higher in the search engines. It's true that search engines only give you a little credit for having a keyword in your domain, but "a little credit" counts.

Second, keyword domains leave no doubt in the searcher's mind about what you're selling. If you decided to call your widget business "Ableeza," a searcher might not get at a glance what it is you're selling, even if your rank is high.

Finally, if you can get people to link to you, those links will be valuable. No matter how Webmaster Joe describes you, the link part will always say, "cheap-purple-widgets." This is a powerful search engine strategy for moving higher.

KEYWORD: DISADVANTAGES

You won't get type-in traffic for a keyword name. You can't really explain it across a phone. It won't look pretty on a business card, and it's almost impossible to pair up with a cute logo. But if search engine traffic is going to drive your business, the keyword name is worth a long, hard look.

WRAP-UP

Regardless of which type you choose, don't play guessing games. If you go with a keyword name, use a search tool (like <a target="_new" href="http://conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/keywordsuggestion.aspx">http://conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/keywordsuggestion.aspx</a> to determine what keyword phrases people are searching on.

If you choose a brandable name instead, test it out on a variety of real people first. Pay attention to their reactions. Reserve your domain early, since brandable domains go fast unless they're very unique.

In the long run, both types of domains can work for you, especially if offline marketing is an option and you have a knack for branding. Overall, though, the keyword domain is probably the easiest path to success for the small-business owner.

About The Author

Blake Kritzberg is a web designer and small business owner. Find more on domain selection, buying and selling at <a href="http://www.domain-aid.com" target="_new">http://www.domain-aid.com</a>.

A Winning Domain Name

2009-01-10T08:20:00.001-08:00

The domain name is one of the most important decisions you will make when trying to win over the search engine dilemma. Try using at least one of your best keywords within your domain name.

The search engine and the directories give higher preference when your domain name is relevant to your site content or theme.

Let me give you an example of three different ways you could look at your domain name and how the major search engines will view them for indexing.

www.trafficnmore.com

www.trafficNmore.com

www.traffic-N-more.com

Which one would you have chosen?

www.trafficNmore.com, Right!

The search engines may not necessarily see it that way.

Even though trafficNmore.com is easily understood by the eye of the visitor, the search engine will not see the difference between trafficnmore.com and trafficNmore.com.

Here is why.

Moral of the story, give your visitor a break, be nice to the search engines and they'll be nice to you and give you lots of reoccurring traffic for free.

About The Author

Debra Gravelle has been a business consultant and planner for 22 years.

Is Your Domain Name On Someones Wanted List?

2009-01-09T19:20:00.001-08:00

A good domain name is, and will always be, essential for any online business. If you ask me, the internet is still only just evolving from infancy. It's a long way to maturity.

Still the world has come a long way since Ken Olson, president & founder of Digital Equipment Corp. etched his name in history, when he proclaimed less than 30 years ago, "There's no reason why anyone would want a computer in their home."

How technology has changed our lives within a span of a single generation. Sooner rather than later, more and more businesses will want to go online and cater to a global market instead of being content with the local neighborhood. And one of the first steps after deciding what business you want to do, is getting a good domain name for your business.

A domain name can make or break an online venture. A domain name is a company's identity online. It is your brand, your personality, your trademark. So, choosing the right domain isn't easy.

BuyDomains.com argues that:
"Today .COM and .NET names have established recognition and can identify your company on the Internet forever. For this reason, they have considerable resale value and serve as excellent investments.

Over time, most, if not all companies will conduct a considerable portion of their business over the Internet. A domain name that is easy for your customers and prospective customers to remember is the key factor in generating new business and conducting business on the Internet.

Having relevant "keywords" to support your domain name is also an important consideration and will enable customers to find your online business effortlessly through Web based search engines.

Another excellent marketing tactic you should consider is to have multiple URL addresses (including your domain name) point to the very same Web site. This is very simple .....This will allow you to keep your legacy domain name, while multiple new e-business names conduct commerce and are listed in the search engines, significantly increasing your Web site's overall traffic."

A web site is a worldwide advertisement that runs 24/7. For the price of one print ad, or one-tenth of a 30 second commercial, you can have a solid web site designed and running every single minute of every single day. Show a company how a few thousand dollars invested in a domain name & a web site now can translate into 100 years of sales and effective promotion, and they will all be scrambling to get in line.

Most companies, even small ones, will tell you that having a web site is no longer an option. It offers the business owners the opportunity of having potential customers view their products or services day or night, without needing to an outlay of huge sums of money.

But then, many small and medium sized businesses that are already online have poor or difficult sounding domain names. Names that they would readily change in an instant if they had the right domain name. So there will always be people and companies who will be looking at the domain resale market for a better name for their business. This is key.

When Anysoft, a Massachusetts company, acquired any.com for $30,000, their vice-president, Emily Shain, said it was worth the money because the domain name was such a vital marketing tool that would help customers find them easily.

If you are at the right place at the right time with the right name, you could find yourself pocketing some nice cash.

Even governments are getting in on the act. The New Zealand government shelled out NZ$ 1 million for newzealand.com. As a result, there was understandable criticism in the NZ parliament over the purchase as being a waste of tax payers money.

What was the government's response? Mark Burton, the NZ Tourism Minister had this to say, "There is no question that this domain will provide an invaluable portal for... commercial entry into New Zealand for those interested in tourism, commerce, and industry.

The South African Government offered US$10 million for southafrica.com. It has also been reported that korea.com was sold for US$5 million to True Net, Korea's largest Internet service provider."

Author, Tariq Ghafoor writes, "I feel that there's still reason for optimism in the domain aftermarket but in order to profit there's a crucial need to alter one's perception and strategy just like our brethren have been forced to do in other web-based businesses."

It's true. The heady days of the domain gold rush has seen its final sunset. We are seeing shifting trends in the arena. To cope with the changes, a domain speculator needs to see himself as a domain entrepreneur and begin to organize his domain names and increase their value and prepare them for prospective buyers.

Edwin John is an author and webdeveloper
He is the author of "How I Sell My Domain Names"
<a target="_new" href="http://www.OpenForSale.com">http://www.OpenForSale.com</a>

Find out if your domain name is wanted:
<a target="_new" href="http://www.DNames.org">http://www.DNames.org</a>

A Winning Domain Name

2009-01-08T23:20:00.001-08:00

The domain name is one of the most important decisions you will make when trying to win over the search engine dilemma. Try using at least one of your best keywords within your domain name.

The search engine and the directories give higher preference when your domain name is relevant to your site content or theme.

Let me give you an example of three different ways you could look at your domain name and how the major search engines will view them for indexing.

www.trafficnmore.com

www.trafficNmore.com

www.traffic-N-more.com

Which one would you have chosen?

www.trafficNmore.com, Right!

The search engines may not necessarily see it that way.

Even though trafficNmore.com is easily understood by the eye of the visitor, the search engine will not see the difference between trafficnmore.com and trafficNmore.com.

Here is why.

Moral of the story, give your visitor a break, be nice to the search engines and they'll be nice to you and give you lots of reoccurring traffic for free.

About The Author

Debra Gravelle has been a business consultant and planner for 22 years.

How to avoid copyright infringment in your domain name

2009-01-08T08:10:00.001-08:00

One of the most important aspects of choosing a domain name is that it should be non-infringing. This is not an easy task since most unique names have already been registered. The number of useful domain names from the marketing point of view have become extremely limited. Several companies now register variations of their trademark names as a preventive measure against infringement. For example, check www.coke.com, www.coca-cola.com, and www.coca-cola.com, or try www.3m.com and www.mmm.com.

All these factors have led to a crisis of domain names and given rise to increasing cases of infringement of domain names. A number of companies have taken legal action against other companies or individuals over alleged copyright violation on the domain names.

There are some fundamental guidelines and cross-checks for selection of a domain name.

You must carefully select some names that are relevant to your business model. You must be able to justify your reason for using the name. Your domain name should principally consist of a name you are using as a trade name, trademark or corporate name.

It is better to select more than one name since you are not sure about the availability of the required domain name.

Now, search the website of one of the prominent domain name registrars to check if the required name is available. If the name has already been registered by someone else, the search result will provide you with optional names that are similar to your requirements. For example, for the name "ford", the search result may give you similar names like "aboutford.com" and "fordbusiness.com".

If the domain name that you are looking has already been registered but there is no content being displayed at the domain, try to find out the details of the owner of the domain. It is possible that he/she may be genuine and have yet not published any content.

It is also possible that the owner does not plan to create a web site and is willing to give you the domain at the original price. You must confirm that the seller has ownership rights for that particular domain name.

Choosing a domain name that is same as or quite similar to another well-known trademark, may lead to legal action. The regulations governing these issues are dealt by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

It is very likely that you would lose right of your domain name if you have intentionally chosen a name similar to another domain name so as to confuse potential visitors to the site. For example, if your site deals in consumer electronics goods made by a Samsung competitor, do not choose the name "samsungbusiness.com" since a court is most likely to pass a verdict that you selected this name to divert attention of Samsung customers.

There could be others reasons of losing a domain name. It may be found that you have never carried out any business under that name or there is no person in your company similar to that name. Another reason could be that you intend to sell that domain name to your competitor for financial gain.

If your domain name is same as your name then you may be allowed to continue to use it, inspite of the fact that it is similar to someone else's domain name. But the usage of such a name is governed by certain conditions set by court. For example, Mr. Suki Nokia, who runs a cosmetics business, may be allowed to use the domain name "nokia.kr" but he would be barred from using his site to demonstrate any electronics-related information or advertising.

It is also possible for you to use a domain name that is similar to another's trademark if your objective is not to criticize the other person's business.

In the non-cyberworid, two companies may have the same name if they do not conduct a similar business or do not have similar product lines. Roxy Electrical and Roxy Laundry can coexist comfortably. However, in the web world, both Roxies cannot own the "roxy.com" domain name. The laundry Roxy could register under "roxy.laundry" and the electrician under "roxy.electrical."

A very useful tip is to buy all three of the top level domains - .com, .co.uk and .net. You should also buy all possible misspellings of your domain name before anybody else takes advantage of this fact.

You have put a lot of money and energy into building your business and if you are forced to give up the domain name, your business is likely to suffer due to it. So, you need to put your best efforts in choosing a domain name that is both distinctive and non-infringing.

Copyright ? Active-Domain.com's <a href="http://www.active-domain.com" target="_new">domain registration</a> service. All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted freely provided the resource box, Web addresses and copyright information remain intact.

Think All the Good Domain Names are Taken?

2009-01-08T07:00:00.001-08:00

Have you heard of the other tlds (top leve domains) such as: .free, .church, .video, .travel, .llp, .golf, .school, .agent and .love? There are many more too. Wait! Don't wretch just yet. I'll tell you why in just a minute.

If you look for a great domain name for very long you will learn how rare they are. Trying to find a one word dot com is a futile effort. The only exception to that is the occasional name that someone gives up. The problem with that is you must search a list of thousands (or tens of thousands) to find one and of course you must get there ahead of the next person. If you just have to have a one word dot com, be ready to shell out thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

Then there are the dot net, us, cc, org and biz. Generally if you checked a dot com a few years ago you could find the net, org or biz equivalent. Not so anymore. Besides, the only one of these related to business is biz.

So why am I writing this you ask. First, though, think about it for a bit. I did that and realized it would be (is) great to have stockpick.free, camera.video, poem.love, game.video and loan.travel. Are you beginning to see what I mean? Don't you agree that these are somewhat better than allthefreeebooksyouwant.com or stopheretogetaloan.com.

The point being made here is "type in traffic" (people who go online and just type what they want in the browser). You could wait for years for someone to go to the internet and type in one of those dot coms.

Think again, though, about how many will be looking for toy.free or camera.video. What would it be worth to you to have 30 or a hundred or a thousand people searching for a video camera typing your name into their browser? Pretty obvious now, huh.

I told you not to wretch, now I'll tell you why. There is a wesite where you can get these tlds, and there are lots of them. They are at new.net. When you finish reading here go and see for yourself, but let me tell you two more things.

1. You need to download a plugin to view these sites (very easy)

2. 175,000,000 people already have theirs

About The Author

Dean Walden is the owner of <a href="http://www.clikngo.us" target="_new">http://www.clikngo.us</a>. If you find some value in this article please do some searches with us (clikngo is a ppc search engine).

Choosing Your Domain Name ? Internet Marketing

2009-01-07T23:40:00.001-08:00

This is actually an important key to your business and sometimes its success. I will explain why through-out this article.

Firstly when choosing a domain name you can use letters, numbers or hyphens however you can't use hyphens at the beginning nor the end of your URL. You can use up to 67 characters.

Choosing a smaller domain name will help your website be more easily remembered for repeat vistors (who don't bookmark your website but wish to return). Problem is most of the smaller domain names are taken these days.

Choosing a name that is relevant and rich in keywords for your product or service will enhance your chances of being found in the search engines. From my knowledge using hyphens can actually give you a better position for example, if you are selling horse shoes you might choose a domain name that looks like this: www.horse-shoes.com

Some of my websites are found by someone typing this as a keyword www.horse (example only) and that's all they type. If you type that into google you'll see that all domain names that start with www.horse are brought up first!

You may also want to consider buying the domain names such as if you wanted www.horse-shoes.com also buy www.horse-shoes.org and .biz and .us? This can help ensure that someone doesn't take any business from you simply by buying your name and replacing the .org .net .us .biz etc.

If you have an already establish a company name and already well known then you would want to obviously choose that as your domain name.

? Joanne King - http://www.joesy.com

Get your Free book on "Affiliate Marketing ? Quick Start Guide" by visiting <a target="_new" href="http://www.joesy.com">http://www.joesy.com</a>.

You are welcome to reprint this article on your website or send to your mailing list however it may not be edited and the link in this bio must stay active. Cheers =)

Got a Small Business? Choose the Right Domain Name

2009-01-07T18:20:00.001-08:00

Pick your domain before you launch your business.

This is especially true if your market niche has lots of competition. Research your domain before you commit to a business plan.

Don't wait too long if you like a domain.

Now that we have the easy part of the way, let's wade into murkier waters.

Q. Which TLD (top-level domain) is best?

People do disagree on the value of a dot-com TLD. Some assert that dot-coms have no particular value in the search engines, which may be true.

Keyword Name vs. Creative-Genius Brandable Name

The debate rages on, but the first question you must ask yourself is:

How will people find YOU?

Still, this doesn't imply you should automatically pick a keyword domain. There are pros and cons to both types.

BRANDABLE: ADVANTAGES

If you're also a marketing genius, this is a fit challenge for your talents. Finding a memorable, apt domain to brand your business is something no software-driven suggestion tool can do.

BRANDABLE: DISADVANTAGES

KEYWORD: ADVANTAGES

By keyword names, we're not talking about the glorious generic keywords ? the one-keyword kings such as drugs.com or business.com. No, we're talking keyword names you can afford.

This is where you buy the domain name www.cheap-purple-widgets.com in hopes of getting a top search ranking for cheap purple widgets.

KEYWORD: DISADVANTAGES

WRAP-UP

About The Author

Blake Kritzberg is a web designer and small business owner. Find more on domain selection, buying and selling at <a href="http://www.domain-aid.com" target="_new">http://www.domain-aid.com</a>.

1-800-Get-Rich Can Toll Free 800 Number Domains Pay Off?

2009-01-07T06:50:00.001-08:00

The toll free number 1-800-Get-Rich belongs to the Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City. Perfect vanity number for a casino, right? Well apparently not. Their website shows the actual numbers, 1-800-438-7424 for the marketing department of Resorts Atlantic City. Those NUMBERS are nowhere near as memorable as is the mnemonic device of letters representing those numbers on the telephone keypad. It makes you wonder, did the casino have bad luck (no pun intended) or receive bad publicity for their 800-Get-Rich phone number?

Doing a Google search for 1-800-GET-RICH returns several spoof articles using the toll free number to make light of get rich quick schemes. Seems as well suited to a casino as to satire, since gambling represents the ultimate get rich quick scheme.

But on the web there's a another element to toll free numbers you must consider. 800 numbers are used as domain names which seem to stick in our memory as a web address just as well as a phone number. Resorts Atlantic City Hotel Casino should buy the domain name www.1800getrich.com from the current owner and assign their marketing department toll free 800 vanity number to the Casino instead.

The domain name www.1800GetRich.com is for sale as of this writing if you visit that web address. You can be certain that the current domain owner knows that the toll free vanity telephone number is owned by Resorts International Hotels www.resortsac.com which matches the domain www.1800getrich.com. It has to be enticing to think a large international hotel corporation may want his domain.

The casino owns the toll free number but isn't using the mnemonic for the numbers (GET-RICH for 438-7424). Makes you wonder about the history of the domain name, since WHOIS records show it was reserved only this past May of 2004, AND the history of the vanity number since it is going unused, at least on the web site. Hmmmm...

There are vanity phone number resellers online that actually specialize in providing 800 numbers with matching domain name for those seeking the consistent branding for their business. Clearly this is simply a marketing ploy by savvy 800 number vendors, as those domains may be full of hyphens and may cost more than they should due to the perception of value-added.

An interesting aspect to toll free numbers as domain names is that of 1-800 copyright and trademarks. Take for example, the well known flower retailer 1-800-FLOWERS.com where they use both the domain name and the toll free number. Both are copy- righted and trademarked names and essential to the business.

Legal precedent allows trademark owners to confiscate domains from "cybersquatters" who buy domain names containing trade- marked or copyrighted words and phrases hoping to sell that domain back to the trademark holder. But it is less clear an issue when it comes to descriptive toll free and vanity phone numbers. How about 1-800-PINDROP.com - which you would think would be registered to Sprint Communications? Curiously, as of October of 2004, this domain was available. What do they use? www.pindrop.com (without the 1-800) goes to Sprint.com.

It appears there are wide inconsistencies in using toll free 800 phone numbers as domain names but they can be memorable, which is one measure of a good domain name. They also aren't limiting as to word length. I've always felt it's a bit odd to type in 1800keywordphrase.com as a domain name, but only because there is no hyphen in it. 1800 looks like eighteen hundred and is just as strange as typing 247 for domains as a suggestion they are always open, more often seen as 24/7, but domain names can't have that slash mark in them.

As a matter of fact, I've always disliked numbers of any kind in domain names - especially those using numbers in place of the words "to" (up2me.com)& "for" (good4you.com) But, as owner of http://website101.com I'm at odds with the dislike for numbers in domain names. Still, it works better than 1800website.com or 1-800-website.com, both owned by Verio Web Hosting and both purchased in August of 1996, but neither have web sites configured at those addresses. They must not have been a worthwhile domains, yet they keep them.

If it offers you another option for a memorable web address, 800 number domains may be worth considering.

Mike Valentine operates WebSite101 domain name tutorial <a target="_new" href="http://WebSite101.com/Domain_Name/">http://WebSite101.com/Domain_Name/</a> Free domain lookup tool to find out who owns domain names at <a target="_new" href="http://website101.com/Domain_Name/Domain-WHOIS-database.html">http://website101.com/Domain_Name/Domain-WHOIS-database.html</a> This article written for 800 Numbers Toll Free <a target="_new" href="http://800numberstollfree.com/toll-free-800-number-index.htm">http://800numberstollfree.com/toll-free-800-number-index.htm</a>

How to avoid copyright infringment in your domain name

2009-01-06T16:40:00.001-08:00

There are some fundamental guidelines and cross-checks for selection of a domain name.

It is better to select more than one name since you are not sure about the availability of the required domain name.

It is also possible for you to use a domain name that is similar to another's trademark if your objective is not to criticize the other person's business.

Expired Domains Explained

2009-01-06T15:20:00.001-08:00

Not everybody reregisters their domain names. For whatever reason, financial or otherwise good domain names come back onto the market. These are expired domains and you can get your hands on them.

The domain is now in pending delete which is the final status. This means that expired domain is back on the market. On the 6th day on pending delete the domain name is now available to everyone.

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 Sell your Website

2009-01-06T14:20:00.001-08:00

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 <a href="http://sitepoint.com" target="_new">sitepoint.com</a>, <a href="http://geekvillage.com" target="_new">geekvillage.com</a> and <a href="http://webhostingtalk.com" target="_new">webhostingtalk.com</a>.

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 <a href="http://PageBrokers.com" target="_new">PageBrokers.com</a> - A website dedicated to buying and selling websites online for the best possible price.. He also runs <a href="http://WebmasterFreebie.com" target="_new">WebmasterFreebie.com</a> - an online community for webmasters.

Domain Names

2009-01-05T21:20:00.001-08:00

Domain names are relatively straightforward! Or at least that's the theory!!

The domain name is also, but technically not quiet correct, known as the website address.

Using an ISP's domain name can look amateurish in an e-mail addresses, it is much more so with websites, giving the impression of hanging on another's coat tails. The only exception being when a firm wants to re-inforce a local or professional affiliation by appearing as part of an existing site dedicated to a region or association. Even in such cases autonomy and continuity are better assured by having one's own domain and merely using a page on the third party's site to point users toward it.

Domains are classified according to their endings or "suffixes". As a commercial organisation a company will almost certainly want a domain ending in .com or .co.uk. Other endings such as .biz and .ltd.uk are at least to date, insufficiently familiar to users, meaning the name can be too readily misremembered. Of the two desirable suffixes, .com is preferable for business with international activities, and arguably gives the impression of a bigger organisation, whilst .co.uk helps reassure users on the largely American-dominated web that they are indeed dealing with a UK firm.

The part of the domain name before the suffix will usually by the firms trading name, provided of course that the domain name has not already been registered, (which is increasingly likely these days). If the name is very long an abbreviation may be considered. Domain names are not case sensitive.

The actual registration of a domain name is a straightforward process that can be done online, either through your ISP or better still through a dedicated registration service company such as Discount Domains Ltd (<a href="http://www.discountdomainsuk.com" target="_new">http://www.discountdomainsuk.com</a>). Renewal fees must be paid, typically every two years.

Checking if a domain name is freely available is very straightforward as most domain registration services provide a WHOIS service, as the name suggest, this checks the ownership details of a domain, note however that such services normally run 48 hours behind actual registrations.

Moving ISP's can save money, however it may take time and incur extra charges. Pricing in the domain name registration industry have fallen considerably over recent years and a domain name typically now costs from $15 for two years registration.

Once your domain name is registered, you can either leave the domain name "parked" awaiting future use, or point it at a website, this is usually achieved by changing the Domain Name Server, or DNS settings on the domain to point at hosting company where your website is located. Almost all registration services offer a free user control panel to change these settings.

Web hosting is the provision of space on a web server to publish a web site. There are numerous hosting companies in the market, and most domain registration services also offer a hosting solution. Prices vary but $100 per annum should be sufficient for most business needs.

About The Author

ICANN or I CANNot that is the Question

2009-01-05T18:20:00.001-08:00

Combined with the newest craze of blogging and RSS feeds, why not get a foreign based blog or RSS instead of a .com blog or equivalent? Your profits are sure to hit the roof.

Ann Louison is owner of a few gambling and casino portal sites and is dedicated to providing useful information on various topics.

ICANN Registrar: jp-Domains for Anybody

2009-01-05T13:40:00.001-08:00

Cologne, October 10 2004. ICANN Registrar Secura announces today, that the company is now accepting the registration of jp-domains from companies and individuals outside of Japan.

The jp-domains are the domains of Japan. The jp-domains belong to the popular domains in Asia.

You need a local contact to register these domain. ICANN accredited registrar Secura provides automatically this local contact in the registration process, if you have not a registered business in Japan.

There are domains at .jp and at .co.jp. You have to pay for the more attractive domains at .jp 300 US-Dollars per year.

It is paradox: But you have to invest 4000 US-Dollar in the first year, if you want a co.jp-domain, as you need for a co.jp- domain a Japanese business licence. In this price of 4000 US-Dollars is not only the co.jp-domain, but the business licence, the contacts with japanese authorities, the translation and everything else included.

ICANN accredited registrar Secura has access to the registration system of jp-domains. Secura can register a jp-domain at once, if the domain name is available. <a href="https://www.domainregistry.de/jp-domain.html" target="_new">https://www.domainregistry.de/jp-domain.html</a>

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald<bR> CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura

<a href="http://www.com-domains.com" target="_new">http://www.com-domains.com</a>; <a href="mailto:secura@domainregistry.de">secura@domainregistry.de</a>

1-800-Get-Rich Can Toll Free 800 Number Domains Pay Off?

2009-01-05T04:50:00.001-08:00

If it offers you another option for a memorable web address, 800 number domains may be worth considering.

How to Get Rich Playing With WORDS!

2009-01-04T20:30:00.001-08:00

How many times have you read or heard on the news that someone hit a state lottery? Winning Millions of Dollars.

The odds of winning a major state / multi-state lottery is for example: 1 in 120,526,770 is your chance of winning the most popular multi-state lottery in the U.S. Power Ball.

Trying to guess which of the 1 to 53 and 1 Powerball number from 1 to 42 will come out on is mind boggling and to make it even tougher; the rule is that you must get the 1 in 120,526,770 right on the night that you play.

No holding onto your ticket and see if it comes out in a couple of weeks. If you don't hit it on the date on your ticket. You can just trash your hard earned $1.00. If you purchased plays 10 then, just lost 10 of your hard earned dollars!

There is BETTER game for you to play with better chances to win (sort of speak)! One day as I was cruising down the information highway I came across some information that made me slam on my breaks! People were playing the NEW Lottery!

This Game is so cheap that it comes out to about 0.025342465753424657534246575342466 (my trusty calculator) per day to play. Being terrible with numbers I'm not even going to attempt to figure out what the odds of hitting this lottery is! One thing I'm sure of? this NEW Lottery has to have much better odds! What makes it special to me is; it's for those of US who love letters and words.

I called it the Name Game.

One Play gets you a whole year to hit! Just about anyone can play it for less than pennies a day (refer to the 0.025 number above ?.)

Simply come up with a domain name and buy it. Within days you could be on your way to Literally Millions!

Imagine if you were the one who came up with and bought Business.com.

You would have hit that Name Lottery for $8 million dollars! Yes, 8 Million! I repeat, that's $8,000,000,00!

Business.com is the current record holder for that highest paid domain name.

It took the spot from Compaq who paid something like $3.300,000,00 million for the the domain Altavista.com back in February 3, 2000. You probably recognize the Altavista name now but before Compaq bought it, it was likely a big dude in the world of internet. Has these Million Dollar Figures made you decide to Play the Domain Lottery. If so here is a tip or two to get you started. The most popular web address (not the same as email address) end in .COM. The second most popular is .NET

The absolute major combination hit is to have a .COM consisting of just one word i.e. business.com if that isn't available go for it's sister version business.net. These names all go for just under $10.00. (If they aren't already taken!

Just thought of one could you could you hold on please while I go check it out? ???? Thank you for waiting however I just tried business.TV and it is already taken and is probably up for sale. Once you purchase a domain name it's yours. You can transfer it, let it just sit there or SELL IT!

In fact there is so much money to be made in domain names that there are companies who do just that. They put you domain name up for sale on their site!

You are charged a listing fee; usually starting at about $50.00 to $250.00. If your domain is sold through their site you are charged a commission fee which can be anywhere between 5 ? 10% of the purchase price.

During the research for this article, I came across one which charges just $0.79 cents to list a domain name and NO Commission fees.

All in all when you are getting paid $8 Million for simply coming up with a name.

I'd say that's a great way to hit any lottery, without having to get dressed, hurry to the convenient store before the deadline cut-off time!

Now: What would I do if I hit one of these Domain lotteries? I must state like many other multi-million dollar lottery winners. I'd keep working because words and writing is a part of me and is what I love!

Happy Domaining to You All!

Terri Wells
<a target="_new" href="http://www.kingdom-domain.com">http://www.kingdom-domain.com</a>
<a href="mailto:twells@writeme.com">twells@writeme.com</a>

Terri is a freelance writer, writing articles for businesses for a small fee.

Selecting Your Domain Name - Things to consider

2009-01-04T05:40:00.001-08:00

Selecting your domain name Selecting a domain name can be a very frustrating process as a lot of domains have been sold already. With 30.000+ domain names being sold each day it can be a challenge to find the appropriate domain name for your company. So what do you do? Your business name might not be available or be too long. If you did think about doing business on the Web when you started, your name might not be appropriate for the web. What if your domain name is available for the country code extension but not .COM? Should you buy the .CA anyway? How long is too long?

Create a short list of domain names and variances. Talk with people that you trust and opinion you value or ask your regular customers. However, don't wait too long about as 30.000 Domain Names are being sold a day now. Below you will find a few pointers or things you should have in mind when selecting your Domain Name.

Using your business name Using your business name as your domain name could be a great idea. However if your business name is really long or very complicated you might want to consider searching for an abbreviation or an alternative.

Recognizable You want it to reflect what you do ... that makes it easier for people to remember your address and will increase the chance of people guessing your web address right without having to search for it.

Uniqueness

Choosing a Domain name that is unique can avoid that you loose business to your competitors as it cannot be confused with other domain names. You still have to consider if the Domain name is easy to type and not too complicated. Most unique Domain Names for .COM are gone and a lot have been bought to re-sell a lot more expensive. If you have a look on eBay you will see a lot of Domain names for sale.

A person had already registered the Domain name for Pope Benedict XVI before they announced the new Pontiffs name and had put it for sale on eBay immediately after the announcement. He sold it for $200.000+. Think carefully about buying your domain name from another person. First of all you would have to pay a lot more than registering a new name. Second, you might not have full ownership of it. Maybe find alternatives as the one for sale by a person might never be sold and then end up being available through a Domain Registrar a couple of years down the road.

Easy to type

You should select a domain name that is easy to type so avoid complicated domain names. You would like people to be able to enter your Web Address very easily. Spelling errors might make them end up at the wrong site. Or if your domain name contains a hyphen "-" and your competitors domain name has none. They might end up there instead. One example could be (note that only one is a real site):

www.pc-world.com

www.pcworld.com

These could be very different web sites but the name is very easy to mistake.

Where in the World are your customers?

Should you choose a Country Code Domain like .CA or just buy a .COM? If you are a Real Estate agent and you only sell houses in your town should you then only buy your Country Code domain? Not necessarily. What about the potential clients that are trying to relocate? Are you a local landscaper? Then a Country Code domain might be the best solution. As the domains are selling very quickly now for the .COM then people start to use the Country Code domains more. Clients and potential customers are getting more computer/internet savvy and as businesses are starting to use the Country Code domains more, they will catch on to that quickly.

Multiple Domain names

If you are a business in Canada that expect to have clients all over the world you might want to consider selecting your domain with both .CA and .COM extension. How this would work is that your main web site could be your .COM address but if people type in your .CA address they are automatically forwarded to your .COM address. You have to ask for your .CA to be forwarded to the .COM address. It's that simple and with the low prices on domain names not a big expense.

Another advantage is that if you have a unique domain name you can avoid someone else reaping the benefits of your advertising. People still tries to enter Web Address with a .COM first so if you had bought the .CA address and someone buys the exact name using .COM they would open your competitors web site first.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Author <a href="mailto:apetersen@createitsimple.com"> Anette Petersen </a> is Web Consultant with Create IT Simple a Web Design, Hosting and Domain Company based in Halifax, Canada. Their Web Site is <a target="_new" href="http://www.createitsimple.com">http://www.createitsimple.com</a>

For more information, email her <a href="mailto:apetersen@createitsimple.com">apetersen@createitsimple.com</a>

All-time Record of Domain Registrations

2009-01-04T04:40:00.001-08:00

The number of registered domains has reached an all-time high of more than 60 million domain names worldwide.

Figures show that country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) are the fastest growing market, while general demand for new domains remains strong. The most popular domains are still the com-domains. The growth of com-domains is tremendous.

Experts think, that the growing sale of com-domains reveal a revival of the "New Economy". Some experts even argue, that this growth of domain names is an early indicator of persisting economic growth in the USA and the whole world.

The com-domains remain the most popular domain with about a 45 percent market share.

New generic Top Level Domains outside of .com, .net and .org, become increasingly popular, including aero-domains, biz-domains, coop-domains, info-domains, museum-domains, .name-domains and pro-domains.

Oktober 2004

.de 7.981.014 (Increment compared to one month ago: 89.793)

.at 367.987 (Increment compared to one month ago: 4.766)

.com 31.017.772 (Increment compared to one month ago: 750.631)

.net 4.999.073 (Increment compared to one month ago: 88.952)

.org 3.138.385 (Increment compared to one month ago: 37.607)

.info 1.919.331 (Increment compared to one month ago: 683.846)

.biz 1.041.432 (Increment compared to one month ago: 13.118)

.us 881.411 (Increment compared to one month ago: 6.395) <a href="http://www.com-domains.com" target="_new">http://www.com-domains.com</a>

About The Author

Hans-Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN Registrar Secura

<a href="http://www.com-domain.com" target="_new">http://www.com-domain.com</a>; <a href="mailto:secura@domainregistry.de">secura@domainregistry.de</a>

.info Freedom Frenzy

2009-01-03T11:40:00.001-08:00

Whether you're someone that registers domain names on a regular basis, or you're a person looking to register one domain name for your website or business, then it's likely that you've encountered the free .info registrations taking place at several registrars.

I've encountered a lot of debate regarding the free .info giveaways. Some think that this free rush will decrease the value of the domain extension, while others insist that no matter what the price, certain domains maintain value due to the high demand of the keywords.

The best thing we could do to maintain the value of the .info is to only register the extension appropriate keywords. I've seen a lot of random, and worse, profitless .info domain names being registered for the sake of being free. This doesn't really help the .info market, especially when I've personally come across several hundred domain names that match perfectly with the extension, and are still available for registration.

The .info should be used for exactly the purpose it was designed. For information. Anything else would just be impractical. It's not difficult to find worthwhile terms to match with the .info extension. Do some research. Visit your favorite directory and browse through for topics. I've found hundreds of available extension appropriate terms using this method. Forget the strategy you've been using to find .com's, and other such extensions. The .info is a very special extension, and should be treated as such.

This is not to limit you, quite the contrary. This is a great opportunity for many people to register valuable domain names at little to no cost whatsoever. If you spend a little extra time to find better registration choices, then it will pay off in the end. Rushing out to register the first thing that comes to mind for the sake of doing it won't benefit you, or anyone else in the end, especially come renewal time.

Another tip is to only register names that would be worth registering if you were paying out of your pocket for them. Also only register names that would be worth the renewal cost. Chances are if you avoid these two tips, it won't even be worth it to you to park your ineffective domains at a revenue bearing parking service. Think before you register. Be sure that there is a way that you can profit from this opportunity, whether it be in reselling, developing, or parking. Quick, thoughtless registrations of the .info are counterproductive, and should be avoided at all costs.

About The Author

Jennifer Chiera, Webmaster/Investor

DomainBash.com - <a href="http://www.domainbash.com" target="_new">http://www.domainbash.com</a>

DotTown.com - <a href="http://www.dottown.com" target="_new">http://www.dottown.com</a>

DomainAppeal.com - <a href="http://www.domainappeal.com" target="_new">http://www.domainappeal.com</a>

<a href="mailto:webmaster@domainbash.com">webmaster@domainbash.com</a>

How To Really Profit from Domain Names

2009-01-03T08:30:00.001-08:00

However, you can still make money from domain names if you are sensible in your approach. Here are some suggestions on ways to profit.

1. Affiliate Programs: Use your domain name to promote an appropriate affiliate program. Either redirect to the affiliate site or write a review that links to them.

2. Informational Sites: Create content and then profit from it by earning advertising revenue through Google AdSense or a similar program.

4. Product Sites: Create your own or sell someone else`s product appropriate to your domain name.

The trick is to generate traffic for your domain name. That traffic in turn will create revenue. Then, when you go to sell your domain name, you will have a few things going for you.

Second, you have traffic. Just as a shopping mall with no traffic results in no sales, so a website must have traffic to generate income.

You really can profit from your domain name investments by adding value and properly developing your web properties.

For further information about profiting from domain names, visit <A target="_new" HREF="http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/domain-names.html">http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/domain-names.html</A>

RESOURCE BOX:

For valuable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit: <a target="_new" href="http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/">http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/</a>

How to Profit from Expired Domain Name Registration

2009-01-03T00:40:00.001-08:00

After the dot com crash, expired domain names and expired domain name traffic have been a source of potential income. It is important to inexpensively obtain the automated tools required to track the thousands of domain name registration and abandoned websites that are removed from the domain registry and become available for purchase.

Expired domain registration and the expired domain name traffic associated with them have been only available to those who had an automated system and tools.

Now, automated tools and resources are available for identifying, appraising and even buying these domain names on autopilot.

Expired domain names are those that had previously been registered to another owner. These domain name registration are available to the open market because of non-payment of the domain name renewal fees. Such domain names are returned to the open market about forty-five days after the expiration date.

Many domain names even point to fully functioning websites while many are registered for speculation. These names are registered by speculators in the hope of obtaining a profit on the resale of the domain name.

Numerous other domain names are registered for website development, but do not appear online. In a number of these cases, the domain name owners do not follow through with respect to the website development and allow the domain registration to expire.

However, there are a number of expired domain names with fully functioning websites, receiving daily traffic from the search engines, links and banner ads. The expired domain names that get this daily traffic can earn revenues if these are redirected to another website or marketed with affiliate programs.

Earning Profit from Expired Domain Names & Expired Domain Name Traffic:

1. Buying for speculation - There is now a large and highly profitable market for reselling domain registration at present, and speculators are looking out for developing technologies and trends. Evolution is constantly taking place in technology and trends. There are markets, being watched closely right now, that are expected to grow exponentially within a short span of time. It should be a good idea to locate and register expiring domain registration that are related to new trends, technology and markets in order to earn substantial profits.

2. Buying expiring domain names and redirecting the targeted traffic - Targeted keyword domain names can help to get traffic from those simply typing in keyword rich domain names into the address bar and hitting the enter key.

3. Buying expired domain name registration and putting up generic websites - Using tools like easy website building software, third party payment processors, auto responders and other applications, even a novice could put generic websites online with keyword rich domain names that should appear in the search engine rankings. These websites can be built using expired domain names to drive traffic to them and the domain registration and the developed website could then be sold together with the domain name, as a value added commodity.

4. Buying expiring domain names of websites that are already online ? A number of expiring domain names are, actually, already functioning websites. The owners of these websites either did not renew their domain registration for some reason or simply stopped operating the website. In fact, quite often, these websites already have traffic from links to other websites, search engine rankings and even directory listings.

5. Buying expired domain names and using them for marketing affiliate programs - Affiliate programs are a good way to acquire an online business without even having a product. Affiliate marketers redirect traffic from the affiliate website to the website of the actual product or service and charge a commission or a fee when any of the redirected traffic results in sales. Affiliate programs have become an automated turnkey solution for a number of entrepreneurs, especially novices.

One can locate and register expired domain names that closely target the market of the affiliate programs and then draw that targeted traffic into the website with expired keyword rich domain names with content that satisfies the informational needs. Then the users can be led onto the sales page of the product.

Copyright ? Active-Domain.com's <a href="http://www.active-domain.com" target="_blank">domain registration</a> service. All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted freely as long as you provide an active link to our website at <a target="_new" href="http://www.active-domain.com">http://www.active-domain.com</a>

Is Your Domain Costing You Traffic?

2009-01-02T20:50:00.001-08:00

You visited a great website some time ago that had some fantastic information on it. It is not easily found in search engines results so you decide to type the domain name into your favorite browser. The problem is that the url spells out something like keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword.com.

Does that sound ethical to you? It maybe helpful with those search engine rankings but for many visitors that can be a pain in you know what to type out.

For years I worked in an internet caf? and was surprised to know that many persons can't type in a hyphen. Instead of finding out how to do it, they just move on to an alternate site hence a loss of traffic.

The average computer user can be a lazy fellow indeed. That's why there are so many keyboard shortcuts. He needs to complete his task as soon as possible.

Ever wonder why the Googles, Yahoos, Amazons and Ebays of the online world are so successful? It's because there domain name play a significant role in there branding.

There are countless persons logging on for the first time each day in search of information that can assist them in the iniation process. It is imperative that your domain name play a major part in creating a bond with your viewers.

For almost four years I marketed a free website that was hosted on Geocities. My "domain" spelt out Geocities.com/Myname which made marketing feel like running with an anchor tied to my legs. I can't even imagine the amount of traffic and credibility that I lost due to that single factor.

Does it work? It can and sometimes it won't. I believe that having a domain with too many words in it can be a turnoff just like having a Geocities site. It seems unprofessional for a company to have a name that contrasts the credibility that they are trying to create.

Some domain names are like a cargo train several comportments long. Why? Since some search engines do not give any significance to the meta keyword tag, some webmasters fill their domain with their keywords.

A good domain does not guarantee success as I found out. But a memorable and easy to spell name can be beneficial to both you and your visitors. You can have an easier time reaching them and they will have an easier time finding you with a quick type in of your domain.

I think it is best to put your keywords for each page in your file name. That way you, the search engines and your viewers all win.

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Nicholas Dixon is a Jamaican webmaster, writer and affiliate marketer. Find out
how you too can create an online income with our list of highly recommended
programs by visiting <a target="_new" href="http://WWW.Oceanroc.com/affiliate-directory">http://WWW.Oceanroc.com/affiliate-directory</a>
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Customer Excellence Returns to Web Site Hosting!

2009-01-02T19:40:00.001-08:00

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:

<ul>

<li>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.

<li>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.

<li>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.

<li>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.

</ul>

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. <a href="http://www.combustionhosting.com/moreinfo" target="_new">http://www.combustionhosting.com/moreinfo</a>

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 <a href="http://www.onlinewebtraining.com" target="_new">http://www.onlinewebtraining.com</a>, 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.

<a href="mailto:robin@searchengineworkshops.com">robin@searchengineworkshops.com</a>

ICANN or I CANNot that is the Question

2009-01-01T02:10:00.001-08:00

Combined with the newest craze of blogging and RSS feeds, why not get a foreign based blog or RSS instead of a .com blog or equivalent? Your profits are sure to hit the roof.

Ann Louison is owner of a few gambling and casino portal sites and is dedicated to providing useful information on various topics.

Domain Names

2008-12-31T10:10:00.001-08:00

Domain names are relatively straightforward! Or at least that's the theory!!

The domain name is also, but technically not quiet correct, known as the website address.

About The Author

Cheap and Easy Domain Name Registration

2008-12-31T10:00:00.001-08:00

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 .
<h3>Top 10 reasons to have your own domain name</h3> Please note that all domain names listed in italic are ficticious: <li>It is cheap and easy to get your own domain name (less than $15/year in most cases)</li> <li>You own the name (as long as you pay the annual fee)</li> <li>You are not dependent on one web hosting company to let you use a subdomain, or worse, a subdirectory</li> <li>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)</li> <li>The domain name can be optimized to your business, like www.best-used-cars.com</li> <li>Your web site is more professional</li> <li>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/</li> <li>It is much easier to sell a web site with its own domain name</li> <li>A good domain name can be an asset</li> <li>It is cheap and easy to get your own domain name (this one is worth repeating)</li> <h3>How to register for a domain name</h3> Please note that all domain names listed in italic are ficticious: <li>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</li> <li>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).</li> <li>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.</li> <li>Choose a domain name and register it at a domain name ICANN Accredited registrar.</li> <h3>Other factors to consider</h3> <ul> <li>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</li> <li>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.</li> <li>Use domain name registrar that provide good online account support.</li> <li>Use automatic domain name renewal if you are planning to own the domain name long-term</li> </ul>
Pinyo Bhulipongsanon is the owner of <a target="_new" href="http://www.greatnexus.com">GreatNexus Webmaster Resources </a> offering visitors with features such as webmaster forums, webmaster directory, webmaster dictionary, programming scripts, and webmaster articles.

Domain Names Explained

2008-12-30T21:20:00.001-08:00

Domain names can be purchased from a domain name registrar. Domain name registration is a process of registering a domain name, much like you would register a new car or the birth of a new baby.

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