What’s in a Search-Friendly Business Name
October 26, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
I have just read an interesting article Posted by Kelly Spors in the Wall Street Journal entitled “What’s in a Search-Friendly Business Name? Here is a direct quote:
Coming up with a business name that’s not already taken is difficult enough. It’s doubly difficult to find one that’s both unique and memorable – but also search-engine friendly.
Here is a summary of recommendations:
- Include keywords in your business name, when possible;
- Don’t choose a word or phrase that is highly competitive on search engines;
- Don’t use three-letter acronyms, like UPS or DEP;
- Add your location in your name if you’re only serving a local market;
- Don’t change your name just to make it SEO friendly;
Interesting? Click What’s in a Search-Friendly Business Name? to read the full article.
Tags: Domain Names, search engine, what's in a search friendly busines nameDomain Name News
October 22, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
Here is a synopsis of the latest Domain Name News from the domaining and domain name blogosphere:
An Introduction to Domain Names – A domain name is a very integral part to a person’s individuation on the internet, if you want to start a business, a blog, create a website and the domain name that you take is going to be your identity.
MarkMonitor Announces Top Level Domain Advisory Services (Business … – Advisory Services, to assist brandholders in developing customized brand strategies in response to the expansion of top level domains by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers .
latin america domain name registration soars and branson.com loses … – in ron jackson’s lowdown, reports of soaring domain name registrations in latin america top the list of news items. total cctld registrations passed the 4 million mark in september, a jump of nearly 18% a year ago. for more on this, …
Kentucky can take your domain name if it feels like it [Lawsuits ... - One reprieve that the judge did grant was to let site operators keep their domain... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] More on this domain related news…
MarkMonitor Announces Top Level Domain Advisory Services (Centre … – in response to the expansion of top level domains (TLDs) by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). MarkMonitor Top Level Domain Advisory Services provide world-class, … More on this domain related news…
Afterthebailout.com domain owner seeks $1m in eBay auction (Finextra) – The global economic crisis could be good news for one eBay seller who has just placed the domain name afterthebailout.com up for auction on the site … More on this domain related news…
10 Year .IN Registrations Now Available – IN registration lengths allowing you to register your .IN domain names for up to 10 years – to match most other standard TLD registration lengths. Previously you were only allowed to register .IN domains for up to 5 years. …
Google Profiting From Typosquatting, Report Charges – Google is making millions of dollars from internet users visiting typo-squatting websites that earn advertising from Google’s Adsense advertising program, Harvard University professor Ben Edelman says in a report published in the McAfee …
Domain Registration Scam Hits .fr – AFNIC is advising registrants of .fr domain names of a scam asking them to register for a service with the Registre Internet Français directory by a German company called DAD Deutscher Adressdienst GmbH. The service offered costs …
Godaddy $2.19 .Com Coupon Leaked – A member of the DNXpert forum has just come up with a great piece of news – you can use a new coupon code to get a .com for $2.19. Thanks n3o of fyu.in! It’s limited to one purchase and will probably not last so you better hurry! …
How Famous is Your Domain DNFame Online Tool – We hear from our readers on a daily basis and suggestions for articles on DomainNews. Today one of our loyal readers suggested that we share a new domain tool that came to life. DNfame.com How Famous is Your Domain?
Naming Rights: Are you plagued by a bad domain name? You may soon … – The Wall Street Journal looks at the likely approval by ICANN of new gTLDs saying the difficulty in obtaining a .com name will lead many to look at alternatives when they become available. The article refers to domains the endings on …
Should You Invest in the .mx? – By Joe Palombo, Key Accounts Manager/Transfer Consultant The recent rapid growth in registrations of the .mx, the country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) for Mexico, has astounded many. Initially, it took over 15 years for the .mx …
Tags: domain name news, Domain Names, DomainingHow Powerful is Your Domain Name?
October 19, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
I have just read an interesting article entitled “How Powerful is Your Domain Name?” – Insight into the elements that make your domain more than just a name, by Wendy Kennedy.
Here is a Summary:
Your domain name or website address is the core of your online brand but did you know it could also be a driver of traffic to your site and a factor in the SEO ranking your site achieves through the search engines.
In choosing your domain name, there are several ’strategies’ to consider. Here are some examples of how big companies have made their domain more powerful.
When most small business owners register their first domain, they consider finding something that is catchy, something easy to remember and something that related to the topic they intend to devote their site to but at this point in the process, many don’t consider the power that the domain name could have on the traffic their site generates.
A domain name is so much more than the address for your website – it has the ability to greatly influence the amount of traffic that comes to your site. This happens both through direct type-ins and natural search (i.e. searches from engines like Google or Yahoo!).
Interesting? Then read the full How Powerful is Your Domain Name?” article…
Tags: domain, domain name, Domain Names, how powerful is your domain name, search engines, SEO, website addressGoogle Reveals More Linking Secrets
October 18, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
Website linking, linking, reciprocal linking or whatever you want to call it, is an important part of the search engine optimization process because Google and all major search engines place some emphasis on link popularity in their ranking algorithms by using link popularity algorithms (defined as the number of links that led to a particular page and the anchor text of the link) to rank websites for relevancy.
A recent article in Site Pro News by Titus Hoskins entitled Google Reveals More Linking Secrets To Webmasters, discusses this topic ad nauseam. Here is a direct quote…
One of the most problematic and confusing issues most webmasters have with Google concerns linking. How your links are ranked? How you should link out? How you should construct your internal links? How you should get more inbound links? How many links should you have on a page? And the líst of questions goes on…
Interested? You can read the full “Google Reveals More Linking Secrets To Webmasters” here…
Tags: Google Reveals More Linking Secrets, link popularity, linking, Website Building, websitesA Good Website is a Great Asset
October 17, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
A Good Website is a Great Asset – The importance of buying a domain name and building a website to promote your business, especially now that the general economy is tanking, was underlined in an article published by USA Today this morning. The story, “A Good Website is a Great Asset,” was written by Gladys Edmunds who has a weekly column in the national newspaper called Entrepreneurial Tightrope.
Here is a quote:
Every now and then I feel compelled to remind you of how important maintaining a website can be to your business. If you have a site that’s not giving a return on your investment then perhaps it’s time to rework it. If you have been procrastinating about having a website, now is the time to get one
Interesting? Then read the full A Good Website is a Great Asset article…
Tags: a good website is a great asset, domain name, Website BuildingDomain Flipping Tutorial
October 16, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
Domain Flipping Tutorial – In our previous Domain Flipping Tutorial we discussed Overall Strategy, Your Marketplace and Distribution Channels.
In today’s tutorial we would like to cover the following: .Com TLD; Short and Pronounceable Domain Names; Aged or Older Domain Names; Avoid Numbers and Hyphens; Domain Names with Established Traffic; Expired Domain Names with Page Rank; Avoid Trademark Names and Names of Celebrities; Keywords, Generic and Commerce Words;
.Com TLD – With some 76 million websites already registered, .COM is by far the most popular TLD (Top Level domain). But in our article entitled European Domain Name Registration we discussed whether the next gold rush is not to be found in .EU Domains
Short and Pronounceable Domain Names – Domain names should be short and the shorter the better. They should also be easy to pronounce. They should contain as few characters as possible, preferably no more than 15 characters. There is a bigger demand for short domain names. Certain letters are more valuable than others:
- 2 letters – there are only 676 possible combinations, all have already been taken and are almost impossible to buy or find;
- 3 letters – there are only 17,576 possible combinations. They are in great demand and unlikely to be found at a reasonable price. For example, vyk.com recently sold for $8,000;
- 4 letters – there are 456,976 possible combinations. Numerous 4 letter domains are available for no more than $10 on several domain auction sites and Ebay. But the consonant and or vowel combinations and positions (e.g. CVCV or VVCV) make many of them somewhat unattractive;
- 5 letters - there are 11,881,376 possible combinations and they are more readily available and can be very valuable. For example yahoo.com, money.com;
Aged or Older Domain Names – This reflects the age of a domain when it was registered. Search engines give more weight in their positioning to older aged domains. Domain names registered several years ago tend to command higher prices.
Avoid Numbers and Hyphens – domain names with numbers and hyphens tend to be less valuable.
Domain Names with Established Traffic – Estimated Monthly Traffic is an external figure that is difficult to verify and is more important in domain parking.
Expired Domain Names with Page Rank – Page Rank (PR), sometimes referred to as Google PR is a numerical number that indicates how important a page is on the world wide web. It is Google’s way of indicating the importance of a web page. There is a higher demand for expired domain names with existing PR but you should check out whether the PR is genuine or a fake before you buy.
Avoid Trademark Names and Names of Celebrities – Registering, selling or using a domain name with the intent of profiting from the goodwill of someone else’s name or trademark is called cybersquatting, which should be avoided. See our previous article on Cybersquatting and Trademark Infringement.
Keywords, Generic and Commerce Words – You should choose dictionary or generic words that are commerce related; location based (geographic) words. Review current news topics, new products and current trends to identify popular keywords to use as the domain name:
- Choose real, generic words that are easy to remember, such as car.com, money.com;
- Choose words that are easy to spell and not prone to typographical errors;
- Choose domain names that are product-related and therefore have a potentially high commercial value;
- Choose a Top Level Domain Extension (TLD) that geographically matches the language of the domain name;
Domaining News
October 15, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
Here is a synopsis of the latest Domaining News from the domaining blogosphere:
Traffic Down Under Is Only 45 Days Away – Au is a hot domain extension these days (the Australian government recently made some chances to the .AU registry) I expect many local businesses to attend as well. Unfortunately I may not be able to attend however RMG CEO Darren …
TLD Managers | Important New Geographic gTLD News Update – If you are an organization currently looking to register a new gTLD for a specific geographic area, make sure you have all the facts before you apply 5 Vote(s)
Rss.com Up For Auction on Sedo – Rss.com is to be put up for auction this month on GreatDomains.com this month with a US$750000 reserve. RSS is the abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication, the delivery of those automated news services many of us subscribe to.
Turn Up The Radio and Turn Up The Profits – If your domain was said over the radio, would everyone that heard it be able to spell it out? With over 100 million domain names currently registered, it is becoming increasingly important to focus on the memorability and …
US Govt Starts Moving on Net Security Hole – Starting Thursday morning, the US government is seeking comment on who should create and vouch for the internet’s most crucial document — the root zone file, reports Wired. The article notes that ICANN, VeriSign and the Commerce …
New Policies Mean .info gTLD to be Safer – Afilias have announced policy changes to make .info they hope will be an effective deterrence to abuses such as phishing and spam and make surfing the internet a safer experience. The new policies come into effect on 6 November.
360 Investments Ltd Selling £500000 Domain Name Portfolio – UK based 360 Investments Ltd announces the sale of its Domain Name Portfolio Assets covering a variety of sectors including business, career, education, computers, entertainment, finance, sports and travel. The full portfolio, that has …
On a funny note. We came accross a funny video we thought you may enjoy… Are all the good domains taken?
Market Lodge Promises new Revenues for Domain Name Owners – Another new player in the domain industry is Market Lodge (http://www.themarketlodge.com/)™. With much talk about creating content for your domain portfolios, MarketLodge is a totally free service that empowers domain owners to create …
Pizza Hut's Pasta Hut Rebrand Targetted by CyberSquatters – Unfortunately, it has already fallen victim to opportunistic cybersquatters, which have been quick to cash in on key domain names relating to the fast-food chain. According to reports the pizza chain plans to invest £100m over the next …
Additional Revenue Stream for Domainers – TheMarketLodge.com – Another new player in the domain industry is Market Lodge™. With much talk about creating content for your domain portfolios, MarketLodge is a totally free service that empowers domain owners to create personalized, e-commerce market …
Naming Rights: Are you plagued by a bad domain name? You may soon … – The Wall Street Journal looks at the likely approval by ICANN of new gTLDs saying the difficulty in obtaining a .com name will lead many to look at alternatives when they become available. The article refers to domains the endings on …
Tags: .info, domain, domain industry, domain name, domain portfolio, Domaining, domaining news, gTLDWeb Hosting
October 13, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
Web Hosting – Here is a synopsis on today’s major news stories on Web Hosting:
E-Commerce Promo, at Webplus Shop – Aberdeen, South Dakota – (Website Hosting Directory) – October 10, 2008 – E-commerce web hosting firm, Webplus, Inc., has launched its $1.00 ecommerce web hosting promotion, where businesses can receive the first month of ecommerce …
NTT Managed Hosting Firm, Debuts Dallas Network – New York, New York – (The Hosting News) – October 3, 2008 – NTT America, Inc. (NTTA), a wholly-owned US subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation and network integrator, hosting and web services firm, has debuted the launch of its …
As Economy Crisis Tightens Belts, EasyDrupalTutorials.com's … – Founder of Easy Drupal Tutorials, Rene Tse, opens up Drupal programming and interactivity to non-tech and web marketing audience with invaluable three [...]
Semi-Dedicated Clustered Hosting Introduced by Web Host … – Net LLC, a web host serving individuals and businesses, today introduced Semi-Dedicated Clustered hosting, a new service offering the performance and capacity of a dedicated server at a fraction of the cost. …
Hosting Your Personal Website – Web hosting basically makes your site available for the general public to see, and the public can check out your site and communicate with you if they intend to purchase something. There are many ways of conducting web hosting. …
Linux Solution Debuts at Cartika – With their range of services, Cartika specializes in providing small to medium sized and enterprise businesses the very best in high availability web hosting, complete with service that includes security firewalls, load balanced …
Getting The Best Cheap Web Hosting – After you’ve decided to create your web site for your business or personal reasons you should begin looking for the best cheap web hosting companies out there.
iWeb Launches Web Hosting Industry Blog (TopHosts.com) – Web hosting issues will be covered by news, articles and technical posts. MONTREAL, Oct 09, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ — The blog remains an industry benchmark and strengthens iWeb’s position as a leader in the web hosting …
Make your web site visible, web designing for SEO – When it comes to SEO web designing, there are two main categories; on-page and off-page. On-page optimizations are done to the target website and this is quite an easy step. There are many things to consider when an on-page optimization …
Before Buying Dedicated Web Hosting – With a dedicated server all the resources of the server as well as the IP address are unique to that website and are yours to use as you want A dedicated web hosting service might be the ideal thing for you if you have a very busy.
Top 7 Eco-friendly and Green Web Hosting Choices for a Small Business – Brought to you by: Keetsa Mattress Store – Keetsa! Blog – Eco-Friendly and Green News. Top 7 Eco-friendly and Green Web Hosting Choices for a Small Business. Alternative Energy, avocado, bandwidth, carbon dioxide, carbon neutral, …
Sinking shares could make Yahoo a target again – When Yahoo Inc. co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang spurned Microsoft Corp.’s rich buyout offer this spring, he promised brighter days in Sunnyvale were just over the horizon.
99p for a years hosting from mature host – In celebration of its 10th birthday, web host QiQ are offering a discount of £19.00 on all new hosting packages meaning you could obtain 12 months web hosting for 99p.
Free Web Hosting Guide – Most of these hosting companies also provide free tools for website building. This is great news for web newbies; they can help you to build an entire website in a matter of hours and can teach you some valuable web skills. …
Discount Web Hosting Services Are Easy To Find – There is good news for those who want to run an online website and who have even gone to the trouble of creating a website, but find that their available financial resources don’t allow them to use of expensive web hosting services. …
Great Way to Get Information on Web Hosting Companies – Nowadays it has become almost essential to have a website for a business in order to increase the customer base. Most people visit the website before actually taking up the services of the company. People actually visit the websites of …
Tags: cheap web hosting, dedicated server, green web hosting, security firewalls, Semi-Dedicated Clustered hosting, SEO, web designing, Web HostingDomain Flipping Tutorial
October 5, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · 1 Comment
Domain Flipping Tutorial – In Internet terminology domain flipping refers to the process of registering a domain on day 1 and then re-selling it for a profit within a few days or a short space of time. This process is commonly referred to as domaining.
In a previous article entitled “Domaining Revenue Model” we stated…
“Revenue from Domain Flipping – Domain flipping is relatively easy as it requires no work other than the purchase of a “memorable” domain name or a domain name that is easy to remember or with a nice ring to it. Sometimes, to maximise profits, it may be beneficial to partially develop the domain before offering it for sale.”
Despite the robustness and resilience of the online advertising industry the current negative economic sentiments have started to permeate to the domaining industry. And there is empirical evidence that already this has resulted in a decline of up to 25% in overall PPC revenues earned by a number of domain owners.
So if you have not done so already, you should look more closely at the domain flipping element of the Domaining Revenue Model.
Overall Strategy – A basic overall strategy would be to buy either fresh (previously unregistered) or dropped (expired) domain names and sell them as quickly as possible in the domain name aftermarket which is a very active marketplace.
Firstly, you will need to research the marketplace to determine what is in demand and then you must find and buy domain names that are in demand. The key here is not to buy what you like but what the marketplace wants.
Having acquired those domain names that you know the marketplace is looking for, you must then announce them to the domain name aftermarket so that they know you exist and have desirable domain names they would like to have.
Your Marketplace – In the first instance, you will need to target individual domainers. And as your online business and credibility grows you can start focusing on portfolio buyers, investors and domain name speculators.
Distribution Channels – In broad terms there are four basic distribution channels you will need to implement and develop:
- Direct Sales – The money is in the list. You will need to build a list of potential customers using a number of marketing media;
- Auctions – You will need to get involved in a number of the active domain names auctions such as Moniker.Com and SedoSelling.Com. and yes, to a lesser extent, Ebay;
- Forums – You will need to offer your domain names to a number of specialised and other forums including but not limited to domainer forums, webmaster forums and Internet marketing forums;
- Classified ADs – You will be able to advertise in over 20 classified AD sites;
But before you start there are a number of basic housekeeping procedures you will need to undertake. We will cover these in a subsequent tutorial.
Tags: domain, domain flipping, domain flipping tutorial, domain name aftermarket, Domain Names, domainer forums, domainers, Domaining, dropped domain names, expired domain names, Internet marketing forums, pay per click, PPC, webmaster forumsHalf-Price Domain Names
October 1, 2008 by Stephen S Alison · Leave a Comment
Half-Price Domain Names – Domainmonster.Com is currently offering cheap Half-Price .Asia domain names. Asia is a new TLD that enables companies and individuals to show a presence in the Asia/Pacific region. A .ASIA domain name provides a way to expand your online business by reaching out to the hundreds of millions of International Internet users in the ICANN designated Asia-Pacific countries.
According to PRNewswire via COMTEX, Domainmonster.com today announced half-price .asia registrations for October only! The .asia TLD was launched earlier this year and has proved extremely popular within a short space of time.
With the Asian economy booming amidst a global credit crunch, .asia has seen enormous success, rocketing to one of the most successful launches ever since March 2008, securing its value as a sought after TLD. The dotasia registry reported Domainmonster.com as reaching the top 2 registrars globally during their launch in April 2008.
Matt Mansell, Managing Director of Mesh Digital, commented,
Our recent ICANN accreditation means we deal directly with the registries, including .asia. That means we can consistently offer the web’s very best price, but still provide a premier service.” He continued, “We are seeing a lot of customers purchase .asia domains alongside the usually more popular .coms, .nets. I have no doubt in my mind that with this very special offer, we are going to be able to bring the affordability of .asia domains to many more consumers.
One of only 13 ICANN accredited Registrars, based in the UK, Domainmonster.com has a wealth of worldwide brand domains under their management.
Interested? Read the full Half-Price Domain Names article…
Tags: .ASIA, .asia tld, Domain Names, domains, Half-Price Domain Names
