How To Find The Best Domain Names

Registering a domain name is a pretty straightforward matter. You find a web hosting site, register with them, look for a desired domain name, select one that suits your business or personal fancy, choose what’s available and then you will be on your merry way to building the website’s innards. Easy, right? Not exactly because there is more to it than just getting a name that is appropriate for the business or a personal preference. The steps mentioned earlier would result in an ill constructed site that is going to be nameless in the world wide web and will be doomed to failure on the get go. This crude way of doing things will get you nowhere fast. Now why would anyone want that?

There is a better approach in making a name for your business or yourself on the net. It will be a presence that will be felt and sensed by your target audience whether they are your customers, prospective clients or a particular group of people. It’s easy enough to do this. You just have to know the right place to go on the web for help. Searching for the right domain for personal use or for a business is job best suited for professionals who understand the significance of internet jargons like keyword density, key phrases, search engine optimization, ranking and tags. What all these means is basically to have your site primed for search engines to find when people put in a search that concerns the subject, business identity or personal matter of your particular website.

Websites that exist for the sole purpose of locating or creating a new domain name for you are very reliable in terms of achieving their goal of increasing the likelihood that your site will come up on top of the list of sites when search engines spews out seek results. These so called domains finders are essential in any enterprise that is bent on achieving an online presence immediately. It is an established fact that search engines churn out sites that have been around for years. In other words, the age of a site does count when it comes to search results. How does this concern your site?

The domain finders are in the know as to which existing domains would not be reregistered or renewed by the current owners. Just imagine if your business coincides with a domain name that has been around for years. You’ll have first dibs with that domain name through a domain finder, in effect, they’ll claim it for you resulting in a well positioned new website with old rankings that will put you on top as quickly as when your site is ready. Another advantage of having a domain finder in your corner is that you can consolidate your entire site building needs from creating or finding a domain to the theme and content of your site. This would mean lesser legwork and lesser expenses since their comprehensive service would cover everything so you won’t end up paying more.

About The AuthorTom Takihi is the owner of the Domains Finders website. To gain more information, please visit http://www.domainsfinders.com

Domain parking explained

Domain names are being snapped up all the time so if you have thought of a cool domain name for a future project then it might be wise to register it now. There is a chance that if you leave it too late someone else may register it. While your planning your site you can park the domain name.

Domain parking is a process where you register a domain and do not enter the domain name servers of your hosting company. Usually the domain registrar will park your domain by default on their server, this means that if you type your domain name into a web browser you will arrive at a default page provided by the registrar.

If you are going to hold onto the domain for a while or not develop a site straight away then you may want to consider a domain parking service that offers you revenue from your parked domain. Domain parking services such as Traffic parking and sedo offer revenue sharing from your parked domain.

Revenue sharing from a parked domain works by traffic being directed to a search page or pay per click page where any visitors to your parked domain may click on the ads and you receive a percentage of the revenue from this.

Traffic parking claims that a parked domain receives on average 8 hits per month but a popular domain name may get thousands of visitors due to direct type ins and miss typed domains. Unless you have a popular domain name it probably isn't worth the effort to use a revenue sharing parking service and just use your registrars default parking page.

So domain parking is a process where you register a domain and leave it until you are ready to use it. You may or may not have a parking page where any stray visitors will see a default host parking page or if you use a domain parking service an ad targeted page.

Allan is the webmaster at NameSearchDomain.com where you can find out all about Domain names.

Choosing domain parking provider

Domain parking has become quite popular because it allows people to buy domains that they do not have content for, but still profit from them. Then, if the domain is successful, one can expect to sell the domain for 6-96 months worth of revenue! The money that can be made of parked domains is truly unlimited if proper networking and advertising is done. To make as much as possible you also need to work with the right domain parking service, and it can be difficult to ascertain which is the correct service for you. Below you’ll find a review of the top domain parking services to help you decide which may be the best fit for you.

NameDrive.com This is an attractive website that will allow you to both park and sell. Namedrive.com also offers an affiliate program so you have the opportunity to make even more money through those that you are able to refer to ww.namedrive.com. You’ll find that the website offers you website tracking so you can see exactly what is taking place on your domain at any time. You’ll also benefit from monthly payouts, which is nice, because it keeps you motivated to keep advertising and marketing to drive traffic to your website. While all of this seems great, it can be sort of a bummer that you have to share any revenue that you make with namedrive.com. Unfortunately, the website does not really specify how the revenue will be split, which raises some eyebrows, for sure. Overall, this seems like a great website to work with for parking and selling, as long as you don’t mind sharing your revenue.

ParkQuick.com This is a website that parks websites and links to others that buy and sell, as well. The front page is a bit misleading because they keep referring to the other websites, so you are almost drawn away from this website! You’ll experience great revenue with this website as they use content on each of your parked websites to attract both Internet users and search engines. You’ll be paid according to page views and clicks, but the website doesn’t offer much information about payment or shared revenue. The website almost seems to dodge the cost of their services, as after 20 minutes on the website we could not find a direct link to the cost of their service or revenue sharing programs. While the website is probably great, the overall opinion was that they just weren’t all that upfront about much of anything.

Sedo.com This website will allow users to buy, park, and sell, so it’s highly convenient for those that want to do a little bit of everything in one place. The website will pay out as soon as your account holds at least $20 and will payout by Paypal or bank transfer. While the website offers the ability to do everything you need, revenue generated from your parked websites will be split with Sedo.com. The website is a bit complicated, but overall seems to be a decent resource for those that want to buy, park, and sell.

WhyPark.com This seems to be the bet website for parking your domains! Not only is this website very upfront and uncomplicated, they are also very straightforward about their services and the cost of their services. You can register up to 100 domains with WhyPark.com for just $100. This is a one-time fee that you will pay and you will not split any revenue with them, ever! While the $99 may seem like a lot now, it will seem like so little later because you can make more than that in one month! That means you will not have to split your revenue later on, so you can make a lot more. Because WhyPark.com specializes in parking, you will get a lot of traffic to your sites because they use keyword rich content that will attract all of the visitors you could ever hope for. WhyPark.com also gives pointers on how to drive traffic to your site through advertising, which is awesome. This was definitely the overall favorite for domain parking, hands down!

Getting Your Domain Name

Since thousands of domain names are registered everyday it is a really very difficult to get a domain name of single phrase in English language and other major languages. Given below are some tips to guide you to decide a domain name of single phrase.

Avoid Messing around with the New Domains

Most of the good domain names are already registered and owned by someone. Don't settle for number-ridden or a hyphenated domain name unless it is really unavoidable. Don’t despair because with some lucks you would be able to get some good domain names by backordering domain names about to expire in anticipation that the domain would be deleted and made available again.

So what are the resources which you need to know and understand to find expiring time of domains?

1. Expireddomains.com: A good source for domain names already deleted, about to be deleted with info about rank popularity and many other useful advices and tips.

2. Deleteddomains.com: This website has a search feature which helps you to see on-hold domain names and expiring domain names by keywords. This is most important and a core resource for finding those domains that you want to own and which will be expiring soon.

3. Pool.com: It is another great website for viewing the domains which are soon-to-expire. This website also offers backordering service and a keyword search.

4. Snapnames.com: This website is providing an original backordering service. As soon as you find a domain name that attracts you go to snapnames.com and from here you can ‘backorder’ this domain name for $69 only. This confirms that the price for backordering is $69 per domain name and this is registration fees of first year if the domain name is acquired by you.

Other Tricks and Tips

Since many people are using same tools to acquire best expiring domains you should be fast enough to acquire an expiring domain name. Additionally, SnapNames.com will only allow one backorder prospect for one domain name. Therefore, you should act quickly when a domain name is available for ‘backordering’.

Patience is important since your ideal name may not come for months. But you should not worry because each day there will be a fresh set of domain names expiring and you could get your choice any day.

About The Author

Ainuddin Mohamad is the Webmaster of http://www.BestWebsites.com.my which is a Directory of Best websites. Since 1998 http://BestWebsites.com.my has featured thousands of best websites in many categories of interest with descriptions/reviews given by leading publications and webmasters.

Domain Name Registrars

Have you ever heard of the companies GoDaddy, eNom, or Network Solutions? These companies are domain name registrars. Domain names are the way humans remember webpages, and websites. For example, google.com is a lot easier to remember than the IP address of the website 64.233.187.99.

Visitors of your website, want a domain name, rather than an IP address to remember, so they can view your webpages. Domain names used to be free, but now, just like everything else, they cost money. Usually around 10 to 20 dollars a year. The different registrars have different services that they offer, and pricing structures; but they all serve the same basic function.

If you are thinking about creating a website, visit one of the registrars, and buy your domain name, before someone else gets it! You can buy a domain name that has already been registered, but then you end up paying hundreds to thousands of dollars for the domain!!

About The Author

Mitchell Medford is a popular reviewer of consumer electronics and has served as a product development consultant for several consumer electronics manufacturers including Dish Network. For more information on satellite TV, HDTV, and Dish Network DVR receivers, visit his website: http://newtechnologytv.com.

Top 10 Powerful free Domain Name Tools

There are numerous free tools online that help you research and find good keyword domain names to register for your online business. Or simply to buy and resell domain names for profits. I am certain you already use a few of these from time to time.

Here then is my Top Ten list of the best free domain tools in no particular order.

1. http://www.whois-search.com

Gives you a list of the best domain names pending delete. Also shows you which drop catchers are successfully catching which names daily.

2 http://www.whois.sc

Helps you find active, inactive, and available domain names. A personal favorite of mine.

3. http://www.domainname-search.com

Page rank predictor tools and other essential domainer tools.

4. http://www.Startname.com

A huge directory of domain-related tools, services, resources and guides. Bookmark this.

5. www.cheaphostingdirectory.com/expireddomainswithtraffic.html

Gives a list of expiring names with traffic, popularity links and Alexa rankings.

6. http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index.jhtml

You can make a whois search on any domain on the web. Also gives a list of similiar names that are still available to be registered.

7. www.register-domainnames.com/expired_domain_names.html

Enter a keyword to find relevant valuable domain names and which ones are taken, when they expire and also which ones are available.

8. http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/

Gives you the number of searches made for a given keyword based on Overture and WordTracker.

9. http://www.webmasterbrain.com/domain-name-misspelling-typo-generator–tool2.htm

Domain name misspelling and typo generator.

10. http://www.domainsurfer.com

A domain search engine that shows you all the registered domains with your keywords.

Hope you like the list and find it useful. All these tools are worth bookmarking.

What about YOUR domain name? Is it VALUABLE or crap?

If you'd like me to evaluate your domain name for free, just send me a note. I will take a look and I will give you my honest appraisal. Nothing to pay. Absolutely no obligation.

Visit http://www.OpenForSale.com

About The Author

Edwin John is an author and webdeveloper.
http://www.DNames.org
Get a free domain appraisal at: http://www.OpenForSale.com

Top 10 Tips For Choosing A Business Domain Name

1) If you are buying a .co.uk domain name (e.g. newbusiness.co.uk), make sure you also buy the other main TLD's (Top Level Domains) for the same prefix (e.g. newbusiness.com, newbusiness.net). This will ensure that no-one else can come in at a later stage and capitalise on your brand name using another major domain name type. Although there are dozens of TLD types available, we've always purchased the .co.uk, .com, .net and .org variants to protect our brands. There's no harm buying more variants, but do make sure you take care of the important ones.

2) If you do a domain name search and find only the .co.uk is available for your chosen prefix (e.g. newbusiness), it may be worth your while choosing another domain name prefix where most or all of the TLD's are available. We spent quite some time researching suitable domain names before deciding on Bytestart – dozens in fact.

3) It is possible that your small business may grow into different areas of interest, or even change tack altogether. For this reason, it may be an idea not to make your domain name too specific to one area of your expertise.

4) Keep your domain name as short as possible and simple – it needs to be memorable, and preferably not contain hyphens.

5) A few web promotion firms suggest inserting your major keywords into your domain name wherever possible to help with your search engine rankings. We do not subscribe to this view. Sure, there may be some small benefits in having some keywords in your domain name (e.g. "the-best-web-designers.co.uk"), but your web promotion effort should come later. Your domain name should be chosen to best represent your company's interests rather than to please the fickle search engines!

6) Allowed characters – Domain names can only contain letters, numbers, and dashes. Spaces and symbols are not allowed. Domain names are not case sensitive.

7) Choose a reputable domain name supplier. A company which has been around a while and is well known is a good bet. We'd also recommend choosing a company which provides a user interface so that you can manually edit your domain name details (email forwarding, transferring your domain name elsewhere).

8) If you intend to buy a sizeable number of domains, try to 'park' them with one single domain name company. Domains are far easier to administrate and keep up-to-date if they are in a single place you trust.

9) You should ensure that your domain name is not a commonly known brand name or trademark. Something like "Microsoftwebdesign.co.uk" would not be a good choice!

10) Make sure you keep your contact information up-to-date. Although your domain name supplier is bound to contact you when a domain name comes up for renewal, it is your responsibility in the end. Going back to point again, for this reason, having a single domain name supplier will help.

About The Author

James Leckie is founder of the Small Business Portal – http://www.bytestart.co.uk and runs a weekly newsletter service for start-ups at http://www.business121.co.uk.

Traffic Using Expiring Domains

Thousands of domain names expire everyday and can be used by others. If you want more traffic or want to resell the domains for profit, these expired ones can be a valuable resource.

An expired domain may have been used by one or more persons in the past. They may have designed a website, advertised it, linked it to search engines, done business deals on it and even had reciprocal link connections with other websites.

Why are valuable domains ever allowed to expire?

Many reasons, including but not limited to:

• Not enough funds to renew them
• Invalid contact e-mail address
• Loss of interest in online world
• Closing down of business
• Lack of knowledge about value of domain names
• Being away at time of domain renewal

There may have been any of the aforementioned reasons or any other cause, but whatever the case, the domain is now an available option for you. You can use it by designing a website on it or divert traffic to your existing website.

The main advantage of taking over an expired domain is the traffic. There may still be visitors who, on finding the better alternative offered by you, can redirect their business. It is not impossible to know the exact amount to expired traffic to a particular domain. However, the analysis of some specific aspects lets you gauge the amount of expired traffic. They are as follows :

link popularity

This will give you an estimate of the number of portals or web pages that are linked to the expired domain. The more the number of links, the higher is the possibility of future traffic. Also, a higher link popularity betters the probability of quality traffic.

alexa rank

An Alexa toolbar keeps tabs on the number of hits for a domain and then awards a rank based on this. If the site has had no traffic for the past three months, it is automatically dropped by Alexa. So, look for an Alexa rank to get an idea about the number of visits and the domain’s worth.

google pagerank 

The PageRank is a value that Google gives to a web page, based on the number of and quality of incoming links.

The popularity of a web page is ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 and this is called a Google PageRank. This ranking system takes into account the number of quality web pages that have links to the web page. Normally the homepage of a web page would have the highest PageRank.

About PageRank, Google says:

“The heart of our software is PageRank(tm), a system for ranking web pages developed by our founders Larry Page and surgery Brin at Stanford University. And while we have dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of Google on a daily basis, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools.”

A Google toolbar is required to obtain a Google PageRank. You can type in the website name in the address bar of your browser and get the PageRank.

Yahoo and Dmoz listings

A domain may have been indexed by search engines. The domain owner may have paid for registrations on search engines like Yahoo and LookSmart. A domain also may have been approved by a Dmoz editor. If you take over a domain, these listings are automatically transferred to you. You can do your own research by visiting these search engines and typing the full URL in the directories section. Your results page will show you whether the domain is listed with them or not.

An inclusion in the top search engines does not ensure continuous visits but it certainly increases the chances of receiving worthy traffic. If you do not want to use the domains yourself, you can easily turn it around and sell it. It will certainly be profitable if the domain is registered with the top ten search engines.

WHERE TO GET THOSE DOMAINS?

There are many sources but the author considers ExpiredDomains.com to be the best where he managed to get many valuable domains.

Happy hunting!

About The Author

Ainuddin Mohamad is the Webmaster of http://www.BestWebsites.com.my which is a Directory of Best websites. Since 1998 http://BestWebsites.com.my has featured thousands of best websites in many categories of interest with descriptions/reviews given by leading publications and webmasters.

Use good business sense to create a hefty domain names portfolio

Domain names can be turned into money if you are wise and have a finger on the pulse of the cyber world. If you find quality domain names and manage to register them, then it is quite possible that a domain name can fetch you considerable sums of money when sold.

Domain name investing is a business in which according to the cyber gurus you have complete control over your investment. To become successful you must master the art of buying and know when to sell. Success means two things, guts and vision. There are domain name players who capture a slice of pie by purchasing thousands of domain names pertaining to a specific sector. They are then in full control of the demand as well as selling price. The money spinning trick is to release the names slowly in the market. The domains that stay in their custody are not "dead" investments. They are parked such that they generate revenue from "pay-per-click" advertisements.

Domain portfolios can be crowded with many names even over 40,000 names or just contain a few jewels, top-notch domains. If bought wisely domain names can generate enough revenues to pay for themselves many times over.

* Buy only good domains by using DomainsBot and HotLists on sites like Namewinner or Pool to determine which ones are worthy and which ones are not.

* Buy short and specific domain names.

* Be sure to get the ones purchased by you appraised. There are several sites like http://www.appraisalblast.com that will do the needful.

* While you are waiting for the big sale let the domain names generate revenue for you. Set up parking pages that provide links to other web pages earning "pay per click" revenues. Ensure that traffic is not just generated but sustained. The name must be such that it has natural positioning. If it is not so, you must either sell off the domain name that is a junk or dud or make effort to develop it. What ensures and sustains traffic at a steady rate is content. To this end, start up a website like a membership portal, music site, games site, or news feed. The next step is to build traffic by setting up the domain names strategically. The aim is to run simultaneously many revenue generating streams like selling a specific service, displaying related advertisements, putting up content to tease visitors, or offering unique one of a kind experiences to visitors so that they come repeatedly to the site.

* For selling a domain name there are three main avenues.

o Land a sale on ebay by starting at a low price which invites bidders. Make sure the domain name is a part of the description. Include an appraisal of the domain name projecting its true value. Be sure to highlight all the important factors. Optimize your chances by getting a bold listing and aiming to end the auction on Sunday night.

o Opt for selling on established domain sites like Afternic or Sedo. They take a commission on sale but it would be worth it if your domain name commands a handsome price.

o If it is not a very important domain name try selling on domain forums.

* If you have had the foresight to purchase "a treasure" then contact large business houses to whom the domain name may be relevant. Be sure to let them know why your domain name will be of benefit to them. If you are successful you will get a very good price for the domain.

The keys are:

* A quality domain name with a short recognizable nomenclature.

* A name with no numbers.

* Marketability. For example if there is a stock market boom then domains that pertain to this field will fetch very good value.

* A fool proof marketing strategy.

A major domain name player must watch the market, know how to monetize his portfolio, balance his investments between high-profile key word based domains and mediocre ones, plan on recovering his investments by thinking of innovations like Rick Schwartz's "click capitalist," plan. In this he aims to invest traffic generated by domains into web-developer sites asking for stock as exchange.

About the author

Paul Wilson is a freelance writer for http://www.1888Discuss.com/domain/ , the premier REVENUE SHARING discussion forum for Domain Forum including topics on domain trading, domain registration, domain sale and offers, adult domain and more. He also freelances for the premier Domain Site http://www.1866Domain.com

Domain Names–Protect Yours From Drop Catchers

Imagine you’re the owner of a successful Web site, but when you logon one day all you get is an error message. Or worse yet, the domain name now points to a site full of advertisements. That’s right. You’re out of business.

This happens every day because of a perfectly legitimate process known as “drop catching,” where people quickly snag the domain names owners have let expire and try to resell them or use the links associated with the names, which could be extensive, to create Web sites loaded with advertisements. You can easily avoid becoming a victim of a drop catcher by better understanding how the domain registration system works to protect your domain name.

Your Web site, with all the content you have so painstakingly added, sits on a computer with a unique address called an IP address, which is simply a series of numbers. A domain name is an address forwarding service that directs visitors to the site using this IP address. Domain names are used instead of numbers because most people find it easier to remember a name rather than a bunch of numbers. It’s as if you could dial your friend’s name into the telephone instead of his phone number.

You can purchase a domain name by registering it with a provider of domain services such as GoDaddy.com, the largest on the Web, or any number of other registrars. The name can be registered for just one year, for about $10, or for as long as ten years, for around $80. Many register for only one year because it’s cheaper, or they only want the site for a limited time.

At the end of the year, the registrar usually sends an email renewal notice to the owner. If the owner doesn’t respond to the renewal notice, the domain name will eventually be made available for purchase by someone else. Roughly 20,000 domain names become available every day because the owners allowed them to expire, or the owners didn’t realize that their domain name was up for renewal

According to the rules established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(ICANN), domain registrars have 45 days after the expiration date to notify the owner that their domain name is going to be dropped from the registry. If the name is dropped, the guidelines then call for a 30-day grace period during which the owner can still claim the name. After this grace period and then another five-day holding period, the name is dropped from the registry and anyone can claim it.

Since 2004, however, a number of domain service providers, starting with SnapName.com, have created an auction process for expired names which bypasses the original drop process and makes the names available in as little as thirty days. GoDaddy.com begins the auction process even before the names have officially expired, although it does warn the auction participants that the owner could still claim their name.

These providers of domain services each have tools on their sites to make it easier to grab expired names. They provide constantly updated lists of expired names, various auction services, search engines, and other free tools for anyone to quickly and easily find available domain names. Some sites also offer software for sale that further simplifies the search for expired and soon to be expired names.

With the surge in online advertising, drop catchers will continue to seek out domain names from sites with good traffic, anxious to exploit the established links. Protect your site and your business by checking the expiration date of your domain name. Relying on the registrar to send a renewal notice that could easily be sent to an old email address or get lost in the spam catcher, could cost you years of hard work.

About The Author

Dave Starner is a former teacher and coach. Visit http://www.ebooksnet.com and instantly download great ebooks and sign up for free bonuses and money making information. Article reprints welcomed as long as all texts and hyperlinks remain unchanged.