Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Find savvy domains easily

By Jim Byrd

With over 60 million domains currently registered, it can be daunting
to try to find the right domain -- one that will drive quality traffic to your
Website or parked domain. But how can you ensure you"re making the right decision when you purchase
registered and expired domains? Do your research and you'll feel confident in
your purchase. In this article, I'll explain the tools and techniques domain pros use to
determine, or at least reasonably guesstimate how much, and what type, of
traffic a domain receives. Armed with this knowledge, you'll be able to predict
approximately how much money a given domain will make, and thus gain a better
understanding of the domain's true value. We'll discuss three methods for
evaluating the traffic a domain receives:

*Trackers/Direct Methods
*Predictors/Indirect Methods
*Traffic Source
The educated buyer always comes out ahead, so read on to unlock the mysteries
of domain traffic and learn how to determine scientifically if a domain is
really worth buying.

*Trackers/Direct Methods
*Predictors/Indirect Methods
*Traffic Source

The educated buyer always comes out ahead, so read on to unlock the mysteries
of domain traffic and learn how to determine scientifically if a domain is
really worth buying.

Trackers/Direct Methods
Ideally, you could skip all of the guesswork and find out how much traffic a
domain receives directly from the domain owner. The easiest way to do this is
simply to ask the sellers about it. However, the seller may make mistakes (or simply be
dishonest), so it's always a good idea to double-check the numbers using one or
more of the following methods.

It's worth noting that visitor numbers can be manipulated by malevolent
sellers, but in general, parked domain visitor stats serve as a needed
guideline for potential buyers.

.Predictors/Indirect Methods...What should you do if a domain is not parked
and the owner will not or cannot provide you with visitor statistics? Fortunately, a
few handy tricks can be used to help you get a rough indication of whether or
not a domain receives any traffic.

I wouldn't recommend relying solely on any of these tricks as a
bullet-proof way to guesstimate traffic. However, taken as a whole (and with a
hefty spoonful of salt), they can shine a bit of light on the question of
whether or not a domain will receive valuable traffic.

Alexa.com...Alexa ranks web sites based on the
number of visitors they receive. For example, at the time this article was
written, Yahoo.com ranked first, while blue.com ranked at 212,093 and camera.com
at 717,298. These rankings are based on data derived from Alexa's toolbar users.
Translating these numbers into unique views, Camera.com received over 10,000
unique views in the month of September while Blue.com received over 70,000
uniques. (Statistics from Sedo.com).

Many high-traffic domain names will receive an Alexa ranking just from their
type-in traffic. In general, an Alexa ranking under 1,000,000 for an undeveloped
site is a good indicator that the domain receives decent traffic (e.g. several
thousand monthly uniques). Rankings over a million are less reliable, but
usually any sort of Alexa ranking means the domain receives at least some
traffic. As with all of these methods, Alexa should be used as a guideline only:
sometimes even domains for which Alexa returns "No Data" (too low to rank) will
still receive traffic. Ranking.com offers a tool that's similar to Alexa's.

Overture Searches...Yahoo! Search Marketing's
Keyword Selector Tool (known to most as formerly Overture) tells you how often a
given keyword was searched on the Yahoo! network. For example, "Yahoo" was
searched 17,858,229 times in September 2005, while "Blue" was searched 178,124
times.

So of course, a domain name that contains a highly-searched keyword is more likely to
receive traffic. However, the Overture Tool's usefulness goes beyond that: if
you use the exact domain name (with extension) as the keyword, Overture results
can be used as a predictor for whether or not a domain name receives traffic.
For example, "Yahoo.com" was searched over 11 million times in September,
according to Overture. Our comparison sites fared as follows: "Blue.com" was
searched 794 times, while "Camera.com" was searched 258 times.

Research shows that Overture searches do usually have a rough
correlation with traffic (especially type-in traffic), but as with other
methods, there are many exceptions to the rule.

Naturally, a domain that contains a highly-searched keyword is more likely to
receive traffic. However, the Overture Tool's usefulness goes beyond that: if
you use the exact domain name (with extension) as the keyword, Overture results
can be used as a predictor for whether or not a domain name receives traffic.
For example, 'Yahoo.com' was searched over 11 million times in September,
according to Overture. Our comparison sites fared as follows: 'Blue.com' was
searched 794 times, while 'Camera.com' was searched 258 times.

Traffic source will affect the longevity and conversion of the traffic. In
simpler terms, it will have huge impacts on how much money the particular domain will
make.

Link Popularity...A web site or formerly-developed
domain name may receive traffic from old incoming links and directory listings.
There are many online tools for checking link popularity; Marketleap.com offers
one of the best tools.

The important thing to look for here is not the quantity of links, but their
quality. A single link from a major web site may be worth thousands of links
from smaller sites. The longevity of link traffic varies widely: a link from a
news article may generate a strom of traffic that lasts only a week, while a
directory listing may continue to generate steady traffic for years. Another
similar tool worth checking out is URLtrends.com.

Search Engine Listings...Search engine listings are
a major source of traffic for many sites. You can guesstimate how much search
engine-derived traffic a web site receives by looking at its 'search engine
saturation'. This is an indicator of how often the domain appears in the various
search engine indexes. Again, Marketleap.com offers an excellent tool for
evaluating search engine saturation.

Just keep in mind that it's also very important to look at how high the site is
listed and how often the keyword in the domain is searched. And don't forget that search
engine listings change frequently, so if this is the primary source of traffic,
expect fluctuations!

Paid Fluctuations...Some traffic may be coming from
PPC advertisements, exit popups or banner ads that the seller has bought. This
is short-lived traffic, because as soon as you buy the domain, the seller
stops paying for the ads! The best way to determine traffic origin is to ask the
seller about traffic sources and view the traffic logs. To ensure the logs are
not modified, ask for access to the logs instead of screenshot of the
statistics.

Without access to the logs, it can be difficult to determine if a domain is
receiving paid traffic, but a smart domain buyer will look for a few key pieces
of evidence: do the domain statistics align with the Alexa ranking and the
number of incoming links? For example, a domain that receives a couple hundred
views a day, and has no Alexa ranking and very few incoming links from
low-traffic sites may likely receive paid traffic. But don't discount such
domains out of hand: they may be receiving typo-traffic, or may even be a seasonal domain (such as one related to the World
Series).

Expired Traffic...If a domain was formerly
developed, some users may continue to visit because of old links and references,
or simply because they remember the actual name of the domain. This traffic may continue for
years, but naturally, it decreases over time.

If it's not possible to speak with the current owner about the past
development of the site, a few simple searches can help. In particular, use the
hints above to examine the types of sites that link to the domain. With that
information, you may be able to get some idea of the type of traffic that's
visiting the domain in search of old content. After the content is removed, many
of the links will be updated or removed and this traffic will eventually dwindle
or expire.

Typos -n- Variations...Don't ignore traffic that's
diverted to the domain name as a result of typos from other high traffic sites.
Check out the traffic that flows to similar or mistyped domains using the tools
above. Also consider traffic generated from variations of names, such as an
abbreviated form of your domain name, or an acronym. If these domains experience
high volumes of visitors, there is a possibility that this will translate to
high traffic levels for similar sites.

Alexa can be useful tool for doing this -- it offers a feature that lists
other web sites that visitors of a given domain also visit. For example, an
Alexa search on: social bookmarking
shows that many visitors to these types of domains also visit other
social
networking websites
.

.Find the Right Domain...Traffic is crucial for any revenue generating
business on the Web. Finding and choosing the right domain with targeted traffic can take
your business and -profits- to new heights. If you haven't quite had the
time to build that web site, simply park your domains, let your parking company
place targeted advertisements on the domain's index page, and sit back and monetize
the traffic. You can do this at sedo by taking advantage of their optimize keyword
tool. Also, use the tools listed above to determine domain traffic and never
make a wrong buying decision again.

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Monday, January 5, 2009

Why Do I Need A Domain Name

By John Blanchard

What is a domain name and why is it so important for your online presencethis article provides details on domain names, where you can register and how to correctly choose one for your company. Domain Name Get the stability and reliability you deserve when you keep your domain name with the global leader in domain name registration and Web hosting. Domain Name ServicesCommKal Hosting Solutions provides domain name services which allow you to register, transfer, manage, protect, search, renew, and reserve any domain name in the Global Top Level Domain (gTLD) and Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) zones.

Domain registrations were free of charge when the DNS was new. Domain name sales occurring in the aftermarket are frequently submitted to the DN journal. Domain names are hostnames that allow us to remember websites more easily than using an IP address. Domain names are allowed to have letters, digits, and hyphens. Domain names, and their corresponding IP addresses, must be unique. Domain names are also not case sensitive Examples. Domain name servers are computers that translate domain names to IP addresses. Domain name registration prices are typically anywhere from $15. Domain names are often seen in analogy to real estate in that (1) domain names are foundations on which a website (like a house or commercial building) can be built and (2) the highest "quality" domain names, like sought-after real estate, tend to carry significant value, usually due to their online brand-building potential, use in advertising, search engine optimization, and many other criteria. Domain names are often referred to simply as domains and domain name registrants are frequently referred to as domain owners, although domain name registration with a registrar does not confer any legal ownership of the name, only an exclusive right of use. Domains usually need at least two authoritative name servers that perform name resolution for the domain. Domain names are looked up on name servers in the DNS hierarchy to resolve them to numerical IP addresses. Domain names allow Internet users to type in a name, such as mybrand. DomainName Servers are connected to the internet and use special software totranslate domain names into the numerical addresses (Internet Protocolnumbers) used by the Internet. Domain names were developed to make it easy for people to find things on the Internet. Domain name registration, Web hosting, e-mail services, domain search, and SEO services. Domain names consist of a series of words separated by dots and can contain only alphabet, numbers and the hyphen. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the Internet. It associates various information with domain names assigned to such participants. Most importantly, it translates human meaningful domain names to the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices world-wide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. The Domain Name System makes it possible to assign domain names to groups of Internet users in a meaningful way, independent of each user's physical location. Internet domain names are easier to remember than IP addresses such as 208. The Domain Name System distributes the responsibility of assigning domain names and mapping those names to IP addresses by designating authoritative name servers for each domain. Authoritative name servers are assigned to be responsible for their particular domains, and in turn can assign other authoritative name servers for their sub-domains. In general, the Domain Name System also stores other types of information, such as the list of mail servers that accept email for a given Internet domain. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. By providing a world-wide, distributed keyword-based redirection service, the Domain Name System is an essential component of the functionality of the Internet. The Domain Name System also defines the technical underpinnings of the functionality of this database service. At the request of Jon Postel, Paul Mockapetris invented the Domain Name system in 1983 and wrote the first implementation. [edit] The domain name spaceDomain names, arranged in a tree, cut into zones, each served by a nameserver. The domain name space consists of a tree of domain names. Each node or leaf in the tree has zero or more resource records, which hold information associated with the domain name. Authority is said to be delegated for a portion of the old space, usually in form of sub-domains, to another nameserver and administrative entity. A domain name usually consists of two or more parts (technically a label), which is conventionally written separated by dots, such as example. The rightmost label conveys the top-level domain (for example, the address www. Each label to the left specifies a subdivision, or subdomain of the domain above it. A wildcard DNS record is specified by using a "*" as the left most label (part) of a domain name, e. Note: subdomain expresses relative dependence, not absolute dependence. The whole domain name may not exceed a total length of 253 octets. [5] In practice, some domain registries may have shorter limits. A hostname refers to a domain name that has one or more associated IP addresses; ie: the 'www. The Domain Name System is maintained by a distributed database system, which uses the client-server model. Each domain or subdomain has one or more authoritative DNS servers that publish information about that domain and the name servers of any domains subordinate to it. DNS also supports wildcard DNS records that will match requests for non-existent domain names. The top of the hierarchy is served by the root nameservers: the servers to query when looking up (resolving) a top-level domain name (TLD). , translation of a domain name into an IP address. Since this can introduce a circular dependency if the nameserver referred to is under the domain that it is authoritative of, it is occasionally necessary for the nameserver providing the delegation to also provide the IP address of the next nameserver. When an application (such as a web browser) tries to find the IP address of a domain name, it doesn't necessarily follow all of the steps outlined in the Theory section above. Specifically, it implies that [1] when you make a DNS change, it somehow spreads to all other DNS servers (instead, other DNS servers check in with yours as needed), and [2] that you do not have control over the amount of time the record is cached (you control the TTL values for all DNS records in your domain, except your NS records and any authoritative DNS servers that use your domain name). When one changes the NS records for one's domain or the IP addresses for hostnames of authoritative DNS servers using one's domain (if any), there can be a lengthy period of time before all DNS servers use the new information. And any DNS changes on your domain other than the NS records and authoritative DNS server names can be nearly instantaneous, if you choose for them to be (by lowering the TTL once or twice ahead of time, and waiting until the old TTL expires before making the change). A number of large ISPs have configured their DNS servers to violate rules (presumably to allow them to run on less-expensive hardware than a fully-compliant resolver), such as by disobeying TTLs, or by indicating that a domain name does not exist just because one of its name servers does not respond.

To date, and according to Guinness World Records and MSNBC, the most expensive domain name sales on record as of 2004 were[3]:Business. The business of resale of previously registered domain names is known as the "domain aftermarket". Nine Resolutions To Build Your Brand and Your BusinessUsing these nine strategies can help strengthen a company brand and build a better bottom line Learn more about company branding strategies. There are disputes about the high values of domain names claimed and the actual cash prices of many sales such as Business. Certain domains, especially those related to business, gambling, pornography, and other commercially lucrative fields of digital world trade have become very much in demand to corporations and entrepreneurs due to their importance in attracting clients. Fast Track Your Journey to Home Business SuccessNo one has ever logged onto the Internet for the first time and started pocketing dollars in a really short period of time. In the business of marketing domain names, "premium" domain names are often valuable, and have particular characteristics.

The DNS was invented in 1983, shortly after TCP/IP was deployed. DNS servers are not required to support recursive queries. The DNS protocol was developed and defined in the early 1980s and published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (cf. DNS primarily uses UDP on port 53 [8] to serve requests. DNSSEC, however, works on complete RR sets in a canonical order. This mechanism has made the DNS distributed, fault tolerant, and helped avoid the need for a single central register to be continually consulted and updated. Other identifiers such as RFID tags, UPC codes, International characters in email addresses and host names, and a variety of other identifiers could all potentially utilize DNS [1]. DNS was not originally designed with security in mind, and thus has a number of security issues. Several more-recent RFCs have proposed various extensions to the core DNS protocols. BIND was widely distributed, especially on Unix systems, and is the dominant DNS software in use on the Internet. A DNS zone consists of a collection of connected nodes authoritatively served by an authoritative nameserver. The client-side of the DNS is called a DNS resolver. For this purpose it defines the DNS protocol, a detailed specification of the data structures and communication exchanges used in DNS, as part of the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). The context of the DNS within the Internet protocols may be seen in the following diagram.

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Friday, January 2, 2009

Top 3 Marketing Niches With Constant Buyers

By Ryan Shinglebaum

Beginners in internet marketing spend a lot of time trying to figure out which niche they want to target initially. The debate about whether they should pick a small niche that no one has thought of yet and do well with it. You can also go with a niche that has guarenteed customers, and is always in demand.

Sometimes these niches are called evergreen niches. Thats because these niches always have people looking to buy something to help solve their problems. It would be a good idea to start targeting these niches as you always know theres a huge demand.

Love and Relationships: There is a bunch of niches in the relationships category, because there's so many stages of a relationship. There's always newbies to dating looking for a date and wondering how to act on a date. With regards to weddings, there's proposing, the whole wedding planning process and more. Also, marriages and relationships in general have strife and people always need advice.

No matter the relationship stage, there's tons of niches to be domainted because people need help and information. Why not be the one getting paid for providing information to those looking for relationship help and advice. Write up and package some advice, and market it to those looking for relationship tips.

Financial Success: Financial success is another evergreen niche because people are always looking to get more money than they have now. If you know how to make money, and can teach people to do it, then you'll be able to make money in this niche about making money. Helping to solve financial problems can also be a great niche within the general making money niche. Debt consolidation, getting out of debt, savings, 401k's, etc.

Health: Niches in the general health market are great for two main reasons. The first reason is that there are many different niches available. Secondly, health niches usually pay very well for Adsense or affiliate marketing.

Almost everyone is concerned about their weight at some point in their life and ends up looking for weight loss solutions. Health and Fitness is a large market and their are always people looking to lose weight. Summer is a huge season for weight loss and targeting visitors looking to lose weight for the summer is a great niche.

As with anything in life the more popular something is the more buyers you're likely to attract. If you decide on one of the niches mentioned in this article you'll be amazed how many offers you receive if and when you choose to sell. Choosing a niche in an established mainstream market gives you the security you won't find in a new market.

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