How to Purchase and Configure a Domain Name

Posted on August 24, 2010 by admin



If you are new to the web, you will quickly find out that getting a domain name is essential to your online presence. It is almost always easy to come up with a good domain name for your business or website because many times you already have a name for your business or website. Finding and purchasing the domain name can be another story. There are many different companies and places you can go to get a domain name. The three major places to get a domain name would be a domain reseller like hostgator, directly from a domain registrar like tucows or godaddy, or from an easy website builder. Choosing one these is what I will help you to do.

How do you get from purchasing a domain name to being able to view your website files on that domain name? This is a major question that you need to be able to answer before you go and purchase your domain name.

If you purchase the domain name from a domain registrar like Godaddy, you will be responsible for setting up the dns to get your website up and running. Many times, this means sifting through pages of settings to find what you need and sometimes sifting through help documents to find how it is supposed to be done. This can be especially difficult because you have to have and IP address, nameservers, or other record from your hosting company before you even get started.

When you purchase your domain name from a domain reseller, you are often in the same boat as if you bought it directly from a domain registrar. Many times, you are charged more and receive nothing additional. Some domain resellers charge a premium but they will also assist you in configuring your domain name for your website, email addresses, etc… This helps you avoid some of the problems but you are still responsible for providing your hosting information so that they can configure it properly.

Purchasing your domain name through an easy website builder will be the quickest and least painful situation. When you build a free website, you can simply add a domain name to your website. It is as quick and easy as it gets. You simply check to see if your domain name is taken, then choose one. As soon as it is registered, you own the domain name, your website is configured to that domain name, and your email addresses are set up with the domain name that you just chose. This leaves all of the technical knowledge to the company and makes life easier for you.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I believe that going through an easy website builder will be the easiest and quickest way for you to get a domain name working. In most cases, it is the quickest and easiest ways to build a website as well so you can’t go wrong.

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The Mistakes that Internet Marketers Make When Choosing Domain Names

Posted on July 20, 2010 by admin



Having your own site or pool of people to make famous on the Internet can be quite an exhilarating experience, and it is this exhilarating experience that Internet marketers go through almost every day, if not every hour. Because of the vast landscape that is the Internet in terms of tastes, demographics, and age; and because of the rapidly changing face of these same tastes, demographics, and age, Internet marketing can be a challenge. Internet marketers have to be constantly updated on trends in the market: what words do people respond to quickly? Does a long domain name mean uniqueness or will it turn people off and annoy them?

These are only a few questions that Internet marketers ask when it comes to choosing a domain name for a site. A domain name is simply the short hand URL of a website, and it can be followed by a dot com, dot net, dot org, or dot biz, depending on the nature of the company that owns the domain name; for an extra fee, companies or businesses affiliate themselves with their countries and thus have an extra extension at the end of their domain names. The short hand can be as obvious as dot US (for U.S.-based companies) or dot UK (for companies based in Great Britain); or it can be more attuned to the country’s old spelling, such as dot DE (for companies based in Germany, or Deutschland, to the Germans) and dot hr (for companies based in Croatia, or Hrvatska).

Choosing a domain name can be fairly easy, but then again, a domain name is also the name that a company will bear for quite a long time online. It needs to be short enough so that it can still be picked out as unique amongst all the other domain names out there; and needs to be long enough that it can still allow people to know what the company or business is without them forgetting what the URL is at all. There are many ways that Internet marketers can go wrong when choosing a domain name, and sometimes, it’s all a matter of common sense.

Domain Name Choosing Myth Number 1: The Shorter it is, the Better. This is not always the case: with people scrambling all over the World Wide Web for a short domain name, your short domain name can get lost in the Internet muck of domain names. If you are only one domain name amongst the many, you’ll have an even harder time standing out unless you are already a well-founded company with a solid following offline.

Domain Name Choosing Myth Number 2: A Dot Com is Always Better. Remember, you choose your domain name extensions for a reason, not for a money hunting season. Take on a dot com if you are a commercial firm; if you are a private individual, you can also take on a dot com, but you might not find yourself on the receiving end of the money that you might want if you take on dot net or dot biz. A dot net extension is for networks, a dot biz for businesses; there are also dot govs, for government institutions, dot edu for educational institutions, and dot org for organizations. Remember, your domain name identifies you, so pick the right domain name extension.

Domain Name Choosing Myth Number 3: Sex Sells! Well, not all domain names are sexed-up of course, but sometimes, overweening Internet marketers tend to think that sexy names will make domain names even more interesting. If you’re selling lingerie and sexy outfits, then by all means, go for pretty-lacy-encounters dot com. But if you’re not, save your dignity and look for a domain name that speaks about you, not your wish to apply desperately to the basest instincts of people if only to make money.

Domain Name Choosing Myth Number 4: Txt Speling S Nyc. Watch your spelling and don’t go Net-Speak on your domain name! Remember, if you can’t spell it right, people may actually look at you as someone who can’t do anything else right. True, you may sound hip to the younger crowd, but are you sure that you want to keep your poorly spelled domain for the long haul when your market finally grows up and discovers the power of good spelling?

These are only a few tips that you might want to keep in mind when choosing a domain name. Choose a name for your site as you would choose a name for your child: you want your kid to have fun on the playground and not get picked on; you want to make money online, and not get laughed at.

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How, Why and Where to Buy Effective Domain Names For Your Business

Posted on July 17, 2010 by admin



What You Will Learn

- why you need a domain name
- why the right domain name is important to your business
- how to choose the most effective domain name for your business
- how to choose the best variations of your domain name (even if you already own a domain name)
- where to buy and host a domain name
- domain name terminology

Why Buy a Domain Name?

A memorable domain name is a valuable asset for your business. It will allow people to find your Web site more easily, but more importantly, it establishes you as a serious business owner, not a starving wannabe or even a shady character!

I’m always dismayed to see small businesses trying to establish themselves online with domain names that obviously came with a free hosting account. They have URL’s like geocities.com/seattletowing or members.shaw.ca/giftbaskets. URL’s like these immediately mark these businesses as “struggling, not likely to survive.”

If this is you, please go and buy a good domain name right away! People like to do business with companies they believe are successful. And on the Web, you can look successful quite easily. That’s how most of us started online. We looked successful long before we became successful, and nobody was any the wiser.

Probably the cheapest thing you will buy for your business is its domain name! Please don’t try to save $5.99 USD a year by using the URL provided by a free hosting account.

IMPORTANT: People think they can’t use their own domain name if they’re using free hosting space on their local ISP. This is not true! A domain name can be parked with the registrar and pointed at any other URL on the Internet.

Tip: Domain names are bought from domain name “registrars.” Later in this article I’ll tell you which registrars sell inexpensive domain names.

What’s in a Name?

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” – William Shakespeare

Unfortunately, it’s not that simple when it comes to domain names. If you could choose any old domain name and have your Web site “smell as sweet,” there wouldn’t be people buying and selling domain names for thousands of dollars!

So, how do you choose the right domain name?

Let’s pretend our business is called Smith & Sons Towing Company and we’re located in Seattle, Washington, USA.

1. Always buy your full company/business name, if you can. The “&” sign cannot be used in domain names. We need to replace it with “and,” so we’ll buy smithandsonstowingcompany.com.

2. Then buy the nickname or short version you usually go by. In our case, smithandsonstowing.com. If we can get smithandsons.com, we will buy that, too, but it’s not likely we’ll find that still available.

Tip: Buy whatever versions of your company name that you can find as a .com. Don’t worry about any other extensions like .net or .org. If you can’t find your business name as a .com, then look for your country extension. Example: smithandsonstowing.ca, smithandsonstowing.co.uk.

If you are a charity, you can also buy the .org version. If you are a telecommunications company, you can also buy the .net version. Forget any other extensions like .biz, .info, etc.

If you can ONLY get the .org or .net versions of your company name, buy them, but be aware that this is not the best choice. Everyone types .com at the end of a domain name automatically. In our hypothetical case, customers may end up at a dead end or on someone else’s Web site if they type in smithandsonstowing.COM and we bought smithandsonstowing.NET!

3. Buy keyword-rich domain names. In addition to buying our company name, we need to help people find our Web site when they don’t know our business by name. One good option is to buy some keyword-rich domain names like seattletowingcompany.com and seattle-towing-company.com. If we buy both versions we can keep the competition from buying a similar domain name to ours. Also, search engines will read the version with hyphens as separate words, which will help drive traffic to our Web site.

But first, to find the best keyword-rich domain names we need to know what people are using to search for companies like ours. A free tool to use to locate this information is WordTracker.com.

When we do a search on “towing,” we get too many generic terms and too many other cities. When we do a search on “seattle towing,” we see that the top number of searches are actually for “towing seattle.” If we can scoop the domain names towingseattle.com and towing-seattle.com, we’ve done our business a great service. If we can’t, we’ll try to keep the same word order, but buy a longer domain name, like a1-towing-seattle.com or aaa-towing-seattle.com.

4. Buy domain names that come near the beginning of the alphabet. Why would we choose “A1″ or “AAA,” instead of “fast,” “best,” “cheap,” etc. as the first word in our keyword-rich domain name? Because, if we have the choice, we should try to get a domain name that falls as close to the beginning of the alphabet as possible. A1 and AAA both mean “best,” but they put us at the top of any towing directory online, whereas, “best” does not.

Note: Numbers come before all letters in an alphabetical directory listing. So 123towingcompany.com will be listed before aaatowingcompany.com.

Tip: If your domain name doesn’t start with a “A” or with a number, buy one that does. Then use that domain name as your business name for online directories you advertise in. This will put you at the top of the list alphabetically.

5. Buy the plural or singular of words in your domain name that people are likely to type incorrectly. So, if your company name is Adventure Cruise Company and your short domain name is adventureCRUISE.com, also buy adventureCRUISES.com!

6. Avoid confusing spelling in your domain name. Example: If your company name is Logic Computer Company, don’t spell “logic” with a zero instead of an “oh” in your domain name. If you cannot get your actual company name, choose a keyword-rich domain name instead.

7. Avoid odd hyphenation. Hyphenate all or none of the words in your domain name (buy both versions). In our case, a1towingseattle.com and a1-towing-seattle.com are both better domain names than a1-towingseattle.com. The only reason to buy domain names with odd hyphenation would be to keep the competition from buying them.

8. Look for short, memorable domain names. Short domain names are scarce, but not impossible to find. People will remember a short domain name better and they will make fewer mistakes when typing it. For instance, ablewebs.com is better than ablewebswebdesigncompany.com.

Tip: Visually, a long domain name is better when hyphenated: able-webs-web-design-company.com. If I had to buy a long domain name, I would buy it with and without hyphens, and I would use the hyphenated version on my business cards, letterhead, advertising, etc.

9. Capitalize the first letter of each word when you put your URL on any advertising media, including your email signature, classified ads, business cards, letterhead, etc. Example: A1TowingSeattle.com is easier to read than a1towingseattle.com.

10. Buy misspellings of your company name or keywords. For instance, if your company name is Debra’s Doughnuts, try to buy deborahsdoughnuts.com, debrasdonuts.com, etc. to cover all possible spellings of Debra and doughnuts.

Where Do I Buy My Domain Names?

Cheap Domain Names

To register a .com domain name, go to 1and1.com. You can get domain names there for $6.99 USD a year! My personal favourite registrar is GoDaddy.com. Domains are sometimes on sale, but their regular price is $9.99 USD. I like GoDaddy simply because their interface is easy to use. NameCheap.com sells domains at $9.69 USD. Moniker.com sells them at $8.02 USD.

There are ways to buy even cheaper domain names, but sometimes these sites can be confusing for the uninitiated. However, if you want to save a few bucks, try BustAName.com. They resell domain names from GoDaddy.com for $6.95 USD.

Country-specific Domain Names

Search online for “domain names [your country],” e.g., “domain names canada.” Then look for the lowest price. As I write this, Netfirms.ca has Canadian domain names for $9.95 CAD per year.

Where Do I Host My Domain Name?

Don’t automatically use the domain name registrar as your hosting company! Instead, do your homework and locate a hosting company with good customer service and a full complement of features included in their basic service. Look for a hosting company that offers cPanel, a common, easy-to-use administration interface.

Here are some quality hosting services. They’re all good, but HostGator has a great reputation in the Internet marketing community.

- HostGator.com
- Host4Profit.com
- 1and1.com
- IXHosting.com

What Do I Do With All These Domain Names?

Domain names can be “parked” free at most registrars and forwarded to your main domain name.

Check your registrar for the option called “Forwarding.” Most registrars offer this service free of charge. This is an important option, so check to make sure you don’t have to pay for it.

Redirect all your secondary domain names to your actual Web site (main domain name). For our example, if we use smithandsonstowing.com as our actual domain name, we will point a1-towing-seattle.com to it. If we prefer, we can even mask the parked domain name so that anyone using it will only see smithandsonstowing.com. They won’t see a1-towing-seattle.com at all once they arrive on our site.

Domain names are cheap. Use the rules above to buy the right domain names to protect your company name and your market niche online.

If you already own a domain name, make sure you have read this article thoroughly so you can go and buy the proper variations.

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Popular Domain Names For Sale

Posted on July 10, 2010 by admin



A domain name is a distinct group of characters or numbers that is assigned to an Internet website. If people are interested in expanding their business on the web, all they have to do is buy a suitable domain name. This will enable them to develop a worldwide clientele and potential customers will also be able to access these websites effortlessly. Web visitors are considered to be the lifelines of online businesses.

New domain-name registrations are considered to have reached their highest quarterly level. Approximately a total of 4.7 million new domain names were registered in the first part of this year. This brought up the total to a record of 63 million. As research indicated this marked a 21 percent increase in registered domain names.

Whether people own an online shopping mart, mortgage lending service, or insurance service, the domain registration companies offer appropriate names. People who are involved in selling software, or vacation packages can earn large coverage by opting for suitable domain names. Individuals can also search the Internet extensively to find some domain names, which are for sale and are listed on major search engines. These sites catch the attention of a large number of people on a regular basis.

The first step to get a domain name is to find a unique domain name at affordable prices on the web. This is done in order to make people aware of online existence. In this present era of cutthroat competition, people need to have an appropriate and effective domain name as back up. A powerful and effective domain name is necessary, for people to be able to achieve their goals.

Online sites give information with regard to domain names for sale and also segregate them according to business domain names for sale, cheap domain names for sale, and top-level domain names for sale. Domain names for sale are also associated with free domain name searches.

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Choosing a Domain Name For Your Online Business

Posted on July 7, 2010 by admin



When building an online business, one of the most important things to consider is your domain name. It really can be something that makes or breaks your business. There are several factors that should consider when choosing a name, and the best name will often depend on what your business does and what kind of traffic you are targeting.

If you are setting up a business where you main traffic will be from advertising, repeat customers, and word of mouth, then it is essential that you have a catchy, simple, easy to remember name. It is best to have a short name, with no dashes or unusually spellings. You are targeting a name that people will remember without having to use a search engine to find. Remember, if a customer has to use a search engine to find you, then you may lose them as other sites are likely to show above yours. A dot com is the extension to go for every time. If you can come up with a name that fits these criteria, it will do wonders for your traffic and revenue.

If your source of traffic will be mainly from search engines, then it is far less important to have a catchy easy to remember name. In this instance, you need to find a name that is keyword rich. That means a name which includes the keywords you are targeting. For example, if you are trying to rank for the term ‘used cars’ then you need a name that has the term ‘used cars’ in it. Doing this will give a large boost to your search engine rankings and generally make it easier to get more traffic form search engines.

Whilst it may seem simple, you will unfortunately find that the majority of the names that you want, have already been registered. Therefore you will either need to be very creative and come up with a name that has not been registered, or you will have to invest money in purchasing the domain name you want from its current owner.

Going back to the used cars example, any domain with just ‘used cars’ in it is likely to be taken, however if you mix in another word, you will often be able to find an available domain. For example, you could try ‘used car store’ or ‘used car site’ and see if they are available. Eventually you will find something, although the name can end up looking a little scruffy and out of context. To get around this, you will need to invest some money. You could contact the owner of domain names that you want, and offer to purchase it from them. You will find that many will be very receptive to offers, particularly if they do not have a website currently uploaded at that domain. Depending on the keywords, asking prices may range from a few hundred dollars to millions of dollars. It can be an expensive business.

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Check With TESS Before You Get Your Business Domain Name

Posted on July 3, 2010 by admin



So you think you’ve found the right domain name for your new online business and you’re getting set to register it. Great! But I suggest you go to one more website before you start spending money. There could be a trademark issue and you don’t need that!

TESS, or the Trademark Electronic Search System is a division of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. TESS has the most up to date listing available on current trademark holders. Simply Google TESS and you’ll be taken to a page with several possible search alternatives. Put in your domain name, your keywords, anything it takes to get back the best information and then hold your breath.

What you want is to be sure that no “likelihood of confusion” exists between your hoped-for domain name and an existing trademark. You can share keywords with other marks but if you think your domain name will be used to sell goods or services similar to an existing trademark then you may want to think about finding another name. You might not have a problem for years, but just when your business is starting to take off (and the competing trademark owner begins to feel it) the lawyers will show up at your door.

If you’re real lucky the TESS search will take you to a page showing no same or similar marks. If you’re only a little lucky the page will display a number of similar marks and you can click on them for details as to the goods and services covered by that mark. Don’t take either page as gospel. As TESS takes pains to point out, not all protected trademarks have been registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and should you decide to register your mark it won’t necessarily be accepted (Note: you won’t get your filing fee of $375 back if you guess wrong).

How then can you be sure you’re not in violation of a trademark? You can’t be. TESS suggests you hire a patent attorney to put the odds in your favor.

Sometimes it pays to do a little research before you buy that perfect business domain name. As the old carpentry saying goes, “measure twice and cut once.” Before you find yourself in an expensive untenable position, go see TESS. And even then, like all business decisions, you’ll have to gamble.

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Reselling Domain Names – A Get Rick Quick Scheme?

Posted on June 19, 2010 by admin



If you even have a slight interest in the domaining business, you know that reselling domain names can be a lucrative business. Many domain registrars and aftermarket services have made millions off the buying and selling of these names.

There are probably more individuals who have absolutely made fortunes picking up domains for cheap, say between $10 – $500 and selling them at rates of return that almost seem illegal.

I once picked up a domain that was free to register for $19.95 and sold it for $4K within 18 months. Try getting that rate of return at the bank or on the stockmarket. Unless you are prepared to sell something illegal, you won’t see that return on investment offered any place.

So with money to be made in this industry, it is no surprise that many people are buying and reselling domain names with the hope of making a killing. Nothing wrong with that – after all – it is the American way.

The problem is that the a lot of names being registered and listed on aftermarket websites are horrible. The end result – no one buys them and the names are either not renewed after a year or renewed for another year with the hope of selling them.

Sure, there are cases where not-so-good names have been sold for a solid profit. But resellers will make profits far more consistently by doing their research and buying relevant names.

By relevant I mean you only register domains that you intend on developing and reselling or domains that have the product or service keyword in them.

Developing a name into a website increases its valuable tremendously and doesn’t cost much to do either. Simply install a free WordPress blog on the domain, add some content and get backlinks to it.

Sooner or later, the domain will start getting traffic so it.So when you resell the name, you can show that it is getting search engine traffic – which makes the name easier to sell.

The alternative to developing the name is reselling domain names that have good keywords in them. So if you want to register a domain for the landscaping industry – look to register a domain that has the word “landscaping” and perhaps a geographic location. So “Nylandscaping dotcom” would be great for a landscaping business in New York.

There is a third alternative for profiting in the domain resale business. You could check out websites that specialize in finding hidden domain gems and offering them to investors at very affordable prices. You could buy a couple domains from those sites and resell them for a good return on aftermarket platforms such as Sedo and TDNAM.

The key of course, is being able to locate these websites.

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Simple Steps to Choose the Right Domain Name

Posted on June 16, 2010 by admin



Choosing the right domain name is probably the most important aspect of any online business. There are many reasons for this. The domain is the word that users type into their browser, it is written on every promotional material, itcould be associated with some product or brand name and is therefore easily remembered–the domain is a unique word that identifies your presence on the web. Therefore choosing the right domain is extremely important.

To register a new domain name you simply go to your favorite registrar and follow steps for registration. Here you can expect the first problem. Your excellent, brandable, hard-to-find, easy-to-remember, fantastic domain is already registered. How is this possible? Very simple, domains are registered on a first come, first serve basis. There are some rules regarding using trade marks and other registered names, but in general, anybody can register any name. If somebody has registered your protected name you can start legal procedures to get this domain. In all other cases you will have to find a new domain.

Besides the domain name itself, you can also choose among different top level domains. Those domains are the start (literally the end) of every domain name. The most popular and widely used is the.com top level domain (TLD). This is purely commercial TLD and is the first association when typing the website’s address into address bar of the web browser. Therefore, this should be your first choice. yourdomain.com should be the first choice when checking availability of domains. If the.com domain is already taken then there are two other universal top level domains -.net (network) and.org (organization). Some prefer.net as a second choice while others go for.org. It is up to you and the purpose of your website. There is also.info TLD but it is not recommended for business websites.

An alternative approach to find a free domain is to add dashes between words like your-domain.com. This might solve your problem but it is not recommended. Users rarely type dashes in the browser’s address bar and names with dashes might look spammy to some search engines.

If you intend to build a website for a specific product or to address some specific service you can crate the domain with the main keywords for your website. For example, cheapusedcars.com could be a domain name for website dedicated to cheap used cars.

The com, net and org top level domains do not specify the origin or target country. These are universal, general purpose domains. You can also select country top level domain. Each country has its own top level domain. If you intend to target only specific country, then this could be a good choice.

When you will start a website, this domain will get identity and value. If you will publish interesting content and promote website, than this will increase the value of the domain. Domain is also a valuable asset. It is not uncommon to sell a domain for few thousand $ or more.

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Welcome to Colorteck Domains

Posted on June 5, 2010 by admin

Here you will learn how to get the best domains for your business…

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Choosing a Domain Name For Your Local Business Website

Posted on May 27, 2010 by admin



If local businesses do not have a presence on the internet, they risk losing customers to their local competitors that do have a website.

More and more consumers are first checking things out on the web before getting in their cars to visit a local business. From restaurants to cleaners, an effective marketing-focused website creates a relationship with potential and current customers.

How does a local business start getting an online presence?

In the beginning there is the name. And, of course, a local business already has a name – the one that’s on the front of the business.

Yet this may NOT be the name you should get for your website. So let’s talk about choosing the URL – the domain name – for your business website.

How easy or hard are you going to make it for customers or potential customers to find you on the web?

Here are some of the considerations when choosing a good domain name:

Is your business name really hard to spell? It’s probably not a good idea to use your name.

Or is your business name a weird spelling of a common name? Then maybe it isn’t a good idea for you to use your business name.

Is your business name so common that this isn’t a good idea (for example, Smith Cleaners)?

Is the name of your local business so unmemorable that people might not remember it (for example, Best Cleaners)?

Is your businessname.com already taken by someone else? If you get a .net or .net domain name, you may actually be sending people to the website of the business with that .com domain name.

What names should you consider for your business domain name? Let’s say Smith’s Best Cleaners is the name of your business. Imagine you get the domain name smithsbestcleaners.com and promote this on flyers or in local ads. How memorable is this domain name going to be?

When considering what domain name to get, ask yourself: What are the most compelling attributes of my cleaning business? Do I have the lowest prices? The quickest turnaround time? The longest hours? Do I have 24-hour drop off?

Now there’s a thought. What if you have or could add a 24-hour drop off service and use that concept for your website domain name? Then you could get the domain name 24hourdropoffcleaners.com. This domain name stands out because it promises a distinctive benefit.

Of course, to protect your business name, you would also get the domain name and have this domain name redirect to 24hourdropoffcleaners.com. You do this just in case someone who does remember your business name correctly types that name.

Yet, look at what you’ve done for marketing your business by choosing a compelling benefit name for your website domain name rather than your business name or a common benefit such as “best cleaners” (whatever that means – best at what? price? getting out stains?). You’ve started an automatic marketing campaign with a strong benefit premise that can make you stand out in your local market.

That’s using the deceptively simple act of choosing a website domain name as a smart marketing technique.

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