Choosing Small Business Website Names

I disagree with the comment made by some web developers that all the good domain names are taken. Search engine optimization, or seo, does not depend heavily on the www name you select. For my clients just starting out the decision choosing small business website names has never been an issue. It is a fact that all the 3 character and 4 character domain names with the key extensions are taken. Furthermore, I agree that a vast number of choice domain names are no longer available; however, the selection of a suitable www domain for your small business is possible if you remain flexible.

The real value in the name you choose from a search perspective is how easy it is to spell and remember. Of the two types of visitors to your site, the human visitors and search engines, the ability of a person to remember your domain name and spell it correctly to pass it on to others outweighs any SEO value. Search engines are robots and don't care.
Using words like "greatest", "best", or other exaggerated terms in your domain name is thought by some to be a disadvantage and penalized by search engines. Search algorithms change often and likewise that theory, and although you may not be penalized for using such words, consider the reaction of your human visitors. They may not stick around if they feel you boast without the content to back it up. For a serious small business commercial enterprise, my advice is avoiding adjectives in the domain name entirely.
In some cases new clients approach me to redesign an existing website, and it surprises me that some of the basics are overlooked. For example, a commercial enterprise in business for profit should not select a dot ORG domain simply because the dot COM was taken. This was the case from a conversation with a client interested in a site makeover. Their ORG version was online for two years with little or no backlinks or serious indexing from search engines. The mindset of getting one particular name should be reconsidered especially if it's your first online venture.

Here's a breakdown of the most desirable domain extensions and the usual purpose of each: COM - Commercial for profit enterprise
INFO - Information only related website
NET - Companies providing internet services
ORG - Non-profit organizations
Certainly there are many more like BIZ, US, WS, and others which are all reasonable choices, but for your commercial small business my recommendation is always acquire a dot COM www domain name. The client mentioned earlier did not realize a dot ORG was intended for a non-commercial enterprise, and they decided the poor website SEO performance was something that justified getting a new dot COM. We easily found an available www domain using their company initials and one key word about their target market which is medical. Despite my advice that they keep the existing site and simply change the theme, they decided to just let it go when it expired.
My commercial site choice was my first and last name, and very unique at that. Using your name is okay, and expected if you're famous. There is, however, little or no value as far as keywords in my www domain to attract visitors, so is that a mistake for search engine optimization? Certainly not. The fact that I have collected more than 100 screenshots of generic phrases relative to my business that made Google page one is evidence the content, not the domain, is key. Here's some advice to help you when choosing a new dot COM small business website domain name. Start out with a list of about 10 domain names that you would like to have. Next, make a list of market related single word terms about what you do and the customer base you service. If your market is localized, consider geographical terms that relate to where you sell or provide services. Spend 30 minutes brainstorming to come up with the initial names and additional lists of single word terms. You may want another list of significant initials.
Next, search for "WhoIs" in Google to find free online services that keep a database of available domain names, and follow the link in the search results. Each database has a search box which allows you to input the domain name and extension. Begin with your first choice and work down the list and keep track of available names for review later. It may not be easy, so try combinations of the key terms as you continue to search, and keep in mind you want a domain name that is easy to spell and remember. By the time you're done you should have a half dozen or more available names, so take your time and select the best one, and then register the name immediately.

Tip: The domain name may not be significant for search engine optimization, but the length of your registration can be. My advice is registering domains for 2 years minimum, and 5 to 10 years if that's in your budget. Search engines consider that the length of your registration reflects your commitment to be online long term, so at today's prices 5 years is practical and should cost less than $50 USD.
There's nothing wrong with getting the dot COM domain name you want, and then registering the other major extensions that are available for the same name. If you are highly successful in your online venture, having the other extensions registered in your name prevents others from attempting to take advantage of your reputation by association. In conclusion, the concept that all the good domain names are taken is a myth. You may not get exactly what you want, but practical options are available with a little research and due diligence.

Google Desktop Gadget Updates Domain Parking Stats

DomainersEdge releases new Google Gadget for domain parking.

Are you one of those domainers who constantly checks your domain parking stats? If you use multiple parking programs, that can mean logging into several web sites throughout the day. Here’s a solution.
DomainersEdge just released a new Google Gadget for Google Desktop. Once installed, Stat Gadget grabs your parking stats from Sedo, DomainSponsor, and TrafficClub. You can set it to show daily or month-to-date stats and to update the stats at different intervals.

Before installing the gadget, be sure you have the latest version of Google Desktop. Before Google Desktop was introduced I had longed for some sort of widget that would keep me updated on stats from affiliate programs. The DomainersEdge gadget is an excellent tool.
Right now it only pulls stats for Sedo, DomainSponsor, and TrafficClub. I’m sure this is in the works, but it would be nice to pull stats from more parking programs such as Parked and NameDrive. Also, an expansion to include affiliate stats from Commission Junction, Azoogle, etc. would be nice.

Congratulations, I got the Payment !

Yes...!!! Today I got the payment from Sedo. I'm sure everyone wonder how much I earn from Domain Parking. But believe me, the amount isn't low as you think. Have a look down and immediately decide what to do. Don't wait, learn domain parking and start to make money!

I joined to Sedo at 23-March-2007. The same month I got from domain parking 6,76€ and in April 92,08€. In total:98,84€ or 130,74$.

Also I want to take your attention! These earnings come from one domain! And imagine if you had 10 domains or more. Wow, it would be terrific. So basically is possible to make revenue about 1000$ per month. My plan is buying a new domain every month when I get the payment. Already added new one so I have totally two domains and that means my income is going to increase. Now wait the end of this month and let's see earnings.

Learn Parking With Sedo - Part 1

In this part I'm going to introduce Sedo parking service and explain how to register!

Sedo started out as a German company, but has grown into an international domain powerhouse with U.K. and U.S. divisions. Now, they have more than 350,000 members around the world trading domains in more than 10 languages. While parking at Sedo, you can sell or buy domains. Also they offer domain appraisals, brokerage services, promotion. More than 3 million domains use Sedo's parking programs to earn revenue while promoting its sale.

Numbers and facts (As of: 1st Feb 2007):

- Domain transaction volume per month: > $3 million

- Number of members: 350,000
- Number of domains in database: 7,000,000
- Number of parked domains: 3,000,000

- Number of domains sold per month: > 1,500

Sedo parking services use a "one-click" model and hosts your site and provides targeted ad links. They purchase Google ads and these are what will appear on your site. To see examples sites, please check these: obitag.org and fixgames.net.

You can list your domain names as much as you can want. There is optimizer option that you can choose templates, photos and select category, keyword for you domain names. Earnings per click vary beetween 0.02€-2€. Payment options are with paypal (when you reach 20€) and wire tranfer (when you reach 50€). Parking revenue is paid at the end of each parking cycle. This normally takes place on the 15th of each month. Of course listing your domain names or web sites for sale on Sedo is always free. Only if Sedo successfully sells your domain will you be asked to pay a commission.

Now let's see how to register at Sedo.

I'm going to explain step-by-step and include images that will help you to understand better!

Of course registration is free at Sedo and you can start even with one domain. First visit Sedo homepage and have a look around site. Click the Start button and fill blanks to register as you see on capture 1.

While you are writing an e-mail, you will take attention that you can't use anonymous free mail like hotmail, yahoo, gmail etc. You have to use an e-mail from your ISP. If you don't have another e-mail account, then send an e-mail to info@mail.co.uk with your complete contact information and they will create an account for you using your free mail address. Please also remember to supply with your preferred login name and password. Or simply you can open an e-mail account at Walla.com.

Then you have to agree with User Agreement and Privacy Policy by selecting the checkbox and click the next button. Don't forget that they will send you an-email that contains a confirmation link. Please confirm it!

The next part I will explain how to park your domains and manage them. If you have any question, please contact me. I'm here to help you!

Do You Want a Short Review From Ja Kel Daily Dot Com?

There are many bloggers that offer linkback if you write a review for they. But Ja Kel Daily Dot Com is different because he is giving a short 30 word review of your blog if you if you review his blog. What he wants from you is all to write similar review like;

Ja Kel Daily Dot Com eventually wants to make money and is offering to link to your blog if you review his blog.

I just checked his blog and added to my Technoratis Favorites. In his blog you can find articles about make money, cars, family, technology and so on. He's very experienced writer that I really believe you can find very interesting articles and can benefit from them..

A Linkback From CarloCab.com

I witnessed a 13-year old kid who can make money online! He blogs at carlocab.com and he is inviting you to review his blog for a free linkback and a chance to win a copy of his upcoming E-Book!

When I found his blog I became suprised because he is very young for blogging. But everyone must check his blog. I'm sure that you will find something interesting and you will learn also lot's of things from him. Above is explained what to do and how to get linkback from CarloClub. Then what are you waiting for??

Today's Trends in Domain Investing

Increasingly, domainers are deciding to corner their own part of the market rather than diversify their investments. It’s a product of aggressive investor speculation fuelled by the growing belief that the industry is poised for even more exponential growth in the near future. Investors big, small and everywhere in between have decided the best strategy for them is to target domains from specific industries, events, locations or based entirely around a specific brand and buy every possible variation in an attempt to control as much web presence as possible. There are risks in using this strategy but the rewards have been so huge for some that more and more are creating their own domain empire.

When it comes to domains, niche specialization has been around for a while but it has never been as popular as it is today. The investment strategy has two major benefits. It saves time for the investor, and when it comes to selling they are in a better position to negotiate.

How can you make the niche investment strategy work for you?

Choosing the right domains to invest in can take a lot of time. Researching new products, technologies, hot trends or likely typos is labour intensive and doesn’t always pay off. Rather than taking the time to constantly re-educate themselves, some domain speculators have taken a different approach. They’ve chosen to focus on something they already know well and aggressively corner that market. Niche markets are alive and vibrant with speculation. All of the one word .coms are gone but if you’re a bio-engineer you can still find good bio-engineering domains available, for scuba divers there are still good scuba related domains available, and the list goes on.

For one heavy domain investor, his investment strategy was closely tied to his business and pastime. If you’re looking for outdoor sporting names, chances are he already has them. This domain owner, who asked to remain anonymous, started investing in 1995. Back then there were a lot of questions about what was going to be valuable and what strategy to take.

“It was really uncertain back then whether investing in domains that represented whole categories or niches paid off. We had long debates over things like singular vs. plural and whether anything but the most generic terms would be valuable.” He was certain about investing in outdoor sports domains though. “Knowing the outdoor sporting industries already gave me a real advantage. There was no doubt; I knew what was going to be valuable there.”

He was certain about not investing half-heartedly either. He knew that if he was going to increase the value of his investment exponentially, he would need to acquire as many domains as he could in his niche.

Another investor, Clark Siegelin, has chosen to specialize in brand names, specifically around .com domains using the well known and generic suffix 360. His bet has paid off with recent sales of cash360.com and firm360.com netting him thousands of dollars each. He continues to receive offers totaling thousands more for domains such as cellularphones360.com, tourism360.com, download360.com among others. For Mr. Siegelin the value of the brand was obvious so he registered every possible 360 related domain he could think of. Half-hearted investment wasn’t an option. Deciding to corner the 360 market was just as obvious as the value of the brand.

“Put it this way. The same buyer of cash360 is going to be interested in money360.com is going to be interested in banking360.com is going to be interested in stocks360.com.”

The level of interest might be different for each, but owning them all definitely puts you in a better position when negotiating for any of them. Cornering that niche has the added benefit of putting you in a much better position when the time comes to sell. If you have all the domains a prospective buyer is interested in they’ll keep coming back with better offers because you have all their good alternatives.

Geographical niches are some of the most popular right now. Investors are increasingly specializing in regional tlds as well as “place names”. Emerging markets, recent liberalization and the development of more and more active websites built around TLDs such as .in and .cn, just to name a few, have convinced more than a few domainers to invest heavily in regions they know are growing.

After “missing the .com era”, Jeffrey Williams decided to invest heavily in .co.in domains near the end of last year. “I was fortunate enough to find out that at the same time .co.in names were also to be released to the general public but this was not widely known.” He wound up getting 90% of the domains he pre-registered and so far his investment of a few thousand dollars has increased nearly 10 fold. He believes, “without a doubt”, that deciding to specialize in a niche earned him much more than diversifying his investments. It had the added bonus of celebrity status among those in the Indian domain name market. “I have gained the reputation as being the .co.in “guy” something that would have been impossible with .com/.net etc as I was too late.”

The key, for all of these investors, was entering a field of speculation where they were already knowledgeable. They all believe that leveraging their knowledge saved them a lot of valuable time on multiple fronts. Time that was put to better use finding available domains and marketing the ones they had already acquired. This niche expertise also left them in a better position to negotiate sales after finding prospective buyers because they knew what someone could make from their domains, what the growth trends would be and everything else that would make the domains valuable down the road.

Whether it’s investing to sell, investing for traffic or both, specializing in and cornering a niche is a growing investment strategy with big potential that is already paying dividends for some.

Article Written By Jay Finnan (Sedo.com Director of Customer Relations)

How to Find Money-Making Domains

In this article we'll explain the tools and techniques domain pros use to determine or at least reasonably guesstimate how much traffic a domain receives. Armed with this knowledge, you'll be able to predict approximately how much money a domain will make, and thus gain a better understanding of the domain's true value. The educated buyer always comes out ahead, so read on to unlock the mysteries of domain traffic and learn how to determine scientifically if a domain is really worth buying.

We will discuss three methods for evaluating traffic:

1.Trackers/ Direct Methods

2.Predictors/ Indirect Methods

3.Traffic Source

Ideally, you can skip all of the guesswork and find out how much traffic a domain receives directly from the domain owner. The easiest way to do this is simply to ask the seller Sedo's negotiation system includes a comment feature to enable you to do just that. However, the seller may make a mistake (or simply be dishonest), so it's always a good idea to double-check his numbers with one of the methods below.

DEVELOPED WEBSITE
Traffic counting scripts are one of the simplest and most reliable methods for determining traffic to a developed website. Each of the websites listed for sale on Sedo is required to integrate the SedoTracker, a free professional statistics program which can easily be integrated into website code. Key figures from the SedoTracker are automatically displayed on the website's for sale listing, giving buyers the additional reassurance of a third-party-verified system. Sellers gain even more information, such as top referrers, geographic and chronological breakdown of visitors, and more. Most sellers will provide serious buyers with these important details upon request.

PARKED DOMAINS
If a domain name is parked, Sedo will automatically provide traffic statistics on the domain's sales listing page. These pages display the unique visitors/ month, based upon the past 32 days. If a domain has not been parked for the full 32 days, the visitor numbers could be inaccurate. It's also worth noting that visitor numbers can be manipulated by malevolent sellers, but in general the parking visitor stats serve as a very helpful guideline for potential buyers.

2. Predictors/ Indirect Methods

What do you do if a domain is not parked and the seller won't provide you with stats? Fortunately, there are a few tricks available that may help you get a rough indication of whether or not a domain receives any traffic.
We wouldn't recommend relying exclusively on any of these tricks as a bulletproof way to guesstimate traffic. However, taken as a whole (and with a hefty spoonful of salt) they can shine a bit of light on the question of whether or not a domain will receive valuable traffic.

ALEXA.COM
This site ranks websites based on the number of visitors they receive — for example, Yahoo,com is ranked #1, MSN trails in the #2 position, and so on. Many high-traffic domain names will get an Alexa ranking just from their type-in traffic. In general, an Alexa ranking under 1,000,000 for an undeveloped site is a good indicator that the domain receives decent traffic (eg, several thousand monthly uniques). Rankings over a million are less reliable, but usually any sort of Alexa ranking means that the domain receives at least some traffic. As with all of these methods, Alexa should be used as a guideline only: sometimes even domains for which Alexa returns "No Data" (too low to rank) will still receive traffic, and vice-versa. In addition to Alexa, you'll find a similar tool available at Ranking.com.

OVERTURE SEARCHES
Overture's "Keyword Selector Tool" tells you how often a given keyword was searched. For example, "Sedo" was searched 1,014 times in November, while "Paris Hilton" was searched 862,528 times. Naturally, a domain that contains a highly-searched keyword is more likely to receive traffic. However, the Overture Tool's usefulness goes beyond that: if you use the exact domain name (with extension) as the keyword, Overture results can be used as a predictor for whether or not a domain name receives traffic. For example, "Yahoo.com" was searched 11,089,508 times in October, according to Overture. Sedo-parked sites "Moma.com" was searched 1,055 times, "Camera.com" 258 times, and "gamer.com" 558 times. Our research has shown that Overture searches do sometimes have a rough correlation with traffic (especially type-in traffic), but as with other methods there are many exceptions to the rule.

3. Traffic Source

If you want to better understand something, go to the source. This aphorism applies to domain traffic as well. Thus, in addition to using the above methods to guesstimate the quantity of traffic a domain receives, you may want to use these techniques to try to determine the source of that traffic. Traffic source will affect the longevity and conversion of the traffic — in simpler terms, it will have a huge impact on how much money the domain will make.

LINK POPULARITY
A website or formerly-developed domain name may receive traffic from old incoming links and directory listings. There are many online tools for checking link popularity. One of the best can be found at Marketleap.com. The important thing to look for here is not just the quantity of links, but also the quality. A single link from a major website may be worth thousands of links from smaller sites. The longevity of link traffic varies widely: a link from a news article may generate a flurry of traffic that lasts only a week, while a directory listing may continue to generate steady traffic for years.

SEARCH ENGINE LISTINGS
Search engine listings are a major source of traffic for many sites. You can guesstimate how much search engine-derived traffic a website receives by looking at its "search engine saturation". This is an indicator of how often the domain appears in the various search engine indexes. Again, Marketleap.com offers an excellent tool for evaluating search engine saturation. Just keep in mind that it's also important to look at how high the site is listed and how often the keyword is searched. Don't forget that search engine listings change frequently, so if this is the primary source of traffic, expect fluctuations!

PAID TRAFFIC
Some traffic may be coming from PPC advertisements, exit pop-ups or banner ads that the seller is buying. This is the shortest-lived traffic, because as soon as you buy the domain, the seller stops paying for the ads!

EXPIRED TRAFFIC
If a domain was formerly developed, some users may continue to visit because of old links and references, or simply because they remember the domain name. This traffic may continue for years, but naturally it decreases with time.

TYPOS AND VARIATIONS
Don't ignore traffic diverted to the domain name through typos from other high traffic sites. Check out traffic for similar domains by using the tools above. Also consider traffic from variations of names, such as an abbreviated form of your domain name or an acronym. If these sites experience a high volume of visitors, there is a possibility it will translate to high traffic for similar sites. Alexa can be a useful tool for doing this — they have a feature which lists sites visitors of the questioned domain also visit. You might also try the typo-generator found at SearchSpell.com, which boasts the uncanny ability of identifying the most common typo-errors for a given keyword.

Traffic is crucial for any revenue generating business on the web. Use the tools listed above for determining domain traffic and never make a wrong buying decision again!

Article Written By Mara Miller (Sedo.com Marketing Associate)

Join to Technorati Favorites Exchange Program

If you want to have more traffic on your blog and to increase ranking on Technorati then you have to join to Dosh Dosh's Technorati Favorites Exchange. Then it will lead us to get higher PR and authority in search engine. This is open to all Bloggers and the goal is to break into the Top 100 favorite blogs on Technorati. Of course you will increase the attractiveness your site to advertisers and blog readers.
There are 2 ways to make it. To participate is easy, just follow the steps down;

A) First Way
1. Add me to your Technorati Favorites - Fave My Blog

2. Come back to this post and leave a comment that you have added me. Use your own Technorati Fave link in the comment so I know where to go.
(write your Technorati username and Fave link)

3. After that I will go through my comments and then add you to my Technorati Faves list as well.

B) Second Way
If you want to get listed down, then please write an article similar to this, explain about Technorati Favorites Exchange. Link to my post and then I will add to my list. Please leave a comment on this page or send me an email that you have done.

List of other blogs offering Technorati favorites exchanges

1. Webuni
2. Dosh Dosh
3. Life in the Fast Lane
4. Make Money Online the Quick & Easy Way
5. Journey to 1 million $
6. Online Business News
7. TechnoSpot
8. Home Based Business
9. How To Earn Money Blogging
10. The Thinking Blog
11. Blogging For Money
12. Earn Online Money
13. i.ndustrio.us
14. The Outsider's View
15. Earn-Money-On-The-Web
16. MarriedMelody

Time is to Learn Domain Parking!

Yes, after understanding what is domain parking and how choosing the right domain, now time is for learning domain parking. But let me to remember you domain parking with few sentences.

1) You register a domain name.

2) Point it to a "Parking Company", like Sedo, NameDrive and Parked.

3) Choose a Design for your site and describe a topic for it.

That's all you have to do. Then sit back and watch your earnings growing up and up. But before you have to take the right domain, that will have high traffic. Don't forget this! I suggest to read my previous posts.

After registering a domain, now let's see what to do and with which company to work. First you have to sign up to any parking service. In next posts I am going to explain detail how to register to this parking services and what kind of optimizations you have to do.
As I wrote that Sedo ranked top domain parking service, you can choose it to start. Application is very simply. You have to register, add domain to your account, select category, write keyword related to your domain, pick up a design and publish. That's all, you don't have nothing more to do. In all parking programs is same to participate. Only in some parking services is needed minimum domains to register. Like Parked, want minimum 10 domains, while at Sedo there no limit, you can join with 1 domain. As an example domain parked at Sedo, you can visit here.

As you see on picture, there are ads on site, displayed by domain services. This ads come from advertisers, like Google AdWords. When someone visit your site and click to this ads your earn money. This is a pay per click (PPC). Your PPC earning always vary. For example at Sedo is between 0.02 €-2 €, and monthly income from one domain can be more than 50€!
As you see, there is no something hard that you can't do. Just you have to exert effort on it and follow the instructions step-by-step.