Archive | June, 2010

29 June 2010 ~ 0 Comments

How to Steal SEO

I read an article recently in Rolling Stone magazine about some computer hackers and the “crime of the century”. In trying to blog about it, I found an interesting conundrum: The top (series of) search engine result(s) from searching for the article was a blog review of the article by another blogger, not the magazine author. By Google searching the article title, the top page of search results was not the source, but the review.

Rolling Stone is proud to announce digital issues, but the title of this one article or searched keywords did not render a result even at the Rolling Stone site. This means that every mention or Twitter or email or Digg gets related back to the first online result, the same blog but not the copyrighted origin. Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as stolen SEO.

Thus the source website yielded the SEO to the blogger. The blog author gave due credit and links to the source but the blog entry remains the top result for another author’s work. Yet it’s a mystery why the originating publisher would pass up an opportunity to get search result traffic. It’s hard to know the thoughts of a webmaster that stalls SEO discoverability and direct search engine referrals for putative digital subscriptions.

Stolen SEO should be a crime, but the individual leaving the door open are the source originators themselves. How many times have you found yourself using the Search bar at a given site, fruitlessly entering qualified terms, but not getting anywhere? These are the “light bulb” moments domainers and webmasters should tally in their tickler file of websites to build.

Target is a good example. I don’t go to Target.com because the search engine does not render results for products I know they have. Google searching should work, unless the clickthrough link pulls that scummy trick of landing the searcher at the landing page of the site, to begin the search all over again. IMOHO that is NOT a good search engine result. It creates work for shoppers.

How is this an opportunity for domainers? Domainers win when they conceive of a website that solves a problem and provides visitors with sticky content. Nothing could be more sticky than the search result for the item the web browser is looking for. One of the lamest excuses for imitation is that it’s flattering, but decades of Microsoft success prove you can’t “own” an idea.

If the store wanted to accessibly sell lawn chairs, it would maximize keyword efficiency.  But Target has left a window open for enterprising domainers. They can make a site featuring only those items inside the niche and save the shopper time, typing, and trouble. Any site that tries to encompass too broad an encyclopedia or catalog risks alienating visitors by this response failure. The elision of likely keywords from surgical results leaves the door open for enterprising web designers.

By shrinking the ugly cycle of scanning page of items after page of items at the store site, and waiting for all this to render, a site master can marry a city name or store name with an item to shop for and make a killer domain out of keywords they can optimize until the cows come home. This opportunity is available in markets heating up right now, like online coupons from sites like Dukky. Maybe users don’t want to wait for the next campaign and want the coupon now.

Why is this a domain development opportunity? Because a website owner of “Targetlawnchairs.com” could make a bunch of listings on the site and link them to the densely buried Target.com product listings. Surfing a densely niche targeted site for lawn chairs available at Target stores allows online discoverers to skip Search restarts and navigate back and forth through a million results.

Collecting information from online Web sources and redelivering it to the web visitor is not exactly rocket science. But it is webmaster science. Domainers can execute reasonable answers to online search query problems  and compose a likely site, and shrink the type in cycle for grateful web users. The traffic should tell the tale and  bring revenue and clicks.

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26 June 2010 ~ 12 Comments

Domain Development Simplicity

One approach to expanding a domain definition, coining a term, or fulfilling the promise of a type in domain name dot com url is making the site behind the name. Only the domain owner can make the website. They can choose any program they want and any function they want.The site can have no ads, some ads, no images, be mostly images, or feature text or minimized objects altogether, making a stylized web site statement.

Yet ironically, webmasters and domainers usually choose to make their next site look as much as possible like any other site they’ve seen!  Even more frustrating to creative minds, they tend to complement each other most fulsomely on the sites that look most similar to others overall! The opportunity to make a vivid, original and unmatched web statement all too often gets passed by in the eager leap to uniformity of web design.

<Sigh>.

A web site starts with the domain name, or earlier. Writers and webmasters can be putting content “in the can” before they acquire the right name. Editing the database for keyword density is simple when the base domain name is finally acquired. Keywords for passion projects ten to serve each other well in complementarily topical websites.

Then it’s time to build the site. Constructing a landing page and additional pages can be daunting, thus the need and function of the site plan is introduced to the domain development process. Just some simple compilation and research and signing up for RSS feeds can fulfill a website with basic information. Domain domainance occurs when webmasters take web development to the next step.

Hosting company accounts can be fantastic (Fantastico!) resources for ideas. Using open source applications and web site HTML templates can speed branches of a site plan to web published completion in no time. Fantastico web applications can provide easy access installation and tutorial assistance for jump start administration for qualified users. Time spent fiddling with file trees and HTML skeletons can go toward the site’s content and promotion.

The secret to utilizing open source applications properly is fulfilling their promise by adding original content at regular intervals. Templates should be the starting ground for a website, not the finite end or finish line. The site plan should show a way for the author of the site to communicate directly with visitors, usually a blog. Blogs can be completely keyword dominated or barely topical, according to the author’s mod, resources, and schedule.

Web links should be framed so interested topical visitors can take their intellectual inquiry or journey of web discoverability further. Web link exchanges will come from motivated webmasters who want to mirror the appeal of your site to theirs. Features off the front page or located elsewhere should have “signposts” allowing visitors to navigate thataway. Visitors to any  website are always looking for “something to do”.

Web sites often come across as grudging efforts when the sky is really the limit. The internet does not charge for more links, better text, and more quality resolution images! And focusing the ongoing attributes toward more specialized and niche elements that capture SEO researchers can’t hurt. Webmasters should appeal to acquaintances for frank assessment of what the site signals to them in terms of next step activity and clickthrough behavior.

Constant pruning and editing of the website HTML and code  is required for the contemporary SEO optimized site. Upgrading every feature, from meta tags to picture frame dimensionality should be given some careful attention. When a visitor “arrives” at the website, what gives it curb appeal? What makes the site visitor say,  (in the words of Tiny Fey of NBC’s 30 Rock), “I want to go to there”?

The site should provide a way for users to access downloads or other dense information without site lag and dragging page rendering times. The web site should provide an outlet for visitor-to-visitor site participation and exchange of ideas and responses. There should be enough content and detail to tempt visitors short on time to bookmark the page and check back, or save it to their hard drives for offline perusal.

A new site launch is a large project or an itemized task, depending on skill level and enthusiasm.  Bringing fulfillment of a website for a new domain name is the challenge. The domainer has his hands full getting the site up and running, but with attention to these above mentioned details the webmaster for any domain based site launch, and/or the domain name owner,  can feel comfortable their efforts will not be amiss.

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24 June 2010 ~ 2 Comments

Domain Entrepreneurs

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Domaining profit scenarios include multiple pathways to domain flipping and website launch for profit. Web entrepreneurs can plan on creating multiple revenue streams from each site. But the limit on how much of a site can be created for monetary return and how much is informative content is a personal judgement call. The matrix is edited by one person: the webmaster or site admin.

Domains can be investment vehicles or active projects. Monetizing the websites and deriving revenue from affiliates and sponsors is one way, but making the website and driving web development is another. Eyeing domain name acquisitions with an objective toward development take a a trained and speculative eye. The fate of many domain names and websites can take a wrong turn with one or two simple decisions.

The profit model form many websites as entrepreneurial projects does not necessarily have to stem from the website to make it work. Online Internet users are looking for so many routes to information and so many shortcuts to organized links, data, and media any plan that targets a viable niche and delivers a quick route to entertainment or content can make a website work.

Research for homework, college papers, and general background online is hot, while many legacy sources of information like encyclopedias do not adapt well to modern readers or web researchers. Topical SEO optimized articles can make a website on Civil War history or a certain era of Victorian literature stand out. Web journalism literally rewrites its own standards daily. Webmasters can too.

A domainer can identify a group of people that may benefit from having the opportunity to buy business or personal websites from a qualified site designer. Investing in suitable domain names for this market and promoting the domain portfolio to the niche buyers would be on strategy to make money. Showing likely domainer news how to develop a site for their own entrepreneurial development might vend many urls.

Topical domain names that revolve around one subject or topic can serve to corner a market or deliver a tranche of domain buyers to one portfolio holder. But not every domainer is comfortable with this investment. Some domainers simply buy their own “taste” in names and wait until nibbling buyers make inquiring email bids.Research into names and their resale markets is helpful.

Entrepreneur domainers can work on their own or with partners. Maybe one domainer has the drive to market and sell names to other domainers, and one partner can make sites and launch applications on a tight budget and restricted timeline. The other partner might have the contacts and social skills to engage other domainers in buying negotiations. A series of successfully completed sites makes the domain partners a new site production team for hire.

For Internet domaining partners, pooling hosting resources and creative ideas is a must. Sometimes one domainer will know the ins and outs of an auction site better than his compatriot. The market in one country and one language may be ready for that domain speculation, but the one partner’s host country domain bidders and auction name buyers may not bite at all.

If a webmaster baulks at a topic that is too broad ins cope, a niche within that topic can be found sufficient to launch the website and populate it with density keywords. Domain entrepreneurs who are partners can give each other critical feedback and inform the website project with joint enthusiasm and attention to SEO detail. The content can grow from multiple perspectives.

Different domainer teams can assign themselves into new partnerships all the time. There is no limit for project design and site launching for the online entrepreneur. When domain name value must be grown and multiplied, online peers and partners can make entrepreneurial decisions and choices to render domain names more valuable than ever.


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22 June 2010 ~ 2 Comments

Google Hacks For Domainers

One website domainers need to get nice and friendly with is Google. There is no more important website in the world to domain name traders and webmasters than Google. The trials and tribulations of how Google attained internet market dominance is a moot point. The fact remains that in today’s domain name market nobody can afford to do without Google tools, hacks and SEO optimization maxims.

But so many domainers skip very important Google tools and heightening SEO rules when composing their websites. The inclusions of tags on images, the use of alternate text, the proofing of the website on cross browser versions are only some examples. Ranking algorthythms operate on so many lines a webmaster practically has to be a wizard to master them all.

Submission to Google itself is a step many webmasters skip. The signing up for ad codes does not always equal full categorization in the Google universe. Page directories and indices of certain types of sites are also included in the Google page ranking index. But so many webmasters forget this and think that one Google ad submission equals total Google bot exposure. Such is not the case.

It’s not enough just to have Google adsense. There should be a Google map and many diverse types of sits tying in notices and links to the source site. Without decent attempts at development and distribution or related and topical material online, no SEO game plan can be considered worthwhile. The marketing plan must include all the facets of Google, not just the Adsense code inclusion in site HTML.

The SEO optimization wars claim many website casualties. This can be in part due to the fact that over ambitious domain name owners aim for the top hundredths or thousandth of their category without any game plan. Without a search engine result growth plan there is no basis to tie expectations to.

Google shows the way just by returning search results for terms. What kind of site is the result made of? What type of text is the key term noted from? What spiders and bots are scrubbing your page daily? The site absorbs all these data points. Feeds by themselves might be “light”, but together with an integrated hybrid of original content and text the seo value is there.

A type of snobbery can pervade the world of webmasters and domain name owners. News scrapes and press release rewrites are not “good enough” for these webmasters who need premium content or nothing. Yet these same webmasters can barely churn out 200 words a day! Investigating the way Google displays search results can show new domain name owners and seo-minded webmasters the path to seo greatness.

Any Google search will show that millions of different types of sites and keyword instances can feed into a search engine result that produces that website or a page on that website. The gateway to internet success making websites and promoting domain names is interpreting what Google is doing. Finding the threads are available for free at Google.com.

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20 June 2010 ~ 15 Comments

Evaluating the Pool Droplist

For domainers looking to pick up a few great domain deals here is a typical analysis of the Pool hotlist and the drop evaluation technique. The Pool list is published via email from Pool.com daily in anticipation of recipient interest in bidding on names at the Pool.com domain name auctions held daily online. These names drop or are put up for sale by domainer sellers daily.

Deletion lists can be addicting because they show what other domainers have been up to. Drop lists show what domain names other domainers have decided are either not worth their while to renew, or what domains they have not gotten around to renewing. As many a domain name fish story will start, the “renewal email got lost in the shuffle’ incidence can happen very easily indeed.

Unless a domainer already has a site invested for a given trademark, trademark names are best avoided. One reason they are in the drop to begin with is that the owner has either gotten a “Cease and Desist” letter from the copyright owner or fears one will arrive with any further development of the name. Trademark names are a risk. The domain Amazondiscounts.net is an example of a possible trademark name.

Short names are always good to review because they may come very close to names you already own or may be acronyms for longer names you already own. This begets “type-in” traffic domainers want. A name in tomorrow’s Pool list, like r0b.net, could be good for domain name owners and administrators named Rob or those with burglary aspirations, or those with acronyms totaling R-O-B.

A name for sale like cashmonk.com might be a very good site name for an affiliate or cash raising site or a website with strategems for building multi level marketing or popup revenues online. Keywords like “cash” and “money” can be competitive bidding arenas, so domainers should have their checkbooks ready for active bidding. Money words are genuine traffic attractors because so many people are looking for information about money markets, investing, budgets and so forth online all the time.

Hyphenates are an acquired taste. Some domainers stem from the “old school” of domaining where almost any hyphenate was a detractor for original name value. Symbols were estimated as harder for web users to remember, type in, or use. Hyphenates always stand the risk of building type-in traffic for the name owner of the same domain name without the hyphen.

A name like debt-elimination.com has “money” name appeal but a hyphenate detractor element to it. A domain name for sale at Pool.com like rugged-notebooks has a tech designation but a hyphenate detractor dynamic as well. Likely buyers for this name should be those with other names with “notebook” in them for traffic continuation or site keyword mirroring and linking.

A deleting name like foreclosedlists.com reflects conflicting factors within a qualified domain name up for auction. This is a real estate name, and a partial money name, but also a list name, and can be considered too long by some purist domain name investors. But the likelihood of searches for this type of site might be estimated to be high enough to realize value and profit for affiliate and traffic visits.

Prohomes.com follows much of the same logic, except it can be argued to more valuable because it is much shorter to type in than foreclosedlists.com. The homes market for domain names may also be seen as a longer term viable keyword investment than the “foreclosure” arena of recent financially related real estate activity. Prohomes.com could be an excellent long term domain “flipping” investment waiting for the right corporate buyer.

Foodcult.com and fakeplants.com make amusing ideas for websites if the bidding price can be kept within the probable window of return on domain investment. The domainer should have an idea what assembling a directory and a number of articles should cost and a link building strategy for the site.

Further on down the list, On99.com might make a good site if the number 99 has some relevance to another data item or price level, such as 99 cents or 99 dollars. Numerical domains can be tricky, but a good example of a site is gymnastics2010.com, which has up to the minute gymnastics articles for this current year. Date domains can be worthwhile to acquire and develop in their current “date year”.

Download the full Pool.com list is available at the pool website, and searching out special domain names or names not featured on the list is a domainer’s stock in trade. Expect higher bidding for short names, and money names, and manage bids so cascading auctions don’t rob the domainer of time to rebid. Finally, resist the urge to get in a bidding war or rally to a name that builds interest simply as an auction win to acquire.

Safe and happy drop listing, everyone!

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18 June 2010 ~ 9 Comments

Domain Database Marketing

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One of the fastest and most entry level friendly niches in domaining has been the growth of the database market. To sell or vend a database should take a minimum number of thread posting listings and per word price negotiation. A premium price or per word rate should be hung on a database with super dense keyword content and notable outbound link targets.

Why are databases valuable? Because they can be re-used. By now, domain name buyers and sellers know the big money in domaining comes from developed names that form viable sites with traffic stats to support resale dynamics. By purchasing and installing an SEO optimized database and aggregating inbound links via link exchanges and link building, a domain name owner and webmaster can bring together a working site.

The blog engine is the most user friendly and widely used site maker now, and new domain owners may want to skip the early stages of blog birthing pains and ramp up a database for the first cycle of entries to fit. For the domainer launching multiple projects this can be a lifesaver strategy. And the blog database especially has value when associated with a domain name with “blog’ in the title.

A database of blog entries is flexible in that it can be viewed in a vertical, top-down manner in spreadsheet or table form after importing and file conversion. These records can then be uploaded to a new blog installation that suddenly has content within it. With each user the content becomes more customized, fresh and new.

The database table is a character set table that can be converted from the Access database file format and converted to Word table or Excel block view. Blog entries can be scanned for relevance to the intended new domain name project or website. This utility can be used when a domain name is being dismantled or let to drop. the domain database can be salvaged for future posting or resale value.

Repopulating a database with new terms and keywords, and editing the entries to reflect a new domain name makes a dozen blogs possible to update daily. A domainer who owns a dozen blogs can work with a busy calendar by filling in some of them with legacy database source entries. This keeps the bots happy and allows domain name owners to bulk fortify their online blog installations without exhaustion.

The database salvage starts with the editing. Conversion Wizards can be activated by mouse clicking the object upon extraction from the hosting account database manager. And many blog engines allow direct file extraction for the administration menu interface. Files form database downloads can be split, unacceptable records deleted, and spam entries in comment fields bulk cleared of content.

A new database file is then opened that presents all of the text of the blog entry words. Each entry is separated by its date stamp. These can be reordered at will by the editor. The entries will then be visible in a transparent manner, one on top of the other. The cascading records (each entry forms one record) can be bulk processed to form the basis of a new blog

In Excel, the autofill of the date function can supply the new calendar of dates. The date field can also be left as is, and the record entries salvaged on a piecemeal basis day by day or entry by entry. For many newb bloggers, rewriting 350 words and supplementing them to form one 500 word text blog entry is doable, while a blank “new post’ field (daily) scares them to death.

Editing a database table of records is much easier than it sounds. The database application allows find and replace features so the operator can bulk replace keywords. By identifying good keywords and using content editing and link seeding within the words of the file the database as a whole becomes more congruent to a certain domain name. Each record can be reworked and revised to reflect current SEO needs.

One big secret to vending a database is that owning the domain name isn’t necessary. If a talented writer wants to write a blog about a geo market, hot new term, or niche industry, they can install the WordPress or blog installation on their hosting account file manager directory tree and start growing their database right there. Tending the fields of data can earn domainers big bucks.

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16 June 2010 ~ 23 Comments

Domain Keywords For SEO

The first step after obtaining a domain name is to make the website. Once the website is launched, marketing becomes the primary business function. Marketing a website encompasses awareness building,  targeting potential users, tracking landing page and clickthrough page visitor traffic, and effectively encouraging active participation in site activities by those users.

Sites that are meant to build value in a domain need metrics to support that value growth. Metrics that are used to estimate domain name value are site traffic, user demographics, and external links. Domainers can choose which activities to invest their time in to grow site visitation and web awareness of the site’s content and mission. Sites with a diversity of approaches can reap concrete benefits from domain promotion and content marketing.

One of the best ways to popularize a site is to optimize the SEO. This phrase has become an industry wide term in domaining circles that can mean different things to different operators. Sometimes the content on the website is shared to other sites via news feed or RSS utilities. Or the abstracts to certain content pieces might be fed to other external sites with links to the rest of the article text at the destination site.

Some websites derive profits from visitors and participation at the destination website in certain volumes. Resident code monitors online visitors from these sponsors or advertisers. The data from these operations is consolidated into monthly earnings and/or traffic reports. Website administrators can run independent site traffic reports as well.  Specialized traffic reporting software can also be used from vendors online for this purpose.

Webmasters who are aggressive about growing their site participation and SEO appeal will review the traffic reports for valuable user data.  If indications are good that blog entries with pictures fare better for clickthrough to the main article, the webmaster knows to expend valuable bandwidth per entry for that feature. If readers avoid articles with too many statistics, the editor knows to simplify the text to garner more continued pageviews.

Unfortunately, many “black hat” domainers and site operators encourage click fraud and cloaked links. While this may bolster temporary traffic numbers it does little to build affiliate revenue or domain value. Starting flame wars with other bloggers and site visitors also can show little long term site value. The site domain name and/or the main keywords can guide the choice of affiliates, such as “candy bar phones” or “romance novel” ads.

The Search Engine Optimization derives online traffic and grows domain name value by drawing power from comprehensive density of keywords, originality of content, external backlinks, and link quality. Getting a site in the thick of the information superhighway takes work. SEO tips and tricks are everywhere but very few of the replace basic common sense.

Understanding the basic workings of these necessary site features is the responsibility of every webmaster. The web standards and best practices should be the model for all Internet website development and marketing activity. Search engine ranking factors can determine the resale price of the domain name. Hence the drive for site composition quality.

The diversity of link sources matter. The host site keywords should be a guide.  If the parameters of the search terms for the linking back sites are significantly altered from the base keywords, the link has little value. If the site keywords and search terms for the external links are extremely different,  the link may detract from SEO tabulation results. Sacrificing link quality for happenstance traffic is short sighted domaining.

The popularity of the sites where external links are found matters. The text which is linked as an anchor in posts, urls, or comments at external sites leading inbound matters. These dynamics are what conscientious webmasters and aggressive domainers work to maximize the effect of per site/domain. An assortment of links between like-keyworded sites can work to a domainer’s advantage.

To do that, working with keywords is required. Site key words for any domain name or term can be found using online sites or domain name analytic tools. But the words that connect to nay domain may not be appealing category or article title words, or they may be too abstruse or foreign to interest browsing readers or scanning Internet surfers.

Domainers and webmasters depend on registrar engines and SEO instruments   to provide valid keyword data.  But the most commonly used keywords generated by analytics and traffic bot trackers may be awkward and difficult to incorporate into categories and posts. This is where the site writer and webmaster need to work together to capture discoverability and stickiness elements within fixed and updated content.

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14 June 2010 ~ 9 Comments

Domain Insider Tips for StartUps

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Every industry has its insider secrets. Domaining is the same way.  It takes time and experience to spot some of them. Not every domainer has a silver blog in his mouth, to coin a phrase. Some inside secrets on domaining some of the books , magazines, reviews and trade blogs will never tell you. To hit the ground running in the domain name game, you might try crawling first.

1. You Don’t Need Your Own Hosting Account

Chances are you probably know about three dozen people who already pay too much in too many different directions for hosting. Domainers are exactly guilty of this more than they would like to admit. Any value realization of this fixed ongoing monthly cost is welcome. This is how hosting companies make money, because nobody can optimize to the outer envelope of their server allocations (Usually).

Domainers who want the flexibility of the access time and files resources for implementing websites can be  short the necessary duration of time, so they are paying duplicate fees for stacked hosting, often with the same hosting company for duplicate names.  Some domainers may not even understand how duplicated their hosting resources are.

These hosting accounts have generous pockets or wide tranches of unused space in the file directories. There may be database allocations and bandwidth tolerances lying fallow (and feeding someone else’ s websites). Just forwarding a domain name for a while to a subfolder on a hosting account can launch a site without specific hosting expense.

Savvy webmasters and smart domain owners can barter clicks and mortar services or an I.O.U. for future advertising for some space on the hosting account. Tuning a site or installing an application, and learning the basics, can be done before the domain name or launch project has even been identified. This also gives  the administrator domain owner some “white noise” time to work without pressure of daily blog submissions or articles to publish.

2. Content Stems from Multiple Strategies

There are a variety of ways to generate a content plethora before the initial launch date of a blog or site application arrives. Once the site is launched, the SEO clock starts and the web starts churning investigative bots to extract keyword density and content attributes from existing text and updates. Experienced content makers know how to churn SEO-friendly content out that is both original and keyword dense, yet still appealing and readable.

Having a press release article ready, some url links to existing stories about you,   an “About Us’  text file,  some background on how the website idea got started and pictures or background material or history of the product or its practice can help. In the beginning, using news from other outlets is feasible if the “take” on the article is reported as original text by the (new) site author.

3. Imitation is the Most Efficient Form of Flattery

Imitating another site has its uses. It streamlines the production timeline of a site to zero and accelerates speed toward every other domain development benchmark and site growth goal.  Site architecture in original form can be problematic to conceive and rebuilding the wheel in terms of time absorption. By the time a site is ready to launch or in its first trimester, most features will have been tweaked out of recognition anyway.

If the skill set of the team lies in content and promotion, use the template, invent a logo for the domain name and move on. People can “see through” to the content. Web standards should prevail and code hacks and unique programming irregularities should be well thought out.

Working through site design hurdles shouldn’t involve heavy books and manuals and eyestrain and late nights. The heavy lifting of marketing a website and promoting a domain name  should be the link building and article submission for content, not tinkering with awkward code. This is a trap many domainers fall into.

Branding can come later. Many dominant companies have refashioned their online site colors and logo appeal over time. It’s best for the webmaster to get the hard stuff right, and leave the easy shopping to take care of itself. Fun new themes, avatars, colorations and icons are time consuming and consensus draining. Special typefaces and large images should be avoided for server side concerns.

4.  Skip the Jargon, Take the Cannolli

Every industry and especially online occupations have a herd mentality that gets carried away with itself.  Sometimes the online swirl of ideas and vibes and trends is moving too fast for a launching domainer to properly evaluate. The players are unknown and the impressions come thick and fast. Avoid leaping before you look.

Many domaining professionals will seek to sell you their services or wares before your site is ready or even if your platform or application is not right for what they offer.  The KISS mentality pervades for a reason. Others may not have your situation or understand your project boundaries. Keep to your domain development plan and only bring a new solution or custom addition into the mix if the idea lasts and won’t go away.

5. Write your own Ticket Regarding Service and Hiring Practices

Many products have hidden caveats and many services assume more knowledge and experience than you may have.  Don’t part with money until you have had time to evaluate testimonials, references, examples or project milestones. Use a banking service or credit card with buyer protection. Realize you become a vendor when completing services and a creditor when providing wares.

Use your best judgement hiring people online.  Don’t write a blank check to a programmer, hire an amateur without accountability,  or suspend passwords or administrative control over any accounts in doing so. Work with friends of friends and referred professionals with examples to show. To see if the contractor is genuine, start small and test the communication and see how the other party responds.

Work with tried and true service contractors and web development personnel who have executed results that please you.  Someone doesn’t need a Flash video to qualify to wash your car, but they might proffer some valid real proper names and phone numbers for jobs ranging in the hundreds of dollars to the thousands for critical and time sensitive website work.

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12 June 2010 ~ 20 Comments

Choosing a Hosting Account

One of the most critical decisions any domainer will make is the choice of hosting account and the company they decide to have host their domains online. Hosting companies are online service vendors who garner the host records and domain traffic execution to filed HTML content per the domainer or webmaster. Some registrars offer hosting as well.

The hosting account is a must as a transition stage between mere domain names owned via a registrar and live domain sites and managed parked pages. The hosting buy operates to provide every domainer with resources for website development. The cost can vary, and efficiency handling webmaster requests will dictate which hosting company the webmaster chooses.

But not all hosting accounts are created equal. The online  interface and the ease of use is demonstrably better at some hosting companies online than others. Facility for the domain administrator is key when choosing a hosting account. This means the operator should be comfortable logging in regularly and using the password functions to access the domain hosting administration menu.

Not all hosting companies provide this. While the landing page or “top” page has an index of features, these are often created from templates in the case of resellers. Reseller accounts for hosting are “branch” hosting accounts generated by interested users to function as hosting companies themselves. These may have the look and feel of the “parent” hosting company but they do not necessarily have the service benefits.

In some cases, if a reseller chooses to give a domainer a good deal on hosting it is their choice to go with that host. But keep in mind the communication relay and information for technical and customer support will only be as good as the operator of that account. The quality of this can be hard to predict from just a slick hosting company offering template.

Hosting can be available in blocks known as packages. The packages will likely have names corresponding to the their level of service offering.  The “junior” or “baby” web hosting accounts will likely have one name or single tolerance database structures and installations options. These database allowances determine the flexibility of the hosting account. The amount of websites hosted at that address online can vary.

The competition for the domainer’s web hosting dollar has gotten severe and the attractiveness of cost friendly hosting options is different with each hosting offering. Affordability and performance will shake out the best hosting company buy. The thin marginal differences in components inside the hosting offering will be what webmasters and SEO optimizers are shopping for.

Multiple websites can be hosted inside the hosting account purchased for one domain. The key benefit in today’s development market for websites is how many blog installations and portal or forum installations a website hosting account can provide. But there are SEO and ad credits for the advertising side of domaining as well with some hosting packages.

No formal license or minimum coding experience is necessary to buy a hosting account. Price breaks per individual hosting companies exist for quarterly and annual and biannual billing, some on a prepaid basis. Free hosting does exist yet the sites made from such a resource often have ads from the hosting company the user or site owner cannot control.

Owner incorporated accounts directly administrated by the domainer are best. Cost effectiveness and uptime are the optimum qualifications for a web hosting company. Reviews and recommendations should be plentiful. the monetary method of payment should have some protections as well, such as Paypal or via credit card.

Industry domainers can refer the better choices in hosting companies for those domain name owners who don’t want to take a risk.  Some hosting companies actively encourage new commerce and offer discount coupons, like Godaddy.com. Some advantages of one webhost like a free parking option or a unlimited email might matter to one domainer more than another.

Some hosting companies offer sterling references, like HostGator. They will have some good testimonials at the site.  Other web hosting companies specialize in price or online versatility when it comes to variety of open source or Windows based site building applications.

Soon the newb domainer will have experience handling domain name transfers, addressing host records, resolving HTML files with type in traffic, and other hosting tasks. And hosting can always be changes. The best practice is choosing a hosting account is to start making websites for the domains, using a small account,and build from experience.

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11 June 2010 ~ 15 Comments

Creating a Domain Name

Building, creating, buying and forming a domain name is an art elevated to into an industry by a few hundred thousand people worldwide. The sky can be the limit and the only cutoff factor is an already registered or held domain name. A domain name can be as fun or serious as its maker. Many similar names can be formed at once and bought in a block as a strategy.

Generally domain names are bought for one year blocks of time. Multiyear options are available. The actual domain name is operated by ICANN, and for a fee is purchased from registrars and licensed to the owner for use. The better known a registrar company is, the better likelihood fewer misunderstandings about ownership will arise. These regulations are not subject to negotiation.

Registrar sites make excellent touching off points for searching for available domain names. Typing brainstorm ideas and checking all the top level domains and lower sub level domains can show the newby domainer who has also thought of this idea. If the domain is available for purchase, the registrar will indicate what other tld’s and sub-tld’s are available as well.

Let us use the example of a noun that can also be a verb. If the word is an established word, the chance is highly likely that adding “ing” will form a domain name that is already registered. But a new word or term may not have its verb form registered yet.  Of course, many domainers buy “nonsense” names, but for the purpose of buying a domain name with associated meaning, let’s pursue the concept of registration of a legitimate term domain name.

The morphology of the base word into a domain name can also occur when a synonym for that word is used. For instance, a site name for purses might have “sack” or “bag” in the name. A site name for writing might have “tome” or “writer” or “author” or “scribe” in it. Some prefixes and suffix words may be added to form a more specific (but limiting) name. Buypurses.com or Sellpurses.com are examples.

A large part of creating a domain name is investigating the flexibility of language. The appeal of a domain name lies in the ability of it to convey the focus or function of the website behind it. Inventing a fun name or finding new ways to combine keywords is a large part of the most fun part of domaining. Assigning meaning to a word for a action or thing is a form of linguistics.

The linguistics of domain name formation follow certain gestalts. If the intended site is for a shopping or information website, the word “store’ or the sub TLD .info could be used, if not just the word “info” itself tagged onto the main base word. Putting the prefix “new” in front of any word makes almost a more appealing site name than before. Putting the word “old” in front of the word makes a site about used or antique items.

Most people are used to thinking about domain names in terms of dot-com. But multiple top level domains exist. TLD’s of dot-net and dot-org were among the most common when the Internet first started out. Today there are country codes like .ca for canada that also are functioning in this manner. Dot-biz and dot-TV, as well as dot-info, make intriguing propositions out of any domain name formation.

If the goal of the domain name purchase is to mount a website or an online presence related to that base word, checking to see what the dot-com or dot-net sites for the domain first thought of might look like is suggested. This can make for a family fun game or a strategic challenge to get the right name if it can be found and is available.

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