The domain name registration process can be confusing to first time buyers. There are a number of terms to worry about. Hopefully, with the information below, you'll be able to successfully register domain names while avoiding the pain that can sometimes come from the domain registration process.
What the heck is a nameserver anyway? Nameservers refer to a service that runs on servers belonging to a web hosting company that hosts the account that the domain name will point to. Every domain name on the internet must point to an IP address but each IP address can have multiple domain names on it thanks to shared hosting. Entering the nameservers of the hosting company you have for the domain name you are registering lets the big DNS nameservers on the internet know where to find the hosting account for the domain name in question. Without this service, it would be impossible for any computer to find any web page. This is all usually done very quickly – in a fraction of a second.
Whois information is another thing to get knowledgeable about. Whois refers to the owner of the domain name. This information is provided by you when you register a domain name. This information in turn is offered to anyone who cares to search for it. For this reason, it is important to consider privacy issues when entering your information for a domain name. It is not advisable to falsify domain name information. At the same time, you may use the most generic information you can when entering your domain. If you have a work address and home address, use the work address. If you have a post office box number and a street address, include the post office box number only.
How many years should you consider registering your domain name? I would argue that it depends what you are going to use the domain for. If it is your business name and you intend to be in business for at least the next five years, I would register it for five years. That way, you don't have to worry about it for a long time. In fact, you can register domain names for up to ten years. If you register your domain for that long, you won't have to worry about it for a decade. Maintenance and stress free.
Make sure you lock your domain. After you've registered your domain name, log into the control panel for your domain name and confirm that it is locked. What does locking do for you? It prevents anyone from transferring your domain name to another registrar without your authorization. Most registrars require you to approve the transfer by clicking on a link but some registrars may simply allow the transfer if you don't expressly forbid it. Miss an email and you could lose your domain name. Don't take a chance. Lock your domain name right away.
About The Author:Joe Duchesne is the webmaster for http://Yowling.com which provides domain name registration services along with web hosting a web site builder. Reprint freely as long as the live keyword link in this article points to our website.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Step by Step to a Successful Website
Brainstorm: Think of the type of site you want to create and the site name. Your site name should be catchy, easy to remember and relevant to the content of the site.
Buy the domain name and hosting: You need to buy a domain name that matches your site name (makes sense right?). this part can be frustrating as your idea for a name may already be taken. Search for alternatives or hyphenate it or go with an alternate suffix like “.org, .net, or .us”
Even though it maybe cheaper to go somewhere else for hosting, buy the hosting from the same company you bought the domain from. It’s just easier that way and tech support will be able to help you out more since they can access all aspects of your account (if you need them)
Work on the design and layout of your site: Even though content is the most important factor to the success of your site, you need to be able to lure visitors in. if you have a clean and appealing site, then visitors will stay longer on your site. Another important thing about layout is here you will decide how all your content will be organized for accessibility.
Add content: This is where you wordsmith skills come out. Write, add pictures add whatever content you can think of that is relevant to your site. Organize the information in the view of the visitor
SEO your site: Search Engine Optimization is where you configure your site to be friendly to search engine results. This will make you rank hire on certain search results. The goal should be to listed on the first page on certain searched keywords.
Test your site:. Check for bugs and loop holes in your site. Look for spelling mistakes, broken links etc. you don’t want to discredit you site from the start.
Add a Trend Analyzer:. By adding this feature you can see where your visitors are coming from, where they are located physically , how long they stay on your site, and what information do they look for. This can be very useful information when you decide to sell ad space on your site and you can then proove to your advertiziers the traffic you get to your site.
Submit to Search Engines, Advertise, Link exchange, One-way links: Submit your site to be crawled by search engines. Do a search for submit site or suggest a site and submit your site to those results. This part is extremely important as you want people to find you thru the search engine.
Advertise your site to search engine results like Google. This is the quickest way to get traffic to your site. go to www.google.com/adwords to start a campaign
Link Exchange can be very tedious. Look for sites to swap links with. You can even find sites that act like middleman where you can meet other people who want to swap links. Just do a search for link exchange. Be careful of who you do link exchanges with. Avoid: porn, gambling, and racial/hate sites.
A one-way link program is where you pay a monthly fee and you get a bunch of links pointing to your site. This can be a great way to increase the popularity of your site. However, try to check the quality of the links. Some programs have been listed a “link farms” and their links will not count towards your Page Rank in Google. If you can buy a one-way link from a high PR then do it.
SEO your site:. You have to tweak and configure your site so that it is optimized for search results. As you gain more traffic you will understand the type of visitors and what they are looking for. SEO it so you can rank higher on specific keywords. This is where your Trend Analyzer shines.
Continue to: Test you site for broken links, add content on a regular basis, look for methods to increase traffic for your site, get incoming links, etc.
Make improvements to your site: Look for ways to keep your visitors intrested in your site. add new features, offer new products.
Your site can never be finished. You have to continuously make improvements and make your visitors experience unique. Look for feedback from your visitors and add content relevant to your site.
Sunil Rajan offers reviews, advice and assistance for new webmaster interested in making money on the internet. His services are free as he provides assistance as a personal hobby. He enjoys helping those who want to make money thru his website http://www.therichmonkey.com His site contains information on setting up sites, how to make profits from them and how to keep an edge on the internet. Include this bio when reprinting.
Buy the domain name and hosting: You need to buy a domain name that matches your site name (makes sense right?). this part can be frustrating as your idea for a name may already be taken. Search for alternatives or hyphenate it or go with an alternate suffix like “.org, .net, or .us”
Even though it maybe cheaper to go somewhere else for hosting, buy the hosting from the same company you bought the domain from. It’s just easier that way and tech support will be able to help you out more since they can access all aspects of your account (if you need them)
Work on the design and layout of your site: Even though content is the most important factor to the success of your site, you need to be able to lure visitors in. if you have a clean and appealing site, then visitors will stay longer on your site. Another important thing about layout is here you will decide how all your content will be organized for accessibility.
Add content: This is where you wordsmith skills come out. Write, add pictures add whatever content you can think of that is relevant to your site. Organize the information in the view of the visitor
SEO your site: Search Engine Optimization is where you configure your site to be friendly to search engine results. This will make you rank hire on certain search results. The goal should be to listed on the first page on certain searched keywords.
Test your site:. Check for bugs and loop holes in your site. Look for spelling mistakes, broken links etc. you don’t want to discredit you site from the start.
Add a Trend Analyzer:. By adding this feature you can see where your visitors are coming from, where they are located physically , how long they stay on your site, and what information do they look for. This can be very useful information when you decide to sell ad space on your site and you can then proove to your advertiziers the traffic you get to your site.
Submit to Search Engines, Advertise, Link exchange, One-way links: Submit your site to be crawled by search engines. Do a search for submit site or suggest a site and submit your site to those results. This part is extremely important as you want people to find you thru the search engine.
Advertise your site to search engine results like Google. This is the quickest way to get traffic to your site. go to www.google.com/adwords to start a campaign
Link Exchange can be very tedious. Look for sites to swap links with. You can even find sites that act like middleman where you can meet other people who want to swap links. Just do a search for link exchange. Be careful of who you do link exchanges with. Avoid: porn, gambling, and racial/hate sites.
A one-way link program is where you pay a monthly fee and you get a bunch of links pointing to your site. This can be a great way to increase the popularity of your site. However, try to check the quality of the links. Some programs have been listed a “link farms” and their links will not count towards your Page Rank in Google. If you can buy a one-way link from a high PR then do it.
SEO your site:. You have to tweak and configure your site so that it is optimized for search results. As you gain more traffic you will understand the type of visitors and what they are looking for. SEO it so you can rank higher on specific keywords. This is where your Trend Analyzer shines.
Continue to: Test you site for broken links, add content on a regular basis, look for methods to increase traffic for your site, get incoming links, etc.
Make improvements to your site: Look for ways to keep your visitors intrested in your site. add new features, offer new products.
Your site can never be finished. You have to continuously make improvements and make your visitors experience unique. Look for feedback from your visitors and add content relevant to your site.
Sunil Rajan offers reviews, advice and assistance for new webmaster interested in making money on the internet. His services are free as he provides assistance as a personal hobby. He enjoys helping those who want to make money thru his website http://www.therichmonkey.com His site contains information on setting up sites, how to make profits from them and how to keep an edge on the internet. Include this bio when reprinting.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
STEP BY STEP
Domain Names & Websites
posted : by Josh Greenberger
----------------------------------------------------------
Domain Name ArticlesDoes a website come with a domain name? If not, what comes with a website and how do I get a domain name?
Learn How VoIP is Dramatically Cutting Telecom Costs for Small BusinessesWith VoIP... FierceIPTV BlackBerry Tips and Tricks for QWERTY Devices Everything you always wanted to know about VoIP but were afraid to ask Digital Transactions Hundreds more titles... New website owners often seem confused about how and when domain names come into play. The questions usually boil down to: "Does a website come with a domain name?" and "If not, how do I get a domain name?"
Web hosting and domain name registration are usually separate services. Although your hosting company may give or sell you a domain name with your website, most hosting companies are not domain registrars, and chances are they're procuring it from a third party. (Domain registrars often give you a website, but they're usually not "full featured" websites, and another issue.)
What's more, despite the fact that hosting companies will generally take care of your initial domain name registration, becoming familiar with the basics of domain name management can save you anywhere from a few bucks to a little bundle. (For the definition of "bundle," forget Webster's Dictionary. Look at your monthly statement from your hosting company; if it gives you that sinking feeling, that's a bundle.)
Registrars like directnic.com and enom.com, for example, charge $15 and $30, respectively, per year, per domain name. In bulk, you can get names at enom.com for as low as $9. And with a little shopping around, you can do even better than this.
Registrars like directnic.com and enom.com, for example, charge $15 and $30, respectively, per year, per domain name. In bulk, you can get names at enom.com for as low as $9. And with a little shopping around, you can do even better than this.
Managing your own domain names will usually have its biggest payoff if you should decide to get more than one domain name, a common practice that can sometimes enhance your web presence. How? Let's say, your business name is "Grumpy's Hardware and Paint." Some people know you as Grumpy's Hardware, some as Grumpy's Paint, and some as just plain Grumpy. You might want to get three domain names -- grumpyshardware.com, grumpyspaint.com, and grumpy.com -- so your site can be reached no matter what a surfer enters in his browser.
The way this would work is, you'd open your hosting account using, let's say, grumpy.com. Then you'd add on, what's called, "parked" or "mirror" domain names, grumpyshardware.com and grumpyspaint.com. Parked or mirror domains are not separate websites; they simply point to an existing website, grumpy.com, in this case.
The way this would work is, you'd open your hosting account using, let's say, grumpy.com. Then you'd add on, what's called, "parked" or "mirror" domain names, grumpyshardware.com and grumpyspaint.com. Parked or mirror domains are not separate websites; they simply point to an existing website, grumpy.com, in this case.
The problem is that some hosting companies will charge you setup and/or monthly fees for parked domains. These fees are above and beyond the yearly fees you already pay for registering domain names. And these fees can add up.
By managing domain names yourself, however, you can avoid all "parking" fees, not to mention shop around for a better deal on the names themselves.
The fundamentals of domain management begin with two basic methods of directing domain names to your website. That is, the process that gets a surfer from the browser to your website involves a mechanism that takes the surfer (unbeknownst to him) to your domain name registrar and then to your website. The journey from your registrar to your website can be accomplished by one of two methods -- "pointing" or "forwarding." It's your choice as to which method to use.
By managing domain names yourself, however, you can avoid all "parking" fees, not to mention shop around for a better deal on the names themselves.
The fundamentals of domain management begin with two basic methods of directing domain names to your website. That is, the process that gets a surfer from the browser to your website involves a mechanism that takes the surfer (unbeknownst to him) to your domain name registrar and then to your website. The journey from your registrar to your website can be accomplished by one of two methods -- "pointing" or "forwarding." It's your choice as to which method to use.
What's the difference? There's a huge difference.
Although the menus for setting up these features vary from registrar to registrar, the concepts are the same. "Pointing" involves assigning a DNS (Domain Name Server) address, obtained from your hosting company, to your domain name grumpy.com. This is done at your registrar account.
Then, you must inform your hosting company to "set up" grumpy.com on their end, if they have not yet done so. And this is where domain name setup and monthly fees at your hosting company come in.
Although the menus for setting up these features vary from registrar to registrar, the concepts are the same. "Pointing" involves assigning a DNS (Domain Name Server) address, obtained from your hosting company, to your domain name grumpy.com. This is done at your registrar account.
Then, you must inform your hosting company to "set up" grumpy.com on their end, if they have not yet done so. And this is where domain name setup and monthly fees at your hosting company come in.
"Forwarding" (also referred to as "redirecting"), on the other hand, works a little differently. Let's say you wanted to set up grumpyspaint.com for your website. Instead of using the DNS method described above, you would simply "forward" it to grumpy.com, which would already be pointing to your website. In addition to being a little simpler, it's likely you've just saved yourself some money.
How?
How?
When a surfer enters grumpyspaint.com, they simply get forwarded to your other name, grumpy.com, which is already pointing to your website. It's almost as if the surfer entered grumpy.com directly. And you don't need any additional setups at your hosting company when you use this method, no matter how many additional parked domain names you have. So, no setups, no fees.
To put it all together, if you had let's say 20 domain names, you'd need to set up only one domain name at your registrar using the DNS method, and you'd need your hosting company to "setup" that same name on their end. The other nineteen names would need no setup whatsoever at your hosting company. All you'd have to do is redirect (at your registrar account) all nineteen names to that one name you already have set up. And, thus, you've saved yourself setup and/or monthly fees for nineteen parked domains.
How much can you save? Some hosting companies can charge as much as $20 setup and $5 per month for each parked domain. Figure it out.
Be aware that some registrars charge extra for features such as "forwarding." But there's no need to pay extra even for this. Many registrars, like directnic.com and enom.com, include forwarding and other features at no extra charge.
So, even if you do not necessarily take care of these domain matters yourself, but relegate it to a friend or coworker, being aware of the ins and outs can help you avoid getting ripped off by a hosting company whose job is not necessarily to keep you informed of the most budget-conscious way of running your operation. After all, the information super highway should be for surfing, not for being taken for a ride.
So, even if you do not necessarily take care of these domain matters yourself, but relegate it to a friend or coworker, being aware of the ins and outs can help you avoid getting ripped off by a hosting company whose job is not necessarily to keep you informed of the most budget-conscious way of running your operation. After all, the information super highway should be for surfing, not for being taken for a ride.
by Josh Greenberger from shopndrop.com
Josh Greenberger: A computer consultant for over two decades, the author has developed software for such organizations as NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, AT&T, Charles Schwab, Bell Laboratories and Chase Manhattan Bank. Since 1984, the author's literary works have appeared in such periodicals as The New York Post, The Daily News, The Village Voice, The Jewish Press, and others. His articles have ranged from humor to scientific to topical events. Visit him at http://shopndrop.com/
Josh Greenberger: A computer consultant for over two decades, the author has developed software for such organizations as NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, AT&T, Charles Schwab, Bell Laboratories and Chase Manhattan Bank. Since 1984, the author's literary works have appeared in such periodicals as The New York Post, The Daily News, The Village Voice, The Jewish Press, and others. His articles have ranged from humor to scientific to topical events. Visit him at http://shopndrop.com/
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