I just wanted to leave a couple more posts regarding domain names before I move into information on web design, web hosting & search engine optimization. There are quite a few things you can do with a domain name once you’ve found a domain that works for you. What you do really depends on what you plan to do with the domain name. I don’t want to make this a boring post so I’ll just list a few domain name basics with a brief explanation.

1. Web Hosting – If you plan on actually putting up a website you’ll need to purchase a web hosting plan. This is the space on a web server that you place the files that make up your website. There are a lot of options in regards to web hosting and I’ll be covering that in an upcoming post.

2. Domain Forwarding – If you have a current website you can just forward a domain name to your current website. This is something that’s very common with real estate agents. For example, a Remax agent gets a Remax provided website address such as http://ww1.remax.com/associates/243443433.asp.

Obviously this isn’t something to put on a business card so they register their full name, if available, as a domain name. They then simply forward TheirNewDomain.com to http://ww1.remax.com/associates/243443433.asp. This makes it much easier for them to give their website address & looks much more professional.

3. Email Accounts – Many times people will register a domain name simply to use for email purposes. Rather than using a free email service such as Yahoo or HotMail, many people would like to have a custom email address. For example, say your name is Bill Smith, rather than using a Yahoo email address such as bill_smith2008@yahoo.com you could search for a domain that represents your name, your interests or just about anything else that you want.

Then assume that you were able to register Smith.com, which you wouldn’t be able to do but for explanation reasons let’s assume it’s available. You would then be able to setup any email address you want such as Bill@Smith.com, Sales@Smith.com, Info@Smith.com, etc. There are a few email addresses that you can’t use such as www@YourDomain.com but other than a few your options are limitless.

4. Domain Parking – If you have a great idea for a website or think that you’ve found a domain name that may be valuable you can simply register the domain name and ‘park’ it. This is simply a page showing that the domain is registered and/or Coming Soon. A few things about park pages is that you can park a domain name with a company such as NameDrive.com which will display ads on your website and if someone were to type in your domain and click on one of those ads you would earn a percentage of the revenue earned on that click.

That’s about it for the domain name basics, there are a few more options but these are the 4 main reasons for registering a domain name. I’m sure that I’ll receive an email saying that I left something off the list but like I mentioned, these are the 4 main reasons for registering a domain name.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

I figured I’d take this time to explain the steps to register a domain for those of you that still may not be familiar with the process. Before you actually complete a registration I’d recommend reading the post on Domain Name Registration Tips first.

How To Register A Domain Name

1. Find An Affordable Yet Reliable Domain Registrar – You can register .COM domains for $10.99 for the first year and $12.99 for every year thereafter with SiteToad.com. This is an annual charge, not a monthly charge.

2. Search For Availability – It’s likely that they “ideal” domain name that you’re looking for is already registered especially the .COM version. If not, great, you can move to the next step in the domain name registration process. If it’s already registered you’ll need to search for alternatives until you can find something that works for you.

3. Select Any Domain Name Add-Ons – As you continue through the registration process you’ll be asked certain questions like how long you’d like to register the domain for, whether you’d like “private” domain name registration and whether you’d like to select a web hosting or email package. Just keep in mind that all of this can be added later. If I would recommend any add-on, I’d select the “private” registration, this will keep your information private such as your name, address, email address, etc. All of this information is required for registering a domain name.

4. Complete The Payment – That’s it, there are no special forms, business registrations, etc that you’ll need for registering a domain name. Using SiteToad.com makes the domain registration process extremely simple. You’ll receive reminders once your domain is coming up for renewal and be notified if anything tries to do anythign suspicious with your domain name or your account with SiteToad.com.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

The popular thing to do is park your domain name with a company like DomainSponsor.com and make money on them when someone visits the page and clicks on one of the ads that display on the web page. Below I’ve listed a few alternatives to Google Adsense that you can do with your web pages.

BANS – Build A Niche Store Review

BuildANicheStore.com is a unique way to make money with your unused domain names. It’s based on the eBay affiliate program and allows you to build complete websites and display current eBay auctions on your website. eBay will then pay you up to 75% of their profit. For auctions $99 or less that number is 50% but goes up as the value of the auction goes up.

The nice thing about Build A Niche Store is that you can choose from a large selection of professional templates and you can add unique content to help with getting listed in organic search results.

As the name mentions, BANS is great for building a niche store so if you have domain names that are really descriptive but don’t want to build a full flegdged website you can quickly put up websites and still monetize them.

Another feature that I liked was the ablity to integrate Google Adsense into your pages as well. This will allow you to make money online even if your visitors don’t end up purchasing anything from eBay.

Build A Niche Store Features

Below I’ve listed a few of the features of BANS that you will find very important.

Security: You have a password protected admin panel.

Store Editing: Within your admin you can update the content of each page for SEO reasons such as the meta tags.

Ads: As I mentioned above, you can integrate Google Adsense into the pages as another way of making money with your parked domain names.

I highly recommend you checking out BuildANicheStore.com and view all of the features that they offer along with live sites that were developed using BANS.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

What I’ve done below is list some of the more common domain extensions. I welcome any additions or corrections that you may have. You’ll find that you can register every one of the domain extensions at an affordable price through WebsiteSpot.com. Let’s get started.

TLD – Top Level Domains

There are three types of top-level domains that are classified by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) which I’ve described below.

TLD – These are the most common extensions that you’re probably familiar with. They are made up of .COM, .NET & .ORG domains.

ccTLD – These are country code domain name extensions and they are generally made up of 2 characters. Some of the ccTLD extensions that you’re probably familiar with are .US for United States, .CA for Canada, .JP for Japan and .CN for China.

gTLD – These are generic TLDs and are generally made up of 3 or more letters. Some of the gTLD domain extensions that you may be familiar with are .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME & .MOBI.

Common Domain Extensions

Below you’ll find some of the more common domain extensions and the domain extension meaning.

.COM (Commercial) – Generally intended for commercial use. By far the most recognized domain name extension.

.NET (Network) – This was originally intended for network oriented sites such as internet service providers. This definitely isn’t the case any longer. People will register .NET domains for commercial use, generally if the .COM extension isn’t available or if they’d like to protect their main .COM domain by registering all available extensions.

.ORG (Organization) – This domain extension was originally intended for non-profit or trade organizations. Again, this is no longer the case and is generally registered by anyone looking to protect their main domain by registering all available domain extensions or simply because a better extension isn’t available for registration.

.BIZ (Business) – This is a gTLD that is generally registered to classify their website as a business. Although it’s not a commonly recognized extension, I feel that it’s a great alternative if the .COM extension isn’t available and for only $10.99 per year through SiteToad.com it certainly wouldn’t hurt to register the extension so that your competition doesn’t try to squat on it.

.US (United States) – This ccTLD generally refers to US based companies. Although the domain has been out for quite some time now it’s possible to find some very good domain names with this extension.

.INFO (Informational) – This gTLD is generally used as an extension for informational websites. I believe that other than .COM, .NET & .ORG, it’s the most popular domain extension used. If you are developing an informational website it’s definitely a domain extension that I’d register.

.MOBI (Mobile) – This domain extension, as of this writing, is fairly new. Although majority of the domain name owners registered their domain name with the .MOBI domain name to protect their brand, it is primarily reserved for website built for displaying on mobile devices.

.TV (Television) – In my opinion it’s used primarily for media, primarily video, related websites.

.WS (Website) – This is actually a ccTLD for Western Samoa but was converted to a domain extension commonly used as an acronym for ‘website’. Although it seems that it would be a great extension I don’t feel that it really ever took off and you can find very good domains available with the .WS extension.

.ME (ME) – This is the newest domain, as of this writing. It was originally the ccTLD of Montenegro but would generally be used for personal related websites such as family websites or blogs another option would be to pose your resume or even artwork that you may have done. The other use would be to create a very memorable personal email address.

.NAME (NAME) – This is a gTLD that’s intended for personal use. You’ll find that this extension is used for personal / family websites or simply used for name related email addresses.

.CA (Canada) – This is a ccTLD that is generally reserved for Canadian based businesses.

.CO.UK (United Kingdom) – This country code domain is generally reserved for commercial related websites based in the United Kingdom. Although it’s not restricted to just UK based business, I see very little value in registering the domain extension unless you plan on doing some sort of business in the UK.

.CN (China) – This is the ccTLD for China. This domain is not restricted to companies based in China and can basically be registered by anyone that would like a .CN extension.

That’s about it, there are many more extensions that I haven’t covered but I feel that these are the extensions that you may consider when registering a domain name. Don’t hesitate to take a look at the article I wrote on domain registration tips before registering your domain names.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
CEO – www.WebsiteToad.com

I figured that I’d leave a quick post with some information regarding domain registrations for those of you that are new to domain name registration and give you a few tips. Below you’ll find some of the more common & important tips for registering a domain name. Rather than going on with details of this post let’s get started. They aren’t listed in any particular order but each of them definitely deserves to be read.

1) Don’t register domain names that are too long. Yes, you can register domain names up to 63 characters long, but that doesn’t mean you should use all 63 characters. You want your domain name to be easy to remember. Not everyone will bookmark your page initially so try to think of something that can be easily remembered — although most premium domains have already be registered for quite some time. I personally try to keep every domain name that I register under 15 characters which is still quite a few but these days it’s tough to get a decent domain with less characters.

2) Use of hyphens in your name. Much like the 63 character domain names option above, you should try to avoid registering a domain name with a hyphen. It’s often times difficult for people to remember but it’s still an option. Now I’m by no means a search engine expert but I’ve found that there is no benefit or penalty for registering a domain name with a hypen. As a matter of fact I own a couple of domain names with a hyphen and they rank rather well so don’t let this be a deterrent. It’s actually quite possible to register some keyword dense domain name with hypens so it’s still an option but one that avoid at all costs if possible.

3) Try to reserve a dot com name. .COM is the most recognized domain extension and if it’s available definitely register it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with registering one of the many other domains but again, people first think of .COM when typing in a domain name. I have a competitor that registered a .NET for a domain names that I own, this was before I registered every extension but the point of the story is that if someone is wanting to visit his site they are most likely going to think of the .COM and end up at my site. They may realize that they are at the wrong place but it’s definitely possible that they will stay at my .COM and make a purchase from me rather than the intended .NET. Just something to think about.

4) Protect your name by registering multiple extensions (.net, .org, etc.). This stops people from copying your name and putting up a competitor site based on the brand that you’ve built. For example, if you own JustBirdCages.com you may want to seriously consider registering JustBirdCages.NET, JustBirdCages.ORG, JustBirdCages.US, etc if they are available. This will keep imitation sites from building their brand on your domain name. Try our domain name search tool to search for some domain names that you’re considering and it will show you all of the available extensions.

5) Keyword Dense Domain Names. If you continue to read my blog I’ll get into keywords in regards to search engine optimization (SEO). Obviously you know some of the more common words that someone would type to find a website related to yours so using a domain name with your keywords in it is definitely a plus. With that said, you’ll find that sites that rank well in the search engines without their domain having anything to do with their website but it definitely doesn’t hurt. I tend to search for the main keywords related to my websites topic before anything else and then research from there for alternatives.

6) Domain Privacy.Recently the option for private registration has become a feasible option. You can find the owner of a website on any registered domain names by doing a WhoIs lookup. The information provided would be your name, address, phone number & email address. Adding domain privacy is like an unlisted phone number with the phone company. There is always an additional cost but these days it is almost becoming necessary. Click here to read more on private domain registration.

That’s about it…
You’re ready to check if your domain is available. You can click here to visit www.SiteToad.com which offers domain names for as little as $1.99 for an entire year.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com

Not Register A .COM

The reason that I think that this is a huge mistake is because people are accustomed to typing in a domain name with the .COM extension. If you register a .NET, .ORG, .US, etc you are just losing out on repeat traffic.

The reason is that people remember the domain name but often times don’t pay attention to the extension. When they attempt to go back to your site they type YourDomain.com which of course belongs to your competitor and thus you’ve lost out on return traffic.

Not Registering Every Extension

With domain prices being so affordable it just makes sense to register every extension during the domain name registration process. There’s no reason to let a competitor or domain squatter register the other extensions of your domain name and possibly put up a website of questionable content or even try to sell you the extension for many times more than you could have paid.

Using Too Many Dashes

I understand the importance of keywords in a domain name for search engine optimization purposes but if you want to brand your website for people to return to the last thing you want to do is register Your-Main-Website-Keywords.com.

It’s difficult to remember and I can’t think of anything that looks more unprofessional.

Not Registering A Domain Name For Multiple Years

The chance of losing a domain name due to it expiring isn’t great considering the number of reminders that are sent but I just don’t see how it’s worth chancing it. You may change your email address and not receive the notices or something like that.

It’s best to register your domains for multiple years so this doesn’t happen, plus you generally receive a discounted rate during domain name registration for registering for multiple years.

Well that’s about it. These are the main mistakes that I can think of during domain name registration. Again, feel free to chime in with anything that you can add or that you may disagree with.

Best regards,
David Lalumendre
www.WebsiteToad.com