Disclaimer: Information and opinions presented here are for educational purposes only. Nothing on this site should be regarded as investment advice, or an offer to buy or sell securities.Thank you.
 

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Link to a forum : ' Choosing Effective Domain Names '

First post of this forum :

"
Domain names are no longer a web address these days. Many profitable companies have been built around their domain name making it the brand and the company. Choosing the right domain should be as important as naming your product. Given that status, here are some pointers how to find a name that will see you through it all.

Branding vs. Keywords

This is probably the most difficult to determine. Yet, should be the first place to start because the rest of the considerations will one way or another relate to this. There are two schools of thought. One group believes you should have your keywords in the domain so that search engines pick up on the keywords and rank you better. To what extent this really affects your search engine ranking is not clearly known or proven. Consider why you are putting the website up in the first place. Most likely it’s for your customers or visitors. So choose a domain that also puts your audience first.

The other group believes a webmaster should go for brand. Most successful companies start off with a brand, including online companies. Brands make the product memorable, create differentiation and encourage loyalty. In the early days of the Internet, everyone wanted a generic domain like searchengine.com, books.com, auctions.com and the likes. Today, very few of those are truly successful sites that rival Google, Amazon and eBay.

A branded domain also ensures consistency throughout your marketing efforts. As one web user describes, “Every time the company tells me to visit their generic website, they lose the opportunity to reinforce their brand name in my mind”.

Whether you use keywords or brand for your domain depends much on what you aim to do. If you plan to build a business or website that is going to have staying power, branded domains are a better choice. It might not be easy or cheap to build a brand but there are no shortcuts when it comes to branding either. It’s a slow process that can be very rewarding if done right. Don’t choose a domain simply because of its keywords. First class content, links in and clever optimization are more important to good ranking than anything else. Having said that, a brand name made up of keywords could be best, and you would have the best of both worlds – literally. Take CancerComforts.com. Owner Kathy Browning chose the domain because of its keywords. But apart from being keyword rich, CancerComforts.com is also very marketable and can be a strong brand.

If you are building a resource website, a website for affiliate programs or one that’s temporary in nature, keyword rich and generic domains would be a better choice. Finally, there is no harm in buying both branded and keyword domains that point to the same site. Just make sure you only use one for submissions, directory listings, link exchanges and promotion. This way you build your link popularity.

You should also, make sure the site title or name matches your domain. If your domain is ExtremeBiking.com and your site name is Smith Brothers Biking Tours this makes visitors and directory editors wonder if this is the correct website. It also causes confusion. People who know you tend to look for a domain that reflects your brand and not extreme biking. If you have yet to establish a company name or a site name, it might be a good idea to name it after you find a domain name. This is sensible, consistent marketing.

Company Name

This is the most common because in today’s increasingly small and competitive world, businesses tend to have rather creative and catchy names. On the other hand, if your business name is very nondescript such as The Smith Brothers, you might want to take the approach that combines part of your company name and a keyword. Although the importance of brand name was emphasized earlier, here the situation is slightly different. Non-descriptive company names aren’t particularly helpful to audiences. Someone looking for you would find it difficult to differentiate your company and the other company with a similar name. In this case, keywords tied to your name are worth considering.

Domain Length

Short domains are supposed to be best but it’s increasingly difficult to find one without paying someone a lot of money to take over the domain. There are alternatives though, such as expired domains which we will explore a little later on.

Just because a domain is a little longer doesn’t make it bad. For example, TrashToTreasure.com is meaningful, to the point and memorable even though it is rather long. On the other hand, ThisIsAnExampleOfAVeryLongDomain.com is too long, difficult to remember and prone to errors. The other extreme is needless abbreviation. TTT.com is meaningless because TrashToTreasure.com works much butter. Aim for some balance while taking into account ease of use.

.Com, .Net, .Info

Most people will agree a .com is best. A web user told us, “Whenever I can’t remember the domain name but I know the site name, brand or company, I’ll try for a .com first”. If you have no good .com alternative, start with .net and .org first. Also, be sure to consistently promote your website as a .net or .org whatever you may choose.

Hyphens, Suffixes and Prefixes

Hyphens aren’t necessarily evil especially if it’s in your brand name or is the correct way to write a word. However, they are difficult to remember, type and prone to user input mistakes. Avoid them as much as you can.

Suffixes and prefixes are i’s, e’s, the’s and numbers usually suggested by domain search tools when your desired domain is unavailable. If you choose such a domain, be very consistent in your promotion. Promote the domain as a whole, do not leave out the suffix or prefix. You might also want to avoid domains with very little difference between them. These are usually between plurals and singulars. Aim for singular names whenever possible. For example, petfood.com and petfoods.com; If petfood.com is taken, resist the temptation to opt for petfoods.com because people tend to leave out the ‘s’.

Can You Say It?

This isn’t always a top consideration but it makes sense you should have a domain name that can be verbally communicated. Take your list of chosen domains and tell it to someone. Does it confuse them? Do you find yourself having to constantly repeat it or spell it? If that is so, move on or go back to the drawing board.

Copyrights and Trademarks

In this day and age, many companies particularly those with strong brand names are increasingly protective of their trademarks. Avoid the trouble and expense of a lawsuit by spending some time to research your chosen name. Start by looking up the name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (http://www.uspto.gov/) and your state’s trademark database. A More in depth look at this issue can be found here (http://www.bcentral.com/articles/legal/109.asp).

Expiring Domains

Anyone who has looked for a domain name finds out soon enough more than half the desired names are taken. If you cannot find a suitable one despite numerous searches, why not explore expired domains? Expired domains are those whose original registrant fails to renew commonly are due to website closings or companies going out of business. Within the list of expired domains are some real gems. There are many services that allow you to monitor expired and soon to expire domains for a fee. Before you sign up for them, a good place to start researching for free is DeletedDomains.com (http://www.deleteddomains.com).

Some believe recently expired domains with good traffic and rankings allow you to benefit from someone else’s hard work and give your site a head start. Theoretically, that may be true. Realistically, you shouldn’t expect that to last. People consistently return to a website for a reason. If your topic is very different from the original site, visitors will stop coming back because the information or resource they previously had access to is no longer there. If you assume such a domain and want to convert as many visitors as possible, make sure your content is very closely related or similar to that of the old site. You might want to also check that the old site has completely ceased operations. If the previous site still exists under a different domain, loyalists eventually find their way back there; Word gets around among them and could create a negative image on the old domain that’s now yours.

Ownership

When you do register as domain, have it registered under your name or your company. If you are registering through your host, remember a lot can happen within a short space of time. Companies go out of business or you change hosts, scams, scandals and more. Making sure you own the domain reduces the risk of losing your domain name in the future. Check your host’s domain registration policy. If there are unnecessary expenses to transfer your domain, try to register it yourself instead. Registering a domain is a very simple and straightforward affair. Some good registrars to try are Enom (http://www.enom.com/) and GoDaddy (http://www.godaddy.com).
Finally, when you do find the best available domain, get it immediately. Any delays no matter how minor may cost you. Finding the right domain is not easy. It takes a lot of brainstorming, patience and creativity. Once you find it, don’t let it slip.

Boris
HostVoice

"


see this forum at :
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=312988

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Link to a forum : ' 9 Tips to Choose a Great Domain Name '

02-04-2007 ( 16 posts)
First post of this forum :

"
Tip #1: Always use your business name as the domain name. Your visitors should have only one name to remember your business - be it your business or your domain name.

Tip #2: Your domain name should be short and/or easy to remember. The limit is 67 characters. Domain names that are short and easy to remember names make it easier for your visitors to visit you repeatedly.

Tip #3: In addition to Tip #2, avoid using more than 4 words in your domain name. For example, avoid www.getyourbestcomputerdeals.com. It is both difficult to remember and type. Having said so, it is increasing difficult to buy short domain names.

Tip #4: On top of registering a domain using your business name, register another domain name that is related to your business sector: For example, register www.dell.com and register www.computers.com. You can point both domain names to the same website. Use popular keywords when you do this.

Tip #5: If you have a domain name that is easily misspelled, you should also register the misspelled domain name. Why would you want to do this? Simple, your visitor will still get to you when they misspelled your domain name.

Tip #6: If you need to use abbreviations, use only those that made sense and/or easy to remember. For example, instead of using www.instituteofmentalhealth.com, it might be easier to use www.imh.com.

Tip #7: Avoid using hyphenated domain names. The advantage of hyphenated domain names is that it is easier to spot when printed. For example: www.institute-of-mental-health.com is easier to read as compared to www.instituteofmentalhealth.com. The downside is when the domain name is communicated verbally. To really make sure the person you talk to get to your website, you have to pronounce it as "www dot institute hyphen of hyphen mental hyphen health dot com" as compared to pronouncing it "www dot institute of mental health dot com". It is such a pain.

Tip #8: Avoid using "to" or "for" in your domain name. It can be confusing as your visitors may type "2" or "4" instead.

Tip #9: Avoid using numbers in your domain name. Similar to Tip #6, your visitors may type in the number in full instead of using the numeric key.

"


see this forum at :
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=581793

Link to a forum : ' Register Cheap Domain Names '

June 17,2008 (17 posts)
first comment in this forum :

"I just came across a registrar which offers domain registration at $3.99 only

DomainsAreFree - $3.99 Cheap Domain Name Registration

Only thing is that they accept only credit cards and no Paypal or Google checkout.

Anyways, i hope many would take advantage of this cheap yet incredible offer

Cheers All!"


see this forum at: http://www.webtalkforums.com/showthread.php?p=202613

Link to a forum : ' need cheap domain! '

06-12-2008
first comment in this forum :

"I need to create my own website in PHP.. can anyone tell me how to register a good and cheap domain and how I can make it more efficient...
Please help me out as I am a learner and I want to learn more about Web technologies...!!"


see this forum at: http://forums.devstart.com/showthread.php?p=9559

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Article : How To Buy A Cheap Domain Name

Submitted By: Joseph Francis

Are you interested in purchasing a cheap domain name but don't know how to look for one?

You might also be thinking I don't want to build a website why do I need a domain name anyway?

Recently I was looking at a way of centralising my online transactions because orders were being placed via a few different website's. I decided I that I would build 1 website to manage the orders as the central ordering point for all of my transactions.

In doing this I needed to purchase another domain so I went off on my search. During this search its where I had stumbled across .info domain names and I was surprised that they only cost $3 from Name Cheap.

Not only are these domains cheap but there are also a few good dictionary names available for the .info extension.

Domain names have 2 great uses. The first use is if you want to setup a website and e-mail account.

The second use is to set up your own custom e-mail address without setting up a website in which is becoming a popular option for many people today.

Both options require your domain name DNS to be configured to your webhosting account DNS and you can do this easily via your Name Cheap account.

You might be thinking why would I want to create my own custom email address?

Lets say you have an issue with your ISP and you need to get a new ISP provider. By having your own e-mail address using your own domain name you won't need to worry about giving your friends your new e-mail account when you change ISP. Remember you will be using your own email from your domain name so your ISP will be providing Internet access only and no matter how many ISP's you change you won't need to worry about telling your friends and family your new e-mail address.

Cheap reliable hosting accounts that have an e-mail option can cost from $3 a month up to $5.

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

source : http://www.isnare.com/?aid=105864&ca=Internet

Article : Cheap Domains For Sale

By Steve Valentino

Domain name is the identity of any individual and business on the web. If you want to have a fabulous domain name of your own, you should start finding cheap domain names for sale immediately. Various domain registration firms offer domain names at affordable rates. All you need to do is just find out the most appropriate domain names. Earlier domain registration firms used to charge hefty amounts to the domain name buyers. But, with more and more companies selling domain names, the prices have gone down drastically. Now any web aspirant can have his or her own domain name. But, you need to act fast if you want to grab the best domain names at the most affordable rate.

The demand for domain names is always on high. Everyone wants to get hold of the best domain names before anyone else – the competition is fierce. So, the moment you have decided to go for a domain name for your business, you need to launch a massive hunt for the right domain names. And don’t delay to register as soon as you find the most suitable one. To a buy a domain name, you don’t have to have a Web page. The registration ensures that your rivals can’t own the domain name. The name will be exclusively yours. The domain name price has plunged so much that anybody can how have domain registered.

Cheap domain names are everywhere on the Internet nowadays. Doing promotion on the web has become quite economical. Business owners around the globe are now eyeing the web to make an impact to the larger online marketplace. However, it’s advisable to always consult friends and experts before opting for a particular domain names. The domain name you prefer to go for must be an easy-to-spell and appropriate one.

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

source : http://ezinearticles.com/?Cheap-Domain-Names-For-Sale&id=222259

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Link to a forum : cheap domain name?

04-04-2007
first comment in this forum :

"where can i get the cheapest domain name ragistration?"


see this forum at: http://forum.kahuki.com/showthread.php?p=6145

Link to a forum : Cheap Domain Name

Wed Sep 12, 2007
first comment in this forum :

"Where to get cheapest domain name?

What type of payments them supports?

Thank you for your answer."



see this forum at : http://www.ozzu.com/ftopic80944.html

Link to a forum : Cheapest domain name registration

02-28-2006 (21 posts)
first comment in this forum :

"Hello i'm intrested to find some very cheap domain registration ofers but from trusted companies .
Preferably posibility to register a domain for more years .
Thanks in advance"


see this forum at: http://www.webmaster-talk.com/domain-name-forum/44469-cheapest-domain-name-registration.html
 
 
Google