Domain name

A domain name is essentially a signpost on the Internet. Almost every website you've ever been to, and every email you've ever composed, has used a domain name in its address.
People register domain names in order to 'stake a claim' to a particular name -- whether for business or personal reasons. Once you register a domain name, it is entirely yours, no other party may use that identity online as long as you continue to pay the yearly renewal fee and abide by the terms of use.

Choosing a Domain Name

Choosing a Domain Name
By Jerry West
Updated January 21, 2007

Your domain name, or dot.com address, is the way your potential customers and partners find you on the Internet, so you need to choose it carefully.
Having your own domain name, while not required on the internet, is one of the most essential things you can do. This includes your blog too.
First, it builds credibility: "www.customcarpentry.com" will always look better than "members.aol.com/jim/carpentry.html".
Second, it is easier for customers to find you on the web. Could you imagine giving someone on the street that AOL address? You will look second rate at best if you do. Give them "customcarpentry.com" and it comes across as a professional business. Plus, it is a lot easier to remember.
Third, without your own domain name it can cause problems if you move Internet Service Providers (ISPs), as your email may not always properly forward. With your own domain name, you have an email address "for life". This is one of the hidden benefits of having your own domain.
Fourth, keep the name short. We know you can register long domain names, but don't do it. The shorter the domain the better. There is a reason why art.com and business.com have sold for millions of dollars. They are easier to remember, less prone to typing errors and easier to translate from print, telephone and radio advertisements.
I also suggest keeping the domain name as a close match with your company name. We know that many of the corporate names or abbreviations are taken, but do the best that you can, keeping in mind my guidelines.
Always use a dot-com address. There are many choices, especially the new extensions. Don't do it. Most everyone associates companies with dot-coms. Take the company I worked for back in 1999, Netgateway.net, for example. I can't tell you how many times a client asked me, "Did you get the e-mail I sent?" Come to find out they sent it to "netgateway.com" instead of "netgateway.net".
There was also a few instances where sensitive documents were emailed to the "dot com" address which was received by an individual outside the company. This caused many problems when Netgateway attempted to get on the NASDAQ. Don't let that happen to your business.If your business is local and you are outside the US, I would recommend that you register a country specific domain.
Be careful of registering a Trademarked name that you do not own. Legislation has been passed making "CyberSquating" illegal. Be ethical in your domain name registrations to avoid possible legal pitfalls.
For most of us, the domain naming process is an exercise in frustration. With most of the good domain names already taken, finding a name that works for your company can be a tedious trial-and-error process. If you've ever spent an hour drilling through names at a registration site, like GoDaddy.com, you know how bad the process can be.
As a result, many Webmasters are happy to grab the first name that vaguely sounds like their company's name. That's too bad, because it leads to a proliferation of bad domain names.
For example, suppose you're the Webmaster for a company called Three Letter Acronym, Inc. You'd like to register the name "tla.com" but, like all the three-letter combinations, it's already registered.
Hmmm...Aha! It looks like "tla-inc.com" is available, so you grab it. Too bad, you just registered a truly awful domain name. With a little more work, you might have registered something better. Before we look at what's wrong with a name like "tla-inc.com," it's worth asking whether your domain name matters at all. It definitely matters, but in ways that you may not expect.
The real value of a domain name isn't helping people find your site the first time; it's helping them find it the second time, after they forgot to bookmark it. Odds are that most visitors come to your site from another Web site, either by clicking on a banner, following a link on someone else's site, or drilling through results in a search engine. If they like your site, that's great; maybe they'll bookmark it. Then again, maybe they won't.
Lots of people bookmark sites until their list of favorites becomes a complete mess, then they stop bookmarking. To find your site again, these people have to remember how they found it the first time. In a situation like this, a good domain is worth a lot. In fact, it may be worth more than you realize. The hard part about domain name problems is that you can't tell when you have them. You can't look in your server logs and see the domain misspellings and mistakes that keep people from finding your site. As a result, it's hard to put a value on the business lost due to a bad domain name.
So what exactly is wrong with "tla-inc.com?" Well, about the only thing that's right about it is that it's available. In nearly every other way, it breaks these basic rules of a good domain name:
Don't be cryptic. Use the name by which people know your company. That usually means don't abbreviate, unless the abbreviation is your company's trademark. Since many hi-tech companies are better known by their three-letter abbreviation, most of them are forced to register an alternate domain. That's the case with our mythical company TLA, Inc. If that's the case, it's better to register "threeletteracronym.com," instead something like "tla-inc.com," or "threeletterac.com." At least visitors have a chance of correctly guessing your domain name if it spells out the company's name. If you're not sure what people might guess, take a poll. Surveys are very powerful. Ask your co-workers what domain name they'd expect your company to have, ask your customers, ask your friends, ask everyone you can. Also, keep in mind that domain names can be 67 characters long. You should be able to get your full company's name. Typing a long domain name may seem undesirable, but if your company name requires that extra space, it's worth considering. The easiest way to follow this rule may be: consider how your domain name sounds when you have to read it over the phone to a customer. If you have to explain special characters, abbreviations, or spelling, then you've got a problem.
Avoid dashes. With the number of good domain names dwindling, dashes will eventually become commonplace, but at the moment they're anything but that. People still don't know that domain names can include dashes. Wal-Mart, the big American retailer, learned that lesson the hard way. The company first launched its e-commerce site as "wal-mart.com," the company's official name. They lost millions in sales before registering "walmart.com." Now both domain names take you to the same web site, the non-hyphenated version.
Register multiple versions of your name. When you poll your customers about your domain name, don't let the majority decide your domain name. Instead, try to register every name that's mentioned. Someone, somewhere will use that name to find you. It only costs $8.95 to register a domain name, and that's not much of an expense to avoid losing a customer. If your company's name is hard to spell, register every common misspelling of its name. Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, a domain speculator had already registered "wallmart.com." Too bad, since that's the way many people spell the company's name. Register every domain people might use to find your company. That includes products and services your company offers. Then point all these domains to your home page using 301 Redirects, which is the preferred method over having your domain registrar point them. Finally, no matter what your name is or how many domains you've registered, it's a good idea to support the domain name. Reinforce it by incorporating it into your site's logo. In addition, put your domain name on all company collateral materials, like your business cards and stationary. That last part is an easy step, yet it's surprising how many companies forget to do it. In a digital age, your company's Web site is its electronic business card.
There are several ways to register a unique domain name. You can register your own domain name through http://www.kqzyfj.com/3m117tenkem1375279A13259A628.

Domain name transfer

The term 'transfer' refers to when Domain names are sold to another individual or organization or the name of a company might change. The Registrar has a process by which permission from the old owner is required to hand over control to the new owner. The procedure for change of ownership is known as a Registrant Transfer.

What to do when choosing a domain name

What to do when choosing a domain name
By: Ken Wilson

Domain name registration has become rather difficult these days because most top-level domains like .com, .net, .org etc., are already starting to fill up. Therefore, finding a short name that is easy to remember and relates to your website, product or services can be rather challenging. Something that can help you in choosing a domain name is removing the excess word standard that many have come to rely on lately. Websites that have names a mile long are available and easy to register for very cheap prices. However, what are the chances for someone to remember them or visit them frequently?

There are some things that you should not do when choosing a domain name. You should not use more than three words when naming your domain. The name you want for domain registration should be right for your business, but should also make a catchy statement that most people tend to memorize and popularize. Many registration sites offer alternative suggestions when searching for the name you desire. These scripts use dictionaries for processing synonyms and antonyms of the words you included in your search. If the name you have searched is not available for domain registration, they will suggest other similar names. You can use such tools when you want to find the appropriate name.

You should not hyphenate the name of your domain. People tend to forget names with hyphens, because the brain focuses on letters when associating names and tends to ignore the symbols. If a domain registration name is very appealing, but is already used, there is no recommendation stating that you should use hyphens to keep that name. Nevertheless, if you cannot go around using hyphens, you should try to limit the name you use for domain registration to two words separated by a hyphen.

Another thing you should avoid when searching for a domain name is using numbers. Some people use numbers for the entire name. Numbers are rather difficult to remember for most people. Consequently, using them as a website address is not very efficient. All websites have an IP address consistent of a large string of digits. Memorizing all the IP addresses of the domains you know is not as handy as their names and it would defy the purpose of the DNS. If you would plan to use a number for registering domain names, you would be better off using a static IP address from your web provider.

These are the most important things you should not do. However, some aspects might work in your best interest. You should pick a domain name that is similar to other popular domain names. Contrary to common beliefs, this can be a useful tool for getting free traffic to your website with the help of “hit and miss browsers”. There are people who accidentally or intentionally misspell the name of a popular domain. This happens because they want to see if there is registration for the name or if a similar website exists. Others just omit or add a letter or two when typing. This enables them to visit your site. Obviously, this is beneficial for you. When using the similarities of the names as a tool, you can also register the same name but with another extension like .biz, .name, .info and others like that.

Another way you can increase the effectiveness of your website is by mixing and matching common web words found in thousands of popular domains. These words are ‘internet’, ‘online’, ‘web’ and ‘e’. Given these guidelines, the domain name you choose should be consistent of short, popular words and phrases in order to make it efficient.


Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com

Avoid Trademark Infringement When You Choose a Domain Name

How to choose a domain name and stay out of trouble.
In theory, choosing a domain name is simple. If it is memorable, pronounceable, short, clever, easily spelled and suggests the nature of the commerce on your website, you've got yourself a winner. But even if your choice is brilliant from a marketing standpoint, it may not be so smart from a legal perspective.
If you choose a domain name that conflicts with any one of the millions of commercial names that already exist, you risk losing it. And if you've put money and sweat into marketing your website and then are forced to give the domain name up, your Web-based business is likely to suffer a damaging, if not fatal, blow.
The rules for understanding whether a legal conflict exists comes from trademark law. Here are the basics you need to understand:
* Names that identify the source of products or services in the marketplace are trademarks.
* Trademarks that are clever, memorable or suggestive are protected under federal and state law.
* Trademarks that are descriptive and have achieved distinction through sales and advertising can be protected under federal and state law.
*One trademark legally conflicts with another when the use of both trademarks is likely to confuse customers about the products or services, or their source.
* In case of a legal conflict with a later user, the first commercial user of a trademark owns it.
* If a legal conflict is found to exist, the later user will probably have to stop using the mark and may even have to pay the trademark owner damages.

Top 10 Ways to Have an Online Sale

Top 10 Ways to Have an Online Sale
By: Donna Gunter

If you need money quickly or want a surefire way to increase your cashflow, it's time to throw a sale. Having a sale is especially easy to do if you've sell electronic information products (available as an online download), as your overhead costs are very low once these products are created. However, a sale also works if you have physical products that have to be shipped, especially if you want to get rid of older versions of a product (cassette versions, for example), or if you have slightly used products that have been returned (a scratch and dent sale).

There's one key rule to remember for your sale -- make sure your audience is aware that the sale has a time limit on it. Many shopping cart programs permit you to put an expiration date on price specials for products.

Here are 10 occasions for you to have a sale:

1. Special occasion sale. Your birthday, children's birthdays, wedding anniversary, business anniversary, half birthday, etc. are all occasions in which you can have a sale. I constantly receive sale promotions commemorating the owner's birthday or business anniversary. You can even have a little fun with this and create your own special celebratory occasion -- your cat had kittens, your child walked for the first time, your daughter lost her first tooth, you repainted your house.....you get the idea.

2. National holiday sale. Those of us in the US might plan for national US holidays like Labor Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day. All you need to do is consult the calendar and determine the national holidays in your country. One of my favorite sales I offered a few years ago was one on Independence Day here in the US. I asked if my readers wanted coaching to help them declare their independence to do such things as finally starting that business of their dreams, change their career to something that gives them joy, creating a new marketing plan for their business that will get results, or reinventing themselves or their businesses. A great online resource to locate holidays around the world is http://www.earthcalendar.com.

3. Special event day sale. Do you realize that there are special days to celebrate almost every occasion? In the month of October alone there are Billiard Awareness Month, National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Celebrate Sun Dried Tomatoes Month, National Cookie Month, to name just a few. The book, Chase's Calendar of Events, is published annually with the current dates for these special events. You can learn more about these days at http://www.chases.com. You can even submit information to them for a day that you'd like create!

4. Seasonal sale. Back-to-school sales are very popular, as are spring-cleaning sales, winter stock-up sales, and "get ready for summer" sales. Of course, if you have an international audience, those readers on the opposite end of the world from you may not be able to relate to getting ready for summer when it's their winter season, so you might want to use these sparingly.

5. Brick-and-mortar sales strategy. Believe it or not, what works in the brick and mortar retail world also works online. It's very common for retailers to hold tent sales, inventory clearance sales, scratch and dent sales or close-out sales, so you can model that type of sale in your online business. In one of Tom Antion's workshops I attended a few years ago, he talked about having an inventory clearance tent sale and had a graphic of a red-striped tent that went out with his promotion. The great irony, he explained, is that he has no inventory because the items he had on sale were all electronic downloads. However, it was one of the most popular sales he had held, as the concept of a tent sale is very familiar to the American consumer.

6. Across-the-board discount or coupon sale. Give your contact list 25% off or 50% off of everything you sell, or create a coupon code or special link for a sale on certain items. You can make this coupon or discount available exclusively to your VIP list, whether that's your audience at a conference, your email newsletter list, or your current client base. Everyone feels special if they're on a VIP list!

7. Pre-release sale. Do you have a product that's almost ready to launch, a subscription membership site that's about to go live, or a printed book that's about to be issued? If so, give your list members the opportunity to buy it at a special price before it's released to the public. Consumers want to be the first to have the newest information, so give your list members first shot at your newest information.

8. BOGO sale (buy one, get one free). What works for Payless Shoes can work for you, as well. You can offer a buy one, get one free for one of your products, and pitch it so that if one of your customers splits the costs with a friend, they'll each get a full product for 50% off the regular price. Or, they can give the additional copy to a client or colleague. Another way to create a BOGO offer is for all of your same-priced products, i.e. if you buy one for $29.99, you can get any other product priced at $29.99 or less, for free!

9. Payment plan sale. I see so many furniture store ads proclaiming, "Interest-free financing! No payment until some date that's 2 years from now." If you have higher priced products, you can do the same thing. Offer to let your customers divide payments over 3, 4, or more payments. Sophisticated shopping cart programs will permit you to set up recurring billing, so that your client's credit/debit card is charged automatically on the same day each month for the appropriate number of occurrences.

10. Tax-free or free shipping sale. If your state requires you to collect sales tax on your products, offer to pay the sales tax for your customers. Each August the State of Texas sets the first weekend of August as a "Tax-Free Weekend" for clothing purchases in preparation for sending children back to school. You can create a similar offering in your business, but you'll need to check with your state tax office on the legalities of offering such a sale. Or, you can offer free shipping if they buy before a deadline you've set, or if they buy a certain dollar amount from you. Instead of standard shipping, you can also offer to upgrade the shipping to express if they meet certain buying conditions.

Take a look at what types of sales make sense for you, get out your calendar, and integrate them into your marketing plan. If you have a good sense of when cashflow is tight, a planned sale should significantly boost your revenue.

Article Source: http://www.superfeature.com