The Map Magazine

The domain name is the entry to your site. The address people type in their browsers to get to it. You need to pay attention to it, because your company name will not always be the best domain name you can get for your website. There are certain considerations you should keep in mind when choosing the domain name you will use:

your domain name should be easy to remember for the intended audience
your domain name should contain keywords so it helps your site positioning in search engines.

With these in mind, you will soon discover that your-company-name.com is not always the best alternative. It depends on whether you have a well established company, with a known name, or you are starting your business.

The domain name is a tool you can use to help your business grow. So don’t miss the opportunity. Spend the necessary time thinking about possible domain names, and trying to find their good and bad aspects.

A good idea is to get more than one domain name and point them to the same website. So if people type your-company-name.com or they type your-keyword-rich-domain.com they get to the same website. This way you can still use your company name as domain name, and also some other keyword rich name you register.

Another good idea is to register common variations of your chosen domain name. For example, if you register mydomain.com, you could also register my-domain.com or mydomains.com.

Once you come up with the domain name(s) you want to use, you need to register them. The first step is to check if they are available, because they could have been already registered by someone else. Once you have verified this, you can register them for a period of time, and they will be yours to use for that period. You can always renew them afterwards, before the period expires.

Sergio Roth is an experienced freelance web programmer. You can contact him for domain registration, hosting and website development services at www.ayreshost.com“>www.ayreshost.com.

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Have you heard about domain names that sold for over a million dollars? Inspired by this, you imagine registering a great domain name, hanging onto it for a while, and then selling it off to become the next multi-millionaire. It could happen, but don`t count on it!

First of all, many of the truly great domain names are already taken. Second, the dot com bust took some of the wind out of inflated domain name prices. (If you sell your domain name for millions of dollars worth of stock in a publicly traded dot com flop, what is the name really worth?)

The cybersquatter buys domain names totally on speculation. Sometimes he will register names of famous brands, companies, or individuals. Time and again, these domain name speculators learn the hard way that they must respect intellectual property rights. They hope that some large corporation will pay big bucks to them for the use of the company`s own (already trademarked) name. Instead, they end up with threatening letters from a law firm for their attempts at extortion.

However, you can still make money from domain names if you are sensible in your approach. Here are some suggestions on ways to profit.

1. Affiliate Programs: Use your domain name to promote an appropriate affiliate program. Either redirect to the affiliate site or write a review that links to them.

2. Informational Sites: Create content and then profit from it by earning advertising revenue through Google AdSense or a similar program.

3. Redirect to Your Own Site: Some reasons you might want to do this include preventing competitors from using a particular domain name and benefiting from searches some users perform by domain name. (For example, if they wanted to order flowers, they might just type “flowers.com” in their web browser. You could get some traffic and sales this way.)

4. Product Sites: Create your own or sell someone else`s product appropriate to your domain name.

5. Park Your Domain Names: You might feel that your name has real potential for resale value. There are companies that will allow you to park your domain on their servers, advertise that your name is for sale, and split advertising revenue with you.

The trick is to generate traffic for your domain name. That traffic in turn will create revenue. Then, when you go to sell your domain name, you will have a few things going for you.

First, you will have a fully developed website. A fully constructed building on a piece of land increases the value of the real estate property. Similarly, the value of your domain name is enhanced by a complete and operating website.

Second, you have traffic. Just as a shopping mall with no traffic results in no sales, so a website must have traffic to generate income.

Third, you have income. An income property, such as an apartment building, can be appraised on the basis of its income (as well as other factors). Similarly, the gross income, net profits and cashflow of a website have value. For example, if someone offered you $1,000 for your domain name and website when it was generating $10,000 per day in profits, you would likely laugh at him.

You really can profit from your domain name investments by adding value and properly developing your web properties.

Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years. For further information about domain name profits and other Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit www.yenommarketinginc.com/domain-names.html

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Are you still paying $25, $35, or more for a new domain name? If so, you are paying too much as domain name prices continue to drop. You can save money on new domain names; please read on to learn how you can find big savings.

Avoid the Big Registrars - The priciest domain names are sold through the legendary and established domain name registries. Many have been charging their customers $25 or more for years, but you don’t have to pay that much! They want you to think they are “it” when it comes to registering your domain names; quite frankly, they aren’t “it!”

Shop the Domain Specialists - Today, there are several well known companies charging just $10, $8, even $5 for new domain names. I cannot name the companies, but one noted provider has a popular Super Bowl ad to its credit.

Free, Via Your Web Host - A big “come on” for some web hosting providers is to offer a domain name free for one year to all new customers. Simply commit to hosting your site with them for one year and a domain name is included for free.

Of course, some sites will charge you more for a .com name vs. a .net or .biz account. Others will discount their prices even further if you commit to longer terms, lasting as long as ten years. Select the plan that works best for you.

So, quit paying too much for your domain names; you have a choice. Shop around today and save money for all of your sites.

Copyright 2006 - For additional information regarding Matt Keegan, The Article Writer, please visit his blog for wit, quips, and freelance writing tips.

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Message to ICANN: Let those who want to create a tld, simply register it with ICANN.

If the tld is not already taken, if they have the technical capability to mange the tld, and they have the desire to market domain names on that tld, then let them do so.

It should be similar to the registering of a domain name, except on a higher level, with the added technical requirements. ICANN should be sort of an uber-registry for tlds.

It would be ludicrous for a domain name restrar like go daddy or enom to ask you for a business plan, or a non-refundable application fee, before allowing you to register a domain name. It would be ridiculous for a registrar to have “rounds” of domain name releases of names “they chose” in advance.

Okay, this month, go daddy will be allocating cheaperwebhosting.com, doggrommingmadeeasy.net, and virtualinternetwebnetwork.net. We will be taking applications and public comment during the month of february. We will then spend another month reviewing the applicants business plans to decide who we will allocate the domain name to. If you are not approved to manage the domain name you apply for, your application fee will be held by go daddy until further notice.

Some people will say that is not a good analogy, but it is a perfect analogy. Here is why. If info.com was still available and I registered it. I could then start selling subdomains like car.info.com, computer.info.com, icann.info.com or any other subdomain someone wished to purchase from me. The subdomain is one dot removed from the domain name the same as the domain name is one dot removed from the tld.

There is no longer any reason to believe ICANN is doing anything other than restricting free enterprise and free trade by not opening up the market for tlds. It is no longer acceptable that ICANN should be the one to decide which tlds will or will not be created nor is it acceptable that ICANN gets to choose who can or cannot run a tld.

Do you present a businesss plan to the city you live in before they allow you a business license? No.

Does the city ask you to prove you are financially stable before issuing you a business license? No, as long as you pay the registration fee.

If you apply for a business license to open a clothing store, does the city ask how you will run your clothing store or if you have the necessary expertise to run a clothing store? No.

Does the city think you will hurt them economically if your clothing store goes out of business? No, it’s none of their business.

Is the city concerned that there may not enough demand for yet another clothing store? No, again none of their business.

ICANN not allowing me, or anyone else in the world, to create a tld of our choice in any language we choose, is a blatant violation of our rights. In many countries, America among them, the right to free enterprise still exists. ICANN is denying me that right as an American citizen and doing so when even their own organization exists under American law.

There are no needs for auctions or rounds or anything else. If you want to run a tld, then you register it and start selling domain names. If you fail, you fail, just as in any other business venture you take on.

Artificially restricting namespace to make a few business IP interests happy has to stop.

Chris McElroy has been an advocate for the rights of domain name owners and individuals who use the Internet since 1995 and is currently advocating that ICANN open up the TLD market. His website at www.newsandmediablog.com has more information about politics, ICANN, domain names, and consumer rights.

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Registering a domain name has become a very simple, common procedure. People all over the world from all kind of different countries register domain names for different purposes. So if you are also interested in registering a domain name, there are some things you should know before starting the entire procedure.

There are many aspects regarding the procedure of registering a domain name. Some domain names are available from some resources but some others aren’t yet on the market. Consequently, if you want to use a certain domain name you have no other choice but using the services of that domain name’s registrars. If you are wondering what a domain registrar is, you should know that they are being approved by the ICANN or the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The purpose of this organisation is to help people like you in getting a domain name.

The first thing you should know is the fact that nobody can access and change the leading data base of that domain name you are using. This is possible because InterNIC is dealing with the leading data base, together with the domain name registrars. In the end, the domain name registrars are in charge of everything when it comes to registering a domain name. And if you are wondering what the leading data base might be, here is the answer. The leading database is a database which contains the entire necessary documentation on all the domain names registered until the date you register too.

Another thing you should be aware of is the fact that some domain name registrars sometimes happen to be out of the list. It is most likely that these registrars are actually taking hold for registering a domain name and they are in the end reselling the domain name for the accredited domain name registrar.

But these kinds of registrars don’t do this registering thing for free. In most cases they state their fee for registering domain names. The price is actually a fee paid every year which is usually paid by the domain name holders and consumers. These domain name registrars are also offering some discounts for those who will register for longer than a year. The longest period of domain name registration is maximum 10 years.

In conclusion, registering domain names has become a very common thing to do. You just have to pay the fee and there you are: you have registered for a domain name!

For an established site to facilitate the buying and selling of domain names, domain name ownership , domain names trading just visit us.

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Domain names are relatively straightforward! Or at least that’s the theory!!

The domain name is also, but technically not quiet correct, known as the website address.

Using an ISP’s domain name can look amateurish in an e-mail addresses, it is much more so with websites, giving the impression of hanging on another’s coat tails. The only exception being when a firm wants to re-inforce a local or professional affiliation by appearing as part of an existing site dedicated to a region or association. Even in such cases autonomy and continuity are better assured by having one’s own domain and merely using a page on the third party’s site to point users toward it.

Domains are classified according to their endings or “suffixes”. As a commercial organisation a company will almost certainly want a domain ending in .com or .co.uk. Other endings such as .biz and .ltd.uk are at least to date, insufficiently familiar to users, meaning the name can be too readily misremembered. Of the two desirable suffixes, .com is preferable for business with international activities, and arguably gives the impression of a bigger organisation, whilst .co.uk helps reassure users on the largely American-dominated web that they are indeed dealing with a UK firm.

The part of the domain name before the suffix will usually by the firms trading name, provided of course that the domain name has not already been registered, (which is increasingly likely these days). If the name is very long an abbreviation may be considered. Domain names are not case sensitive.

The actual registration of a domain name is a straightforward process that can be done online, either through your ISP or better still through a dedicated registration service company such as Discount Domains Ltd (http://www.discountdomainsuk.com). Renewal fees must be paid, typically every two years.

Checking if a domain name is freely available is very straightforward as most domain registration services provide a WHOIS service, as the name suggest, this checks the ownership details of a domain, note however that such services normally run 48 hours behind actual registrations.

Moving ISP’s can save money, however it may take time and incur extra charges. Pricing in the domain name registration industry have fallen considerably over recent years and a domain name typically now costs from $15 for two years registration.

Once your domain name is registered, you can either leave the domain name “parked” awaiting future use, or point it at a website, this is usually achieved by changing the Domain Name Server, or DNS settings on the domain to point at hosting company where your website is located. Almost all registration services offer a free user control panel to change these settings.

Web hosting is the provision of space on a web server to publish a web site. There are numerous hosting companies in the market, and most domain registration services also offer a hosting solution. Prices vary but $100 per annum should be sufficient for most business needs.

(C) Clare Lawrence 11th May 2004

About The Author

Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd - A leading UK provider of Domain name registration and Web Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com.

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Picking a domain name should be easy, right? Why, I’ll just use my business name. Not so fast, Sparky. A good bit of thought should be given to selecting a domain name.

A Cautionary Note

Picking a domain name is like getting married. You are going to have to stick with it till the bitter end. People that use your site will come to know it by the domain name. Repeat visitors will often simply type in the domain name to get to the site, better known as “type in traffic”. As an example, do you search for “Amazon” when you want to buy a book or do simply type in amazon.com? If Amazon were to change its domain name to Desert, there would be a lot of confusion. The same goes with your domain. Once you pick something, stick with it.

Your Choices

Well, the obvious choice is your business name, but it may not be the best. There are four significant issues to consider.

First, is there something about your business name that makes using it as a domain an unwise choice? This situation typically arises if you have a long business name or have plural words. “Halstatt’s Rip’n Marketing Campaigns, Inc.” is going to be a horrible domain name. Clients are going to find it difficult to type in such a domain name.

Double letter problems are a second issue that is entirely unique to the Internet. What if Sams Salon wants to use its business name as a domain? The “s” at the end of first word and beginning of the second can cause confusion. Is the domain name Samssalon.com or Samsalon.com? Confusing your users is a bad way to run a site.

The third issue concerns the nature of your site and search engine optimization. If you are shooting for a particular keyword phrase, you may be better off using that keyword phrase in your domain name. Google, for instance, looks at the domain name when evaluating a site. If the words in your domain name are spaced with dashes, many believe it will help in the ranking process. This is why you see so many xxx-xxxx-xxx.com domain names on the net. If your business focuses on a very specific area, strong consideration should be given to using relevant keywords in your domain name.

Finally, your domain name should end in “.com” and I don’t want to hear any argument or see any rolling of the eyes. The simple fact is that when people think of sites, they always type in .com. Yes, there are other extensions and .us, .net, .biz, etc., may seem unique, but it kills your traffic. Pavlov and his dog experiments had it right. People have been mentally conditioned to type in .com, so don’t select any other ending. If you do, a smart competitor will register the .com version of your name to get some free traffic. If you are really lucky, a porn site will do it!

Take a breath before you select a domain name. Like a spouse, it can be either a good or bad choice.

Halstatt Pires is with the Internet marketing firm - www.marketingtitan.com - a San Diego Internet marketing and advertising company.

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Are you looking to start your very own website? But need a name first? well you will need to start first off with the process of registering a domain name.
So were do you star? what do you do? It all seems so difficult for the average internet user, but in reality is very simple and most just need a few basic steps and they can do it themselfs.
Below are the basic steps needed in order to get a domain name and set it up.
There is not that much to know about domain name registration. below is the steps you will need to follow to have yourself a domain name up and running.
go to a domain name registration site search for a domain name that is available for registration see how much each domain name registration site is charging. it can range from $8 - $15 for a .com .net .org and can get even higher if you want to register a .ca domain name or .us etc.
once you have chosen the domain name company you need to see if they provide free hosting, if they do not then you will need to look into website hosting which is a totally new topic in itself
you are now ready to pay and go ahead:)
now you may need to be patient with the domain name registration process some companies have the domain registered and up and ready to go in minutes others take several hours
now if the domain name company has provided hosting with the domain name you will not have to do anything else except upload your web pages to the newly registered domain name
if the domain name company has not provide free hosting you will need to change the domain name dns settings to point to your web hosting company
the hosting company that you chose will provide you with the dns information to point your domain name to
you are now done and ready to go! be sure to check out http://www.thinkdomains.net for more simple domain name tips and tricks!

Webmaster of www.thinkdomains.net and www.doggies.ca also www.doggypost.com and have been creating web content for over 5 years.

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How important is domain registration and hosting to your website? As I have looked into the creation of websites, both for myself or for a business, it has become crystal clear that one of the most important steps in the process is the domain registration and hosting. I was always taught to take things one step at a time, and without those first two steps in the process, your website will be marginal at best.

Good domain registration and hosting is going to cost you money, but it is worth it. When you go with a free domain or hosting service, you do not end up with your own domain name. The idea is to have the address of your website in the format of http://yourname.com or http://yourcompanyname.com rather than one that is generic to a free domain registration and hosting service.

The first step in domain registration and hosting is to choose a domain name. Your domain name is that web address that you want. The registration should not cost more than five to ten dollars for a year. Just get on line and check out the various services to find the price you can afford to get the domain name you want, as long as it is available. Remember, the choice of what domain name to use for your website is one of the most important things you are going to do for it.

In the domain registration and hosting process, choose a domain name that is not only descriptive of your website, but also easy for people or customers to remember. Try to choose a domain name that is going to also be useable as a keyword so that it will show up higher in web searches. As an example, if your website is about squirrels, then you might check to see if http://squirrel.com is available or something along those lines. You may even try variations like http://squirrellover.com or something like that.

Once you have the domain name registered, the next step in the domain registration and hosting process is to find someone who can host your website. A hosting service will actually place your website on the internet for you at the address you have registered. It is good practice to use two different companies: one for your hosting and one for your domain registration. That way if you part company with your website hosting company, you will still have easy control of your domain name. It is just better not to have all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to your personal website.

Domain registration and hosting is a crucial part of developing a presence on the internet for yourself or your company. It is tempting to go with a free service so that you can get up and running as quickly and easily as possible, but the best thing you can do to properly market and draw traffic to your website is to take the time to make your domain registration and hosting a priority so that you get the domain you want and a hosting service that will best fit your needs.

If you would like to read more of my online articles, please feel free to visit my domain registration!

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Once you are comfortable with working online, you should buy a domain name for your site or sites. Domain name registration, if you do it right, is one of the key components of having your site rate high in the search engines. The right domain name is memorable, and can get your site to rank higher than other names. The wrong domain name won’t do you any good at all.

The Basics of Domain Name Registration

The first thing you have to do is come up with a good domain name for registration. Don’t even think about a one-word domain name; they’re all gone at this point. Instead, come up with dual-word combos. If you’re putting together a professional site, try your name before anything else.

Don’t get fancy with spelling when selecting your domain name registration, or use 2s and 8s to represent their sounds. You can try the number 1; that sometimes works. You can also try the names of products you offer, or a description of your site content offerings: Romanceforgirls, popcornpalace, fluffykittens. Memorable is always better; short and memorable is best, but very difficult to accomplish.

Come up with a couple of dozen names that will do for your site, and test them on a registry. Don’t buy a domain name for which the .com extension is gone, but you have access to the .net or .info. These domain names are not by any means as valuable as the .com. If you pick up the .com, though, and you expect the site to be lucrative or have a lot of competition, it’s not a bad idea to pick up the other extensions as well. Domain name registration is NOT expensive, and if you register in bulk you can get an even better price.

The .UK Extension

This doesn’t mean you should avoid anything but .com. If you have a business in the United Kingdom, you have access to the .uk domain name set, which UK customers are likely to look at before anything else for UK-specific businesses.

If you anticipate most of your business will come from British customers who are aware your business is in Britain, the .uk extension may be a better choice than the .com; and if your customers are unhappy with Internic’s control of Internet domain registration or they are very pro-Britain, the .uk extension is certainly a better choice.

If you’re fortunate enough to find both extensions for your domain open, and if you run a British company, it doesn’t cost much to buy them both, and you definitely should.

It also gives your online presence an immediate “identity” geographically which can be crucial in building online relationships- where trust is a key component. By being a .UK domain, you are very likely to gain UK clients.

The .UK domains market is one of the fastest growing and lucrative registration areas on the internet.

Tips for Domain Name Registration

Have a website ready to plunk into your domain as soon as you buy it, and submit it immediately to the search engines. The search engines take time to index new sites and your domain name registration is only as valuable as the search engines make it.

You can also have more than one domain name pointing at a single site. If you’ve bought multiple extensions for your domain name (as in the previously-suggested .com/.uk combination), you can set up your site under one domain name and then direct traffic from the others to the main site. This is called web traffic forwarding and has been around for years. It may be as simple as parking your domain name on a server and putting a line of code on the page, or as complex as going through another website to use their online web forwarding services.

When you do register a domain and start building traffic to it, go out and renew for multiple years before your renewal is due. It is surprisingly easy to forget to register your domain name on time, and if someone else sneaks in and registers it, you’ve just lost a ton of work on that domain.

By making your domain name memorable, you will help other webmasters remember your site easily when building anchor texts in their links- a crucial component of SEO.

Final tip: don’t just think about price when looking for a domain registration company- also think about quality of service. While you shouldn’t be paying over the odds, it really is better to be safe than sorry and go with the more established registrars. Then you can have peace of mind that should any problems arise, you will be well looked after.

Adrian Lawrence is the webmaster for www.discountdomainsuk.com a leading Domain Registration Service

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