Selecting a proper domain name is one of the first important steps when starting an online business. In the online community, your domain name actually represents the name and reputation of your business, so choosing a domain name for your website is just as important as choosing your business name.

The first step to selecting a domain name is to brainstorm a list of possible domain names for your business. Ideally, your domain name should contain your business name, if possible. Customers who remember your business name can then return to your website easily by entering the URL of your website on their browser.

If it's not possible to register a domain name that contains your business name (because it has already been registered), then you need to include your business keywords in the domain name. These keywords should describe what your business does, or what products your business sells.

For example, if you plan to sell rare gemstones, you can register domain names like ‘uniquegemstones.com' or ‘raregemsonline.com'. These domain names contain the word ‘gem', which describes your business.

Another reason why you must include your business keywords in your domain name is that search engines will rank your website higher if your domain name contains the keywords you want to optimize your site for. You'll benefit from a higher stream of targeted visitors from Google, Yahoo or MSN when visitors search for your keywords.

For instance, a website with the domain name ‘webtuitionservices.com' is likely to rank higher than ‘tuition4you.com', for the keywords ‘tuition services', all else being equal.

Additionally, keep your domain name short and catchy. If your business name is too long and complicated, first-time visitors to your site may have a hard time remembering your URL, and cannot return to your website for future purchases.

When choosing a domain name, you should always register a ‘.com' URL. The ‘Dot-Com' domain name has become the industry standard, and everyone remembers ‘.com' first before ‘.net'. If you use a ‘.net' or ‘.org', you risk losing potential customers, simply because they assume that your business uses ‘.com'.

Registering The Domain Name

After you've brainstormed a list of possible domain names, you need to check their availability before actually registering them.

An example of where you can determine the availability of a domain name is Register.com, Inc. (http://www.register.com)

You can then proceed to register the domain name you've chosen. Popular domain name registration services like http://www.register.com or http://www.godaddy.com easily come to mind. The costs of registering each domain name can range between a few dollars to less than $20 a year.

Take note that domain name registration and web hosting are two separate services. The domain name registration service only registers your domain name - nothing else.

A web hosting service, on the other hand, allows you to upload your website onto a server so that visitors can view it via HTTP on the internet. The web hosting service comes together with Domain Name Service (DNS), which is the tool that directs visitors to your website when they enter the domain name on their web browser.

Also note that some web hosting services also offer free domain name registration as part of their web hosting package. One such example is PowWeb, Inc. (http://www.powweb.com). Before you register your domain name at http://www.register.com or http://www.godaddy.com, you should decide on your web host first and find out if they offer free domain name registration. This can probably save you a couple of extra dollars for domain name registration each year.

In conclusion, you need to select a domain name that is short and memorable, so that your visitors can easily return to your website another time. Your domain name should also contain either your business name, or the major keywords of your website, to rank higher on the search engines.

Ray Yee is the founder of Dropshipperscentral, a website that provides a wealth of informative articles, guides and resources on everything you'll need to know about setting up and marketing a Drop Ship Business. Click here for the Drop Ship Directory from http://www.dropshipperscentral.com.

When you launch a new website you must register a unique domain name with an authorized registrar. When the internet was first starting, all domain names and IP addresses were registered through one organization, Internic. Eventually Network Solutions took over the role as "keeper" of the internet domain names. Today, there are hundreds of websites where you can register your domain name but Network Solutions still maintains the main database of domain names. Some websites charge as little as $2.95 per year for your domain name while others charge as much as $35 per year for the exact same service. Some even offer one year free if you register your domain name with them and host your website on their servers. Why pay $35 when you can register your domain name for much less at another website?

So why does Network Solutions charge $35 a year if they are the keeper of the database and their resellers charge a fraction or even nothing? Who knows and who cares! Register your domain with one of the cheaper providers and you'll be fine. A word caution - be care who you choose to host your website. Getting a free year of your domain name isn't worth it if your webhost is unreliable and your website is down more than it's up.

You pay for your domain name on a yearly basis. It's a separate charge from your webhosting bill. When you register your domain name choose the autorenewal option if it's available. This way your domain name will not expire if you forget to renew it. If your domain name expires, it's free for anyone else to register so you need to stay on top of when it's expiring. Also registering your domain name for a 3 to 5 year term will often save you money. For example, godaddy.com charges $8.95 a year for your domain name but only $7.25 a year if you register for a 5 year term.

When you register your domain you can create different contact names. The three contacts are Administrator, Technical and Billing. Most of the time the same person is all 3 contacts. If you web designer registers your domain name for you, make sure you are designated as the Administrative contact. This gives you control over the domain name and you must be notified if someone is trying to make changes to your record. If you aren't one of the contacts then someone can transfer ownership of the domain name without your permission.

To see a record of your domain name, go to www.networksolutions.com and use their WHOIS utility which is located in the bottom left corner of their home page. Simply enter your domain name and click Search. You'll see the complete record of your domain name, where it's registered and where your website is hosted. For a complete video of how to use WHOIS, visit www.valiss.com/video/whois/whois.html.

When you register your domain name you'll have to the option of making it a private registration. I highly recommend paying the additional fee to make your information private. If you leave your registration public anyone can look up your domain information which includes your home or business address and your email address. Many spammers scan public domain registration records to find valid email addresses to spam.

I always use a yahoo or hotmail email account when registering my domains. This way if spammers to find my email address, I can just get a new "throwaway" email address and I won't receive spam at my primary email address.

Always make sure your domain record remains locked. Locking your domain name is a feature implemented a few years ago. When you want to transfer your domain name to a different registrar you must unlock it. Once it's unlocked the new registrar can "pull" your domain name from your current registrar. Once the transfer is complete, the domain name will be locked to prevent anyone else from "pulling" your domain away from you.

About The Author Ted Prodromou spent over 25 years in the computer industry working for IBM, Digital, and Cellular One. Today he's the owner of Valiss IT, a consulting firm that provides personalized web design and small business marketing solutions. Visit http://www.valiss.com for lots of free "how to" articles about marketing your business online. Copyright 2005 Valiss IT, Inc. All Rights Reserved This article may be reprinted only if it remains unchanged.

Content: Hosting Space

What is Bandwidth

What is the difference between Windows and Linux host?

Domain Name

So many hosting and domain registration websites, simple please

How to Upload a website

Hosting space: For your website you need somewhere to store all your files. Documents, Images, etc. Pricings for hosting can vary from $3.95 up to $15 or more per month, depending on a few things (Number of Visitors, large files hosted, images)

What is bandwidth? Each hosting plan you look at has a bandwidth limit, this is normally a per month limit, if you look at bandwidth like a bunch of cars on a highway it tells you how many cars are allow to go on a highway before you need to add another lane, it also means that only a certain amount of cars can go via that highway per month. If you have big video file (a large truck) it takes up more bandwidth. Smaller files/images mean smaller cars, meaning more traffic can go through, so try making files small if possible.

What is the difference between Windows and Linux host? When you see on a hosting website, "Windows server" or "Linux server" then its giving you the option on what programming language your website is written in. Talk to your webmaster about this. PHP programming language runs on Linux systems and ASP programming language runs on Windows systems.

Domain Name You buy your hosting or host it on your own machine; You need a simple way to point to your hosting space. For your website to look professional and easy to remember you can register your own domain name. A domain name is looks like: "yourname.com" or "tassiedevil.net" etc. They come in many extensions, the most common being .COM. Domain names are extremely cheap now days and I'd recommend.

So many hosting and domain registration websites, simple please: I've used the internet for a while now and there's hundreds and hundreds of hosting website and domain name registration places. Main thing that I've been caught out with is not enough bandwidth.

An example of a hosting plan:

Economy Plan:

• 5 GB Space • 250 GB Transfer • 500 Email Accounts • FREE! Software • 10 MySQL Databases • 50 Email Forwards • Forums, Blogging, Photo Galleries • No ads

This particular one provides 5GB space for photos documents etc, and 250GB of Bandwidth, that is huge! But also includes extras like one click forum installs or photo galleries, look at for these as they may save you a lot of time.

How to upload a website: If via the above plan, you can use the program "Microsoft frontpage" or FTP to upload your website. There are many free FTP clients such as a program called "smart ftp". For full details on how to connect to your website host check out their website.

Grant Mannix Cheap Domain Names and Hosting - http://www.cheapdomainseller.com

With more and more individuals and businesses surfing the internet for products, services and information, it's becoming more evident every day that in order to be taken seriously in the business world, you need to build your identity on the World Wide Web. The first step in this somewhat tedious process is to register your domain name.

Primarily, there are three major steps within this process, the first of which is finding a reputable registrar to work with. Fly-by-night operations fill the web with many empty promises, so be sure to check the credibility of your chosen registrar before ordering. The Better Business Bureau is just one means of checking into a company. Customer references are another. There are plenty of domain name registrars out there for you to research, so don't allow one bad apple to spoil the bunch.

There are many different types of domain registrars that exist on the net. You will find many that are pricey, as well as many that are very cheap. Do your homework on the company at hand, making sure that you're not buying more than you need to keep the cost down. One caveat- if the price is too cheap, customer service might not be their forte. The best registrars have a balance of good customer service and affordable pricing.

Next on the agenda is deciding on an extension for your domain name. You will have many options: .com for a global commercial site, .org for a global organization (typically non-profit), or your country's extension- .us for the United States, .ca for Canada, .uk for the United Kingdom, etc. Most reputable registrars offer all of the common domain name extensions, but double check that your registrar offers the extension you need.

The final step is the choice of other services offered by your registrar of choice, including web hosting your site, email services directed to your new domain name (yourname@yoursite.com), as well as building blocks for you to add to your site as your company grows. A quality registrar's web site will be able to assist you with picking out the appropriate services, as well as the proper amount of these services, to best fill your company needs.

Labels: New Domain

Many internet home business owners are lost when they first start out building their internet home business and spend time purchasing bulk popunder traffic that does not really work for them. This article will highlight 3 simple steps that any internet home business owner can take to effectively promote any internet home business.

Registering your own domain

This simple point cannot be repeated enough. If you want to promote your internet home business, always use your own link. The reason for this is that people would see your own domain name as more professional rather than some unsightly company referral domain. In addition, should the company you are promoting close down, you can easily point your domain at a new domain and promote a new internet home business. Always register your own domain when purchasing advertising on other websites so that you do not need to have to contact the website owner should you decide to promote a different internet home business.

Article marketing

One of the best ways online to get people to visit your internet home business has been through article marketing. In one highly published experiment recently, one internet marketer showed how he achieved many people linking to his website through the use of an article submission software. The links that people put it linking to your website will be a permanent link which is always on their websites and its very much like online networking. Imagine many websites like salesman telling other website visitors about your products. The more salesman you have promoting your internet home business the money profits you will make online.

Pay Per Click

One of the best ways to send highly targeted online website traffic to your internet home business is pay per click advertising where search engine companies like Google and Yahoo place your ads near or into their search results. Thus this gives you very targeted traffic that can result in higher conversion ratios for you in your internet home business.

Make good use of these three quick tips in your internet home business and you will see more profits coming in. I would add that you should also spend time planning how you are going to use these ideas and write down how long and how much money you are willing to spend doing these things. Then, execute your plan and track your results. An internet home business can generate profits, provided promotion is done correctly, hopefully this article will point you in the right direction.

Joel Teo is the successful owner of several successful internet business ventures.Click here to learn how you can start your own successful internet business today. http://www.massive-profits-online.com Copyright © 2005-2006 Joel Teo the Coolest Guy On The Planet

Labels: New Domain