Any Internet home business knows that owning a domain name is very important to online business success. A domain name creates identity, assigns the right image and forms the basis of email and website addresses.
Your domain name is the only clue to your online business. You do not have visual clues: no location, no look, and no store design. Instead, users have to type in a word or a set of words to reach your site.
So, choosing the right domain name for your business should involve a bit more than just picking the perfect name. You're also going to need to do a little research before you actually register web site domain name.
Explanation of Domain Name System
What is a domain name? A domain name is a word or a group of words matching to the numeric IP address of a computer server (196.203.58.166 is an IP address it corresponds to my website domain name http://www.email-list-builder.com). The IP addresses are unique numbers that identify computers connected to the Internet.
We use host names or domain names just because they are much easier to remember, easily recognizable, offer a more natural way to name, and find a website than an IP address.
Choose a Suitable & Cheap Domain Name
Before Domain Name registraition, it’s very important that you sit down and generate a list of potential names for your website. But how do you find a good name and what do you have to be aware of when choosing a cheap domain name?
We all know that the best domain names have already been taken. But, if you are imaginative you can come up with a great domain name. The following tips are useful guidelines to steer you towards the most suitable domain name and extension for your home business!
- Get a Generic Domain Name!
The need to provide immediate clues to an online business led to the prevalence of generic domain names. Generic names instantly provide the user with an idea of what a business is all about, what to expect and look for in a site. For instance, Etoys.com is a toy store.
The temptation of the generic name has been so powerful. Some companies even paid ridiculously high prices to get the name they want. The domains Loans.com and Wines.com were both bought for $3 million each. Telephone.com was acquired for $1.75 million, while Bingo.com sold for $1.1 million.
If you find a new market with less competition it is a good idea to get a generic domain name and promote multiple products to fill your customers’ needs and become a leader.
Rather than purchasing a cheap domain and a hosting account for each product you promote, choose a hosting service that provides a domain name and unlimited sub-domains. This way you don’t need to register a domain name for each product you sell. Just create a sub-domain for each of your products like…
http://economicalcars.www.cars.com
http://cheapcars.www.cars.com
http://carsaccessory.www.cars.com
Or…
You can use subfolders for your products such as:
http://www.cars.com/usedcars/
http://www.cars.com/cars-stereo-system/
http://www.cars.com/cars_speakers
- Branding Domain Names.
However, generic domain names do not necessarily create the “buzz” that you’d like surrounding your website. Branding has always been about proper names: McDonald's did not name their store Hamburger. Hertz is not called Car Rental. FedEx is not Mail Carrier. Kodak is not Photographs. Microsoft is not Computer Software.
For better branding results, your cheap domain name should be short and easy to remember.
- Use Your Website, Product Or Business Name.
The Internet is getting more and more crowded and competitive. Everyday thousands if not millions of big, small and home business are coming by the herds making competition fierce. All of them compete for a piece of the online market pie. Consequently, to help your business gets more traffic your cheap domain name should be your niche name to create the impression of a narrow focus.
For example if you are in cars’ niche it’s a good idea to select "usedcars.com", "Mercedes.com", "cheapcars.com", "economicalcars.com", etc… Because searchers when they want to look for cars they have already some brands or benefits in mind, and they are more likely to search for "usedcars.com", "Mercedes.com", "cheapcars.com", "economicalcars.com", rather than just "cars.com".
- Use Your Name
You can also register your full name, for example, www.GleyYahya.com and add to it words like “info, marketing, tips, publishing, ebook, toys, travel, news, onlinemarketingsecrets, etc. This will give your prospect an idea about your product or service, how to serve your customers better, etc…
It takes a little more brain storming, to come up with a memorable and meaningful domain name. But, it is worth the effort for the sake of leverage and cost savings.
Remember the following tips when creating a domain name.
- The domain name should be short
- The domain name should be simple
- It should be suggestive of your business category
- It should be easy to interpret and pronounce
- It should be personalized
- It should not be difficult to spell
- It should not be difficult to remember
If the domain name for your small business is already taken, use your imagination and check short, easy to remember words and phrases.
Success stories around the word "Google" is in no way related to search engines and the word Amazon tells you nothing about books. Still, these names are associated with the product they provide. Strong, memorable names and phrases coupled with smart marketing strategies can and will build an online presence and create the Hero image for your business.
What Domain Name Extension Is Available For Your Website?
What is a Domain Extension? The domain name extension is the letters following the “period” at the end of your domain name (ex. “.com”) and it’s spelled “dot com”. TheYour cheap domain name extension is also called the top level domain (TLD). The domain name extension TLD tells about what type of site the domain refers to.
The “.com” extension is the extension under which most of commercial domain name are registered. There are plenty of different extensions out there, such as (.net) standing for network, (.info) is for information, (.biz) is for business, (.org) is for non-profit websites, etc…
You will find also country-specific top domains such as “.cn” for China, “.ca” for Canada, “.fr” for France, “.it” Italy, etc. Every domain name is registered under an extension of some kind.
Some country codes have been brought out and made available for general use. These stand for popular industries. Some examples are “.fm” for the radio industry, “.tv” standing for television, and “.ws” for web site.
If you don’t find a “.com” extension for your domain name you can get “.biz”, “.ws”, “.info” or “.net”. Those extensions are actually acceptable.
How To Register Your Domain Name?
Cheap Domain names can be registered through many different companies (known as "registrars") – a listing of these companies is available at ICANN: http://www.icann.org. You can register for 1 to 10 years - prices can vary anywhere from $4 to $45 or more per year.
Most web hosting companies, will handle the registration process for you, but make sure that you are properly listed as the owner of the cheap domain name when it is registered.
If you have registered a domain name for a specific period, make sure you renew it in time. You can be surprised at the number of cases, where site owners have let a domain name slip by if they have not renewed in time.
Before website domain name registraition check any domain name availability. Use domain name Whois to search for an available cheap domain name or to look up information on an already registered one.
Simply type the name you want to check in the search box and in less than a second you'll find out if it's available or not. If it has already been registered by another party, you'll be able to see who owns it and how to contact them.
Take a few minutes to visit the site before you decide to register another version of the domain name to find out what the site offers.
Before you buy a cheap domain name online make sure it’s the domain you really want for your business. According to NSI, domain names cannot be changed once created. Furthermore, there is "no money back" when you register a domain name. Once the process is done, there is no option. Your only choice is to register a new domain name.
To protect your brand you may like to consider registering “.biz”, “.ws”, “.info” or “.net” and .com version of your domain name. Also register your domain name with and without dashes.
Check versions of your domain name that could be frequently misspelled or easily mistyped. If they are open and available, register these versions too. It may cost you some extra money, but these additional domain names can be set up as pointers to your real site and bring you a substantial traffic.
Should You Use a Key Phrase In Your Domain Name?
None of the major search engines give preference to keywords in domain names or URLs anymore. However, it can’t hurt to include them. Even if the search engine algorithms don’t give your pages any advantage by having your key phrases in your cheap domain name, there are other benefits that most marketers overlook….
Most marketers work hard to get their pages to rank high at the search engine thinking they will get tons of free-targeted traffic from search engines. And, they forget or don’t give the needed importance to getting users to click on their links.
Getting people to click on your link need more than that. There’s still a CALL TO ACTION. That visitor still has to click on your link to go and visit your website.
You’d be surprised when you see how many sites rank high at the search engines but they don’t get the traffic they deserve.
To get people to click on your link you need to be using TITLE tags and domain name that are compelling to your targeted market. Think about it twice.
Let’s say you are setting up a site about dog care. Which one of these domains will you click when you are searching for information about dog care?
Take a look at the screenshot bellow…
I’m sure would click on the title tag with bowled words. Why?
1. Bowled words or phrases are eyes catching. Bold words have been tested on readers; they draw the reader's attention to the area and are easy to read.
2. The domain names with persuasive key phrases are more compelling. Just like everything else in direct marketing. It’s the words that get people to take action.
Increasing the clicks on a search engine (SE) listing is no exception. How compelling you make your title tags and domain names have everything to do with how much traffic you’ll get. So, don’t hurt your results.
If you write solid titles and have a compelling domains, you’ll get more traffic from the search engines.
You can also profit from adding your main keyword phrase to your domain name when another site links to you, most of the time they use anchor text in the form of "yourdomainname.com". For that reason I think it will help a lot to have your most important key phrase in the domain name.
Getting a cheap domain name with your most important keywords in it would save you time telling websites linking to you to use the keyword you are wanting in the anchor text.
Using Expired Domains To Skyrocket Your Traffic.
Thousands of webmasters invest time, effort and money to promote their site and build up traffic. Many of them then lose interest and move on, leaving their site active. That means, although they still own the domain; they’re not actively promoting it. All the automatic marketing systems they’ve put in place are still bringing in traffic. The site runs itself.
Now, at some point the ownership of those domains is going to expire. If you do expired domain name search and grab those domains once they come back onto the market, you’ve got a pre-built stream of customers. You can either rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to your domain. You could set up an affiliate program get paid for users someone else paid for. It’s that easy.
There are tons of options, and lots of easy ways to make lots of money with very little effort. Opportunities like these are everywhere.
Websites such as www.expiredtraffic.com or www.deleteddomains.com actually do all the legwork and let you reap all the rewards. Expired Traffic even has an affiliate program and www.snapnames.com allows you to back-order a specific domain name.
Do be careful when using other sites though. There are some cheaters out there that will sell you subscriptions, provide you with outdated lists, take your money and keep the good domains for themselves. It happens, and there’s little point in taking a risk when www.deleteddomains.com does such a great job.
If you have any new idea that may help our readers or whant to ask question feel free to comment on this post.
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