Online Fun and Business

Your domain name is the .com, .net, .org or some other dot something that people use to get to your web site. affiliateblog.com is mine.

A group of investors headed by Jake Weinbaum (the guy behind Disney’s go.com) paid $7.5 million for the name Business.com back in 1999, aiming to make it a showcase B2B site. According to their own press they have succeeded. Yes, it’s a terrific name short, sort of descriptive and easy to remember. There’s some cachet there, but is it $7.5 million worth? That cash could have bought a lot of promotion or branding for whatever name they could have had for ten bucks, or a hundred, or two hundred grand.

Each year for 15 years The first $500K in profit goes toward amortizing the cost of that domain name. That could also pay for a terrific affiliate program, a truckload of banner and PPC advertising, and a nice BMW lease for Mr. Weinbaum (who probably doesn’t need a BMW).

But the Business.com thing has set off a wave of domain name speculation that staggers the mind. People are snapping up domain names and ransoming them off to wide-eyed entrepreneurs with business plans and dreams of riches. Being a hardcore capitalist I am torn about domain name speculation I am tempted to applaud the person making a buck by getting there first and grabbing up the good names, but I am annoyed at the restraint of commerce that takes place while someone negotiates with one of these guys to get the right name.

So if I look at the top 50 websites on Alexa, most of them should be easy to remember names, right? Wrong. I would argue that only one, match.com, is an easy-to-remember name that describes what the site is about.

I keep hearing that the reason these so-called generic or descriptive domain names are so valuable is that some people just type domain names into the address bar of their browser rather than using a search engine. This fact seems to be intuitively false. I find it hard to believe that someone looking for information on a particular business would type in www.business.com. Furthermore, if I look at the top 50 websites on Alexa only one, match.com, is an easy-to-remember name that describes what the site is about.

I wondered how many people actually type in their address bar (address bar?) instead of using a search engine anyway. I didn’t find the answer, but Jupiter Media tells me that 64% of people looking for something use a search engine.

That means that 36% of people use something other than a search engine. What makes me believe that people typing stuff into their address bar doesn’t happen much is this simple fact…of the people using search engines last November, 43% searched for common websites like Ebay. In other words, instead of typing in http://www.ebay.com, people Googled Ebay and clicked on one of the results. That is absolutely hysterical. And totally believable.

What do all these facts mean? They mean that as far as getting the person there the first time, everyone starts off on the same square. If your domain name can get the minority of people who just type into their address bar to your website without a search engine, it’s worth more than someone who can’t.

Here are some of the legendary domain name sales in the past several years, according to Zetetic:

$14,000,000 - 2006 - sex.com
$7,500,000 - 1999 - business.com
$5,500,000 - 2003 - casino.com
$5,000,000 - 2002 - asseenontv.com
$5,000,000 - 1999 - korea.com
$3,500,000 - 1996 - worldwideweb.com
$3,350,000 - 1999 - altavista.com
$3,300,000 - 1999 - wine.com
$3,000,000 - 1999 - eshow.com
$3,000,000 - 1999 - loans.com
$2,750,000 - 2004 - creditcards.com

All of these with the exception of eshow.com (computer networking) should get address bar traffic, because people who type will type in the descriptive names if I’m looking for sex-related stuff, I’ll type in sex.com. Where my mind gets boggled is in ROI. If you’re selling something on asseenontv.com that nets you $25, you’ll need to sell 200,000 of those George Foreman grills just to pay for your domain name.

It also dawned on me that if you pay $12,000,000 for sex.com, the free publicity generated is probably also worth millions.

So now everyone gets dollar signs in their eyes and thinks they can make a million with their domain name. Here are some examples of asking prices from Ebay:

6usiness.com (yes, that’s a 6) - $7,000,000
ajobformom.com - $3,500,000
Exbay.com - $1,000,000

What does this mean for you? Well, there’s some good news and some bad news. Remember back a few paragraphs when I said that everyone starts on the same square? That’s really the good news. You can choose a pretty good domain name, put together some terrific content, employ some simple Search Engine Optimization and buy some keywords or exchange some links and you have a pretty good chance of getting people to your site the first time. Since most of them are coming via a search engine they’re not going to notice your domain name until they get there anyway, so your domain name means the same thing (nothing) to the majority of people using the search engine.

One last thing: if you’re hoping to be close to the top in the search results (the so-called organic SEO), having your keywords in the name of your website gives you a huge boost. For example, if you’re looking for affiliate blog, we will be in the top five search results. In this case, Google ignores TLD unless you tell it otherwise. Affiliateblog.info will come up before us because their pagerank is higher (that’s a discussion for another day). So if you think getting near the top of the organic search results is more important than having someone type your name directly into the address bar (and you very well could be right), then grab yourkeyword.cc or yourkeyword.to. I’ve done it, and I’ve suggested it to others.

Once the user comes to your site the name just needs to be memorable enough so they type it in to get there the next time. Or they may forget and Google you again. I do it every day. No matter how great your name is, if the content is lousy they won’t come back anyway.

So should you buy a domain name? I don’t know I bought this one. And I made honorable mention in the Domain Name News for the price I paid ($2500). I bought the name because I liked it, I liked the number of incoming links to it, and I felt comfortable paying for it. I’ve never paid more than a couple hundred dollars for a domain otherwise, and I have more than 200 of them. My favorite by far is Blozzo.com, which I just bought today for $25. I have a pretty terrific idea in mind for Blozzo too.

I would try to come up with my own name before I bought someone else’s. Here are some tips:

1. Try to go with a .com. It’s the name everyone associates with the Internet. Any other Top Level Domain (TLD) like .org or .net is just going to confuse people, unless it sounds better than the .com. For example, if you are about networking or a network, a .net is more natural. If your site is informational, you should use .info if it sounds okay. One of my favorite $10 domains is seosecrets.info. I think it sounds good. Hands down the most ingenious use of a TLD is del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site. The use of the .us TLD is absolutely brilliant.

2. Leave out the dashes and meaningless numbers. If it’s a choice between this-domain.com, thisdomain123.com and thisdomain.net, take the .net. No one remembers to put the dashes or the numbers in, unless they are an integral part of the name like studio54.com or e-books.com.

3. Use the fewest letters possible to describe what you do. I own Purple Monkey Media Group. Purplemonkey.com would have been perfect. It’s taken, of course. Purplemonkeymedia.com was not. I grabbed it. I could have taken purplemonkeymediagroup.com, but it would have been too long. Remember, every additional letter is a potential typing error.

4. If you have a domain name that needs to be reinforced, get a good logoand sprinkle it liberally on your web site, along with some slogan that will reinforce the name in people’s minds. You would be surprised at how inexpensive this can be.

5. If you can save a few bucks with your own domain name or by buying a cheaper domain name, do it, and use the money to get yourself placed higher in the search results or Adsense placement.

6. If you can’t come up with a descriptive domain name, go the other way. Depending on your site’s focus, pick a memorable short name that will stick in people’s minds, get a great logo and include the name prominently in your advertising and marketing. It’s called branding, and it’s tried and true.

7. Ask your wife, friend, boyfriend, husband, dog, lawyer, associate, Mom, Dad, cousin, uncle, Police Chief, blog writer. They’re smarter than you anyway, and they are going to be the one looking for the site, not you. Some of my best ideas have come going to or from somewhere with my wife and just brainstorming.

Here’s the bad news: it may take you a while to come up with the right name. There’s more good news though in the real world most domain names sell for $1,000 or less.

Can’t get started? Go to a site that sells domain names (here’s mine), and put in a word that describes your business. See if the name is taken (it probably will be). Open your word processor or go to thesaurus.com and put the word in. Get a few more words. Check those. If there’s a .com available and it looks good, grab it. If not, add the word site or blog or online to your word, and see if that works. Don’t wait. If you think it might be useable, spend the $9.00. I came up with blogduck.com. I liked it. I decided to think about it some more. Someone grabbed it that afternoon. Just chisel loose the nine bucks (or less) and buy the domain.

If you want something a little more sophisticated there are several sites that are good for helping you come up with a name, like DomainsBot and Nameboy.

If you draw a blank, go over to Sedo or Afternic and see what’s for sale. Search for a word that describes what you think people will associate the name of your site with, and see what pops up. That may give you some ideas.

These sites and more can be found in the Tools section of www.affiliateBlog.com.

Domain Name Journal tracks domain name sales.

Matt DeAngelis runs AffiliateBlog. Matt is the former CTO of Modem Media, a pioneer in the Internet ad space. As a foot soldier in the Internet revolution, Matt devised the technology behind many of the most successful ad campaigns of the time.

So you bought a new PC for yourself or a relative during the holidays. There was the initial excitement about its speed and the nice screen – and then it came time to actually get it running. Which meant embarking on some real work -– downloading a browser, a couple of multimedia players, a PDF reader, a toolbar, and maybe something for voice and instant messaging. Don’t forget the anti-spyware and anti-virus apps – you’ve got to have those. Hours, maybe even days, go by. How many wizards have you clicked through, not to mention license agreements and preference pickers? And then you have to ask: did I get everything? And how am I going to keep all of this up to date?

This has been my experience too many times. I wanted to simplify the project. This led me to Google and Google Pack– a one-stop software package that helps you discover, install, and maintain a wide range of essential PC programs. It is easier for everyone. And it’s free.

It downloads in minutes and installs in just a few clicks. There’s only one license agreement – and no wizards. And there’s a tool called the Google Updater that keeps all the software in the Google Pack current. Even if you already have some of the software in the Pack, you can use the Google Updater to update and manage it.

And now the question for you is: what will you do with all that time you’ve saved?

KeltickDragon is the webmaster for BuyComputersDirect.com & TheBulkyGirl.com

This is a case of ‘let the seller beware’ …

The tiny Polynesian island nation of Niue is beginning to think it’s been had.

Frankly, it’s clear they didn’t do their homework before they did their deal.

Ironically, it seems the buyer hadn’t really done his, either.

Anyone who has been inundated by advertisements for ‘global domains’ can easily understand that it’s a burgeoning business. The specter of purchasing a domain at a much better price than the more common ‘dot com’ or ‘dot net’ or ‘dot org’ is most attractive to most aspiring entrepeneurs on limited budgets. This niche’s market leader is most likely Global Domains International (GDI), which has no doubt put Western Samoa on the mental map of many a cybernaut. The key element in that deal is that the Western Samoan government granted the rights to GDI in return for a royalty for every domain sold.

Niue’s name is derived from the local language’s phrase for, “Look, a coconut!” It seems they should have used theirs more thoroughly before signing a domain deal with Bill Semich in 1998.

An American businessman whose former station was editor for a computer magazine, Semich recognized the potential value in the marketability of unique domains. Apparently finding the ‘nu’ extension an attractive letter combination, he signed a contract with the Niue government that gave him the exclusive rights to it.

It wasn’t a one-way deal. Semich guaranteed free wireless access for all 2000 of Niue’s citizens and he delivered, completing the installation of an island-wide network of translator towers in 2003. The country’s leaders surely felt they had provided their citizenry with a service for the new century which would favorably ensconce their place in island history.

Semich, meanwhile, intended to hawk his bargain domains to Americans. He had no idea that his ideal customers were in Sweden, where ‘nu’ is the local word for ‘now.’

Obviously,’now’ is a hot marketing action term in any language, so Semich was pleasantly surprised to find the Swedes flocking to his cyber-property. As a translated example of why this works for them, ‘drive.now’ (which would be ‘kra.nu’) is a very compelling sales slogan which becomes an ideal URL for a Swedish driving school. To date, Semich has had 110,000 sales of ‘dot nu’ domains at $30 a year, which has considerably swollen the coffers of his ‘.NU Domain Ltd’ to the extent that its website’s home page default language is now — or nu — in Swedish.

In fact, Semich has cleverly taken advantage of this windfall to become the first domain provider to incorporate a complete Unicode character set into its scripts, allowing users whose alphabets have unique characters — in Swedish, that would be the letters ‘,’ ” and ” — to remain true to their language instead of settling for Anglicized versions, which often destroy their original meaning. His company has already announced the rollout of this service in Sweden. Given that Unicode enables linguistic propriety to Japanese, Cyrillic, Spanish, French, German, Arabic and any other script with unique characters, Semich has truly become a pioneer in his craft.

All this commercial success has wrought concerns in Niue. Not only is the disparity in financial benefit an issue, but the island’s strongly Christian residents are upset that ‘dot nu’ has become a popular extension for pornographic sites. Semich disavows any responsibility for this segment of his clientele, but the fact remains that they are there.

The issue became such a political hot potato that ‘neo-colonialism’ was a trendy charge in Niue’s recent elections. Semich seems shrewd enough to realize that he’s got the high ground in any bargaining that must be done to assuage his Pacific partners, so a reasonable solution will surely be attained.

This scenario underscores the all-encompassing scope of cyberspatial commerce and the depth of considerations that both buyer and seller must assess before entering into far-reaching agreements. Not even the world’s tiniest nation — and that’s remote little blip-in-the-Pacific Niue — is immune from the effects.

The moral of the story, then, is to count your cyber-coconuts before they’re cracked open. They may be worth more than you think.

Copyright 2006 - The Longer Life Group

J Square Humboldt writes for the Longer Life Group, which provides information designed to improve the quality of living. His page is at http://longerlifegroup.com/cyberiter.html and his observations are published three times per week.

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Whether it is for business, pleasure or just something to do, everyone seems to be building themselves web sites these days. It’s getting ever easier to do and there is a growing list of practical purposes for all of them. To make things better there are hundreds of places to buy cheap domain names these days so your site can look that much more professional.

While it was once more cost effective to build a site off of another domain name — something like www.freehosting.com/yourname –it never looked that good. For a personal site no one cared, but for a business or organization it took a lot away from its credibility and style. From the very beginning of the world wide web a non independent domain has reeked of tackiness. At the present, such things are only really acceptable when used for personal or not for profit web sites.

The fact that cheap domains are now so easily attained there is no excuse left in avoiding it. If you are already doing business online then the sleeker look is a must. Person after person will tell you that they trust a business more when it is set up online by itself. To a potential customer a domain name speaks in the same professional manner as a 1 800 number. Going the other route suggests the same level of professionalism as a cheap storefront sign. This tells us that by taking advantage of a cheap domain name as opposed to a free tacked on name communicates that the business is that much more committed to itself.

Further more, as any marketer will tell you, name recognition is an important key to winning over clients. Once they are able to remember the business’s name they should be able to do nothing more then type it into their browser and add “.com” to find out more about it. Passing on a cheap domain name and using the secondary name alternative means your potential clients have that much more to remember; and marketing experts tell us plainly that they won’t remember.

Personal websites don’t need this. For people looking to share family photos, journals, literature or art there are thousands of web communities that offer to host. In most instances there isn’t a lot of reason to go any other way. Still the temptation is there. Frankly, if you’re having fun doing it and you want a personal site that looks that much cooler then take advantage of all that cheap domain registration out there.

The perk in going that route for a personal site is that advertising and name recognition isn’t a big concern. Most people shopping for cheap domain names for these kind of private sites only want the name to be cute and appealing to friends and family. The “.com” isn’t as important here. This makes cheap domains cost even less money because the “.net,” “.us,” and other extensions aren’t as sought after.

So maybe it’s time to get rid of that extra long web name you picked up for free. Try this out and be a master of your own domain.

Christopher M. Luck has an extensive background in dealing exclusively with cheap domains online and is now offering his free domain tips to the public. If you are at all interested in Christopher’s personal domain advice, tips, or secrets, you can visit his internet blog

Cheap domain name registration and hosting has in the years become very common place. You can now host unlimited domains with some hosts for as little as $10 per month. You get massive disk space and much more.

Thanks to the low cost of domain names and hosting fees it is possible to own several websites without breaking the bank. You can get good hosting plans for as little as $12 per year and domain names for just $2.95!

Cheap Domain Name Registration

Cheap domain name registration is freely available these days, infact my hosting service for my website gave me a free domain name and setup as part of my package.All domains must be registered with a registrar that has been certified by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). There are hundreds of registrars and their prices vary considerably. Although registrars are closely regulated, they are permitted to offer their services through third parties; so many web hosts offer a domain name registration service even if they are not a registrar. The price of a domain name will usually be higher when dealing with these third-party services. Domain names are usually registered for a minimum of one year.

Domain Hosting

Once you have purchase your domain name, in order for your site to be visible online you will need to have your site hosted. For this you will require the services of a domain hosting company. Here again, there are hundreds of hosting companies and fees vary considerably. If you are not aufae’ with the various technologies / functionality that a good domain hosting company should provide don’t be alarmed or put off. The easiest option is to go with a large, well branded host, like bluehost.

If you prefer you could contact various domain hosts and enquire what technologies are offered with their package. Remember here, that these companies offer a range of packages…so you need to choose a package that suits YOUR needs. Typically packages differ in functionality and storage space. eg. a more expensive package will allow for a shopping cart and a credit card processing facility. If you do not intend selling products from your site then this is not for you; many domain hosting companies offer you the option to upgrade at a later stage so don’t feel you need to have all technologies / functionality upfront.

After sale support is, in my opinion, of the utmost importance when deciding on a hosting company to host your newly acquired or transferred domain name. If you are opting for a lesser known hosting company this factor will be hard to gauge upfront. Hence it is my opinion that you stick with the better know, branded names. These are hosting companies that enjoy a large portion of the market share, people have being using them and can vouch for their reliability. Myself, I was introduced to bluehost by a personal friend who had already being using their services for many years. I have being with bluehost, at the time of writing this article, for three years and I have nothing but praise for this well run organisation. The support is fast, efficient and personal. As claimed in there advertisement up-time is 99%.

Managing Multiple Domains

There are several ways to manage multiple domains so it is important to know what your options are and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

The most basic choice when administering multiple domains is whether or not to do so with the same host. Most hosts offer packages which can be set up to allow several sites on one account, or allow individual sites to be operated under separate accounts.

You may have an existing website and are happy with the services your host provides. If you decide to start a new website using the same host, you will have the reassurance of dealing with a company you are familiar with and trust. You may also get a discount for each additional account you open with the same host. On the other hand, using a new host for a second (or third or fourth) website can allow you to compare the quality of hosting offered by different companies. In addition, separate hosts will provide each of your web sites with a different IP address.

Having different IP addresses can be an important factor if you plan to link the sites together to aid in search engine optimization. Incoming links are an important indicator of the importance of a website, so a site with a lot of incoming links can get a higher position in search engines like Google. If all the links are coming from the same IP address, however, their value may be discounted. Hosting your various sites with different hosting companies guarantees that each site has a different IP address. Individual IP addresses, however, are available as an extra from most web hosts. For a yearly fee each website can have its own unique IP address. This can help with search engine ranking and is also needed if you want to have a secure connection (https) on your site.

If you decide to host all your sites with the same company, there are three basic ways to go. Each site could have its own account; you could sign up for a re-seller account; or you could get a dedicated server account.

As a re-seller you are acting as an agent for the hosting company. You are allocated a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth and you are free to use them as you please. There may be a limit to the number of websites you can host with your re-seller account, but if there is space left over after using this account for your own sites you could earn some extra income by selling accounts to other people. The advantage of a re-seller account is that all the technical details are taken care of by the hosting company. Some will even provide gateways for billing your customers.

A dedicated server account gives you control of all the resources of an entire server. You are free to setup as many websites as you wish and allocate disk space and bandwidth as you see fit. The downside to this type of account is that you are responsible for maintaining the server. This can require a significant level of technical know-how so if you don’t have that knowledge or don’t feel like learning about it, dedicated servers are not for you. You can, of course, go with a managed dedicated server. The downside of this is the higher cost involved.

Hosting all your sites with one host can offer lots of advantages but there is one major disadvantage – if your server goes down, all your sites go down. If you are depending on your sites for income this can be a disastrous situation. For this reason, it is a good idea to have at least one of your sites with a different host. If your sites are essential for your livelihood and you can’t afford any down time whatsoever, you would be advised to host everything with (at least) two hosts.

A Few Word Of Caution About Free Domain Name Registration and Free Domain Hosting

Remember that cheap domain name registration and hosting does not mean that you may opt for the free options out there. Free hosting is definitely an area you will do well to stay away from. Free domain hosting almost always mean no customer support, unreliable up-time and alot of dowm-time. Free domain name registration means that you DO NOT own that domain name but merely ‘renting’ it via. a third party…a definite no…no.

Author: Roshan Naidu
Sub-Domain URL: http://cheapdomainnameregistration.cyberprofit.info/
Primary Domain URL: http://makemoneyonline.cyberprofit.info/

Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran has -as Hindustan Times reports-some advice for Indian patriots: use in-domains for Websites and e-mail IDs to popularise Indian identity in the world.

With India emerging as a global “labor” for IT, Indian companies should change the domain names of their Websites and e-mail IDs to in-domains, just like other countries.

“In every part of the world, the practice has been to use the short form of the respective countries at the end of the domain names by companies and individuals,” the minister said during his first speech as IT Minister.

“During my trips abroad, I have always noticed that people have their e-mail IDs with the initials of their country in the end. For instance, in Britain, the Websites or e-mail IDs have at the end .co.uk, in Singapore it is .co.sg, in Japan it is .jp, in Hong Kong it is .hk and even in Pakistan they have .co.pk. But in India, we are still reluctant to use .co.in or .in. Why this hesitation?”, Dayanidhi Maran has asked in an interview.

Therefore the minister has been urging upon Indian captains of industry, heads of organisations and individuals to switch over to use in-domains in order to indicate that their website or e-mail ID originates from India.

“I have made this appeal to representatives of the IT industry here, which is considered the IT capital of India. Once the tech industry migrates to this new identity, it will set a trend for the rest to follow in letter and spirit. They need to change the domain names of their companies or organisations by registering their Websites or mail IDs only once for identifying themselves with their motherland,” Maran says.

“Though we are not making it mandatory, we are coming out with a number of schemes for Indian companies or organisations to make this transition soon. The ministry will shortly come out with an action plan to enable a smooth migration to either .co.in or .in,” the IT minister explains.

The Indian IT-minister seems to be aware, that it is very bureaucratic in the moment to register in-domains. Indian companies need a lot of paperwork in order to get a domain at co.in , .in itself is reserved for Indian providers, not open to all Indian companies. “Foreign companies”, explains Hans-Peter Oswald, the CEO of ICANN Registrar Secura (https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html), ,,can only register the own name at .gen.in.”

About The Author

Hans Peter Oswald
CEO
ICANN accredited Registrar Secura

https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html, https://www.domainregistry.de/in-domain.html; secura@domainregistry.de