DEMO: Web Development Theme

You want your own online business? Good because it’s one of the most fun things you can do with your spare time and can be very profitable.

Remember that just because it’s an online business doesn’t mean that you should treat it with any less professionalism or seriousness than you do your daytime job.

Why? Simply because when you run an online business it’s a serious business. Well it should be taken seriously if you want to make serious money.

One of the most important aspects of any online business is the domain name. This is where the vast majority of new online entrepreneurs make their first big mistake - they choose one of those free domain name providers to represent their business online. This is a critical mistake.

Let’s say you’re starting a computer repair business. Which one of the following domains looks better:

‘www.computerfixer.com’ or; ‘computerfixer.freehosting.com’

The truth of the matter is that computerfixer.com is a top level domain and computerfixer.freehosting.com is a sub-domain. These free domain providers would have you believe that their cheapo subdomain is as good as a top level domain - this simply isn’t so.

Does the length of your website’s domain name registration affect the search results at Google? This question has come up recently and a lot of website owners have been wondering about it, especially since it was mentioned in a patent awarded to Google in April. According to the patent, “Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains. For example, domains can be renewed up to a period of 10 years. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.” According to this statement in the patent, domains that expire in 10 years are more valuable and legitimate than domains that will expire in less than a year.

After the dot com crash, expired domain names and expired domain name traffic have been a source of potential income. It is important to inexpensively obtain the automated tools required to track the thousands of domain name registration and abandoned websites that are removed from the domain registry and become available for purchase.

Expired domain registration and the expired domain name traffic associated with them have been only available to those who had an automated system and tools.

Now, automated tools and resources are available for identifying, appraising and even buying these domain names on autopilot.

Expired domain names are those that had previously been registered to another owner. These domain name registration are available to the open market because of non-payment of the domain name renewal fees. Such domain names are returned to the open market about forty-five days after the expiration date.

Many domain names even point to fully functioning websites while many are registered for speculation. These names are registered by speculators in the hope of obtaining a profit on the resale of the domain name.

So, what is a domain name, or simply a domain? Well, the answer is also very simple: it`s your website`s name.

Let`s get straight to the point: you can`t name your website however you like. Actually, you can, but you won`t have any profits from it.

Search engines simply love when you have some of your main keywords in your website URL (Uniform Resource Locator), and you will get a higher ranking just for having some of them in your domain.

Not to mention the impact this will have on your visitors. For example, lets say someone searches for “truck accessories” . How would they react to find your website there, in the search engine results, named www.truck-accessories.com? Just look at the address and ask yourself: does it realy have an impact on me ? You bet it does. You can get a lot of customers just by the first impression.

Also, be sure not to fall on the trick of creating brand names such as “Whipssy”, “Gecko” or similar. You`re the “small fish” remember? You don`t have enough money to boost your brand and make it strong. Start realisticly, it`ll pay off later.

It’s surprising, at least to me, the amount of Affiliates who aren’t aware of the value and flexibility that the ’sub-domain’ can give their promotional website activities. Set up in the right way, a single domain through a host who includes multiple ’sub-domains’ in their hosting package can fill ALL the online needs of even the busiest and most diversified Affiliate.

Firstly, for those who need to know, a ’sub-domain’ is simply a separate, individual web folder, which can be attached to a ‘main’ domain and treated in all respects as a separate entity online. It is similar to a ’sub-web’, which most hosting facilities include except that it is, in it’s own right, treated as a separate domain by the SEs rather than a sub-folder under a domain.

The way in which they are represented online as URLs is as follows:

1. Proper names VS Common Names. First of all there are two different kinds of names, proper names (unique words, person, place), or common names (things like cars or cheese.) The types of names that will have good lasting effect on the internet are proper names. Think of some of the biggest sites on the internet, such as yahoo or google, why are they the most popular search engines in the world and not searchengine.com? Simple, the average consumer will group names of things with there .com names. If the names are too similar they get lost in the mix. That is why no one names there car dealership cars. Sure cars are what they sell, but image the conversation, Frank asks "what dealership did you buy your car from?" Jim replies "cars" as you can image it would get really confusing. A lot of dealerships use proper names such as XYZ Motors. That is why a lot of sites such as cars.com aren’t doing as well as say vehix.com.

It begins as an idea — a company name, a business venture, a personal project. You research available domain name options, choose the one you want, and finally register it. Or perhaps the perfect domain was in use before, and you register it after it completes the domain deletion cycle.

After going through the selection and registration process and then using the domain to brand your business, do you want to risk losing your domain?

Of course not.

THE LIFE CYCLE OF A DOMAIN NAME

To avoid losing a domain after you’ve registered it, let’s look at the stages that each domain goes through.

It’s available

When you look up the domain in Whois records, it’s available for registration. It may never have been registered before, or it may have already been through one or more domain name cycles.

It’s active

Someone has registered the domain for the current time period. Domains can be registered for a minimum of one year and up to 10 years at a time. Some country-specific domain name extensions (e.g., domains ending in .uk and .au) can be registered for only shorter time periods. When a domain is nearing the end of its active period, an email notification is sent to the address in the record for the domain name registrant.

Ian McMillan registered the internet domain name TrivialPursuits.net and won the right to continue using it, after a challenge from Horn Abbot, the makers of the board game, failed to stop him using the domain name. The makers of the Trivial Pursuits board game failed to obtain the TrivialPursuits.net domain name from the person who said he registered the name to lament life’s loss of individual creativity.

This decision has gone against the long established principle that once a brand is “well known”, the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)1 part of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), would be able to effect the transfer of the name. However, in this case, the panel was unclear about the intentions of the respondent, and his motive for registering the domain name. The panel did not believe that there was enough evidence to support an application for bad faith activity on behalf of the respondent.

A domain can leave an imprint on the mind of a prospective client. Just like a catchy phone number, it is easy to remember and can be send out loud in a rhythm. Whenever someone sees your domain name for your company it must be able to stick with them throughout the day so they can easily check out your site when they get a chance. Sometimes this may not be till the end of a long day at work, so having a domain name that stays in the mind of a client is very important.

What makes a good domain you might ask? Is it the length, how it is spelled or is there something that I missing?

Well the length is important, something short and sweet can do the trick, but if your domain names is something like “INeedATunaFishSandwhich.com” that may work as well. Yes it is a bit on the long side, but it is very easy to remember and so there fore, easy for a person to type in at the end of a busy day. It stays in the mind and can be thought of in a second.

One of the most important aspects of choosing a domain name is that it should be non-infringing. This is not an easy task since most unique names have already been registered. The number of useful domain names from the marketing point of view have become extremely limited. Several companies now register variations of their trademark names as a preventive measure against infringement. For example, check www.coke.com, www.coca-cola.com, and www.coca-cola.com, or try www.3m.com and www.mmm.com.

All these factors have led to a crisis of domain names and given rise to increasing cases of infringement of domain names. A number of companies have taken legal action against other companies or individuals over alleged copyright violation on the domain names.

There are some fundamental guidelines and cross-checks for selection of a domain name.

You must carefully select some names that are relevant to your business model. You must be able to justify your reason for using the name. Your domain name should principally consist of a name you are using as a trade name, trademark or corporate name.

It is better to select more than one name since you are not sure about the availability of the required domain name.