Imt Custom Business

Archive for May, 2011

The Domain Name Dilemma – How to Secure the Right Domain Name

Whilst most of the words in the dictionary have been registered as dotcom names by speculators hoping to sell them at a profit in the future, there are still many domain name options and combinations available with various extensions.

It is important to consider the following when choosing your domain name…

* Choose a memorable name

The right domain name allows your prospective customers an easy way to remember and find you. It’s your location on the web and also your email address.

* Your Domain Name is your Brand

Secure the domain name that best represents your business name and keep it out of the hands of your competitors.

Domains are valuable online real estate and securing more than one helps protect your brand and increase your reach.

You can easily direct as many domains as you want to a single website.

* Build Credibility

Having an appropriate domain name and using it to personalize your business cards and email addresses helps establish credibility and professionalism.

For instance, an email address such as john@ebusiness.com is more professional than john112@freeemail.com

Therefore, do not use a freebie domain name – it is short sighted and gives your prospective client the perception that you are “out to get a quick buck” type of business.

* Your Domain Name is an Investment

Domain names, like real estate, appreciate in value as time goes by.

Furthermore, as a domain name ages not only does it become more valuable, it importantly gains more credibility & integrity with the search engines.

Therefore it is extremely important to secure as many appropriate domains as possible as soon as you can.

Not only can they all be directed to one website but it keeps them out of the clutches of your competition as well as adding to your business’ online presence and credibility.

* If your preferred name has already been registered…?

The chances are that your preferred domain name has already been snapped up and that you’ll have to settle for a name that isn’t totally ideal.

Whilst you should always go for a top level domain (TLD) such as a dotcom extension if you’re a business, as people continue to assume that dotcom equals a business and professionalism, there are some good alternatives.

Other top level domains such as .net .org .biz are good choices for the appropriate type of business, eg. a computer network business should have a .net extension & a non-profit organization shouyld have a .org extension.

However if your business is country specific, you should consider using a country-specific top level domains (TLDs) like .de, .nu, .sg, etc.

However, if your name has been taken you can always consider adding a search engine friendly term or area to the name.

For instance if your preferred name is internetbusiness you could choose internetbusiness-startup or internetbusiness-texas or internetbusiness123 etc..

Also always once your domain is registered, remember to make sure your domain record remains locked.

This feature ensures that your domain remains secure and untouchable.

So if you want to transfer your domain name to a different registrar you have to unlock it before the new registrar can actually transfer it from your current registrar.

To start your Domain Name Search click how to secure your preferred domain name to see with what extensions (TLD’s) your preferred domain name is available and register as many appropriate domains as you can get – it’s an investment in your business’ future!

then investors have the option of using leverage. One of the drawbacks to this type of investing instead of using Futures is that the brokerage commission tends to be higher and you don’t get the same dollar move in the ETFs as you would the Futures. The traders profit potential can be less because they are not using leverage and incurring larger commissions. You need to make sure you check with your broker before you start this type of trading.

Since the bull market in Commodities began back in 2002, investors have seen Commodities become their own asset class. Investors are

looking for hard assets to place in their portfolios to protect against inflation and diversification to add to their profits.

With this diversification comes a negative correlation between Commodities and Stocks. A recent study shows that the correlation

between the UBS Commodity Index and the Stock market was only .33 over the last ten years.

 Some of the ETFs that are related to Commodity investing. ETFs can lose as much as five to ten per year of their return value in some Futures markets because of this type of situation. This becomes more of a problem if you select an ETF that is Commodity specific  GLD  Gold, USO – Oil, UNG – Natural Gas, because any of these markets could be in contrast and each time the ETF has to rollover their contracts, the fund will take a profit hit.

 Remember that word diversification? Well, it applies in

ETFs also. By investing in ETFs that track the broad Commodity indexes as opposed to Commodity specific indexes such as Gold, Oil,

Natural Gas, you will have a portfolio of a group of Commodities and not all of them will be in conflict at the same time.

Some may actually be inverted markets and this offers great pricing at rollovers for the ETFs. You should see how inverted

markets offer lower prices with each succeeding contract. One note of caution about Commodity ETFs: Always read the broker’s prospectus and make sure that the ETF is tracking the physical Commodities and that the ETF is not tracking companies related to producing or processing these Commodities.

ETFs that have baskets of Commodities in each:

RJI – Rogers International Commodity

GSG – S&P GSCI Commodity Index

GCC – Green Haven Continuous Commodity Index

DJP – Dow Jones Commodity Index

DBC – Powershares DB Commodity Index

You think of a perfect domain names.  It contains a keyword that is found in search engines, has no trademark issues and is memorable for website visitors.  You try to register your domain name with a domain name company.  It appears to be taken.  So, you put a hyphen in it.  That version of your domain name is not taken, but should you go on and invest in it?  This article will explore what webmasters need to consider if they are deciding to use hyphenated domain names.

First, they need to think about their website visitors.  Most people are not accustomed to using hyphenated domain names.  Even if they like a website, it may be simply a matter of forgetting to include the hyphen.  If this happens then the unhyphenated version of the domain name will be what receives traffic, which is definitely not what a webmaster wants.  Of course, if a domain name is not hyphenated in the first place, then such an issue would never arise.

However, a hyphenated domain names that is keyword-rich has a higher chance of getting a good ranking from a search engine than a non-hyphenated domain that is not SEO optimized.  A higher search engine ranking might outweigh the initial disadvantage of how inconvenient a hyphenated domain name is.  This is because if a website has a high search engine ranking, people won’t need to type in the domain name in order to access it.  They can simply click on the listing given in search engine results.  And if they like the site, they will bookmark it, an action that is preferable, since it shows they are really interested in what the site has to offer.  

Webmasters should also consider whether or not their domain names is more understandable if they use a hyphen.  Consider the unusual domain name molestationnursery.com.  This is actually in reference to a website that talks about mole nurseries, not molestation.  Yet, what will most website visitors think if they saw the domain name in that manner?  Including hyphens can make such a website much clearer.

It would also be better for SEO, since search engines would index mole-station-nursery.com with keywords related to moles.

So, basically, there are advantages and disadvantages to using hyphenated domain names.  If a webmaster thinks their domain name is going to bring them a lot of search engine traffic, they should go for it.  And in some cases, a hyphenated domain name is necessary to make its meaning easier to understand.

Otherwise, webmasters should try their best to create non-hyphenated domain names, since these are the types of domain names that rule the Internet world.  If they are having trouble coming up with a better domain name, they can consider using a domain name generator.  Many domain name companies provide rudimentary domain name generators if a selected domain name gets turned down.  Webmasters don’t have to settle for these type though, since there are more sophisticated domain name generators that can offer even more suggestions.