Choosing a Domain Name
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John Farina May 21, 2007
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John Farina |
John J Farina is a successful affiliate marketer. He provides expert
reviews on which affiliate programs to join and which ones to avoid
like the plague. He shows people how to actually generate substantial
income on-line using very simple, easily modeled systems. An example of
such a system that you can study and duplicate is at Johnny's Review Site.com. |
John Farina
has written 1 articles for DomainInformer. |
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In this article you will learn how to chose an effective and
memorable domain name and learn how you can actually increase traffic
by using an old, expired domain name.
Times wasting so lets get started…
In the physical world, you can distinguish a business because of its
structure, window displays, or signs. You can tell that a bank is a
bank, or a clothing store is indeed a clothing store.
In the Internet, however, it is an entirely different story
altogether. Your domain name is the only clue to your online business.
You do not have visual clues: no location, no look, and no store
design. Instead, users have to type in a word or a set of words to
reach your site. Your prospective visitor has no way of knowing what
your site is all about until he/she finds it and reads its contents.
Who can ever tell that Amazon.com sells books? Or that Excite is a
search engine?
Your domain name can spell your success on the Internet. A good
domain name is the best asset you can ever have. It can make your
business stand out in the crowd, or just float aimlessly in space.
The need to provide immediate clues to an online business led to the
prevalence of generic domain names. Generic names instantly provide the
user with an idea of what a business is all about, what to expect and
look for in a site. For instance, Etoys.com is a toy store.
The temptation of the generic name has been so powerful; that some
companies even paid ridiculously high prices to get the name they want.
The domains Loans.com and Wines.com were both bought for $3 million
each. Telephone.com was acquired for $1.75 million, while Bingo.com
sold for $1.1 million.
However, generic names do not necessarily create the “buzz” that
you’d like surrounding your website. Branding has always been about
proper names: McDonald's did not name their store Hamburger. Hertz is
not called Car Rental. FedEx is not Mail Carrier. Kodak is not
Photographs. Microsoft is not Computer Software.
For better branding results, your domain name should be memorable
and easy to remember. Remember the following tips when creating a
domain name.
The domain name should be short
The domain name should be simple
It should be suggestive of your business category
It should be unique
It should be easy to interpret and pronounce
It should be personalized
It should not be difficult to spell
It should not be difficult to remember
Domain names can be registered through many different companies
(known as "registrars") - a listing of these companies is available at
ICANN: http://www.icann.org. You can register for 1 to 10 years -
prices can vary anywhere from $10 to $20 per year. Most web hosting
companies, as explained later, will handle the registration process for
you, but make sure that you are properly listed as the owner of the
domain when it is registered. If you have registered a domain name for
a specific period, make sure you renew it in time. You can be surprised
at the number of cases, where site owners have let a domain name slip
by if they have not renewed in time.
Using expired domains to skyrocket your traffic
At some point while you’re building your website, you’re going to
have to buy a domain name. This is the address that users type into
their browsers to reach your site. That takes about five seconds, and
depending on the name you want and whether anyone else owns it, it
won’t cost you more than a few bucks.
But domain names are also a golden opportunity to make some easy money.
I’m not talking about Internet real estate, where you buy up good
names and sell them on for a profit—if you haven’t got into that now,
forget it. The bottom’s fallen out of the market and the best domains
are long gone.
I’m talking about expiring domains.
Thousands of webmasters invest time, effort and money to promote
their site and build up traffic. Many of them then lose interest and
move on, leaving their site active. That means that although they still
own the domain, they’re not actively promoting it. But they don’t need
to. All the automatic marketing systems they’ve put in place are still
bringing in traffic. The site runs itself.
Now, at some point the ownership of those domains is going to
expire. If you snap up those domains once they come back onto the
market, you’ve got a pre-built stream of customers. You can either
rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to your domain. You could set
up an affiliate program get paid for users someone else paid for.
It’s that easy.
There are tons of options, and lots of easy ways to make lots of
money with very little effort. Opportunities like these are everywhere.
There are websites that actually do all the legwork and let you reap
all the rewards. Do be careful when using other sites though. There are
some swindlers out there that will sell you subscriptions, provide you
with outdated lists, take your money and keep the good domains for
themselves. It happens, and there’s little point in taking a risk, so
be careful. One last thing. You might have seen the articles published
in the Wall Street Journal or Business 2.0 magazine about how a few
people (we call them "domain profiteers") are making fortunes from
investing in Internet domains and either holding them for passive
income or reselling them for huge profits.
The smart investors with big money are now jumping into this market.
By the way, when we mention smart investors, you should know that Ross
Perot's Perot Investments, Inc. and Howard Schultz's (Chairman of
Starbucks Corp.) Maveron LLC have each invested millions of dollars
into companies that are buying domain names today for income and future
profit. You know these guys are not going to put millions of dollars at
risk on a whim or some fly-by-night idea!
So, if you would like more information on how a few savvy insiders
have been cashing in with expired domain names go here:
http://tinyurl.com/33m7wh
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