Domain Names

Archive for December, 2010

Do you know what the best way to start making money online is? Many people claim that they know the answer! But that’s because they think about how much money they’re going to make. Most people really don’t think about how much time and effort it takes to run a website and all the costs that are involved.

If you want something that requires very little money, then I suggest that you take a step back and think about all the different aspects there are for running a business for 24 hours and seven days a week. This requires a lot of emails to be sent to your customers telling them when your going to ship their orders. What happens when the item that they ordered is out of stock? You have to send more emails telling them that their item is on backorder. How about if the item has been discontinued? Well that is going to be a big disappointment to your customer especially when they wanted it so bad in the first place.

Do you really want all those headaches or how about something that has no headaches involved? There is a small business that requires very little of your time. In fact, for a price of a haircut you can buy Domain names and sell them on the Internet month after month, year after year. This is such a big business that there are websites where you can list your Domain names, there are even Domain Brokers that would love to list your names.

This business is booming and will get even better in the future no matter how bad the economy gets. All that is required is to bring buyer and seller together. The transaction is so easy because when the buyer agrees to the price that you are selling your Domain name for the money is placed in a escrow account, just like a real estate transaction.

Just think if you bought 10 Domain names every year for the next 10 years you would have 100 products to sell. This is a very smart way of achieving great wealth. You can’t expect to just buy a few names and cash in, it just doesn’t work that way. You must multiply yourself instead of divide. This is just like playing Monopoly. The more property that you own, the more money your going to make. Now doesn’t that make more sense.

I hope this article helps you in some way. I had the pleasure of sharing it with you!

Registering for a domain name in Australia is generally the same as anywhere else. There are certain things you may want to bear in mind, though.

The .com suffix is the most common for all domain names worldwide. It is readily available for any individual or organization without any restrictions. This means the availability can be scarce since you have more competition for the name.

If you do not mind that your company will be associated with Australia and its business sector, then you can avail yourself of a domain name with the suffixes .com.au or .net.au. If the name of your company is not readily available when you register, you may want to consider an abbreviation of your trade name. You can even add hyphens to differentiate yourself. If there are common typographical mistakes related to your company name or brand, you may want to register them as well so users can be redirected to the correct site.

To be eligible to use these unique suffixes, you have to be a registered company in Australia, have a business registered under any Australian territory, or be a foreign company licensed to trade in Australia.

If you have a personal site, you may want to register it under .id.au instead. Your domain name can be your given name, your initials, a derivative of your name or your nickname. You must be an Australian citizen or an Australian resident to be allowed to use this suffix.

Charitable institutions or non-profit organizations can use the suffix .org.au or .asn.au for their domain name. Similar to other sites, if the name is not available, you can try to register a derivative or abbreviation of the name you want. You can also make use of hyphens if the name is a compound name. You can use these suffixes if you are an Australian incorporated association, an Australian political party, a trade union in Australia or an Australian sporting or special interest club.

As you are probably already know, dot com, dot net, and dot org domain names (and some other domain known types) are generally sold on a first come, first served basis – that is to say that the first person to identify a previously unregistered domain name, can simply go a domain registrar, pay the registration fee, and get that domain for themselves. The domain is then no longer available for anybody else, unless the original owner chooses to sell it or transfer the domain to somebody else, or the domain owner stops paying the annual renewal fees. In the case of non-payment of renewal fees, the domain goes through a gradual multi-step expiration process, before becoming available to the public to register again.

There are a few exceptions to the above general rules. For example, in cases where a person has registered a domain name that infringes a trademark holder’s rights (known as “cybersquatting”), the trademark holder may be able to get hold of the domain, but for the most part, the only way to obtain a previously register domain name is either to buy it from its current owner, or wait until the current owner fails to renew it, and then buy it once it becomes available to the public again.

However, even if you know a domain is going to expire (you can discover this either by watching the domain information for particular domain names of interest, or by watching lists of about-to-expire domain names), it may not be that easy to obtain it. The problem, is if an expiring domain name is any good, or if the expiring name has many incoming links leading to it (which a new owner will inherit), there can be a bunch of people waiting to register it as soon as it becomes available again – and only one of them will win this race.

There are basically three methods you can use to participate in this race:

1. You can manually watch the domain status, and try to manually register it when it becomes available again. Of course, your odds may not be very good with this method.

2. You can use a computer program, such as the “Expired Domain Express Software” to help you. Basically you set the software to automatically monitor the status of your chosen domain, and register it as quickly as possible after the domain becomes available.

3. You can use a back-order service. Basically you pay somebody else to monitor the domain, and register it for you as soon as it becomes available.

Most people try to obtain expiring domain names, use a back-ordering service (option 3 in the list above). The advantage is that the best such services can usually apply more and better resources (in terms of specialist software, network connection speed, etc.) than you might be able to apply yourself, and thus can help increase your chances of obtaining a desired domain name. However there are a couple of points you should be aware of, when using a domain back-ordering service:

* Back-ordering services generally can not guarantee that you will obtain your desired name. A good question to ask is what happens to any fees that you’ve already paid, in the event that they don’t obtain your desired name? Fortunately, many back-ordering services will allow you to apply such fees to other purchases – but check with the service you use.

* Back-ordering services can sometimes use various means to inflate the price, even if they do obtain a desired domain name. For example, if two users both want the same expired domain name, the back-order service might set up an auction between them. So, make sure you read and understand the rules of any back-ordering service that you intend to use.

Finally it is worth mentioning probably the best way to obtain a truly desirable expiring domain name: combine multiple approaches to getting the name – for example, try to obtain it using multiple back-ordering services at the same time, as well as perhaps using software such as “Expired Domain Express Software”. If you’re prepared to spend the money, this approach may help you maximize your chances of obtained the expiring domain name of your heart’s desire.

Domain names are the unique names used to define websites. There give a particular website solitary identification on the internet. There are many home based businesses that can be done on the internet. Domain scalping is one of these. In domain scalping one can buy and sell domain for three to four times profit than what they had initially bought it for. One doesn’t have to be experienced with website for taking up t his business. Nowadays there are many companies that are hiring professional scalpers for this purpose. One just has to be familiar with the proper working of the internet.

The first reason it is called a home based business is because people can earn a considerable amount of profit just by sitting on their computer at home. Organizations involved in the business relating to domains hire scalping experts. These experts are well experienced when it comes to buying the right domain names. They do their research on which websites have more traffic and make a purchase based on this research.

Unique domain names are considered to be very important because they explain about the content on your website in the name itself. For example if someone wants to buy a mobile phone online then they will type in a keyword relating to which brand they want to purchase so that the search engine will display the websites with the domain names closest to the keyword.

One must know to choose keyword-rich domains for cheap so that when they sell it they can make a lot of profit. They should learn to discern hungry buyers from normal ones so that there are domains are sold for a lot of money. Domain scalping can be done by almost anyone. They don’t even have to any capital to start with. It doesn’t take much effort on the part of the buyer and the domain bought can be flipped and sold within 48 hours. there are many domain scalping reviews on the internet.

There are several websites that guide people to buying and selling domains. One can just go through the guidelines and get started without any kind of experience. Once it is done on a regular basis you can get a hang of it and business will pick up faster. Many entrepreneurs have made this their main business and it can also be taken up as side business.

It is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get rich just by sitting at home.

Once upon a time, having a website was considered to be fancy and websites were a luxury. However, today it is necessary to own a website. Most businesses today have websites. Many people relate to business because of their websites.

Having a website today is a compulsory thing. The first step to owning a website is registering a domain name. This may seem like an easy task but there are certain things that you need to take care of while doing so.

1. Cover the bases: If you are registering a domain name, then it makes sense to register as many extensions of that name as you can. For example, if you register only mybusinessdomain.com, there could be some other company that registers mybusinessdomain.org. This could lead to serious competition that could have been avoided if you had registered all the extensions.

2. Park them together: If you have a name with different extensions or if you register many names at once, then it makes sense to park them together with just one service provider. This will make it easy to organize and control them.

3. Don’t get tied down: If there is only one domain name extension available for the name you want, then it means that the other extensions are already booked. This means that your website is not the only one with that name. Hence, it makes sense to look for other variations of that name rather than just registering the one name extension that is available.

4. Cast the net wide: While registering, it is good to think what you would be doing in the future. Would you be only doing what you are doing now or would you like to expand your business as well. Do not choose a name that defines your business too narrowly. This will make it difficult to expand your business with the same name in the future.

5. Keep it short: Keeping the domain name short will make it easier for people to recall it and there will be lesser chances of people misspelling it.

6. Do not use hyphens unless it is necessary. While remembering your domain name, people will not remember the spelling along with the hyphen and this could affect the name and the business.

7. Keywords are important but that does not mean that you fill your domain name with keywords. Having a keyword will not ensure that your website will start ranking among search engines. It makes sense to have keywords only if the keyword reflects your business. However, websites can also do well if there are no keywords in the domain name.

8. You can use letters, numbers and dashes. However, you cannot use special characters like #, $, ^ etc. You can use capital letters as well.

9. Avoid names with established brand names. This could lead to trademark issues and put you in trouble.

10. Always keep your website updated. If your contact information changes, make sure to update the same on the website. Also remember the renewal dates of your domain name and renew it on time.

Domain names are the names that are used to identify web sites, and email servers. Some examples of well known domain names include “yahoo.com”, “google.com”, and “hotmail.com”. Every single day thousands of new domain names are registered, and most of these end with ”.com”, “.net”, or “.org”.  Since registering com, net and org domain names is relatively cheap (just a few dollars per year per domain), and there are no limits (other than what you can afford) on the number of domains of this type that you can register, many people are looking for ways to profit from domain names. Here are some ideas for how this can be done:

* The first and most obvious way to profit from a domain name, is to use it to build a web site on. The site could sell a product or service, or it could contain content and useful information for visitors and earn money from third party advertisements (such as banner ads) or from affiliate program links (programs that pay web site owners a commission for sending customers to a merchant’s web site).  In these situations the key factors in choosing a domain name, are selecting one that visitors will remember, or one that can contribute to a good search engine ranking (by containing relevant keywords).

* The second way to profit from a domain name is to buy it to resell. In some cases, domains registered for a few dollars have been sold for thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. The thing to remember is that such sales are unusual – most domains are not resold at all, and most of those that are sold, go for relatively modest profits. I would not pretend to be an expert on this area, but I can give you a few hints. Firstly, don’t expect to sell every domain you register. Secondly, finding domains that are potentially saleable (and not just a waste of money) requires research and knowledge of the market – this takes and effort – and you will probably find reading guides by people who have experience in this market to be worth the effort (for example, there are products available such as “How I Sell My Domain Names” and “Domain Cash Vault”). Thirdly, be careful to avoid infringing on trademarks and other protected names (this is known as “cybersquatting” and could get you sued).

* A third way to profit from a domain is to park it with an ad company.  In this case, the ads company displays ads on your domain, and you get a proportion of the revenue from these ads.  In most cases, empty domains with no real content won’t ever have much traffic, so the revenue per domain will be very small – however it’s better than nothing if you are holding a domain and haven’t yet built a site on it.

What’s in a name, anyway? When the names you’re thinking of are domain names, everything. Your domain name is how people identify your site online; the place where they head when they want to read your content or to do business with you. Most importantly, it’s a piece of intellectual property you want to hang on to.

When you let your domain name registration lapse, it’s not a pretty sight, regardless whether your site is for your business or a personal site. It’s upsetting to be kicked out of your home on the net, which is what happens when your domain registration runs out.

For business oriented websites, domain names really are everything. In many ways, your domain name IS your company. Lost domain names mean lost business. Even if you can get your domain back you’ll have missed out on potential customers.

No business can afford to have their domain name expire. When a domain name registration runs out and automatic renewal hasn’t been set up, the domain registrar or web hosting company who sold the domain name will soon offer it for sale again.

However, there is some hope, at least if you act quickly. The rules vary between different domain registrars and web hosting services, but many of these companies will place domain names on hold for a short period after the registration has lapsed. The registrant will then have a little time to reclaim their lost domain names.

The next step in the process is that the web hosting company or domain registrar will usually place these domain names on hold for a week. Again, this may vary from one company to another, but generally these domains will stay unavailable to purchase (to anyone, including you). Neither you nor anyone else will be able to re-register or transfer this domain until this week has passed.

Some domain name registrars will allow you to place a backorder for domain names which are suspended this way. It’s not free (and depending on the domain, might not be cheap either), but backordering any domain names you’ve allowed the registration to lapse on may be able to help you get them back.

The problem here is that other people can also backorder these domain names during this period. If someone’s beaten you to the punch, then it’s not too likely you’ll get your domain name back.

However, not every domain name will be backordered and it is often possible to reregister domain names you have lost. The more valuable the domain name, the more likely it is that someone will try to get it for themselves if your registration expires.

What makes a domain name valuable?

There are a couple of things which make some domain names more desirable than others. In general, short domain names are considered to be the best – especially one word domain ending in .com. Domains containing popular keywords are also valuable; and well known domains will almost certainly be backordered.

If you’ve managed to build a large audience for your site and made a name for yourself online, you should make sure that your registration is not allowed to lapse. Thankfully, this really isn’t that hard to do. Most domain registrars and web hosting companies who offer domain registration will allow you to renew your domain automatically by credit card – just make sure that your card doesn’t expire before your domain names do.

Another important thing to help you keep your domain names is to make sure that you either keep the email address you used to register the domain name or set up mail forwarding to your new address. Your web hosting provider or domain seller will typically send you a few notifications by email when your domain is due to expire soon; these are notifications you don’t want to miss.

If you do lose your domain name and it is registered to someone else, you have two options. You can try to contact the new owner (which may or may not be possible) and offer to buy the domain from them; but they won’t usually let your domain go for cheap, if at all.

Failing that, the best thing to do is to find another good domain name and resolve to do better next time. Register your domain name for several years rather than just one. Many registrars will permit domain names to be registered for as long as ten years, but register as far into the future as you can, set up automatic renewal and keep an eye out for expiry notices from your web hosting service or domain registrar so that you won’t lose your domain in the first place.

If you have been in the online business for long, there might be a time when you may have to change your entire domain name. It is not entirely a rare situation. In fact, more and more businesses who went online with a substandard domain name are now trying to upgrade to a better name. The practice of changing domains, thus, is quite prevalent.

The process for changing domain names is somewhat complicated, and you should ideally take the help of a web developer or a SEO specialist. The biggest issue when changing names is to not lose all the search engine rankings and good will that the older name had. This is a somewhat difficult task, depending on who you ask in the industry, and your technical skills.

Technically, you will have to make use of the .htaccess file and the mod_rewrite rule to fully transfer the rankings and good will of your last name to the new one. I know that this sounds quite intimidating at first, but once you get the hang of it, it is quite easy.

The mod_rewrite rule is used to transfer a visitor who types in your old site address directly to the new domain, thereby ensuring the good will is passed on. You should ideally have a little message on your site temporarily that your site’s address has changed, so as to not confuse visitors.

The .htaccess file, on the other hand, is used to redirect requests made for certain files or directories made on your site. Suppose all pictures on your site were in the directory called “images” such that the web address for the directory looked like this: http: //www.OldDomainName/images/.

With .htacess, you can redirect all requests made to this directory automatically to your new domain name and the relevant directory (say, the images are located in a directory called ‘pics’ on the new address). Consequently, anyone who types in the address above will be taken to http: //www.NewDomainName/pics/ instead automatically.

These are the two main technical issues related to changing domain names. I won’t say that they are particularly easy for the technically challenged. That is why I recommend that you take the help of a professional. You don’t want to mess things up and lose all the years of hard work put into cementing the rankings of your old site.

Isn’t Your Domain Name Worth Protecting?

Domain names continue to increase in value. Internet traffic continues to become more important for both on-line and brick and mortar companies. Global corporations, everyday businesses and their trademark attorneys are waking up to the value of their domain names, trademarks, copyrights and the need to protect of their on-line presence. How much is a domain name worth? Every domain name dispute attorney who practices Internet, Media & E-Commerce Law knows too well that the front door of their web site is often open and unlocked for cyber-criminals to exploit. Too many companies fail to appreciate the value of their domain name as a corporate asset, the fact that their domain name and associated trademark is under attack by cybersquatters and that their web traffic and customers are being diverted.

Sedo, the leading online market place for buying and selling Internet domain names and websites, has reported that a total of $72,230,731 worth of domains were sold and transferred via the Sedo marketplace in 2007. This is a 60% increase of the same figure from 2006. Now are you still thinking about leaving that domain unprotected?

Investors are so confident in the growth of online advertising – and the ability of domainers to capitalize on that trend – that they plan to soon start selling shares of domain-name companies to the public, even in today’s volatile market. Last September, NameMedia, a company based in Waltham, Mass., which has a huge portfolio of generic domain names, filed to go public on the Nasdaq stock market.

The industry’s transition to respect and professionalism may not be entirely complete. One strategy that has cast a stigma over the industry is called typo-squatting – registering domain names with variations and misspellings of major brand names, in the hopes that Web users will inadvertently stumble upon the sites. It has not gone away. In the last few months, Yahoo, Dell, BMX and Microsoft have all sued small domain registrars and domainers, asserting that they are profiting from thousands of names similar to their trademarks. The cases are pending.

Domain hijacking is another strategy. This occurs when someone hacks your email or otherwise compromises your registrant login at your chosen registrar. Controlling your registrant login is critical to controlling your domain name.

Domain names are worth real money. They are intangible assets which add value to the bottom line of any company. Isn’t it time you protected your domain name for theft, cybersquatting and hijacking?

A domain name is simply your internet address. Just as you would inform people of your home address so that they can visit and post mail to you likewise a domain employs the same functionality and provides you with an address in the virtual world.

On the more technical side the Domain Name Server also commonly referred to by its acronym DNS assists a number of internet users to reach different web sites. Your personal computers just like all other computers have a unique IP addresses. IP is short for Internet Protocol and it consists of a series of numbers. Remembering an IP address is not easy and therefore the DNS helps users to remember the numbers by storing it as letters commonly known as the domain name. You don’t have to type in the number 194.138.39.61 but rather you merely type in google.com.

It is therefore clear that in order to have an internet presence you need to acquire a name. When you are done creating your website, all that is missing is you picking a name. Unfortunately finding a name that would be suitable for your website may not be as easy as you think. The reason for this is that your choice of a name may already be taken by someone else.

A domain name search can entail a lot of frustration. There are domain search engines in use that will do this job for you but you could end up typing one name after another with no end in sight.

If you find yourself in a position where you would like to cut out the hassle of searching for the ideal name or don’t want to incur extra costs then it would work in your favor to check out the TreasureDomain website. They give you the ability to bargain the price of names. All you need to do is click on a button labeled ‘Make Us An Offer’ and you get to call the shots. They are quick with responding to your offers.

Your internet address must be one of a kind and once you have chosen and gone the process of registering it, you will take on the ownership and it will be yours forever as long as you pay the necessary fees every year.