Tips For Buying Your Next Domain Name

A domain name is the website address. It is the location of the site on the web. There are millions of different domains on the web each one is unique. No two addresses are the same. When you go to get a website, you will have to choose a name for your site. You will want to have this name related to what your website is going to be about. You can make several variations of the website name to find an available name.

There are many different extensions of domain names. You can get a .com or a .net or even an .info with the same first name. There are others but these are the most popular of the locators for any web site.

So when you decide on getting a website and a domain name you will want to first check to see if you can get it in a .com extension. The next popular extension is .net. You can purchase both of them if you have a unique name that you don't want someone else to purchase and use that name with a different extension.

If the name you want isn't available you can add a hyphen in the name. This can be complicated when people are typing in the URL of the website. Always try to get the name without a hyphen. Usually when you choose a name and it is not available they will give you other options of different variations of the names.

There are still many great domain names available for you to purchase and you will be able to find the perfect name for your new site.

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Why Choosing a Good Domain Name is Important

Choosing the right domain name can potentially make or break an Internet marketing business. After all, not only is the domain name the first clue that any human visitor, and each visitor to your website is a potential cash-paying customer, but it is also the first identifying feature that most search engines have to judge your site by.

Sure, there are people who make money online with a domain name such as x7y.com or whatever, but those tend to be the exceptions rather than the rule. Those who DO succeed in this manner either have a compelling product, a great advertising campaign, or some other factor which influences their success in spite of the strange URL which does not tell a visitor anything about their site.

The fact is, that people on the Internet are usually looking for information. If they are looking for bicycle parts, they are more likely to be attracted to a domain name which includes the phrase "bicycle parts", or at least "bicycle" than one that just has a string of letters or which is vaguely identified as "bobs" website. Of course, one place where this can be refuted is in the instance where the person or company has acquired name recognition, i.e. branding, so that people know what they are looking at. For example, most people seeing ibm.com would have a good idea that this site is going to give them info about IBM, copiers, computers, and related subjects.

However, most of us are not that lucky, or famous, that we can just assume that everyone, human or search engine, is going to know what our name stands for and automatically go to our website.

It is for this reason that most Internet marketing courses attempting to explain why choosing a good domain name is important, will recommend that you attempt to select a domain name which in some way reflects either the basic business you are in, or specifically as possible defines the product you are trying to sell.

This is where the Internet marketer has to make some decisions.

For example, let's say a company called "Dawn's Fitness" has some great exercise and weight loss products. However, Dawn's name is not going to arouse a lot of interest, so, throwing pride to the side, Dawn decides to incorporate the words "fitness" or perhaps "weight loss" into her domain name. As she begins her search, she realizes that all the best variations on "fitness" and "weight loss" have been used up on the dot com's and dot net's.

In order to make her domain name stand out, Dawn now has to figure out some way to incorporate these words into her URL. She can try some variations such as "fitness101", "fitnessbydawn", "fitnessweightlosshome", "fitness-weight-loss-home", or some other variation or combination. She may realize that she offers some sort of "crunch-master" machine and that people seeking fitness info sometimes use the word "crunch" (for non-exercisers, a crunch is an exercise for abdominal muscles) and put that into her domain name.

That may or may not work, but Dawn will not know until she tries it...and incorporates as many search engine optimization steps as possible, or pays for some high class advertising, or just gets lucky.

Since the dot com's and dot net's are taken, Dawn might be able to find another extension, such as .us, .ws, or .tv, just to name a few One of them may still have the domain name she wants available as everybody has been concentrating on the com's and net's. This use of a less well known extension may penalize Dawn a little bit, but these extensions are becoming better known daily, and the ability to choose the right domain name may be more important than the theoretical drawback of having a not-well-known extension on the end.

As pointed out earlier, a human looking for information is going to look for a word in the domain name which has something to do with his or her search. The search engine robot (spider) will generally do the same. Both the human and the robot will generally compare the word or words in the domain name with the information included in the website content to assign a value, for the search engine, a ranking, to the web page.

So, our original question was "Why is choosing a good domain name important?" The answer is; because it is one of the first and can be one of the most important search engine optimization techniques you can select.

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Tips For Choosing Effective and Successful Domain Names

Choosing domain names for websites you may want to create is not as simple as handing a domain registrar your money. There are many things to consider when you begin your search for a name that will accurately reflect the site you create.

Perhaps you are building a website for a company that already exists, or it may be that you are purchasing a domain for the sole purpose of investing in internet "real property." Either way, you will want a name that holds the capacity to offer real value to the internet and web users.

* Business Names and Copyrights: If your business name is available and it is how you prefer to brand your products, it might be a good domain choice. However, be aware of whether your business name may infringe on any other business names or copyrights that may exist. Purchasing a domain with the same name as a popular soft drink could earn you some big bucks, or conversely it could cause a big headache.

* Easy to Remember and Type: Keep in mind the short attention span of web users when choosing your name. You want it to be easy to remember so they can recall your site's name if they later want to refer your URL to a friend. Keeping it short and easy to type (i.e. avoiding mixing letters and numbers) will help users find you faster.

* Misspellings and Slang: Many websites purposely misspell their domain or use slang, as a part of their branding. However, domain registrars sell names with unintentional misspellings on a daily basis. A surefire way to doom your business is to have a web address that is misspelled.

* Be Creative and Have Fun: Overall, it is important to have fun when exploring name options. Web users love creativity, and it often lends itself to the fun and enjoyment of visitors to your site, perhaps resulting in an increase in traffic when web users stop by just to see what the buzz is all about.

Domain names can be highly professional or downright questionable, and either may be appropriate for your needs. Many highly popular websites herald a name that has no definition or meaning, but that gave the site owner the opportunity to create a new brand and therefore stand out among others in the sea of internet domains.

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Free Domain Names

When most people start on the Internet and are just dipping their feet in the water, so to speak, they want to try web development for themselves. Many people like to build a simple personal or hobby related web page. In these cases they don't want to pay for a domain name and hosting so they search for free alternatives.

What many people don't know is that there are many free domain name alternatives available, but there are compromises you will have to make if you want one. Most free domain names have a slightly odd looking domain extension such as .cc or .tk. This will be fine for a personal site, but can look very unprofessional as a business web site! Many of these type of domains are supported by advertising or require a link back to another page. Another downside is that you will be relying on a free service, which could be unreliable at times and will most likely not offer any customer support.

Sometimes the best option is to get your very own sub-domain from a popular blogging or web 2.0 service like blogger or squidoo. In most cases you can find a domain with the keyword you are looking for and the sub-domain does not look overly tacky. These options also provide hosting for your site as well, which makes them very popular.

There are other ways of getting a more legitimate looking domain name for free, but this relies on you completing offers or surveys to qualify. There is a good chance that these companies will clog up your inbox with spam and they are notoriously unreliable. This is not a method that many people recommend, but it can be an option if you really don't want to pay the cost of a domain registration.

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Why Your Domain Name is Critical to Online Success

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names…Chinese Proverb

How do you choose a good domain name? Why should you fuss and bother so much over the agonizing process? Is it really that important to “get it right?” Every day I hear business owners pondering this question. Over and over the mantra is “I need a good domain name but all the good ones are taken!”

Choosing a domain name that captures your business brand, is optimized for local search, and is scalable for your growing and rapidly changing business needs can seem overwhelming. Does it have to be that difficult a process for such an important task? NO! As a matter of fact, it is a lot easier than you think if you follow a few common sense tricks and traits and implement a little creativity in the process.

Basically, selecting a domain name requires employing the following critera:

· Must be easy to spell in order to avoid confusion

· Easy to pronounce/read

· Free from .info or .biz tld’s that are difficult to remember

· Uses no hypens, underlines or dots between words and letters

· Short so it is easy to remember

· Does not have words that end with one letter that is also the first letter of the next word (ie: firsttimeecommerce.com)

· Is easily brandable

If you have any friends who are really good at games like Scrabble or Boggle or are champion crossword puzzle solvers, it can be a useful exercise to have them help you with the naming conventions for your site. Keep in mind, when you create your domain name for your website you are creating the one thing that has the single most long-term impact on your eventual site traffic. Choose well! Whatever name you choose will reside not only on the web but on your business cards, letterhead, invoices, and any other PR material you decide to generate. It must be easy to give verbally over the phone and in conversation so make sure it is easy to spell and say intelligibly. Select a domain name that makes sense and is easy to remember.

In the days of strictly brick and mortar businesses naming your company relied heavily on originality. You had to make sure your business’ name was nothing like your competitor’s so your business stood apart. It is not that much different today! Now you want to make sure your domain name communicates who and what you are all about, is ‘brandable,’ and works as a solid email address too. That way you are marketing even when you send out emails.

According to Ries and Trout in their books, “Positioning: The Battle of Your Mind” and “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing,” domain name selection is a form of positioning. It is often the first point of contact that consumers have with you and your marketing messages. It is subliminally critical, according to Ries, to make a positive first contact with your target audience. Your name must convey specific information that is categorized from the consumer perspective. For example, when people look for car repair shops do they look under the word “auto” or “automotive”? Do they look for a “dental” or “dentist”? Think like a consumer and how they will search for your business and how will they remember your name again and again when you select your domain name.

How do you make your name easily located, remembered, and differentiated from the hundreds of thousands of others on the Internet? Differentiation is important but the real goal is to attract the greatest number of potential customers to your site. By incorporating the right balance of keywords, geo-targeting, and branding you can potentially dominate your market with just a little effort.

Keywords are the trigger words that the local search engines use in combination with a few other SEO tricks to assign your site a “position” in web directory listings. Keywords are similar to categories in that they are the words and phrases used by consumers who are seeking information on the Internet. Geo-targeting is a physical location associated with your business. The search engines know where you are located and through the consumer’s IP address he/she is using to search a directory on the internet the internet knows where they are located geographically. Many searches on Google will generate a search result that has a map with local listings followed by “normal” search engine listings related to the search phrases used. The businesses that show in the map list all have geographical relevance to the search. These things all become linked to the naming conventions you employ when creating your domain name. For example, if you have a The Pizza Palace in Seattle and you sell gourmet pizzas you should seriously consider selecting a domain name that incorporates keywords, geo-target and branding elements: GourmetPizzaPalaceSeattle.com or Seattlegourmetpizzapalace.com

The name is somewhat alliterative (Pizza Palace) so it is easy to remember, has a geo-target (Seattle), and keywords (Seattle, gourmet pizza, pizza). It is also not too long and easy to read. It is critical to try and strike a balance when trying to incorporate all three of these elements in selecting a domain name. As long as it is catchy and easy to remember and strikes that balance you can’t help but have a winner on your hands. The right domain name is worth its weight in gold.

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Easyspace launch Indefinite Reduction on domain names

Hosting News - Glasgow, UK - Easyspace, one of the largest web hosting and domain name providers in the UK, has launched an Indefinite Reduction across the majority of domain name extensions offered on the Easyspace.com website.

The Indefinite Reduction applies to more than 30 domain extensions, including some of the most popular currently available such as .com, .co.uk, .net, .org, .mobi and .eu.

The Easyspace domain registration tools have always been known for their flexibility, offering a general search facility as well as a keyword search tool and a domain auction search tool where you can find domains being sold privately from around the world.

Now, with a lower cost attached to this flexibility, domains quite literally have never been easier to search for and register.

“Price changing is always a sensitive issue but taking account of the current climate and considering the loyalty we have from our customer base, we felt the time was right to expand what used to be a monthly offer on a single extension to an indefinite reduction across more than 30 extensions.” commented Errol Vanderhorst, Sales and Marketing Director for Easyspace.

“Customer no longer need to worry about adding extra extensions to their portfolios because the cost of doing is now cheaper.”

The domain reduction comes quick after the recent launch of the highly anticipated .tel domain extension, with Easyspace being one of the few UK companies offering it during its Landrush period.

To find out more visit www.easyspace.com.

Internet Domain Names Can Reap Big Rewards for Small Business

(Long Island, N.Y.) Most small businesses these days have a better understanding of the importance of having a web site to compete in this new internet-savvy consumer space. Companies who have tried to delay their move towards the Internet are warming up to the fact that if your business is not online - you’re very likely to go out of business in the near future.

You do not have too look far to find many reports that advertising in the print Yellow Pages or other print publications has changed forever from one of the best ways to advertise to one of the worst in just a few years. (Bill Gates on local advertising: Yellow Pages gone in 5 years) (Quit wasting money on Yellow Page advertising by Peter Fernandez, D.C.) This is because more and more people are using the Internet to find a business listing and this use is forecasted to increase expeditiously over the next few years. For small businesses, finding a way to appear higher on these Internet search engine pages has become a no brainer. Registering a good domain name can be the answer.

It’s like the real estate agents’ mantra: location, location, location. You’ve certainly heard the phrase enough. Your location will define your businesses success and as more businesses move their companies products and services online, a domain name and web site effectively becomes your location for doing business. The name you choose can have a tremendous effect on that businesses brand awareness, sales volume, and revenue.

Unlike brick and mortar real estate, purchasing a domain name involves little hassle and is surprisingly simple and inexpensive. There are no closing costs or lender requirements when purchasing your little slice of pie in the sky. Of course you can manage to find some premium names out there for sale that could cost you thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to get hold of, but generally, registering a new domain name is quite easy and can be done for as little as $9.00 at many domain sales web sites. If and when you register a domain you’ll be ready to place you business in one of the three “locations”. An excellent location, a mediocre location or a lousy location. Choosing the right name can make all the difference.

Picking the domain that’s right for your business should be done sooner rather than later as each passing day yields less domains which are available for registration. According a tool available by Name Intelligence Inc, statistics show that as of this writing there are currently 78,854,626 active .com domain names with 123,855 which have been registered within the last 24 hours. This makes finding the right name for small businesses pretty high on the priority list.

So how do you pick and choose the right name for your business without spending a fortune? Well, if you’re a painter you can pretty much rule out the opportunity for registering a premium domain like painter.com as most every name like this example is already registered. But if your business involves painting and you’re located on or service the Long Island area specifically you might want to try a more targeted niche or locality and register a domain like longislandpainter.com, if it’s not available try the plural version longislandpainter(s).com. Either way, you want to try and get keywords like these which tailor to your business or services into your domain name if your looking to do well in the search engines for those keywords. A lot of research has been done over the years on this and results have shown that keywords in your domain do play a significant role in where your site pops up on the search engines. These are some of the fundamental secrets to grabbing yourself a great domain name. Make it easy to remember, spell, and type while having your important keywords in it.

Reselling a domain name could also yield huge profits. Domain name reselling has expanded, and many domain resellers are now stand-alone internet businesses. Domain name auctions can provide a reseller with a means to buy and sell premium domains, and a savvy investor can build a successful business around the right generic domain properties.
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