All About Domain Names Chosing

The domain name is the website address, URL or universal resource locater.
Domainname you choose is an important part of your overall marketing plan. It should be relevant to your business and easy to remember. Keep in mind that your domain name is your internet identity, so choose wisely.
A domain name is much easier to remember then a bunch of numbers or letters, think of it as the text name that relates to your IP address. When your name is typed into a browser the name server associates it with an IP address and your website is displayed by the browser.
So what name should you pick?
Some things to take into consideration are:
Is it easy to remember? Can someone type it in from memory?
It should be easy to spell and should not contain more then 3 words.
If possible, use keywords in your name. Your domain name should relate to your business.
Do not use numbers or hyphens.
Stick with a .com extension if possible.
Keep it simple.
Well planned domain name is the first step to a successful marketing campaign. 3 basic steps that you can take to make sure your name is marketable are:
1: Make a list of words that relate to your business. Then remove any words that are longer then 10 characters. You can also use phrases if they are short and easy to remember. There should be no spaces in the phrases. Once you have your list check to see if your possible domains are available.
2: Go to any domain registrar and search for the names on your list to see if they are available. GoDaddy is an excellent place to begin. A list of alternatives will appear for those names that are not available. Go through all the names on your list and once done you will then have a list of possible domains for your business.
TIP: For business websites try and find relevant domain names with an extension of .com only. This extension is well known and is considered the default extension that people use if they do not know the correct one. Try not to overdue it and buy every known extension. When you are just beginning remember that domain fees are yearly so consider the lifelong cost of a good domain. For most of us one is enough.
3: Once you know which names are available go to GoDaddy and register the names of your choosing.
TIP: Do not pay for hosting if you already have a website set up! Forward them.
Here is the cheapest ($10/year) and easiest way to set up forwarding of a domain name:
- Go to GoDaddy and register a domain name of your choosing. This is an easy step-by-step process. Just make sure you do not sign up for any extras that they offer you. The final price should be about $10.19.
- Once you have completed registration (you will receive an email with your information), sign in to your GoDaddy account and go to "My Domain Names" under the "Domains" tab.
- Next click "Domain Forwarding" and then click on your domain name.
- Select "Enable" and then enter the URL of your existing website in the box. Click OK
Just look at three-letter .com's, .net's, .org's, .us's, and .biz's. There are zero left "out in the wild" to be registered. (Three letter domains I am talking about here, not three-character domains, though all three-character .com's have been registered as well).
These three-letter domains always go for, well, let's just say much more than the registration fee. regardless of the extension.
As the value of good generic names keeps increasing, there is very little reason to sell your domains names at this stage at the game. Yet, people do. You would do well to learn one thing concerning the domain name market very early:
PATIENCE. If you are eager to spend money then there will be sharks salivating and lining up, happy to take it from you. The point is, that you don't want to spend money just to spend it, you need to make sure the buys you are making are quality buys.
However, if you do come to a time and place that you want to sell your domain name, you need to keep a few things in mind.
If you are going to make a business out of domains and you are going to open your own company, you need to make enough to pay any taxes that may be incurred. This is a big area of debate and I'm not a tax expert, so consult your tax adviser.
You obviously need to make enough to cover the original purchase price, but you may also need to factor in other expenses such as renewal fees, how much PayPal, escrow fees (sedo or other escrow company) are going to take from you when you make the domain sale.
Can your domain names make more money if you wait a bit longer for a different person who may want this more?
Is there a big enough market to where other people would be willing to buy this name so they had an "edge" on the competition?
Or are you selling to a "reseller"? (a person just as yourself who is buying the name to hold and resell later).
Is it really the "right" time to sell your domain, if you wait will the product/service/etc become more widely known or will the domain bring in more traffic?
Do you really even "need" to sell or do you just want to? You may need money for other ventures, but if you don't, then what is the point?
Is it an offer that you just cannot refuse?
I have had offers on domain names that I could not refuse before, it's not common but it happens. I had just registered about 20 .us domain names and shortly thereafter someone got a hold of me and offered $500 off the bat for one of them. Considering that I just registered the domain name, and the mere fact that the .us market has really not picked up, it was probably a good decision to sell. I sold him the domain for $500 total. That sale paid for the purchase of the other 19 .us's and also the renewal fee for them along with some money to spare.
In a case like the above, unless what you just registered is a true gem, there is probably no reason to decline the offer. But before you sell make sure a transaction will even be worth your time. If the same guy came to me and said he would have given me $40 for the domain name (and that would be as high as he would go), then there would have been very little reason for me to sell.
Remember, your time is worth money too. However, if you are a "time" person, then these are the types of sales you need to target and you need to target them over and over again until you reach a healthy base with domain name parking revenue. Once you become a "money" person, these types of things are not worth your time at all in the slightest. Remember, you want to become a money person as soon as possible.
So if you decide to keep your domain names or not which is completely up to you. Just be sure to make a well thought out decision.
If this is your first Website, I recommend you pick one to three names to start off with. If you already have a Web site you might want to expand your domain name collection. I know of one Infoguru who boosts she has 50 domain names.
First, what NOT to do when you pick a domain name:
Don't pick names that are too long.
Don't pick names that are hard to spell.
Don't bother with .net and .org. Most everyone defaults to ".com". If you go with the .net or .org and someone types it as a .com, they will get a Web site and they won't know it's not yours.
Do not add a hyphen in the middle of your .url as this is a big impediment to people remembering your name. Explaining to people your domain name has a dash in it really complicates things. Read on for a better solution to this dilemma.
WHAT TO DO:
Buy your business name. If it's not available, work on creative variations, like adding short words before or after. Words like "your", "the" and "team" work well.
Buy your name if it is available. It helps people who have heard of you find you later. It helps your friends and colleagues get to your site easily. And if you are a public speaker or publicizing your personality, definitely buy your name.
Consider buying variations and common misspellings of your name, especially if you can't buy your name.
Buy keywords related to your site. To reinforce particular keywords, buy those as domain names as well.
Buy at least three and perhaps many more domain names. Your business name, your name and your keywords.
A good place to buy domain names is www.godaddy.com. Good service, cost is low at less than $10 and the whole godaddy.com feel is fun as well.
You aren't setting up separate sites for all these domains. They all point to your principal domain name.
Expired domain market is a busy place where everyone would jostle and rush out to find their own expire domains with sense of deep conviction. In reality, buying an expired domain is not as easy as you feel it will be! There are several reasons and causes that motivate people like you and me to buy expired domain. One of the best reasons for indulging in expire domain business is its ability to provide you very lucrative profits for the money invested into the business. Here are some established tips and suggestions that will teach you how you can buy expired domain in an ever-busy market place.
Generally, all soon to get expired domains go through three phases of life:
* Expired status, when the owner of the domain in question will have 40 days of grace period, when he or she can renew the domain again by paying a standard fee
* Redemption period, when the domain enters its decisive period of shut-down and the owner of the domain may need to cough up renewal fee, along with additional penalty.
* Locked period, when the domain name in question enters the deletion phase, which is usually 5 days long. And, on the last day, the name will be officially dropped from the database between 11AM and 2PM Pacific time. Soon after this time, anyone can register for the expired domain.
With these phases of expiration cycle, how does one buy expired domain? In fact, a simple search and buy method may not work in the real sense. There are smart entrepreneurs, who use better and quicker methods to grab the domains, before you actually do. It means that you may need to use methods similar to those used by these entrepreneurs.
Experienced people who are well versed in snatching expired domains always use smart methods. One such method is the "Drop Method" that promises you good expired domains. The Drop is that unpredictable three hour time period, in which the domain gets deleted from the registrar's database and released back into the pool. If you feel that you can buy expired domain during the dropping process is very easy, you are sadly mistaken and confused. There are no fewer than three or four major services that specialize in snatching away all the good names that become available for sale.
To buy expired domain from a large pool of domains, you may wish to enlist the services on three major domain trading firms, so that you can hope that they will grab a domain name on your behalf. Three main expired domain name trading firms are:
* Snapnames.com,
* Enom.com, and
* Pool.com
All these three forms act and operate in a similar manner. They always use a network of registrars to aim at the ICAAN servers at frequent intervals and grab as many names as possible. As a normal rule, if you do not get your desired name, you will not pay a cent to them. All the three forms operate in slightly different ways and manner.
Another common way to buy expired domain is to approach the soon-to-expire domain owner and ask, if they can transfer the domain name to your name. Yet, another way is to participate in a regular domain auction and buy an expired domain at a very high price. Whatever the way you chose, your main goal should be picking a good and decent domain at an affordable price; to buy expired domain name from the open market, you will also need to know how domain trading business works and operates in the real sense.
Domain names are to websites as book covers are to novels. If they are not interesting enough, or don't properly convey what a website is about, visitor will have no desire to enter them in their browsers. Yet, excessive creativity doesn't make for a good domain name either. Why is this so? It's because if a domain name is creative but not keyword-rich, search engine bots won't be able to index it in search engine listings. So, ultimately, your domain name must be both catchy yet search engine optimized. This article will explain how you can achieve both objectives.
First and foremost you will need to find a popular search engine keyword that can be incorporated into your domain name. A keyword analyzer can help you in this task. These can be found pretty easily with a basic search engine query. When you find one, enter in a keyword that best summarizes the purpose of your website. The keyword analyzer will return different versions of this keyword. If the more specific instances can also fit within the nature of your website, choose one. This is because when it comes to search engine optimization, more specific keywords are better since they are less likely to be used by other webmasters.
Now you can start selecting your actual domain name. Most domain name companies will allow you to see whether or not your domain name is available. If it is not available, it will return a list of recommended domain names. Take advantage of this tool by first entering your selected keyword. If your keyword as a domain name is not available, consider the suggestions the domain name company gives. If the main keyword is still included in these suggestions and it ends with .com, consider it. Otherwise, you will have to be more creative.
For example, you can use 'filler' words, numbers or phrases within your domain name to still include your selected keyword. Fillers could be 'a,' 'an' or 'the.' Search engines tend to not look at these words, so you still have a good shot at getting indexed while having a domain name that is memorable and catchy. You can also consider fillers at the end of a phrase, such as '101'.
What if you do these things and you still can't get .com? Well, there are some situations where it is better to stick with a lesser-used extension because the keyword is just that popular. Extensions that still get noticed include .net, .biz and .org. Additionally, you can also consider using country or state-based extensions if you don't mind international or local-based marketing. It's better to be number 1 in France's version of Google than to be number 200 or worse in America's version of Google.
In conclusion, choosing a domain name that will get the right buzz from both humans and search engines doesn't have to be hard. The keyword analyzer will help you with 90% of your domain name, while your wit with fillers can help you the other 10%. And, if after an immense amount of pondering, you still can't get the .com, you can opt for other extensions.
A domain name is sometimes the most overlooked item in any online business. Most of the time, website owners do not give too much fuss about naming the domain website. Reasons may vary from ignorance or negligence probably about the severe impact that they bring into the website. Below are some of the ways on how you can advance in naming domain names:
1. Engage into researching several domains that you can choose from. There are several sites that you can go into to address your need for more sample of good domain names. From there, you can make comparison about which ones are far better to work and generate more possible income.
2. Experiment on various names. Make name combinations and produce output. From these various names, you can then check for yourself if this may be yielding positive result for you. What is important here is the fact that you have options and the options are all good options.
3. Choose domain names that are short and yet very impacting to potential clients. It may not need to be very controversial but what is important is that it should be able to arouse interest from your potential clients. In addition, short and compacted domain names make easy recall. When people are looking for sites to visit, the one that creates an easy recall either by the impact that it creates or because of the shortness of the site's name are most likely the ones to be visited and accessed.
4. Usually high end domain names are the ones that are correlated to well-established and tenured website domain names. You may want to buy these types of them however; they are quite a bit expensive. I would suggest that you look for ones that have been inactive for quite some time and that they are still available.
Many people now-a-days are looking towards domain names as an investment. With the stock market bouncing around, and the US dollar weak, domain name investing can be a very lucrative idea. In fact domain investments have gone under the radar for most people the last 10 years, even though over the last five years the domain name market averages an 80% annual increase in value.
In the last 3 years alone the average LLL.com (L="letter") such as TFJ has gone from $1500 in 2004 all the way to $8500 in 2007. Thats an amazing increase in value. Even the country code top level domains are increasing at extremely fast paces. .cn, .fr, .es, .de, and .in are leading the way. Having said this, .com's will always be the charm of any domain investment portfolio. When anyone in the world thinks of a website they immediately think of .com. The growth of other domain extensions like, .net, .us, .biz, .org, and country codes will only increase the value of the .com version. If a domain such as xyz."in" starts getting traffic, it is only natural that a large portion of people looking for xyz."in" will type in xyz".com" instead. Why? Because .com is automatically associate with the internet. All the largest companies use .com as their extension.
What does this mean for the future of the .com domain industry?
Well, in my opinion, .com's even with multiple keywords such as "refinancemyhousenow".com will continue to warrant huge prices. There are 6 billion people in the world, and only a limited number of possible .com domains out there. The 3 character .coms will continue to increase in value as they are excellent for company initials. 4 character .coms will also increase at a faster pace then the rest of the market. I personally like the "Number followed by a 3 letter word or abbreviation" .coms. An example would be 4her.com. These are easy to remember, yet there are literally thousands of these left to be registered. Everyone quickly went after the LLLL.coms while avoiding the NLLL.com's.
Overall opinion of the domain market:
Although we can't continue to have 80% yearly gains in a limited market, forever, I do feel that 50-60% gains for the next 5-7 years is a good bet. Only about 1 billion people are online worldwide, representing only 16% of the population. In addition to this, out of the 1 billion people online, only about 1-2% have their own website and or domain name. Look forward 10 years, when the internet is accessible in even the most remote areas of the world by people who can not afford it today. Nearly every person on the globe will have a website of their own to share photos, information, selling products, or just communicate with the other 6 billion people online. When this time comes the domain name marketplace will exploded with transactions.
Choosing your online identity is one of the most crucial decisions you will ever make to ensure that your website will be highly visited. Here are the 4 best tips in choosing the perfect domain name for you:
1. Choose the right extension. If you are running an ebusiness, .com is highly recommended. It is the first extension that people search for when they go online. However, to make sure that your competitors will not use your domain name using other suffixes like .net, .tv, or .org, register all suffixes for your domain name.
2. Keep it short. To make your domain name easy to remember, make it a combination of 2-4 words. For easy recall, include keywords and your most popular product line.
3. Register your domain name as soon as possible. Once you have picked a great name, register it right away. There are so many people who are making great money by registering and selling them. Before they grab your great idea, don't waste a single second and register it now.
4. Avoid using your company name or your given name when you are just starting up. If you haven't made a mark in the online arena yet, it is not advisable that you use your name for simple reason that no one knows you yet.
5. As much as possible, avoid using special characters or numbers on your domain name. Online users are not trained to type hyphen or numbers when they search for a website. If you don't want your visitors to be directed to your competitors, stick with letters.
6. If your chosen name is no longer available, don't fret just yet. You can send the webmaster an email to inquire if the domain is up for sale. A lot of people are into selling these names and you might be just lucky to buy your preferred online identity.
Choosing an effective domain name is a crucial first step to setting up an affiliate business. To be taken seriously, you need to purchase a domain name of your own. It is also an important factor when it comes to branding yourself and your online presence that your affiliate business creates. Therefore, it is important that you take note of the 5 important points listed below when you have decided upon an affiliate program to promote as an affiliate business.
1. Avoid "free" domains
Your domain name will be your business's "address" on the Internet, so it's important that you choose the right one. That is why you MUST get your own unique name, as opposed to one you can get from a web hosting company that includes their name (eg. /YourWebHost/yoursite). With your own domain name, you can easily move your site to another host while keeping your domain name if you are unhappy with the current host's range of services.
2. Always register a ".com" name first.
Everyone remembers a ".com" before ".net". Even most web browswers, if the extension is not entered, will default to ".com".
3. Consider registering other top-level domains like ".net" and ".org"
No, this is not a contradiction to the previous point. Rather, it's always a good idea to protect your business and your domain names by registering the less popular top level domains as well.
4. Protect Your Business by Registering Product Names and Plurals
You should also go beyond the basic top level domains and register some variations on your domain as well, including plurals and even misspellings. Now, you may ask why misspellings? Because believe it or now, there are "typo-squatters" out there who make a point of registering misspellings of popular domain names just to scoop up the traffic of people who made an innocent typo error.
5. You can create your own sub-domains
If you cannot find a domain name that has the keywords you want to focus on, there is another solution. You can take advantage of a sub-domain, which is anything that comes before the main domain. Search engines love keyword-rich domains. Well, by using your keywords in your sub-domain, you can have the same effect.
One of the first things that you will need to do when you set up your first web site is to choose the domain name. You should spend enough time on this critical process to get it right. It should be simple to remember, easy to say, and easy to hear over the phone. It should include keywords, as you'll want to use search engines to find your site.
The best domain names are dot com. Your customers tend to assume the dot com at the end of domain names. If you pick a different type such as .org, .tv, .us, or .net, you will lose customers to the other sites who have the dot com version of the name you pick. If you like a name well enough to use the version other than dot com, you will need to be sure that a competitor in your field does not own the dot com. That can really spell disaster.
We usually start with a dot com name and if the others are available, we will purchase them as well to diversify our project. If you use a different domain name for email, for example, you can sometimes simplify the development of your website.
A domain name should be as short as possible. You'll find that two words for a name is usually possible to find with some effort. One-word names are mostly gone. Availability of three word domain names is common; and if the words are small, the name will not be too large. An example of this would be...
cybermarketingpro.com
You can use dashes in a domain name. This will separate the keywords for the search engines. Then, every time you use your name in a link, the search engines will pick up the keywords that you are targeting. A good example is:
your-internet-business-opportunities.com
Many domain registrars have tools available to help you search for unused domain names and find different combinations for those names.
Keep your domain names as short as possible, and make sure they are easy to say over the phone. Names that you have to spell, or differentiate between spelled out numbers, or numerals will cause confusion. The domain, domains4you.com is an example. To communicate this domain name over the phone, you will need to make sure the customer knows you mean "4", not "four". You will also have to tell them that it is "u", not "you". This will become a frustrating waste of time if you are handling sales over the phone.
Stay away from words that are spelled different for different meanings, such as "To", "too, "two", and "2". Another is with our successful website, royaltyware.com. Though it is not a serious problem, we do have to deal with ware vs. wear in our telephone support with this site. We didn't even see this one coming.
When I pick a domain name, I will usually look at a two word definition of what I am trying to market, or the mental image I am trying to present. I will run these two words through an online thesaurus. Then, when I have a list of each, I will try different combinations until I find one that flows well, sounds nice when spoken, is not terribly confusing, and doesn't need to be spelled out 50 times a day. You will be amazed at how many really excellent dot com names, using two words, are still available.
Sometimes when I am looking for a domain, I will end up buying two or three for later use, or resale. In fact, you may even want to purchase domain names that are close misspellings of your original name. Many companies make use of search engine misspellings to sell their products on pages developed just to get the traffic from misspelled searches.
When we name a new software product, we name the product with available domain names in mind. Our soon to be released affiliate organizer is called Affiliate File Cabinet. We chose the name and purchased affiliatefilecabinet.com at the same time. That not only puts critical keywords in the domain name, it also ties the domain name directly to it's product.
A domain extension or TLD ( Top Level Domain ), is defined by the letters that follow the last dot of the domain name.
Domains vary in value based on their extension or TLD. A domain with a .com TLD is usually more valuable then a domain with a .net extension. In certain cases a domain with a ccTLD can be extremely valuable ( mainly where the need for that domain name is centralized ).
There are three types of domain extensions, or TLDs currently in use on the internet.
1. ccTLDs or country code top level domains, are used by countries and dependent territories. They are limited to two letters. Examples of ccTLDs are .us (United States), .de (Germany), .at (Austria), .be (Belgium), .it (Italy), .uk (United Kingdom), .in (India), .jp (Japan) etc. For a complete list of ccTLDs click here. The rules of registration of ccTLDs vary from country to country. For example, Indian ccTLD .in can be registered by anyone from across the globe, while the Andorran ccTLD .ad can only be registered by Andorran residents and organizations.
2. gTLDs or generic top level domains were in theory meant to be used by specific types of organizations.Today, almost all gTLDs can be purchased by anyone - with the exception of .mil and .gov which are restricted to US authorities. Examples of gTLDs are .com, .net, .org, .info, .mobi, .asia etc.
Now it is fairly common to know that what a typical domain name is and how it can act as an all important link to a number of domain names on the internet. However, most of us still do not know that there are thousands of domain names that get expired everyday and that many small sized companies use such expired domains to create very precious domain expired name traffic. As more and more people who use internet eventually become knowledgeable about the power of domain expired name traffic, a floodgate of new opportunities and options to earn extra income will open up for them.
Keep on reading this article, if you wish to know how you can use the absolute power of such traffic to create a meaningful vehicle to earn more income. With a set of domain expired name traffic, you can discover the overlying concept of sending visitors to a particular web site by using an expired domain, and later understand the undeniable advantages of doing so. Though many companies and firms have used the power of this new concept, not all of them have reached the desired level of success. This was due to selecting and picking up inferior and wrong expired domain names that came with very low traffic volume.
With domain expired name traffic, you will have benefits like:
a) Increase the popularity of a given web site among net surfers and net shoppers
b) Provide real visitors to that site
c) Offer a real-time user friendly access to the web site.
d) Accrue higher search engine rankings
However, for a web master, the real problem is to maintain the site popularity by generating traffic towards the web site address. The use of traffic as a tool for domain redirection has assisted many web sites to reach better search engine rankings and gain public recognition. A concerted pool of meaningful and beneficial traffic can help you build a stable expired domain name business.
The process in which a webmaster uses traffic to gain advantage is very simple and straightforward. An automated process will be used as a tool to redirect visitors to specific web sites and this process is not visible to the people, who use it. Smart entrepreneurs use the benefit of this automatic tool to drive hundreds of site visitors to pool traffic and use for beneficial gains.
Though there are hundreds of expired domain names are available for purchase and use, you will need to be very careful in selecting the best few that provides you handsome traffic. Ensure that you are picking up the right name that is 100% reliable and trustworthy. You can opt to purchase a good domain expired name traffic package to create a good volume of traffic to your site. A good expired domain with plenty of traffic can provide you real and genuine site visitors, who can eventually give you lot of sales and orders by deciding to purchase them products and services.
With all the headlines, and news coverage, about the record sales prices being paid, for generic domain names. One might think, these traffic favorites are the most valuable of all, the classes of domain names. In actuality though, the sales prices of almost all of the top domain names ever sold have been secretly withheld from the public. The fact is, many of the most valuable domain names never reach public auctions.
So why are we, the public, not privy to the highest prices being paid for these premium domain names? Actually it is because of a little known fact, that many of the largest corporate investors, prefer to make their purchases, of premium domain names, in strictly private transactions. These private transactions are used, to deliberately hide prices being paid for domain names. For this reason, many of the largest dollar values being paid for premium domain names, never hit the headlines, and are never reported!
Why is this so? Why do these corporate buyers and speculators not want it publicized, how truly valuable, some top domain names are? In a nutshell, they know increased competition, will inflate the market prices they pay for the names they covet. They do not want to draw any more attention to domain names, and their values, than necessary.
The last thing they want to do is compete for names they truly want and then possibly lose them to higher bidders. To avoid this they choose to operate in closed non public transactions, that are far removed from the public eye. In this cloak of secrecy, these corporate buyers, do not have to competitively bid for a rapidly disappearing pool of top domain names. This explains why they are clearly absent from most public auctions where sales prices are competitively bid and disclosed to the press and public.
In this controlled market place these professional buyers look for unique names that stand out in the crowd and signify an image that differentiates their company from the rest of the pack. They also search for names that are short, that are easy to spell and remember and at the same time describe their particular market niche with Clarity and professionalism. In short, they look for a name that makes a statement about them and their company.
Most of the qualities these professional buyers look for in a top name can be clarified by understanding, what a premium domain name is. So lets take a look at, the actual definition, of a premium domain name. "Premium domain names are often valuable and have particular characterizations: The names are short and memorable, may contain words that are regularly searched on search engines or keywords that help the name gain a higher ranking on search engines. They may contain generic words, so the word has more than one meaning, and they may contain typos". An excellent example of a Top premium domain name, is USeBiz.com It fits the definition of a premium domain name perfectly, makes a statement, and in many experts opinion is truly a most unique and valuable six letter domain name.
Another good example of a previously undiscovered and unknown gem is Android.com. Google bought this name in the secondary market, from a previous owner. This name is now being developed as their flagship address, for an open source software Alliance, for the wireless industry. Now that this name, is under Google's development, we would really have a tough time valuing it as its sales price was not revealed to the public. But we are sure its market value would be in the millions of dollars. The competition for good quality names, such as these, are increasing at a frenetic pace.
Due to this growing competition, there is an ever increasing demand for premium domain names. The catalyst, that is driving this demand, is the explosive growth of new business start ups, on the internet. This growth has been breath taking, to say the least. So much so, that the worlds one billionth website, is already in place. It took 36 years to reach this water mark ! Amazingly enough , the number of web sites are expected to double, again in the next 8 years!, to 2 billion!
With all this expansion, the worlds major corporations, are in competition with thousands of new start up companies, who are feverishly positioning themselves to master, this thing they call e-Biz!.It's no wonder that as a result of all this expansion. There is a huge pent up demand, being created for well branded, easy to spell, and remember domain names. This highly competitive market place has created an exponential increase in the values of good domain names. In fact, some premium domain names are commanding six and seven figure price tags!
The most encouraging aspect of this business, is that there are many undiscovered names that are destined to become internet powerhouses, that are still available in the secondary market! This is what makes investing in the domain name business, so exciting! There quite simply is no glass ceiling here, and the sky truly is the limit. Now more than ever, the visionary leaders who keep their focus on investing in premium domain names, will be a part of the futures most successful investors!
For all these reasons and more the secondary market place for domain names is the fastest growing investors asset class on the planet! My advice for any interested investors, is to start collecting and controlling the letters of the alphabet today!One word of advice though. Look for hidden values within the secondary market and do not bother with any other extension other than the .com extension, it's the Predominant choice for most of the worlds top corporations. That is where the real money is!
On an average, more than 20,000 domains get expired everyday and this figure is slowly increasing day by day as more numbers are starting to expire almost on a regular basis. The market is also becoming a lucrative proposition to people who wish to set up a lucrative online business. Apart from selling expired domain names you can also use the traffic,either to sell it or use it to develop your web site.
There are two ways through which you can use targeted expired domain traffic to set up a viable business.
* You can purchase an expired domain name and sell it along with its traffic to someone, who is looking for a domain that can provide immediate results.
* You can also register one for a year or so and develop a web site over it, advertise and pool together targeted traffic.
However, creating targeted traffic with your web site takes a long time, involves spending lot of money and putting in considerable effort. Though selling such a web site can get you huge profits, there are chances that you may loose you patience while waiting for the D-Day!
It makes a clear sense to lay your hands on an expired domain that has a big pool of traffic attached to it. Webmasters have the habit of detecting and pinpointing highly lucrative traffic out of a huge list of expiring domains. When you buy one with well established traffic, you can get several benefits like:
* A top place in many of the well-known search engines and web directories
* A number of back links that can promote your web site to others
* An access to many types of promotional and advertising channels
* Use the existing domains with well established traffic, as an invaluable sub domain to further develop the business.
Before buying an expired domain name, make sure that you check it out for its targeted traffic. There are several online software tools that will help you critically examine it to check, whether the domain in question has accumulated any traffic in its previous avatar. Once you seek out a good and productive domain, you can increase your profits without having to spend more money.
The most common way of obtaining targeted traffic is to contact people who have lists of expired domain names attached with a list of loyal subscribers. By chance, if the source from where you are intending to buy has a large list of subscribers, then you contact the source, with a request to send an email to the contacts in the list, giving them valid reasons and explanations to check out your site and look at the contents. It is also possible to convert your one-time traffic into frequent web site traffic. To achieve this goal, you may need to ask your site visitors to sign up for a regular newsletter or an auto-responder series.
Domain parking has had a bit of a bad reputation, and rightfully so. Most parked domains are setup with a registrar and they are the ones who end up making most of the income from ad clicks on your parked pages, that is, if your parked page gets any clicks at all. In truth, the registrars are likely only interested in making money from your domain name registration.
I have been intrigued with the domain parking concept however was discouraged until recently. It is true, almost all parked pages are shunned by the major search engines because they lack any quality content and are simply filled with ads. Simple logic told me that if the search engines are not interested at all with parked pages filled with ads, and this means the chances of people finding my parked pages is slim to none.
Thankfully there is new hope for parking domains with rich content parking systems. These systems don't just set you up with a page full of ads and forget about you, they provide you with simple tools that let you create rich content websites full of relevant articles that search engines love. This is the most exciting development in domain parking history because it means anyone can create a quality web site containing your own advertisements that you earn all or most of the income from.
This revolution in domain parking opens the doors for anyone interested in creating powerful websites and capitalizing on their income potential. I have spent countless hours studying the many different options available, and personally I feel the clear winner is WhyPark.
While it is possible to invest just twenty minutes of your time setting up a domain with one of these rich content parking systems, the more time and effort you invest in promotion, the more traffic your domain will receive in turn increasing your earning potential.
Valuation Factors
There are quite a few technical factors that go into determining what a domain name is worth, and there are differences of opinion as to the relative importance of the various factors. Here we will examine a number of commonly considered parameters in domain valuation. This collection is not necessarily meant to be all-inclusive, but is instead intended to give you a flavor of many of the fine points to consider.
One of the most important considerations in valuing a domain name is the "TLD," or Top Level Domain. This is the extension that appears at the end of the domain name, such as .com, .net, .org, etc. All other things being equal, a .com name will generally sell for about four times the otherwise equivalent domain in one of the other common global extensions, such as .net, .org, and .info. The .mobi extension, utilized for content to be delivered to mobile devices, is rapidly gaining popularity and value, especially for domain names suitable for such devices. Some country specific domains, such as .co.uk and .de (Germany) are very prestigious, and can also command high prices in certain cases. The .tv extension, later to hopefully be used in connection with internet enabled TV, results only occasionally in high value sales at current (until hardware, distribution, and media companies resolve their mutual "cut of the pie" concerns, there is likely to be little content to drive this market).
An extremely important consideration in the value of a domain name is the number of words it contains. Single "real word" domains (no misspellings or abbreviations), especially in easily monetizable internet industries, can be enormously valuable, particularly in the .com extension. Two word domains, again without misspellings or abbreviations, can also be quite valuable, as long as the domain name can easily be monetized, and the TLD is of high quality. Values really plunge when you get to three words or more.
Domains containing misspellings, abbreviations, hyphens, characters not on a standard keyboard, and other oddities often have very little value. Also, domains containing phrases that are trademarked may be worth nothing, as the trademark owner may be able to summarily confiscate the domain.
The extent to which a domain can be monetized has a major impact on its value. Domains in the sex, financial, and health industries often top the list in terms of high value sales. Domains related to industries that cannot easily generate revenue on the web will usually have little value.
Generic domains tend to be more valuable than non-generic ones. A generic domain is one that contains only real words (ones you can find in a dictionary), and has no contribution from proper names (first or last). Generic .com domain names in highly monetizable industries can be immensely valuable, and are for the most part very hard to obtain (without spending a lot of money!).
The number of letters in a domain name also affects its value. Three letter .com names can be quite valuable, even if they mean nothing. Four letter .com names usually need to be pronounceable to have value, but they need not necessarily be real words in the dictionary (cool sounding four letter .com names can be very brandable, even if they are made up). When you get to five letters or more, value is driven by quality of the word or words (generic vs. non-generic, monetizable vs. non- monetizable, etc.). Once you start getting over 8-9 letters, value tends to decrease a lot, unless the name is highly monetizable.
The extent to which a domain can be branded may be very important in determining value. Domain names that are easy to say and remember, easy to type in, highly reflective of predictable monetizable content, and/or generate a lot of "type-in" traffic (people typing your domain name directly into the address box in their browser rather than finding your domain via a search engine) are highly sought after, and may transact for significant sums.
The size and profitability of the market to which the domain name applies is also important. This directly impacts how easily the domain name can be monetized. Needless to say, products and services that do not lend themselves to e-commerce (directly, or indirectly through selling ad space) will most often have little value.
We could go on almost forever listing factors that impact the value of a domain, but the above gives you a sense of what to consider.
Where's The Beef?
You'll notice the discussion thus far has presented no magic formulas for computing the right price to pay for your new domain name. I would love to give you a cool formula with lots of neat math symbols, but sadly things aren't that simple or elegant. In order to understand what you are going to have to pay, you need to learn a few things about the domain after market.
First, there is way more supply than demand. This at first may sound encouraging, but unfortunately it isn't. Most domain resellers are very inexperienced, and tend to price their domains way too high, and as a result drive buyers away. Haggling often results in little movement in the price.
Second, the really great names, one or two real word .com domains in high traffic, high margin internet sectors are essentially all bought up. They do sometimes become available for sale, but always at extravagant prices.
Third, you have to be very careful when buying non-generic domain names (domains containing words that are not in the dictionary, or domains containing words that are in the dictionary but combine to form an unusual phrase that the courts will not consider "public domain"). These domains may be protected by a trademark. In such cases, the trademark owner can sue for ownership in court, and quite possibly be able to confiscate your domain without remuneration.
The Bottom Line
At this point you're probably wondering how much to pay for that domain on the aftermarket. As stated above, I can't give you a precise formula. I can, however, give you some advice based on the above principles, via reference to contemporary sales history. The basic idea is that I can provide you with anticipated price ranges (rather broad ones) that seem to be well in sync with recent domain auction closings.
At the very top of the spectrum, you have one word, and very high quality two word, generic domains in easily monetizable internet sectors. These may sell for $100,000 USD or more, and will usually have .com extensions, although occasionally some will be in other high value TLD's (such as .net, ,org, .info, .mobi, .co.uk, and .de). The very best of these domains may approach $10,000,000.
Global (non-country specific) TLD's other than .com's rarely sell for more than $100,000. The best of these, again one word and very high quality two word generic domains in easily monetizable internet sectors, usually sell for between $10,000 and $100,000, but sometimes may go as high as about $250,000. The best country specific extensions, mainly .co.uk and .de, lend themselves to the same kind of pricing as the non-.com global TLD's ($10,000 - $100,000). Some excellent domains in the .eu (Europe), .se (Sweden), .tv (Tuvalu), and .ch (Switzerland) extensions are starting to command these prices too.
Every week, there are several dozen sales of .com domains in the $10,000 to $100,000 range. These tend to be one to two word generics, but not as easily monetizable as the ones that sell for over $100,000.
There is an active aftermarket in two to three word .com names that are long (10 letters or more) and sell for $2,000 to $10,000. These tend to be generic, although some non-generics may be found here as well. These domains will in general be harder to monetize than the more premium names, either due to industry (not a high profit internet sector) or scope (serve only a subset of a larger sector).
There is also a market in global TLD's other than .com's in the $2,500 to $10,000 range. .net's and .mobi's tend to dominate this space, although you will also find .org's and .info's here. These are generally one to two word generics that are less monetizable than their otherwise equivalent brethren that sell for more.
Certain country specific domains tend to sell in the $1,000 to $10,000 range. These tend to be one word or short two word generics in the most attractive country extensions (especially .co.uk, .de, .eu, and .tv). Needless to say, these are not as monetizable as their more premium brethren.
If the domain you want does not fall into one of the above categories, you should think long and hard before spending more than $2,000 or so. Admittedly, there will be times when purchasing a particular non-generic name may be unavoidable (e.g., you already have an offline business name which is not trademarked, and need the corresponding domain for your online presence). The key point here is that absent proof of pre-existing heavy traffic, and/or profits from an already deployed web site at the domain, these names are just not that valuable.
In Closing
My hope is that this article has helped you to become a more educated domain buyer. The main takeaway should be that unless you have a truly urgent need to obtain a specific domain, you should use common sense principles and not overpay. Remember, in spite of the fact that so many good names are taken, most domains just sit and wait at aftermarkets like Sedo and Afternic because of the vast supply overhang. If the owner of the domain you want will not sell for a reasonable price, try to be creative and find alternatives, like using a different TLD, pluralizing, reordering the phrase words, etc.
The internet domain market will never lend itself to discounted cash flow pricing like financial securities, and the value of a domain is really nothing more than what the market will bear. Ultimately, values are determined by sale prices of similar domains. This article has hopefully armed you with that knowledge so you can negotiate with confidence.
Domain names are classed as the building blocks of the internet. Having the right domain name is key to your site. It is also important to name your site the same as your domain name. The simple reason behind this is that people will remember your site by its domain name, not by its URL.
Domain names can be of any length up to 67 characters, however the shorter the domain name the easier it is for your site to be remembered and the less susceptible it will be to people making mistakes when typing it in to their internet browser.
However it is proving more difficult to get short domain names now as most have already been taken. As well as avoiding long domain names you should also avoid the use of hyphenated names. There are several reasons why hyphenated names should be avoided as domain names that are hyphenated are difficult to remember and hard to type. If someone recommends your site to another person they will only remember the words used, not the fact it is hyphenated so that person would then search for your site based on the words and end up at another site, which could possibly be your competitor.
If you are in the business of selling pens you can rest assure that the domain name pens.com has already been taken. You have to be imaginative when it comes to choosing your domain name. If you are selling pens why not try the domain name pensworld.com or worldofpens.com. You should always make sure that your key word, i.e. the item you are selling is featured in your domain name this way if someone search's for your site via a search engine, such as Google, msn or yahoo, your site has more of a chance of showing up.
As well as featuring your keyword in your domain name it is important to remember that the more your keyword appears in the text on your site, the more of a chance your site has of being listed in search engine results. Being listed in search engine results means that your site has more of a chance of people choosing to buy off you as oppose to your competitors.
If your website is focused on providing an accident claim service then the keywords that you need to include throughout the text on your site are things such as accidents, claims, personal injury, no win no fee and compensation. By including a range of keywords throughout your site you are increasing your search engine ranking and your site will have more of a chance of appearing on several different search engine results.
Another aspect that has to be taken into consideration when deciding on your domain name is whether you are going to have a dot com or a dot co dot UK. The answer to this really lies with whether you want international business branding or just UK business branding. If you want to focus your business internationally then a dot com domain will work best for you as you can appeal to a global market. However if you want UK business branding then a dot co dot UK will work best.
If you are hoping to register a domain then hurry or your idea will be snapped up by someone else and all the good names will be taken.
A website by any other name, would not be so sweet....or so says the cyber-bard. Many times when we're picking a site url, we fall prey to classic mistakes - here are the most common pieces of advice people fail to heed:
1. If you buy a .net instead of a .com - you will likely send more than 15% of your potential repeat business to the .com - often a huge competitor.
2. Not buying the .net, .org, .info, etc of your own name - to protect it on down the line. Serious online businesses should own all, and all should point to the .com. This is simple and the cost upfront is minuscule compared to the cost of lost sales on down the line. In addition, buying only the singular or plural of bikes.com or bike.com - try for both and again stop sending your clients to the competition.
3. Using a number in your domain name, such as FreeAdvice4Life.com, but not purchasing the freeadviceforlife.com address. Be sure to buy as many variations as you can afford, at least of the .com.
3. Keep it short and sweet - urls of less than 7 letters or digits work well. Others are very forgettable. Phone numbers are 7 digits for a reason - and the world isn't getting any better at paying attention to details or retention. So keep it short, keep it simple.
4. Companies often choose a name and begin to branch out to other countries with a name that doesn't translate well. Nothing worse than being an url that gains traction here and then becoming a whole new entity in another country - or finding your name insults someone's mother in another language. It is, after all, the world wide web.
5. Do not use two different names - one for your company - one for the web address. A big mistake many folks make is doing something like: Consultants R Us as the name, then CRUS.com as the web address...or worse yet - with hyphens consultants-r-us.com.
6. Be sure you aren't getting too close to the bone on a new name - or too closely emulating a trademarked name with cache value - and a large legal department. Doing so can crush a young company. Just when you gain momentum, they notice you - and you go away.
7. Coming up with a word without a current meaning and then expecting people to recall it without spending millions on new ads or finding you as clever as you did upon naming the company.
8. Forgetting that a name online has to "paint a picture" - Sam's Bikes On Main doesn't work online. Trying for something that is online oriented works much better than simply transferring a brick-n-mortar name to the internet.
9. Working on a new company name without first checking for the url availability. There is nothing worse than hitting paydirt on a great name to find out the url isn't available. Check all of them before presenting.
10. Not buying potential misspellings - especially if your web address is something easily misspelled. Most people count on the average web surfer to be a deft typist, and it simply isn't the case.
Domain name or identifier in common dialect is one of the essential areas but more often the most neglected aspect of online business. Since these are important, it is just but right to put some emphasis on how we choose and select a company online identifier - the domain name. Below are some of the ways on how we choose the right one:
1. Choose a domain name that is in between more and least popular. Too popular names are always bounded by copyright and intellectual property rights. However, choosing a more relative one can make your domain surge. So, to make it just right, put it somewhere in between very popular and least popular.
2. Domain names can also include keywords on it. The more relevant keyword that you put in it the better search capability it gets. So, you better take advantage of these keywords.
3. Choose a domain name that is not too long that it becomes difficult to remember. Remember, the shorter the name the better for easier to recall. This is the reason why legal names always have aliases specifically for longer ones.
4. Create a domain name that creates an impact to potential net users. Domains that are highly controversial usually leave a recall to most net users. However, if you are on a business, controversial names usually do not work as they are - so remain, neutral. Just think of a better way to catch public attention.
5. You can study how other sites are naming theirs. You can look at how other well known sites have named theirs and get some ideas.
6. Check on domain sites for domain names that are being sold. These are usually cheaper and were market tested already. So, potentially, they are as good as the working ones.
Online users identify your websites through your domain name. Thus, it is very important that your name is creatively done so it can help drive traffic to your site. Here are the 5 killer steps in picking the best domain name for your website:
a. Make your website name your domain name. This might be a shocker for some online users, but there are a great deal of websites that are not named after their domain names. I suggest this tip strongly for a simple reason; easy recall among your potential clients. Remember, when online users think of your website, they automatically type its name on search engine. If your site and your URL are the same, these people will be taken by search engines to no other site but your website.
b. Use brand names. If you are selling nokia mobile phones, it is but a smart move to focus on the keyword nokia than cellphone or mobile phone. Most online users today are brand-conscious that when they use search engine they automatically look for the brand name of the item and not its generic name.
c. Keep your domain name as short as possible. However, make it a sequence of related letters that can easily be memorized by online users. If you use JMMOL.com, it will not leave a scar on your readers mind because in reality, although it is short, it doesn't make any sense.
d. Stay away with hyphens as much as possible. 1-2 hyphens on your domain name are still acceptable. But using a hyphen after every word can negatively impact your website's performance. For one, users are not particular in typing special characters on search field.
e. Forget plurals forms in your domain name. They just simply don't work and can direct your online users to your direct competitor.