You want your own online business Good because its one of the most fun things you can do with your spare time and can be very profitable.
Remember that just because its an online business doesnt mean that you should treat it with any less professionalism or seriousness than you do your daytime job.
Why Simply because when you run an online business its a serious business. Well it should be taken seriously if you want to make serious money.
One of the most important aspects of any online business is the domain name. This is where the vast majority of new online entrepreneurs make their first big mistake - they choose one of those free domain name providers to represent their business online. This is a critical mistake.
Lets say youre starting a computer repair business. Which one of the following domains looks better:
www.computerfixer.com or;computerfixer.freehosting.com
The truth of the matter is that computerfixer.com is a top level domain and computerfixer.freehosting.com is a sub-domain. These free domain providers would have you believe that their cheapo subdomain is as good as a top level domain - this simply isnt so.
Online shoppers expect your online business to be located on a top level domain. If they find your website on one of these cheap or free domain services youve just lost 50% of your potential customers. Theyll click back and look at the next search result in Google, Yahoo or MSN.
Free domains make you look cheap, show that you dont want to invest in your business, that you dont take your customers seriously, look terrible on business cards and make you look like an amateur. There arent any benefits to cutting corners on your domain name.
A domain name costs, at most, $15 per year. Thats 4 cents per day. If your business cant afford this then you really shouldnt be running an online business at all.
This article was written by Niall Roche and provided courtesy of . This website has lots of informative and useful articles on the topic of .
Does the length of your websites domain name registration affect the search results at Google This question has come up recently and a lot of website owners have been wondering about it, especially since it was mentioned in a patent awarded to Google in April. According to the patent, Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains. For example, domains can be renewed up to a period of 10 years. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith. According to this statement in the patent, domains that expire in 10 years are more valuable and legitimate than domains that will expire in less than a year.
Google, in general, is always looking for ways to weed out the bad (spammers) from the good (legitimate) websites. I suspect that they looked for a pattern among the good, legitimate websites and found that most good, legitimate websites have a commitment towards their business and their domain name-they register it for a long period of time. In other words, the theory behind all of this is that if you register a domain name for several years it shows Google that youre committed to that domain name. If you register a domain name for 1 year then youre not as committed to that domain name. A lot of spammers use throw away domain names and register them for only a year. So, Google uses the length of time that a domain is registered to determine whether the owner of that domain name is committed to it or not.
One domain name owner I talked to recently told me that renewing his domain names once each year was a part of his business plan. He made a certain amount of money each year from each domain name/website, and he didnt want to cut into the profits of each site by renewing each domain name all at once for several years. Renewing a domain name for 10 years or even 2 years ahead of time means that I have to spend more money. If I have to come up with $50 or $100 more per year for the domain renewal fees it cuts into my profits, says John, who wished to remain anonymous. Johns website is probably exactly the type of website that Google wishes to identify. Google is looking to identify quality, well-established websites whose owners are committed to their domain names. According to the statements made in Googles patent, Google thinks that websites that have been renewed for a long period of time meet that standard.
Should you renew your domain name for a long period of time And if so, how long is long enough If you want to stay ahead of your competition, then you might consider looking at the length of time your competitors have registered their domain names. If your competitors have generally renewed their domain names for one or two years, you might consider registering your domain name for 5 or 10 years. While putting off your domain names expiration date might help your search engine rankings, keep in mind that this may be only a small boost (or a tie-breaker among two websites) when it comes to the actual search engine rankings. And, be aware that just because Google has a patent on the idea it doesnt mean that theyre actually using that criteria now to rank websites. They, too, want to stay ahead of their competition (mainly Yahoo! and MSN).
Ive registered the domains that I really care about for at least 10 years. Initially, I registered these domains for a long period of time because I didnt want to lose them-and I didnt want to go through the somewhat-lengthy annual process of renewing them every year. Since most domain names I own come up for renewal at different times during the year, it seemed as though I was renewing a domain name at least once a month-and renewing them for a few years put it off for a while.
Expired domain name buyers are prevalent nowadays. If your domain name expires, theres a good chance that someone watching will register your domain name within seconds after it expires. If, for whatever reason, you dont renew your domain name, someone watching a watch list of expiring domain names will try to capitalize on the online business that youve built over the years. They know that there is potential website traffic they can have simply by renewing your old domain name. By renewing your domain name for several years, your domain name wont expire for a while, and it wont be opened up to expired domain name buyers.
If you really want to stay ahead of the competition, you might consider registering or renewing your domain name for 100 years. Currently, Network Solutions (www.netsol.com) is the only registrar offering the 100 year option, which costs $999.00. GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com), currently offers to renew or register a domain name for 10 years, at a discount of $6.95 per year. Dotster (www.dotster.com), another leading registrar, offers domain name registration and renewals for up to 10 years at a cost of $129.95.
Whats the bottom line If youre committed to your online business, your website, and your domain name, then renewing your domain name for a long period of time will not only stop expired domain buyers from registering your domain name when it expires, it will show Google that youre committed to it-and that may give you a boost in the search engine rankings, as well.
Bill Hartzer is a successful writer and search engine marketing expert who has personally created hundreds of websites over the years. Extended bio info:
Bill created his first website back in 1996 to help promote his former database software business. It was then when he learned about the power of the search engines and web search, which helped potential customers find his business online.
Bill Hartzer has over 15 years of professional writing experience. He has survived stints as a writer for television, as well as a technical writer for several computer software companies in Florida and in Texas. Mr. Hartzer combines his writing and online skills to create compelling and useful websites for corporations worldwide. Mr. Hartzer focuses on the optimization in the business to business arena, but applies these optimization skills to business to consumer websites, as well.