January 4th, 2008
Here are some tips on buying a domain name:
Make the domain name as specific and unique as possible.
Try and relate it as closely as you can to your core business, but it should be easy for people to remember. The domain name should include a keyword for your business or Web site as a part of the name itself.
Choose your domain name.
When you choose a domain name make it short. Try and keep the spelling simple and straight forward. The single word domains are best, though two and even three-word combinations will also work provided that they can easily be remembered. Also try and register your domain as “dot com” and not “dot net, dot biz” or some other URL suffix. More people still associate most businesses with dot com.
Select a domain name service provider or registrar.
When you have chosen a domain name for yourself, you need to visit the InterNIC Web site and choose a domain name service provider or registrar.
Check for availability
In choosing the company which you will register your domain name, you will get on with the task of figuring out if the name you have selected is available. The homepage of the service provider you choose will be the one to provide a search box where you can type in the name you want. This search will determine if the domain name is available or not. The name you chose is not available the search results will usually offer some alternatives that are close to your original choice.
Register
Once you have found a domain name that is available, you will fill out the Registration form and contact information as required. Provide real information for the registration details and you may be contacted for verification of ownership of the domain name.
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December 26th, 2007
When you buy a domain name, the registrar assigns a primary and secondary IP address to the name. An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a set of numbers like this: 12.345.678.90. Each computer connected to the internet has an IP address. Some have permanent IP addresses. A server has a permanent (static) IP address which identifies where your website will physically live.
When you logon to the net at home, your computer has an IP address. Some computer get a different number (IP Address) each time you logon. But web servers have permanent IP addresses and and so do domain names, and when you buy a domain, you need to tell the registrar the IP address or the domain name of the computer on which the site is. This info is sent to hubs and routers around the world that are called Domain Name Servers (DNS). When people enter your url into their browser, they will find your home page. DNS servers are like giant telephone directories that look up your domain name and find the IP address of the computer, and routes the browser’s call for a page to the right place.
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December 24th, 2007
A short, memorable domain can be better than using a proper name. In choosing your domain name, keep in mind domains may contain letters, numbers, periods, and hyphens, but no spaces, underscores, or other punctuation; you cannot begin or end with hyphens and domain names are not case sensitive.
Here are some tips that you can use in picking your domain name:
- Watch out for potential confusion. Try a contraction of your name.
- Use a name that contains an important keyword that people will use when searching.
- Beware of deliberate misspellings.
Catchy Names: Another avenue is the fanciful name. Like Yahoo dotcom, or eBay dotcom. These are great sites with memorable, nonsensical names. Also remember that the name you choose will be on all your letterheads, business cards, in your email address, and in newspaper articles about you. Make it a good one.
Beware of the Squatter! Anyone may buy domain names and set them to point to one website. Be careful that you do not buy a domain that could be an infringement of someone else’s trademark. This could lead to costly legal action and loss of the domain. Also you should beware of squatters. There are people who buy domains that infringe on you and offer to sell it to you for far more than face value, but less than the cost of litigation, so people usually pay the ransom rather than sue.
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December 22nd, 2007
1. Keyword research and how to choose good keywords
Keyword research is the most neglected step in website creation. A website can be perfected in everyway but is never useful if cannot be found in the search engines. If you are in the web design business, you want your website to be in the first page in all major search engines (namely Google, Yahoo and MSN). The sentence that you expect people to type into the search box to look for your website is your keyword.
2. Buy a domain name and a hosting package.
A Domain name is the unique name of a website. There are many registrars around and to register a new domain name can cost a lot and reach to the range from 4 to 30 USD per year. Domain Name Registration and Web Hosting is a different thing. A domain name service provider stores your domain name and points it to the web host which stores all your web pages.
3. Create your web pages.
Creating a webpage can be hard or easy. If you want the codes in your web page to be clean and optimized for search engines, you need to have to hand-code HTML. If you are not bothered with the codes and you may to create a webpage quickly, you can use a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). The latest method, can help you to create a web page easily, produces a lot of junk codes which may result in unpredictable results in different browsers.
4. Upload your website.
The host must store all your web pages in order for them to be viewed online by others. To upload all your web pages from your computer to the server. A common way to do that is via FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
5. Optimize your site for search engines.
A guide has prompted us to continue with the next most important topic of creating an effective website, SEO - Search Engine Optimization it is also used interchangeably with Search Engine Optimizer. In short, seo is the process of improving your website ranking in search engines so that people can find your site more easily.
6. Monitor your website traffic.
Find a free yet reliable invisible web tracker, highly configurable hit counter and real-time detailed web statistic tool to measure your internet traffic: http://www.statcounter.com
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December 21st, 2007
Here are steps in creating profitable domain names:
Step 1 - Get the Tools for the Job - To get tooled up for this particular job, here are the must-haves:
a) An Internet Account
b) A Text Editor
c) Whois ULTRA
Step 2 - Understand What Makes a Name Valuable For a name to be valuable, it should have these following attributes:
a) Its Short - The shorter the name, the easier it is to say, remember, spell, and type. The exceptions to this rule are well-known phrases, which can be quite long and still hold significant value.
b) It Passes the ‘Radio Test’ - A name is heard on the radio, would the average Net user be able to remember it. This means that using deliberate misspellings, shortened versions of words, or numbers, generally reduces the value of a name.
c) It’s a Dot Com - Specific dot net and dot org addresses are valuable, a particularly one word names, but the most resale for now and for the future is dot com.
d) It Has Commercial Application - Expected somebody to pay you hard cash for your name. Bear in mind the market sector considering registering a new name. The bigger the market is, the more valuable the name.
e) It Has A Large Degree of ‘Uniqueness’ - The trick with domain names is to find names with a least number of unregistered names, there will be very few alternatives for a buyer to consider.
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December 21st, 2007
If you don’t know how to make a website then there are a few things you should be aware of before you embark so as to not run into problems later on.
Creating a website from scratch can be daunting for beginners, especially for someone who has no or little experience with the internet. You have a choice as to whether to use your own domain name or use a free service or free blog. Free services are definitely the easiest and simplest to use if you have no experience or if you don’t necessarily need a business oriented site.
The free sites and blogs has web based interfaces to enable you to create a page that can be seen on the web. There is no need to learn any coding languages as all the text and image formatting is done just like using a word processor.
In choosing of own domain to be use then the process is a little more complicated but it will have total control over the look and content of your website. First of all you need to purchase a domain name. Make sure in using a reputable company that is allowed to configure the domain name yourself. The only thing need to change is the nameserver property. To be able to insert the name server that your web hosting company will give you to enable the domain name and allow your domain to be accessed by typing in the name in any web browser.
The next thing you do is to sort out. The basic web hosting plan is enough for a small to medium website. The web host will provide with disc space to put your web pages and images and allow configuring email accounts at your own domain name. To get it all to work you need to find out from your webhost what their nameservers are. In configure your domain name, usually through a control panel will offer by the company supplying the domain name and associate your web host’s name servers with your domain.
Another way to put on it is to you go to your domain configuration panel and enter the nameserver information that your webhost has given you. Once this is done, in less than 24 hours, the webpage’s on your server should b accessible by typing in your domain name in any web browser.
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December 20th, 2007
A domain name is like a phone number, everything in it means something. That’s why a web address is called a URL, a Universal Resource Locator.
In the same way that phone numbers have country codes, area codes, 3-digit exchanges, main numbers, and extensions, a website’s URL can be split into meaningful parts.
Website names usually start with “http://”. It’s sort of like the country code. There are other prefixes: “http://” (notice the s) this tells the browser that the site is secure and information has been encrypted so you can feel safe when entering a credit card number or other private info. “ftp://” tells us also that the browser that there are files, like programs, to be captured and saved on your computer. In most browsers, if you leave off http:// it will insert automatically for you.
When a website is just promotional literature you can usually get rid of the http:// part and just list mybrand dotcom. When you write a URL in an email, it is very important that you include the prefix. A complete URL with the prefix, when typed in an email, will be delivered by a clickable link in the text that will automatically if clicking on it.
At the end of a domain name is a suffix of two or three letters called a “top level extension”. Dotcom and dotnet are the most popular for businesses. Dotgov is for government, dotedu is for schools, dotmil for the military, and dotorg is usually a not for profit organization. Some countries have their own suffix, such as dotca for Canada. A popular one is dottv, for the Pacific island of Tuvalo. Even though they are not located there, many broadcasters and communications companies use dottv.
Some new suffixes have been introduced because most of the good dot com names are gone. Dot biz and dot info are gaining popularity with businesses, and a lot of good names are still available.
These are suffixes may be available:
- .name - individual and personal websites.
- .pro - professions such as law, medicine, accounting, etc.
- .aero - services and companies dealing with air travel.
- .coop - co-operative organizations.
- .museum - museums, archival institutions, and exhibitions.
- .xxx - sex and porn.
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December 19th, 2007
The Internet is an endless spring of entertainment, commerce and information. Unlike traditional mediums like print, TV and radio, the web promotes interaction by enabling everyone with a computer to access it. Each of us encourage that use by an endless line of designers, programmers and hosts who are to assist with our websites. But, you’ll never make it if you don’t have the perfect domain name for your site.
Here are few steps in creating a domain name:
Make sure that the domain name doesn’t confuse potential visitors. Strive for a site name that sounds exactly like its spelled so you don’t need a search engine to find it. With most basic words already registered, be prepared to get creative, mixing words together or coming up with an appropriate onomatopoeia.
Try to come up with an original name that will catch up the attention of the viewer. The names Google and Yahoo really don’t reveal much about two of the web’s most visited sites but they’re easy to recall and short on syllables, making it easy for first-timers to find.
Commit to securing a “dot com” name.
Head over to your favorite domain name registrar. Don’t get too discouraged when you discover that most fabulous names are already spoken for. It takes time out in order to test the widely-held view that ‘all the best names are gone. In the space of two months, nearly two hundred domain names are registered and one hundred and ninety of them being dot coms.
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December 18th, 2007
Domain names have two uses. The first use is to setup a website. The second use is to set up your own custom e-mail address which can be done without ever actually setting up a website. Domain names can be expensive , but at the same time, they can be very affordable if you know what you’re doing.
Here are some steps you can consider as in choosing the right company.
- By checking how long the company has been operating.
- Make sure that you can control every aspect of your domain name. Many domain name registration companies don’t let you make changes to your domains yourself. You need to enter a request via their support systems and then wait days for assistance. Like changing Name Servers. This should be possible via your control panel. Make sure you get a control panel and check out what the control panel lets you do.
- Some domain name registration and hosting companies can charge a release fee. Never be held ransom over your domain name. Every time you change hosts and transfer your domains, on gTLDs(.com, .net, .biz etc) you will have to pay a transfer in fee. You can avoid this by making sure you use a good domain name registration company in the first place.
- See it if you get any free email accounts. Domain name registration services do include free email. If you want email services with your domain name, some companies charge you for email. Choose a registration company which offers free email accounts.
- You should choose a domain name registration company that is ICANN accredited. They have to go through all the ICANN accreditation checks which is quite an in-depth process. Secondly, it’s not cheap! In this way you know the company is committed to Domain Name Registration as ICANN accreditation is a big investment and this should give you complete reassurance.
- Many hosting and domain name registration providers will not allow you to use their SMTP servers for sending emails. They assume you can send email via your ISP’s SMTP servers. A great many ISP’s and broadband providers will only let you use their SMTP servers on their branded email accounts. Choose the right Domain Name Registration provider who does allow sending mail via their SMTP servers. There are a number of the top hosting companies that will only let you use their SMTP servers on premium email accounts which incur an extra charge.
- Make sure you always retain control of your domain name. There are hundreds of businesses hosting their websites with a web host that are unhappy with. Poor service, surprise invoices, unreliable uptime and email issues are just some of the common issues customers are facing today.
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December 18th, 2007
ICANN holds periodic public meetings rotated between continents for the expressed purpose of encouraging global participation in its processes. Critics argue that the locations of these meetings are often in countries with lower Internet usage and far away from locations that the majority of the Internet-using public can afford to reach, thus making public input or participation from traditional Internet users less likely. ICANN has a worldwide remit and a key part of its mission is to build Internet use where it is weak.
ICANN was set up in California due to the presence of Jon Postel, who was a founder of ICANN and was set to be its first CTO prior to his unexpected death. ICANN remains in the same building where he worked at his home to an office of the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California.
The ICANN Board made a resolutions, preliminary reports and minutes of the meetings are published for the public to view on the ICANN website. But there were some criticisms from ICANN constituencies like the Noncommercial Users Constituency (NCUC) and the At – Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) that there is not enough public disclosure and that too many discussions take place out of sight of the public.
One task that ICANN was asked to do was to address the issue of domain name ownership resolution for generic top - level domains (gTLDs). ICANN’s also attempt at such a policy was drafted in close cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). As a result it became known as the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP).
This policy attempts to provide a mechanism for rapid, cheap and reasonable resolution of domain name conflicts, avoiding the traditional court system for disputes by allowing cases to be brought to one of a set of bodies that arbitrate domain name disputes. ICANN policy state that a domain registrant MUST agree to be bound by the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) - they cannot get a domain name without agreeing to this.
The Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) decision patterns has led some to conclude that compulsory domain name arbitration is less likely to give a fair hearing to domain name owners asserting defenses under the First Amendment and other laws, compared to the federal courts of appeal in particular.
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