I’ve just recently stumbled across a few web sites like
namepros.com and dnforum, websites that focus solely on the
buying and selling of domains. And I “gotta tell ya” I was quit
impressed to hear some of the success stories.

Now from my understanding, I thought profit from domain sales
died at the end of the dotcom Boom. But from what I’ve seen and
heard, It seems like it can be a lucrative business. Naturally
there’s more to it than buying a domain name for $5.99 a year
and turning around and selling it for $4,000. To come across a
domain name (whether self created, expired, or purchased)
spending time advertising it, sending traffic to where it’s
parked, finding a broker, doing the things you need to do to up
the value of the name, it’s seems like a very time consuming
business.

But if you go to Sedo.com you’d be amazed at the prices that
some of these domains are going for, $5,000, $10,000, even more.

It seems to me like a hidden art. There’s not very much talk
about it in the general internet marketing forums. And
everywhere on the net you see ebooks on “How To” write ebooks
for profit, do JV (joint venture) deals, ebooks on site traffic,
blogging techniques, affiliate marketing, rss feeds…… on and
on and on and very little information on the business of buying
and selling domain names. So that means it’s a business who’s
time has passed or a very lucrative one that’s hidden from the
people who jump on the bandwagon.

Just looking at current events and doing domain checks on
certain subjects tells me how quickly good domains get snatched
up. Believe it or not the name Farris Hassan dot com (16 year
old boy who went to Iraq) is already taken.

From my studies it seems that there are a select few who are
generously profiting from the buying and selling of domain
names. As I mentioned above there is alot of work involved but
if your willing to join a few membership sites, learn a few
advertising tricks and get into the game, the selling of domain
names can be a very lucrative business.

Buy Domains! Yahoo, GoDaddy, 1&1 Domains starting at $1.99/year
http://www.wbwebhosts.com/iminate_domain

(this link must be active on your website in order to use this
article)

Selecting your domain name

Selecting a domain name can be a very frustrating process as a lot of domains have been sold already. With 30.000+ domain names being sold each day it can be a challenge to find the appropriate domain name for your company. So what do you do? Your business name might not be available or be too long. If you did think about doing business on the Web when you started, your name might not be appropriate for the web. What if your domain name is available for the country code extension but not .COM? Should you buy the .CA anyway? How long is too long?

Create a short list of domain names and variances. Talk with people that you trust and opinion you value or ask your regular customers. However, don’t wait too long about as 30.000 Domain Names are being sold a day now. Below you will find a few pointers or things you should have in mind when selecting your Domain Name.

Using your business name

Using your business name as your domain name could be a great idea. However if your business name is really long or very complicated you might want to consider searching for an abbreviation or an alternative.

Recognizable

You want it to reflect what you do … that makes it easier for people to remember your address and will increase the chance of people guessing your web address right without having to search for it.

Uniqueness

Choosing a Domain name that is unique can avoid that you loose business to your competitors as it cannot be confused with other domain names. You still have to consider if the Domain name is easy to type and not too complicated. Most unique Domain Names for .COM are gone and a lot have been bought to re-sell a lot more expensive. If you have a look on eBay you will see a lot of Domain names for sale.

A person had already registered the Domain name for Pope Benedict XVI before they announced the new Pontiffs name and had put it for sale on eBay immediately after the announcement. He sold it for $200.000+. Think carefully about buying your domain name from another person. First of all you would have to pay a lot more than registering a new name. Second, you might not have full ownership of it. Maybe find alternatives as the one for sale by a person might never be sold and then end up being available through a Domain Registrar a couple of years down the road.

Easy to type

You should select a domain name that is easy to type so avoid complicated domain names. You would like people to be able to enter your Web Address very easily. Spelling errors might make them end up at the wrong site. Or if your domain name contains a hyphen “-” and your competitors domain name has none. They might end up there instead. One example could be (note that only one is a real site):

www.pc-world.com

www.pcworld.com

These could be very different web sites but the name is very easy to mistake.

Where in the World are your customers?

Should you choose a Country Code Domain like .CA or just buy a .COM? If you are a Real Estate agent and you only sell houses in your town should you then only buy your Country Code domain? Not necessarily. What about the potential clients that are trying to relocate? Are you a local landscaper? Then a Country Code domain might be the best solution. As the domains are selling very quickly now for the .COM then people start to use the Country Code domains more. Clients and potential customers are getting more computer/internet savvy and as businesses are starting to use the Country Code domains more, they will catch on to that quickly.

Multiple Domain names

If you are a business in Canada that expect to have clients all over the world you might want to consider selecting your domain with both .CA and .COM extension. How this would work is that your main web site could be your .COM address but if people type in your .CA address they are automatically forwarded to your .COM address. You have to ask for your .CA to be forwarded to the .COM address. It’s that simple and with the low prices on domain names not a big expense.

Another advantage is that if you have a unique domain name you can avoid someone else reaping the benefits of your advertising. People still tries to enter Web Address with a .COM first so if you had bought the .CA address and someone buys the exact name using .COM they would open your competitors web site first.

Author Anette Petersen is Web Consultant with Create IT Simple a Web Design, Hosting and Domain Company based in Halifax, Canada. They offer Website Templates and Unique Webdesign. Their Web Site is http://www.createitsimple.com

For more information, email her apetersen@createitsimple.com

Investing in a quality Generic Domain Name is the most
effective and long lasting Marketing Strategy for your
Internet based operation.

In today’s competitive online marketplace, it’s increasingly
difficult to get your website noticed or even seen by your
prospective customers.

Unless you are a large company with tens of thousands of
dollars to spend on advertising and search engine
optimization — you may end up in the bottomless pit of huge
search engine databases and never get the attention you
deserve…

Now, there is an easier way to get noticed and attract
millions of search engine visitors starting from day one.

The choice of your Domain Name is the most important
Marketing Strategy you’ll ever make to help you to rank
higher on thousands of Search Engines and attract millions
of visitors each year.

The truth is, websites with Generic Keywords in their domain
name WILL list higher (in the first 20 listings on top
Search Engines) than the most optimized websites and is
easier to find on top Search Engines.

Before purchasing a domain name, there are many things to
consider. In order to be seen by buyers when they are using
a search engine to look for a product or service, it is
essential that your website be one of the first 20 or so
listed. One of the best ways to insure this, is to use a
GENERIC domain name for your website.

For Example…

Using a search engine is very similar to looking up a
product or service in the Yellow Pages of your local phone
book - under the generic name of the product/service you
will find companies that have what you are looking for.
Similarly, on the internet, some search engines list
websites by how closely the website name compares to the
item being searched for.

If your business name is ABC Corp. and you are in the
business of selling ‘Baby Toys’ online. You’ll drive
thousand times more targeted traffic if your Domain names
includes your “Main Key Word” on it like:

TopBabyToys.com

JustBabyToys.com

CustomBabyToys.com

AmericanBabyToys.com

UltimateBabyToys.com or,

ABCKidsToys.com; Instead of your brand name ABCCORP.COM.

A good generic domain name can put you way ahead of your
competition in the search engines, and, can literally be
worth many millions of dollars.

In the past, some companies believed that company
recognition was the key and were willing to pay a lot of
money to obtain this. The internet, however, is changing the
way that knowledgeable company executives are attracting
buyers.

Unless you are willing to spend hundreds of millions of
dollars on advertising, it is much more important to select
a generic domain name that identifies the product or
services you provide to users on your website.

With a GENERIC domain name and a programmer who
understands the importance of generic keys to search engine
spiders, your website can be way above your competition on
internet search engines.

You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter on
your web site as long as the byline is included and the
article is included in it’s entirety. I also ask that you
activate any html links found in the article and in the
byline. Please send a courtesy link or email where you
publish to: support@multiplestreammktg.com

Abe Cherian is the founder of Multiple Stream Media. His website NicheDomainNamesNow.com sells memorable domain names that are highly in demand. Find out if you can find a winning domain name for your business
or personal use by visiting his website.
http://www.NicheDomainNamesNow.com

Buying domain names is a very common activity on the internet and a necessity for establishing an identity on the web. However, many people still don’t understand what a domain is, how it is used and how to properly maintain it. This article is dedicated to answering common questions about domain names and providing you with important information that you need to know to make sure your domain remains a useful asset.

So what is a domain name anyway?

A domain name is a unique name used to identify an internet site. Each domain has two or more parts separated by dots. The part at the end is the most general and is used to identify the type or origin of the site. This is called the top level domain (TLD) or domain extension, and it includes the familiar designations .com, .net, and .org, organizational designations like .gov, .mil, and .edu, and country codes like .us, .uk, and .de. In front of the TLD is the second level domain, which is the unique identifier of the internet site. Chilipepperweb, google and yahoo are all examples of second level domains. A third level, usually known as a subdomain, can also be added. This part goes before the second level domain, as in domains.chilipepperweb.net. It is worth noting that you are not required to register subdomains; they are considered part of the primary domain name.

How does a domain name work?

A domain name is not the same thing as an internet site. By registering a domain name, you are reserving the right to use that name to identify an internet site for the period of time that it remains registered to you. An active domain points to a location (IP address) on a host computer connected to the internet that contains the files for the internet site. Each domain name is assigned at least two Domain Name Servers (DNS). When someone types the domain name into their web browser, the DNS assigned to that particular domain receives the query and sends a request to the host computer to retrieve the files for viewing and interaction. Each domain name can only point to one location on one computer at a time, although one computer may host many domain names. A domain name can be pointed to a new host by changing the DNS records or assigning new DNS to the domain. Learn more about DNS

How do I pick a good domain name?

A good domain name is generally short (1 to 3 words), easy to remember and to spell, and representative of your business. The following is a great article if you need help choosing a domain name:
The Essential Guide to Selecting a Domain Name

How do I register a domain name?

So you’ve got a great idea for a domain name and you’ve found a site that sells domains for a good price. You’re all ready to whip out your credit card and reserve it right now. Here is a basic description of the process you or your representative (website designer, hosting company, etc.) will go through on most registrars to do this:

1. Type in the domain name you want to buy. The registrar will cross-reference your choice with a worldwide database (Whois) of domain names to verify that nobody else currently owns it. If someone owns it already, you will be asked to try another name or be given a computer-generated list of similar alternatives to the name you wanted. This goes on until you have found an available name.
2. Next you will be prompted to create a new account with a username and password. Some registrars will automatically create an account name and password for you and email it to you when your registration is complete, while others allow you to create your own username and password.
3. After you create an account, you have to fill in all of the required contact information for the domain. The four contacts, which will be explained in more detail below, are the Registrant, Administrative Contact, Billing Contact, and Technical Contact.
4. Now it’s time to pay for the domain. You select the number of years you want to register the domain for, which ranges from 1-10 years, enter your payment information and submit it, and you are done. At this point you are now the proud owner of a new domain name.

IMPORTANT TIP: The most important thing you can do when purchasing a domain name is to keep good records of your purchase. Write down your username and password for your domain account, print out the contact information that you entered, and print out any receipts and emails you receive from the registrar upon completion of your purchase. Keep all of this information in a file where you can find it later if you need it. You should also keep the name and contact information of the registrar you purchased the domain from just in case you ever need it. If you are an employee purchasing a domain for your employer, you should do this to make life easier for the employer if you should ever be unavailable when the information is needed.

If someone else is purchasing a domain name on your behalf, such as your website designer or web host, you should make sure that they are keeping track of this same information and are willing to provide you with copies of it upon request. This gives you an extra measure of safety in the event that a dispute arises over control of your domain name. Most of the time this occurs when an owner decides to change designers or hosting companies because of dissatisfaction or increasing requirements.

TERMINOLOGY

This section explains the major features of a domain name account and the things you need to be aware of with regard to their function and use. It is not necessary for you to understand in great technical detail everything there is to know about domain names, but the features described below are the ones you will encounter during the registration process, and the ones most likely to cause you trouble if they are not handled appropriately.

A complete glossary of domain registration terminology can be found on ICANN’s website.

Registrar - This is the company that the domain was purchased from. Top level registrars include Network Solutions, Register.com, OpenSRS (a division of Tucows), and GoDaddy among others. Many smaller companies also function as registrars by reselling domains from the top level domain providers. The registrar is also the company you pay to renew your domain name when the registration period is up. Domain names can be transferred from one registrar to another following specific rules (this article is primarily meant to make that process easy in case you ever need it). There are a number of domain registration scams out there which appear to be renewal notices when in fact they are registrar transfer forms. The easiest way to recognize them is to know who your registrar is and only accept renewal notices from the company you bought your domain from. Learn more about Domain Fraud

Domain Account Manager - As mentioned above, whenever you buy a domain you are creating an account with your registrar. This account allows you to manage all of your domain contact information and the DNS servers for your domain. Whenever you go to the website for your registrar, you should see a link that says something along the lines of “My Account”, “Account Manager”, “Manage Domain”, or something else similar. When you click on that link, it should take you to a login screen where you enter the username and password you created (or received) when you bought your domain. Once you have successfully logged in, you will be able to change all of the information about your domain name, renew it, and possibly use other services the registrar may decide to add to the interface for the user’s convenience.

Whois Information - This is the basic information returned by a Whois query on a domain name. It contains the ownership and contact information, the registration and expiration dates, and the DNS servers for the domain. This is the information you are creating when you register your domain. You can find a Whois query form on most domain registrar sites, and there are also many independent Whois servers where you can check domain information.

Registrant or Owner Contact - This is the first contact you have to fill out, and arguably the most important, at least from a legal standpoint. The person or organization listed in this contact is considered to be the legal owner of the domain name. This can be a serious problem if a client asks their designer to purchase a domain on their behalf and the designer registers the domain with himself as the owner. It does happen, unfortunately far too often, and if a legal dispute arises over the ownership of the domain this can be very problematic. You should always make sure whenever someone else buys a domain for you that you are listed as the owner.

Administrative Contact - For operational purposes, this is THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DOMAIN. Almost all of a registrar’s business is done with the Administrative Contact. As you might guess, this is the person or company that has administrative rights to act on behalf of the Registrant and make changes to all aspects of the domain name, including all contacts, name servers, and subdomains. If you lose your domain manager password, this is the person that the registrar will ask to deal with in order for you to get it back or change it. The contact information for the administrator should be kept as accurate as possible at all times, particularly the email address. The administrator’s email receives all renewal notices, password reminders, and other business email from the registrar. The number one mistake people make when registering a domain name is not keeping the administrative email address current. Many people change their email address before the registration period is up and drop the one they were using when the bought the domain. This results in failure to receive renewal notices and the inability to receive password reminders from the registrar if your password becomes lost. When that is the case, you usually have to go through a painful process involving a fax request form with a copy of a photo ID and several days of waiting to get the registrar to update your information for you. This is not fun, and if you are not patient it is not something you want to have to do. Keeping the Administrative Contact up to date is the best way to guarantee that your domain name will be quick and easy to manage whenever changes are needed.

You should always register a domain with an email address you plan to keep for a long time if at all possible. One mistake that companies often make is when an employee purchases the domain and uses his own contact information, then that employee later leaves the company, has his email address deleted, etc., and generally makes life difficult for everybody who has to manage the domain after he is gone. If you are using a company email address, it is best to use a general company address such as info@mycompany.com, or if that is unavailable, the address of a senior employee or manager who isn’t planning on changing jobs anytime soon.

Billing Contact - Fortunately this one is nice and obvious. This is the person to be contacted by the registrar regarding any billing matters for your domain name, including registrations and renewals. If the billing contact is different from the registrant or the administrator, those two contacts may also receive billing notices from the registrar if the billing contact can no longer be reached.

Technical or Zone Contact - This contact is usually the person or organization responsible for maintaining the DNS servers that resolve the domain to a website, as well as handling other technical problems related to the domain. In most cases this will be your web host, ISP, or the registrar you bought the domain from. You always have the option to change this contact to yourself or someone else of your choice, such as the website designer.

DNS or Name Servers - DNS stands for Domain Name Server (also referred to as Domain Name Service or Domain Name System). A DNS translates domain names into IP addresses. If someone wants to access ChiliPepperWeb’s web site (www.chilipepperweb.net), the DNS translates the domain name into its corresponding IP address 65.59.245.101, allowing the computer to locate ChiliPepperWeb’s web server. The DNS for your domain will normally be provided by the company hosting your website, and you have to make sure that you have the correct DNS settings specified in your domain account in order for it to display your website properly. When you change hosts, you usually also change DNS servers, which is why you need to keep your domain manager login. If you can’t change your domain’s DNS settings, then you can’t change hosts unless you know how to rewrite DNS records. The domain registrar can still change this information for you if you have no way to do it yourself, but as with changing contact information it involves a tedious fax verification process that you don’t want to go through if it can be avoided.

OK, now I’ve bought my domain name. What else can I do with it?

Parking - Each domain name you buy is a unique identifier, but that doesn’t mean that it has to point to a unique website. You can point several domain names at the same internet site. This is known as “parking” one domain on another one. One domain will always be set up as the primary domain on the host computer, and the other domains can be pointed to its location by using the same DNS entries.
Note: This is not the same as a “parking page,” which is a simple temporary page set up on a host computer to indicate that a domain is registered to any viewer who might stumble across it until the owner has prepared an internet site to point the domain to.

E-Mail Hosting - It is also possible for a domain name to exist but not be connected to an actual IP address. This is often done so that a group or business can have an internet e-mail address without having to establish a real internet site. In these cases, some real host computer must handle the mail on behalf of the listed domain name.

Sell It - Who says you have to keep a domain name and use it yourself? Once you have registered a domain name, it is considered your property for the duration of the registration period, and you have the right to sell it to someone else as you do with any other property. Many people make money by purchasing domain names and reselling them to those who can put them to good use for higher prices. A well-known example is business.com, which was sold for 7 million dollars! Once you sell a domain name, you can use the Domain Manager to change the Registrant and contact information to the new owner.

Can I change my registration provider?

Yes. You do not have to keep your domain registered with the same provider you bought it from originally if you are dissatisfied with their service or prices. Each registrar is required by ICANN to have procedures available to transfer registration to another provider. Although implementation may vary with each registrar, generally the process involves a transfer request and confirmation e-mails from one or both registrars involved to the Administrative Contact of the domain to verify that the transfer request is legitimate. Transfer requests time out if not completed within seven days, and domains may be locked to prevent any transfers.

What if someone else registers a domain with my company’s name?

Domain registration for .com, .net, and .org domains is done on a first-come, first-serve basis, but there are certain limitations based on trademark law. Common words and phrases, such as tools.com or burgerandfries.com, cannot be trademarked. A business or person with the same name as yours, such as bobsautorepair.com, in a different location, state or country may register the name first in good faith and not be subject to any legal action. In this case you may make an offer to purchase the domain name from its owner if they are willing to sell it. If, however, you have a unique and/or well-known trademark and you believe the domain name matching that trademark has been registered in bad faith for malicious or unlawful purposes, then you may have legal recourse to take action against the domain owner. Follow the links below for more information about cybersquatting and domain name trademark law.

http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/domain/
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/property/domain/main.html
http://www.bitlaw.com/internet/domain.html
http://www.chillingeffects.org/domain/faq.cgi

© Copyright 2005 by Stacy Clifford
Stacy Clifford is the founder of ChiliPepperWeb.net and has spent four years assisting customers in understanding how their web services work.

Your domain registration is critically important. It’s easy to get lazy about this stuff. Often your ISP or whoever set up your web site said they’d “take care of it” and that was it. It’s been working fine for years, and you don’t have to worry about it.

But you do need to worry about it. In fact, you need to take control of it, and review that control regularly to make sure you still have it. If you lose control, it can be time consuming and difficult to get it back - in fact, you could even lose your domain name, though that’s not the subject discussed here.

Let’s review DNS for a moment. This is external DNS, not the DNS you may be using inside your own network to identify machines. This DNS is the one that lets you get mail if you have a mail server and lets people get to your website. It is extremely important. Yes, it’s geek talk, you don’t want to hear it, you want someone else to take care of this, but it’s too important for that. You need to understand this or everything can come to a grinding halt.

Your web site is registered with one of the official registrars. From your point of view, you may have paid money to someone else for the domain registration, but it’s one of these places that really did the work, and there is one critical piece of information they control about your domain. That piece of data is the address of the name servers responsible for resolving addresses in your domain. So, if you are xyz.com, somewhere there is a name server that knows where www.xyz.com is, where mail.xyz.com is and so on. The registrar doesn’t necessarily know or care where www.xyz.com is, but they do have to know who does know that.

Life used to be more simple. There was one, and exactly one registrar: Network Solutions. You did the domain registration with them, and that was it. Actually, there was a time when it was even more simple, but from your point of view, somewhere there is a database that keeps track of you and me and everyone else. It isn’t your registrar who actually keeps that database, but they are allowed to access it to update information. So that’s the flow: your registrar knows where your DNS servers are, and they tell the central servers. The overall control of all this is now in the hands of ICANN.

Do we have the picture now? Your ISP may actually provide DNS information, but it’s the registrar who tells the central DNS to go ask your ISP for IP addresses and reverse lookups. If the registrar told the central servers that a different outfit was responsible for your domain, that’s where the ip address for www.xyz.com would come from.

This is important, so I’m going to be pedantic here just in case you aren’t getting this yet. Let’s say that the DNS server at worldnic.com says that your www address is 64.226.42.29 and the DNS server at your ISP says it’s 82.165.235.25. Which address will you get if you “ping www.xyz.com“?

The answer depends on who your registrar says is your DNS server. If they say worldnic is responsible, then your ping will go to 64.226.42.29, but if they say your ISP’s servers are the authority for your domain, then it goes to 82.165.235.25. Two different addresses, and possibly different web sites.

It’s possible for things to be more confusing. If you use your web hosting company’s name servers for DNS, but the registrar has a different name server recorded for your domain, you could get a different answer than anyone not using that ISP. I have seen this happen more than once.

You can use “dig” on a Unix or Linux box to query specific nameservers: dig @somedns xyz.com. That bypasses your normal DNS and directly asks the server you specify

So now for the really important question. Who controls the registrar?

If the answer isn’t “I do”, then you have a problem. Is it the guy who designed your web site? Who was that guy, anyway? Or maybe it’s the ISP who unfortunately just went out of business and isn’t answering the phone any more. You “own” your domain, and want to move it to a new ISP, but how’s that going to happen if you don’t control the registrar?

Well, it can be difficult. You are going to have to prove that you really do own xyz.com, that the guy who designed the site or the defunct ISP was just acting on your behalf, and then you can tell the registrar where to point your DNS (or can control it yourself right at the registrar; for example Network Solutions allows you to maintain your own DNS).

You may actually already have an account with the registrar. That may have been setup for you when you first created your domain. When you set up an account, they usually want an email address for you. That address is important, because usually that’s all they need to prove your identity later: they just send a query to the address they have for you, and if you can respond to it, well, that’s you then. But what if the email address you used was an old aol account that you let lapse? They can’t send mail to it, so you can’t prove you own the domain that way.

There are, of course procedures for this kind of situation. You may be able to fax a simple form that sets the domain registration information straight. It obviously shouldn’t be too easy: you wouldn’t want someone to be able to steal your domain or divert it elsewhere simply by saying “that’s mine”.

There have been cases of hijacking, including the famous “sex.com” dispute. If you have the wrong people listed in the “whois” for your domain, it can be dangerously easy.

By the way, you also need to watch out for these fly by night and fake domain renewals. Know who you are supposed to renew your domain with so you don’t get caught by one of these folks. I have had more than one client think that they renewed but actually they just paid money for some valueless “listing service” masquerading as domain renewal.

The time to get it all sorted out is before you need to. You don’t want to find out you have a problem with your registrar on the day your ISP goes belly up or when someone tries to hijack your domain name. So.. take a moment now to dig into this. If you don’t know who has control of your registrar, find out. If it is you, make sure you have account names and passwords and that any information they have about you (email, postal address, phone) is current and accurate.

Controlling your domain registration and DNS with your registrar is important; Look into it today.

Anthony Lawrence is a self employed consultsnt and web master for http://foo-web.com and other web sites.