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Choosing a Domain Name
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In this article you will learn how to choose an effective and
memorable domain name and learn how you can actually
increase traffic by using an old, expired domain name.

Times wasting so lets get started…
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In the physical world, you can distinguish a business
because of its structure, window displays, or signs. You can
tell that a bank is a bank, or a clothing store is indeed a
clothing store.

In the Internet, however, it is an entirely different story
altogether. Your domain name is the only clue to your online
business. You do not have visual clues: no location, no
look, and no store design. Instead, users have to type in a
word or a set of words to reach your site. Your prospective
visitor has no way of knowing what your site is all about
until he/she finds it and reads its contents. Who can ever
tell that Amazon.com sells books? Or that Excite is a search
engine?

Your domain name can spell your success on the Internet. A
good domain name is the best asset you can ever have. It can
make your business stand out in the crowd, or just float
aimlessly in space.

The need to provide immediate clues to an online business
led to the prevalence of generic domain names. Generic names
instantly provide the user with an idea of what a business
is all about, what to expect and look for in a site. For
instance, Etoys.com is a toy store.

The temptation of the generic name has been so powerful;
that some companies even paid ridiculously high prices to
get the name they want. The domains Loans.com and Wines.com
were both bought for $3 million each. Telephone.com was
acquired for $1.75 million, while Bingo.com sold for $1.1
million.

However, generic names do not necessarily create the “buzz”
that you'd like surrounding your website. Branding has
always been about proper names: McDonald's did not name
their store Hamburger. Hertz is not called Car Rental. FedEx
is not Mail Carrier. Kodak is not Photographs. Microsoft is
not Computer Software.

For better branding results, your domain name should be
memorable and easy to remember. Remember the following tips
when creating a domain name.

* The domain name should be short
* The domain name should be simple
* It should be suggestive of your business category
* It should be unique
* It should be easy to interpret and pronounce
* It should be personalized
* It should not be difficult to spell
* It should not be difficult to remember

Domain names can be registered through many different
companies (known as 'registrars') - a listing of these
companies is available at ICANN: http://www.icann.org. You
can register for 1 to 10 years - prices can vary anywhere
from $10 to $20 per year.

Most web hosting companies, as explained later,
will handle the registration process for you, but make sure
that you are properly listed as the owner of the domain when
it is registered. If you have registered a domain name for a
specific period, make sure you renew it in time.
You can be surprised at the number of cases, where
site owners have let a domain name slip by if they have not
renewed in time.

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Using expired domains to skyrocket your traffic
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At some point while you're building your website, you're
going to have to buy a domain name. This is the address that
users type into their browsers to reach your site. That
takes about five seconds, and depending on the name you want
and whether anyone else owns it, it won't cost you more than
a few bucks.

But domain names are also a golden opportunity to make some
easy money.

I'm not talking about Internet real estate, where you buy up
good names and sell them on for a profit—if you haven't got
into that now, forget it. The bottom's fallen out of the
market and the best domains are long gone.

I'm talking about expiring domains.

Thousands of webmasters invest time, effort and money to
promote their site and build up traffic. Many of them then
lose interest and move on, leaving their site active. That
means that although they still own the domain, they're not
actively promoting it. But they don't need to. All the
automatic marketing systems they've put in place are still
bringing in traffic. The site runs itself.

Now, at some point the ownership of those domains is going
to expire. If you snap up those domains once they come back
onto the market, you've got a pre-built stream of customers.
You can either rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to
your domain. You could set up an affiliate program get paid
for users someone else paid for.

It's that easy.

There are tons of options, and lots of easy ways to make
lots of money with very little effort. Opportunities like
these are everywhere.

Websites such as www.expiredtraffic.com or
www.deleteddomains.com actually do all the legwork and let
you reap all the rewards. Expired Traffic even has an
affiliate program and www.snapnames.com allows you to
back-order a specific domain name.

Do be careful when using other sites though. There are some
swindlers out there that will sell you subscriptions,
provide you with outdated lists, take your money and keep
the good domains for themselves. It happens, and there's
little point in taking a risk when www.deleteddomains.com
does such a great job.

Warmly,

Kimberly Gordon