By Clare Lawrence 3rd November 2003 Clare is the CEO of Discount Domains Ltd a leading UK Domain name registration service.
Before buying your domain name, give some thought to the followng:-
1) If possible use your sites name as the basis of your domain name e.g www.discountdomainsuk.com for Discount Domains UK. This might seem common sense but not every site follows the convention. If you use your name in your URL it will be much easier for your customers to find you.
2) Generic names – if you can register a generic domain such as toys.com that’s great, but most of these have already gone. Also getting ranked in the search engines is likely to be harder. Selected a domain closer to your market segment will cut down the competition. E.g toyplanes.com
3) Hyphenated Names – Its easy to forget the hyphen! Which is the problem, particularly if your customer remembers your name but not your URL. Though on a positive note hyphenated names are less likely to be registered already.
4) If the .com or .co.uk extension is not available then consider the alternative TLD ( Top level domain types) such as .net or .biz. If your domain name has already been registered then approach the owner and ask if they’ll sell. They may accept a £100. If you ask, they can only say no.
5) Plurals. Very often a domain name will be free in the plural but not in the singular form. It’s a personal choice, but if your prefered choice of domain name is not available you might be stuck.
6) Short or Long domains – A short domain name is more memorable, but less likely to be available. A longer domain is harder to remember, but can contain more keywords which is important as some of the search engines, use keywords in a domain name as part of the search algorithm.
7) Which Top Level Domain Type - .com, .co.uk , .net etc This is a question I am often asked. There is no evidence that any domain name type is given preference by the search engines. However some search engines such as Google, have local searches e.g www.google.co.uk which do select local content. Customer often get re-assurance from seeing a local TLD as they know they are dealing with a local company etc. You can, of course, register all of them!
8) Variations – If your prefered domain name is not available then its always worth trying a prefix my e.g mydomains.com or suffix e.g domains4U.com etc
Monday, June 22, 2009
Tips on Domain Name Choice
An Informational Website Provides the Ultimate Flexibility When You Are Ready to Create a Domain Name
by: Syd Johnson
Content is King
If you provide great content online users will make sure that they can find your website. You can create a domain with hyphens, longer phrases and words. You don’t want to use the 67 character maximum allowed for domain names, but 15 plus characters is totally acceptable.
To make your domain name memorable, it should be a short phrase that describes your website, your products or your particular area of expertise. If you provide reliable, accurate information, web users can use bookmarks or type the phrase directly into a search engine to get back to your site. This means that you will have to really focus on getting your domain name listed on as many search engines and directories as possible.
The other advantage to creating a domain name for an informational site is that most surfers search by typing in phrases and entire sentences into the search engines. A domain name that uses all of the words of a small phrase or sentence will easily filter to the top of the listing and keep your customers coming back.
Hot tip: If you don’t trust the engines to help your customers find you on a regular basis, make it easy for anyone to bookmark your site with a reminder button on your home page.
About the author:
Syd Johnson is the Executive Editor of RapidLingo.com, a Financial Solutions Website. This article may be freely distributed as long as the author's bio is included with an active link to http://www.rapidlingo.com
Saturday, June 20, 2009
free web hosting options on the web, but do some research before you use one for your online business.
by: Syd Johnson
Where can I find free web hosting?
There are hundreds of free web hosting services on the web. You can type “free web hosting” into any major search engine and get an expanded list. However, when you sign up for free hosting account, you are basically signing an expanded advertising agreement.
What exactly is free hosting?
In exchange for free hosting, the company can place ads your website. The ads can be placed on the top of the main page, the top of every page, or on the sides. The ads are usually not targeted. It is possible that they won’t match the demographics of your web visitors. In addition, they are not customized to match the content on your web page.
This is a very expensive exchange program if your goal is to build up an online business. The area above the fold, everything that is visible without scrolling, is the most effective advertising area on the entire site. This is the area you should use for your affiliate links, Google Adsense, paid links and expanded site navigation.
Some free web hosting contracts go a step further and ask for your participation in their email marketing campaigns. You will receive emails that require a click through to a merchant site, and/or fill out endless surveys. This can be very time consuming and annoying.
Before you sign any free hosting contract ask to see sample sites. You want to get a feel for the types of ads that are being shown on other website. What do you want to look for?
1. Do you see pop-up ads? What about banners?
2. How large are the ads?
3. Are they just off topic or are they inappropriate?
4. Where are the ads? Are they on every single page or on selected pages?
Even if the ads are not on every page, watch out. It could mean that the hosting service has figured out which pages bring in the most revenue and they can afford to ignore everything else. Guess what? If it brings in lots of revenue for them, it could probably bring in lots of revenue for you.
There’s free and then there’s FREE
If the space is free, what about the domain name?
If your new site will look like http://yoursite.freewebhost.com you’re getting a subdomain for your site. It’s not really your unique domain name. They are simply loaning you a space for your stuff.
This is not a unique domain name that you can use to brand your business. You can’t use it anywhere except with this particular web hosting company. Ditto if the new domain names is http://www.freewebhost.com/yoursite/.
So what if they offer a truly unique domain name?
How long will it take before you actually own the domain name? Even the cheap web hosting services will require that you stay with the company for thirty to sixty days before you can keep a free domain name.
What happens if you want to switch to another company before the period is up? Sometimes there’s a charge to keep the domain name or to transfer it. This should be clearly stated in their FAQ's or in the text of the hosting contract before you agree to use their service.
Do you have enough bandwidth?
Many free web hosting services are providing their services in such a way that you will need to upgrade your hosting package if your site has any degree of minor success. The tipping point is usually bandwidth. That is a measure of how much text, pictures, ftps etc. you can send to your web customers every month.
The Bandwidth in your contract is measured on a monthly basis. Check the contract to see if there are any fees for going over your monthly amount, or if you will lose your free hosting privileges.
Free host today, no host tomorrow
There is a very high turnover for free web hosting services that heavily depend on advertising revenue. Even the most successful web companies will find that their advertising revenue varies on a monthly basis. Will the company suddenly go out business if they hit a three month slump?
There should be a written policy on what happens to your content if they site suddenly goes out of business. Can you still access your files? Is there an alternative URL or login site with your information? How much time do you have?
You are only as reliable as your hosting service
Check out the statistics on the uptime for their servers. This applies to any hosting service, whether you are paying or not. If their uptime is in the low 90’s and below, then try to find another hosting provider.
You are taking a big risk if you use a free web hosting services for your business site. The inability to control your advertising, high turnover rates among the free hosting providers, and variable contracts usually spells disaster for e-commerce sites.
To run a successful online venture, 24-hour live customer service, high uptimes ratios and control of your advertising space is a must. These features are also the major weaknesses of the average free hosting provider.
A better option for you company would be to sign up for an affordable or cheap web hosting provider. You will have many service options in this category and can usually avoid the limitations of the free hosting companies.
About the author:
Syd Johnson is the Executive Editor of RapidLingo.com, a Financial Solutions Website. This article may be freely distributed as long as the author's bio is included with an active link to http://www.rapidlingo.com
Five effective ways of making money out of web templates
by: Matk P
Web templates are the in-thing now-a-days and most of them are selling like hot cakes resulting into huge profits for web template providers. You too can cash-in on this web template craze and make money. Discussed in this article are five effective ways of making money out of web templates.
Five effective ways to make money out of web templates
1.) Creating turnkey pages from web templates
Turnkey websites are the hottest resource on the internet. If you are a web designer, web hosting company or simply own a website you can make good money by creating turnkey websites from readymade web templates.
What are turn key websites?
Turnkey websites are completely functional websites having relevant content, domain names and hosting. Depending on the type, turnkey websites can have shopping carts, interactive scripts, graphics forms, forums, live chats etc. All that a buyer needs to do is buy the website and he is ready to do business.
What you need to do?
In order to set up a turn key website business, you need to do the following;
1) Purchase professional looking web templates with resell rights or join a template membership program
2.) Modify the web templates by adding relevant content, links, images and graphics
3.) Purchase domain names and hosting accounts
4) Host the completed web templates as websites
5) Advertise/promote your websites for sale/rent by SEO and Email marketing
What will be your ROI?
You ROI Will surely be very high. This is because of the fact that the retail value of turnkey websites is around $200 - $500 per website and can also go higher based on the website quality. You can also go for renting your websites instead of selling them. As you will be purchasing web-templates for a cheaper cost your ROI will be higher. The best way to go about it is by joining membership programs that will give you access to a host of http://www.buytemplates.netweb templates at a low one time cost. Also make sure to host your sites with hosting service providers who offer unlimited domain name hosting. One good example of a turnkey website service is ready-set-web.com.
2.) Joining an affiliate program
Affiliate programs are quite popular over the net. If you have a well ranking website with a good traffic margin then you can very well join an affiliate program offered by many if not all web template providers. All that you need to do is promote their templates and you can make easy money in the form of commissions.
What you need to do?
In order to join an affiliate program you need to register yourself for the program. As soon as the registration process is over you will receive a link or banner advert that you can place on your website at strategic places. In case your website visitor clicks the banner and makes the purchase you get a part of the commission. Commissions can range from 2% to 10% of the actual sales proceeds. Most companies use tracking software programs or individual services like clicksgalore, commission junction etc. for tracking sales.
Some good web template providers who offer affiliate programs are buytemplates.net, templatehunter.com, templatemagic.net and webzonetemplates.com Before joining an affiliate program make sure that the template provider offers allied/complimentary services like web hosting, search engine optimization, content insertion, domain name registration, template customization etc. In fact the more the complimentary services offered the better will be your returns.
3.) Reselling/redistributing web templates
If you own a website that attracts good traffic or is likely to attract traffic in the future, you can go for purchasing templates as a bulk and reselling them. To get redistribution rights all that you need to do is purchase reseller templates that many web template providers offer today. Some good web template vendors who offer reseller templates are http://www.buytemplates.net , http://www.templatemagic.net and freewebsitetemplates.com. Purchasing reseller templates on your own and reselling them can fetch you more returns than by joining an affiliate program.
What you need to do?
All that you need to do is purchase web templates that come with resell rights. You can then modify the templates and sell them to potential customers with non-exclusive rights. You certainly need not be a html pro to start this business; instead you can partner with template providers who offer related services like template customization, hosting, SEO etc. and earn good commissions by referring your customers to them.
4.) Joining Referral based programs
Referral programs are very unlike affiliate programs in the sense that they do not involve you to place links or banner ads on your site. This is basically a word of mouth program and requires you to promote products by word-of-mouth. In case a customer referred by you joins a membership program or buys a web template and refers your name in the referral section, you get a commission. But such referral programs are offered by very few template vendors today.
5.) Web designing with web templates
If you are a professional web designer you can earn higher returns by making use of web templates. Firstly you can satisfy your clients with the speed at which you complete the work and at the same time get more ROI as the readymade website templates are way cheap. All that you need to do is buy exclusive templates and resell them after making modifications. One way to go about it is by joining membership programs offered by web template providers. This will give you access to a host of web templates at a one time cost. Most web designers can almost double their profits, take care of multiple projects and also retain customers by making use of this technique. Also web designers can attract new customers by lowering their service charges.
So what if you can’t make web templates on your own, you can still cash in on web templates by making use of these sales techniques.
About the author:
About the Author
http://www.icongalore.comis a quality web portal that offers high quality professional XP icons. Their high quality www.icongalore.comapplication icons come at extremely affordable prices and can be used for web designing, software applications and print media.
Six Ways To Create a Keyword-Rich Domain Name
by: Syd Johnson
An effective domain name can help to brand your site. It can also communicate to your customers the types of products you sell online. An easy to remember domain that describes your services should be the goal of every site owner. Here are some techniques that you can use to create the best domain name for your company.
Describe your products or services
One way to come up with an effective domain name is to describe your product or services. Write down every word or phrase that comes to mind when you think of your product or service. The easiest way is to keep writing for two to five minutes without stopping. It’s a creative writing technique that can yield a huge cache of keywords that you can plug into any registration application until you find a domain name that fits. This technique is effective, quick and free.
English has a large vocabulary list
The English language has one of the largest vocabulary lists in the world. If you can’t find a way to describe a product or service, take a break, come back in a few minutes and try again. Try to see how many different ways you can say the same thing. You already have access to the vocabulary list and ideally you will know your product or service better than anyone else. Pretend that you’re describing it to a friend and in a few minutes you will have a long list of words that you can use as your domain name.
Most short words are taken
Yes, many of the shorter words such as “men”, “women” and “book” are taken. In today’s marketplace, you can’t rely on such generic terms to bring in traffic. An effective, memorable domain name must go beyond being a novelty to being an asset that helps customers remember your site and your product. Try putting two or three words together. This will make it easier for them to come back to your site and make a purchase.
Brainstorm your way to a great domain name
Brainstorming is the only way to get a good domain name. Whether you write, use a name generation software, a dictionary or try random words, it’s your creative approach that will give you quality results in less time.
Here are 4 easy domain name generation ideas:
1. Write about the product(s) that you plan to sell
2. Write about the topic or theme of your site
3. Write about the type of customers you want to visit your site
4. Start with one word descriptions and then add secondary words until your get an effective word or phrase that you register as your domain name.
Check out your competitor’s websites.
Are they using words that fall into a specific category like product names, rhyming words, or names of cities? These can all give you clues about what types of words and descriptions that make the best domain names for your type of service. It can also give you some clues into what works best with customers and search engines. In this case, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you just tweak it a bit to get better results.
You’ll also have words for your Search Engine Marketing Campaign
The cool thing about this technique is that it will also help you to generate a list of words that you can use later on as part of your search engine optimization campaign. Whether you plan to do this on your own or through a Pay-Per-Click service, you will be ahead of the game with a long list of keywords to choose from.
About the author:
Syd Johnson is the Executive Editor of RapidLingo.com, a Financial Solutions Website. This article may be freely distributed as long as the author's bio is included with an active link to http://www.rapidlingo.com
Yes, You Can Use Hyphens in Your Domain Name: It Makes Them Easy to Read
by: Syd Johnson
Most of the desirable one-word, two-word, and three-word dot com domains are taken. However, if add plurals and hyphenated terms, there is still some gold left in the domain name game. If you find that you need or want to use a phrase or a compound word with two or more words strung together, you can use hyphens. All of the search engine robots read a hyphen as a blank space so you don’t gain or lose anything when you use hyphenated words.
The most important reason for using hyphens is readability. Your keywords are ranked by robots. Your website is read by human beings. If your domain name is theanythinggoesguide.com, it would be much easier to read it as The-anything-goes-guide.com.
A domain name as well as an online business is a long term proposition. You might have to put a bit more effort into your upfront marketing efforts, but don’t be afraid to use hyphens in your domain name. If it’s easy to read, memorable and enhances your online image, hyphens can add to the lasting appeal of your domain name.
Remember that the purpose of the domain name is to make sure that customers remember your web address when they need to get information or buy a product. Anything that is easy to read easily wins out over a long jumbled mess of letters.
About the author:
Syd Johnson is the Executive Editor of RapidLingo.com, a Financial Solutions Website. This article may be freely distributed as long as the author's bio is included with an active link to http://www.rapidlingo.com
3 Secrets to "Striking it Rich" in Cyberspace
by: Jim Edwards
(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
=====================================
In the few seconds it takes you to read this another domain
name gets registered at www.NetworkSolutions.com, the
Internet's oldest and largest domain name registrar.
Everyone from industrial giants to corner flower shops
currently wants to stake a profitable claim in cyberspace.
The lure of low startup costs compared to brick-and-mortar
operations and the promise of high rewards draws an ever-
swelling crowd of merchants to the online marketplace.
Yet despite the optimism statistics tell us that 80% of
these "e" businesses will fail within their first 12 months
of operation.
People from all over the country ask me what it takes to
succeed in the e-commerce world once they've completed the
basic steps for getting online.
The following three keys virtually *guarantee success* for
any online enterprise.
The First Key:
A Quality product or service with highly evident and readily
understood benefits for consumers.
If your product or service does not represent the highest
quality and value possible, and if consumers don't
understand exactly why they should buy from you, the speed
of the Internet will just expose your shortcomings to the
marketplace that much quicker.
In the offline world a product's benefits, not the features,
cause consumers to make buying decisions.
A man doesn't buy a car with a 5 liter engine because of the
horsepower, he buys it for the feeling of supremacy and
control he thinks it will give him.
Kids don't want a 1000mHz computer for computing power in
doing homework, they want to play the latest games.
The Internet magnifies this "what's in it for me" benefits-
driven evaluation by consumers.
Products or services presented with readily understood,
self-serving benefits for consumers sell best online (and
off).
The Second Key:
An excellent website that loads fast, provides pertinent
information to targeted consumers, and allows them to make
online purchases quickly and securely.
Your website should: · Load fast by making conservative use
of graphics. (Go to yahoo.com for an excellent example.)
· Provide exactly the information your potential customers
want and need.
· Make it extremely easy for surfers to navigate your site
and find exactly what they want.
· Look good on both the Netscape and Internet Explorer web
browsers at various screen resolutions (640x480, 800x600,
etc.).
The Third Key:
Consistent, targeted website traffic by consumers capable of
buying your product or service.
Imagine buying a 50 foot billboard and, instead of putting
it out by the highway, you hid it in your basement.
Nobody would see it!
The same thing happens if you don't actively and
continuously promote your website to attract visitors.
With its incredible speed and communications power, the
Internet acts as a magnifying glass for any organization's
strengths and weaknesses. E-commerce, e-mail, and a website
won't do the job of marketing, selling, and customer service
for any company.
They will, however, help every organization perform all of
those business functions better, faster, and less
expensively with the real and tangible result of "striking
it rich" in cyberspace!
About the author:
Jim Edwards, a.k.a. TheNetReporter.com, is a syndicated
newspaper columnist, nationally recognized speaker, author,
and web developer. Owner of nine (9) successful e-businesses
as well as a professional consulting firm, Jim's writing comes
straight off the front lines of the Internet and e-commerce.
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