The Content Composer Org

A domain name is an alias for an IP address. Now what is an IP address? An IP address is a numeric code that signifies where to look through the Internet for content. An example of an IP address would be 22.226.141.25. Rather than typing in a long and easily forgotten IP address, a domain name helps you by typing an easily remembered name to access the same site.

For example, www.domainsatretail.com is a domain name that points to a specific IP address. People can remember a domain name such as www.domainsatretail.com much easier than they can a long numeric code.

Domain names are everywhere as many use it everyday. Think of search sites. Google and Yahoo both have corresponding domain names www.google.com and www.yahoo.com. If you have ever sent an email you have used a domain name. For example when sending an email to user@sympatico.ca, sympatico.ca is the domain name.

Now that we have a better understanding of domain names, we need to know which domain name to pick and where can we register it. The domain name chosen for a web site can be a very important decision of marketing your company on the Internet. Its quite easy to just say pick a catchy domain that everyone will remember to use and you are set. In most cases it is that simple and you are set on your way to register the domain. However, at times the domain name you want has already been taken. And then you must think of a secondary name that you wish to use that will be just as catchy as the first.

OK, now you have picked your domain name you want. What is next? You need to choose a registrar for you domain name registration. There are many registrars who sign up and are available for the year, but you get no service from them whatsoever. Here are two domain name registrars that I would recommend for completing your domain name registration.

1) Domains at Retail – registrar that registers domain names. We provide great service and have 24/7 customer support. .com domain names are normally on sale for $8.75 US / year, however they are currently being run on promotion for $7.95 US / year. Visit Domains at Retail at http://www.domainsatretail.com for Cheap domain registration and excellent customer service.

2) Domains at Cost – excellent registrar with very competitive prices. I use this registrar for my .ca domain name registrations and renewals. They offer an excellent price ($14.41 CDN per domain name registration) and I am always able to get someone on the phone and my questions answered. Please Visit Domains at Cost at http://www.domainsatcost.ca for .ca Domain Name Registrations!

Good Luck with your domain name registration process and your start to your online marketing!

Michael Kralj is owner of Emenki Web Solutions and Domains at Retail. Emenki Web Solutions are web site designers and programmers based in Hamilton, Ontario, providing businesses with an informative and strategic approach to establishing an online presence on the web.

Please visit Emenki Web Solutions & Web Design in Hamilton, Ontario on the web http://www.emenki.com

Please visit Domains at Retail – Cheap Domain Name Registration on the web: http://www.domainsatretail.com

You want your own online business? Good because it’s one of the most fun things you can do with your spare time and can be very profitable.

Remember that just because it’s an online business doesn’t 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 it’s 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.

Let’s say you’re 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 isn’t 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 you’ve just lost 50% of your potential customers. They’ll click back and look at the next search result in Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Free domains make you look cheap, show that you don’t want to invest in your business, that you don’t take your customers seriously, look terrible on business cards and make you look like an amateur. There aren’t any benefits to cutting corners on your domain name.

A domain name costs, at most, $15 per year. That’s 4 cents per day. If your business can’t afford this then you really shouldn’t be running an online business at all.

This article was written by Niall Roche and provided courtesy of http://www.domaintutor.info. This website has lots of informative and useful articles on the topic of web domains.

Ever been in a hall of mirrors at a circus or carnival? You go in, and you think you’re heading in one direction only to find out – bonk! – that was a mirror or glass, and suddenly you’re headed in a different direction all together.

That’s what domain name forwarding is like.

Say you’re on the Internet and you hear about a great new product and you can find out all about it at newproduct.com. So you type “newproduct.com” into your browser.

Only you don’t end up at newproduct.com. Instead, you somehow end up at othersite.com. You’re not too concerned, because there on the page is the product you were looking for as well as some other products besides.

But how come you didn’t end up at newproduct.com? And if the people with the product wanted you to end up at othersite.com, why didn’t they put that domain name instead?

To answer the first question, you probably ended up at othersite.com instead of newproduct.com because of domain forwarding. If so, the people who set this up did the following:

They bought the domain name othersite.com and created a website there with all their products.

They bought the domain name newproduct.com and told people that’s where the new product info is.

They used domain forwarding so that whoever went to newproduct.com would get forwarded to othersite.com. They could use domain forwarding with other domain names as well, such as bigproduct.com, smallproduct.com, and tinyproduct.com. No matter which domain name you went to, you’d end up exactly where they wanted you, which was at othersite.com, where ALL their products are.

To answer the second question, the reasons they’d do this are:

Instead of having different websites for each product, people often put all their products on one site, or at one domain name, but advertise the products individually using product-specific domain names. Why? (see below)

It’s more impressive to have a product-specific domain name (e.g., superbike.com) than just a generic domain name (e.g., bikestore.com). It’s also more likely you’ll remember the product-specific domain name.

Now, most of us would only be mildly confused to end up on othersite.com when we thought we were going to newproduct.com. In fact, a lot of us wouldn’t even notice we didn’t end up at the domain name we thought we were going to – not unless we looked at the top of our browser to the URL address of the webpage we ended up on.

But where it can get confusing is this. The people with the domain name newproduct.com could use masked domain forwarding. With masked domain forwarding, you’d type in newproduct.com, you’d end up at othersite.com, but the fact you were forwarded would be masked. In other words, the URL address at the top of the browser would indicate you were indeed at newproduct.com, when in fact, you were at othersite.com.

And to make things even more confusing, no matter which page you went to on othersite.com (which is where you’d really be), the URL at the top of your browser would still read newproduct.com. Now that’s confusing!

Either way, masked or unmasked, domain forwarding simply spins the visitor around a bit, moving them this way when they thought they’d be going that way.

And that’s why domain name forwarding is like a hall of mirrors.

Copyright (c) Grant Pasay 2005. All rights reserved.
You may forward this article in its entirety (including author bio/links) to anyone you wish.

Grant Pasay is a professional website copywriter, advertising copywriter, and SEO copywriter serving clients in Vancouver, BC and everywhere. Grant is also the author of the FREE e-book, “The Internet Is Like A Refrigerator.”

For copy that captures your business message without any of the hassle, go to http://grantpasay.com/

Check out Grant’s FREE e-book at http://grantpasay.com/refrigerator/