Domain Names - Six Golden Rules for Generic Domain Names

How come that certain domain names sell for over a million dollars while others get no interest what so ever. Two domain names may appear to be almost the same and might even have a couple of different characters, like Beds.com and Bedsx.com, but you’ve got it - The first one is a winner and the second a no hoper.

If you have already made the decision that you want to buy a domain then you will just have to read these 6 golden rules if you want your domain investment to reap benefits. There are a variety of ways to buy domains but with a bit of investigation you could end up with a big buck winning domain name when you decide to sell.

1. Keyword volume: This is an estimate of how many searches the word or phrase has, which is an indication of it?s popularity. For example, according to Google, the phrase “Hawaii Singles” has 2400 searches a month. If you were bidding on HawaiiSingles.com, you would also want to check Keyword Discovery and/or WordTracker for additional data. You’ll never get more than an indication since each tool measures differently. However, it’s a safe bet if people are searching for a phrase there will be some natural traffic and SEO potential, and if there’s no volume, there will be little or none.

2. Commonality: A lot of people say domains are valued on their scarcity, but if you think about it, all domains, both good and bad, are one of a kind. What I like to look for is the commonality of the phrase the name represents within our society and existing lexicon. Usage, word order, and pluralization are huge factors in valuation. For example, “Discount” is not the same as “Discounted” which is not the same as “Discounts.” SportCars.com is valued less than SportsCars.com, and ShoesRunning.com is practically worthless when pitted against RunningShoes.com. Search for the phrase in quotes on Google to see if people are even using it, much less searching for it.

3. True type-in traffic: You would normally have great difficulty in viewing this type of information before investing in a domain name. The principal concern is just how much type-in traffic the name receives, but this should not include visitors who get referred from search engines and links and these are not long term factors.

4. Length: A further important consideration is the domain length. Short domain names will get better results because they are a lot easier to remember and spell and would convert into loads more traffic. Branding domains with takinf these important factors into account will increase drastically the domain name value which is great news if later sell your domain.

5. Prior use: If the domain has a past life, and was acquired through a drop service or from an expired list, you want to know about it. Forget perceived positives like search engine ranking and PR since those will likely disappear after the name is in your hands. Instead, delve into the name’s dark side. Was it ever used for spamming? Is it banned from Google’s index? Did it previously contain questionable content? Overcoming these negatives can be more work than you bargained for, even with an otherwise great name.

6. End user development potential: The one thing pretty much everyone in this business agrees on is a domain needs to be developable. In other words, you must always ask yourself this: Would I or anyone else be willing to spend money to put up a Web site on this name? If the answer is no, it will never truly be considered great.

Site Flipping - Investments That Pay Dividends (Part 2)

Obviously, you know what they are looking for based on the keyword they are typing: Cell Phones and cell phone information. And listen up bucko, those visitors will type in CellPhones.com day in and day out, whether you advertise the site or not, just so long as you pay the $10/year registration fee.

Quality has not effect on your site’s traffic. Banners and pop ups have no negative effect on traffic. A high price range product will not deter traffic. The quality of the site content won’t even stop traffic coming. The reason is that the actual domain name is that powerful that it alone will send your site traffic. I would highly recommend that you would do the opposite though to get better conversions.

I know it sounds amazing people would type in a keyword string and add a dot com, but they do. In fact, it’s estimated that 50% of all Internet traffic is type-in, also known as direct navigation. And when you take out the obvious destinations people type-in like Yahoo, Google, and MSN, the number is still almost 20%. I didn’t believe it myself, but worked with a search engine client a few years back and discovered two very interesting facts about online users that if you understand, will make you money:

More facts - 1) Address bar searches account for 31% of total searches. 2) The search bar accounts for 28% of the total of address lookups. Domainers actually earn quite a lot of their income due to the alarming fact that most people just don’t know how to use the internet. So I suppose this would be why “yahoo.com” topped the list of searched terms.

So what’s CellPhones.com worth anyway? About 125,000 hot responsive visitors a month! And what are they worth, pray tell? Well, if you park the page and get paid on click revenue, it might be worth $15,000 - $30,000 a month… just based on type-in traffic. If you were offsetting the cost of advertising for an affiliate promotion, a click for a term like “cell phones” might go for buck or so, so you’d come out ahead by over six figures per month.

If you added to the power of this domain name to a high street business that sells cell phones, then you would probably be able to increase sales up to 3 million dollars per month. What power domain names can have on a business like cellphones.com which is worth a seven figure number. We can now see how important it is for domain names to be part of a perfectly structured business plan. Investment-grade keyword domains are responsible for this e-commerce powerhouse that can pay great dividends, gives you a monthly income and right up until you decide on selling your web site.

Domain Investing - Investments That Pay Dividends (Part 1)

Domain names have never really been the most sought after investments and that goes for Marketers too. Domain investing has never really been properly understood and the outlying factor that seems to turn people away is the understanding that accidental traffic will be the only visits the site gets, meaning that you can’t really expect to make much in the way of profit.

Some still believe a domain name doesn’t matter, thinking JiggyPop.org is just as good as Hotels.com, provided the site’s content is the same. Listen, at one time I thought those things too, but those assumptions are dead wrong. Let me illustrate the real value of quality domain investments with a little quiz: Which domain name is most valuable on a strict valuation basis? a) Google.com or b) CellPhones.com

I expect most of you have answered Google.com as it does stand out just a bit, but incredibly it is not the correct answer and this is why. Google is as we know just the brand of a search engine and it is not very often used as a keyword. The important thing that comes out of this is that when you own a domain name, you have total power over your keyboard.

I have several domains like Google.com, all cute, super fun-to-say, and memorable, but with no real definition. None get more than a few visitors a month - accidental, random traffic, at best. And since “Google” doesn’t historically mean anything, there’s almost no way to monetize a name like that without millions and millions of dollars worth of branding, and years of reputation building. At best, a domain like Google.com - but with no existing name recognition - might earn a few dollars a year in click revenue and sell for a few thousand at auction.

After taking this into consideration you may just see how a domain name such as Flights.com could create a hell of a lot of casual visitors otherwise known as type-in traffic or direct navigation. If I had to calculate though my own results as well as established type-in click-through metrics for the domain industry, I would estimate an average of 5000 visitors a day for a domain name like Flights.com. This means that you would receive 125,000 visits a month just through type-in traffic. (Find out just how in part 2)…Published Soon.

A Guide To Choosing An SEO Effective Domain Name

Would a novel work without a good cover? Similarly, a website without a good domain name is worthless. The power of a good domain has influence far beyond what you could imagine. But, don’t think if you put all your creativity into your domain name, you will get a great one. So what could be the key to finding good domain ante easily and without putting in too much effort? You have to check whether the domain name is good for the search engines, because they pick certain keywords to index the domain names, and hence the websites. Make your keyword sound compelling and make it oriented for the search engines too. Read this article to understand how both these can be achieved.

You will have to start by searching a keyword that is good for the search engines and also can be a part of your domain name. Use a keyword analyzer to get this done. Look for them on the search engines. Use a sample keyword into this tool that describes your site. The analyzer will now give you many different alternatives for the keyword you inserted. Choose those keywords from this list that describe more about what your website is about. If the domain keywords are specific, there are few chances that other webmasters will use them. So that’s better for search engine optimization. After this, you can begin looking for the domain name you will keep.

A lot of the domain name companies on the Internet will let you know if a particular name is available. If not obtainable, you will at least get some recommendations. Put in your keyword first; this will help you make better use of this tool. If at all the keyword is not available for use as the domain name, you will be given other suggestions. Think favorably about the domain names that have the keyword and end with .com. In case this is not present, think creatively. By putting in filler words in the domain name, you may be able to find an available option that still keeps your keyword.

Three interesting fillers you can use are ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’. You get a good domain name, and you also get it indexed because the search engines will simply ignore such buffer words. Use numbers at the end of the phrase. Any number like 80 or anything else will do. Below we describe what you must do if you get all else but not the .com suffix.

You may opt for an extension other than .com, especially in the cause of very popular keywords. Other workable solutions are .biz, .net and .org. One more tactic is to use country or state specific extensions. This works if international or local marketing makes no difference to you. You can well understand that it is much wiser to be on the first page in the Indian Google than to be on the 86th page in the American Google! It is not complicated to have a domain name that serves well for your visitors as well as for the search engines.

Summary

Only 10% of the success of your domain name depends on your intelligence. The rest depends on the keyword analyzer tool. The last straw, when nothing else works, is to resort to the extensions.