Domain Names

Some Common Myths Against Domain

2007-05-10T10:45:00.001-07:00

Lawyers eat nails for breakfast. Rap is Etch-a-Sketch set to music. The Law of Unintended Consequences governs the nation. These beliefs are part of a canon of urban folklore that we spread as truth among our friends. Applicants for domain names have developed their own myths. Some have been repeated so often, they sound true. Those untold information is what this paper is going to tell you.

Myth One: Always Pick .Com Domain Name

It is always asked a person to go for .com domain name. The domain ending with .com is easy to remember, as they are the most common name but not necessary the best. For one thing, there are many domain names ending in .com so it’s really hard to find a domain name ending with one. Picking a .com is good depending on how you are gaining traffic. If you are targeting people that are looking in search engines it can be pointless to just pick a .com domain. Though if you are advertising in Television, Newspapers or the Radio it might help somewhat.

Myth Two: Avoid Using Dashes Or Never Go For That

Once again, this all depends on what you are doing. Remember, search engines translate dashes as spaces, so if you are targeting a popular keyword and use dashes as spaces, than your page will be easier to get onto the top ten search results of that keyword. Some search engines put more emphasis on this than others. So avoiding dashes or not applying anywhere in the domain name can be a fruitful option for you.

Myth Three: Selecting A Domain Name

Choosing a domain name may be a pain, many may prefer domain names that are short but they are not necessarily better. Its true you don’t want a domain name that is extremely long but you don’t want it to be so short that nobody can remember it (unless you own a url forwarding service). There are many combinations of words you can use. It is highly suggested checking a domain name generator. They can be very useful, you enter a keyword and it displays possible combinations with other words and tells you if they’re available.

Myth Four: Domain Used Forever.

While it’s possible that you’ll keep your registered domain name forever, it is not guaranteed. Several things can happen that would cause you to lose your domain name. First, you have to register your domain name each year (or register it for multiple years up front) in order to keep your access to it. If you forget to renew your registration, you could lose your domain name, or someone else can register it and charge you a huge fee to have it transferred back to your name. Second, you could lose your domain name in a trademark dispute.

Myth Five: Domain Registration Through Company Name

You cannot use your company name for the domain registration; in fact, you don’t have the right to register any domain name, even if you have a trademark on the corresponding company name. The reason for this is that a trademark on a business name doesn’t give you exclusive access to use that name. It only gives you exclusive access to use that name for the particular products and / or services that you offer.

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Author Richa Sinha is associated with Vexat Inc. Vexat provides the cheapest domain name registration and website hosting. View the services provided by Vexat Inc. Vexat deals with all kind of website domains.

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Simple Step For Choosing Great Web Host

2007-05-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

There are thousands of web hosts around today with thousands of plans to choose from making what was once a simple procedure seems like a daunting task for both newbie and pro alike. Whether you're looking for your first host or looking to move on to a better one there are certain simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host. These simple steps include:

Right Platform

The first and most foremost step in choosing a web host is determining the platform the web server should run, usually a choice between Unix/Linux and Windows. Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, generally a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python etc) will run on Linux based systems.

Right Features

Once you've chosen your platform the next step is determining the features you'll need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may look similar on the surface, a good look at the feature lists may tell another story. Only you can determine the specific features you'll need, but some key things to keep an eye on are:

Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains Allowed
Databases (Number & type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
Email accounts

The list goes on and on, just remembers to take your time and make sure your new web host is going to provide you with everything you need.

Budget

Often budget is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and on the surface most hosts look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not it turns out to be a horror story.

Remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, think about the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost sales due to downtime & slow speeds, downtime rebates, extra bandwidth charges, setup costs, extra feature costs, and your monthly fee.
Many hosts will require you to pay yearly to get the best price available though there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still get the best price, it's really a matter of personal choice as to what payment method works best for you.

Customer Service

Customer service is another aspect that is often not forgettable while choosing a great web host. You shouldn't settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your website needs to be running all the time so it's no good if your hosting company doesn't work during the holidays. Don't take the web hosting companies word for it, they all claim 24/7 support but few back it up with consistent performance. Be sure to test them out at various times of the day and night via phone, email and live chat if they offer it.

Support

An extensive knowledge base can be a real time saver as well as being an indication of the level of customer service supports and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the support sections of the website and see for yourself the level of support provided.

Longevity

Do a whois on the web host's domain name and find out the creation date, anything less than a year ago and the risk that they won't be around next year increases. They could be a great host, but considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that really isn't something you should be taking a chance on.

Uptime

It's a fact of life that a web host cannot be online 100% of the time, servers need to be rebooted for security and software updates and any web host that doesn't get updated faces the increased risk of being successfully hacked.

99.9% uptime guarantees are pretty standard in the industry however a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than a full months free hosting should they not meet their guarantee, a prorated refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $10 for a month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime, which ends up being about 33 cents.

Hence, it's not a rocket science; just a little research and investigating that can save a lot of heartache in the future and can offer you a great web host.

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Author Richa Sinha is associated with a web hosting company Vexat from India. Vexat also provides the cheapest domain name registration. For more information please click here.

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Cheap Domains

2007-05-10T09:52:00.004-07:00

It's becoming easier and easier to establish a presence on the web, and cheap domains are a great way to get your site noticed. There are some important things to keep in mind when choosing a hosting company to manage your cheap domain. Various web sites offer cheap domains, and there may be pros and cons of each company.

The Domain Name System (DNS) is used to store various data with domain names; most importantly, it translates a domain name into an IP address. This means that when you type an address into your browser, the DNS translates that address into an IP address and then locates the web site. Most registrars that offer cheap domains for sale will include a web based application, allowing the user to change DNS settings. Purchasing a cheap domain can be a simple process beginning with the selection of your domain name. You can search for available domain names and will probably find that the best names are simple, short, and memorable. After choosing the domain name, you may wish to decide how you will host your site. You can use a re-direct service that will ensure that visitors to your domain name are sent to your web site, which can be hosted on another server. You do not need to use the domain name registrar to host your web site. Cheap domains do not usually have to be registered with your web hosting company; and in some situations, using two companies can offer advantages. Using a domain name registrar to host your cheap domain, and a web hosting company to host the actual site content can prove to be a good decision - with each separate company holding knowledge around their area of expertise. Web hosting typically requires more expertise than domain name registration, as it tends to be a more complicated process.

You may wish to register multiple cheap domains for the one web site. There can be many advantages to registering more than one domain and pointing them to the same web site. You could register domains with different international extensions, for example - possibly helping to steer international customers to your web site. It may also be a good idea to register any common misspellings of your domain name - with cheap domains, this is a good way to ensure that your customers reach you successfully, and prevents any third party competitors from attempting to trade off your name. Check out the features that the registrar offers before registering your cheap domain name - some domain names will come with additional features that can be handy for controlling mail settings and web traffic. Consider the charges of the cheap domain after the initial contract period - some companies may offer a good price to begin with, but will increase the price after an initial period. This could leave you in an awkward position - if the domain company has registered your web address, you will either have to pay the increased costs, or choose another domain name. It may be a good idea to take advantage of cheap domains and to register any trademarks or brand names that belong to your company, preventing any competitors from registering these names.

Cheap domains can help give your company a good online presence. Choosing a domain registration company that offers cheap domains and other services can allow you to register multiple domains, ensuring that all your customers can reach your web site. Cheap domains mean that creating your online presence does not have the financial burden that it used to carry - it is now cheap and easy to set up a web site.

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Cheap Domain Names

2007-05-10T09:52:00.003-07:00

A domain name is an Internet or web-based name that makes it easy for users to find your site. In reality, your domain name, or in other words your computer’s address, is a complex string of numbers that people would find difficult to remember and annoying to key in. Fortunately, the Domain Name System (DNS) allows computers to convert these numbers into letters and numbers that people find easier to understand and remember. Acquiring a domain name was once quite expensive, but cheap domain names are now readily available.

Domain names were expensive in the early days of the Internet, because they were available from only one organisation, Network Solutions, operating through an exclusive government contract. At one time, domain names cost ₤100 or more. By 1998, however, the massive growth of the Internet led to the formation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private sector, non-profit organisation formed by a combination of global Internet interests. With deregulation came cheap domain names, because one of ICANN’s main aims was the encouragement of greater competition in the domain registration industry. There are now many competitors and, depending on the provider, domain names are now priced at around ₤5-₤10 a year, a far cry from the expensive prices that formerly prevailed.

Even before the advent of cheap domain names, a domain name was considered essential for major businesses. Customers now expect businesses to have easily accessible websites. Without a domain name, a business website is less easy to find and has a less professional appearance. With the availability of cheap domain names providing even greater incentive to secure your own domain name, registration also gives you the benefits of having such information as your company’s name or product names made easy for prospective customers to find. This is because the domain name you register is associated with the computer you specify, allowing you to reach Internet users through your website.

When obtaining a domain name, your best option is to select an accredited registrar or obtain a recommendation for an existing provider. While domain name registering is quick and easy, you should take some time to shop around and consider the many choices available. As well as comparing the prices of cheap domain names, you should be careful to see what other advantages are on offer, such as customer service.

Cheap domain names can bring in a lot of business if they are chosen carefully. With thousands being registered daily, the choice of name may require a little thought to make sure it is as effective as possible. Try to create a name that has a number of qualities such as being easy to remember, attention getting, and relevant to the product or service you are providing. Don’t forget, too, that the inclusion of keywords has the potential to improve your site’s ranking in connection with the results returned by search engines.

If you want to register a domain name with a well-known ending such as .com or .net, as well as. aero, .biz, .com, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, .org or .pro, you can do so through one of the many competing registrars accredited by ICANN. You will need to provide the registrar of your choice with contact and technical information. The technical information will go to a central registry from where it will be provided to other computers so their users can locate your site or e-mail you. With the ease and speed of registration and the availability of cheap domain names, registering a domain is well worth the effort. Whether you are selling products or offering a service, or just want your name up there for some other reason, a domain name ensures that your information can reach as many people as possible.

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Domain Name – Get It Before You Start

2007-05-10T09:52:00.001-07:00

Choosing the right domain name can be critical to the success of your website and business flourishing. Your domain name should be a key to your web site. Most Internet users remember websites by their domain names; the rule of thumb is that when people think of your web site, they’ll think it by name. If your name is also your URL, they’ll automatically know where to go.

You should have a domain name, which sounds solid to the core values and ethics of your business. It should also reflect the personality of your target customer. Make the combination the words that are memorable and should not be confused. Try to register the identical name that your customers and visitors will associate with your Website. you have to keep in mind that people need to be able to remember it, and easily type it into their browser.

Here a question arises if one can not get the same domain name as per expecting website name. One may also add suffix to the name. This strategy may cause confusion. One might attempt to access a web site missing suffix.

Your domain name can also affect the anchor text of inbound links; and your ranking in search engines. So try to have a very much relevant domain name.

The other way is lookup with “whois” and have the domain owner information to motivate them to sell the domain name. The other option, that is followed commonly to purchase a domain name first and then naming your website the same as your domain posses.

Your brand name could be the first word visitors will type in search engines and it would be the easiest name for them to remember, so you should use your business name or brand name. For example use www.handbags.com.

How long should I make my domain name? Technically a domain can be up to 67 characters. But it is universally accepted that short names are better for a number of reasons.

1) They are Easier to remember.
2) They are less susceptible to mistake.
3) They are good for online or offline marketing.
4) They are visually pleasing.

Adverse to the above, advantages of long domain names cannot be ignored. Search engines explore it because of the Long domain name having the keywords to the web site.

A similar setback is whether to choose .com, .net or.org etc. Many people not obtaining .com domain but they can have .net, .org or other country specific top level domain such as “de,” ”nu,” or “sg”. People get simply confused whether they should go with one of these available extensions or not.

If your website is aimed at people in a specific country, having a country-specific domain, visitors will recognize right away that the business has a presence in the country of the extension. They might comfortable to buy. Some country-specific search results include sites with the relevant country-specific domain extension even if the site isn't hosted in that country.

In spite of this, country specific domain could work against. Especially the case when you are promoting your business in international market. People from international market may be less inclined to buy if the business looks foreign to them.

How ever, for international visitor .net or .org or any other country specific extension works also well. Still this might others to mislead that you are promoting your brand to that particular country only.

A school of thought found that “.net” and “.org” are equally acceptable. Actually “.org” extension was intended for non-profit making organizations.

As far as I am concern, .com extension is for commercial web sites that have adopted all over the world and still the most sought after. In some circumstances we can use another domain extension like .info, intended for informational portals.

Thus there exist many good arguments for accepting other extension when you go with the need of a particular name and unable to get “.com” extension other extensions are equally acceptable.

Now let me reiterate the case in a glance that is “Get the name registered before naming your website.”

Aftab Aslam is a full time IT professional and has been in the business since 2002. He is a founder of EASTXS and author of several Science and Technology related articles. Visit www.raiaftab.com for more details about the author.

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Cheap Domain Name Registrar

2007-05-10T09:51:00.001-07:00

In today’s competitive marketplace, one of the best tools for success any company can incorporate is the vast advertising and customer service potential made available by the Internet. Companies like eBay and Amazon have made fortunes through websites alone, while nearly all major corporations and many smaller ones have vastly increased their business potential by advertising online and opening up websites for features like online shopping, preordering, customer service, and any number of other features which would otherwise take a long phone call – often to limited support personnel – or a visit in person to the store location.

If you’re interested in starting a website for your company or even just for your own personal use, there are a few things you’ll have to do first. One of the first steps you’ll have to take is to register a domain name. Domain names, also referred to as Internet or web addresses, are the lines you type into your browser to let it know where to go. These usually start with www, and end in .com, .org, .uk, or any number of other extensions. When you’re starting a new website, you’ll have to make sure the web address you want is not already taken by another website. First check on your own – type in the address you’d like to have, and see if anything comes up. Keep doing this until you find one that’s not taken. When you have an address that works, it’s time to go to a domain provider.

Different domain providers offer varying levels of service. Some offer only the bare service of registering the domain name, and require you to perform all requisite design and hosting operations on your own. Many offer web storage as well, allowing you to use their servers to store your website. Unless you have the kind of 24 / 7 Internet access and server technology it takes to host a website yourself, you’re going to have to use a web hosting company to keep your website online. Some web hosting companies even offer web design services for an extra fee, allowing you to focus on nothing but the actual content of your site, while others may register you for access by popular web search engines.

When you’re looking for a web hosting service, it’s a good idea to find one that offers telephone support. If something goes wrong with your website, you don’t want to spend hours trying to figure it out online yourself – instead, you want to be able to call the service directly and talk with a real person who can help you solve your problems.

You may also want to consider using a local UK based service rather than overseas companies such as those found in the US or India. Local web hosting services are more likely to understand your specific needs and the unique aspects of web hosting in the UK. ICANN accreditation is especially good to look for, as are local TLD accreditations such as that held by the massive UK Company Nominet. Nominet is responsible for the .uk web suffix, and is the fourth largest registration company in the world.

Prices vary widely depending on how much and how good the service is that you expect to get. For a simple registration – keep in mind that this requires you to have your own server and design technology – companies like Nominet may charge as little as two or three pounds a year. If you’re looking for the more standard options, though, including web hosting and search engine registration, expect to pay around ten pounds a year. Considering cable and broadband bills these days, ten pounds is pocket change. So register your website today and place your company on the cutting edge of the modern marketplace.

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3 Tips for Choosing the Right Domain Name

2007-05-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

Selecting the right domain name is one of the most important business decisions you can make. When you have a business online, you are competing in a global economy with millions of other websites.

The latest information from Internet World Stats counted over 1 billion Internet users in 2007. According to Rich Miller of Netcraft, an Internet monitoring company that has tracked Web growth since 1995, "There are now 100 million Web sites with domain names and content on them." Of the 100 million websites, about 47 million of them are active sites and competing for visitors.

Here are some tips to follow in choosing a domain name that makes it easy to find your business on the Internet:

(1) Choose an easy to spell domain name.

It does no good to have a website, if no one can find you because your domain name is too difficult to spell.

Last week I was talking to someone and asked her who the company was that designed her website. She told me the name of the company, and it was some very strange name that didn't make sense to me. I had to ask her twice what the name was and I then asked her to spell it for me. Unfortunately, she couldn't even spell the name because she said the company had a strange spelling, and she could never remember it. I then asked her for the website address, and she couldn't remember how to spell that either. I ended up trying to guess a couple different spellings for the website and never did find the company.

Don't get cute with your website name or for that matter, the name of your business. You may think it's clever to spell fenikz instead of Phoenix, but don't expect anyone to find your website.

I speak from experience on this topic. When I first started my business I was completely ignorant about choosing a business name. I thought it would be fun to have a business name that was a play on words. So I chose "Howe Write You Are Business Communications."
My last name is Howe, and I am a writer. So I chose the domain name howewriteyouare.com.

When I would tell people my domain name, this is what they heard: howrightyouare.com. They spelled the domain name exactly as they heard it and the only way they would get the correct spelling is by looking at my business card. I soon figured out what a dumb mistake I made and changed my business name after the first year.

(2) Choose the right extension for your domain name.

When you go to register a domain name you have a choice of .com, .net, .org, .biz, and some other rarely used extensions. Unless you are a nonprofit, only choose a .com extension for your domain name.

The reasons for this are very simple. When people go to search for a website, they assume it is a .com. If you have any other extension, they will end up at the wrong website.

The other reason to have a .com extension is that search engines will search first for a .com website. For example, a browser will look for quiltingtips.com before, it looks for quiltingtips.net.

Let me talk a moment about strategy when it comes to choosing a domain name extension. If you don't want a competitor to have your domain name, then purchase all the extensions of your domain name. In other words, if my domain name was going to be quiltingtips.com, I might also purchase quiltingtips.net, quiltingtips.org, and quiltingtips.biz. This way, I insure that my business domain name will not have competition from a nearly identical domain name.

(3) Choose misspelled domain names.

If you have a business name that you know is easy to misspell, consider purchasing the domain name with the common misspelling. Both names can be set up to point to your website, so it doesn't matter if your domain name is misspelled, people will still find you.

In my previous example, I talked about my original business name and the problems that I had with the unusual spelling of my business name. If I had not wanted to change my business name, a simple solution for me would have been to purchase the domain name howrightyouare.com and have that point to my website.

An example of a well-known business that is using this technique is Verisign. If you type in verasign.com or verisign.com you will get to the correct website.

Conclusion
Your domain name is your Internet identity. Make sure your domain name selection is not an afterthought. Take the time to thoroughly analyze your options and choose a domain name that promotes your business or product online.

About the Author:

Michelle Howe, MBA, president of Internet Word Magic, specializes in writing irresistible copy for websites. Transform the way you do business. Visit her website at http://www.InternetWordMagic.com for a FR^EE chapter download of her new book “Turn Browsers into Buyers” and FR^EE report, “The Five-Step Plan to Article Success.”

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Occupation: Copywriter

Michelle Howe, president of Word Magic, is an expert in online copywriting for websites. She is the author of Web Site Writing Made Easy and Persuasive Writing Made Easy. Michelle

http://www.InternetWordMagic.com

Domain names have become a premier investment

2007-05-10T09:49:00.001-07:00

When domain names first came out, most people didn´t give them much of
a second though. Afterall, they were simply internet addresses, how
important could they really be? As the internet grew and grew, good domain
names became rarer and rarer, and their values shot up accordingly. For
example, take the domain name ¨sex.com¨ - a domain name first acquired
for free and would later sell for a whopping 14 million dollars.

When you control an important domain name like that, promotion is
simple and ultimately your business will see more revenue. If the domain
name is short and catchy, then all the better since it will be easier for
your visitors to remember and come back to.

If you like to buy plenty of domains, you can make money from parking
your domain names and getting money with visitors click your sponsored
links.

Domain names have become a premier investment for internet
entrepreneurs worldwide. Some great domains have yet to be discovered, while others
get thrown back on the market if their lazy owners forget or just
neglect to re-register their domain name. These expiring domains can be
great opportunities to get the perfect name, at a steeply discounted cost.

If you want to find a great domain name, find one that´s short and has
some kind of popularity attached to it. Whether it be a topic, gadget,
or whatever - make sure the domain name would actually be in demand by
someone. Like anything else, your domain name is only worth what
someone else is willing to pay for it, so choose very wisely.

If you want to learn more about finding good domain names, monotizing
your domain name portfolio, or just general domain name strategy there
are forums on the internet that are just the place you can learn all
this and more. Communities on the internet have developed around the
domain name industry, and they can often hold a wealth of knowledge that you
wouldn´t be able to find anywhere else.

The Power of Subdomains

2007-05-10T09:48:00.002-07:00

For those looking for a great way to create quality web sites that are extremely cost effective and easy to set up, subdomains are quite possibly your best choice. We all know what a domain is, but many webmasters are not yet familiar with the power and the many benefits of subdomains, here are some tips.

What is a Subdomain?
In order to understand what a subdomain is, first let’s look at a regular domain. Most domains look like the following; www.yoursite.com. Each domain refers to a specific site on the web and the search engines acknowledge each domain as a separate web site. While many domains have several web pages, each extra page is still considered the same site (for instance, www.yoursite.com/baseball). While this is an easy way to add extra pages to your web site, for most web developers that would like to start web pages on new categories (called niches), they usually will purchase a new domain name to create each new niche.

Subdomains make the whole process of adding new niches to a domain easy, affordable and with lots of added value. A subdomain is considered a sub extension of your already working domain. A subdomain is considered to be a separate domain and entity from the domain that it extends from. This means that all search engines (including Google) see the subdomain as a unique domain. Domains are created usually using your web hosting administration panel. In order to create a subdomain, the process usually takes a few minutes. For instance, instead of adding web pages that are on completely different topics to your website such as www.yoursite.com/baseball, you can choose to create a subdomain, which is written as follows: www.baseball.yoursite.com. You might have noticed all we did is add the word “baseball” and a dot before your domain name.

The Benefits of Subdomains
Subdomains are not as popular as regular domains, because most webmasters are not aware of how easy they are to create and all the benefits that they can provide. Subdomains can be created on most web hosting accounts, usually taking a couple of minutes or less. There are many benefits of using subdomains; however here are the top three.

First off, while domains are affordable (costing about $10 for a .com), if you are a web developer that is looking to create dozens of web sites, $10 adds up quickly. Many web developers purchase 50, 100 or even 1,000 domains to create web sites that each bring in a small amount of income. Having 100 domains can easily cost $1,000 per year and once you add in the web hosting costs and annual renewal fees, you can easily see how quickly it can become expensive. Subdomains cost $0. Subdomains are free to create, whether you have 1 or 10,000.

Another benefit of subdomains is that all search engines view subdomains as being unique from the regular domain. To Google, www.yoursite.com/baseball and www.baseball.yoursite.com are two unique sites. In essence, you get all the benefits of having many websites, without the costs of registering new domains sites and hosting them separately. In fact, subdomains are easily hosted on the same account as your normal domain (they just show up as a separate folder).

Finally, subdomains are extremely easy to create. You do not need a lot of technical expertise or special software. If you want to create a few subdomains, the process is relatively simple and straightforward, however to create many subdomains at one time, the process can be tedious and there are software tools available to easily accomplish this task.

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Web Address Domain Icons

2007-05-10T09:48:00.001-07:00

Want to make your online business look more professional and standout from the rest of the domain names saved in a web browser favorites lists?

Now, adding an image to the URL domain name listed in the address bar is easy and will help your website stand out from the rest. The hardest part of adding a web address icon to your domain name is choosing the image that you want to use.

Many of the most reputable and large web domains use this simple tactic of placing an image in the web address bar to help their sites stand out. Look through your favorites menu you may already have some websites bookmarked that are displaying a nice little image next to the name. Notice how those URLs stand out and draw your attention from the default icons used by all the other sites.

What is a Web Address Icon?

The image you see is a page or URL icon commonly called a favorites icon or "favicon" for short and is commonly associated with a particular website. Many (if not all) of the popular web browsers used today, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and above and Firefox will display these favicons. The icons will be shown in the browser's address bar next to the URL, next to the page name on the tab (if you are using IE-7) and next to the name of the website if you saved it in your favorites list.

Creating a web address icon and getting it to display is very easy and only takes a few minutes. You can have a web designer create the icon but it is not necessary since the process is very easy, you can do it yourself.

How Do I Create a Favicon?

The process for creating and setting up you very own web address icon is very simple consisting of four main steps:

Create an image to use

Transform the image into an icon

Edit your website pages with a few lines of HTML code

Upload the image and edited web pages to your domain

When you create your very web address icon, the most difficult part you may face is deciding on the image to use. A note of caution here, be sure to avoid using any copyrighted images or logos that are already in use - especially if you are running an online business. For example, sites like Google, CNN, and eBay all use a favicon so using theirs on for your site would be a big no-no.

How Can I Use a Web Address Icon?

Think of a favicon as a form of avatar, similar to one you may use in online forums or chat rooms. If you run a personal web page or blog, you can use a picture of yourself to place alongside your domain name. That way when your friends and family bookmark your site, your picture will be displayed alongside the bookmark to your personal website or blog in the favorites menu. If you are using a "free website", you may not be able to use the favicon feature - check with the site provider first.

If you running an online business, what better way to start promoting your brand or logo than by having your very own web address icon. The image you use can be your business logo, or an image of a particular product or service you are promoting.

Whether you are an individual looking to make your personal website look better, or an online business that wants to look more professional and stand out from the rest, using a web address icon can do that. So, take a few minutes today to create an icon that you can use alongside your domain name to help make your website stand out.

Larry Waverly is a contributing writer for Computer Internet Resources. Visit the domain name information website to get information and reviews on the different domain name services available for both business and personal websites.

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Finding Domain Name - Dashed Domain Name

2007-05-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

Finding domain name are hard today.

lot’s of combination domain name already registered.

webmasters mostly looking for keyword related domain to submit - because keyword related domain name are hot is search engines because it promote your search keywords.

if your cant find your keyword, you can find keyword that separate with dash.

i do not recommended doing so, it can work good for now, but in the long run it can be a problem because search engines are spherically google are now looking for natural web sites and not promoted web sites, and it can be spot as you try to used keyword in url and it’s not your brand name.
To your domain name - Dashed Domain Names

search engine focus on user results so it not friendly domain name with dashes.

also i don’t recommended using long url because of that and i know that today long url are very bad for good search engine results.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Erez has 4 years work experience in building web sites and optimize it for seo with good search engine rank results.
his mostly run webmaster sites and offer Cheap Domain Names Registration.

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So you want a domain name...

2007-03-02T09:15:00.001-08:00

So you want a domain name... You want your very own "yourcompany.com" Internet identity. You want to stamp it in your business cards, brochures, and all your marketing communication vehicles. And you want it know. Problem is: you don't know where to start. Let's start from the beginning.

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is what you type in the browser's address bar to go to a specific website. For example, our domain name is: http://www.theinternetdigest.net (in today's browsers, it is not necessary to type the symbols http:// any more). A domain name provides an online identity and a contact point for your business, organization, or project. Almost every transaction on the Internet relies on a domain name to conduct commerce, display Web pages, deliver e-mail, and more.

Why Were Domain Names Created?

Websites are located (or hosted) in computer servers. The location of a website in a server is really specified by a series of numbers, called the IP address (for example: 63.241.136.31). However, this would be too hard to remember; in fact, it reminds us a little bit of phone numbers: wouldn't it be easier to just dial U-N-C-L-E J-O-E instead of having to remember a ten digit phone number?).

The creators of the Internet took this into account, and domain names were created. Domain names act like an address forwarding service that directs the Internet user to the server, and then looks for the IP address that corresponds to the domain name (geeks like to say: "the domain name resolves to its IP address").

Domain Names Extensions (or Top Level Domains-TLDs)

A domain level extension (also known as a Top Level Domain) is the letter combination to the right of the domain name, after the "dot". Therefore, a domain name like yahoo.com has what we call a "dot com extension". You will also find .net, and .org extensions, along with a host of newly popularized extensions like .biz, .name, .tv, etc., as well as country level domains (.us for the US, .br for Brazil, .it for Italy, and so on.)

Originally, .com extensions were intended for commercial ventures, while .net's were intended for use by Internet Service Providers and .org's by non-profit organizations or groups. Truth is, this orignal classification is no longer accurate, and anybody can register a domain name with those extensions.

If you don't have anything better to do, and you want to see a complete list of domain extensions, click here.

How can I know if a domain name is available?

To see if a domain name is available, you can go to the webpage of any accredited registrar, and type the name you want in the search box. The program will immediately tell you if the domain name you want is available. If the domain extension that you would like is not available (the .com's are almost always taken) you can try others, and chances are that your domain selection will be available (for example, when we chose our domain name, theinternetdigest.com was taken but theinternetdigest.net was available). Another trick is to add dashes to separate the words (for example: the-internet-digest.com).

How do I register a domain name?

Domain names are registered on-line through accredited domain registrars. There are thousands of companies that offer domain registration services. However, some of them are more reputable than others, offer good customer service and provide you with a user-friendly interface. As a rule of thumb, follow these simple rules:

1) Avoid registrars that charge too much (anything above $30/year is too high).

2) Look for registrars that offer you a comprehensive and easy to use user interface. Also, since you will most likely have a question or two to ask, look for those who have an extensive FAQ section and a responsive customer service team.

3) Find a registrar that offer Free Domain Forwarding services (this acts as an insurance policy if your hosting service is down. You can always host a duplicate version of your website somewhere else and forward your domain traffic to that location). We've found three companies that offer all these advantages:

Godaddy.com
Yahoo Domains

In our next issue, we will show you how can you combine your own domain name with a free web hosting service.

----------------------------

Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ) a website and newsletter that gives you useful advice on web design and Internet marketing, one free tip at a time.

Article reproduced with kind permission

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Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest http://www.theinternetdigest.net a website and newsletter that gives you useful advice on web design and Internet marketing, one free tip at a time

http://www.theinternetdigest.net

Add-On Domains, Parked Domains and Sub-Domains

2007-03-02T09:11:00.000-08:00

Add-On Domains, Parked Domains and Sub-Domains

Once you have a website up and running, you may want to launch other websites. The default way to do it is to register new domain names and open new hosting accounts. However, opening new hosting accounts can be expensive, especially if you still have plenty of free space and bandwidth available in your original account. Fortunately, it is possible to share the web space and bandwidth of your original account among different sites.

You can basically do so through:

Add-On Domains
Parked Domains, and
Sub-Domains
What is an Add-On Domain?
An add-on domain is a new domain name that points to a subdirectory within your existing domain hosting account, where the website for the new domain will reside. Add-on domains must be registered domain names that you own, and that are configured to point to your web host's servers.

From a web user perspective, an add-on domain functions just like any other domain. For example, if you already have a hosting account under www.main-domain.com, you can register and set up an add-on domain (for example: www.add-on-domain.com), so that when your visitors type "http://www.add-on-domain.com" in their browser, they will be transported to the new site.

The advantage of add-on domains is that the browser's address bar will show "http://www.add-on-domain.com" (there will be no reference to the original domain), so the process will be totally transparent to your users. If your users navigates to another page, their browser will accordingly show "http://www.add-on-domain.com/anotherpage.html", just like it should.

Apart from sharing web space and bandwidth with your main domain, add-on domains also get their own cgi-bin and statistics.

Many web hosts now offer to set-up add-on domains for free. This is only fair, since you are not getting any more web space or bandwidth. Others, however, will charge you a modest one time fee, which is not bad, especially when the cost of registering the new domain is included. Finally, some web hosts will charge you a montly fee for each add-on domain you set up. In some cases, that fee can be very close to the monthly cost of your web hosting account, to the point that it is better to just open a new hosting account for the new domain. If you plan to set up add-on domains in the future, you're better off avoiding this kind of account.

What is a Parked Domain?
A parked domain is a domain that doesn't have a hosting account associated to it, and that is usually enabled with URL forwarding capabilities, so that it points to an existing website. For example, let's assume that you already run a newsletter that is hosted in a subdirectory of your domain name, as follows: "http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.html". You may at one given point want to register a separate domain name for your newsletter, so that it is more memorable, but may not want to move its pages to a new server, open a new hosting account, or pay to establish an add-on domain. You can then register a and park a new domain for your newsletter (for example: "http://www.newsletter.com"), which will be forwarded to "http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.html".

You don't need to register this new domain with the same company that hosts your website. You can register it with any domain registrar (preferrably one that offers free URL forwarding) and point it to the physical location of the pages.

The difference between a parked domain and an add-on domain from a web user's perspective is that with a parked domain the URL in the address bar will change to the physical location of the page as the page loads. For example, if you type "http://www.newsletter.com", that domain won't remain in the browser address bar, but will change to "http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.html" as soon as the page is displayed.

From a webmaster's perspective, the difference is that the parked domain won't have its own separate statistics reported through the control panel of your hosting account.

If you are a good observer, you may have probably noticed that my newsletter domain "http://www.theinternetdigest.net" is parked and points to the physical location of my newsletter pages, which is "http://www.accordmarketing.com/tid/".

Parked domains are also a good alternative for webmasters whose site is hosted by a free hosting service, since by using a memorable parked domain users won't need to remember the cumbersome web addresses usually associated with free hosting accounts.

They are also widely used by members of affiliate programs, who forward the parked domain to the merchant pages, so that they don't have to use an affiliate URL that includes their affiliate id (which turns many people off).

What is a Sub-Domain?
A subdomain, also known as a "third-level" domain, is a great way to create memorable web addresses for various sub-sites of your site. For instance, Yahoo! uses subdomains for its different services, like "mail.yahoo.com", "music.yahoo.com", etc. The basic syntax is: "http://subdomain.domain.com".

Large businesses use subdomains to establish branding and focus on separate products or services, because a subdomain creates a separate URL and web presence, all within your same main hosting account. For example, a restaurant directory may establish sub-domains for different cities, or a school can set up subdomains for different academic programs.

It is also possible to redirect (forward) traffic from a particular subdomain to another location, either within the main site or to a different website altogether.

You should be able to set up and manage add-on domains, parked domains and subdirectories from your hosting account or domain registrar control panel. However, as we usually suggest, always consult with your web host before proceeding if you have any doubts.

------------------------------

Mario Sanchez is a Miami based freelance writer who focuses on Internet marketing and web design topics. He publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ), a growing collection of web design and Internet marketing articles, tips and resources. You can freely reprint his weekly articles in your website, ezine, or ebook.

Article reproduced with kind permission

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Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest http://www.theinternetdigest.net a website and newsletter that gives you useful advice on web design and Internet marketing, one free tip at a time

http://www.theinternetdigest.net

How does your Domain taste?

2007-03-02T09:10:00.000-08:00

Domain tasting is the practice of registering a domain with the intention of taking full advantage of ICANN's "Create Grace Period" (CGP), holding those domains for up to five days, analyzing traffic and revenue statistics over the course of that 5 day period and discarding them for a full refund if they have a lack luster performance. Domains which have the potential to earn the minimum of the registration fee are kept and parked or littered with a smorgasbord of ppc ads.

Now, this term has been around for some time, but there has never really been any solid evidence of this practice that I am aware of.

The following is an excerpt from Bob Parsons (CEO and founder, Godaddy.com) Online Blog.

"DirectNIC registered more than 8.4 million domain names in April 2006, but only permanently registered — or paid for — 51.4 thousand of those. The trend was the same in March, when DirectNIC registered 7.6 million names and only permanently registered — or paid for — 52.5 thousand. Whatever could DirectNIC be doing?"

This is sadly as close to actual proof that we can get, not definitive by any means but very interesting none the less.

We as webmasters must take the right precautions to avoid such a detrimental set back to a new project. The loss of an amazing keyword domain or perhaps worse the best possible brandable domain could mean your project is "chewed".

The following are a couple of tips to help you avoid domain tasting and register the domain you want without any hassle.

1. Do not search for your new domain without having the funds to purchase it readily available, you want to avoid tipping anyone off to an unregistered name that you have your eye on so make sure you have your credit card handy if you do choose to search, if you find a domain you want or even 10 domains, register them then and there, this way you are not giving anyone the opportunity to taste them, and use the CGP to your advantage, cancel the 9 that don't seem to fit and keep the gem.

2. If you do choose to search without taking the necessary payment precautions and your domain does get registered while your off looking through the washing machine to see what pair of khakis you left your wallet in, don't blame us, but do take the correct steps to get it back.

If you think it was a taster because the odds of it being registered by anyone else are almost incalculable, leave it alone, thats right leave it. If you think about it, tasting domains is to see the traffic the domain receives, if you view it over and over again you'll never get it back because the taster will think they have a keeper. So abandon all searches for 1 week, after 1 week go to a different registrar, search for it, if its there congratulations, register it and move on, if not sorry about your luck you did everything you could.

So to everyone reading this, remember, if you think you have found "the" domain, make 100% sure you have the funds to register it and do so without thinking, it may be your last opportunity.

Dylan Kingsberry

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How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Business

2007-02-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

Author: Paul Coulter

A website's domain name (also know as a website address or URL) is an important consideration when developing your online presence. Choosing an appropriate domain name is the first step in the process of building online credibility. Remember to choose carefully because this online address may be where your business resides for the rest of its operating life. Now, some important tips to consider before choosing your domain name:

Choosing Your Domain Extension

A domain extension or top level domain is simply the suffix of your website address: (.com, .net, .org, .ca, etc.) Most Internet users are familiar with the ".com" extension, and will generally use this extension by default when typing an address into their browser. Choosing a ".com" extension should be your fist choice in case your potential customers forget that your address is "www.mybusiness.NET", and visit your competitor at "www.mybusiness.COM" by mistake. Choosing the ".com" extension gives your website the most credibility in the eyes of your customers.

If your business only caters to the local community, then it makes sense to get a country specific domain name, such as the ".ca" extension. A country specific domain benefits you in two ways: both your customers and search engines such as Google will know that your website is registered to a Canadian and operates in Canada. Potential customers will feel more comfortable knowing that they are dealing with a Canadian company, and not a U.S. based business pretending to be a Canadian company. Also, search engines will give your website higher placement in the search results when a user is performing a Canadian specific search.

I personally recommend that my clients, if possible, register both the ".com" AND ".ca" extension. This way, your Canadian based website will benefit from using the ".ca" extension, while at the same time ensuring that they reach your website if they accidentally type the ".com" extension into their browser.

Using Your Business Name

The first choice for any domain name would be your business' name. This ensures that your customers will remember your website's address. You can't expect your potential customers to remember a phrase that just relates to your business.

Choosing Choice Keywords

Including specific keywords in your website's address will help your rankings in popular search engines such as Google or Yahoo. It is best to choose a keyword that you think your potential customers will use to search for your business. A search engine optimization (SEO) professional such as Cost Effective Design can assist you in choosing your keyword(s). These type of domain names are used in instances where the client does not want to use the business name because it is either already registered by another company, or the company name is simply too long. Any company that is serious about generating traffic through search engines should acquire a domain name with a keyword in addition to your business name.

Don't Confuse Your Customers

If possible, try not to use domain names that include: "2" for "To" or "4" for "For" or "u" for "You". These may make your domain look "cool" or "hip", but in reality they are not very practical. These domain names create a problem when directing your clients to your website verbally or over the phone. For example, if you owned www.UsedCars4U.com, every time you verbally directed someone to your website, you would have to specify that the URL uses the actual number 4, and letter U.

To Use, Or Not to Use Hyphens

Given that more and more businesses are registering domain names every day, getting the website address you want is becoming increasingly difficult. One or two word domain names are usually already registered, forcing new registrants to choose URLs containing three or four words. To some people, these URLs can look like a big mess of words. Using hyphens in between the words can make them visually more appealing. For example, "www.used-cars-for-you.com, looks better than "www.usedcarsforyou.com. The jury is still out on hyphenated domain names. The advantages are that they look better and search engines can easily distinguish the separate keywords for better search placements, but the disadvantages are that they are difficult to verbally communicate and type.
The best solution would be to register both the hyphenated, and the un-hyphenated version of the domain name to ensure that there is no confusion.

Domain Name Length

Even though you are allowed to use 67 characters for a domain name, the general rule of thumb is: shorter is better. Although, in some instances, the website address may be more memorable if it is more descriptive. For example a domain consisting of initials only, such as "www.waa.com", may not create a lasting impression compared to the domain name "www.windsorautoassociation.com". Therefore, it is best to choose a name that, while short, contains enough description for your customers to easily remember.

Buying an Existing Domain Name

Maybe the domain name you really want is already registered, either by a legitimate company, or by a "domain squatter" who merely registered the name to sell for a profit at a later date. You can make an offer for these types of domains, although they make cost several hundred, or even thousands of dollars. There are advantages to purchasing an existing domain name. In addition to getting the domain you want, it may also rank highly in the search engines for certain keywords and / or generate topic specific traffic that you will benefit your business.

About the Author
Paul Coulter owns and operates a custom web design company in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. If you would like to read more web design articles geared towared small business, or would like to contact Paul, visit his website: Cost Effective Web Design, Windsor ON

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Occupation: Entrepreneur

Paul Coulter owns and operates a full service custom web design company in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Paul has over 10 years experience designing and promoting websites for clients. Paul also possesses a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Windsor.

http://www.windsorwebdesign.ca/

Buying Long Domain Names? Is it worth it?

2007-02-24T20:37:00.002-08:00

Author: Anthony Martello

The long held wisdom is that domain names should be short and memorable. Of course, it is great when you can get a short name that really works for your business but sometimes that is tough. So why not go for a longer one?

The idea that domain names must be short is not as valid as it once was. There are many successful web sites that have long domain names such as FreeCreditReport.com. This article will teach you when it is okay to buy a long domain name and why you would want to.

The Long and Short of Domain Names
Long domain names are a good way to go when your Web site is only going to generate traffic from online advertising such as Google's AdWords or natural search engine results. On the Internet people find your site by clicking on hyperlinks which already have your Web site's domain name typed in for them. So if you have a long domain name it is already there for your visitor and they do not have to remember it.

For example, suppose you own a Web Hosting Company and you specialize in offering cheap web hosting. Why not call your site CheapWebSiteHosting.com? It's long but it communicates a lot to the customer and perhaps even more valuable is that it will communicate important information to search engines about your site. How you ask?

Search engines use the words in your domain name as one method of discovering what your web site is about and they use that information to help determine where to rank you in the search results list. So if you have the words "cheap web site hosting" in your domain name then search engines will use that information to possibly rank you higher than a domain name that does not contain those words. So by naming your site "CheapWebSiteHosting.com" you have an advantage over SmithWebSiteHosting.com when people search the phrase "cheap web site hosting."

So, if your business is tightly focused on cheap hosting anyway you might as well use those words in your domain name if it means that search engines will match you better than those sites without those keywords in their domain name.

Domain Names in Mass Media
What about non-internet marketing? Are long domain names okay for radio or television? The answer is yes as long as it can be remembered. If you watch tv at all I'm sure you've seen ads for freecreditreport.com. That's a pretty long domain name considering not too long ago you needed to have a name like amazon.com or eBay.com to be viable. But even as I am writing this the domain name freecreditreport.com came to mind instantly. Thats a pretty good domain name for a long one. In our sample scenario, I would say that a site called cheapwebsitehosting.com will be remembered by people who have an interest in saving money on hosting. The key is to put together words in your domain name that flow naturally. "Cheap Web Site Hosting" is natural English. But WebSiteHostingCheap.com would almost certainly be a problem in the mass media.

So, should you go for a long domain name next time you buy a domain name? That will ultimately depend on whether you can get a short version that you find suitable and how important the slight edge in search engine results is worth to you. But at least you can keep these factors in mind you buy a domain name. You just may find that a long domain name is a reasonable way to go for your business.

Anthony Martello is the owner of Buy Cheap Domain Names which specializes in selling Cheap Domain Names and Cheap Web Site Hosting. You are free to use this article on your website if the above keyword links are left intact and point to our Web site.

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This the right domain name for you.

2007-02-24T20:37:00.001-08:00

Author: Hani Masgidi

Your first step into the Internet world and in starting your online empire is choosing your domain name, which will be the first thing to be seen by external visitors or your customers, That is why you need to pay more attention to the domain name you will choose .
Most of us love to name their companies or brands with something the like or an idea they have in mind, like naming it with their family name or their wife's name and sometimes things they believe. Wait a miniature; you might need to give it another thought when it comes to registering your domain name.
You will need to decide your content � subject- of your website and your targeted visitors before selecting your domain name.
Buy only ".com" and don't trouble yourself with the others. Although the domain name players have gone to some trouble to publicize and market to us about the availability of other extensions such as .org, .net, .us and others�there is still no real reason to buy anything but ".com."
Double check your domain names for odd or unintentional meanings. This one is a bit mixed, because if your domain name turns out to be something quite funny, it might be just that much more memorable and bring you free traffic. But you may not want to be remembered in that way, and the traffic that results could be a detriment to you. (The wrong target market just clogs up your system, uses bandwidth, and creates customer service inquiries you don't want.)
Your domain name would play an important role in your internet marketing process as most of the search engines prefer to see your website keywords reflected in your domain to give you a higher rank for those keywords.
At the end we better highlight some of the available domain name extensions, the most common domain names end with .com, .net, etc. Country specific domain names will end with com.au for commercial domain names from Australia, co.uk commercial domain names from United Kingdom, .co.jp for commercial domain names from in Japan, etc. For organizations, domain names will end with .org or be country specific- .org.au for organization in Australia, .org.uk for organization in united kingdom, etc.
And you should remember that your domain name is how your website is found on the internet by your potential customers. It is your unique identifier and two organizations can not have the same domain name. Your domain name is not really purchased or bought; it is actually leased for a year to 10 years.

All you need to know about Blogging, RSS & Feeds
at http://www.domainhostingclub.com/RSS-Feeds-filetype-rss/

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I have contributed in setting up several contact centers, and have been managing some of them . Out of my own experience in the contact center solution and the CRM industry I am writing this today.

http://www.contactcenterhelp.com

Registering Effective Domain Name

2007-02-24T20:35:00.002-08:00

Author: Eka Man

If you are thinking about building a website, registering domain name is an important step. Registering an effective domain name is just as important as choosing a company name. It can also communicate to your customers the type of products or service you sell online. An easy and understanding to remember domain name is the goal of every site owner. So I have some tips to registering the best domain name.

Please bear in mind that domain name is very important and more important than web hosting

First, What is Domain Name?

The name of website. A unique name that represents each computer on the Internet world. The DNS (Domain Name Server ) converts the domain name to an IP ( Internet Protocol ) that is similar to the telaphone number. Because it is hard to remember IP adress, the DNS make it easier by using letters instread of typing 123.45.67.890. So, you can type www.yourdomainname.com that makes more convinent.

� Domain name has to contain a mininum of 2 characters but no more than 67 characters. The shorter is the better
� Domain name is not case sensitive, so www.yourdomainname.com is not different from WWW.YOURDOMAINNAME.COM . But using capitalised text is quiet unpolite.
� Domain name contains letters, numbers, hyphens but no space. However, you cannot use hyphens as the first or last characters of your domain name.

Type of Domain names.
� Paid Domane Name like www.yourdoname.com or www.yourdomame.biz etc. The advantage is that you own the domain name, but you have to pay for it.
� Free Domain Name like www.freedoname.co.nr or www.freedomain.cjb.net . These are free but you do not own the domain name. Also, there may be advertiments and many terms of service.
� Domain Name from free host such as www.geocity.com/yourdomain or http://yourdomain.companyname.com that is very hard to remember.Also, 90% of them have the advertiment (Banner or Pop up).

How to Registering Domain Name.

Before registering domain name, you have to check the Domain Name Avaliability at www.whois.com . When you have the domain name you want, go to a domain name registering company or web hosting company. And register it .
After that, you have to make Domain name and web hosting know each other by setting Name server and DNS of web hosting at your domain name.
For example, this is the name server of hypermart.net

Primary server :ns1.hypermart.net IP = 206.253.222.65
Secondary server :ns2.hypermart.net IP = 206.253.222.66

Finish.
Importantly, choosing a good company to register domain name by�..
� Do you retain sole ownership of domain name ?
� Does the domain name registering company allow you to tranfer the domain to another company?
� Is there an online control panel for domain name administration?
� Is it easy to change the domain name server (DNS) ? In case that you change the web hosting company.

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How to Purchase Domain Names for Offline Promotion

2007-02-24T20:35:00.001-08:00

Author: Alan Grissett

In this article, you'll discover a key element of your Web site and how you can use it to drive traffic to your site from offline sources. What is this "basic element" of your site, you ask? It's your domain name - your business' virtual address.

To figure out why a business' domain name is important to its Web site's offline promotions, a little background into domain names is in order. To begin with, there are two main classes of domain names, gTLDs (general Top Level Domains) and ccTLDs (country code Top Level Domains). The seven original gTLDs are .com, .net, .org, .mil, .edu, .gov, and .int. As of the writing of this article, seven new gTLDs are in the process of being launched by ICANN, the governing body of TLDs. They are .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro. The gTLDs were developed to represent specific types of entities, such as commercial organizations (.com), educational institutions (.edu), or cooperatives (.coop). The ccTLDs were developed to represent entities from specific regions, such as the United States (.us), France (.fr), or Japan (.jp).

In most cases, if you find the right registrar, you can purchase domain names with any extension, no matter why you need the name or where you are based. Does this mean you should though? Unless you need to protect your intellectual property rights in a name, probably not. The best choice by far is a good solid "dot com". Why? Because people are familiar with it, and it's what people associate most with Internet addresses. This is very important in offline advertising, because if a potential customer sees your Web address, he or she will likely have to remember that address when it's time to pull up the old Web browser to visit the site. So generally speaking, a domain name ending in .com is most desirable for offline advertising.

Several other important issues to consider are the domain name length, use of hyphens in the domain name, and the name's overall "readability". The domain name length can have a direct impact on how effective that name is at driving traffic to a site. As you can probably imagine, the fewer the characters in a domain name, the better. The use of hyphens in a domain name can have a negative impact on a name's effectiveness, so they should be avoided if offline advertising is planned. A name's readability should also be taken into consideration when planning offline promotions. Do the words run together confusingly? Are the letters positioned in such a way that the name might be misread? If so, capitalization can be used in print to eliminate some of the confusion.

So what if you've already registered a name, and you find another name that you think would work better for offline advertising? That's simple. Register the new name, and get your host to set up an "alias" that will direct any traffic the new address receives to your existing Web site.

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domain registration - how to setup domain with DNS, IP Address, web host

2007-02-24T20:34:00.001-08:00

Author: mufads

This article shows how to setup your domain and explains DNS,
Nameservers, IP Address, Forwarding, domain registration and trouble
shooting.

Introduction and scope
Almost Everyone who knows about the internet knows what a domain
name is. It is what identifies a unique website or email server.
When you send an email to someone@..., the domain.com forms
the domain name. When you type in http://domain.com in the address
bar of your browser, the domain.com is the domain name of the
website you are going to see.

But how does the computer know which page to show when there are
almost infinite number of domain names possible ? How does it know
where to fetch the webpage from ? This article answers these
question and explains what you need to do to register and setup your
domain and tell all the computers in the world that yourdomain.com
should show your web page.

How to choose a domain name ?
There are many top level domains (TLDs) the most popular are
the .com, .net and .org � Countries have their own
like .us, .in, .ca, .au etc and then there is the new breed of
domains like .tv, .info, .ws and so on but the most powerful king of
all is the .com Why ? Because it came first ? In the domain market,
single word domains sell for thousands of dollars and .com costs
around 10 times more than the others and is as difficult to get a
new name. There is a myth that domains with hypnens (dashes) are
better for search engine rankings, I think there may be some truth
in that myth, but domains without dashes always seem to cost more
than the ones with dashes. The best way to register a domain is to
determine the keywords you are going to target by using the free
trial of keyword popularity and competition analysis from
http://wordtracker.com and get a domain with those keywords in it.
Another school of thought abandons this approach and advocates brand
name domains like yahoo.com instead of everything-portal.com
google.com instead of the-only-search-engine.com and ebay.com
instead of online-junk-acutions.com - you get the picture.

Name Servers Explained

Every computer connected to the internet has an ip address that
looks like 123.234.123.234
An ip address consists of 4 numbers separated by dots, each number
ranging from 1 to 255. What this numbers mean is not important for
us, all we need to understand is that each computer on the internet
has a unique ip address and if the GoldenRobot wants to talk to R2D2
on the internet, it has to know the IP address of R2D2 (name
borrowed from the movie Star Wars).
But Wait a minute, does that mean that there are only
256*256*256*256 number of computers that can connect to the
internet, technically yes. But that number is large enough for now
until they start connecting ever microwave and freezer to the
internet (imagine your freezer automatically placing an order for 2
liters of milk to the grocery store when it detects that your milk
stock is diminishing!)

OK, now you must be thinking all the ip address stuff is fine, but
how does it relate to domain names ? Remember that I said "if the
GoldenRobot wants to talk to R2D2, it has to know the IP address of
R2D2 " - but all you give to your computer is the Domain Name of the
website you want to visit, so how can it get the ip address ? Enter
the NameServer.

The job of a nameserver is to resolve a domain name to an ip
address. Simple.

A nameserver is similar to a telephone directory except that instead
of mapping person names to phone numbers, it maps domain names to ip
addresses.

Imagine having just one telephone directory for all the people in
the world ! In the same way, if they had just one nameserver for all
domains, it would be unmanageably huge and all the computers would
have to contact that one nameserver to get the domains resolved to
ip addresses ! Even a super-duper-mega-monster-computer would not be
able to handle such a load !

So we have many nameservers. When you register a domain, you specify
which name server to use.

Now lets take our example
GoldenRobot wants to talk to R2D2
It will have to follow these steps
1> Look at the registrar entry for R2D2 to determine which
nameserver to use
2> Connect to that nameserver and ask it for the ip address of R2D2
3> Connect to R2D2 using this IP address

In reality it is a bit more complicated due nameserver cacheing, and
chained recursive lookups leading to authoritative and non
authoritative responses but our example illustrates the basic
concept and is sufficient knowledge to setup your domain.

One misconception that I would like to clarify, some people think
that each domain name maps to a unique ip address, not true. Just as
many people in a house can share a single telephone number, many
domain names can share a single ip address. The NameServer will
return the same ip address for all of these domains and when the
browser connects to that ip address, it says I am trying to reach
suchandsuch.com domain, the webserver then returns the correct page
for the domain requested. Obtaining a unique ip address (known as
dedicated ip) for your website is usually more expensive than
sharing the ip address.

How to setup your domain name

Form the discussion we just had, you would be able to appreciate
that in order for you to get your domain to point to your webpage,
you need to do the following in theory

1> Obtain the ip address for the web host where your WebPages
reside - this is the webserver ip
2> Make an entry (Called as DNS Entry) in a Nameserver to resolve
your domain name to this ip address.
3> Configure your domain to use this nameserver

Most of the time, step 2 will be transparent to you as most
webservers provide nameservers in which they make the DNS entry for
you when you purchase webspace from them. Also, many good domain
registrars provide their own nameservers that you can use.

While registering a domain or after registering a domain, you will
need to set it up to use two or more nameservers. It is common to
use multiple nameservers so that if one of them is down the others
may be used. You have three options to set the nameservers
1> nameserver provided by your web host
Your webhost will usually have their own nameservers. In their
documentation they may say you need to use something like
ns1.yourwebhost.com and ns2.yourwebhost.com - If you use these, you
need not bother about the webserver ip address or any other
settings, just configure your domain to use these and you are all
set.
2> nameserver provided by the registrar that you register your
domain with
If you use this option, you will need to know the ip address of your
webserver (provided by your webhost). As you will be using the
nameserver provided by your registrar, you will need to set it up to
point to the correct ip address for your website by creating a DNS
entry. The ip address for your webserver is called as the A record
and the ip address for your mail server is called as the MX record,
CNAME records are used if one domain needs to be similar to another
domain, but you do not need to understand these options for a basic
setup. Many top notch domain registrars in the industry provide
advanced DNS management like forwarding your domain to another site,
subdomains, email id management, wildcard dns etc
3> third party nameservers
This is an option that very advanced domain managers prefer when
they wish to have more features and greater control over their DNS
records which may not be provided by the registrar or the webhost.

Now a days, the line between the web hosts and the domain registrars
is fading as most domain registrars are providing web hosting and
most web hosts are providing domain registration. If you purchase
your domain registration and web hosting from the same company,
chances are that you may never need to do any setup at all.

What to look for in a registrar
It is always a good idea to register your domain with a domain
registration site rather than with your webhost so you can be able
to shift your webhost in case you need to without loosing your
domain.
A good domain registrar should provide you the following features

No Cost Domain Forwarding - To Point your domain to anywhere you
choose, you can even use a long free web host url and forward your
domain to it.
No Cost for Change of Registrant - Makes sure you can change
registrars (transfer out to another registrar) for your domain
without paying a heavy fee.
No Cost Domain Parking - You get one page saying your site is under
construction or something like that
Domain Name Locking - makes sure that no one can initiate a transfer
request until you unlock your domain
DNS Server Changes - You should be able to login to your own control
panel and make any changes yourself

I use http://value-name.com for all my domain needs, they provide 1
year registration for $8.75 and $7.75 for a domain transfer
including one year extension. They also have special prizing for
bulk registrations.

Trouble Shooting Domain Name Problems
What can you do if you have trouble setting up your domain? First of
all, remember that it may take up to 48 hours for your domain
changes to propagate across the internet. If you wish to verify the
settings on any domain, you can use our recommended whois tool from
http://biz-whiz.com/PostWrap-page-nstool.html

The whois report on any domain will tell you about the current
nameservers attached to that domain in addition to the contact
addresses, the registration date, expiry date and the date when the
last modifications were made to that domain record. If the
nameservers are not correct then you know you have to change them by
logging into your domain name control panel or by contacting your
registrar support. If the name servers that are shown are correct,
then you can use the nslookup tool (Advanced DNS Lookup) from
http://biz-whiz.com/PostWrap-page-nstool.html to determine the ip
address being returned for your domain by any nameserver. Here you
should enter one of the nameserver that you find in the whois output
and see what ip address it returns for your domain name.
If it does not return an ip address then the nameserver has to be
configured to point your domain to the correct ip address, or you
may be using the wrong nameserver.
If it returns an ip address, You can try typing the ip address
directly into the address bar of your web browser, if it gives a 404
page not found error, then either the ip address is wrong or the
webserver is down. If it returns some generic page but not your
webpage, that is all right, this is to be expected unless you are
using a dedicated ip address. Make sure that the IP address returned
is the correct one that your web host is providing to you. If you
are sure that the ip address is correct and still your website does
not show when you type in your domain name in the address bar of
your browser, then it may be that other people are able to access
your site and only you are not able to access it because your local
nameserver does not resolve your domain or resolves it wrongly. In
that case, if you can find out the nameserver your local machine is
using, you can enter that nameserver in the nslookup tool at and see
what ip address it is returning. If your local nameserver is
returning the wrong ip address all you need to do is wait till the
dns changes propagate to your local nameserver, If your local
nameserver is returning the right ip address, then you must contact
your web host to inform them that their webserver is not configured
to handle your domain.

Conclusion
We have covered a lot of ground here, from registering a domain to
setting, configuring and trouble shooting it. Even if you never need
to configure a domain, understanding the concepts behind what goes
on behind the scenes when you type a domain name in your browser
should make you feel good about yourself. And if you are one of
those people who eat domains for breakfast, this article should give
you a head start into the advanced configuration options available
and with a little practice, you will be well on your way to become a
Jedi Knight of domain management. May the force be with you, always.

By Mufad.
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Domain Names--Points To Consider When Choosing One

2007-02-24T20:33:00.001-08:00

Author: Ba Kiwanuka

Domain Name Registration

Never register your domain name through your web hosting company however attractive the deal might appear. Why? Well one day you may wish to transfer your domain name to another web hosting provider and your current web host may not take kindly to this. It is not unusual in such cases for the web host to charge a transfer fee and even in extreme cases to unequivocally refuse the transfer of your domain name. If such a situation arises you can report the offending party to the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Another thing to consider when registering your domain name is not to rely solely on your domain name register to ensure that the domain name you have in mind is available and does not infringe on someone else's trademark rights (unless you enjoy being sued). To be doubly sure your domain name has no trademark infringement issues, after conducting a search for its availability on your domain name register's website, you can also check at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) http://www.uspto.gov.

When registering your domain name it's a good idea to register it for more than one year. The reason being that, other than the usual discounts you get for multi-year registrations from most domain name registers, Google (and perhaps the other search engines) consider multi-year registered domains as less likely to be spam sites. Consequently, right off the bat your site will have a search engine advantage (at least with Google), such as a shorter evaluation period in the Google Sandbox.

A final note about domain name registration; there are plenty of domain name registration companies out there, all eager and equally willing to register your new name. Domain name registration prices range from as little as $10 a year up to $35 per year and beyond. Generally there is little point in opting for the more expensive registers because you more or less get the same service. In fact some of the cheaper domain name registration companies provide better quality service.

However whatever service you use, make sure that your domain name is registered in your name. Some less scrupulous domain registration services have been known to register new domains with their own information. You can verify that your domain is registered with your particulars at: http://www.internic.net/whois.html.

The Domain Name Game

So what kind of domain name do you want? Do you want to pick a domain name incorporated with a targeted keyword, or do you want to take the memorable-brand route that the likes of Google, Yahoo and Amazon (to name but a few) have done with astounding success. Well, if your website is going to be business related or involved in some form of commerce it makes sense to have a well-searched-for-keyword incorporated within the domain name. The majority of online businesses are still found through search engine queries. By and large though, a good rule of thumb is to incorporate the most searched for term (for your market) in your domain name.

The shorter your domain name the more memorable it's going to be. However you'll discover that most one-word/two-word domain names have been snatched up already. One alternative you've got is to hyphenate your targeted keyword with another word. The jury is still out about hyphens though, but most seo experts concur that hyphenating a string of words makes a long domain name more search engine friendly. The downside is that when it comes to word-of-mouth dissemination most folks won't bother including those pesky hyphens, with the resulting consequence that intended referrals to your domain could end up on your competitor's doorstep. So as you can see, the whole process of naming your domain is a fine balancing act.

Cutesy Artsy Domain Names

There's a budding artist in all of us waiting for just the right moment and place to show the world we are the new Leonardo da Vinci. Be that as it may, but naming your domain is not the place to express that inner artist. Avoid cutesy names interspersed with numbers in place of words (e.g., 4 instead of for), they'll only confuse potential customers and torment you with heaps of regret somewhere down the road. In fact the best rule of thumb is to avoid numbers in your domain name altogether. However, if on the other hand your domain functions merely as a cyber-platform to let an uncaring world know you exist, then by all means let loose!

Bottom line...your domain name is your online identity, so try to choose something that is memorable, fares well with the search engines, and also inspires confidence and respect.

To Dot.com or Not to Dot.com

These days there're more and more choices for domain name extensions. This is great news because it is getting increasingly difficult to find a good domain name ending in .com that runs under twenty letters (okay that might be a wee bit of an exaggeration but you get the point). However the drawback with using anything other than a .com extension is human nature. You see people are creatures of conditioning and habit, and given a choice of precisely similar domain names, (other than the extension) you can bet most of us will instinctively beeline for the domain name with the .com extension--Without question the .com extension is the most recognizable.

Also think twice before settling for a top level country code domain such as co.uk. Unless you are located in that region and ship primarily within the area, such a domain name could have a negative impact on your business. Think about it...a potential customer based in the U.S. or another part of the world is not going to relish the prospect of forking out a mini fortune for shipping and handling fees when they can easily find a more local competitor. In the same vein try not to regionalize your domain name (unless your business caters to a market found only within that region) because you'll probably lose potential customers who reside elsewhere.

On a final note, if you anticipate a lot of your traffic is going to come via word-of-mouth referral, you might consider registering similar domain names and redirecting to your main url (e.g. www.africasafarizone.com and www.africansafarizone.com) before cyber-squatters (people who register domain names in hopes of selling them for a profit) get wind of your growing success and beat you to it.

Find A Quality Domain Name Registration Provider

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Ba Kiwanuka is the webmaster of http://www.internetbusinessmart.com

http://www.internetbusinessmart.com

Tips For Choosing A Domain Name

2007-02-24T20:32:00.001-08:00

Author: Sammer Hakim

Your domain name acts as a lure for visitors to your site. It diffuses all over the Web into various search engines, discussion boards and forums to attract users to your site. Once it draws them in, the rest of your site is responsible for selling them your idea. But this initial period of drawing customers in requires a dynamite domain name. When selecting your domain name�
1. Keep It As Concise As Possible
You have the luxury of using up to 67 characters to register your domain but only use this space if you have to. Otherwise, keep it as short and sweet as possible. Although nearly all of site visits are via click-throughs and not typed in URL's, having a domain that's easy to remember can help you in both your online and offline promotions. So use the keyword search wisely and use the most popular search terms for a high impact domain.
2. Dot What?
.com � plain and simple.
Although there are numerous suffixes, don't use them. Even today, the most recognizable and most associated Web address is .com so stick with what works. If you feel a compelling urge to try something different like .net, .biz, etc. run the site parallel to a .com and prove to yourself which site is performing better. Also, many web browsers will automatically insert a .com by default if the ending suffix isn't inserted � another reason to use .com.
3. Avoid Trademarked Names
Unless you have an endless supply of time and money to spend fighting trademarked names, keep clear of other people's identities. Use an original domain name that is rich in keyword content to attract quality traffic. If you knock off somebody else's name/identity, it only harms your online reputation and can result in very costly lawsuits. And companies are more than willing to pay. Are you?
4. Register Your Domain NOW
Don't delay! The euphoria domain name buying has created is seeing droves of people rushing to grab the best names they can get their hands on. Don't con yourself thinking 'nobody will ever think up of this domain' � they are probably saying the same thing to themselves too. Don't talk yourself out of getting a hot domain name because of what might or might not happen. Just grab it first, and then you can do what you want with it later. And you don't need to be a computer nerd to get one. Just follow the simple instructions on this site and you will have your domain name minutes from now.
5. One Domain Name May Not Be Enough
You may have to register different versions of your domain if you are selling a large variety of products. You can do this by registering similar addresses consistent with your business and have them all direct to one website. You can increase your visibility on search engines by doing this and it gives the impression your company is a lot bigger (hence more secure and established) than what it really is. This helps to build faster credibility with your customers.
6. Character Types
This is pretty straightforward: Letters, dashes and numbers are ok, spaces and symbols aren't. Also domain names are not case-sensitive; it doesn't matter how you enter the address ie: domain.com is the same as DOMAIN.com.
7. Ask Around
Before you finalize your domain selection, make sure you use the appropriate keyword search tools and include the most frequently searched terms into your domain. Keep in mind, most people will find your domain name via search engines, not direct URL entries. This is more reason to ensure your keyword selection is relevant to your business. Also, ask reputable online experts if you aren't sure.
8. Don't Shell Out Large Amounts of $$$
In the Dark Ages of 1998, companies were charging enormous amounts of money plus a "mandatory" $70 InterNIC fee to register and host your domain. And customers were shelling out money only to realize, it was eating away at their profit margins. Since 'e' is for electronic, it was supposed to be streamlined and more efficient right? So why the high costs? Well, things have literally changed overnight. There are hundreds of companies now offering domain name registration services for very competitive rates.
You can get yours for next to pennies. Active-Domain has incredibly low prices together with several FREE services other companies still charge for like e-mail, sub-domains and site redirection.
One final tip: We can't emphasize this enough - as soon as you find your 'dream' domain and are excited about it � register it! Don't kick yourself later and lament on 'what could have been'. New domains are being registered every minute � don't let yours fall into the 'other guy's' hands.

Sammer Hakim has been instrumental in helping business owners select appropriate domain names through his site www.free-domain-name-articles.com. A copywrityer by profession, other topics he's extensively written about include website promotion, boosting response rates from sales materials and advertising.

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Benefit of Expired Domains

2007-02-24T20:30:00.000-08:00

Author: Mike Freije

When you are creating a business or new website on the internet, as you probably know you will need a domain name. This of course is the obvious for any internet business, without a domain name you will not have a website, end of story. Now if you are new to the internet business world (where have you been?) you may not realize the importance of SEO tactics. SEO tactics, if done correctly, are designed to give you an advantage within the search engine ranks. Of course, you may be sitting there wondering, "What in the world are you talking about".

Well, this all leads to the title of the article and will answer the question what is the "Benefit of Expired Domains". You see when an domain has been in use by another person and this person allows the domain to expire without renewing, the domain name is placed back into the pool of "domains for sale". This is where the benefits begin to show, just like a new domain name, the expired domain name is available to anyone who wishes to purchase it. What is the difference between a new and expired domain name? Simple, the expired domain name has already been in use. This means that the previous own has likely invested a great deal of effort and time, not to mention money into the promotion of that domain name.

Furthermore, this means that the expired domain is likely all over the internet, with a multitude of back links. Think about it, taking possession of an expired domain name means less work for you and more time for other, more important issues. You will have the opportunity to take advantage of the work that someone else has already performed. The expired domain could already be listed with many search engines, forums, directories, and a wide variety of other websites that have this link already on them.

What does this mean? Because the previous owner already did most of the legwork, it leaves less for you to do. The traffic specific to that expired domain now becomes your traffic, which leads to your sales, and ultimately your revenue. All of this because someone else was kind enough to do the work for you already and let the domain name expire.

Now surely you would know by now, that if you were to purchase a brand new domain name, you would have to do all the advertising, promotion, SEO work, submission to search engines, forums, and directories yourself. That is a lot of time, effort, and money spent on your part and trust when we say it takes a lot of all of the above to make a new domain work. It makes sense to take advantage of an expired domain does it not? We think so, you should find the expired domain of your choice today and begin taking full advantage of the legwork that has already been done for you and use it for your website.

Author, Mike Freije, contributes articles on Internet Marketing for http://www.GlobalNewsArticles.com. For more information, visit http://www.yourexpireddomains.com

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Expired Domains Targeted Website Traffic

2007-02-24T20:29:00.001-08:00

Author: Mike Freije

An average of 19,260 domain names expire every day. This number has increased tremendously since the same time last year when expired domain name figures were more like 1,200 daily. The expired domain name market is becoming increasingly popular with webmasters, who are locked in a fierce competition to stay one step ahead and get all the best domain names. The question is why do webmasters find someone else's old domain name so interesting?

What happens a lot of the time is people register a domain name, or purchase it for a year, they develop a web site and advertise it, to get targeted traffic. This takes a lot of time, money and effort, then due to unfortunate circumstances they may forget to re-register their domain, either they have lost interest, over looked a reminder that domain renewal was due or changed their e-mail address during the year that they used to register. Then just like that the domain name is up for sale.

Because of this, the domain, or address that they have created and all targeted traffic with the domain name becomes available for purchase. Thousands of these expired domain names are available every day. There are several tricks to knowing how to find these domain names, and how to know which domain names are valuable and which are not, and, most importantly, how to get to them first.

There are many benefits for picking up an expired domain name, unlike a new domain name, the expired name already has traffic that can come from search engine promotion, directories, forums, back links and a whole host of other promotion methods. Webmasters are using this to their advantage, either selling the domains for a profit, selling a web site with traffic already entering the site, or use as valuable sub domains for their own enterprise, thus increasing traffic to their own sites.

Quite often webmasters will register with an online service that notifies them daily of pending expiry of domain names, that will soon be up for purchase. This can keep a web master that desired extra step ahead of competitors. Competition for expired domain names, especially one word, catchy .com names is fierce, as they are in high demand and easy to remember, having most likely been around for a long time. So it is not surprising that some of them can be very valuable, for instance, a domain name could sell for $1M, yet it only costs $10 to re-register.

Benefits for acquiring an expired domain name are numerous, depending on what you want to do with it. For a small sum of around $10-$15 you have the potential of increasing traffic to your web site instantly, saving you a considerable amount of time, money and bother. It could be the cheapest targeted web site traffic around.

Author, Mike Freije, contributes articles on Internet Marketing for http://www.GlobalNewsArticles.com and http://www.freeinfoarticles.com . For more information, visit http://www.yourexpireddomains.com

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Domain Name Registration: Are You Sure You Know What To Do?

2007-02-24T20:28:00.000-08:00

Author: James B

The domain name registration process is not too difficult, but it can take some time (usually 24-72 hrs) before your domain name propagates throughout the internet. I find that it normally takes less than 20 hrs, so keep that time in mind.

Propagation is simply the fact that it takes a while for your site to become visible on the internet due to a process called DNS (domain name server) transfer and various databases that have to be updated.

Although the domain name registration process is fairly easy, there are a few things that you should be aware of:

Steps to follow before a domain name transfer:

1. Do not just register any domain name that you like or that sounds good to you, except if your company name is well known. Do a bit of keyword research and see if you can incorporate your main keyword into the domain name.

2. Get your hosting account first, since you will need the DNS information during the domain name registration process. If you register the domain name first, the DNS information will point to the servers of your registrar until you transfer it.

3. Do not just go for the cheapest registrar. Remember, you normally get what you pay for... however, you should not have to pay more than $10 a year for a domain name.

Steps and tips to follow during the domain name registration process:

1. Choose your favorite registrar and register with them to get yourself a username and password. Each domain name registrar will have their own policies and procedures, so make sure that you read everything carefully before you register your domain name. You will also learn a lot by doing that.

2. Log into your account and type in your domain name to check if it is available.

3. Always register the .com version of a domain name wherever possible. If the .com extension of a domain name is not available, then register a .net or .org extension. However, try your best to register a .com domain by adding words like 2u, 4u at the back or words such as first, best or anything else that will fit in front.

You can also use domain name spinner software to help you choose your domain name.

4. Make sure that you register your domain name for at least 5-10 years. Wow! I will probably get a lot of flak for this, but it helps to establish credibility with the search engines. Just do not ask me where I got this information from, since it is extremely valuable.

I normally register my domain names for 5 years, but 10 is better. I know that it is a bit expensive, but if you make a great site, you will easily recover your investment.

5. Do not register domain names with dashes. There are too many of them around already and it looks silly (uhm... just my personal opinion). The main advantage however is that domain names without dashes also establishes credibility with the search engines. Avoid dashes at all costs.

6. Try and make your domain name as short as possible or at least something that can easily be remembered. After you have registered your domain name, make sure that the registrar lock function is activated otherwise someone else might be able to transfer your domain name without your permission.

This is extremely important, since you do not want to loose your domain name... and your shirt when someone else steals it from you.

7. Once the domain name registration process is complete, you should transfer your DNS information to your host. The sooner the better. When you sign up with your host, they will normally send you the DNS info along with your activation email or you can go to their forums (if they have one) and have a look around.

If all else fails, use their technical support. Most registrars require two DNS addresses and it looks something like this: ns1.cowboy-server.com, ns2.cowboy-server.com

While this is by no means a comprehensive guide to the domain name registration process, it is more or less what you should do and be aware of.

About the author: James B. is the Webmaster and Content Writer at Web Site Domain Names 2u.com

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What is Domaining?

2007-02-24T20:27:00.002-08:00

Author: Dr. Domaining

Domaining is the business and/or hobby of buying, selling and developing domain names. The people that partake in domaining are known as domainers. Many domainers are very wealthy. Some even make tens of millions of dollars per year with their domain names. It is a very fun and exciting business and/or hobby to be involved in. You just register domains or purchase them in the domain name aftermarket, which is thriving at the time of this writing. Domain names are selling for millions upon millions of dollars.

Anybody can do it, it doesn't matter what your background is or where you are from, domaining is something that anybody can be involved in. The only thing that you really need is an Internet connection and a tiny bit of cash to get started. Since you are reading this article you obviously have the Internet connection, so what are you waiting for? Get out there and get started domaining today. You won't regret it. I promise you that.

I would recommend becoming a little bit familiar with how domaining works before getting too crazy. DomainingBlog.com is an incredible source for domainers looking for information on domaining. It is updated daily and is full of reported domain name sales, domaining news, tips and articles to help you make money domaining. It really is a great source and even has regular interviews with all of the biggest and best domainers and domaining related companies. So much great domaining knowledge is shared in these pieces. It really is recommended that you read them before getting started domaining. You will also want to sign-up for the free domaining newsletter at DomainingNewsletter.com. It will put you on the fast track to domaining success.

Another thing that you will probably want to do is go ahead and get yourself the best domaining software available to the public at the time of this writing. One thing that you will realize once you have success domaining is that it is more of a science than a lottery, like some people think. The software is available at DomainingSoftware.com and is simply amazing. It is truly an unbelievable piece of software that does everything you will need to get started making good money domaining. It can perform scans for you that are absolute necessary if you are going to be a successful domainer that would take you a month to do by hand and it does them in minutes. Not to mention, that it also manages all of your domains for you regardless of what registrar they are at. You don't want to lose track of them. I can tell you that much and I haven't even gotten to the tip of the iceberg. You will really have to go to DomainingSoftware.com and read all of the details for yourself. They will really boggle your mind. The creator is a domaining and software genius by the name of Luc Lezon and he has been interviewed at DomainingBlog.com. He is a really great guy that knows software and domaining extremely well.

Well, now that you know what domaining is, you can get started today. Who knows, maybe you will be the next domainer that sells their domain name for over ten million dollars. What would you do with ten million dollars? Put it back into domaining? Buy a deserted island and retire? In the end that is up to you.

Good luck and happy domaining!

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global domains international downline building 101 completely free

2007-02-24T20:27:00.001-08:00

Author: Don Virden

If you are involved in network marketing then odds are you have heard of global domains international. Now what this article is going to show you is to properly build a downline in global domains international. There are thousands of people involved with global domains international and with good reason as they are the 37th fastest growing company in America and offer a great residual income that can and will support someone for years to come. The problem with global domains international is that many members do not how to properly build their downline with gdi. This will be an unofficial marketing plan to take your global domains international business and turn it into a 5 figure monthly income with hard work and following this very simple step by step guide.

My name is Don Virden and I have been in network marketing for about 5 years and have tried to build my downline in many different companies and have failed terribly. I found a proven technique that I inturn used to help me build my downline with global domains international and it has worked very well. If you follow this step by step guide you will be able to add another 5 to 10 people per day to your downline and of course this is completely free to do and to tell your downline members about also.

Step One � Give me a million dollars, no seriously though first of course you need to sign up for global domains international if you are not already a member but odds are if you are reading this then you are and just need help with building your downline. So to sign up simply go here http://www.3stepsecret.com/gditeam

Step Two � What you need to do is go to this website that lays out a very simple 6 steps to getting not only free training but also free traffic. When you are on the site simply go from step 1 to 6 and that's it. From this website there is audio training, text training, tele-training and much more. There is even a huge free marketing plan that involves myspace which will really explode your business. So go here to get started on this step http://www.gditeam.ws now the way they have this site setup is very straight forward and walks you through the whole thing which is why I liked it.

Step Three � This step is the easiest as it involves barely any work at all, simply give this information to all of your downline. What this will do is get them the proper training to build an income and in turn make you more money with global domains international. Everything in this article is 100% free and has worked for me very well so far as it will for you.

So all you need is to follow these 3 easy steps and that's it! I do this on a daily basis and it has made me realize how easy network marketing is if you have a simple guide to get you there. With global domains international we will all become very successful and if this article has helped you then please let me know so I can add your testimonial to my next article which will help many others who are trying to build a downline with global domains international also.

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How to earn money with domains

2007-02-24T20:26:00.001-08:00

Author: Olivier Roy

First, you need to buy a domain, preferably a .com and as short as possible. We recommend using GoDaddy for the registration because their prices are incredibly low.

Tips for choosing a domain :
- lenght : it must be as short as possible but it should mean something not like kjs.com
- extension : preferably a .com or .net because the other extensions are worth less
- traffic : it's good if it already has traffic and links to it
- keyword : some keywords are worth more than the others ex : casino

Then, you can either park your domain on a parking program like Sedo or develop a website on it. If you decide to develop your domain, make sure you have a good webhost, a good design and good content. If you have a cheap host, you may have a lot of downtime or a poor technical support. In the meantime, you can list your domain for sale on some websites. Sedo also offer that kind of service.

Finally, you sell your domain or website to end-user or to another domainer. End-user will often offer more than domainer but they are harder to find.

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Webmaster of DomainVP.com - Domain valuation professionals
and SafeInvesting.info - your guide to making money online

http://www.domainvp.com

The Seven Steps to Finding a Great Domain Name

2007-02-24T20:25:00.000-08:00

Author: Sharon Hewitt

The most important step in starting your online presence is the selection of your domain name. While this task can appear difficult, you can find a great domain name as long as you take your time and follow a logical process. A great domain name is one that is short enough to be easy to remember, easy to spell correctly, and memorable. This will be your online brand, so take your time and use our tools and you'll soon have your own great domain name. We offer a seven step process for you to follow to get the best name available for your web site.

1.) Start with a list of names that immediately come to mind that you would like to have. If you already have an existing business, group or club name - put it on the list. Many of your first choices may not be available, but keep them on your list for now. Fortunately, there are now more Top Level Domain (TLD) alternatives such as .net, .biz, .us, .org or .info. The ".Biz" extension is still new, but will become more popular in time. Another alternate is to use the extensions that were made for some of the smaller countries such as ".cc" (Cocos Islands), or ".tv" (Tuvalu).

2.) Use our Advanced Smart Search Utility to gain some more ideas. This free domain name generator will help to suggest available domain names. Search for one of your top names or keywords, and if it is not available you can then click on the "Smart Search" tab. You will then be presented with a variety of options including alternate extensions, dashes and popular prefixes and suffixes. You can also click on the "view all" to see all of the available names from that search.

3.) Use Keyword rich domain names - Assemble a list of keywords that can serve as a domain name or use a combination of keywords (example: killbugsfast.com). You can also use our keyword recommendation tool in our resource center. This resource is provided by Digital Point Solutions and can be located in the search engine optimization section of our resource center at this link: http://www.economywebdomains.com/domains-resource-center.htm

4.) Prefixes - One popular approach is to add a prefix in the beginning of a more generic name, as in eToys.com or eGreetings.com. Additional common prefixes to consider are e, z, my, and Ez.

5.) Suffixes - If you have an existing business, this can be very effective. Two good extensions are Online and Direct ( ex: MerrilLynchDirect.com). The more powerful your brand is, the more effective this option can be.

6.) Consider adding a Dash. Some names can be very effective with the use of a dash. If the website is primarily to be found via search engines, then the dash can be used very well. For search engine purposes, you can use a number of keywords separated by dashes. Use one of our recommended keyword resources and you can find many good phrases. For most businesses, we recommend that you limit the use of dashes (no more than one), as you should use the address on your business cards, in your email signature and all of your advertising campaigns.

7.) Creative combination words - Get creative and use action words that can be partially combined to create a new word. Brainstorm by using a combination of your sites keywords. A great example of this is a senior care provider named Evergive.

Remember this will be your brand, so take your time, make a complete list, Follow these seven steps and you should have a list of names to choose a great domain name.

Sharon Hewitt is founder and President of Economy Web Domains. For more information about registering your own domain name, or getting affordable web hosting, visit the website http://www.economywebdomains.com/

This article may be freely distributed if this resource box remains attached.

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Warning: Your Domain Name Could Infringe On Trademark Rights!

2007-02-24T20:23:00.001-08:00

Author: Al Martinovic

Warning: Your Domain Name Could Infringe On Trademark
Rights! By Al Martinovic

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
internet marketing concepts, killer strategies, useful
tips and no bull business advice.
http://www.milleniummarketers.com
mailto:almartinovic@...?subject=TSubscribe

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Whois

2007-02-24T20:22:00.001-08:00

Author: abul kashem

AUTHOR NAME: Ameet Arurkar

Whois is a TCP query tool which allows users to sort through a database to find information about the owner of a IP address or domain. These searches are done via the internet, and were originally conducted with a command line interface. However, much of this equipment has been greatly simplified, and information can be accessed from multiple databases. Whois is used by a number of adminstrators.

Originally, Whois was used by system administrators who wanted to look up information on other system adminstrators using their IP address or domain. The use of whois lookup has evolved, and it is now used for either benevolent or corrupt purposes by people who are not system admins. The information within Whois is stored in one of two ways, and these are thick or thin. When a thick method for storing information is used, a single whois lookup server will store all the information for a operator.

With a thin model, the name of the whois server for a operator that holds the full information on the report will be looked up. If the information which is pulled up is not understood, the data from a thin lookup may be used as well. One of the problems with the whois lookup is that there is no clear distinction on how to tell the thick model from the thin. Much of the information for .com and .net domains can be found using Whois thin, while lower level domains such as .org operate on a thick model. A good website with information on whois can be found at whois-it.com.

When the internet first broke away from ARPANET, DARPA was responsible for handling all the information related to domains. The use of whois became widespread during the 1980s, when it became more standardized. Because whois was controlled by one institution, all the information resided on one server, and finding information was relatively easy. Though DARPA handled registration on Whois up until the end of the 1980s, this was eventually transferred over to third party institutions by the end of the 1990s.

As of 2005, ICAAN now handles whois. Despite the popularity of whois among many web users, there are a number of problems. Privacy is an important issue among many people today, and some feel that programs like whois allow blatant violations of privacy. Because the telephone number and address of the person owning the domain is available for any one to see, this can lead to a number of problems. Many spammers use the email addresses found in whois lookups, and can use this information to send spam to users.

Another problem with whois is the global appeal it has. Because it is based in the US, few countries use it, and this may come as a blessing to those who don't want their personal information falling into the hands of even more people. The whois lookup servers do not have the ability to tell which text is being used to process requests. There is also no centralized list of whois servers, and those who choose to write whois programs will need to manually look for individual servers.

ABOUT AUTHOR:
Ameet Arurkar is the Founder President of Stargate Holdings Inc. He has served as the President of Valvola Corporation and the Managing Director of Intelisys India Ltd and has an experience of over 8 years in Web Application Software and Ebusiness.

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Your Own .Com

2007-02-24T20:21:00.000-08:00

Author: Art Luff

Before obtaining your web site you'll need to have and register a domain name for your site. Now a domain name is nothing more than the web address that potential clients and customers will use to locate your site. This is also called the URL of the website. This is what you and your customers will type into their internet browsers top window in order to go to a specific website.

Your web sites theme should be built around you domain name. So taking care to chose the right domain name is very important. You'll want your domain name to say something that describes the content or theme of your site. This can't be stressed enough.

The availability of your domain may take some trial and error. Since there are so many sites coming online every day, it stands to reason that your first choice, in all probability, will not be available. It may take many variations of your domain name of choice before you find one that is available.

However, there are services available in the internet that offers domain name search. These websites will search for similar domain names and tell you if the domain name you chose is unique or if it is unavailable before you register it.

When creating a website, thinking of a domain name for your website is the first thing you have to do. The next step would be finding out if your domain name is taken or if it is available. It can be very frustrating to find out that your chosen domain name is already being used and is unavailable. This is why it is recommended that you should think of several potential domain names for your website and try them out one by one.

To check for your domain name availability, there are websites that offer domain name search. These services usually come from websites that offer domain name registration. Your domain name can also be the same as other domain names, provided that the extension is different. An example of a domain name extension is the ".com". Today, there are different kinds of domain name extension. Here are some examples:

� .com

� .info

� .biz

� .net

� .us

Any and All of these extensions may be used for your upcoming website. If at all possible, try and stick with the .com extension.It is the most widely used and if you or a potential visitor forgets the extention. Your machine, will by default, resolve to the .com extension.

As I said before, the process of chosing your domain name may take a bit of time since there are thousands of new domains coming online every day. All needing and looking for a domain name. You'll be amazed at just how many variations of your particular domain will come back as unavailable. Don't give up. You'll eventually get the one you want.

Once you chose an available domain name for your website, the next step would be registering it. This can be done right from the source of search. If not there are numerous domain registration websites that offer this service. Domain name registration websites usually charges a fee for their domain name registration services. These websites differ in prices for domain name registration services; it is up to you to choose what domain name registration website you want to use. My choice would be Go-Daddy.com or Yahoo.com. Both have specials that offer your first years registration fee for cheap. Only to revert back to the regular $8.99 per year for the 2nd and 3rd years.

After registering your domain name, you will now be ready to create your website. Always remember that before creating a website, you will first need a domain name in order for you to put the contents of your website on the internet.

Art Luff is Webmaster/Owner of http://www.yournamecheap.com/ Visit his site to chose and register your domain for just $4.99 per year.

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Domain Name Registration: Steps and Tips

2007-02-24T20:20:00.001-08:00

Author: James B

The domain name registration process is not too difficult, but it can take some time (usually 24-72 hrs) before your domain name "propagates" throughout the internet. I find that it normally takes less than 20 hrs, so keep that time in mind.

"Propagation" is simply the fact that it takes a while for your site to become visible on the internet due to a process called DNS (domain name server) transfer and various databases that have to be updated.

Although the domain name registration process is fairly easy, there are a few things that you should be aware of:

Steps to follow before a domain name transfer:

1. Don't just register any domain name that you like or that sounds good to you, except if your company name is well known. Do a bit of keyword research and see if you can incorporate your main keyword into the domain name.

2. Get your hosting account first, since you'll need the DNS information during the domain name registration process. If you register the domain name first, the DNS information will point to your registrar's servers until you transfer it.

3. Don't just go for the cheapest registrar. Remember, you normally get what you pay for... however, you shouldn't have to pay more than $10 a year for a domain name.

Steps and tips to follow during the domain name registration process:

1. Choose your favorite registrar and register with them to get yourself a username and password. Each domain name registrar will have their own policies and procedures, so make sure that you read everything carefully before you register your domain name. You'll also learn a lot by doing that.

2. Log into your account and type in your domain name to check if it's available.

3. Always register the .com version of a domain name wherever possible. If the .com extension of a domain name is not available, then register a .net or .org extension. However, try your best to register a .com domain by adding words like 2u, 4u at the back or words such as first, best or anything else that will fit in front.

You can also use domain name spinner software to help you choose your domain name.

4. Make sure that you register your domain name for at least 5-10 years. Wow! I'll probably get a lot of flak for this, but it helps to establish credibility with the search engines. Just don't ask me where I got this information from, since it's extremely valuable.

I normally register my domain names for 5 years, but 10 is better. I know that it's a bit expensive, but if you make a great site, you'll easily recover your investment.

5. Don't register domain names with dashes. There's too many of them around already and it looks silly (uhm... just my personal opinion). The main advantage however is that domain names without dashes also establishes credibility with the search engines. Avoid dashes at all costs.

6. Try and make your domain name as short as possible or at least something that can easily be remembered. After you have registered your domain name, make sure that the registrar lock function is activated otherwise someone else might be able to transfer your domain name without your permission.

This is extremely important, since you don't want to loose your domain name... and your shirt when someone else steals it from you.

7. Once the domain name registration process is complete, you should transfer your DNS information to your host. The sooner the better. When you sign up with your host, they'll normally send you the DNS info along with your activation email or you can go to their forums (if they have one) and have a look around.

If all else fails, use their technical support. Most registrars require two DNS addresses and it looks something like this: ns1.cowboy-server.com, ns2.cowboy-server.com

While this is by no means a comprehensive guide to the domain name registration process, it's more or less what you should do and be aware of.

About the author: James B. is the Webmaster and Content Writer at Web Site Domain Names 2u.com

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Register a Cheap Domain Name - Here's How

2007-02-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

Author: Eddie Atkinson

With more and more individuals and businesses surfing the internet for products, services and information, it's becoming more evident every day that in order to be taken seriously in the business world, you need to build your identity on the World Wide Web. The first step in this somewhat tedious process is to register your domain name.

Primarily, there are three major steps within this process, the first of which is finding a reputable registrar to work with. Fly-by-night operations fill the web with many empty promises, so be sure to check the credibility of your chosen registrar before ordering. The Better Business Bureau is just one means of checking into a company. Customer references are another. There are plenty of domain name registrars out there for you to research, so don't allow one bad apple to spoil the bunch.

There are many different types of domain registrars that exist on the net. You will find many that are pricey, as well as many that are very cheap. Do your homework on the company at hand, making sure that you're not buying more than you need to keep the cost down. One caveat- if the price is too cheap, customer service might not be their forte. The best registrars have a balance of good customer service and affordable pricing.

Next on the agenda is deciding on an extension for your domain name. You will have many options: .com for a global commercial site, .org for a global organization (typically non-profit), or your country's extension- .us for the United States, .ca for Canada, .uk for the United Kingdom, etc. Most reputable registrars offer all of the common domain name extensions, but double check that your registrar offers the extension you need.

The final step is the choice of other services offered by your registrar of choice, including web hosting your site, email services directed to your new domain name (yourname@yoursite.com), as well as building blocks for you to add to your site as your company grows. A quality registrar's web site will be able to assist you with picking out the appropriate services, as well as the proper amount of these services, to best fill your company needs.

While shopping for the ideal company to register your own domain name can be painstaking work, the end result of your efforts will be the representation of you and your business on the World Wide Web.

Eddie Atkinson recommends Names Beyond to register a cheap domain name.

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A Quick Tip On Finding Buyers For Your Domain Names

2007-02-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

Author: Edwin John

If you're convinced you have the best domain names, you may just be right!

Many small and medium sized businesses online, have poor and difficult sounding names.

If you could show them a better domain name and how they might profit from it, who knows, they may be very interested to acquire it for their business.

The key is to look for domain names that are similiar and/or inferior to yours.

Here's one way you might go about looking for potential prospects.

Use the search tool at DomainSurfer.com.

Say, if you owned MusicLand.com, just type in musicland in the search box. (also try, music-land, with the hyphen).

This will show you a list of domains that are similiar to yours. You might see a musiclandproductions.com, musiclandstation.com or a emusicland.com. All these are generally inferior to yours.

Click on the domains and see which ones have active websites. Don't spam every domain you come across! You want to limit your interest to those which actually have a proper commercial website. Forget about the inactive sites or those that are parked or those that look like personal home pages.

Lookup the WHOIS info for the owner's contact. The one you want is the registrant/administrative contact.

Compose a proper email regarding your business proposal. If possible, use the owner's name in your email. If you don't want to look like a spammer, don't use free mail like Yahoo or Hotmail. And make sure you include your full name & telephone number

Here is a sample email you can modify and use.

==============================================
Dear (name),

I am selling the rights to my domain name - (domain.com)
and am contacting a few companies that I think may be
able to use this web name successfully.

You can use this domain name in your operation as it has
good potential to increase traffic and business to your site.

Please contact me at your convenience if you are
interested in this domain name.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,
(your name)
(your email add)
(tel)
==============================================

It might be a good idea to also state what's so great about your domain.
Does it have good page rank? Search engine listings? Link popularity?
And what all these could mean to the prospect. More customers? Better search engine positions for their keyword?

So there you are.

All this will take time, effort and plenty of patience.

But if you are at the right place at the right time with the right domain, you'll be pocketing some nice cash.

All the best!

==================================
You can learn more ways to find buyers for your domain
names at http://www.OpenForSale.com
Edwin John is the creator of the "How I Sell My Domain Names:
A Weekend Crash Course" information package.
==================================

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Everybody Underestimates the Bulging Power of Domain Names: What You Do Not Know Will Hurt.

2007-02-22T22:17:00.001-08:00

Author: Brandon Dmitrov

On the World Wide Web your domain name is your own unique identity. No two parties can ever hold the same domain name simultaneously; therefore your Internet identity is totally unique. If you have a business site on the Internet your domain name is your own online brand and in a sense you can use your domain name as your online business card. With your own domain name your web site, and e-mail addresses for example will have that professional look, being unique to your business. Many people often miss the importance of having and then keeping their domain name until they lose it. Once this happens they soon realize that they have lost their whole online identity.

How does a domain name work?

To understand why you need a domain name you first need to know how a domain name works.

A domain name is an addressing construct, used for finding and identifying computers on the Internet. Computers use Internet Protocol (IP) Addresses, which are a series of numbers used to identify each other on the Internet; however, many people find it hard to remember IP Addresses. Because of this, domain names were developed so that easily remembered names and phrases could be used to identify entities in the Internet instead of using an IP Address.

What should I use as a domain name?

You can use a word or phrase as a domain name. When thinking of a domain name, think of catchy words or phrases that are easy to remember and that will bring more traffic to your site. Try to use a domain name that is relevant to your web site. If your web site is a business site, it is a good idea to use the companies name as the domain name or if your site is a personal site try to think of a domain name that is related to the topic of your web site.

Also try to keep your domain name as short as possible, around 5 to 20 characters is fine. The shorter the domain name the easier it will be to remember.

One thing to keep in mind is assumed spelling issues; if you think up a 'clever' domain name such as 1luv4u.com � One Love For You (dating service), people may type in oneloveforyou.com believing this is the domain name; or oneluv4u.com, or 1love4you.com etc. This leads to brand problems. In this case the "oneloveforyou.com" name would be best. Another unfortunate example: Flo Office Supplies � flooffice.com?

How do I acquire a domain name?

There are two main ways you can get a domain name. You can either register your domain name yourself or you can get your web host or ISP (Internet Service Provider) to register it for you.

To register a domain name yourself you will need to choose a Registrar. A Registrar is an ICANN accredited domain registration company. There are hundreds of Registrars on the Internet nowadays. The market is becoming increasingly competitive; which means that you can purchase domains names for a low yearly fee.

Most web hosting companies will offer domain registration services to their clients. When you register a domain name through a web host they will register your domain name for you through their own approved registrar. An advantage to having your web host register your domain name for you is that, they have probably done this process many times before; they have all the necessary information ready at hand. This process will save you time and, as long as you give the 'correct' domain name desired, there will be no unfamiliar dealings with Registrars.

Why should I keep my domain name registered?

If you loose your domain name you can loose your whole online identity.

Because you can only register a domain name for a year or so, you will need to make sure that you renew it before the expiry date. Once your domain name expires you will no longer own that domain name. Your Registrar will then own it and be able to sell your domain name to the highest bidder. To make sure you don't loose your domain name you will need to make sure you renew your domain name at least two weeks before it expires.

Also make sure that your information is registered properly, especially if you didn't register your domain name yourself. Ensure that your information is displayed as the registrant, administrative and billing contacts; most importantly make sure that the email addresses for these contacts are ACTIVE. When you receive any information about your domain name, such as renewals, price changes, etc� an email will be sent to this email address. If you can't receive any mail from the email addresses listed under the domain names contact then you are at risk of not receiving important notifications about your domain names, which could result in loosing your domain name.

People often miss the importance of having their own unique domain name for their web sites. A domain name represents you, your company and your online presence; as does a 'business card'. If you don't have your own domain name you won't be able to promote your own online identity and web site on the World Wide Web.

With over a decade worth of experience and thousands of happy clients under our belt, 5 Shades Media is the number one choice for your web design, hosting and domain needs. Find out more at: http://www.5shades.com - Professional website design and hosting solutions.

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With over a decade worth of experience and thousands of happy clients under our belt, 5 Shades Media is the number one choice for your web design, hosting and domain needs. From custom websites to shopping carts. From Flash animation to logos, we offer everything you could ever want at a price you can afford! Through our articles, we hope to share what we've learned to help you navigate the net. Find out more at: http://www.5shades.com

Custom website design, affordable website design, quality website design!

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Domain Names � Why you need one to own your own website

2007-02-22T22:16:00.000-08:00

Author: John Gibb

You could be forgiven for not knowing what domain names are. You use them every day, but it's a technical term, and not one that you really need to do unless you plan to get one of your very own. Put simply, domain names are website addresses, although in reality it's a little more complicated than that.

You see, a website address is made of more than just the domain name. First there's the http:// (which means we're using hypertext, the web), then the www (which means you're using the web part of the site you're on, not email or anything else). It's the part just after that, including .com, .net and many other TLDs (top-level domains), that makes up the domain name.

So what does this mean? Well, google.com is a domain name. So is ebay.com. On the other hand, news.google.com (that's Google news), isn't a domain name � it's a sub-domain, part of google.com. In the same way, google.com/about isn't a domain name either � it's just a section of Google's website.

At this point, many people wonder what the .com thing is all about. To answer quickly, .com stands for 'commercial'. Originally, the idea was to keep the for-profit part of the web separate from the rest, but the growth of web business has long since caused this idea to fall by the wayside.

If you want to start your own website, then one of the first things you want to do is register yourself a domain name. Once you've chosen one, you can make as many sub domains and sections within it as you like. Having your own domain name (as opposed to having your website in a section of someone else's) makes people more likely to take your site seriously, both in a professional and a personal sense. It shows that your website isn't just some fly-by-night operation, and it's also likely to get you a higher ranking on search engine results pages.

John Gibb is the owner of domain name resources
For more information on domain names check out http://www.domain-names-resources2k.info

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Domain Name - Creativity

2007-02-22T22:15:00.000-08:00

Author: John Gibb

Unfortunately, if you're just now registering a domain name, you're coming to it a little late. People have been buying up names in huge numbers for almost a decade now, and there's almost nothing left.

It often takes people a little while to grasp the sheer scale of this situation. They desperately try every word and phrase they can think of to describe their website, only to find them all taken. Then they turn to acronyms and abbreviations � and they're all taken too!

Every word in the dictionary is taken � in fact, every word in all the different English dictionaries there are is taken. Every single three-letter-long domain name is taken � someone owns aaa.com, and aab.com, and aac.com�and, worse, the four-letter ones are running out too! Unless your name is very rare, you're likely to find that someone already owns it.

What can you do? Well, the simple answer is that you have to get a bit more creative with the name of your website. It's not enough to just use your name and a simple description � you literally have to come up with something that no-one has ever thought of before.

If you're having trouble, there are a few things to consider. Firstly, you might have some luck by using your surname combined with what your site is about, if your surname is reasonably rare � this works far better than using place names, unless you live in a small town. You might also think about coming up with a nonsense word � something that is pronounceable, but doesn't actually mean anything.

If your site doesn't necessarily need to be international, then you might also consider buying a domain for your own country instead of .com � a co.uk for the UK, for example, or .de for Germany (Deutschland). These spaces are much less polluted. However, you need to make sure that whoever owns the .com doesn't own a trademark on their name, as you might violate it by registering that name under your own country's top level.

John Gibb is the owner of domain name resources
For more information on domain names check out http://www.domain-names-resources2k.info

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How to Transfer Domain Names

2007-02-22T18:21:00.002-08:00

Author: Joanne King

Transferring domain names was like a foreign language to me up until recently when I sold one of my businesses. Then I had to take a fast track in learning how to transfer a domain name quickly!

And I'm assuming I'm not the only one out there that wouldn't be sure on how to transfer a domain name. So if you are thinking of selling off some of your domain names but weren't sure on how to do a domain name transfer, you may find this article helpful.

My experience with domain name transfers was with godaddy, so I'll step you through the process I took to transfer my domain name to someone else using godaddy.

Make sure you have all their details, eg. Full Name, Address, and email account, phone number�

Then you just need to follow these 5 easy steps!

First Step. Log into your godaddy account

Second Step. Go to "Domain Names" and click on "My Domain Names"

Third Step. Click on the domain name you want to transfer

Fourth Step. In "Manage Domain Names" click on "Change Accounts"

Fifth Step. Scroll down and fill in the "New Registrant Name"

That's it! All you do now is what for the new owner to "confirm" on his or her side.

Internet Marketing SEO Get 100 FREE Visitors to Your Website Everyday Easily & Quickly with "My MSN SEO Secrets". Go directly to: http://www.msnseosecrets.com

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Why Top Level Domain Names Mean Better Search Engine Rankings

2007-02-22T18:21:00.001-08:00

Author: Paul Wolbers

With the recent explosion in the availability of website domain name extensions (i.e. .com, .net, .ws, and others) it's never been easier to register a domain name that is highly descriptive of your website's subject matter.

For example, if you want to create a website about search engine optimization, it would make sense to use a domain name including the phrase "SEO" or "search optimization" or something similar. However, you can bet that many other people have had the same idea, so "seo.com" is no longer available, nor is "seo.net", .org, .biz, or any other simple domain name with a top level extension.

Additionally, it's a fact that most people who are searching on the internet are going to give top priority to websites with top level domain names like .com or .net.

This is simply a matter of these being original suffixes, and the average web surfer believes that they have more credibility and authority.

This is especially important if your website is selling or promoting your business or products, as these factors translate into how trustworthy your website may or may not be in the mind of the web surfer.

To put it simply, A top level domain name extension is one of your strongest sales tools.

Many people believe that the search engines will give more weight to your domain when considering your site for search engine rankings. Keep in mind that there should be a clear relationship between your domain name and website theme to increase your chances of ranking well in search engines.

Here are a couple of tips that may help you to bag that all important top level domain name for your site.

First, try a plural version of your key phrase. So, in the example above, you might check out the availability of top level names using "search-engine-optimizers", rather than "search-engine-optimizer".

However, when used on its own, this tactic may be a bit too obvious, and more often than not, when the singular version of a phrase is taken, so is the plural.

This second little trick is far more effective and well worth trying if you are looking for a top level name for your site. The trick is - Numbers.

Not numbers at the beginning of the domain name - that's already been done to death and you only have to look at a list of expired domains to see how many owners of such addresses just allow them to die. Why? Because they don't work very well with search engines or with real people - and something like "0000seo.com" just looks wierd.

So that's not likely to be of much benefit to your site. But numbers in the "body" of the domain name itself, especially the numbers 2 and 4, very possibly will be.

Why?

The number 2 is a simple substitute for the word "to" or "two" and 4 can be read as "for" or "four".

Now combine that with one other little substitution trick. Take the word "You" and substitute the letter "U", and finding a good top level domain name that still relates very closely to the site subject matter becomes relatively easier.

Let's take our SEO example to demonstrate how effective a strategy like this can be. Using all three of the highlighted tricks, try searching for "seo4u.com" or "searchoptimizers4u.com". Still available? If not, how about "seo4us.com" or "searchoptimizers4me.com"?

Even if all of these are now taken, all you need is a bit of imagination to create a ".com" domain name that relates directly to your subject matter. An easy but effective method of grabbing good a top level domains for your websites.

For even more highly effective Internet Marketing Tactics visit The Internet Marketing Website. Get Free Internet Marketing Tips,Tools and Techniques:
http://www.TheInternetMarketingWebsite.com

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Choosing Domain Names

2007-02-22T04:40:00.002-08:00

Author: Joanne King

Choosing domain names is very important if you want maximum your visitor ratio raised.

Why?

Because the words you place into your domain name will "act" as keywords to help your website be more visible in the search engines.

Especially the first keyword you place in your domain.

You see, I have a few websites that are often found just by the domain name. Something that I've noticed is that some people actually search for the information they're after by typing into the search engines: www.anxiety for example.

If your website is about anxiety, then this could very well be worth at least 30 extra visitors per month to your website!

One of these 30 visitors could be the one that buys your product! Or several extra sign ups to your newsletter.

I've just ran a quick search through the Msn.Com website for the keyword "dogs" and just about every front page website for the keyword "dogs" has the word "dogs" in their domain name.

Because most shorter domain names are already taken these days, I usually try to place at least 2 to 3 keywords that describe what my website is about and what people would search for.

Of course this isn't always necessary, especially if you can grab yourself a lot of high quality link backs to your website� But if you're starting out, every single visitor you can get counts!

Internet Marketing SEO Get 100 FREE Visitors to Your Website Everyday Easily & Quickly with "My MSN SEO Secrets". Go directly to: http://www.msnseosecrets.com

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Protect Your Domain Name!!!

2007-02-22T04:40:00.001-08:00

Author: Ray Herold

Domain names can be registered in increments of 1, 2, 5 or 10 years. The domain remains yours AS LONG AS it is reregistered prior to its expiration date. If you let the registration lapse, someone else can quickly register it and make it their own.

I have heard numerous horror stories in many of the discussion forums I frequent. People complain that someone "hijacked" the domain from them. The sad truth is, in 99% of these cases, the original owner of the domain didn't take the simple steps to protect their ownership.

When you register a domain, you provide a contact email address. Whenever there is any communication from your domain registrar it will go to this email. For instance, if someone other than you requests that the domain be transferred to a new owner or registrar, a communication is sent to the email address on file.

Even if someone hacked into your account and changed that email address, a message is still sent to the original email address of record. That email allows you to reject any account change for your domain.

I cannot stress how important it is to follow these simple procedures:

1) When you register your domain, make sure the contact email you provide is one that you use frequently. It does no good to have your registrar send you an email if you rarely access the account.

2) If you ever change your email address, log into your domain account and update the email contact information. An email from your registrar to a dead email address isn't going to help you.

3) Do not give the UserID and Password for that email account to ANYONE. Being a trusting person is not a bad thing, but when it comes to your domain use discression.

4) If you see any suspicious requests regarding your domain, contact your domain registrar IMMEDIATELY.

5) When you get an email saying your registration is approaching the renewal period, REREGISTER your domain immediately. It's amazing how many people let their domains lapse simply through procrastanation.

6) Make sure your domain lock/unlock setting is set to LOCK. No transfer can take place while it is set this way. If you aren't sure how to do this, contact your domain registrar.

7) Do not give your domain account access UserID/PW to ANYONE. That is tantamount to giving away the keys to the store.

The steps listed above will protect you in all but the rarest of cases. Don't put yourself in the position of having a thriving website, only to have someone else grab it from you.

Ray has a 30+ career in the Computer (IT) field. He has been a Systems Analyst, DB and Network Administrator, Website Project Manager, IT Architect and Director of IT. He has owned several successful business. He is also the author of several books related to technology and business.

http://www.webhosting-123.com

http://www.wantanonlinebusiness.com

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Getting Started - Cheap Domain Name Registration

2007-02-22T04:39:00.002-08:00

Author: shana shane

To get started, you need to check and see if the cheap domain name you want is available. When you purchase a domain name with any of the web hosting companies or domain registration companies, you will be able to check the availability there before you make the purchase.

It may be early days, but it seems some speculators have really bought into the idea of the newly released domain names. With extensions like ".USA" and ".MUSIC" and even those that you can create yourself, there's a lot to choose from.

DotWORLDS registrars reports a sudden and massive uptake in domain registrations and now believes that this new surge can only be speculator led.

"Normally when users register cheap domain names, they configure them immediately so they will resolve to websites. However, at the moment we are seeing a both individuals and companies simply Parking large groups of cheap domain names, in combinations that may have potential in the future" says dotWORLDS.

Right now, dotWORLDS are offering all their domain names free, so other than the time involved there would seem to be no risk - and - with catchy sounding names such as "www. sex.usa", "www. business.usa" and "www. my.blog" already taken, there could be some interesting negotiations ahead.

Is this a winning combination? For those who have already registered, only time will tell.

For more information, visit http:///www.mydomainname101.com

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What is a Domain Name?

2007-02-22T04:39:00.001-08:00

Author: shana shane

When I started my "internet career" not long ago, I just did not know what a Domain Name was. So, I write this article for the benefit of those who are like me when I first started. Be sure to look out for more of my articles under this topic.

A domain name is really just your address on the Internet. It's where people can find you, and it serves as your online identity. Businesses typically register domain names with their company name and sometimes also register their product names. Individuals often register family names or names that have a personal interest to them.

The term domain name has multiple meanings:

Domain Name System
- a name that is entered into a computer (e.g. as part of a Web site or other URL, or an e-mail address) and then looked up in the global Domain Name System which informs the computer of the IP address(es) with that name.
- the product that registrars provide to their customers.
- a name looked up in the DNS for other purposes.
- They are sometimes colloquially (and incorrectly) referred to by marketers as "Web addresses".

- The authoritative definition is that given in the RFCs that define the DNS.
- Domain names are hostnames that provide more easily memorable names to stand in for numeric IP addresses. They allow for any service to move to a different location in the topology of the Internet (or another internet), which would then have a different IP address.

- Each string of letters, digits and hyphens between the dots is called a label in the parlance of the domain name system (DNS). Valid labels are subject to certain rules, which have relaxed over the course of time. Originally labels must start with a letter, and end with a letter or digit; any intervening characters may be letters, digits, or hyphens.

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How To Monetize Your Domain Names

2007-02-22T04:36:00.002-08:00

Author: shana shane

Some websites with popular names used to be considered "cybersquatting," a longstanding Internet tactic where entrepreneurs register cheap domain names either associated with a particular subject or a company and then try to sell the name for a quick profit. But new-generation sites go a little further, reaping ad revenue.

Media companies and advertising networks are now recognizing the central role a domain name plays in bringing users to Internet properties.

A domain name works like an address forwarding service.

All of your Web site content sits on a computer with a unique address. This is called an IP address. An IP address is made up of a series of numbers, such as 123.23.234.45. Your domain name will direct visitors to your site using this IP address.

We use domain names instead of IP addresses because most people find it easier to remember a name rather than a series of numbers.

A .name domain name works just like a .com, but you use your actual name as part of the address, it's even more personal and easy to remember.

This is the world's first domain exclusively for individuals. With .name you can create a single and permanent digital identity using your own personal name. It is easy to remember and perfect for a personal Web site to communicate with family and friends.

What's in a name?

Well, when it comes to the age of Internet marketing, everything.

Domain Basics: What, Why, and How

What's in a domain name? A lot more than you might think. Your domain name can be your first impression, your face to the outside world, and your new marketing plan. Learn more about what domain names are, why you should take the time to choose a good one for yourself, and how to go about it.

What is a domain name? A domain name is an address for the Internet. It helps people find your web site. Just as homes and businesses have street addresses, all web sites have domain names.

A domain name is made up of two parts, typically preceded by www. Let's use Netfirms.com as an example:

The first part, NetFirms, is a unique name that represents the web site. The second part, com, is the extension, and stands for "commercial." There are many extensions available, though .com, .net, .biz, .info, and .us are the most popular extensions in the United States.

Why is a good domain name important? A good domain name helps you in numerous ways.

For Businesses:-

Add your domain name to your business card, email signature, and other advertisements.

Build credibility: Show your customers that you have an established business.

Improve your marketing: Provide customers an easy way to remember and contact you.

Protect your brand: Secure the domain name that best represents your business name � and keep it out of the hands of your competitors.

For Consumers:-

Describe your site as best you can with your domain name. For example, a pair of amateur magicians might use their stage names, some combination of words including magic, or the name of their most famous trick.

How do I choose a domain name? Keep these tips in mind as you select your domain name.

Your domain name should reflect your business name or the topic your site will cover. It should be a unique and concise name that is easy to say, remember, and spell. You can use only letters, numbers, and hyphens in your domain name. Spaces or other symbols are not allowed. If your first choice isn't available, try rearranging the word order, adding hyphens, or using abbreviations or locations to come up with a unique alternative.

Once you have a domain name, you need a web site! Luckily, you came to the right place. It's easy to add iPower.com services that help you build a full web site or open an online store.

Sinta is a Full Time Adsense Publisher and She Makes her
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Registering Domain Names and Hosting

2007-02-22T04:36:00.001-08:00

Author: shana shane

There are currently over 70 million registered Internet domain names across the globe according to Web Host Industry Review.

Jim Croce's famous song "I got A Name" may one day need to be changed to "I got a Cheap Domain Name" if current Internet growth rates remain the same. Today there are over 70 million registered Internet domain names across the globe.

While more and more businesses are taking advantage of the innovation and power offered by the Internet by registering domain names, an equal number of individual users are registering domain names as well. In fact, with the Internet becoming such an ubiquitous part of everyday life and commerce, one can imagine a day when every individual and every corporation will have domain names and hosting just as they do a social security number or corporate tax ID.
Cheap Domain name registration is on the rise as a result of the growing online community and more affordable domain names and hosting, and online services marketed and offered by companies such as the World's Largest Registrar - GoDaddy.com. According to the most recent Verisign reports, 8.5 million new domains registered were registered in the 3rd quarter of 2005, a 33% increase from 3rd quarter 2004 and a 94% increase from 3rd quarter 2003. Internet use worldwide reached the landmark number of 1 billion users in the 3rd quarter of 2005.
While some may have the perception that all the good cheap domain names are gone, the reality is that what we are seeing today is only the frost on the tip of the iceberg. It's still very much a buyer's market as far as online real estate goes. Years from now, those who have purchased and registered cheap domain names today - whether for business or personal use -- will look back at this time period as a golden opportunity to acquire the cheapest domain names of their choice and put their e-stake in the ground.
Part of the growth in cheap domain names is being fueled by small businesses such as an independent local grocer or dry cleaner that, by effectively establishing a presence on the Internet today, are building a foundation for their future while expanding their business reach and competing as never before. Companies like iPower.com, who provide the full spectrum of cheap domain names and hosting services, enable small businesses to establish a powerful site quickly and more affordably than ever.
ICANN, now performing the functions of previously U.S. government contracted entities, is responsible for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions.
Recently, the World's Largest Registrar - GoDaddy.com announced that it, too, had been named a Gold Certified member of the Microsoft Partner Program. Go Daddy provides a range of Microsoft-based hosting solutions, including three different shared hosting plans and several options for dedicated and virtual servers.

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Domain Names Become Premium Web Real Estate

2007-02-22T04:34:00.001-08:00

Author: shana shane

The following article presents the very latest information on Domain Names. If you have a particular interest in Domain Names, then this informative article is required reading.

See how much you can learn about Domain Names when you take a little time to read a well-researched article? Don't miss out on the rest of this great information.

Everyone should have Amy Schrier's problem.

For six months, she resisted selling the domain name Blue.com for $200,000. Using a formula she devised to fetch the highest market value for cheap domain names, Schrier eventually convinced a private party that Blue.com was worth $500,000. Since the name was sold in March, its site now includes links to sexual material and airfare ads.

"The market will really explode when people realize they are sitting on premium real estate," says Schrier, 37, an entrepreneur in New York who bought Blue.com for $65,000 in 2002.

Dan Taylor, 54, an industrial designer in Toronto, stumbled onto his domain riches. In the 1990s, he bought Realtone.com with the intent of developing online content for skin care products. As Taylor's luck would have it, that was before ringtones became available on cell phones. When Universal Entertainment in Germany came calling for the domain name last year, Taylor sold it for an undisclosed amount.

So now you know a little bit about Domain Names. Even if you don't know everything, you've done something worthwhile: you've expanded your knowledge.

Have you ever wondered what exactly is up with Domain Names? This informative report can give you an insight into everything you've ever wanted to know about Domain Names.

The information about Domain Names presented here will do one of two things: either it will reinforce what you know about Domain Names or it will teach you something new. Both are good outcomes.

Schrier and Taylor are among an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 individuals who make a living buying and selling cheap domain names, though about half prefer to remain anonymous to avoid competition, says Ron Jackson, editor and publisher of Domain Name Journal.

'A long-term investment' Most domainers buy and own names. They "park" on sites, where they develop content in the form of Web links and ads, to generate income and increase the value of their virtual real estate.

"It's a long-term investment, like owning a home," says Lawrence Fischer, vice president of business development at SmartName.com, a company that owns and manages thousands of cheap domain names, including Stockquotes.com. "But if a major brokerage firm came along with a big offer, I would be willing to listen."

Plenty have been willing to pay. Sales of 5,851 cheap domain names generated $29 million in 2005, compared with the sale of 3,813 names for $15 million in 2004, market researcher Zetetic says.

Venture-capital firms, too, are betting on cheap domain names.

Like a lottery ticket
"It's like buying a lottery ticket, but the odds are better," says Ken Carey, 50, a longtime autoworker in Grand Rapids, Mich., and part-time inventor who owns 200 cheap domain name. "All you gotta do is hit the right niche, and you're well on your way to being a millionaire."

When a technology is about to take off, if you buy a domain name that pertains to it, the more generic the name, the better its value.

Sometimes, the payoff is huge.
Sometimes, it lands the owner in legal hot water.

A surge in online ads and Web viewing have made cheap domain names a serious business proposition. Online ad revenue is expected to reach $13.6 billion in the U.S. this year, up 14 percent from last year, according to Jupiter Media. Overall, 153 million people in the U.S. use the Web, up 2.5 percent from a year ago, Nielsen//NetRatings says.

"Those who understand domains and what they represent, can and have done very well," says Schwartz, 52, who sold Men.com for $1.3 million in late 2003, a huge profit from the $15,000 he paid for it in 1997. He bought Property.com for $750,000 last year.

And Schrier, who sold Blue.com for more than twice what she was originally offered, may soon offer advice. She intends to market her formula for getting the most value out of cheap domain names.

There's no doubt that the topic of Domain Names can be fascinating. If you still have unanswered questions about Domain Names, you may find what you're looking for in the next article.

Sinta is a Full Time Adsense Publisher and She Makes her
living from Adsense. She is passionate about sharing her Adsense Knowledge and about generating online income:

http://cheapestdomainnames.mydomainname101.com
http://domain.mydomainname101.com
http://webhosting.mydomainname101.com
http://www.mydomainname101.com/adsense_technique.htm

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Oops! I Registered a Domain In Error - Can I Get a Refund?

2007-02-21T07:59:00.001-08:00

Author: Beth Hendrickson

Typing mistakes happen to all of us. The typo is with me every day. Even now as I'm typing - oops - typing this. But when it comes to registering a domain name it's important to carefully double check before hitting the "Go" button, because most registrars' conditions make it clear they will NOT refund domains registered in error.

But I've found that that's just not true.

ICANN accredited domain name registrars DO have a few days after registration (usually 3 days), during which they can reverse the transaction. They can't change the domain that was registered, but they CAN simply have it deleted altogether and refund your credit card the amount you paid.

So why don't they do it?

Well, let's face it, some registrars understandably feel that dealing with claims for domain registration refunds caused by typing errors is a waste of their human resources because the claims can't usually be automated.

Also, many registrars aren't properly organized to cope with these mistaken domain registration requests because they obviously need quick attention and their staff may not be trained to handle these requests efficiently. Plus some feel that if they openly state they are willing to provide refunds, it will be an open invitation to carelessness as domain name customers will know they can get a refund anyway.

So most registrars take the easy way out and publish conditions effectively saying "no refunds for domain registrations!".

But in practice it works out differently because of one fact...Registrars don't want to be faced with expensive chargebacks.

What's a chargeback?

Well, it's a fee, usually $40 to $50, charged by the credit card company against the merchant (the registrar), when a sale is not paid by the client.

For example, say the domain name costs $12 and if the customer refuses to pay, not only the registrar doesn't get that money, he additionally gets charged $40 to $50 by the credit card company. Ouch! And as the registrar passes on the charge to the affiliate partner, i.e. the domain registration service, obviously a chargeback is something to be avoided at all costs. So am I suggesting you threaten your domain registrar with a chargeback if you make a spelling mistake registering your next domain name?

Definitely not! If you do, your registrar will likely black-list your credit card and you'll need to look for another registrar or get another credit card.

So what is the best way?

First of all you need to act quickly. Email your registrar IMMEDIATELY you have registered a domain name in error, but anyway not later than 24 hours after registration. Tell him the exact name of the domain you registered and inform him politely that you made an error and request the transaction be canceled and you will then register the correct domain name.

You'll usually get a prompt response but if you don't, you should call your registrar 24 hours later to resolve the issue. Not all registrars will respond positively but most will.

And if you want to be sure you are dealing with registrars who do respond positively, here is the name of a company who WILL give refunds if
you made a genuine mistake registering your domain name.

How do I know?

Well, I own this site and I'm your first line of support. I'll make sure you get a refund provided you've followed the guidelines
in this article.

For more information about Fred Bunzl's domain name services, visit CheapToRegister.Info.
This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author by-lines are kept intact and unchanged. No additional
links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.

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Finding the Right Domain Name for your Business

2007-02-21T07:58:00.001-08:00

Author: Ray Herold

A domain represents the unique name assigned to an organization or individual on the Internet. For instance, we are all familiar with names such as google.com, microsoft.com, and so on. A particular name (domain) may only be owned by one person or company. To use an analogy, a domain represents your "street address" where you live on the Internet. It uniquely identifies where you can be found. Having a straight-forward, easy to remember domain is crucial to your business success.

The domain name is comprised of several parts. The last part of the domain (e.g., .com) is referred to as the top-level domain (TLD). In theory, the TLD represents a type of entity. For instance, .com stands for "commercial". It was originally meant to be for commercial enterprises (business), but that has become something of a misnomer as even people with personal websites use the .com TLD.

Other popular TLDs include:
> .net - originally meant to signify Network organizations such as Internet Service Providers (ISP)
> .edu - Education establishments (colleges/universities)
> .mil - Military
> .org - Non-profit organizations
> .gov - Government organizations
> .biz - a business
> .name - individual/person
> .info - information service

There are others as well such as: .aero, .pro, .coop, and so on. In addition, there are TLDs assigned to countries (e.g., .ca for Canada).

Before you can launch your site on the Web, you will need a domain name. There are literally hundreds of millions of domains already taken so you may have to be creative in finding the name you want. It can be frustrating at times, so brew yourself a pot of coffee or grab your favorite beverage before you sit down to find that special domain that will become your address on the Web.

Several months ago, I was attempting to acquire a domain for a customer. I tried just about every combination of his actual business name to find one that was available. As is becoming much too common, I ran into a brick wall. Out of sheer frustration, I just randomly pounded my fingers on my keyboard and came up with sdfsdfsdf.com. I submitted that to the domain search. You probably know the punch line. To my total amazement that name was already taken. At that point, I decided I needed to take a walk around my garden.

But there is no way around it. If you plan to put your own site on the web, you will need to identify an available domain. Once you do so, you should purchase that name immediately as it may not be available the next day. If the name you want is already taken, you will have to find a different one. For instance, if you wanted the domain CandlesForSale.com, that is already taken. However, the name CandlesForSale.biz is available (as of the date this article was written). You could select the .biz name, or try to find an alternate such as Candles4sale.com, candles4u.com, candlesonline.com, and so on. All of those of course, are taken. By trying the different combinations you would find that candles-forsale.com is (currently) available.

It is much easier to find available domains ending in .biz,. info, and so on. The major problem with using any of these is that people are just inherently conditioned to type in the .com extension after the business name. If you did register the candlesforsale.biz name mentioned above, it is quite likely that people surfing the Web would type in candlesforsale.com instead. That of course, would lead to a competitor, which is not what you want to do.

Selecting just the right (available) domain name for your business can be a frustrating process, but it is important to get it right. Many people I have spoken to don't seem to realize that your domain name is part of your branding; it represents who you are on the web. In many cases, the domain name is the first piece of information a potential customer may have about your business. Your domain name is every bit as important as the logo you put on your business card. If all else fails, check some of the domain auction sites to see if there is a good match available. You will have to pay more than normal, but in the long run, it may just be worth it.

Be creative, stay patient, and don't break your keyboard as you go through this process.

Ray has a 30+ career in the Computer (IT) field. He has been a Systems Analyst, DB and Network Administrator, Website Project Manager, IT Architect and Director of IT. He has owned several successful business. He is also the author of several books related to technology and business.

http://www.webhosting-123.com

http://www.wantanonlinebusiness.com

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Can you again Register the expired domain?

2007-02-21T07:57:00.000-08:00

Author: Vinay Choubey

Every domain is registered for a fix time period. After that time it needs renewal, for renewal of domain we have to pay a fix amount that is called renewal fee. If we do not pay that amount within a fix period of time than our domain get expired. A domain name that is approaching its renewal date is said to be expiring soon and a domain name that has passed its renewal date without the renewal fee being paid is said to have expired.

� Generally a domain is registered for 1 to 10 years. After that time the registrant is required to pay a renewal fee to the registrar to continue to use the domain. If the domain is renewed than owner can use it like previously otherwise the domain is placed in an on hold for few days, this time is determine by the registrar. During this time, the owner of the domain can still pay the renewal fee and continue to use his domain name. During this on hold period the domain resolves to the registrars website or does not resolve at all. Another effect of the hold being placed upon a domain name is that the domain name is no longer transferable to another registrar.

� After the on hold period most registrars provides the facility of "grace period". During that grace period, the original owner of the domain name can pay to renew their domain name and can use the domain like previously. Some registrars may impose an additional charge to renew domain names during their grace period.

� At the end of the grace period, the existing owner can no longer renew their domain name and has lost all control over it. What happens next depends on the registrar. The amount of time that a registrar will hang on to an expired domain name before making it available again varies. It can take several weeks to months before the domain has been made available again. We cannot register an expired domain name for you until it has been made available again.

� Some registrars will delete the name immediately following the end of the grace period. Some will hold it for a certain additional time-period before releasing it. Once a domain name has expired and been deleted, it is available to be re-registered by anyone.

A domain name can be successfully recovered only when we have the awareness of which domain names are about to expire and when the domain name is going to expire for that we have the full information of registrar because every registrar has its own guidelines.

For more details on Registering an expiring domain visit our www.halfvalue.com and www.halfvalue.co.uk web sites for more info.

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Vinay Choubey
SEO Manager

http://www.halfvalue.com

Registering Your Domain Name

2007-02-21T07:56:00.002-08:00

Author: Alex Welz

Registering your domain name is one of the most important steps to bringing your business online. This is the name that customers will remember you by

Choose a name that is:
* Available
* Easy to remember
* Easy to spell
* Conveys the nature of your business

How to pick a name:
1) Use the Thesaurus on Webster.com to find words that match your business model

2) Look up the domain possibilities by using the name spinner on www.whois.sc to see if the domain is available

3) After you have a list of possibilities, put the list aside for a couple of days. After a day or two, try to remember one of the possibilities. If you can't remember any of them, your customers will have the same problem. If that is the case, Go back to step one.

Register the domain yourself. Do not have a web developer or anyone else do this for you. If you allow someone else to register your domain name, you run the risk of that person putting your domain name in their name. This means the domain name is their legal property, not yours.

To register the domain name, we recommend using either www.networksolutions.com, or http://www.g2apex.com/Domains.html

Beware of companies that charge a very low price for domain registration. Most of these companies have hidden fees or restrictions associated with the domain name, so pay very close attention to the contract before purchasing from one of these companies.

For help or questions about registering a domain name, contact G2Apex at conact@G2Apex.com or call 408-454-6543

For more articles like this, go to http://www.G2Apex.com/articles.html

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Choosing and Registering a Domain Name

2007-02-21T07:56:00.001-08:00

Author: David Kaye

So you've convinced yourself that you require an internet presence but where do you go from here? The following article discusses a few do's and don'ts regarding the first steps towards deciding on and registering your new domain name.

Domain Extensions: There are numerous domain extensions available although there are some rules as to what extension you can use. For business or other such commercial websites it is the .com suffix that most people are familiar with and what you should always register first. If your business attracts mainly a local clientele base you should also consider country specific domain extensions such as .co.uk
To protect your domain name and prevent others using it, you should consider registering it under a number of the most common extensions such as .com, .net and .co.uk. When you come to going live with your website, it is then a simple process to point all of your registered domain names to the one web site.

Your Domain Name: Carefully choose a domain name that identifies well with your business name or activity and one that your customers will be able to recall easily. Keep it short and to the point and try to avoid abbreviations. Where possible avoid hyphenated domain names, it is very easy for people to forget or miss out the hyphen and end up on your competitor's web site. If you do register a hyphenated domain name, try to register the corresponding unhyphenated name and redirect it to your primary domain. Domain names are a limited commodity and are issued on a first come, first served basis. When deciding on a suitable domain name, be prepared for some disappointment as the majority of the 'best' domains are already taken. Once you find your ideal domain name, register it as quickly as possible before someone else does.

Registering Your Domain Name: It is recommended that you register your domain name through a suitable registration agent. These agents can greatly simplify the process of domain name registration and are normally able to offer you a number of additional services such as web site design and hosting packages. Ensure that your registration agent registers the domain name in your name. This means that you are then the legal registrant or owner of this domain. In some instances, registration agents have been known to register themselves as the registrant and only assign you certain rights to use the domain name. A number of issues can arise in these circumstances for example if at some time in the future you decide to change registration agents. You may then find out that you cannot change agents because you are not the actual domain name owner.

For further information relating to the process of registering domain names, visit:
http://www.webstarhosting.co.uk
http://www.getontheinternet.net

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David Kaye is Webmaster and author for a number of websites including the Autoclave and Sterilizer Technology website - A one stop resource for healthcare, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry related news, jobs and technical advice.
Web Site Hosting - Reviews and Comparisons of the top hosting providers, domain name registrations and FREE website templates.

http://www.steriliser.co.uk

Domain Names For Your Website

2007-02-21T07:54:00.001-08:00

Author: Alex Newell

There are millions of websites on the Net, 56 million.

Every website has a name and it is unique. No two websites
are allowed to have the same name.

There are several companies that keep records of the names
of websites or domain names so that you can check that your
“great idea” for a website name is unique.

About the best one is www.BetterWhois.com Any name you
think up needs to checked there before you go ahead and try
to buy it.

In fact you cannot really buy a domain name-when you try
and do so you will be asked to choose how many years you
want it for! In other words all we can really do is rent
the right to call our website by a particular unique name.
After that period anybody else can jump in and use that
name.

The first time you do this you probably want to just
register your domain name for a year because it costs less.

However...

There is reason to believe that search engines look at how
long a domain name has been bought for – 1 year, 2, years,
5 years etc as part of the way they estimate the importance
of a website.

It is only natural for a search engine to reckon that a domain
name booked for 5 or 10 years is much more serious and possibly
worthwhile than a domain booked for 1 year. So don’t over
estimate this but book your domain for more than a year if you can.
Most companies will automatically renew your domain name for you
at the end of the booking period. so that you do not lose it.
This is something you MUST check!

If you want a little help choosing a good domain name try www.enom.com and www.nameboy.com

these sites have useful suggestions in choosing and inventing domain names.
You may find most of the names you think of are taken.
This is what everybody finds and you just have to plug away until you get a good one.

So should you book or buy your domain name now?

Probably not unless you have done your keyword research

Tips on Choosing A Domain Name

1. Only book a dot com. Absolutely avoid .net, .info .org etc

2. Make the name obvious to your niche. golfing-girls.com,
home-decor-for-men.com, Confederate-Coins.com is the kind
of thing you can do.

The hyphens are just there to make it easier for people to
read, your domain name may not need them. It is best to book both
versions of your domain name-with and without hyphens. For
Example www.Online-Income.com and www.OnlineIncome.com

3 Book you domain for more than a year

4. One of the easiest places to buy and one of the cheapest is godaddy.com
. Follow the suggestion on the godaddy website to “Register Lock” your domain

5. Check from time to time that the credit card number you use to allow automatic
renew to function is OK as regards expiration date!

A website that is founded on sound market research is going to be making
you money for years. A decent domain name can help. But it is your whole
marketing and sales process which produces results. a good domain name
is worth a few hours or even a few days thought but after that just make a
decision to go for a less than perfect domain name. A rose by any other
name DOES smell as sweet.

Alex Newell taught Information Technology in a Community College in London, UK for many years and is now teaching Newbies to Internet Business how to shorten their learning curve to make a living online. Learn Internet Business

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IDN - International Domain Names

2007-02-21T07:53:00.000-08:00

Author: Adam Dicker

What is an IDN?

IDN stands for Internationalized Domain Name, also known as multilingual domain names. It allows you the possibility to use more characters in domains names, besides letters and numbers. It uses characters available in other alphabets, like accents.

Example of IDN domains:

Chinese IDN – ??.com which means cancer

If you go to ??.com you will see the domain is targeted towards cancer but in English.

Romanian IDN – divort.com you will see the domain is targeted towards divorce but in English.

Polish IDN – pieniadz.com you will see the domain is targeted towards money/currency but in English.

Greek IDN – ß?ß??s.com you will see the domain is targeted bible/books but in English.

.cn with Chinese results: ??.cn you will see the domain is samples but in Chinese.

Al these are targeted through parkingsite.com and take 5 days to target once a keyword is given.

What browsers support IDN names today?

Only the latest version of Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 support IDN Names directly entered into the browser.

IE6 and earlier versions will not support IDN’s.

What TLD’s or ccTLD’s support IDN?

First of all what I am saying with that question is what extensions can be registered like and IDN. Can I register??.com? ??.net? ??.org? ??.cn? ??.jp? and what others can I register.

Here is a list of the ones that I have registered:

.com

.net

.tv

.cc

.jp = Japan

.cn = China

.de = Germany

.gr = Greece

.tw = Taiwan

Do all Registrars support IDN registrations?

No, as of writing this Enom does and so does Domainsite. There are others that do but mot d not. Please check with your registrar BEFORE you register any or you will get stuck with a long name that has no value whosoever.

What IDN’s should you register?

You should use the same principles that you have learnt while registering English domain names. Go after the higher paying ppc terms first. Make sure if there are more than one way to say a word in any language that you get them all as you never know which ones will have the most traffic. I have registered quite a few dual meaning words and it’s never the one I think that has the most traffic.

??? ; ?? ; ??? all mean girl with slight variations in Chinese. In this case and such a major term, unless you speak the language, grab them all.

Google results for all of them:

??? - 1,870,000 results in Google

?? - 4,460,000 results in Google

??? - 2,840,000 results in Google

Most IDN’s with Google over 1 million will have some traffic unless you get ridiculous generic terms like ‘the’ which have no value whatsoever.

Also, as with English domains, dig a bit deeper. If loans is taken in the language you want go for things like home loans, car loans, boat loans and so on.

How to find and register IDN’s?

There are many ways to find and register IDN domain names. The best way is obviously if you speak the language but even then you must be careful. Just like in English some common words will not actually be used and a short form may be used. In English most people know the word automobile but rarely would use it. Most would use the word car.

This can be illustrated by the two overture scores:

1572 automobile.com

18016 car.com

Now this does not mean automobile is not a good IDN to register, it just means go after the one that is more likely to be typed in a browser.

Now if you don’t know anyone that speaks a language you are going after, your only choice is to use a good translator software, I suggest you use logos.it

When you enter a word it gives you results in multiple languages at one time and makes it really easy to get a keyword in multiple languages.

For example when you search for the word insurance you get:

English

insurance

Italian

assicurazione

Spanish

seguro ; aseguración

French

assurance

German

Versicherung

Russian

c??????????

Arabic

????? ; ???? ; ?????

Albanian

sigurim

Asturian

seguru

Basque

aseguru

Bolognese

asicuraziån

Brazilian Portuguese

seguro

Breton

asurañs

Catalan

assegurança

Danish

forsikring

Dutch

verzekering

Esperanto

certigo

Finnish

vakuutus

Flemish

verzekering

Furlan

sigurance

Galician

seguro

Gujarati

????

Hebrew

?????

Hindi

????

Hungarian

biztosítás

Indonesian

asuransi

Irish

árachas

Japanese

??

Marathi

????

Norwegian

forsikring

Piemontese

assicurassion

Polish

ubezpieczenie

Portuguese

seguro

Punjabi

????

Romagnolo

assicuraziòun

Romanian

asigurare

Sanskrit

?????????

Serbian

?????????

Slovak

poistenie

Swedish

försäkring

Turkish

sigorta ; sigortalama

Ukrainian

???????????

Valencian

segur

Venetian

assicurassion

Welsh

yswiriant

I have found that just like domains, the one I think will get the most traffic, surprisingly won’t, but the languages I have never heard of get some traffic.

Now let’s see how you go about registering IDN names:

Let’s go to logos.it and look up the Russian word for weasel as an example which is ?????, so now I go download the IDN Domain Conversion Tool then open it up and paste ????? into the space unde the heading IDN Domains and hit the ok button. You will get a code called a PUNY code which is: xn--80aa3ac5a , then take that and add a .com on it and you will end up with this xn--80aa3ac5a.com. Now check a whois or try to register xn--80aa3ac5a.com and see if you get it. To keep it organized and try to keep my domains in one place I register most of my IDN’s at Enom. There are other choices if you like. You can take the actual ID code and go to domainsite.com and type in the IDN and it will tell you if it’s available without doing the PUNY conversion but you should know how to do it anyways.

When I check now ?????.com is available.

In case you are wondering you cannot register ?????.ru yet as the Russian ccTLD does not support public IDN registrations yet.

If I find an IDN like ????? (xn--f9b5b1c6b7k) should I register .com or .cn or both?

This really depends on how strong the term is, if it’s a great term and you have the $, by all mans register them both. If you don’t my suggestion is get the .com. You will need to do some research here as every country operates differently. Some countries are big on their ccTLD’s while others go for the .com first and only if that’s taken will grab their ccTLD after that.

Personally, I have been registering the .com’s and if it’s a great term I get the ccTLD for that country if its available.

To learn more about IDN Names visit the Domain Name Forum where all the domain experts hang out and chat.

Are all the good IDN names taken?

Absolutely not, take your time and do some mining and you will find gold in them mountains.

Remember don’t expect miracles from IDN domains now, the miracles will come once most of the world has a browser that can support it.

Should you expect to make $ from your IDN’s now?

No, if you are lucky you will have a few that make something., I have registered thousands of these and at least half have traffic so that’s good enough for me to know the future will be great for these. Be patient they will be worth it in the long run.

Is there anything else I should know about IDN’s?

Yes, there is lots more, please take the time to learn about Domain Names and feel free to ask and post your questions as thre are many IDN experts there and they will usually answer you within a few minutes.

I hope this helps some of you get started in what should be an interesting area of domains.

Adam Dicker has extensive experience and domaining expertise. A well-known figure in the industry, Dicker founded High Impact Sites, Inc., a company that owns thousands of high-profile domains and operates a number of active websites, including Penpals.com, Planets.com, Witchcraft.com, FirePrevention.com, Avatars.com and Download.net. Adam Dicker has been instrumental in acquiring, developing and monetizing Internet properties. Adam Dicker runs the largest domain discussion forum on the Internet, Dnforum.com.

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Simple Steps to Promoting Your Business on the Web

2007-02-21T07:51:00.000-08:00

Author: Fione Tan

When you plan to start your e-business venture on the Internet, be sure to choose a partner / vendor that can provide you one stop services through various solutions. In this article, we will focus on Step One.

1. Get Your Own Domain Name
Your domain name is your identity on the Internet. Thousands of domain names are registered each day. Grab yours now before it's gone! Even if you do not have a website, you should register your domain name FIRST.

Cost : US$70 for 2 years (.com, .net, .org)

Case Study :
I've come across many domain name related problems, and this if one of them.
One Company in Taiwan, decided to register their domain name, and the Vendor offered them a discount if the name of the domain name owner was set to the Vendor's details. Thus, this company wishing to save money, decided to go with this cheaper option. After 1 year, the Vendor's business was not going well and asked this Company to pay an additional fee to transfer back the ownership of this domain name to the Company. The Company hesitated, and not long after that, the Vendor closed down. In the end, the Company was stuck with a website that they were unable to update (with a domain name that they did not own). The Company had no choice but to only wait until the expiry of this domain name and register this domain name under their own details.

Tips : Be careful with whom you register your domain name with. Some companies might offer you a heavy discounted rate for domain name registration but be careful of these pitfalls:-

a) Your name is not set as the domain name owner in the WHOIS database
- you will lose the benefit of being the legally rightful owner of the domain name and in the event of a dispute, you will be at a losing end.

b) You are charged additional fees when you wish to move / transfer the domain name away

Among the BestSellers for Domain Name include :-

Business.com US$7.5 million
Altavista.com US$3.3 million
Autos.com US$2.2 million
Wallstreet.com US$1m
AsSeenOnTv.com US$5.1 million
Wine.com US$2.9 million
Express.com US$1.8 million
Rock.com US$1m

HOW MUCH IS YOUR DOMAIN NAME WORTH ?

For more information about this article, kindly contact Fione Tan via "eOneNet - Internet Marketing Offices" . Check out the monthly e-newsletter at www.eOneNet.com

Register your domain now at www.FreeDomainsRegistration.com and enjoy offers for free email forwarding, and free domain masking / cloaking.

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A quick overview of the domain name system

2007-02-21T07:50:00.000-08:00

Author: John Gibb

To understand what your doing when you register domain names, it's necessary to understand a little about DNS ? that's domain name system, the standards and software that make the whole thing work. Here's a crash course in what DNS is, and how it works.

Originally, every server on the Internet was referred to by its IP address. This is a long number, much like a phone number, containing three dots, for example 156.65.234.86. Pretty quickly, however, people wanted to use more of these numbers than they could remember. It was at this point that someone came up with the idea of a system to match names to the numbers. This allowed not only easier web addresses, but also email addresses and many other uses besides.

DNS is a hierarchical system. At the highest level, there are a number of 'root servers' (currently 13), most of them in the USA. It is these servers that know what .com, .co.uk and similar things mean. At the next level down, each registry has a master server ? so .co.uk has a server that can tell you any .co.uk address.

At this level, ISPs come in. They run DNS servers for their customers, updated regularly by the servers higher up the chain ? this process used to take a few days, but now happens in a matter of minutes. Your ISP's DNS server stores entries to reduce the load on the master servers, but will check occasionally to see if anything has changed, or if you type in a domain name your ISP has never seen before.

There is often a final level, which is the DNS servers that web hosts run for their customers. These are the DNS servers you will be dealing with after you register your domain name. When you type in their addresses into your domain name's records, it tells the system that those are the servers that know the IP number for your website.

John Gibb is the owner of domain name resources
For more information on domain names check out http://www.domain-names-resources2k.info

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A Dirty Little Secret Of Getting Your Domain Name Cheap

2007-02-19T23:20:00.001-08:00

Author: Dave Zan

If you are new and scouring the Internet for a place to
register your desired domain name, you will likely come
across websites charging anywhere from $35 a year to as low
as $1.99 a year. More often than not, you will choose the
lower-priced one because it is cheaper.

There are literally hundreds of places where you can
register your domain name with. There are so many around it
is enough to make your head spin.

But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. And to
whom you are registering and managing your domain name with
is no exception.

What many people who wish to put up a website do not know
is they might have little control or say (or even none at
all) over managing the domain name they registered. While
it is a reality many people do not know and probably do not
care about this, what they do not know can and might hurt
them.

Whatever their reasons and busines models, many hosting
providers will give you a limited degree of control and
access to the domain name and your website hosting.
However, they can retain full control and even ownership of
the domain name itself.

It is well and good if you are having a relatively good
experience with your chosen company for your website
hosting and domain name needs. But if you are not happy
with them and decide to cancel and transfer, then that is
where the unwanted headaches might occur.

Nowadays you virtually agree to the terms of your provider
the moment you sign up with them. Depending on the
circumstances and the terms, they can deny you access to
your domain name and even prevent you from transferring it
to another provider of your choice.

If that happens, it can potentially cost time, money and
effort to try to regain the domain name. And you do not
have any assurance whatsoever you'll be successful in
getting it back.

When browing through your potential list of domain
providers, do not be afraid to ask any and all questions
you have regarding how they handle domain name issues.
Their answers to your questions can shape your decision as
to whom to take your chances with.

****************************************************************************************
Dave Zan is dedicated to helping the ordinary lay person
understand how and why domain names work the way they do.
You can learn and even get a free report at his blog at
www.DaveZan.com.
****************************************************************************************

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Tips To Create Good Domain Name

2007-02-19T23:19:00.000-08:00

Author: Goldenia

Domain name is an identity for a website. Each website has its own domain name. The function is similar to fingerprint as identity for human. The tips to create good domain name are memorable, short, dot com, global, nice sound, hyphen free, repeated alphabets, descriptive, keyword and brand.

Good domain name must be memorable. It shall go immediately to visitors mind. They accidentally easy to memorize the domain name. It will attract more unique visitors to the website. The domain name must be unique and different from others.

Good domain name must be short in spelling. It shall not be more than ten alphabets. It is easier to be memorized and spelt. Short in spelling can reduce the possibility of spelling mistakes. Visitors are always like to type the short name.

Good domain name normally with suffix dot com. Dot com is more popular and familiar. Most visitors tend to assume and write suffix dot com when they forget the actual suffix. Person who want to buy domain name also normally prefer to choose dot com as first choice.

Good domain name shall be a global name. It can be accepted by visitors from different countries, races and religions. Global name seems more elegant and attract more visitors. Global name can be generic or unique domain name.

Good domain name must be nice sound. It is easy in pronunciation. Easy pronunciation will easy to memorize and to spell. Visitors tend to appreciate more on the nice sound domain name. Most famous domain names are nice to be heard and pronounced.

Good domain name shall containing alphabets only. It shall not contain hyphen and number. Containing hyphen seems the name impression is not good. The domain name also can be spelt wrongly because the pronunciation and spelling is different.

Good domain name normally containing repeated alphabets. Repeated alphabets will bring nice sound. Nice sound means more memorable. Most popular website use this tips for their domain name. Their website sounds are nice and famous.

Good domain name must descriptive. It shall be reflective to the website activity. Visitors able to know immediately the website activity by just see the domain name. Use opposite domain name will cause real visitors will not reach the website.

Good domain name shall containing keyword respective to the website activity. Combination keywords can be used. The important things are the sound must be nice to be heard and memorized. Good combination keywords become unique domain name.

Good domain name shall be able to be branded name. Most branded domain name now started from unbranded domain name status previously. Create new branded name to be different from exist trademarks. Generic name can be customized to be unique domain name.

There is challenge to meet all above tips. Use our head and heart to create good and creative internet domain name. Get the domain name immediately before others get it. Trust and confident in our intuition. We must love our domain names. Then we will do better for our website.

Alias is founder of Domain Auction , Dating, Cinta,
Love, Dating Site, Dating Service, Muslim Dating, Gadis & Muslim Matrimonial.

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Why It Is Important To Renew A Domain Name

2007-02-19T23:18:00.002-08:00

Author: Steve Hill

I have had a big interest with all things to do with the internet for about eight years now. I regularly communicate with a large amount of people about subjects such as web marketing and web promotion. In this article I am going to write about why it is important to always renew a domain name.

I have around sixty websites of which I would say that I have four that are my main sites. Twenty of these sites are just there, no one ever visits them and they make no money at all, year in year out. Why therefore do I keep renewing the domains on these sites? The age of a domain is very important, a site which has been around for lets say eight years is in the eyes of the major search engines likely to be around for another eight years. The reason I have no traffic on these sites is because I have not had time as yet to promote them.

Any new site is treated with quite a lot of caution by these major search engines as so may sites do not have their domain name renewed after the first year. You may have heard of the sandbox, do you really blame the search engines for implementing such a thing when there are so many internet criminals who are out to con them and to make a quick buck.

Webmasters who are in it in the long term do not really care or worry about the sandbox and actually love the concept, anything to put a stop to these fly by nights is a good thing.

I will soon get around to re-designing all of these older sites and will then of course start marketing and promoting them. I do not need to buy any new domains, I have enough already. In ten years time I believe I will have the same number of sites as I do currently, sites which will then be at least fifteen years of age.

Stephen Hill helps to promote a number of websites including:

stammering treatment

stuttering therapy

stuttering help

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Occupation: Speech Coach

Stephen Hill runs The How To Stop Stammering Centre to help people who stutter to achieve fluency

http://www.stammering-stuttering.co.uk

How To Choose The Correct Domain Name

2007-02-19T23:17:00.001-08:00

Author: Steve Hill

So you have decided the time has come for your business to have an internet prescence. Lets face it, its about time isn't it? Where have you been? The internet is here to stay and having a website to promote your services and products can have a dramatic and extremely positive effect on sales and turnover. There have been thousands if not hundreds of thousands of stories of people who make their livings purely off just one website. They have been able to give up their day job and are now able to enjoy the benefits that working from home can bring. The decision has been made, you may have even found a company to design and host your new site, all you need to think about now is what domain name to purchase.

Some people suggest that your domain name should basically include your keywords. These are the words that people are likely to search for when looking for the type of services that you offer. Other people would advise that you should choose some form of bubbly name and to try to attract people to the brand. So which of these pieces of advice should you go for?

The answer to this question could be determined by which of the major search engines you are going to attempt to dominate in. For my own sites I want to do well in all of the search engines and would certainly go for a domain name which includes my main keyword. For example if I was offering a web design service I would attempt to buy webdesign.com. This domain of course is likely to have been taken years ago and therefore I would then attempt to find a name as close to this such as affordablewebdesign.com.

I have purchased a large number of domains in my time and it can sometimes take over an hour to find a suitable domain which has not already been taken. My advice is not to rush this task as it is very important, you should be looking to keep this domain for years to come. The older the domain the more respect and authority that the search engines will give to the site.

Stephen Hill helps to promote a number of websites including:

stuttering

stutter

std advice

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Occupation: Speech Coach

Stephen Hill runs The How To Stop Stammering Centre to help people who stutter to achieve fluency

http://www.stammering-stuttering.co.uk

Huge Profit's with the Domain Profiteer

2007-02-19T23:15:00.000-08:00

Author: Jeff Hansel

Dear Internet Entrepreneur,
If you're ready to discover the best kept money-making secret on the Internet and find out how you can join a select insider group that's consistently raking in monster profits using a simple, repeatable process, then take 7 minutes to read this letter carefully because we're going to open your eyes to some amazing facts.

You might have seen the articles published in the Wall Street Journal or Business 2.0 magazine about how a few people (we call them "domain profiteers") are making fortunes from investing in Internet domains and either holding them for passive income or reselling them for huge profits .

Forget condos and strip malls. Domain names, the real estate of the Web, have been delivering far greater returns." "Parked domains may become a billion-dollar industry, both for paid search operators like Google and Yahoo as well as a new breed of Internet real estate developers." Internet domain names are a hot commodity again. But unlike the 1990s, when speculators bought up Web addresses in hopes of reselling them later for a big payday, many of today's purchases are aimed at cashing in on the boom in online advertisingThe domain name is 21st century real estate," says Warren Adelman, president of GoDaddy.com, the world's largest domain name registrar, with 12.9 million.

"The economy is being increasingly driven by the Internet sector"

Richard Rosenblatt is a brilliant Internet entrepreneur. You may not know his name, but he's sold $1.3 billion dollars of Internet companies including iMALL which he founded, ran and sold for $565 million, and MySpace which he turned around as Chairman and sold for $580 million.

He's a smart guy who has made a huge fortune on the Internet and even he didn't know anything about this for a long time. But now that he's discovered this opportunity, he's completely focused on turning this into his biggest business yet. He's raised and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in this.
But the most amazing thing is that you and I can not only compete with... and beat... the huge players like Rosenblatt's company, but the big boys are actually part of the driving force that will help you and I to make huge money.

There's 2 simple reasons for this. First, the multi-million dollar guys are not paying attention to bargain hunters like us. They don't have the time to worry about finding cheap domains for a few bucks even if they're really worth thousands of dollars. They want bigger investments to put all that cash to work.

Which brings me to the 2nd reason. When you're ready to sell your domains for the true market value, it's those big company guys who are the primary buyers and they're the ones driving up the value for everybody!
If you're not excited by now, you might want to grab a mirror and see if you've got any breath coming out to fog it up.

Don't just sit on your butt and watch other people go out and start raking in the big bucks with these domains. Don't let this be another opportunity that you let slip through your fingers like those old guys who reminisce about how they could have bought some farmland in the good ol' days for a few hundred dollars an acre years back. Then, they could have been the ones to sell that land to the mall developer for millions of dollars!

Think about this... these are the good ol' days that people will be looking back to in 5 or 10 years and talking about how smart someone was who purchased this or that domain that's now enormously valuable!

To get all the information on this extremely profitable system just Click Here!.

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Investigate Before You Register Your Domain

2007-02-19T21:53:00.000-08:00

Author: jebner@...

Investigate Before You Register Your Domain
by Joe Ebner

Any Internet startup business knows that registering and owning
your own domain name is imperative to Internet success. But
choosing the right domain name for your business should involve
a bit more than just picking the perfect name. You're also going
to need to do a little detective work before you actually register
your new domain name.

A case in point: a client recently wanted to launch a new, small
business Web site. After settling on a perfect name, he found the
popular dot-com suffix was already taken. He then registered the dot-
net version, which was available.

When his secretary innocently asked who owned the dot-com version,
they were shocked to discover that it was a porno site with some
very interesting images and animations. Needless to say, the adult
site had nothing to do with their business. Surely, people looking
for their site would mistakenly type dot-com instead of dot-net and
land on the porno site. This could be devastating -- especially if
teens or children were involved.

He realized they made a mistake in registering the dot-net version
and immediately contacted Network Solutions, Incorporated, the
registrar they chose to complete the registration process. The
client explained that he didn't want his money back, he only wanted
to change the registration.

When he spoke with the Network Solutions representative, he got
another eye-opener. According to NSI, domain names cannot be
changed once created. Furthermore, there is "no money back"
when you register a domain name. Once the process is done, there
is no recourse. Your only option is to register a new domain name.

There is a lesson here for all small business owners looking to
register a new domain name. Once you settle on a domain name, do
a little checking with similar site names. You may be surprised
at what you find.

It's easy to check ANY domain name in use. Most hosting providers
offer a free domain name checker on their sites. Simply type the
name you want to check in the search box and in less than a
second you'll find out if it's available or not. If it has already
been registered by another party, you'll be able to see who owns
it and how to contact them. At the very least, take a few minutes
to visit the site before you decide to register another version of
the domain name.

Also check versions of your domain that could be frequently
misspelled or easily mistyped. If they are open and available,
register these versions too. It may cost you some extra money,
but these additional domain names can be set up as pointers to
your real site. The misspelled or mistyped names could gather you
some bonus traffic, turning errors into an advantage.

If the dot-com version of the domain name you want is indeed
available, be sure to register at least the dot-net variety too.
You can use it as a pointer and you prevent someone else from
registering it and using it.

If the domain name for your company is indeed already taken,
consider your options. You can register the name of your product
or service. Or, use your imagination and check short, easy to
remember words and phrases. Success stories abound. The word
Yahoo is in no way related to search engines and the word Amazon
tells you nothing about books. Still, these names are associated
with the product they provide. Strong, memorable names and phrases
coupled with smart marketing programs can make you powerful on the
Internet.

In short:
*Check ALL versions of your domain name choice.
*Check misspelled and mistyped possibilities.
*Register these possibilities along with the correct name.
*Point all variations to the real site.

Remember, there is no money back on domain names once you register
them. Your only recourse is to register the desired name and eat
the extra expense.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Article by J.T. Ebner of WebSmart Hosting. WebSmart provides
affordable Web hosting solutions and low cost domain registration
for small and medium size businesses with particular attention to
beginners and novices. Visit the WebSmart Hosting Web site at
www.websmarthosting.com for valuable resources and advice including
a free e-book.

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When Not to Use Business Names for Domains

2007-02-19T21:51:00.000-08:00

Author: Halstatt Pires

As a business, your mindset is to promote your name and brand as much as possible. This is not always a good idea when it comes to picking a domain name for your site.

Picking a domain name may seem like a pretty basic thing. If you have a business, it seems logical that you should just use the name as the domain. In most cases, this is a mistake and you can really come to regret the decision. Why? It all has to do with search engine optimization.

If you really want to make money on the web, you need to focus on search engine optimization. “Seo” is the process of optimizing your site to get natural rankings in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other lesser search engines. Such rankings take a while to get, but you will be happy once they occur. All the clicks you get from high rankings are going to make your bottom line sparkle.

There are a lot of factors that go into search engine optimization. Finding appropriate keyword phrases is one of the most important. There are various tools you can use for this such as Wordtracker and the Yahoo Search Marketing inventory tool, previous known as the Overture inventory tool. [Yahoo purchased Overture for nearly 2 billion dollars.]

When considering a domain name, the first step is to do keyword research. You want to focus on the phrases that have the most searches each month. Once you have the list, start searching to see if any of the keyword phrases are available as a domain name. If they are, buy them! If multiple phrases are available, buy the one with the most traffic. Why? With search engine optimization, the domain matters. If your domain exactly matches a high traffic keyword phrase, you are going to have a much easier time getting high rankings than if you just use your business name.

So, should you always take this approach? No. The issue revolves around the nature of the business you are starting a site for. If the business is already well known, you want to use the business name. Let’s take an obvious example. Assume Nike wanted to start a site. They have huge brand recognition. As such, they would want to use nike.com as their domain, not insanelyexpensivetennisshoes.com.

You might be wondering how people will find your business if the name is not used in the domain? This is an easy problem to get around. Just include your business name on the home page as well as in the meta title and meta tags. The search engines will figure it out. If people search for you by the business name, they will find you.

Halstatt Pires is with MarketingTitan.com - providing internet marketing services.

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Who Registers Domain Names?

2007-02-19T21:50:00.000-08:00

Author: Gagan

A domain name registrar registers domain names. A domain name registrar is a company accredited by ICANN or by a national ccTLD authority or both to register Internet domain names.

ICANN or Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a nonprofit organization that is responsible for IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management and root server system management functions.

The late Jon Postel created ICANN in 1998 in response to a policy statement issued by the US Department of Commerce. ICANN has authority over gTLDs (Generic Top Level Domains) that include .com, .net and .org. The organization does not have authority over ccTLDs (Country Code Top-Level Domains), which include .ca (Canada), .uk (United Kingdom), .us (United States), .in (India), .de (Germany or Deutschland), .fr (France) etc.

The board of ICANN is comprised of nineteen Directors, and nine At-Large Directors. Directors serve for one-year terms and are succeeded by At-Large Directors. The At-Large Directors are elected by an at-large membership organization.

ICANN has taken various measures to oversee the domain-name registration system's transition from government hands to private hands and to coordinate its decentralization and the integration into a global community.

A company chosen by ICANN to register and manage domain names on its behalf is a designated registrar. There are several domain registrars offering domain registration services. Some of the top domain name registrars include Go Daddy, Network Solutions, eNom, Tucows, Melbourne IT, Schlund.de, Register.com, Wild West Domains (Part of Go Daddy), Moniker Online Services, and DomainDoorman.

Mahesh Kumar is working as a Project Manager at GDTECHINDIA. The Company offers cheap domain names and offers promotional schemes for .info and .org domain names. There are various offers for Domain Name Resellers with Quality Hosting. For more information visit http://domains.gdtechindia.com/

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Registering A Domain Name

2007-02-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

Author: Gagan

A domain name requires to be registered, if you want to use it online. Domain name registration is very important task in setting up your website online. It is pretty easy to register domain name.

A domain name registrar can help you register your domain name. The first thing you will have to do is to make a search and check if the specific domain name is available for you or not. If you find the domain name available, you will have to hire the services of a domain name registrar.

The domain name industry is regulated and overseen by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). It also certifies the domain name registrars. There are numerous domain name registrars registering domain names, but you must choose the domain name registrar certified by ICANN. Some of the top ranked domain name registrars include Go Daddy, Network Solutions, eNom, Tucows, Melbourne IT, Schlund.de, Register.com, Wild West Domains (Part of Go Daddy), Moniker Online Services, and DomainDoorman. Domain registration via these domain registrars may cost you between $4 and $35.

Once you have chosen a domain name registrar, you will have to enter contact details and the name server for the domain. You will have to give an ownership/contact record for your domain. Private listing is better option, if you don’t want the details of your contacts be shown up. Private listing will cost you more, but it will save you from the spammers that look up domain information to contact the webmasters.

The next step for domain registration will be setting up name server and domain parking. The name server is the name or IP address of the server where your domain will be pointed to. The parking of a domain means that the domain requires a place for pointing. You will have to be careful of the domain registrars that charge extra fee for domain parking. You can park your domain free of cost.

After setting the name servers and right contact information, it will be necessary for you to lock your domain. After locking the domain, you will not be able to make changes to its contact information or to the settings of the name server, but it will prevent the others from registering the same domain name. You will have to unlock the status to make any changes.

Mahesh Kumar is working as a Project Manager at GDTECHINDIA. The Company offers cheap domain names and offers promotional schemes for .info and .org domain names. There are various offers for Domain Name Resellers with Quality Hosting.

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