How To Choose A Domain Name?
A domain name provides an identity to the business. While buying a domain name you need to note down the name of the website domain names and its nearest ones so that if you do not get that particular domain name, then you can go for the nearest one (for example, if you require a mattress website then you can buy a mattresse.com, choosing-a-mattress.com, allmattress.com, bestmattress.com etc)
If you want a domain name for your personal use, then use your name, surname etc. For your business domain name you can go for a domain name with catch phrases. You can check whether the domain name is available or not by searching through www.whois.org.
It’s not necessary that you have to get a domain name with .com, you can buy .net, .us etc. If you like a domain name and would like to buy that particular name but it is registered with somebody else, then you can contact that person in the administrative contact section through whois search from the website. Sometimes domain name owners sell their domain names. Domain names have value and if the domain name is a unique one, then it could be sold for a higher rate.
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ICANN Restricted Whois Data Base Troubles Downtrodden FTC
As if things can get any worse for the Federal Trade Commission these days now ICAAN wants to restrict the Whois Domain Name Data Base and the FTC says this will make it very hard to catch Internet Scams and Investigate Spammers. It is too bad really that the Federal Trade Commission is so utterly incompetent and has so failed in its mission to stop SPAM.
It appears that they have a bunch of 23-year old investigators who operate above the law there. I have proof of this, so I can say it. Maybe this is why ICAAN cannot trust the Federal Trade Commission anymore, actually who can?
Even the Federal Trade Commission CANNOT trust the Federal Trade Commission as two laptops were stolen with personal Identification on them from a party or parking lot in Scottsdale AR, although they will not tell the public the whole or full truth on the issue.
Nevertheless 110 people had their financial information or personal identification stolen from there. So if the Federal Trade Commission cannot protect them selves, well then they sure as hell have no business in charge of protecting the American people from Identity Theft.
I think they owe many businesses, entrepreneurs and the American People an apology for their incompetence and without that who needs them anyway? What a disgusting organization indeed (in my opinion). Consider this in 2006.
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Lance Winslow |
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Domain Name Insanity - Does Your Name Really Matter?
Your domain name is the .com, .net, .org or some other dot something that people use to get to your web site. affiliateblog.com is mine.
A group of investors headed by Jake Weinbaum (the guy behind Disney’s go.com) paid $7.5 million for the name Business.com back in 1999, aiming to make it a showcase B2B site. According to their own press they have succeeded. Yes, it’s a terrific name short, sort of descriptive and easy to remember. There’s some cachet there, but is it $7.5 million worth? That cash could have bought a lot of promotion or branding for whatever name they could have had for ten bucks, or a hundred, or two hundred grand.
Each year for 15 years The first $500K in profit goes toward amortizing the cost of that domain name. That could also pay for a terrific affiliate program, a truckload of banner and PPC advertising, and a nice BMW lease for Mr. Weinbaum (who probably doesn’t need a BMW).
But the Business.com thing has set off a wave of domain name speculation that staggers the mind. People are snapping up domain names and ransoming them off to wide-eyed entrepreneurs with business plans and dreams of riches. Being a hardcore capitalist I am torn about domain name speculation I am tempted to applaud the person making a buck by getting there first and grabbing up the good names, but I am annoyed at the restraint of commerce that takes place while someone negotiates with one of these guys to get the right name.
So if I look at the top 50 websites on Alexa, most of them should be easy to remember names, right? Wrong. I would argue that only one, match.com, is an easy-to-remember name that describes what the site is about.
I keep hearing that the reason these so-called generic or descriptive domain names are so valuable is that some people just type domain names into the address bar of their browser rather than using a search engine. This fact seems to be intuitively false. I find it hard to believe that someone looking for information on a particular business would type in www.business.com. Furthermore, if I look at the top 50 websites on Alexa only one, match.com, is an easy-to-remember name that describes what the site is about.
I wondered how many people actually type in their address bar (address bar?) instead of using a search engine anyway. I didn’t find the answer, but Jupiter Media tells me that 64% of people looking for something use a search engine.
That means that 36% of people use something other than a search engine. What makes me believe that people typing stuff into their address bar doesn’t happen much is this simple fact…of the people using search engines last November, 43% searched for common websites like Ebay. In other words, instead of typing in http://www.ebay.com, people Googled Ebay and clicked on one of the results. That is absolutely hysterical. And totally believable.
What do all these facts mean? They mean that as far as getting the person there the first time, everyone starts off on the same square. If your domain name can get the minority of people who just type into their address bar to your website without a search engine, it’s worth more than someone who can’t.
Here are some of the legendary domain name sales in the past several years, according to Zetetic:
$14,000,000 - 2006 - sex.com
$7,500,000 - 1999 - business.com
$5,500,000 - 2003 - casino.com
$5,000,000 - 2002 - asseenontv.com
$5,000,000 - 1999 - korea.com
$3,500,000 - 1996 - worldwideweb.com
$3,350,000 - 1999 - altavista.com
$3,300,000 - 1999 - wine.com
$3,000,000 - 1999 - eshow.com
$3,000,000 - 1999 - loans.com
$2,750,000 - 2004 - creditcards.com
All of these with the exception of eshow.com (computer networking) should get address bar traffic, because people who type will type in the descriptive names if I’m looking for sex-related stuff, I’ll type in sex.com. Where my mind gets boggled is in ROI. If you’re selling something on asseenontv.com that nets you $25, you’ll need to sell 200,000 of those George Foreman grills just to pay for your domain name.
It also dawned on me that if you pay $12,000,000 for sex.com, the free publicity generated is probably also worth millions.
So now everyone gets dollar signs in their eyes and thinks they can make a million with their domain name. Here are some examples of asking prices from Ebay:
6usiness.com (yes, that’s a 6) - $7,000,000
ajobformom.com - $3,500,000
Exbay.com - $1,000,000
What does this mean for you? Well, there’s some good news and some bad news. Remember back a few paragraphs when I said that everyone starts on the same square? That’s really the good news. You can choose a pretty good domain name, put together some terrific content, employ some simple Search Engine Optimization and buy some keywords or exchange some links and you have a pretty good chance of getting people to your site the first time. Since most of them are coming via a search engine they’re not going to notice your domain name until they get there anyway, so your domain name means the same thing (nothing) to the majority of people using the search engine.
One last thing: if you’re hoping to be close to the top in the search results (the so-called organic SEO), having your keywords in the name of your website gives you a huge boost. For example, if you’re looking for affiliate blog, we will be in the top five search results. In this case, Google ignores TLD unless you tell it otherwise. Affiliateblog.info will come up before us because their pagerank is higher (that’s a discussion for another day). So if you think getting near the top of the organic search results is more important than having someone type your name directly into the address bar (and you very well could be right), then grab yourkeyword.cc or yourkeyword.to. I’ve done it, and I’ve suggested it to others.
Once the user comes to your site the name just needs to be memorable enough so they type it in to get there the next time. Or they may forget and Google you again. I do it every day. No matter how great your name is, if the content is lousy they won’t come back anyway.
So should you buy a domain name? I don’t know I bought this one. And I made honorable mention in the Domain Name News for the price I paid ($2500). I bought the name because I liked it, I liked the number of incoming links to it, and I felt comfortable paying for it. I’ve never paid more than a couple hundred dollars for a domain otherwise, and I have more than 200 of them. My favorite by far is Blozzo.com, which I just bought today for $25. I have a pretty terrific idea in mind for Blozzo too.
I would try to come up with my own name before I bought someone else’s. Here are some tips:
1. Try to go with a .com. It’s the name everyone associates with the Internet. Any other Top Level Domain (TLD) like .org or .net is just going to confuse people, unless it sounds better than the .com. For example, if you are about networking or a network, a .net is more natural. If your site is informational, you should use .info if it sounds okay. One of my favorite $10 domains is seosecrets.info. I think it sounds good. Hands down the most ingenious use of a TLD is del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site. The use of the .us TLD is absolutely brilliant.
2. Leave out the dashes and meaningless numbers. If it’s a choice between this-domain.com, thisdomain123.com and thisdomain.net, take the .net. No one remembers to put the dashes or the numbers in, unless they are an integral part of the name like studio54.com or e-books.com.
3. Use the fewest letters possible to describe what you do. I own Purple Monkey Media Group. Purplemonkey.com would have been perfect. It’s taken, of course. Purplemonkeymedia.com was not. I grabbed it. I could have taken purplemonkeymediagroup.com, but it would have been too long. Remember, every additional letter is a potential typing error.
4. If you have a domain name that needs to be reinforced, get a good logoand sprinkle it liberally on your web site, along with some slogan that will reinforce the name in people’s minds. You would be surprised at how inexpensive this can be.
5. If you can save a few bucks with your own domain name or by buying a cheaper domain name, do it, and use the money to get yourself placed higher in the search results or Adsense placement.
6. If you can’t come up with a descriptive domain name, go the other way. Depending on your site’s focus, pick a memorable short name that will stick in people’s minds, get a great logo and include the name prominently in your advertising and marketing. It’s called branding, and it’s tried and true.
7. Ask your wife, friend, boyfriend, husband, dog, lawyer, associate, Mom, Dad, cousin, uncle, Police Chief, blog writer. They’re smarter than you anyway, and they are going to be the one looking for the site, not you. Some of my best ideas have come going to or from somewhere with my wife and just brainstorming.
Here’s the bad news: it may take you a while to come up with the right name. There’s more good news though in the real world most domain names sell for $1,000 or less.
Can’t get started? Go to a site that sells domain names (here’s mine), and put in a word that describes your business. See if the name is taken (it probably will be). Open your word processor or go to thesaurus.com and put the word in. Get a few more words. Check those. If there’s a .com available and it looks good, grab it. If not, add the word site or blog or online to your word, and see if that works. Don’t wait. If you think it might be useable, spend the $9.00. I came up with blogduck.com. I liked it. I decided to think about it some more. Someone grabbed it that afternoon. Just chisel loose the nine bucks (or less) and buy the domain.
If you want something a little more sophisticated there are several sites that are good for helping you come up with a name, like DomainsBot and Nameboy.
If you draw a blank, go over to Sedo or Afternic and see what’s for sale. Search for a word that describes what you think people will associate the name of your site with, and see what pops up. That may give you some ideas.
These sites and more can be found in the Tools section of www.affiliateBlog.com.
Domain Name Journal tracks domain name sales.
Matt DeAngelis runs AffiliateBlog. Matt is the former CTO of Modem Media, a pioneer in the Internet ad space. As a foot soldier in the Internet revolution, Matt devised the technology behind many of the most successful ad campaigns of the time.
Domain Names - The Good and The Bad
Working on improving your rank within the different search engines - especially Google - can feel like a very complicated puzzle sometimes. This maze can be extremely time consuming; especially when you just complete one effort and then find out that they’ve once again changed the rules on you - rules that you weren’t even sure of to begin with!
It is very well known that when you try to better the rank you’ve achieved with search engines, the best techniques that you can use are:
• Acquiring quality inbound links
• Acquiring any links to your site at all, including reciprocal links
• Continually adding new, relevant, and fresh information to your site
• Using a good density and placement of the right keywords
• Creating a website that is interesting and relevant enough that visitors who arrive spend time there.
However, what is not so well known is a major point that is missing from this list. Domain names are beginning to become extremely important with Google. It isn’t the domain name itself - that is, the words in the domain - nor how long it is, but how long you’ve had it. Google is now valuing sites that have been registered for longer, and that prove their intention to stick around for a long time.
Google is starting to give lower priority to sites that have been registered for a year or less, since they may simply be spammers who are looking for a fast dollar and then disappear.
On the other hand, for sites registered for five years or more, Google considers them serious websites or businesses that intend to exist for a good long while.
Therefore, one of the strategies important to gaining a strong ranking is to pay a little bit more money for your domain name registration to register for a few extra years, so that Google can tell that you intend to stick around for a long time. This will give your site Google value and your ranking will go up.
The problem that many webmasters are finding with this is that they either don’t have the budget for the additional years of registration, or they don’t want to register a site for a long time when they haven’t proven to themselves that the venture will be successful. They don’t want to pay for an additional four or more years of registration for a project that may not get off the ground.
The decision that therefore needs to be made is how important Google ranking will be to your website. Will it be the primary part of your internet marketing effort? Will you be concentrating a good deal of your time gathering reciprocal and one-way links? Will you be working hard on search engine optimizing (SEO), possibly hiring a professional, so that your site contains the right keywords the right number of times and in the right places?
If you’ll already be putting a lot of time, effort, and possibly money into your Google and search engine ranking, then you may find that registering your site’s domain name is really a minor investment to get you started in the right direction.
It’s all a matter of balance, and making sure that you do the search engine optimizing strategy completely, and not cheap out before you can even give yourself the chance to truly shine. In fact, simply shelling out a little bit more to reserve your domain name may be the easiest part of your search engine optimizing strategy. As long as you do your homework in advance and find an affordable, or even cheap domain name registry business, then you likely won’t have to pay much more than fifty dollars to get going.
As you can see, if search engine optimizing is important to your website, it’s vital that you don’t miss the most commonly overlooked part of SEO and reserve your website for a good length of time, to prove to Google that you’re serious about building a quality, successful web presence. You’ll show that you indeed deserve to be among the top ranking websites out there. With that done, you’ll be ready to move to the next step of your SEO and watch the traffic start rolling in.
Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic
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Mark Nenadic |
Domain Name Register Tips And Information
When we say “domain name register” we are basically dealing of two things. On one hand, the term domain name register is another term that is often applied for domain registration, and on the other hand, the domain name register may refer to a certain company which provides a domain name registration, such as those domain name registrars.
So in this article, I will cover in general those two areas for identifying the rules for the domain name register. It is a fact that presenting both those ideas will greatly help in better understanding of the matter.
So, the domain name register is then a process through which a domain name consumer registers a domain name with a domain name registrar company. The process for the domain name register essentially comprises selecting a domain name that the domain name consumer desires. It is then noted that the purpose for the domain name register is to make sure that someone else has not already taken the domain name and through collecting information about the consumer.
The data collected is consist of the name, address, phone number, e-mail and occasionally a few other information like the fax number. Speaking of the data collection of the domain name register, it is interesting to learn that the above mentioned data is collected for the domain name consumer, the Administrative contact, the billing contact, and the technical contact.
Moreover, in the domain name register, each of those mentioned contacts has the capability to perform several moves relating to the domain name, however, the consumer is the ultimate holder. The administrative contact then has almost completely the same willpower as of the consumer. Why? Perhaps it is for the reason that the consumer is always a corporation and the Administrative contact is the person within the corporation who is also responsible for the domain name.
Also compiled in the domain name register is the Domain Name System or DNS which the domain name consumer would like to apply. Generally, the DNS for the domain name register is consists of a principal and secondary name server that lets the internet traffic know about where the internet host for the domain name can be found. Along with this, in the domain name register, the DNS data is given by all web hosts and then can be taken by simply asking those who process the domain name register for the DNS that the consumer greatly needs to connect the domain name to their domain name servers. So such is the matters involved in the domain name register.
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Domain Name Registrars - The In’s And Out’s!
Do you want to have a domain name? Or, do you wish to register for your domain name? Well, that is not too hard though. With the presence of the domain name registrars, your desire for domain names will be made possible. But what really are domain registrars?
In a most concrete identification, the domain name registrars are actually companies that register domain names for those who love to own a domain name. And for everybody to comprehend the real nature of domain name registrars and the nature of their work and their role in domain name registration, one must then learn about the ICANN or the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
So speaking of the ICANN that plays a major part in the domain name registrars, it is necessary to know that it has two main responsibilities. One of those is to oversee the Domain Name System or DNS for the purpose of validating the division of the IP Addresses and domain names, verifying that each one is distinct. Such group then coordinates the distribution and mapping with each of the registry. Secondly, the ICANN is responsible of accrediting the domain name registrars.
Generally, the ICANN has particular criteria for the domain name registrars’ accreditation. It is commonly noted that once the domain name registrars are accredited, it is then a duty of the domain name registrars to sign a contract and agree to bear by the ICANN’s guidelines and procedures.
The next role of the domain name registrars that is involved in the process is the Registries. The domain name registrars then purchase domains from the Registries as the consumer requests them. It is interesting to know that the consumers may not register a domain name directly from the Registry, they must do so by the domain name registrars. The Registries just charge the domain name registrars for registration. And along with such responsibility, the domain name registrars as well update the domain name at the corresponding Registry whenever a contact or DNS change is created.
In case if there are requests for domain names, such groups then communicate with the respective Registry to make certain whether the requested domain name is available for purchase or already owned by another party. So it is understandable that if the requested domain name is available, the consumer is able to register the domain.
Such is the nature and the role of the domain name registrars in the world of domain names. So if you wish to own a domain name, then you know now where to request for it and where to find it.
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Public Domain - The easy way to create articles!
There are many webmasters that find writing articles for their site to be a very tedious task. Many people who need to write articles also procrastinate as much as they can to delay the amount of writing they need to do. Many people dread writing articles because they find researching for the topic and writing down original materials will be too taxing on them.
You need to have your creative juices flowing and simply downloading an article would be plagiarism or tantamount to stealing, not exactly. Have you ever heard about public domain? These are articles written down by many authors that have declared their works to be public domain, which means anybody can use it for whatever purpose they want.
While most authors would prefer to copyright their work for their rights, there are also a number who doesn’t mind sharing their work. Public domain articles are not owned by anybody and can be used and abused by anyone. The writers have waived their rights to their works and it is out there for the public to make use of.
You can use public domain articles in helping you write your articles. With the public domain articles you can simply edit them to your own style and rewrite them as you please to make it suitable for your needs. All the ideas are there already and its just a matter of finding the write article with the topic or subject you need.
This is probably the easiest way to write articles. You don’t need to scour around the library or the internet for hours for information and start an article from scratch. For webmasters who are looking for articles to fill their site and to generate a high ranking for their website in search engine results, they can just modify the article by infusing keywords and keyword phrases related to their site.
A webmaster or website operator do not risk any chance of getting sued for copyright infringement because they are public domain, once again meaning that anybody can use it. Writing articles by using public domain wont require as much work as writing one from scratch would. You save a lot of time also.
One good factor in using public domain articles for your site or for any project is that you save a lot of money. You dismiss the need to hire experienced and seasoned writers that some website operators use to write their articles. While a single five hundred worded article would only set you down 10 to 15 dollars, this cost will drastically increase when you need hundreds of articles to fill the needs of your site.
For those who needs articles to generate newsletters or an e-zine, public domain articles will be very beneficial. You do not need to count on your contributors or pay writers to write down articles for your newsletter or e-zine. You can fill all the pages without any cost or the worry of being sued and sought after by the writers. You can simply copy the articles and place them on your newsletter and e-zine.
Public domain articles are a virtual untapped resource that many people fail to realize the true value. The power of articles, keywords and keyword phrases have been deemed invaluable these past few years for many internet based businesses and sites that want to rank high in search engine results.
The number of article and content writers have grown significantly due to the rise in the demand for articles. As newer and newer topics and subjects have arisen, there are many demands for new articles to be written. An industry has been formed and this is a worldwide demand.
Public domain articles have given a great alternative for those who are cash strapped as well as do not have the time nor the skills to do their articles for themselves.
Searching for public domain articles is as easy as 1 - 2 - 3. You can search for them in search engines and do searches in many directories for the topic or subject that you need. Read them and simpy copy paste them to a word processing program and simply edit them to suit your needs.
More information can be obtained here: Public Domain Information
Finn Malten is an Internet Marketer working with web site content, cheap hosting and the goldmine of Public Domain.Public Domain Sources
How to Choose a Good Domain Name To Register
In this digital age, your company’s web site is your electronic business card. A strong domain name is the key to your Internet presence. It should be recognizable and relate to your business name, brand, product, and/or activities. Make sure it fits on a business card and is easy to remember whether seen in print or mentioned over the phone.
Use the name people know you by. Don’t abbreviate, unless the abbreviation is your company’s trademark. Ask your co-workers, your customers, your friends, and your family what domain name they’d expect your company to have.
Don’t forget to include your domain name in your site’s logo. And put your domain name on all company promotional materials such as business cards and stationary.
Length Matters
Conventional wisdom states that a good domain name is easy for customers to remember, easy to spell, and short. That said, it’s increasingly difficult to secure short domain names among top level domain names such as .com, .net and ,org. In these cases (and you have 67 characters to choose from), it’s preferable to choose a meaningful statement such as Lawreferralservice.com” or Hotelreservationservice.com,” rather than lrs.com or hrs.com
Give a Good Impression
We all know that first impressions can be crucial, so choose your domain name carefully. Domain names often come without spaces, so pay careful attention to the total package. For example, PatternsExchange can look like patternsexchange.
Select Alternate Names
If your first domain name choice is not available, you can check the “whois” information box for the domain name, contact the person listed, and see if they’re willing to sell it. If they want to sell, they will likely charge more than the $24.95 registration fee. An easier alternative is to register a variation of your first choice.
For example, if your company name is Mrs Smith’s Cookies, but mrssmithscookies.com and the more obvious cookies.com are registered, try adding a small letter such as “e” to indicate that it’s an online business. Or add the word online. Or add your location to attract local customers:
ecookies.com
Cookiesonline.com
CookiesNewYork.com
Alternatively, try registering a local domain name:
mrsmithscookies.ca
mrsmithscookies.us
Use a little creativity, and you may find your alternative beats your original choice.
Once you’ve got a list of alternatives for your online business, test them with your friends and colleagues to see which ones they like best. Make sure these names can be easily pronounced and spelled by your test audience. Then, rank them in order of popularity.
Consider Spelling Mistakes
Consider mistakes people will make when typing your web site address and how your domain name sounds when you have to read it over the phone to a customer. Explaining special characters, abbreviations, and spelling is awkward and doesn’t make good business sense. Will customers accidentally make spelling mistakes? Will they use the plural form of a word instead of the singular form, or visa versa? Make a list of possible mistakes, and register additional domain names that incorporate these mistakes.
Register Multiple Versions of Your Name
Register all possible domain name variations related to your company name. If your company’s name is hard to spell, register common misspellings. Register every domain people might use to find your company. It only costs $24.95 a year to register each domain name, and that’s a small expense to keep a customer.
Take this example: Before America Online acquired Time Warner for $178 billion, it registered at least 21 domain names that might be useful to the new company, named AOL Time Warner, from AOLTW.com to AmericaOnlineTimeWarner.com.
Alternatively, web sites exist that capitalize on misspellings using them as advertising vehicles and diverting customers from your site.
Register Product Names
When users search the Internet for a particular product or service they often search by product or service, rather than business name. To increase the chances of having your site found, register extra domain names that relate to your core business or products. If you owned the hypothetical company name of Widgets & Widgets co. but you sold an array of household products, you could register generic domain names relating to all aspects of household goods. You may be too late to snap up obvious domain names such as detergent.com or vacuum.com, but a little creative thinking into alternatives can be lucrative. These alternative domains can be easily linked to your main web site.
Avoid Trademarked Names
Ensure someone else has not trademarked the name you register. You cannot register names already registered as copyright (for example, McDonalds”). Like company names, domain names are unique and cannot be duplicated. Avoid registering domain names that are similar to your competition or to famous trademarks. Businesses have lost their rights to registered domain names due to conflicts with existing trademarks for off-line companies.
Register Locally
If your company is located in Canada, you can register a .ca domain name even if your business activity includes export trade. If you have an international presence, a top-level domain such as .com, .net , or .org is more suitable. Many businesses choose to register all three, and we suggest doing so. All three addresses can “point” to the same e-mail account and web site.
Conversely, you might open a virtual office in another country. For example, bread.com could also register bread.ca, which may “point” towards the same site, attracting a larger audience. Don’t forget to check to see if a local presence is required in the country you wish to register.
Use a metaphor
If your .dot com businesses does not have a name, the world is your oyster. One Internet incubation company decided on the metaphor campsix, referring to the final basecamp on the Everest climb rather than a straight description of services. The name reflected the difficulty and challenges of building an Internet company to the scaling of Everest. Bear in mind that if your web site is the primary tool for business, the company name must be the company URL.
Shaun Cronrath is the President & CEO of DomainPurpose.com, a domain name registration company offering all the major domain extensions –.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .name, .ca, .us, .cn, .eu, .de, .pro and more.
Domain Squatting Explained
The one thing that annoys me most about the topic of domain names is when trying to find a domain name for a new site only to find most of the names I come up with are already taken. Even more annoying is that these names are not being used for a site that relates to the domain name.
Domain squatting or cyber squatting is the term used for someone who registers a domain with no intention of using it, that would otherwise be used for a site relating to the domain name.
Let me give you an example, recently I came up with an idea for a site and there was a couple of domains that were ideal, keyword1keyword2.com and the plural version, so I checked to see if they were available. I found that both the names I thought would be perfect were taken. Both domain names were directed to a generic search page whose sole purpose is to make money off of direct type ins.
Now I haven’t given the names as I don’t want to give away my idea and I don’t want to give the sites any free advertising. This is not a one off incidence but something that happens quite often, especially with domain names with good or popular keywords. This activity is not illegal unless you use a trademark name, but it is against the ethics of what the internet is about.
There is a difference between domain squatting and domain parking and that difference is intent. If you register the domain with the intent of using it in the future for a purpose relating to the domain name then you have just parked the domain. If you register a domain with the sole intention of making money from reselling it or getting revenue from people typing in the domain name then that is domain squatting.
As I have explained it is not illegal it is just unethical, it is a free market economy and people are motivated by profit. I do not agree with domain squatting as it forces webmasters like myself to use domain names that are far from perfect, take this site on domain names, this name was far from my first choice. It also misleads internet users as the expect a site to be related to the keywords in the domain name making the internet less user friendly.
Find out more about domain names and get some advice before registering your next domain.
Why are domain names so important?
Selecting a great domain name is important for two reasons: first, a catchy and memorable name helps people remember it; and second, a well-thought out name will enable you to attract people through the search engines. Your domain name is, in essence, the logo of your online business. It needs to express who you are, what you do, and what products or services you offer.
The bottom line is that a good domain name can go a long way toward generating traffic to your Web site and building your reputation. That, in turn, will result in more customers and better sales.
1999 was the year of the big dot-com boom, and there was a feeling that there were huge sums of money to be made from the web - but back in 1999 people seemed more concerned about branding than business plans. Inspired by the success of names like Amazon.com, a raft of dot coms came (and went) under snazzy-sounding titles. There was a huge land grab for virtually all words in the English dictionary, plus every other combination of words people could think of. Most of these sites were never developed, but domains were often priced at huge prices.
Premium domains are high quality domain names that are for sale and only available in the secondary domain market.They have excellent marketing and branding value, but also serve as an investment.
As good dot-coms become more and more scarce, the demand and prices for premium domain names has continued to increase.
“A domain name’s importance emerged as a valuable element of an organization’s brand, and the numbers validate this trend,” Matt Bentley, CEO of Sedo.com, told the E-Commerce Times. “Though we’ll likely never see the sale prices of 1999, when domains like business.com fetched $7.5 million, valuations for key domains have definitely begun to elevate to demonstrate their importance to business and organizations all over the world.”
The dot-com crash that saw hundreds of start-up businesses on the Internet close up shop in 1998 and 1999 is not discouraging new Net entrepreneurs. A record number of domain name sales in 2005 shows that business presence on the Internet is stronger than ever.
A domain name that reflects an organization’s brand and offerings is vital to driving new business.
Last year saw an explosion of growth for the secondary domain marketplace, as more organizations purchased the ideal domain name to drive their brand.