22 August 2010 ~ 8 Comments

Surfing Hosting Accounts

While navigating three hosting accounts in one morning I remembered more than I wish I had forgotten about the in’s and out’s of relative advantages of different hosting companies. Administrating Wordpress websites is about as easy as being a webmaster can get short of editing mere HTML pages strung together. But it can still be a headache. And performing tasks in MySQL on no coffee is torture.

I went between Godaddy.com and 1 & 1 Hosting, between 1 & 1 hosting and Hostgator, and back again from Hostgator.com to Godaddy again. This is the chore when different hosting accounts get different parts of the hosting account offering formula right and different parts of it wrong. Experiencing multiple hosting account interfaces before breakfast can take a lot of elbow grease and keyboard forgiveness.

A lot depends on the browser. At one point in the project I realized I had both Firefox and Internet Explorer open because one hosting account stayed open better in Explorer while another transited better between navigation screens in Explorer. But Explorer seemed more secure in certain parts of the hosting account interface where security was tighter, and Firefox sort of stalled in the Backup/Restore pathway of commands.

GoDaddy.com does have a cornered market on the Godaddy Hosting Connection installation utility. It’s a nice arrangement that unfortunately you have to learn to be comfortable with. Control panel and ControlPanel Deluxe have that absolute party favorite of all hosting account surfers, Fantastico. Except to get version information you have to sift carefully and compare versions and perform upgrades per application before executing database restore and upload tasks.

The jury is never really out when debating which hosting account vendor online is the best. Certainly Enom.com is a stable bedrock names registrar. but just try and get a name hosted there or working with any application without Indian medicinal juju working for you. Frustration with one hosting account leads to the germination of another at a new company. This cycle can only continue so far.

Godaddy.com has the most fluid domain manager but the bells and whistles flavor of the nonstop “Buy This” circus inside a hosting login can’t exhaust even a patient webmaster fast. This administration environment seems very commercial next to the minimal functionality of the Hostgator Control panel. The Fantastico “hosting connection” delivers good install functionality for third party applications, if the versions are consistent with the “exit” versions on other outgoing site hosting accounts.

What this means is that a WordPress install at Godaddy might be at Wordpress 3.01.01 yet the Fantastico release at HostGator might have the WordPress installation release only at 2.98.2. This means the security and support is not guaranteed for custom tweaks and plugins that are the main feature of the updated Wordpress. Backwards blog migration is never a pretty site.

Thus the hosting account selection equation might be reduced to the smoothest and most updated installation suite. Yet so many functions inside the Control Panel (except Fantastico) can remain untouched for the life of the account. Or worse, they can be experimentally tried with brilliant reactions of equal parts of glee, panic and chaos. Having the tech support number close at hand is a must.

The hosting at 1&1 hosting is a curiosity to me. The custom tweaked interface for administration of the hosting account seems to mask more than it reveals of available and necessary domaining chores. The ease of use never seems to be 100% there. For a domainer intent on SEO and marketing and domain name promotion, supposedly only programmers venture this far.

I have a 1 & 1 hosting account that it took a considerable amount of time to cancel, simply because the process was so labyrinthine I barely got the confirmation of the account cancellation in time. I got quickly into the habit of not using the account because I didn’t like the interface as was constantly stalled by the “lookup and see” factor involved in very simple tasks.

To be sure, Godaddy captures a big part of its hosting and domain business from ease of use and familiarity. But not often do I get the opportunity to see triple hosting company side by side performance. I remember how much I resisted the Godaddy interface on my journey from ControlPanel. I like the direct file management approach but miss the protections and hidden file attributes of the Godaddy File manager.

For the 1 & 1 Hosting file access was almost impossible, rendering many templates and theme graphics closed to customization. I used to cling tearfully to my Control panel until an installation version got so vulnerable to failure almost every operation was liable to disappear from day to day. This is the sort of thing that causes hosting account migration.

My love affair with Fantastico was long and meaningful. But many other administration options when navigating through reseller accounts and multiple hosting trees became necessary. Godaddy is a hosting account utility most webmasters will shoulder sooner or later simply by nature of the amount of domains hosted there. Until there is a definitive result for the best hosting company for SEO, the choice for domainers remains personal.

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21 July 2010 ~ 15 Comments

Domain Sweetening

owlswwet

The Domain name offer can come in from the cold with the new era of blog databases and instant websites. A template or open source application used for an existing domain’s website means that any buyer can take advantage of premium content original to that domain name as part of the purchase price. This can be termed a “domain sweetener”.

Adding sweetener to your domain can be as simple as allowing the buyer to utilize the current hosting where the domain is lodged. Server information is generally given with the WHOIS record.  The WHOIS record must always be accurate for this reason. Unless a Privacy option is purchased at the time of the domain name creation, the registrant’s name phone number address and fax number is visible to the public. And even Privacy entailed records have bid or offer links at the lookup point.

What functions as a sweetener? Bundled domains with other sub-TLD’s, Emails with the domain or a free renewal might be other domain sweeteners. The ability to transform a nibble of interest into a successfully executed domain sale may take some sweetening on the seller’s part. The trick is knowing when to add the sweetener. Only the seller knows how motivated they really are to get some cash out of the deal.

Domains will attract lookups and type in interest form time to time. the record of these lookups can be tracked by referrer traffic form the WHOIS. This can be viewed from the statistics utility in the web hosting menu. The concept of the WHOIS lookup concedes that a likely buyer is checking out who owns the domain name, how long they have owned it, where it is hosted, and what the owner is doing with the domain.

A domain buyer will check out whether or not the current owner has a lot of time or investment put into the name. The theory is that a domainer will sell a name more cheaply if they haven’t developed it themselves.  Or the prospective buyer may want to see if the domain name is parked and thus assess its potential value as a parked revenue generator. The offer for the domain name may include the content seen online.

Existing content in the form of databases or text files can also function as a domain sweetener. If the domainer has invested in domain development at all, these files can be furnished with the domain name sale as a sweetener. The incentive should be communicated that valuable planning and effort are attached with the domain purchase price. The sweetener should be signalled when the buyer has had enough time to consider an offer.

For this reason, domain name offers to buy should have a deadline and a “window of opportunity” attached. This way the prospective buyer has to evaluate how motivated they are. The domain name price will not be a given with a horizon of forever, but an opportunity to buy the domain name at the stated price within a secured period of time. The communication regarding the sweetener should come from a motivated seller near the end of the offer period.

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14 June 2010 ~ 8 Comments

Domain Insider Tips for StartUps

owlblue

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 ~ 17 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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09 June 2010 ~ 2 Comments

Basic Online Domaining Skills

Domaining is one of the best things about the World Wide Web. Anyone can do it. There is no ethnic tabu or gender restriction, educational bias or language barrier. The web allows individual users their own path to domaining success. The domain name game is a custom career with no checklist or required curriculum to start or actively participate in online.

And it is a myth that every domainer webmaster or site designer has to know all the code types and applications administration tasks in the beginning. the learning curve of a domainer is both a challenge and a reward. Domainers make excellent peer advisors. Learning to navigate the basic starting points of owning a domain and promoting it for resale can be the start of many lasting online relationships.

Online web travelers from all over the world use the internet every day to traffic in domain names and related products. Being able to make websites, engineer hosting account setups, and administrate open source applications are some of the skills needed for domain name careers. Hosting account ownership and registrar commerce is a must for domainers. Studying the interactions and execution of domain purchase, registration, transfer and hosting of names and websites are pivotal domaining skills.

A robust Internet connection with some tolerances for crisp security and ISP access is suggested. Facebook access and experience using Twitter is a bona fide asset to any domainer working online today. Niche skills like language or industry core competencies can lift a newby domainer into the advanced level of his group of interested name promoters and owners.

Domaining can be as multifaceted as the individual operator decides their business day online needs to be. Working offline editing HTML code or participation in domainer chat are equally valuable domain name development inputs. Photo editing, graphic design skills, and overall adherence to web standards is a valued set of skills that can become domaining sidelines for other domainer clients.

Basic computer skills and word processing facility is very much utilized in domaining and basically any online editing of text and material. Indexing a numbered list, or formatting a bullet point in the code might be needed one day and then never again. Some spreadsheet analysis may occur using traffic statistics but graphic representation of these reports is commonly available.

People generally want to know what to expect when they break into the domain name game and how the industry works. The individual domainer will produce his own agenda and set his own standards about how their day or   week or month will progress in terms of domain acquisition and resales. Redesigning or editing sites for user ease of use is a common task.

Domainers usually hire subcontractors to get little things like code editing or site patches done, as it is not a good use of their time to learn a skill from the ground up when it can be done by an online domainer professional. The skills domainers learn ramping up in the job make them feasibly able to perform these tasks for others as well. Search engine optimization and link building are almost domain industries of their own.

The schedule of a domainer can be arduous or part time. The domainer can spend all their time scanning drop list auctions, reading technology tutorials, or building social network relationships with other domainers. All can be equally valuable. The underlying trait of a successful domainer is the willingness to learn and the ability to actively participate online in business areas relating to domain name commerce.

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29 May 2010 ~ 23 Comments

5 Reasons to Invest in a Domain Name

dino

Those domainers browsing the used domains threads, previously owned domains available categories, and the auction domain lists for dropping and deleting domains can be comfortable knowing their investment will be safe with returns on multiple levels of marketing, promotion and value.  Here are more reasons to consider that dollar precious domain name buy might be worth the premium the seller wants for it.

1. Branding

Emotional branding,branding for women, branding for Hispanics and branding for New Age of teenagers has itself come of age. Both surgical drilldown into the demographic target market and overall content appeal spread is necessary to grasp the necessary eyeball traction sales websites need today. Investigating strategy ideas while the domain owner has time to browse the best-in-show options makes a striking website result.

2. Reselling

The resale of a domain is a reality that happens at least once in every domainer’s career. The buyer becomes the seller when the demand for the name outstrips the domain owner’s willingness or ability to develop it apace. When domainers branch out into competing lines of domain name types, their time becomes spread very thin. How they envy the owner of that one domain name, who can pour all their strategy into one site!

Reselling happens when the domain owner knows to check their contact email proxy webmail address, or identifies actively shopping domainers in niche names they own. Domain name owners can set the price.  The domain sale exchange can mark a new epoch in the life of the domainer, once they see the demand personally for names in their portfolio. The domain resale can make the domainer take another look at those drop lists for future reference.

3. Home Business Startup

Developing a startup home business can happen on your own personal timetable. But grooming the website can happen well before the product is available or even decided on. Getting a domain that gets you excited makes the owner become a webmaster sooner rather than later. Symbols, graphics, and logos can all germinate from the domain name.

Learning the commands, actions, executions and occurrences when submitting blog entries, images, and articles takes time. But building the website is one of the foremost goals of any home business website, and one of the priorities most complex to address when time is precious. By the time  home business is up and running, the time for website editing is gone.

Getting the link building chores done, seeing to the SEO keywords, and other administration tasks will give any webmaster the experience needed to do it all, for themselves and others all over again. And thinking in an organizational way about the marketing and strategy for the website helps clarify the practices to be performed in the bricks and mortar business world.

4. Partnership Opportunity

If an offer to buy a domain name or a prompt to sell the name comes from another domainer party. The next step could be to form a partnership. The other party might have contacts, skills, and memberships in services you don’t have. You may have good coding and programming ability as well as content gathering skills. The domain in the middle could benefit from both sides.

Contacting other domainers always has the potential for partnership. Domainers have very similar aims. Partner relationship groom negotiating skills and build confidence in the long game of any domainers. Referrals in the future for domain name customers, website visitors, and member signups can stem from a shopping list of webmaster partners and domain name investment peers.

5. Practice, Practice, Practice

The contemporary office employee generally has the training on basic computer skills and data entry and management to move to the next step. But often the opportunity to learn marketing and promotion does not come on the job. Domain ownership jump starts a small business or personal business or consulting career or part time home business from an initial $10 fee and comes with an unlimited learning curve to boot.

Domain investment can range from $100 worth of niche domains to $15,000 worth of geo names, from $5,000 worth of toy names to $75,000 worth of premium domain names. Yes, domains can be worth that much, and more. The first step each domain owner took to get to the big domain sale numbers was to invest in the domain name to begin with.

A domain monetary investment equal to a night at the movies can refocus hobby time into a business career and training wheels to a management future. Why waste time surfing the web when you can be making it work for you instead? Committing personal time to a new domain name investment career can support sidelines, vacations, and retirement when the resale occurs.

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24 May 2010 ~ 7 Comments

When Hosting Matters

What matters most in a domain that becomes a website? To a domainer it is easy to state the most important criteria when building a website. The hosting company. Because without the juice, the bandwidth, the psychic and electromagnetic energy driving those page rendering and HTML pages, the viewer has nothing. Without robust hosting, the website disappears. Literally.

Today I watched the finale to LOST on ABC TV. The series finale. That is, I tried to. Six years of mystery enveloped in a solution of two and half hours of television. But ABC must be low on cash, because the streaming LOST video kept stalling. The picture froze a lot. I spent six hours watching about twenty five minutes of fractured “LOST” video. The timelines and independent start sequence operability was nil. I have watched about half of it. By 3 p.m. I gave up.

This stalling and lack of prompt online response is what will fuel a thousand or more rogue LOST video streaming sites for one of the most rewatchable and searchable video episode of television for all time. Any domainer with a video hosting capable hosting account and the ability to embed YouTube or other video format sequences that has a LOST or TV related website up that will snare thousands of page views hourly from around the world.

Many hosting company service levels fluctuate from month to month year to year. But video content is one of the most watchable and linkable data bits a webmaster can add to their blog or website. Video content from “Lost” will be attracting viewers and researchers from search engines around the world for months and years to come. Happy “Lost” domainers will be seeing monster Adsense reports very shortly.

First to market gets the gold. This is still true online. But when faster is measured in milliseconds, hosting speed counts. The entrepreneurs are the ones making fan videos and splicing the video scenes into easily watchable and loadable LOST snippets. Those who invested in ‘Lost” names are reaping huge traffic rewards right about now. Their minimal site design and density of keywords is hitting the best market of LOST fans now than will ever be present anywhere.

The TV and film entertainment scene is a constantly changing domain market. For domainers who have no hosting accounts or less than robust hosting support, their domain related website development looks  grim. When a website has that much resistance to loading, Houston, we have a very big problem. And it’s not just “Lost“. It’s the Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy shows as well. ABC should be known as a tech company and a brand that can get ‘er done.

Not.

I must have seen the “hosted with limited commercials” message about a hundred times. What it should have said was “Shown with limited hosting and best speed to commercials.” A reasonable person might ask, why make a site where video will be hosted that is being shown on the network broadcasting source of that show? The above comments tell the tale. The originating network isn’t interested in supporting the video, just hosting enough bandwidth to load commercials.

Enter the domainer.

Soon the network will move its rotation of live LOST episodes to the back burner, to sell them on DVD. Then the DVD LOST extras market and video clips sites will heat up. Youtube   and the other streaming sites will enjoy that bump in traffic and searchability as well.

That’s the long game of domain site hosting, keeping relative content up with search friendly discoverability for years. When these sites are stacked up inside one hosting account, the profits total real money. Connecting the domains and cutting together the clips makes a film or TV themed website grow. And the visitor fanbase will always have something to say.

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09 May 2010 ~ 3 Comments

No Parking on the Dance Floor

parking

As a regular domaining administrative chore, I have to go into my Godaddy domain manager to release domains for transfer or forward them to an url, or regulate their DNS records. I am not picking on Godaddy, I just happen to have a a large amount of domains there and I was reminded this morning about a topic in domain name management I feel strongly about.

One of the unhappy reminders that a domain is making no return on investment is that the dollar sign in the GoDaddy domain manager does not have an impression. The Godaddy parking product is a service that cost money to make money. While that makes sense from a certain point of view, those who know that Google Adsense also offers a similar service for free little understand the added value their premium buys at Godaddy.

Like many domainers, I view the value-add from a Godaddy service as a convenience when snapping between accounts, juggling hosting logins, and tickling domain name administration responsibilities. Of course, the service to enhance a domain’s profit from either GoDaddy or Google Adsense means little if no net profit comes to each domain’s money making channel.

Domain placement inside the ad serving revenue systems is critical to the dollars and sense monetary return of any domain investment.  I find the Godaddy cash parking solution an interesting test of Adsense feasibility. If it (the site content, keywords, and links) will pass the Godaddy CashParking qualification standards, it’s probable that Google also will accept the content construction on the domain, and vice versa.

Each revolution of the domain development cycle remains more concretely value -adding than any other domain marketing service or promotion item. Four keywords and some links and a graphic or banner thrown in and the domainer is the proud owner of a (yawn) template formatted parked page. Yippy skippy, sound the call to hounds. Alert the media. (Let the yawns be heard from Peoria to the Three Gorges Dam).

The profit over time to recoup the domain acquisition includes the registration fee, hosting fees, and any subfees like auction premiums and premium auction purchase prices. Add in the sliver of a monthly hosting cost divided by number of total of domain sites hosted at that hosting company and you’ll have your derivative monetary goal and revenue target.

For the domainer who has thousands of domain names languishing, the parked page is simply time management. But the parked page was never meant to be a permanent solution. It was only supposed to be a short and temporary detour on the information superhighway.  A lay-by, a soft shoulder in heavy domaining weather when the webmaster’s plate was full. Parking was supposed to be what webmasters did when their site was a flat tire and needed to go into the shop.

I am always disappointed to see parked page because it seems to me a domain name worth buying has a site worth making lurking behind the domain name transfer. Parked pages are models of domain development which hinge on the barest modicum of content, for my money almost a haphazard shrug of a site. To me the challenge of domain development and site potential for site use, for sites of all types, is to expansive to default out of.

There are so many things people go to the Internet for. They want education, they want advice, they want entertainment and employment. They want to be entertained while being educated, and they want to be advised about how to shop.They want to know more about things to buy, how to buy them, and who to buy the from. And they want to know the best information they can get, on every topic under the sun moon and stars.

Every name has a page waiting to be developed to spring forth. People want to do what they always liked to do, with broader scope and greater choice. Online users of the internet want to be educated about how to shop and want to know how to be employed shopping online. They don’t want to read the books, they want to read excerpts and snippets and online reviews and comments about the books. They want to read about the writers of the books and Google them incessantly.

Every subject imaginable has  a market, a website, a links directory, an article repository, a shopping portal or a video hosting destination model that can adapt to it. Dare I say it, even a blog! After reviewing all that potential, do four keywords and some links really do the project justice? Does a competent webmaster want to display some lookalike template that tells visitors “Continue snoring, go away”?

And why on God’s (for the moment) green earth would you pay for it?

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26 April 2010 ~ 10 Comments

The Domainer’s Daily Agenda

owltips

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a domain name professional? A domainer starts the day early, or “urly” as the case may be. Yet the true domainer’s day is packed with conflicting needs and time traps. Evaluating media, reading blogs, writing content and designing sites is absorbing. The time seems infinite, yet by the end of the day, it’s all gone. It happens in the blink of an eye, every day.

The domainer day must be navigated with key efficiency for multiple tasks. Managing business plans for websites, building site plans, choosing domain name, and checking auction sites takes time. Domain site bookmarks and favorites are natural time savers. Anything that shortens a task completion cycle, like a domain auction service, data reporting tool, domain forum, or tips update form a domain industry source is valuable.

Domainers must always be referencing their chosen domain news platform, or reviewing their hosting functionality and related discounts and offers. Domains come up for sale every day. Keeping competitive while managing existing domains is tricky. Budgets and timelines are the religion of true domainers. Rapid execution of these domaining tasks  is key across many different domain name sale, promotion, marketing, and development objectives. The reward is the profit.

Here is a sample agenda schedule in the day of a domainer:

6:00 a.m. Conference call between domain name investment partners.

6:30 a.m. Check email and review pertinent notifications and messages.

7:00 a.m. Login blog #1 and administrate comments & build new blog entry.

7:45 a.m. Check domain forum #1. Read messages and respond.

8:00 a.m. Review daily Pool auction and aftermarket drop listings.

8: 45 Log best picks from drop and deletions lists. Make min and max offers.

9:00 a.m. Peruse Droplist keyword lists and budget 2nd and 3rd offer ceilings.

9:30 a.m. Take call from domainer contact with bulk portfolio sale.

10 a.m. Register for a new topical forum for new domain name. Post 10 threads and then establish link to url of domain name in signature.

10:30 a.m. Check domain auctions and drop list bids between forum posts.

11:00 a.m. Make 3 blog entries with url link and domain name trackbacks.

12 noon. Munch lunch while listening to domain radio shows. Watch domain SEO information videos from live streaming or attempt some halfhearted cardio exercises and stretching hardworking neck and back muscles.

1 p.m. Open domain portfolio report and check date files for tickler spreadsheet with passwords and user names and visit 5 domain keyword related forums and make three posts in each one. Mark date of visit and adjust spreadsheet to next “tickler” sites for the next online development domain link promotion session. Print out report for domain portfolio notebook update.

2 p.m. Brainstorm new domains to buy, forming potential domain names from keywords and terms from clipped media reports. Use the Network Solutions WHOIS,  Godaddy, and other resources to verify if domains already exist and how much they might cost. Scan for current Godaddy coupon codes and determine if a bulk buy is in order.

3 p.m. Collect text files of custom content ordered form members of online domain forums. Evaluate keywords in Textalyser, and verify originality using Copyscape.

4 p.m. Make custom logo for new domain minisite using Cooltext. Experiment with textures, colors, fonts and sizing.

5 p.m. Submit Google and Adsense data for a new domain. Compose the minisite file with text content files collected and test the new site appearance in your resident browser or HTML viewer.

6 p.m. Proof marketing email for key domain site and send to broadcast list from registrations at the site. Submit new articles and graphics to the open source application and jot in a notebook the most viewed recent articles.

7 p.m. Review domain expiration report in domain portfolio software. Submit two domain names “for sale” threads for BIN auctions in two domain forum auction categories.

8 p.m. Sign up for streaming video webinar from trusted consultant in the domain world. Download videos from archive to review offline. Log into domain forums and change signature link to newest domain venture.

9 p.m. Review email bids and counter offer for bid domains. make payments to content authors, domain owners, and graphic artists for custom logos and themes for new partnership site. Browse SEO blog for reminder tips.

9:30 Stream favorite TV show on one LCD screen while adding keywords and doing text searches on the other. Use commercials for ad hoc keyword and meta tag addition in window with open source application site login in the article editor administration interface.

10 p.m. Review Alexa ranking for each domain in the portfolio spreadsheets. . Perform domain name and website analysis & compose review charts. Determine priority tasks for the next day.

[Rinse, lather & repeat.]

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10 April 2010 ~ 1 Comment

Custom 404 Pages

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The bland, hosting-company-logo studded, default 404 page result is a slap in the face to an intensive results hungry web visitor. It says to experienced web user, ’something is amok here”. Since well-seasoned domainers know that editing an HTML web page supplied at every hosting company install is a merely WYSIWYG click away, a default text style 404 page is free advertising gone to waste.

There’s all kinds of reasons your webby visitor might get on the wrong end of the 404 message. Maybe the link they clicked on is outdated, and the webmaster has since moved things around. Perhaps their browser is not updated enough to render the page right and the browser security has prevented a codezilla nightmare that will stall the end user’s computer.

The appeal of the custom 404 page shows the domain owner’s creativity and their attitude toward the site.  This can be problematic when the 404 page issues without a second thought from the domain administrator or webmaster.Maybe there is an HTML rendering traffic jam or error in a resident script is parking visitors in the “no-fly” zone on purpose.

A good 85% of casual domainers don’t routinely check their error statistics and find out where all the missed traffic has gone. They’d rather tear their hair out desperately looking for stray type-ins. But if they had only inserted a contact email or contact form into their 404 behavior, then their users might have had a holding pattern that ended up with some contact with the site or its architect.

Believe it or not, there are still some webmasters out there who don’t know how to position their domain pointer or reset the attribute that formats error behavior inside their individual hosting account domains. This can be varied in the interface presentation but is a vital part of any hosting an domain registrar function. Access to 404 error behavior is a must for any hosting account if the domain registrar does not handle this task.

But the webmaster can utilize the 4o4 page for his own aims. He can make the energy channel back into a positive area and create interest in your site with a custom 404 error page. These are one of many support opportunities that can spell additional profile details for SEO as well as provide usership experiences which conform to site goals. A redirect is also a helpful tool, guiding users to another part of the website that a home link that works.

A 404 page is an HTML file displayed during predefined sets of approach vectors to the website. generally the visitor comes to the landing page. But the operation of the Internet is not perfect, accidents happen. Sometimes a link isn’t typed in right. A qualified 404 page with custom information about why the browser has reached that page continues the website experience for the user even when they can’t reach it.

The theme, font, and architecture of the Custom 404 page should be made with due thought. Is it a surfing site? A message like “Dude we are so messed up” goes right with the voice and tone viewers might expect. Is the site based for News? Parents? Adults? Kids ?404 error pages should be appropriately themed.

Also, 404 error behavior analysis can tell webmasters where the bulk of their stumped traffic is going, and form where. Finding that link and fixing it can deliver the proper audience from a previous promotion effort. Agrressive SEO chasers will evaluate their error behavior inside each domain and url today, and see where those lost users are going. Otherwise webmasters might never know.

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