Keeping the domain name short:

Make sure you keep your domain name short and significant. Try to keep it under 10-13 characters, and make it very easy for a user to remember and associate with your website. The more creative and different you are, the easier it will be for people to remember it. Make sure it is unique, so that it is not confused with another website.

Domain name already taken?

If you find that your domain name is taken, you can always try to switch the “.com” to “.net” or “.co”. This usually works while you want to get the desired name. If you are still unable to get the required name, use your imagination and get creative. For example: www.the(website name).com or www.my(website name).com, etc.

You can even give it an acronym if needed. If your domain name has already been taken, there are several ways of finding out when the registration will expire. You can always contact the person through the contact i.d provided and ask them if they would be willing to sell. If you find the ideal domain name in “.com”, and “.in”, do not hesitate to purchase both. You do not want anyone else using your website’s name in the future.

Domain Name Registration:

Before you start to register, do a search on the web for “Domain Name Registration”. You can see several deals online, this will help you narrow down your choices. After that just click on the link and proceed.

Your Registrar:

Find a company who can act as your registrar.

You can find several on the web, after that all you need to do is check for availability. With a little bit of research you can easily find out more about which companies will help you Register Domain Names. You no longer need to shell out a huge amount of money for domain registration; there are so many companies in the market offering these services, and you can easily end up with a good bargain. Make sure that you purchase as soon as you find an availability. If you wait too long for the perfect deal, your domain name will slip right through your fingers.

Domain Registrant

Each country has rules governing ownership and transfer of domain names. These rules are clear, unequivocal and rigorously enforced. In all instances, the “registrant” is defined as the legal owner.

Frequently, domains are registered by the website designer on the client’s behalf. Sometimes they may have been initially registered by the office junior, the wife, girlfriend, business partner, the accountant… Time passes. Things change. Maybe now, the registrant is the ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, ex-business partner…

If your name is not listed as the registrant, you do not own the website! Best you get this sorted BEFORE the excrement hits the fan, and some one is holding knife to the throat of your valuable corporate website, demanding a 6-figure ransom!

Website Software

If you are using a licensed copy of a proprietary website software application, you certainly don’t own the software. However, if it is on your own domain, under your control, then you’ve got some security of tenure at least, should any differences of opinion arise with your website designers.

If you are using non-proprietary, Open Source software, on your own domain, hosted on an independent server, you’re in far better shape in the sense of having control over your assets.

If you’re using proprietary software owned by your website design company, hosted on their servers… you have a massive risk exposure in the event of a difference of opinion over when (or if) you should pay your accounts. If they are also listed as the registrant of the domain, you have placed yourself in an unenviable, vulnerable and potentially devastating position. Silly you… Oh dear, how sad, never mind!

Hosting

Hosting is a vexed question, and its damned hard to establish if the hosting company is a real hosting company, or an affiliate reseller of another company’s hosting services. Sometimes, there are multiple tiers… That said, do you know who to call if something bad happens to your website? The worst aspect of website designer’s hosting service is, its usually in a reseller sub-account, and you cannot have access to the nitty-gritty parts of the site. Things like FTP access, root-level file editing, messing with email accounts, installing other software, or direct access to stats data are usually off-limits. At best, that’s a pain in the bottom… at worst, it prevents you from having a full site backup in the event services are terminated for any reason!

And unrelated bad stuff happens! Last month, my hosting company’s US-based Data Centre operators got locked out of their premises, presumably over a rent or maintenance dispute with the building’s owner. Is your website designer smart enough, and well enough connected in the data centre world, to seamlessly relocate ALL client sites to safe environment within a couple of hours?

Website Designers

Al l website designers are not created equal. Most are honest, reliable and decent business people. However, some website designers are control freaks who like to keep cash-cow clients screwed down and locked into systems they cannot easily escape from, and ruthlessly milk them of every possible dollar. All the while, they deliver a minimum of service, and maximum of awkwardness, and make it as difficult as possible for a client to escape their clutches.

Impartial Advice

A decade of dealing with the aftermath of the cowboys, control freaks, the bloody-minded and the plain ignorant has taught me (and some of my clients) some valuable lessons.

1 – Ensure you are the domain registrant, and have access to your domain registration account.

7 – An oldie but a still-relevant goody – don’t put all your eggs in one basket!

This is rudimentary business risk management. Taking responsibility for your businesses activities is in integral part of management. When things go wrong, as they sometimes do, make sure you have a contingency plan.

About The Author

The SEO Guy, aka Ben Kemp, is a veteran search engine optimization consultant with more than a decade of SEO experience and website design accumulated in 23 years of work in the IT industry. His articles provide advice on SEO, website design & makeover issues.
http://www.website-designers.net.nz

1. Purpose

Your first question should be; what is the purpose of the website? Are you trying to establish your credibility in a certain niche? In that case you should undertake some keyword research to find out what search terms people use as a domain name using these terms would rank well. A domain containing keywords is quite likely to rank well in the search engines for those keywords.

Are you trying to promote a product? You should definitely consider creating domain name based on the product name. You should only do this if you own the rights to that product name.

2. Hyphens

If your chosen domain name has already been taken then you might want to consider using hyphens. The general rule of thumb is to not use more than two hyphens in a domain name and to avoid them altogether if you are going to use any form of offline promotion.

You can also try adding a prefix or a suffix to the keyword you wanted to use, such as blog or store.

3. Potential

You should also consider whether you are planning on creating a small niche site or whether you wish to build an authority site in your niche. Your choice of domain name should also be determined by how much growth you are expecting for your site over time.

For example plussizedbridesmaidsdresses.com might work well for a small niche site, but if you are planning to build a larger authority site then a domain like perfectwedding.com might have more leeway.

4. Top Level Domains

Unsure of the difference between a .com and a .net and a .co.uk? These top level domains (TLDs) allow users to distinguish between different types of websites. A .com is a commercial site and as the most popular and well recognised should be your first pick. Alternatively you might want to try a .info or a .net.

5. Price

It’s possible to get virtually any domain name that you could possibly want as long as you are willing to pay for it. An unused domain name will generally cost between $7 and $12 depending on which company you are using to register it. If you really want a domain that someone else has already registered then you could contact them and ask if they’d be willing to sell it.

About The Author

Download it here: http://www.sevensomewhere.com/free-report

Don’t panic since the field of affiliate marketing really requires you to do only 3 things to be successful.

Here’s a look at the 3 areas of preparation you’ll need to complete to start earning an income as an affiliate marketer.

Choose a Domain Name & Hosting

It is recommended although not necessary to have your own website or blog from which you can maintain an online presence. You will want to select a domain name that is relative to what it is you intend to market. This not only increases the professional image you want online for your business but it also prevent the visitor from being confused. If your domain name indicates something other than what it is you’re promoting you can easily lose visitors who may think it is not the site they’re looking for.

Make sure the hosting company you select is reputable and can easily be contacted 24/7. If your site goes down for whatever reason you are losing money the longer it remains offline so you want to be able to have the problem fixed quickly.

We recommend registering with either Webcrowd, Globat Web Hosting or Hostgator. All provide great value hosting.

Build Your Site

As an affiliate it is not required that your site is elaborate in fact it is recommended that you keep it simple. You don’t want so much ‘glitz and glitter’ that your intended message is lost.

Make it clear to the visitor what it is you’re promoting, maybe elaborate on a few benefits but for the most part leave the hard selling to the main affiliate site.

Generate Traffic

Here is where you need to focus most of your effort. Select 2 or 3 traffic generation techniques you’re comfortable with then push as many visitors to your site as possible.

This is the single biggest advantage of affiliate marketing. You don’t have to do much selling therefore you can concentrate on learning how to drive traffic to your site.

Launching your online affiliate marketing business really only requires that you simply first establish your online presence with a website. After that you are ready to begin marketing on the internet by driving traffic to your site. Many assume that starting an online business is more complicated then that but as you’ve seen it is really fairly simple. This is one of the biggest reasons the field of affiliate marketing is so popular.

By setting up a simple website you are in the position to start making money online from home provided you invest a little time generating traffic to your site. This entire process is extremely straight forward and actually requires nothing more other than a little effort from you.

By following the 3 steps we reviewed above you will be ready to start marketing as an affiliate in absolutely no time at all.

Author: TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina.