Domain Name Niches - Does it Really Matter What Name I Pick?

By Kristi Ambrose

In all probability you should be matching up your domain name with your niche. A niche is a focused targetable portion of a market such as electronics, auto, pets, food, etc. It also can be focused on a subcategory such as cell phones, car tires, dog toys and cheese. So if for example your site is focused on selling cheese directly or offers a service for cheese, then you would most likely pick a domain name that matches what your selling, so we could try CheeseForSale, BuyCheese, CheesyGifts, or you could get a little more specific and if your selling a certain kind of cheese or your most popular cheese you could call the domain name BestGouda, IncredibleCheddar or BakedBrie (which is spectacular but taken). All of this domain names would not only match up with what your selling which is terrific but it in turn would also bring more people to your site.

For example if someone is searching for Baked Brie they would do a look up and on a search engine type in Baked Brie and if your domain had X amount of backlinks it would show up. On the other hand, if a person is searching for Baked Brie they could also go to the address URL bar and type in BakedBrie or BakedBrie with an extension such as com biz info and your site would most likely show up if they type in the correct extension. This is another reason why extensions are so very important! A lot of new people on the Internet don't even realize that names like biz, info, TV are available but, they do know, however, that com is an extremely popular extension so they will be more likely to type in com than biz. It's just common sense.

You have to think back when you started using the Internet, what did you know, what existed, what didn't, what was possible, what wasn't? Unless you were an extremely intelligent person with an IQ of 9000, then you probably started out the same way back then that people start out now, which is not really knowing much of anything. Try not to think like a pro when it comes to these simple things, instead try to think like the people that are going to be looking for your domain name. Domain name popularity is also important by choosing keywords. If you choose a keyword that is too popular, your site might never be seen. If you choose a keyword that no one else has ever heard about, it will never be seen. Just choose wisely and smartly that's probably the best all around advice I can give you!

This author is a HUGE fan of what is domain parking?

What You Need to Know About Domain Registration

By Justin Knights

Domain names are a symbol of you owning the name of that particular domain. Therefore, when you register you domain name, you will be having your information publicly listed. With full control over your domain name, the web hosting company sometimes still hide you information like your telephone numbers, address and email addresses. Web hosting companies of registrar do this if they provide you with the privacy service. Although they provide some sort of protection, this protection is powerful enough to protect you from spam but can do nothing about law enforcement agencies.

Well, mishaps could happen and you never know when something bad might happen. For instance, what happen if your hosting provider goes bankrupt? With you domain name registered with them, how can you prove that? Some companies will register their clients' private details with another third party as a precaution if they really go bankrupt. This is somehow disturbing because you own the domain but don't have any power in the control of the username, password and other information.

So, how can someone who owns a domain name lose that right? It is actually very simple, every person who owns a domain name has to renew their registration. If they fail to do so, they will get a period of extend where they can buy back their own domain name. If he fails to do so, that domain name will be held for auction. On the other and, if the owner of that domain manages to buy back his domain, he or she will have to face a certain penalty. The penalty will stand until that domain name is released by the ICANN/ Verisign database. All this can be avoided if the domain owner renews his registration.

There is another situation where one can loose their domain ownership if they hit into trademark issues. For this kind of problem, the solution is usually obtained after a court trial. After the outcome of the trial, the registrars will the required action. Here is no refund for any domain registration. What they will do is deduct the cost of registration. So, that is what you need to know about a domain ownership.

Wish to read more website hosting reviews? Check out WebHostingSecretRevealed - a place where the webmaster (Jerry) examine various hosting services by hosting websites on the web hosts first hand. Personally, I recommend his writings on Bluehost review - read on, it's among the very few reviews that share honest opinions on Bluehost hosting. Article written by Justin Knights, freelance writer.

How to Pick the Right Domain For an Online Business

By Guen Miller

Buying the right domain for a new online business is as important as the business itself, but most of people tend to ignore this fact. A perfect domain helps you achieve success with search engine rankings and also creates a brand for your business. Buying the wrong domain will make it harder to brand your online business. If you wish to build a profitable online business you need something that will clearly distinguish you from your competitors.

Here are some tips you should consider before selecting a domain for your business:

Use Keywords

Having a keyword rich domain name would be the first and most important step to starting your online business. Keyword rich domain names are among the most important factors which affect search engine rankings of a website and its exposure to the visitors. This will bring you search engine traffic; this traffic will buy from you or become leads for your affiliate programs. Having a keyword rich domain will help you with three important sources of getting traffic for your website, Organic Traffic, PPC and type in traffic. For example TradeShowItems.com will be the right domain to pick if you are selling trade show items. Not only it will help the owner achieve higher search engine rankings but also elaborate their business in its name only.

Ignore Hyphens

There is a common mistake that many people make when buying a niche domain, they use hyphens to separate their keywords. An example would be visit-american-beaches.com for a travel domain name. Now the problem with hyphens is that using them makes the domain name difficult to remember and hard to type. I remember a friend having an entertainment niche domain name and he had it announced over local radio. Instead of getting any big increase in number of visitors he received several complaints that his website went down or it's inaccessible. He later realized that it was because his domain name was too long and had hyphens in it, which made the listeners confused and they could not figure out the right way to spell the domain name.

Easy to Spell

Always remember when you select a domain that it should be easy to spell. You should know that many internet users are not great with spelling; therefore you should avoid such words which are hard to spell. Newyorkcityrealtyexpert.com for a real estate domain name may look good for SEO perspective but in reality who would remember such real estate domain names? The basic rule is picking up domains easy to spell and short enough to be remembered.

Now you know how to make the right choice of niche domain names for better search engine rankings and easy to remember. Keep these three rules in mind and you will never pick the wrong domain name again.

Be sure to pick the right domain to represent your business, get keyword rich niche domain names and see the difference.

(c) Copyright - Guen K. Miller All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Buy Domain Names - Information on Where to Go With Domain Names

By Cillian Baillie

If you would like to buy domain names for investment purposes, it's important to take a long hard look at how you are going to make money off these investments. Buying these names is not the cash cow it once was when the dot.com craze first began-but it still can be quite profitable.

With careful planning and research there are still ways to benefit from being a domainer. It is important to make the purchase of any domain a well-thought-out endeavor. A name that is not generating any traffic may not be worth considering. It could be a negative investment since you will need to pay a renewal fee to maintain the domain and it won't make any money without inherent traffic.

If you are seeking to buy domain names you must realize that there are thousands of for sale at competitive and alluring prices, but out of the few sales that are actually taking place, the names that are selling are usually going for much less than the asking price.

To make any headway in profiting from buying domains, you will really have to do your homework and dedicate a lot of time to reading and researching the domains on offer on the internet. The amount of websites devoted to the selling of domains is pretty impressive so also make sure you do your homework in terms of which sites are the best to use.

Purchasing expired domains is a good way to buy a domain that has already established traffic. You will have to be very quick and quite imaginative to find the top names since the best domain investors usually have software setup to allow them to grab expiring domains instantly.

As you can see, if you want to buy domain names for profit it is quite an endeavor, but one well worth looking into if you have the time and the dedication to make it work for you.

If you are looking to buy domain names at not just an affordable price but name you own price, then check out http://www.prizedomainnames.com

Industry Secret Revealed - .com Brand Abuse - And What You Can Do to Prevent It

By Christopher Hofman

Of all 288 top level domains .com is still the Godfather. It is by far the most registered top level domain. Companies use it as their main domain and investors confide in it to generate revenue traffic.

And here emerges the potential clash as brand-related domains are great for revenue traffic, hence converting investors into domain pirates and companies into victims of brand abuse.

If you are not Google with a budget to secure thousands of brand related .com domains then a less ambitious approach will still work. First action step is to test your brand against the top 10 most common terms for .com domains used by domain pirates and register domains still available. the terms can be tested at our web site.

Here are the 10 terms for .com which are used together with company brands

1. wwwbrand.com

2. mybrand.com

3. ebrand.com

4. thebrand.com

5. buybrand.com

6. brandonline.com

7. brandsucks.com

8. brandusa.com

9. brands.com

10. brandcom.com

A new study conducted by Corporation Service Company concludes that domain pirates are more skilled than brand owners at using domain names to obtain direct traffic to their own web sites.

47 top brands were examined for 100.000 brand-specific domain names and the results were surprising. 72% of all domain names did not belong to the brand owners. The traffic revenue generated from these domains was sufficient for domain investors to become domain pirates.

The study furthermore revealed that the most abused business sectors are :

- Banking and financial services

- Consumer electronics

- Telecoms

- Computer industry

.com is by far the top level domain where most brand abuse is happening. Other popular brand abuse domains are generic top level domains (org,biz,info,net) and European top level domains where there are no restrictions: .de, .co.uk, .be and .eu.

Buying Expired Domain Names and How to Ensure You Get the Domain Names You Want

By Brian Harrison

Of course as the web got more popular and more people began to see the value of good domain names things began to get a little harder.

Expired Domain name Companies

In this discussion I will be mainly concentrating on the .com TLD as this is the biggest and by far the most valuable extension available. As we speak the total number of registered .coms has crossed the 70m mark and so you can imagine, finding a good quality generic domain name can be a slow and painful process.

All 3 and 4 letter combinations (that includes numbers) have gone and the majority of English dictionary words to. This is why you should consider the world of drop catching expired domain names.

I still believe that there is hope and if you are armed with the right knowledge and time you can still pick up expired domain names that in my opinion are grossly undervalued.

The allocation of .com domains are controlled by a body called ICCAN, (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit organization with contributing members from all over the world. The duty of organizing the release of the domain names was handed to Verisign, a company that has become very rich on the back of its contract with ICANN.

The process of domain name registration changed dramatically with the introduction of drop catching companies that help you acquire expired domain names but more about that later.

Lets look at the basic process involved with registering a domain name.

Registering a domain name

A person as the right to register a domain name for a time period ranging from 1 -10 years. If the domain name is not renewed by the required date it then enters the position known as the grace period. The original owner still has the chance to re-register the domain but must do so within a set time period. During this time the domain name is still unavailable to register.

If the domain name is not re-registered in the allotted time it is made available to the general public and becomes one of the many expired domain names in a process now known as the drop.

Drop Companies

It is very unlikely that even if you knew when a expired domain was about to drop that you would get it by simply trying to register it. There are several companies that specialize in this field and can afford to implement sophistication drop catching software to help in the process, they even have contracts with registrars such as Network Solutions to allow first choice of all available expired domain names.

The most popular companies in the field are: Pool, Snapnames and eNom and I would advise you to set up an account with all three of them to ensure you have a better chance of getting the domain you desire. All the above companies allow you to backorder any and as many of the currently registered domain names and this service is totally free.

You will find that they can supply you with a list of pre-release and pending delete names and this can run into the thousands.

This is where the money is, consider this expired domain names list like a gold mine, all you have to do is dig out the nuggets and hope nobody else has spotted them. Of course you will find that you are not the only one to have spotted these little gems and so the domain is often placed into a closed auction and sold to the highest bidder.

These are closed auctions so you must do your homework and get your bid in before the drop or you will not get the chance to bid in the auction for that domain.

You should find that the price you pay in these auctions is significantly cheaper than dedicated auction sites such as Sedo and Afternic. The art of course is knowing the worth of expiring domain names before the auction starts and stick to your target. Many people get carried away in this situation and let the process become personal, this is a big mistake and only leads to over inflated prices. Set your budget and stick to it.

So remember, if you have your heart set on a particular domain name or want to get into the domain name acquisition business you must involve the big expired domain names drop catchers in your plan or you could be watching your dream name disappear for another 1-10 years. Trying to manually capture good quality domain names is near on impossible these days so be warned.

Also if you are interested in a particular expiring domain name it might pay to check which registrar the domain is with as they may have their own agreements with different companies in terms of expired domain names, drop catching, for instance, Network Solutions has an agreement with Snapnames for all its domains and Godaddy has setup its own drop service.

So make sure you check the registrar just in case it is not covered by the big three.

Good luck and happy hunting.

Bee Ltd is a domain acquisition and development company that has many years experience in the domain name and internet market. You will find many useful articles and advice on all manner of subjects associated with domains names, SEO and web development at our site: Bee.eu

Domains Most Wanted 10 Tips - Register a Free Domain Name

By Adam Jan

Before starting your website you must deem choosing an appropriate domain name for your business and that is the key of your success.

In this article you will learn the hit-and-miss art of choosing suitable domain name into 10 specific points. When summarized, these advices boil down to the following:

Tip - 1:

Hang on to simplicity. Take this is an example; "mymobileonlinestore.com" OR "mobiles.com" you better know that which one is easily memorable and easily typed. Good domain names are frankly memorable and easily typed. Commonly you need to keep them short.

Tip - 2:

Register a free domain name. (Yes its True) This is another great advantage for webmaster and individuals; Top USA hosting providers offer free domains even free for life with their unmatched hosting plans, you will learn more about this in the end of this article.

Tip - 3:

Some time plural formations may give you a great advantage; depends on your business site, if you are selling book so 'books.com' would be a correct choice instead of 'book.com' therefore don't be fearful using plural formations when you need them.

Tip - 4:

You need to stay away from hyphens. All the big and popular sites hasn't used any hyphens, because they tend to produce confusion; for e.g. "www.search-the-web.com" OR unique "www.google.com" which one you prefer. Other minus point about hyphens is that usually users might not type any hyphens or they may forget which can lead to losing visitors.

Tip - 5:

Are you planning to spread your business mostly in the U.S if not go globally; nearly all countries have their own domain name brands, you can fine the next finest choice. For instance if you are in UK, use ".co.uk" instead of .com

Tip - 6:

Avoid using words that hard to spell. Likewise stay away from using the words that are spelled in a different way in few countries. For instance, U.S. use "color" and GB & Australia use "colour" thus using such words may lessen your site traffic.

Tip - 7:

When you find your desired domain name, after that you must make sure that there will be no trademark issue etc. with your chosen domain name.

Tip - 8:

Branded name is always the prefect choice, if you have truly planed a long term successful business. For e.g. if you have your brand name (Ferrari) using 'ferrari.com' would be the ideal choice rather than a little generic 'fastcars.com' plus you can trademark your branded domain name, so no one will be allowed using your domain name.

Tip - 9:

Another thing which you need to consider is avoid domains that are very alike to existing names. Otherwise you may face a legal issue (tip7); your brand should be unique compare to your competitions.

Tip - 10:

Watch out. Domain name expires on you, to get it back you must be alert usually competitors wait to get these special domains some how, because you don't possess the domain, basically you are leasing it from a provider, that is the reason why any one can grab that if it gets expire.

"Summary"

Even though choosing a domain can be a complicated process, however with all these guidelines to mull over we hope you have mastered that how to get your desired domain name. To conclude the web hosting plan you are going for must fulfill your website requirements, because this is extremely important to host your website with Top Hosting Provider, and you can register Free Domain Name too. There are Top USA Web Hosting Providers, they offer Free Top level Domain Name and many most wanted features. You can easily compare that which web host can fulfill your website taste of desires.

Now compare USA Hosting Providers. Redeem Web Hosting Coupons and get free domains, Free PPC Ads in Google and Yahoo, Plus more Bonuses. Adam Jan, the author of this article making your web hosting choice easy.