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It’s surprising, at least to me, the amount of Affiliates who aren’t aware of the value and flexibility that the ‘sub-domain’ can give their promotional website activities. Set up in the right way, a single domain through a host who includes multiple ‘sub-domains’ in their hosting package can fill ALL the online needs of even the busiest and most diversified Affiliate.

Firstly, for those who need to know, a ‘sub-domain’ is simply a separate, individual web folder, which can be attached to a ‘main’ domain and treated in all respects as a separate entity online. It is similar to a ‘sub-web’, which most hosting facilities include except that it is, in it’s own right, treated as a separate domain by the SEs rather than a sub-folder under a domain.

The way in which they are represented online as URLs is as follows:

For instance, if you have a domain name, ‘domain.com’ and you add a sub-domain named ‘bubble’, the URL to that particular ‘website’ (which is what each sub-domain amounts to, a separate website) will be ‘bubble.domain.com’. No doubt, many have seen these types of URLs online and in promo emails etc. The ‘dot’ between the sub-domain and main domain is not to be confused with the ‘dash’ that can be used as part of a main domain. For instance, ‘bubble-domain.com’ would need to be registered and propagated in it’s own right whereas, sub-domains can be created under a main domain in a matter of seconds, with their own FTP password, image, private and cgi-bin folders etc.

What makes them so valuable a tool, if it’s not so obvious already, is that an Affiliate can create a separate website for totally unrelated products or services, fill each website with the necessary pages of content, links and facilities etc and promote each to the Search Engines and other directories, virtually as if it were a different main domain. As I’ve said, the SEs treat each sub-domain as a separate entity and categorize them as such. A very handy ability when it comes to Affiliate programs that supply a website or webpage for their Affiliates to use and promote. In such a case, you can basically make that page or site your very own in every respect, optimizing for SEs and presenting it how ever you please (provided no agreements are broken).

Obviously, having a ‘generic’ main domain name is essential to getting the best out of this cost, time and trouble saving method of creating multiple websites. If you have a main domain name ‘pillshop.net’ (perhaps your initial Affiliate endeavor involved promoting this type of product) it is really only going to be useful for the one type of product or service. Alternatively, something more generic like ‘online-plus.biz’ is going to be useful for promoting almost anything because it has no specific meaning. For instance, in the case of promoting a Singles Dating Affiliate program, something like ‘singles.online-plus.biz’ would work as well as ‘pills.online-plus.biz’ or even ‘dogs.online-plus.biz’. However, ‘singles.pillshop.net’ just doesn’t work, does it? (Although, I have seen some pretty weird URLs around!)

The only problem you will be presented with, concerns the traffic ranking facility Alexa. Alexa will read all sub-domains as their parent ‘main domain’, so the traffic ranking for each website will be the same, as will all the other Alexa information. However, this isn’t such a great problem when you consider that the total traffic indicated for each website will actually be the total for ALL of them. In my opinion, not so much of a problem, at all.

So, for the Affiliate at least, choosing the right type of domain name and a hosting facility that includes multiple sub-domains in their package is very important, especially if there’s any possibility that you’re going to be venturing into promoting unrelated products and services. The first hosting facility I was involved with a few years ago, charged $10 to create each sub-domain. The one I’ve been with for the last couple of years, allows unlimited free sub-domains (contact me at one of my websites if you want to know who they are).

The 2005 Edition of Steve Brennan’s popular ebook title ‘The Affiliate Guide Book’ is available now. He also operates a number of Affiliate wesbites which include Hair Loss Remedy and Diet & Weight Loss Place.

Many people got lucky and sold their domain for unbelievable prices. Was that pure luck? Or was there something that we still don’t know? Is there still domain-gold left in the already mined domain market, to lay our hands on? Lets see.

First of all what we will look in some of the main reasons which makes a domain priceless and sellable.

# Generic or Day to Day life words.

# Their extensions weather it is .com or .net. Its popularity. (Right now .com)

# Less characters. (Say 4 or 5 at most)

# Their pronunciation. (Don’t say epdu or something else it is not pronounceable)

# The keyboard relationship. (It would be easier to type in “tyru” instead of “oqzk”. Some companies who wants brandable names see this)

Now If we look into the very first point about generic or day to day life words most of them are taken. So how to find some other? Here is the tip. Just try and sit with a pen and paper when you are watching television. Write down the words that you think might be available as a domain name. You can do the same when you are reading some novel or newspaper. This trick surely pays I got many of my domains watching “Terminator” and “Home Alone” kind of movies.

Now the extension. If you have found out a great word which is already registered with .com extension. Then you can try other TLD’s. But in this you run into some kind of risk. You can surely reg “fast.net” & “Love.net” but you can’t bet your money on “babyboydomains.net” or “Simplyrockingnames.org”. So just apply some thinking over here.

Talking about less characters If you find a 3 letter name then just pounce on it. It really has the market. But there are none available right now. So look for 4 or 5 character names. Apply all our rules that we saw before and even then if it passes through all that steps without a hitch then take it in.

Pronounceable or not is also a factor. If you know english language, which I think you will be knowing as you are reading this article then there are no problems. For those who are weak at english they can try http://www.thesaurus.com or any other dictionaries which are available online to look for that name.

Don’t get discouraged if your word is not listed in it. You can surely ask some other guy on chat who is not interested in domains about this word. Otherwise the guy to whom you are asking may reg it before you and all your dreams might get shattered into pieces.

The last but not the least is the keyboard relationship. Some companies may look into it. If they are willing to spend their millions for this domain and other millions for marketing it and making it into a brand. You can try this. some words are just a flick on keyboard. As I said before “tyru” is easy to type in. while oqzk is a bit tougher. Just try it and see the difference.

©2005 Nameslot.com

You can reprint this article but the content and copyrights should stay intact.

Written By Falguni Patel. For more tips like this and to sell your Priceless domains logon to:- www.nameslot.com/

I’d be a zillionaire if I earned a dollar each time someone complains that all the great domain names are already taken. It’s just not true, however. Even in a highly competitive industry, you can think up original, appealing domain names for businesses by using naming tactics that few people use, such as these:

1. Focus on results. What is the outcome or end result that people want to have from buying a certain product or service? How do they feel when they have finished the transaction? My own company name, Named At Last, falls into this category.

2. Look for puns. Make a list of relevant keywords, say each out loud and play around with the sounds. Puns are much less likely than other kinds of names to have been registered because their component parts are not actual words. For instance, the name Sitesfaction, for a web design company, was a finalist in our first naming contest - and an available domain at that time despite tens of thousands of web design firms in the English-speaking world.

3. Think slang. Let your imagination and memory fly around for pleasing-to-the-ear expressions. As of today, the domain BoyOhBoyToys.com for an online toy store is unregistered, as is a domain for its sister store AttaGirlToys.com.

4. Go symbolic. Suppose you’re an expert on the horror genre and want to start a paid online community for horror fans. Horrorific.com, horrorgate.com and Horrornet.com are all taken, but as of today, the less obvious and more vivid FrightOwl.com is not.

5. Vary real words. “Google’s name is a play on the word googol, which refers to the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes,” says the Press Center of the world’s most successful search engine. “The word was coined by the nine-year-old nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner,” it continues - providing another hint for creative naming: consult a kid.

Happy Naming!

Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free Publicity and ten other books hailed for outstanding creativity. Find out more about her new discount naming company, Named At Last, which brainstorms new company names, new product names, tag lines and more for cost-conscious organizations, at www.NamedAtLast.com

Why domain names can be a good investment!

We have a number of generic finance related domain names and have recently added to these through the £14,000 investment in debtconsolidation.co.uk and the purchase of debtfree.co.uk.

It’s true that debt consolidation is one of the hottest terms especially in respect of PPC’s and we believe we will get free traffic from people guessing the domains when they are looking for debt consolidation or debt free i.e. people that are looking for debt consolidation will enter debtconsolidation.co.uk in the toolbar rather than searching for debt consolidation on a search engine. Both debt consolidation and debt free are amongst the most searched for terms on the internet and you would therefore expect a percentage of people looking for these terms to guess the domain. Many domain investors use the overture search rank as a key to the potential value of a generic domain. i.e. if a lot of people search for a term then a smaller proportion will second-guess what the domain name will be.

A good generic domain name can also help with search engine placement. Approximately 12 months ago debtconsolidation.co.uk used to be at the top of google for debt consolidation but someone must have failed to renew! www.debtconsolidation.co.uk is already on the 1st page of msn.co.uk for debt consolidation out of 17,265,739 results. Debt Consolidation is a very hard term to get to the top of especially only after website was launched 2 weeks ago. (Website is still temporary!). So I believe domain name has played a big part in it. This seems especially true for msn. Try searching for debt consolidation loans on msn and look at all the domains that are top! Only 1 in the Top 10 doesn’t have debt consolidation loan in the domain name!! That’s the beauty and the value of a generic domain!!

A domain name can also be of use through pay per click advertising (PPC). We advertise extensively through google adwords and what we have found is that the domain can have a direct effect on your Click through ratios (CTR’s) and hence the amount you need to pay per click. We advertise on google and where the domain is similar to the search terms you generate significantly more traffic (hence why espotting (miva) insist you include the search term in your title).

When you are valuing a domain for a business as well as looking at how much people will pay for a PPC it is also worth looking at how much they will pay for a successful application. This is really where the true value can be seen.

We are therefore confident that generic domain names (that are business related) are definitely good investments for the future and it’s wise to buy before others realise it too! We will definitely be looking for new ones that come available.

I think some of the bigger companies aren’t on the same page yet. It is too difficult to get approval for a purchase off someone who doesn’t understand the potential value. Often they also outsource their internet advertising so there is no one in the business that understands the internet.

So to summarise a domain name can have considerable value if it is able to generic free relevant traffic to your website. Also as the internet grows and users become more sophisticated in how they search then we would expect the value of domain names to increase further.

Miles Grady is A Director of AllClear Finance

and websites Debt Consolidation and Debt Free

Are there internet domain registration issues of which I need to be aware? The answer, actually, is yes. Internet domain registration is big business with competition for the best names that can be picked up by the top search engines. Like in any competitive field, there are always those out looking to take advantage of you. We both know that your domain name is important to you and so is your money, so it is important that you be aware of and concerned with certain scenarios where you can be taken advantage of in the internet domain registration game.

The most common “trick” you may encounter comes by way of internet domain registration renewal. The internet domain registration companies will use the credit card number you gave them to begin with and automatically renew your domain name several months in advance of when you need it done. This is a way of getting your money in advance of when you need it and thus cutting your paid for time down. It is a not a new scam that the internet domain registration companies invented; magazines sometimes will use the same method with regard to subscription renewals.

There is a way to stop this from happening, or at least reducing the risk. Never give the internet domain registration company permission to user your credit card to automatically renew your domain name. They may try to scare you by telling you that giving them permission in advance will ensure that you do not lose your domain name. The truth is, you can keep track of the time as easily as they can.

If you do not allow the internet domain registration companies to automatically renew, trust me, they will remind you when your time is approaching via email. This, however, is another time when scammers are out in full force. Be sure the emails you receive are from the internet domain registration company you are working with. Sometimes domain renewal is a way of hiding phishing scams. Just stay on top of things and be aware of who the sender is on any email you receive.

The truth is that if you use a legitimate internet domain registration company, they will send you email notices reminding you that you need to renew. They will send such notices well in advance, but will let you know when you actually need to renew. As ridiculous as it may seem to many people, you do have to renew your domain registration every time your registration runs out. The best way, though, to avoid the many scams and cons out there is to simply keep track of your domain timing and the companies with which you are working. Your best defense is being knowledgeable about your own situation.

One of the most important actions you will perform in the building of your presence on the web is internet domain registration. Keeping the name you want is valuable, but does cost you money. With such high demand for domains, there are obviously going to be those who want to take advantage of the situation. Your best defense against such people is to keep track of your domain, your registration time, and which internet domain registration company you are using.

If you would like the latest information on domain hosting, or find more of my personal articles like the one you just read, visit my computing blog.

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.

It’s your domain, or so you say. One morning, you wake up to find that it’s registered in someone else’s name.

Can you prove it’s yours? Can you get it back?

The sex.com story

One morning, Gary Kremen woke up to find that the domain name sex.com, which he’d registered in 1994, had changed hands and was registered to ex-convict Stephen Michael Cohen. In 1995, Cohen had allegedly written a fake letter with a forged signature to Network Solutions, the registrar. He stated in that letter that control of sex.com was to be turned over to him.

In 2000, the court found the letter to be fraudulent and ruled that sex.com was to be returned to Kremen. Cohen was ordered to pay $65 million in punitive damages and for lost revenue. He never paid it, however, fleeing the US instead.

The story continued with charges against Network Solutions for mismanagement of sex.com. A lower court ruled in 2000 that Network Solutions was not accountable for its negligence in handling the domain. A domain name was not tangible property, according to the judge. In 2003, the US Appeals Court ruled that Kremen did have property rights to the domain. The following year, Kremen reached a settlement with VeriSign, the owner of Network Solutions. While the amount was undisclosed, it was rumored to be over $15 million.

Domains and ICANN

It’s doubtful that any other domain has the value of sex.com. Our domains are valuable to us, though, and we want them to be protected. If they are stolen, we don’t want to spend years fighting to get them back.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) was created in 1998 to help manage domain names, among other responsibilities. At the ICANN website, we read that ICANN “…is dedicated to preserving the operational stability of the Internet…and to developing policy appropriate to its mission….”

Developed in 2004, ICANN’s Registrar Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy (TDRP) provides detailed steps for registrars to follow if a domain transfer is disputed. Registrars aren’t obligated to follow this policy, and it doesn’t guarantee resolution to domain transfer disputes. However, it provides a suggested policy for registrars to help reach resolutions when domain disputes arise.

Domain theft and ICANN

What should you do if you discover that someone has hijacked your domain name?

First, contact the registrar where you had the domain registered. With evidence that you didn’t authorize the domain to be transferred to another person, that registrar should take the necessary steps to try to return the domain to you.

Unfortunately, some registrars aren’t inclined to make the effort to do this, particularly (but not necessarily) those with a lower profit margin per domain.

If the registrar for your domain won’t take action on your behalf, go to the gaining registrar with your case. This registrar; the one where your domain is now registered; may or may not want to look into the situation, but you can try your luck with it.

According to ICANN’s TDRP, registrars should “… first of all attempt to resolve the problem among the Registrars involved in the dispute….” If they aren’t successful, they should then file a dispute with ICANN.

In this ICANN April 2005 report, the suggestion was made (on page 5) to make the dispute resolution process accessible to registrants. At this time, though, if neither registrar will work to help you or will take the issue to ICANN, the ICANN dispute resolution process isn’t available to you.

Although ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy is intended for disputes over trademarked domains, some registrants have used it to try to get hijacked domains back. You can file a complaint via one of ICANN’s Approved Providers for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

Domains and the courts

The legal route that sex.com registrant Gary Kremen took is open to you as well. Look for a lawyer in the country of the domain registrar who has experience handling domain name disputes.

At this point, you need to weigh the value of your domain with the costs involved in getting it back. The value of sex.com made the legal battle financially worthwhile for Kremen, but many of us would have to stop at this point.

Protecting your domain

Nothing you can do can guarantee that your domain won’t be hijacked. However, you can take a number of precautions to greatly reduce the chances of it happening. For tips on protecting your domain, see the article Information Highwaymen and Your Domain here: http://articles.websitesource.com/information_highwaymen.shtml

About the Author:

Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

Domain names are not just online identities anymore they are the most important asset an online company owns. There are businesses being spun out because the owner stumbled on a good domain name. These folks are minting money like hell that they use this revenue to build more and better businesses. Have you invested in stocks and found that a small bad news would completely change the value of the stock? Rather invest in online domain names they are relatively easy to acquire and maintain. The initial acquisition cost is sometimes high but most often in the right hands this will be gold mines that can bring in 10 times more revenue per year than the initial investment each year. Have you owned real estate property as investments? You know that their value goes up slowly but surely. The domain names are similar to the land you buy, you can change the home you build on top as many times while the land value goes up. Acquiring land is important like that the domain names are important to buy when one good one becomes available. For example patriotism is a good theme and it is evergreen, owning a domain name that deals with patriotism it is a good investment. Like this there are many common themes that you can invest on which are long term great investments.

There are many ways where you can go to find good domain names that come for sale like afternic. But you got to constantly look for the good ones. More so often the owners don’t want to reveal that their domain name is for sale. So you got to maintain a lot of contacts who can bring you the news about the great domain names for sale. When you buy the domain names, be sure to transfer the name immediately and create a website for it. You can park these domain names and make more money through redirect traffic as well. Don’t pay the asking price try to get more details on how long the person has owned the website and whether it is listed in a blacklist. This is critical blacklisted domains are cheaper as they take time to heal. Also you may don’t want to miss out the domain names which have good websites that has been drawing traffic. The other important factor to look for is the pagerank of the website the higher the PR the more valuable the domain name is. You may also want to make sure they are listed in search engines. This will ensure you can have some good free traffic while you work on the business model.

There are many additional factors that determine the value of the domain. But there is the additional perceived value for a domain name that when factored in will either diminishes or increase the value. The rough equation for looking for domain value is
(Domain Name quality) + Page Rank + SERP + (perceived value) + current relevance
You got to understand the last factor as well. The domain name may be a hot cake now or in some yesteryear and the search engines give it good placement for keywords for thing that were popular like John Kerry a few years back now it doesn’t have value. So make calculated judgment and be a good businessperson while negotiating. Take into consideration how important the domain name is for your long term business aspirations and its short term value. You should also take into consideration the investment potential.

One example of a great domain name that is for sale on the Patriotic theme is patriotic.com. You can find similar dictionary domain names rarely but look out on the Internet for great domain names like this.

Author does freelancing through the no fee free Freelance website freelancefree.com

If you are going to start a web site, you have to have a domain name. There are a couple of tricks, however, you should know before you buy one.

Tips on Getting Your Domain Name Right

Far too often, people just rush out and pick domain names on the fly. What sounds cool? What sounds professional? I’ll just use my business name. These are the basic methods people come up with domain names and they can lead to regret down the road. A domain name is like a spouse, it can be great or horrific in the long run.

Unless you have a business name that is very well known, don’t use your business name as the domain. It isn’t really going to help you generate traffic and people will still be able to find you through search engines since you are probably the only one using the name. If you are paranoid about others stealing it, trademark and register the name.

The best way to pick a domain name is to first due keyword research. Keyword research is going to identify the keyword phrases your prospects are using to search for your services or products. You want to create a list of high traffic keyword phrases and then make one of those phrases your domain name. Search engines give a lot of value to a domain name that matches a keyword phrase. This helps you crank your home page to the top of the rankings, which gives you a massive head start over your competition.

Once you have identified the keyword phrase you want to use for your domain, there is another secret you need to know. The length of your registration is a factor in search engine rankings on Google. Google gives added value to sites that are going to be around for a long time. At a minimum, you should register the domain for five years, but go with the longest option available.

At first glance, picking a domain name is a fairly simple process. To jumpstart your marketing efforts, you should stop and give it some thought. If you follow the above guidelines, you can turn it into a powerful head start for your marketing efforts.

Halstatt Pires is with MarketingTitan.com - providing internet marketing services.