One of the most basic, yet most critical steps in the process of building an e-business is to select and register a ‘domain' that will serve as the home of the business on the Internet.
We will provide you with your own domain name ; a domain name is necessary for people to visit your website. Without one; you will NOT be an e-business. I will show you why you need to 'brand' yourself in this way and how to make it stick! You will already have been sent your First Lesson - How to Brand Yourself!
In addition to being the – usually – lasting home for an online entity' a domain name very much serves to define the profile of that entity. Many e-businesses are known simply by their domain name – a so called dot.com business.
Thus, finding the perfect domain name for your business is an important step in your quest for success. Ideally, the domain name should reflect the nature of your business – if your business is carrying a certain message, the domain name can reflect that too. The perfect domain is also easy for customers to remember, short enough to quickly type into a Web Browser, and distinct enough to help you create a unique identity for your online ‘store'.
Ultimately, you may register a domain name for your business simply because you like it. However; the following are some of the factors that combine to define the quality / value of a domain name. These are some of the issues that you may want to consider when zeroing in on the perfect domain name for your business.
Generally; keeping the domain name fairly short will make it easier for site visitors to remember and type the name.
A domain name that includes catchy; sought after and; most important, relevant keywords will help you in the search engine optimization stage (we will be covering this in another lesson) for your business Web site. Although certain search engines ignore it; others pay much attention to the occurrence of applicable keywords in domain names when ranking the Web pages in their indices (calculations).
If any part of your e-business will generate particular name recognition with potential customers, then, by all means, ensure that it is reflected in your domain name. Note : You being the registrant of the domain name, you must ensure that a given domain does not in any way infringe on a third party's trademark.
The .com top-level domain remains THE most important ‘tag' on the internet. Customers usually expect to see this extension when visiting a Web site. This of course also means that .com names are relatively harder to find (we shall share secrets on where you can ‘collect' .com domains for literally pennies and make a massive profit! on the Domain Name Only!!) than less popular extensions such as .ws or .biz
Because of it's popularity on the Internet, we strongly recommend where possible to register your e-business with this extension. Other popular TLD's such as .net or .org can equally be beneficial; especially if you intend to ‘lead' your own marketing organisation. In some cases a country code TLD will be more beneficial especially if you are keeping your ‘sales' local within your country of residence. Examples of country domains are .co.uk; .au; .us; .eu etc.
As a means of reeling in visitors that type in your e-business domain name, but with the wrong extension; it is worth the extra investment to register extra extensions. As an example you may get the .com extension and opt to also register .net; .org; .us etc at the same time. Believe me it pays off BIG-TIME later on when someone sees that you are successful online and then decides to register the EXACT SAME domain name but with extensions that you failed to ‘protect'. THIS believe me is an absolute ‘bitch'. I have had this happen to me; and the resultant ‘loss' of business was extreme. DON'T let this happen to you.
Ok. Here is where we get involved in your investment. We have invested a great deal of money into bringing you; our clients; the VERY best deals on everything ‘internet'. This also includes domain names and hosting (we shall discuss hosting in the next lesson).
With our own domain names website at www.go-goldie.com offering incredibly low domain name registration and hosting. Many of you will obviously already have your domains happily nested away somewhere on the internet. We would still suggest you take a good look at our site; you may find your paying too much!
We shall be working diligently on your behalf to hopefully offer even greater savings on your domains.
Now; I mentioned earlier about the ‘domain name' profits…. listen to this:
Great domain names are becoming increasingly scarce. Close to 23 million ".com" names have been registered, and over 22 thousand are being purchased every day. It means that you're more likely to win the lottery than find a good domain name.
Owning a domain name that helps to successfully "magnetize" a flood of traffic is like gold to any online business. But the increasing scarcity of domain names that are memorable, short and suggestive have turned them into hot commodities. Look at some of the recent acquisitions in domain names:
- business.com sold for $7.5 million
- asseenontv.com sold for $5 million
- altavista.com sold for $3.3 million
- loans.com sold for $3 million
- autos.com sold for $2.2 million
- wallstreet.com sold for $1.03 million
- forsalebyowner.com sold for $835,000
- drugs.com sold for $825,000
- cinema.com sold for $700,000
- art.com sold for $450,000
- engineering.org sold for $199,000
- fruits.com sold for $160,000
- perfect.com sold for $94,000
However, while some domains may have been sold for millions, corporate buyers backed by large bank accounts are not alone in the domain name game. Even entrepreneurs and speculators are making a good living in buying and selling domains. Everyday, domain names are selling for as little as $100 or as much as $1 million on public auction sites. For example, eBay.com recently featured actual bids for as little as $500 for "golegs.com" to as much as $20,000 for "arlington.com" -- and thousands more hovering anywhere in between.
Some individuals seem to know where to grab these "nuggets of gold." In fact, a handful know about an untapped goldmine that lies discreetly tucked away in the dark corners of the Internet. And the awareness of this source has helped these "lucky" individuals generate either outrageous fortunes or outrageous levels of traffic for their website. The goldmine to which I'm referring is the pool of expired domain names.
While only a few people may be privy to its existence, it is nonetheless ballooning with every passing day. As much as tens of thousands of unclaimed, un-renewed and expired domain names become available on a daily basis. An expired domain is one that was registered previously but wasn't paid for in time for the renewal date, thus returning it to the pool of available domains. There are many reasons for non-renewal (e.g., the owner forgot, has lost interest in the venture, was no longer in business, was no longer reachable or just didn't pay for it for whatever reason).
However, you may be asking, "Sure, but I'm never going to find good domain names let alone do so before someone else snatches them up." For a long time, being "lucky" also meant being alert for the countless domains that become available, and being swift in registering them before anyone else does. However, new tools are now available, making the process of searching, finding and registering great domain names a lot easier. In fact, some of them also help you to become aware of soon-to-expire domains, granting you an almost psychical edge over your competitors that allows you to snap up names just seconds after they're actually dropped.
Nevertheless, a compelling domain name can help an online business become more visible, credible and accessible. And it can also help a person make a fortune. While finding one was very prohibitive, with the help of tools that are now at your disposal you can be a part of the gold rush, too! BizMint.com , a unique, sophisticated tool that helps you to explode your online business by searching and registering from millions of expired and soon-to-expire domain names.Take a good look!
Ok. That concludes this Lesson; I hope you have gained valuable insights into certain e-businesses ‘out there'. Domains are a HUGE demand; and a highly competitive market; the profits can be ‘massive' in the medium to long term. Later; we shall in a another lesson be discussing your e-businesses hosting requirements. Bigger does NOT always mean Better....but it helps!
Now; for 100% Profits that you get to keep; read on to the next Lesson.
See you in the next instalment
Respect, ‘Goldie'
