My top 7 income

I’ve noticed from reading other blogs, readers seem to enjoy learning how other sites make money.

So I’ve developed a “Top 7″ list of my top income generators based on nothing more than monthly income earned.

Note: This list is from all my sites combined.

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1. Wild West Domains

This program is a great example of why you should look for affiliate or reseller programs in your niche that pay residual commissions.

If my site got wiped out today, I would still be able to live off the residual income I’ve generated since joining this program in 2002.

If you have a site that targets Webmasters, reselling domains and web hosting is a great way to build a long-term income that continues to grow and grow.

As a reseller, you receive your own customizable website that allows you to set your prices and determine your profit.

Wild West Domains handles all the customer and technical support, so all you do is promote your own reseller store.

It would be hard for any other affiliate program to bump this from the #1 spot.

2. SiteSell

I’ve been receiving checks from SiteSell’s affiliate program since 1999, but nothing like the ones I started getting when I bought Site Build It! and displayed my own success story.

This was my biggest lesson in the importance of knowing and actually using products you refer from your site.

SiteSell’s affiliate program pays a generous $75 per Site Build It! sale, plus residuals on all yearly renewals.

I really wish more affiliate programs would put the same amount of time and energy SiteSell does into helping affiliates.

I’ve never known another company to offer so many tools to help their affiliates make sales. From videos with your affiliate links embedded in them to over 60 audience-relevant landing pages, this program has it all.

3. Affiliate Networks (CJ.com, ShareASale.com, etc.)

I promote a variety of products that I find on some of the larger affiliate networks. From web software, web hosting, HTML editors, to anything I can find that’s useful and related to my audience.

Belonging to an affiliate network has its advantages…

1) If you’re looking for a specific product to promote, you can do a search to see if there are any relevant affiliate programs that offer the product.

2) You can join multiple programs with a few mouse clicks.

3) All of your earnings are tracked in one place, so you have one-stop reporting instead of multiple affiliate account logins.

The downside is that many companies who run their affiliate programs through large networks tend to have sub-par customer support.

There have been many occasions where I’ve sent an email to a company I’m affiliated with through CJ and never received a response. Companies that run their own in-house affiliate programs seem to have better customer support over all.

Nevertheless, large affiliate networks are definitely worth exploring, particularly if you’re looking for a specific product to promote on your site or blog.

4. AdSense

I hate using the term “easy money”, but if you have enough traffic, AdSense has got to be one of the easiest way to generate an income from your site or blog.

AdSense performs much better on my sites not targeted to Webmasters and Bloggers - which is a big reason why you don’t see AdSense on this blog.

Bloggers and Webmasters tend to be immune to Google ads so they ignore them. However on my fitness site, my click-thru ratio has been as high as 8 or 9%.

My main site, 2CreateAWebSite.com, does OK with AdSense because it gets enough traffic to make displaying the ads worthwhile.

5. ClickBank

With ClickBank, you really have to feel it out and see what works for you. Even though it’s on my Top 7 list, I must admit there is a lot of garbage on ClickBank.

Many of the eBooks you can sell are a bunch of recycled facts you can find anywhere on the web.

They are usually promoted by an over-hyped landing page with a loud sales pitch that promises you to either get rich quick, lose weight tomorrow, or get out of debt in seconds.

However, if you really comb through the ClickBank marketplace, you can find some winners. I was able to find a few good digital products to promote that convert well on my sites.

The great thing about ClickBank is that the commissions are extremely high since product development and delivery costs are low. You could earn up to $75 on certain products in their marketplace.

6. AdBrite

Many people use AdBrite’s cost per click program (similar to AdSense). However, I use them to manage my own flat-rate ads.

I have various advertising spots on 2CreateAWebSite.com where I charge a flat fee for the week, month, etc. and AdBrite manages the payments, ad rotation, etc.

If you’re looking to offer advertising on your site, but don’t want to deal with collecting the payments and setting up an ad rotation script, you may want to check into AdBrite.

They still have some kinks to work out (support response time, ad rotation options, better targeting for network ads, etc.) but they are getting better with time.

7. Amazon.com

With its extremely low commission payout, it’s amazing this even made it to number 7.

Even though Amazon only pays 3-4% on most products, it’s still not a bad program to belong to because they sell almost every product known to man.

They also have widgets you can place on your pages that will display a small selection of products that match the theme of your site.

Let’s say you have a site on stress relief, you can add an Amazon widget that will display 3-4 books on stress relief with links directly to the product pages.

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I didn’t create this list so you’ll join all seven programs here. Many of these programs perform well on my sites because of my traffic and theme. Of course, you’ll have to discover what works best for your audience.

I encourage you to diversify your income streams as much as you can. If you are only earning from AdSense, join some of the larger networks (CJ, ShareASale, etc.) to look for other relevant products.

Take a peek at AssociatePrograms.com. Allan has a nice directory of affiliate programs organized by subject.

And finally, don’t discount lower paying programs like Amazon.com. Even at .50 cents per sale, if you can sell large volumes, that money can add up over time.

The large product selection and brand recognition is what keeps Amazon.com on the list of good affiliate programs to join.

Best Survey Sites

This blog has trialed out various types of online money making schemes and I thought I'd list the best sites for doing surveys.

1. Globaltestmarket. This is my highest earner to date (earnings are $100). They send surveys regularly and pay something even if you don't qualify for the full survey. As a result the earnings build up quickly. Click here to read more.

2. YouGov. Most YouGov polls are political. They now cover most of North America as well as yhe UK. I have cashed out £50 from them to date. Click here to read more.

3. Lightspeed Panel - They send regular surveys. Though you don't get paid if you don't pass the screening questions, they are good at sending surveys that you qualify for, so screenouts are infrequent. I've earned £36 from this site to date. Click here to read more.

4. Valued Opinions. They also send frequent surveys. You get screened out more frequently than on Lightspeed Panel, but this is still worth joining as pay per completed survey can be high. I've earned £25 from this site. Click here to read more.

5. JuicyBrainsPanel. Another British site. They pay something (25p) even if you are screened out. Surveys not as frequent as the previously listed sites. I've earned £13.50 from this site. Click here to read more.

6. Media Transfer. German site that pays even if you are screened out and pays exceptionally well if you complete the full survey. Drawback is that survey invites are infrequent. I've earned £16 from this site. Click here to read more.

Best PTC sites

Paid-to-click/paid-to-read-email sites are another online earning opportunity. There are literally thousands out there. I usually click these sites at the same time as I am reading news sites online (this is ideal if you have tabbed browsing, you simply click and let the timer run down while you go back to what you were reading on another tab), as this way you earning even while doing something else. The best way to earn on these sites of course is to build up a stream of referrals (something I'm not altogether successful at!).

Here are my top earners:

1. Hits4Pay. Have cashed out $25.68 so far. easy to earn as their emails usually pay 2 cents per email, and they are diligent about recording referrals and crediting you (which not many sites are). Click here to read more.

2. GlobalCahsClicks. This site literally has hundreds of banners to click each day. I have earned $10.81 from this site to date. Click here for more details.

3. DonkeyMails. Again, lots of emails to read. Have earned $6.36 to date. Click here for more details.

4. JillsClickCorner. Another site with banners to click and sites to sign up for. Have earned $6.00 to date. Click here to read more.

5. Archerfish. This is a Uk site with emails and banners to click. Have cashed out £3 to date. Click here to read more.

Earning money from internet is so simple?

Earn More Than one Dollar Daily

At Isabelmarco's Moneymaker, you get paid to click on ads and visit websites. The process is easy! You simply click a link and view a website for 30 seconds to earn money. You can earn even more by referring friends. You'll get paid $0.01 ($0,015 for premium) for each website you personally view and $0.006 ($0,012 for premium) for each website your referrals view. Payment requests can be made every day and are processed through Alertpay. The minimum payout is $9.00.

The site is providing daily more than 20 ads to click. I got 27 ads on very first day. Also I purchased 5 referrals pack for just $6. This pack is perfect for testing the site and also for starters. I surprised by seeing that admin have added these referrals with in few hours and very first day I earned more than $1.0. Admin is very cooperative and honest. He is paying the payments on same day. One can achieve the minimum payout amount in few days without help of referrals. I hope members can earn some nice online money with this site.

How You Can Earn Internet Money at Home?

There are lots of money making programs prevailing on the net where you can put some money in your pocket. I will not discuss all of those here in this post, instead I will introduce you with some new paid to click sites. Since last one year paid to click sites became very popular globally in terms of earning money from internet setting at home. Lot of sites try their luck in this fray and gone after some time we called them as scam sites, but some rock solid PTC sites doing their business successfully till now and seems they will stay for long time. Thousands of people earned smart money with these sites easily. I personally tested some of those since last 8-10 months and off course I also earned not big but some money from these sites.

I am listing here some most popular, established and genuine sites.

1 Bux.to No1 at present.

2 Bux3.com Very popular.

3 AdverCash.net of TitanCash Net work.

During last one or two months these PTC sites launched some more sister sites under their banner or control. The new sites becaming also very popular because of their old brand names. I have also joined some of them and seems we can earn smart money with these new PTC sites.

If you are not familiar with these sites, look at the list below:

1 FoxCash.net- Very honest owner (payout period Still 3-5 days)

2 World-Bux.com -from- Bux3.com

3 Daily-Clicks- lots of ads to click

4 TurboBux.com also from Titancash Network

5 IsabelMarco Money Maker- reliable admin

All these above listed sites have almost similar features, $0.01 per click, 100% Referral earning, $10.00 minimum payout and payments via Alertpay payment processor. The major difference between old and new is quick payments (payment within 15 days instead of more then one moth). You can visit these sites for more details, just click on the links.How you can do successful business or earn more money with these PTC sites, I will post another article here with in next two or three days.

Content Syndication with Traffic jam for earning the money

TrafficJam.com has just launched its content syndication service that allows small blogs an opportunity to be more visible or exposed in the blogsphere.

TrafficJam.com derived its contents from blogs syndicated under the BlogRush.com network.

What is content syndication ?

Content syndication is a feature that extracts your blog posting and published it on their site. Each content posting are then ranked by the readers. Naturally, highly rank content posting will appear on top of the list.

Who are the syndicates ?

There are many online networks that syndicate the contents from their members. Among them are stumbleupon.com, digg.com, postonfire.com, indianpad.com, etc.

The above syndicates utilize their readers to recommend and rank (or rate) a post. As such, the content recommendation is pretty much manual.

Method of TrafficJam syndication

TrafficJam meanwhile, get the content feeds from BlogRush data and look like it more automated then the rest of the content syndication network. This mean, you don't have to spent time to post your blog content to the site.

For information, members of BlogRush get to have their post distributed to other bloggers via BlogRush widget (sometime like a news or event ticker). BlogRush widget is not that effective but with the introduction of TrafficJam, more bloggers will rejoin BlogRush to feed their posting to their network of BlogRush and TrafficJam.

What is the benefits of TrafficJam ?

If you are familiar with digg.com, stumbleupon.com or something similar, you will appreciate that the service may sometime, give a spike to your blog traffic. More blog traffic means more potential sales and thus, better earning prospect.

To take advantage of TrafficJam free content syndication, you must become a member of BlogRush.com

Earning Techniques:-bux.to

Bux.to is a PTC(Paid To Click) site with around 2.5 million users that pays you to click on ads. It is currently one of the top PTCs. You get paid $0.01 for viewing each 30-second ad. Bux.to offers a large number of ads and makes trusted payments. Payments are made via AlertPay. Minimum payout is $10.
How do I earn with Bux.to? You click an ad, wait for the page to load, then wait for the timer to countdown, and then see if you get a green check mark or a red cross mark. Green check mark means the ad you viewed validated and you earned your one cent.
The minimum cash out amount is $10. AlertPay charges some fees, hence you will receive only about $9 if you request for $10 from Bux.to. Bux.to requires a maximum of 60 days processing time for Standard members, and 30 days processing time for Premium members. To become a standard member it's free. To be a premium member, you need to pay and upgrade. But if you want, you can always stay a standard member and never upgrade and still earn. If you upgrade, you get more ads to view and get more from your referrals but it's not necessary at all that you upgrade.
Also, you cannot process more than one cash out request simultaneously; a security measure to prevent site exploitation. A bummer, but a kind-of-a necessity.
Bux.to has even introduced a prepaid MasterCard which you can use to get your money, cool, ain't it?
ConclusionBux.to will last for a long time because it has a large user base (around 2.5 million users).
And regarding your earnings, if you have a large network of people online or offline that you could introduce Bux.to as your referral, you could make a lot of money. I know for a fact that you could make 4 figures a month. On the forum boards people are saying 1000$, 2300$ and11000$ total user payouts. I believe them. I think Bux.to has earning potential.
Great, how do I sign up?1)First of all you need to sign up with an AlertPay account if you don't have one yet. Click here to get an AlertPay account.
2)After you sign up with AlertPay, Click here to sign up with Bux.to.
3)Then search for a link "Register" or "SignUp" in the page that opens, click it, fill up an application form and you will be accepted as soon as you submit your form.
4)You can then login and start viewing your ads. Don't try to visit a number of ads simultaneously at the same time. Let the timer for one ad expire before you click the link to view another ad. This is very important, otherwise, you won't be credited.
5)After you reach your minimum payout($10), cash out your money to your AlertPay account or your MasterCard prepaid card. If you select AlertPay, you can always transfer funds to your bank account or your credit card from your AlertPay account.
For more of this kind of programs,
Happy Earnings!

Gaga over Google

Google Adsense has taken the world by storm. Now the small guy can get a slice of big profits. But exactly how should one go about generating revenue from it? This article is designed to help you to decide what sort of web-page to make – one that will realize the largest profits.

First you should pick a theme where there is at least some competition. That is to say, if you choose a family history web page, you may only get genealogy ads in your Adsense boxes. These may be very low paying ads and hardly worth your while. Before building a web page you should check and see how much people are paying for a certain type of ad. To that end – PC Bidbrowser will give you an idea how much advertisers are paying at Overture, and you can extrapolate or take an educated guess at Adsense.

But is finding the highest paying keyword the best way to build a page around? Consider the point that there may be so much competition that your web-page may never see the light of day. If no-one ever reads your site, you have no clicks, hence no revenue. No, the money-making truth lies somewhere in the middle. You need a topic that has low enough competition that people will actually find it on search engines, but also high enough competition that you will receive some cash from advertisers.

A neat program called ‘keyword sleuth’ allows you to find alternate keywords that are still highly searched yet low in competition. Other programs do similar functions.

Find 6 or so topics that you find a nice balance between competition and reward. Now how do you build a web-page that will give some new slant on the topic?

Does your web-page really need to be unique? Perhaps you could write an interesting page or two about the subject along with some links. For instance, perhaps you want to write a site on stock market trading. If you’ve ever been in the stock market you could write a real life trading experience. Make it exciting, while keeping it truthful. What led you to invest? What stocks did you trade and why? Did you make money or lose some? Do you have any advice to give to new investors? Could you find a couple of links for free screeners or some other tool that would be useful? Did you employ any special techniques – humorous or not?

You see, it doesn’t have to be about making millions with your trading system, it can be a funny life experience which we all can learn from.

Domain Registration: How Many Extension Should You Register

When it comes to selection of a domain name, people are often inundated with several questions. One of the most important of them is which extension should I choose - dot-com or dot-net or dot-biz?

There are circumstances when you will think it is fit to register more than one extension. This article is aimed at helping you to make the right decision.

A common problem is that people usually type in .com all the time on net and land up on various other sites. This could be troublesome both for the business and the customer.

When you select a domain name, you are always given a list of different extensions to choose from. These extensions can help specify the type of products or services you are offering online or your geographical location.

To begin this article, I am giving some basic definitions of the extensions you can choose from:

* .com signifies "commercial". It is the most well-known extension and preferred by all commercial enterprises. The acute scarcity of unforgettable .com domain names has led to creation of several other extensions.

* .net signifies “network". It is generally used by internet service providers, web hosting companies, or other firms related to network or internet services.

* .org signifies "organization". It is commonly used by non-commercial web sites. But, at present, many businesses register their matching .org extension to their .com domain names.

* .biz signifies “business”. It is used for business web sites. There are more chances of you getting this extension because of its low current penetration.

* .info signifies “information”. It is generally used for information sharing web sites. This too like .biz is gradually growing in popularity and there is more likelihood of you getting it.

Your first aim should be to get a perfect domain name for your business. Once you have done that you should then consider registering other extensions for the same domain name.

It is up to you to decide which extensions are most relevant for your business. It depends a lot on your customer base, range of products/services, and also your brand image.

You should always use domain forwarding service to redirect visitors from your other domains to your primary domain. This is quite essential since visitors may get confused about your web site address and may reach your competitor’s web site. For example, you domain name is home-appliances.net and your potential customers may reach home-appliances.com, which is your competitor.

Prevention is always better than cure. So, instead of buying a rival domain name from someone (at a high cost), it is always preferable to register that domain name yourself (at a low cost).

We find that name protection and greater coverage are the two key forces driving the need for registering more than one domain name. The accessibility of the site increases by registering more than one extension for a domain name.

There are other advantages of multiple domain name registration. It helps in creating a demand for similar domain names due to people realizing that so many domain names are available related to the primary one.

But some observers in the industry have a different viewpoint. They think that having more than one domain extension is very confusing for the visitors to these sites.

In conclusion, I would like to say that your primary target should be .com and thereafter, find out the relevant extensions for your business and try to register them also. I recommend you to register all relevant extensions so as to guarantee maximum coverage and minimum misguided competition.

Search Engines - Buying Keywords - Inside Story

Buying Your Keywords to appear in Browser Address Search Bars –

It seems like about two or three times per month we get a phone call that extol a 'sure-fire' way to drive key word directed traffic to your law firm's website. At first blush the pitch sounds very appealing: You can purchase keywords so that when someone types that specific keyword into their Internet browser they will be taken direct to your website.

Like many such scams, it takes further investigation to get the real facts. There are several variations of these plans and they all sound like you would be passing up a terrific opportunity if you do not immediately sign up to ‘own’ your important keywords.

After some in depth questioning, the real story can be summarized by the clich้ “If it seems too good to be true, it often is. Like most scams, this one is based on a kernel of truth, embellished by the omission of material facts.

Here is what we found out:

One plan only works if the keyword is typed into the browsers address bar, not a search bar. The address bar is where the name of your website appears like

http://www.your-site-here.com. Most people do not type search phrases into this bar. Plus, in order to work, the person must have downloaded a program that replaces or modifies their Internet browser. This is the real key to this plan. These program modifiers are usually downloaded without the full knowledge of the public. Many times they believe they are installing an enhancement that will add some minor function to their browser at no cost.

In reality, they are being misled as to the real purpose of the program.

The other version of these ‘purchase your keywords’ programs is similar to the above plan, but has the search box of the Internet browser modified to redirect the searcher to the paid-for websites.

With both variations, the key to their operation is that they only work with a modified Internet browser. Many times, such software is known as spyware and piggybacked on some freeware
program to mislead the public into installing the software.

This raises some important questions. Do you want to participate in such a misleading program?

Also, the key to the potential success of such plans is the installed base of the modified browsers. Here is where you will hear all types of claims as to the installed base. However, judging from the comments on various Webmaster forums, it seems that this installed base is too small to be cost effective.

Just for fun, on the last two of these solicitation calls, I pretended to be interested. (One was in reference to a San Diego real estate site and the other was a Houston legal website where we are the Webmasters.)

I asked the caller about their installed base of rigged browsers. Needless to say, I received extraordinarily high figures. They tried to get me to sign up immediately, because the keywords I could get now might be purchased at any moment by others. When I asked them to please email or fax over some verifiable information on the numbers, I received assurances the information would be sent shortly. Surprise, surprise, no information was ever sent! The same scenario was duplicated when I requested a list of a few local attorneys who were using the service for at least six months.

Also, with many free programs designed to find and remove such spyware, upgrading of systems and computers, it is debatable whether this installed base will be increasing or
decreasing. Will your investment create a profitable return?

Again, based on Webmaster forums, it seems to be the consensus that you will get more visitors to your website by sliding your business card under the windshield wipers of cars in a supermarket parking lot.

Is Your Domain Name a Sitting Lottery Ticket?

At the end of 2003, the domain Men.com sold for 1.3 Million Dollars. And
this lucky domain name investor originally paid $15,000 for it in 1997.

Not a bad investment huh?

Let me make one single point, the domain market is a lucrative one. Domain
names are sold and bought daily for big money. The Internet is only in its
infancy so owning a great domain name is like owning a nice piece of real
estate.

Domain names are the “real estate” of the superhighway.

So are you one of the lucky people that own several domain names? You may
be sitting on a winning lottery ticket.

Here are a few main characteristics of valuable domain names:

* Usually single word .com’s are worth big money. Why? Because they get natural
type in traffic. If you owned Men.com and put up some advertising links or affiliate
products related to men, you could make a nice income by doing nothing. You wouldn’t
even have to promote it.

* 2-3 Letter .com’s are also worth lots of money. Why? Because for one they are all taken and secondly big companies will usually seek them out if it is an acronym of their company.
Having a short, memorable domain name is key for people to remember it. And 2-3 letters is
perfect!

* Typo domains of popular, well established companies. Although, if you own one of these, the big company may come knocking at your door to ask you to turn it over. For example, if you owned gooogle.com (note the extra “o”), Google could get the name because it is trademarked and it is too close to the original website name. In this case, Google.com owns, Gooogle.com.

If you want to find out the true value of your domain name, you can use different domain appraisal services. One of the best is Appraisalblast.com. For a very low price, they will give you a detailed report and let you know if you are sitting on that lucky lottery ticket.

In some cases, names you don’t think are worth much...are. It all comes down to how important the name is to somebody.

The domain name business is a lucrative one and there are still great names out there. It just takes some looking and also a creative mind to think ahead of what will be popular.

The Domain Name Gold Rush

All the good ones are taken. The really good ones, that is. But they don’t always stay taken.

Domain names often come back onto the market. Even before they do, domain name prospectors are sifting through them to find the gold domains among them.

Why domain names become available again

Thousands of domain names expire every day. Other domains are offered for sale. The reasons are varied:

- Carelessness

- The webmaster forgets to renew the domain by the expiry date.

The email address that the domain is registered with becomes invalid, and the domain name registrant doesn’t receive the renewal notices.

- Lack of need or funds

- The company that had registered the domain goes out of business.

- The website owner loses interest in or doesn’t have time for the website.

- The website owner doesn’t have funding to continue the website venture.

- The domain name registrant registered numerous domains on speculation and couldn’t afford to continue renewing unused domains.

Profit

- The domain name registrant may realize how much a domain is worth and decide to sell it.

- The domain name registrant may have registered the domain because of its potential worth, with the aim of selling it later.

What makes a previously registered domain name valuable?

In July 2005, the domain name website.com sold for $750,000, the highest-valued domain name sale this year. Why would anyone pay so much for a domain when they could register a new domain for under $10?

- Instant traffic

If the domain name previously pointed to a website, search engines have already indexed that domain name. Other websites probably still have links to that domain. If the domain is listed in directories, these links bring in even more traffic. You register the domain, and the work getting incoming links has already been done for you.

- Surf value

Sometimes web surfers search by typing generic words followed by dot com (or other extensions) into their browsers, for example, dogs.com. This particular domain name redirects to the website for a company that sells pet products and services. A domain name like this constantly brings visitors to the website without the cost and effort of advertising and marketing.

- Easy to remember

Your company name may not be memorable, but domains such as dogs.com and website.com are. People are more likely to return to a site or pass on the name to their friends when they can easily remember it.

How to find domains pending expiration

You decide to join the gold rush for valuable pre-registered domains. Finding expiring domains is the first step, but you also need to research domains that are about to come back on the market.

Lists of domains pending expiration

At these websites, among others, you can search for domains containing keywords you enter. At expireddomains.com, the results contain domains that are currently available, soon to expire, on hold, in the Redemption Grace Period (RGP), or for sale by their registrants. Extensions searched: .com, .net, and .org.

The domainsbot.com database searches .com, .net, .org, .info, and .biz extensions for domains that are available, for sale, or expiring.

Domain research

You can find some (but not all) incoming links to a domain by entering “link:siteURL” (replace ”siteURL” with the domain name) into Google or Yahoo. When you find the links, follow them to see what types of sites link to the domain. How would you feel about having these particular sites linking to your site?

Also look into any possible problems associated with the domain. Search engines may have banned the domain if the previous site had controversial search engine optimization techniques employed, such as the use of hidden text or links. Check the history of the site at a domain name via the WayBack Machine. If the domain previously pointed to a site with gambling or adult content or a lot of affiliate links, or if it employed questionable search engine optimization techniques, search engines may have banned the domain. Aside from the possibility of a domain being banned, you may not want incoming links from sites associated with these types of content.

How to register domains pending deletion

You’ve decided on a domain that you want. How do you maximize your chances on getting it?

At eNom.com’s Club Drop, you can bid on expiring .com and .net domains the day before they’re available to the public. You can also be notified when domains matching your search criteria become available.

The NameWinner system places bids on .com, .net, .org, and .info domains for you. It bids only as high as is necessary to maintain your high bid position up to your maximum bid.

How to profit from your domains

- Selling domains

If you have a domain that may be valuable and that you aren’t using, consider selling it at a domain auction. If you already have a buyer for a domain, you can transfer it securely through Escrow.com.

- Paid parking for domains

With paid domain parking programs, also called "domain monetization" or "monetize domains," you can earn pay-per-click revenue via targeted advertisements. These sites offer domain monetization services:

- DomainSponsor

- Park Quick

- Domain Spa

- Google Adsense for domains

With the right knowledge, timing, and a bit of luck, you have a chance as a domain name prospector to hit pay dirt.

Link Building Strategy

Website promotion is essential to promote your e-business. Building a website is not enough for carrying on a successful online business. You have to adopt right link building strategy to promote your website in a search engine friendly manner. Search engines consider link popularity as an important factor to determine the ranks of the websites.

A website with quality links is likely to rank among the top ten results of the search engines. The link popularity for every search engine is different from the other. You can find out the link popularity by typing “Link: domain name of the website” in any of the search engine. The compete details of the sites linking to your website will be in front of you.

You can devise an effective link building strategy to raise the link popularity of your website. You can incorporate three types of links for this purpose— internal, external and reciprocal links.

The best possible way to have a good linking plan for your website is to develop a site map. A site map is the plan of the whole website that contains entire links on a website. The links are specified according to the specific details of a topic. They are generally given in a hierarchical manner. The links must be text links containing the keywords related to your website. This makes the search of the search engine for links quite easy.

You can have a quality internal links and can get the pages of your website linked internally. The website is rated as a good quality website, if it has rightly placed internal links. The link building strategy also stresses up on the outgoing links. They make your website user-friendly.

Connecting to the right websites makes your website to access good content. If the content of the sites related to your site is not good or useless, the search engines will not consider such links as useful. The message is clear that you have to stress on the quality of the links rather than the quantity.

The inbound links are the most important for link building strategy. You can get other websites to link to your website by developing good content. According to the experts, content of a website is the primary decisive factor in link building. Others will be interested to link to your website, if and only if, you have a good content on it.

The expert link building strategy is also to build reciprocal links with your competitors. This is beneficial to both the parties of linking. Both of them will provide targeted traffic to each other. This link building strategy is the ultimate mantra for getting quality links and gain good link popularity as the information on both the links will be related to each other.

The accurate link building strategy pushes ahead your target of link popularity, resulting in high search engine ranks.

My Top 10 Favorite Internet Tools

When you make your living on the Internet, you can
sometimes forget that the tools and resources you take for
granted might rate an incredible discovery to someone who
doesn't already know they exist.

Whether they help you save time, save money, or avoid
frustration, these tools and services rate my highest
recommendation for just plain making life easier, faster
and cheaper.

1. Short Keys -
Available free at www.shortkeys.com/lite.htm, Short Keys
allows you to create shortcut keys to cut down on
repetitive typing tasks. I absolutely love this program
because of the amount of time it saves me every single day.

2. Good Keywords -
Available free at www.goodkeywords.com, Good Keywords
enables you to condense hours of keyword research into a
few seconds. Find out the top keywords your target audience
searches for so you can put your advertising dollars in the
right spot to catch the biggest fish.

3. Mail Washer -
Available free at www.mailwasher.net, this program enables
you to spot and delete spam and viruses before downloading
them to your computer. With so much spam clogging my email
in-box, I couldn't survive any more without this program!

4. ClickBank -
If you sell a downloadable product such as an ebook,
report, or software, you can't beat clickbank for
processing credit card payments. Not only do they take the
payments and send you a check twice a month, they also plug
your product into an existing network of thousands of
affiliates who can sell it for you.

5. GoDaddy.com -
Cheap, reliable, easy to use domain name registrar that
only charges $8.95 per year for each domain name you
register. Godaddy rates cheaper and just as, if not more,
reliable than any other domain registrar.

6. GroupMail -
Visit www.infacta.com to download the free version of
GroupMail. The program allows you to email and do mail
merge to your entire database of contacts. It's a great way
to stay in touch with customers, family, and clients.

7. Google -
As far as I'm concerned, Google.com rates as the Web's best
search engine. When I need to find something online in a
hurry, Google usually produces exactly what I want to
locate!

8. Front Page -
Say what you want about Microsoft, but the FrontPage html
editor has served me well for the last 5 years and
counting. Though I don't use the more advanced features, I
can always count on FrontPage to help me get my web pages
done quickly and easily.

9. Smart FTP -
Log on to www.smartftp.com and download a free copy of the
easiest FTP program I've every used. If you need to
transfer files to and from a web server and you know how to
use Windows Explorer, Smart FTP will enable you to upload
files to the web like a pro in minutes.

10. Note Tab Light -
Perhaps my favorite tool of all. Note Tab enables me to
easily format text messages for my newsletters, manipulate
html code and remove formatting from word processing
documents. Log on to www.notetab.com for a free copy of the
"light" version.

How to Choose a Web Hosting Company?

Nowadays, anybody can afford to order a feature-packed web hosting plan for next to nothing; however, affordable price is not the only criterion which should be considered when purchasing web hosting services. In this article, I'll explain the basics of what you should look for in choosing a web hosting company, not just concentrating on the best price and features, but also on reliability and honesty. You're investing your money and effort into finding paying customers and you wouldn't like to lose them in order to save a few dollars per month on a web hosting service.

When looking for a web hosting company, it doesn’t matter if this is just for the inception of a web or the move of an established site; you need to consider a large selection of criteria to determine which company to go with:


Customer support

Website hosting service isn’t just storage or bandwidth. Based on personal experience and that of others, even a top-notch service is worthless without customer support. If you own a business website, your hosting provider needs to be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem; otherwise, you may end up losing customers and money.


Downtime guarantee and service monitoring

Having a personal website go down is a minor inconvenience; having a business website go down is a serious matter. What amount of profit would you lose if your site had been down for a week? Long downtime may be very harmful to today's companies which spend large amounts of money on advertising their websites. Essentially, there are two rules regarding reliability that one should look at:

1. You should check if there is an uptime guarantee offered. A truly service-oriented provider will also give a money-back guarantee, offering a discount or free service as compensation for downtime. Any company which avoids taking responsibility won't put much effort into the service.

2. I definitely wouldn't go with a company claiming 100% uptime, as there is no such thing as a server with 100% uptime. If anyone ever claims their server has a 100% uptime they are either lying or they don't perform the necessary upgrades that prevent a machine from being compromised.

Reputable web hosts will post statistics on their site: What is the frequency of interruption? How about the average percentage of downtime? If these aren’t posted, ask; if the answer isn’t forthcoming, that should be a warning sign. If you still go with a host which doesn't monitor servers, you'll have to do the monitoring yourself. I recommend http://www.siteuptime.com, as it's one of the best monitoring services available for free in the market today.


Backups

There is no host which is safe against different types of technical and programical failures, so make sure that the company runs scheduled backups. The other advice would be always having a backup of your website yourself, as you never know what might happen. cPanel, which is the most popular web hosting management software at this time, has a very comfortable backup-making tool. It allows you to backup files and databases quickly and easily, so backups are no longer a problem.


Acceptable use policy

Web hosts may have 200-300 or more clients per server; there is no exact number, as companies have different hardware and each hosted website has different resource usage. There always is a possibility that a few of those customers host illegal content. There are web hosts who have had their servers unplugged, resulting in their clients’ websites going down. I'm sure you don't want to put your business at risk and have your website hosted on the same server together with illegal pornography and software sites, so check host's acceptable use policy to find out, if the host takes care of what's hosted on their servers.

Hosting your site on an uncared-for server will also result in a low speed. If somebody on the same server sends spam, the server's IP address will be blacklisted and you'll have serious problems as recipients stop receiving your emails. Use the "Spam database lookup" feature on www.DNSstuff.com to check if a web hosting company is blacklisted. Spam is being sent almost everywhere, so having one or two red records isn't that bad; but, if there are more, it may become a problem later on.


Unlimited bandwidth and web space

In web hosting industry, the adage "you get what you pay for" is almost universally applicable. Do not fall for hosts offering unlimited allowances, as there is no unlimited bandwidth, nor unlimited web space. Host's pay for each GB of bandwidth themselves. Hard drives also aren't free, so how can they say it's unlimited? They simply are performing false advertising in order to attract customers. The average website doesn't use more than 1GB of bandwidth per month; the customer is happy as he bought something "unlimited" and the host gets a new customer, which won't cost them any more than $1-2 USD per month. But imagine what would happen if I had a website, burning much more bandwidth than an average site does, and I signed up with a hosting company offering unlimited traffic? The host would simply suspend my account and tell me, that it was using too much bandwidth. There even are companies which offer unlimited bandwidth and have a statement on their terms of service, explaining that unlimited bandwidth means 40GB, for example.


Will you really own your domain name?

When you buy a domain name together with a website hosting package, make sure the host will register the domain name under your name. It usually should be written in their FAQ, but, if there is no such information, simply contact them. This will also give you an opportunity to check how fast their customer support team replies to inquiries. If the hosting company registers domains under someone else's name, you may have problems switching hosting providers later. If you were in such situation, you would have to file for a Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which costs much more than both domain name and web hosting service together.


Control Panel

For ease of maintenance, a feature called a Control Panel is a necessity; this tool will normally allow for regular maintenance, be it email mailbox additions/deletions, password resets, web additions, web count reports, statistics and so on. If the site is for any sort of business, this is an absolute must. The most popular web hosting management software currently available is cPanel. It's a next-generation web hosting control panel system that allows you to manage your domain through a web interface. The idea is to transfer as much of the control of managing your web site to you; you have the ability to manage all aspects of e-mail, files, backup, FTP, CGI scripts, and web site statistics.


Value-added services

Hosting companies offer different value-added services in order to set themselves apart from the competition. Of course, these are an advantage, but a common mistake customers make is choosing a host just because it offers many value-added services which won't be used anyway. Some of the really useful features are:

1. Auto-installer script – Auto-installers will save you time if you are going to install a forum, image gallery, content management system, etc. Installation procedures on an auto-installer script take seconds and can be performed by novices without the need of doing difficult tasks usually associated with installations.

2. Online website builder - It lets you design a website in a few minutes without having any creation software and knowledge. One very powerful website builder on the market is Site Studio; this editor allows for ease of use, full control of color schemes and themes, one-click publishing, and an array of templates to use.


The last tip

In this article, I've mentioned only a few warning signs which are worth considering. You should know yourself that price and allocations aren't as important as the quality of service; if the budget is absolutely limited, then the price can be a valid criterion, but otherwise it shouldn’t receive much credence.

By going through this article and asking questions, you can narrow down the list of web hosts to the point where a good, sound decision can be easily made.

Choosing a Web host

There are some simple rules to follow when looking for a web host. The first rules is to avoid free hosts whenever possible, it is easy to think that a free service is preferable to paying a monthly fee however with web hosting this is defiantly not the case.

Paid hosting has several important advantages over free hosting. Firstly you will receive more useful features with paid hosting. Technical support will be much better with help available when you need it. Generally speaking Paid hosts will have much faster connections to the internet so your site will appear quicker. Most importantly with paid hosting you won't have to display a banner on each page advertising the Hosting Company and advertising to the world that you are on a free host. With excellent hosting packages starting from $6.99 per month there is no reason why you shouldn't go with a paid host.

The second simple rule concerns what operating system to choose. You will find hosts offering you Windows Hosting or Linux Hosting, it is tempting to choose windows as it's a name everyone knows and many people mistakenly believe that because their PC runs windows they need a Windows Host but in this case they'd be wrong. Whichever hosting package you choose you will receive a control panel through which you administer your site these are graphical environments through which you can control many aspects of your website from configuring your web mail and installing forum software to creating a database. Take a lead from the marble halls of business most major companies host their websites on Linux Servers. Linux Servers generally runs faster and are more secure than a windows server. This is partly due to how the operating systems are built. Windows try to include every possible function in the base package whilst Linux allows the host company to add the functions they need.

The final thing to consider when choosing a host is the list of features they offer. If you don't know much about html you can look for a host that supplies you with free website building software and some of the better ones will even supply free Domain names. You should look at a number of different companies and compare what they offer as standard with their hosting plans. Technical aspects to consider are; the amount of disk space available to you and how much monthly bandwidth you have to use. Look at how many email accounts you can have the more the better. Customer support features should not be overlooked check to see what their response time is and if it's anymore than an hour look elsewhere, also consider if they offer a money back guarantee.

Look to see what additional services they include in the package for example do they offer daily backups? Make sure that they offer support for PHP as this is quickly becoming the programming language of choice with web programmers.

To conclude when choosing a website Host look for a paid host with Linux hosting and then compare the packages on offer from a variety of companies

Useful Tips When Applying For A Web Host Provider

Once you have considered the design for your website and it is ready to be hosted, there are some matters to be considered when choosing the adequate web host:

I - Accessibility of the site?

Once you have applied for a web host provider you should take several aspects into account such as the time it takes to load or the period of time it is up.These aspects are very important because if there are problems related to them, this can create extreme annoyance and renouncement of the possible visitors.

The same possible visitors can also have problems in finding your web page, as search engines do not show those who are always down or have difficulties in loading.

The best method to acknowledge if a server is usually up would be to take a look over the reviews written by other persons who have applied for the server before you.

II - Does the provider offer SSL??

In the case of a hobby websiter or, in other words, if you will not be making any transactions on that particular website, the SSL protection is not necessary.In the other case, if transactions should be made in the near future it is necessary for you to choose the webhost which includes the SSL protection upfront.

SSL is generally used for encrypting any piece of information such as:credit card codes, names, etc.

Deciding to subscribe to a webhost which does not comprise of SSL protection and choosing afterwards to have it installed, could turn up to be more expensive than having applied for a webhost which provides SSL in the first place.

Websiters which have Automatic SSL protection can be exemplified by www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com

III - Is server side scripting available from the server?

Despite of the fact that these server side scripting is provided by almost all servers, it is still advisable to check out if they do.Pages changing in real time are given the chance to be created by the webmasters due to the server side scripting.

For instance, in the case of running a business and having all products arranged in a database, the server side scripting will give off the pages by means of the ranges the customers choose to see.

You should not think of using a server which does not provide functionality for a server side scripting. www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com can also be shown as examples for sites which comprise of servers side scripting.

IV - Customer Support

The support given to customers is of an utmost importance when choosing a web hoser.Even in the case of an experienced webmaster, I am sure that there are still some questions to be asked when signing up with a website.Some of them have created special forums for frequently asked questions(FAQ-S).Actually the only one of this type I found up to now is www.powweb.com.

Even tough these aspects are widely known, the attention should be drawn anyway, for there are many persons who pay significant sums after having signed to a web hoster on the basis of having ignored these conditions.Taken this into account, the collaboration should be nothing but successfully.

Web Hosting Operating Systems Explained

A few time ago appeared a lot disagreements between opinions on the internet regarding, which is the best operating system for web hosting. There are people who hate windows, there are people who love FreeBSD and many others.

The thing is that the best system that suits you depends on what you are doing. The servers and the softwares, all run on a program named operating system. on a personal computer you will probably have windows ME, XP, NT or something similar to those. You can call this program the operating system. Any hosting server also needs running on an operating system. There are 3 different versions.

The first one powered by Microsoft is Windows. So, Microsoft also makes a system designed for servers. Microsoft products can trill integrate in this operating systems. It also allows web sites to run Active Server Pages. The Microsoft servers also allow the integration of SQL databases. The only problem of the Microsof web hosting servers is that they are very expensive. You will probably find one that costs several thousands of dollars.

The second version for web hosting servers is Linux. Linux was created and developed by some individuals who wrote the main part of the Linux operating system. After that, there were added some other parts to customize the operating system for the particular use of any user. There are many companies that market Linux, like Red Hat, Debian. The main advantage of Linux is that is compatible with PHP. Also it's very stable and has a great security. The best thing about it is that Linux is free.

The third version of operating system for web hosting servers is Unix. Unix is almost the same thing as Linux. If we think more, we will find more similarities than differences between the two programs. The most important difference is the way they came to the world. So let's make it clear. Linux is something like a cousin of Unix. There are two main Unix-based operating systems: FreeBSD and OpenBSD. The good thing about this systems is that they seem to be very stable once you manage to install them. But they are very hard to install. OpenBSD is also known to be one of the most secure operating system in the world. But with OpenBSd you will have to sacrifice some features for a plus of security. Again the best thing about these systems is that they are both free.

The best for you depends on what you are going to do with it. If you want great security, you should try OpenBSd. If you are looking for compatibility with all the windows products, then choose Windows. For compatibility with PHP programing language choose Linux.The fact is that one cannot tell which system is best, but employing and using it according to his needs.

Information Highwaymen and Your Domain

You go to work every day at the store you own, and one morning, your key to the door doesn't work. You look in the window, and the display items have changed. A stranger is behind the counter. But when you call the police, they can't do anything because the company papers now indicate that the store belongs to the stranger.

The above scenario isn't likely to happen with a bricks-and-mortar store. Because of insecurities in the domain registration system, however, information highwaymen could take over your online business.

As with identity theft, domain thieves steal your identity -- the identity used to register and configure your domain name. After that, your website, your email, your online business, and possibly your reputation are theirs.

Domain names at risk of theft

While theft is a risk with all domain names, domains most at risk are more valuable ones. Domains with dot com extensions have a higher resale value than domains with other extensions, and domains with high traffic or valuable keywords are also more likely to be targets.

The motive behind domain hijacking is usually monetary, but it may be personal. If anyone wants to attack you, stealing your domain name is one way to do it.

How domain theft happens

When domain hijackers steal your domain, they gain access to the domain's Whois records. They can modify the domain's nameservers so that the domain points to a different server. They can also transfer the domain to a different registrar.

Either way, site visitors will find themselves at the website of the domain hijacker instead of at your site. All domain email will go to or through the other server instead of to you. All you'll have left is a website without public access because your domain isn't pointing to it any more.

How can this happen?

Domain hijacking methods
- Domain hijackers send forged faxes to the domain registrar, impersonating the registrants.
- Domain hijackers hack into the accounts of free email addresses listed in Whois records and use those addresses to obtain domain account information.
- Domain hijackers send out fraudulent email renewal notices, and registrants unknowingly transfer their domains to the thieves.

Registrar non-action

- The gaining registrar (the registrar that the domain is transferred to) doesn't obtain approval from the domain name registrant or administrative contact as required by ICANN Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy.
- The losing registrar (that the domain is transferred from) doesn't notify the registrant of the transfer during the five-day pending transfer period. During this period, the registrant can cancel or deny approval of the domain transfer --- if the registrar notifies the registrant of it.

Registrant carelessness
- The registrant forgets to update Whois details or to renew the account.
- Someone with access to the registrant's records steals the information.

Domain name disputes

If you discover that your domain has been hijacked, contact your registrar immediately. If your registrar is unable to resolve the situation, the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy (TDRP) applies.

By going the above arbitration route, you don't have to argue your case in person. On the other hand, all you can get back in the process is your domain (and not necessarily that). For a lot more money, you can take your case to court, where you can seek compensation for damages in addition to the return of your domain. This process takes more time, however.

You may be able to proceed both ways – get your domain back via ICANN domain dispute resolution procedures and then go to court to collect damages. You can also appeal a domain arbitrator's decision in court.

How to protect your domain name

Protecting a domain name is similar to protecting a bricks-and-mortar store from burglary. With a combination of precautions in place, thieves will find it difficult or impossible to gain access.

Your domain account information
- List your name for the administrative contact, and use your full name.
- Create a complex password with letters (both upper case and lower case) and numbers. Don't use any real words or personal information in it. Make it long. Make it unique – don't use the same password for anything else. Change it periodically.
- Keep your domain login name, account number, and password in a place where only trusted people can access it.
- Use a valid contact email address that doesn't use the domain it's for. Be sure that this email account also has a complex password. If you're going to be offline for more than a few days, have someone else check the email for this account.
- Don't use a free email address such as a Hotmail or Yahoo address. Domain hijackers target domains with free email addresses in the Whois records. After they've cracked your email account password, the support you need to get your email account back will probably be slow, giving the hijackers plenty of time to take over your domain.
- Update your Whois record whenever the information in it changes.

Your domain account features
- Choose a domain registrar that sends registrants transfer pending notifications when a domain transfer is taking place.
- Consider protecting your Whois details with a registrar that offers a private domain name record. With this feature, your registrar's data appears with your Whois record rather than your data. The downside of using this feature is that your business may have less credibility because you're hiding who you are.
- Register your domain for a long time period, and set up calendar reminders to renew it before it expires.
- Set up your domain to be renewed automatically if your registrar offers this feature.
- Use the Registrar-lock mechanism if it's available through your registrar. When a domain is locked, it cannot be modified or transferred unless the registrant unlocks it or follows the domain transfer process.

Other domain security measures
- Set up a free Whois monitoring alert email service and add your domain to your monitoring list. You will receive email notifications whenever the expiration date, registrar, or status of a monitored domain changes. (Whois does not have data on all domain extensions.)
- Make sure that someone checks your website every few days, preferably daily.

Information Highwaymen and Your Domain

You go to work every day at the store you own, and one morning, your key to the door doesn't work. You look in the window, and the display items have changed. A stranger is behind the counter. But when you call the police, they can't do anything because the company papers now indicate that the store belongs to the stranger.

The above scenario isn't likely to happen with a bricks-and-mortar store. Because of insecurities in the domain registration system, however, information highwaymen could take over your online business.

As with identity theft, domain thieves steal your identity -- the identity used to register and configure your domain name. After that, your website, your email, your online business, and possibly your reputation are theirs.

Domain names at risk of theft

While theft is a risk with all domain names, domains most at risk are more valuable ones. Domains with dot com extensions have a higher resale value than domains with other extensions, and domains with high traffic or valuable keywords are also more likely to be targets.

The motive behind domain hijacking is usually monetary, but it may be personal. If anyone wants to attack you, stealing your domain name is one way to do it.

How domain theft happens

When domain hijackers steal your domain, they gain access to the domain's Whois records. They can modify the domain's nameservers so that the domain points to a different server. They can also transfer the domain to a different registrar.

Either way, site visitors will find themselves at the website of the domain hijacker instead of at your site. All domain email will go to or through the other server instead of to you. All you'll have left is a website without public access because your domain isn't pointing to it any more.

How can this happen?

Domain hijacking methods
- Domain hijackers send forged faxes to the domain registrar, impersonating the registrants.
- Domain hijackers hack into the accounts of free email addresses listed in Whois records and use those addresses to obtain domain account information.
- Domain hijackers send out fraudulent email renewal notices, and registrants unknowingly transfer their domains to the thieves.

Registrar non-action

- The gaining registrar (the registrar that the domain is transferred to) doesn't obtain approval from the domain name registrant or administrative contact as required by ICANN Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy.
- The losing registrar (that the domain is transferred from) doesn't notify the registrant of the transfer during the five-day pending transfer period. During this period, the registrant can cancel or deny approval of the domain transfer --- if the registrar notifies the registrant of it.

Registrant carelessness
- The registrant forgets to update Whois details or to renew the account.
- Someone with access to the registrant's records steals the information.

Domain name disputes

If you discover that your domain has been hijacked, contact your registrar immediately. If your registrar is unable to resolve the situation, the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy (TDRP) applies.

By going the above arbitration route, you don't have to argue your case in person. On the other hand, all you can get back in the process is your domain (and not necessarily that). For a lot more money, you can take your case to court, where you can seek compensation for damages in addition to the return of your domain. This process takes more time, however.

You may be able to proceed both ways – get your domain back via ICANN domain dispute resolution procedures and then go to court to collect damages. You can also appeal a domain arbitrator's decision in court.

How to protect your domain name

Protecting a domain name is similar to protecting a bricks-and-mortar store from burglary. With a combination of precautions in place, thieves will find it difficult or impossible to gain access.

Your domain account information
- List your name for the administrative contact, and use your full name.
- Create a complex password with letters (both upper case and lower case) and numbers. Don't use any real words or personal information in it. Make it long. Make it unique – don't use the same password for anything else. Change it periodically.
- Keep your domain login name, account number, and password in a place where only trusted people can access it.
- Use a valid contact email address that doesn't use the domain it's for. Be sure that this email account also has a complex password. If you're going to be offline for more than a few days, have someone else check the email for this account.
- Don't use a free email address such as a Hotmail or Yahoo address. Domain hijackers target domains with free email addresses in the Whois records. After they've cracked your email account password, the support you need to get your email account back will probably be slow, giving the hijackers plenty of time to take over your domain.
- Update your Whois record whenever the information in it changes.

Your domain account features
- Choose a domain registrar that sends registrants transfer pending notifications when a domain transfer is taking place.
- Consider protecting your Whois details with a registrar that offers a private domain name record. With this feature, your registrar's data appears with your Whois record rather than your data. The downside of using this feature is that your business may have less credibility because you're hiding who you are.
- Register your domain for a long time period, and set up calendar reminders to renew it before it expires.
- Set up your domain to be renewed automatically if your registrar offers this feature.
- Use the Registrar-lock mechanism if it's available through your registrar. When a domain is locked, it cannot be modified or transferred unless the registrant unlocks it or follows the domain transfer process.

Other domain security measures
- Set up a free Whois monitoring alert email service and add your domain to your monitoring list. You will receive email notifications whenever the expiration date, registrar, or status of a monitored domain changes. (Whois does not have data on all domain extensions.)
- Make sure that someone checks your website every few days, preferably daily.

How to register your domain

When you launch a new website you must register a unique domain name with an authorized registrar. When the internet was first starting, all domain names and IP addresses were registered through one organization, Internic. Eventually Network Solutions took over the role as “keeper” of the internet domain names. Today, there are hundreds of websites where you can register your domain name but Network Solutions still maintains the main database of domain names. Some websites charge as little as $2.95 per year for your domain name while others charge as much as $35 per year for the exact same service. Some even offer one year free if you register your domain name with them and host your website on their servers. Why pay $35 when you can register your domain name for much less at another website?
So why does Network Solutions charge $35 a year if they are the keeper of the database and their resellers charge a fraction or even nothing? Who knows and who cares! Register your domain with one of the cheaper providers and you'll be fine. A word caution - be care who you choose to host your website. Getting a free year of your domain name isn't worth it if your webhost is unreliable and your website is down more than it's up.
You pay for your domain name on a yearly basis. It's a separate charge from your webhosting bill. When you register your domain name choose the autorenewal option if it's available. This way your domain name will not expire if you forget to renew it. If your domain name expires, it's free for anyone else to register so you need to stay on top of when it's expiring. Also registering your domain name for a 3 to 5 year term will often save you money. For example, godaddy.com charges $8.95 a year for your domain name but only $7.25 a year if you register for a 5 year term.
When you register your domain you can create different contact names. The three contacts are Administrator, Technical and Billing. Most of the time the same person is all 3 contacts. If you web designer registers your domain name for you, make sure you are designated as the Administrative contact. This gives you control over the domain name and you must be notified if someone is trying to make changes to your record. If you aren't one of the contacts then someone can transfer ownership of the domain name without your permission.
To see a record of your domain name, go to www.networksolutions.com and use their WHOIS utility which is located in the bottom left corner of their home page. Simply enter your domain name and click Search. You'll see the complete record of your domain name, where it's registered and where your website is hosted. For a complete video of how to use WHOIS, visit www.valiss.com/video/whois/whois.html.
When you register your domain name you'll have to the option of making it a private registration. I highly recommend paying the additional fee to make your information private. If you leave your registration public anyone can look up your domain information which includes your home or business address and your email address. Many spammers scan public domain registration records to find valid email addresses to spam.
I always use a yahoo or hotmail email account when registering my domains. This way if spammers to find my email address, I can just get a new “throwaway” email address and I won't receive spam at my primary email address.
Always make sure your domain record remains locked. Locking your domain name is a feature implemented a few years ago. When you want to transfer your domain name to a different registrar you must unlock it. Once it's unlocked the new registrar can “pull” your domain name from your current registrar. Once the transfer is complete, the domain name will be locked to prevent anyone else from “pulling” your domain away from you.

Is My Search Engine Optimization Working?

You've just built a website and can't wait to start popping up in the top listings of search engines. After all, you've paid this company even more money to create "optimized, search engine friendly pages, start building links and add lots of fresh content." If it takes weeks and months for the search engines to notice me, do I have to wait that long to see if the money was worth it?

No! It's true that it takes time…weeks, even months to build up your web presence, but there are ways to follow your progress. It's important to note that if you already have an established Internet presence and wish to further optimize your site, it usually happens much faster than a site that is brand new with a brand new domain.

If you are already listed in various directories and your existing website has been up and running long enough the search engines have probably already indexed your site and those linking to it. (to see if your site is indexed with a particular engine, in the search field type "site:http://www.yourdomain.com"). As you modify your pages and add new content the process of moving up in search rank is much swifter than starting from a brand new, un-indexed site. ? The ranking process has an inherent unchangeable variable of time. Sponsored search listings are one of a few ways around this hurdle to get you to the top instantly while the search spiders dig through your new site. But for the long haul, while you wait for that big chuck of cash you just paid your SEO to start returning, here are some ways to tell if he or she did you justice.

Ways to keep tabs on your progress:

Monitor Search Engine Positions

If you're a brand new domain name the first step is to watch for yourself to be indexed. Chances are that your optimizer submitted your site to the most prominent search engines at the very least. While the search crawlers will ultimately find you on their own, there is some merit in submitting your site manually. It may take some weeks before a check of site:http://www.yourdomain.com reveals any activity though. Take care not to be over anxious and resubmit your site. That will only hurt your efforts.

Once you find yourself being listed by particular keywords in a search engine, monitor how your rank moves every week or so. (Frequently, the more you add fresh content, the sooner the crawlers will return to your site.) Change the preference settings in search engines to speed up your research efforts.

Google will display up to 100 results per page, MSN up to 50 in "advanced search." This makes it much easier to find yourself if your down in the 300th position. Don't be discouraged though! Being listed even at 300 is an accomplishment. And as you optimize you will see your listing move up in the ranks.

Visitor Tracking

The best, and easiest way to see who is reaching your site by search engine and particular keyword phrase is to implement some sort visitor tracking system. These are not complicated and can cost only a few dollars a month. Take a look at a company like http://www.webstat.com for example.

A small piece of code is placed on each page you want to track. When you log into the online service, you can tell the exact word and phrase someone used to reach you and from what search engine... not to mention scores of other useful data about your site traffic. This quickly gives you a snapshot of which keyword phrases are most successful and in which engines. This data is invaluable to further optimize your pages.

Are your top search engine rankings on par with the industry percentages?

Again using visitor tracking you can see if the people reaching you by Google are close to the percentage of people that use Google compared to MSN or AOL. If the industry shows that overall 25f searchers are using MSN and 5ycos, your results should be similar. If they're not, it's a sign that some modifications might be in order.

Monitoring these processes will show you that there's actually quite a lot of activity. And there's nothing more exciting than watching that 300th position search climb to the first page!

12 Steps to Creating a Business Online

"E-commerce"

A word pervading our society, making headlines around the world, and causing the stock market to rise and fall with
startling ease.

It seems every business news story centers on some technology company’s "DOT-com" or "DOT-bomb"!

With all the positive and negative hoopla, business owners of any size company can throw up their hands and feel the "E" world has left them behind.

Every business owner, salesperson, or professional asked one of two questions in the past year, either "Am I using e-commerce correctly?" or "How do I effectively get involved in e-commerce?"

You can buy hundreds of books and pay thousands in consulting fees to analyze and debate the answer to the first question.

To answer to the second question just follow these 12 steps.

Step 1 - Buy a domain name (your own DOT com). Go to www.NetworkSolutions.com and research names. Can a customer easily spell and remember it?

Step 2 - Write down your online goals and prepare a time and money budget.

How soon do you want your e-commerce site up and running?

How much will you spend?

How many hours will you devote to the site and when?

Step 3 - Surf the web to find other sites you like and dislike. Learn from others’ successes and mistakes by taking the best of what their sites offer and adapting it for your own use.

Step 4 - Design your site on paper. Define elements, look, feel, colors etc.

Step 5 - Hire a professional to set up the graphics and navigation, but with the intention of you or your staff maintaining the site’s day to day operations, communication and updates.

Step 6 - Invest in a digital camera and web publishing software such as Microsoft Front Page or Adobe Acrobat to keep up with the site’s maintenance.

Step 7 - Maintain, change, and update your site at least once a month. (The one exception to this rule are those one- page, sales letter websites. Once you have one of those that performs well and makes sales, don't change it!!)

Step 8 - Promote your site at every opportunity. Tell people about it. Put your web address on your business cards and in all your ads. Some companies even advertise their web address when they put you on hold on the telephone.

Step 9 - Give people a self-serving reason to visit your site. Coupon savings, discounts, special incentives, free information, and free newsletters represent excellent enticements for attracting visitors to your site.

Step 10 - Concentrate on obtaining an email address from every customer and potential customer.

Obtain permission to send periodic, value added malings to your database.

Use a list server to organize and maintain your mailing list.

Step 11 - Always look for and use the simplest solution or option.

Whether adding a shopping cart, database or other option to your e-commerce operation, seek out and use the simplest answer for your needs.

Step 12 - Become educated and stay current in the world of e-commerce.

Learn the marketing and sales techniques of the online world.

Domain Registration: Why You Need Private Whois Service

Privacy is the control of one’s own personal information, control over what others know about one, and control over how others may use or exploit the personal information. Policies and practices for protecting privacy aim towards minimizing the collection of personally identifiable information. Therefore, the basis of privacy is anonymity, where no personally identifiable information is collected. Making compulsory, the disclosure of personally identifiable information, as under current WhoIs policies for domain registration, cause privacy to be undermined

For free speech, privacy is critical. For instance, if people are forced to disclose their identity, they are reluctant to fully express their ideas on account of fear of persecution.

The protection of anonymity further enhances the one-to-many characteristics of the Internet through which an individual's speech can reach a global audience.

Privacy and data protection laws may apply to domain registrars' WhoIs services and registrars' participation in thick registry WhoIs services in various countries, particularly in the European Union's member states.

Current ICANN regulations require that the Private contact information (WhoIs Info) of each domain registration be included in a publicly accessible Database.

The WhoIs database is the collection of information gathered by a domain name registrar from domain name registrants.

The purpose for which the WhoIs system is accessed includes:

1. To find out whether a specific domain name is unregistered and currently available
2. To identify the person or organization responsible for a domain registration or website on the Internet
3. To support technical operations of Internet Service Providers or network administrators, including assistance in tracing sources of Spam or denial of service attacks
4. To collect names and contact information for the purpose of marketing
5. To aid government law enforcement, other than intellectual property

When a WhoIs search is conducted, the information that is currently available about the domain name registrant leads to the name and address of the domain name owner.

However, when a domain name is registered, the personal contact information such as name, address, email address, and even phone number might be made freely available.

The domain registrant would not know who collected his/her WhoIs data, the reason for which the information was collected, and how the collector is likely to use the information

This implies that the private information is displayed and made available to whoever wants to see it, at any point of time.

Now it is possible to protect one’s private WhoIs information by switching the "public" domain registration to a "private" unlisted registration through a private whois service.

A private whois service protects the private information and shields against its misuse. Hence, one is protected against:
- Spam,
- Identity Theft,
- Data Mining,
- Name Hijackers,
- Etc.

It works in a similar way to having one’s phone umber "unlisted" and it prevents people from gaining access to one’s address, phone number and other such private information.

A private whois service works by:
- Protecting the private information
- Relaying important communication
- Providing greater control

Protecting the Private Information

This implies that the private contact information is not exposed and is held confidentially, and protected by the Domain Privacy Protection Service. Instead of the individual’s contact information, their contact information is displayed to provide with the highest level of protection against spammers and identity theft.

Relaying Important Communication

Without a private whois service, those involved in spamming can obtain email addresses through harvesting and then use these for sending spam mails and redistribution to marketing firms. The email addresses can stay on record with various spammers and marketing firms for several years. With a private whois service, the visible email address is constantly changing, so it will change within a specific period of time and the previous address will not work for the spammer. The Domain Privacy Protection Service secures and maintains the real email address on record so that important information regarding the domain is received.

Providing Greater Control

The individual or organization subscribing to the private whois service retains full legal ownership and control over the domain registration. It is possible to sell, renew, transfer and change settings to the domain name just the same as otherwise. The domain control panel provides real-time access to easily manage the domain name.

by: Stanley Spencer

Internet Gold Mine in public domain

With the advent of the internet and the ease of which information can readily be downloaded and compiled you would think that more people would realize that the public domain is a source of wonderful wealth that can be tapped into for huge profits.
I have spent the last 4 years "discovering" little known secrets of this information that is readily available to those who know where to look. Or should I say "prospect". That's exactly what it is. It's Mining. When you mine the internet, you are not mining little rocks in a quarry or dredging a cold river looking for that elusive nugget of gold. You are searching for the gold of the future, and of the past. Information becomes your ore. You now become an information prospector. A "Millennium-Age Gold Miner."
The tools of your trade are much different today than in the days of old. Your "pick-axe" has evolved into your mouse, and your "gold pan" is your hard drive. Your computer is the dredge and your internet connection is your "claim". In the old days when a prospector found gold he would drive a stake in the ground and this would become his claim. You are doing the same thing when you sign the contract for your internet connection. You are staking a claim to the largest source of wealth in the world. Public Domain Information.
You transcend the boundaries of the physical world by entering a realm in which it is possible to find riches in the deepest recesses and crevices of the web. The public domain is the undiscovered country of the information age. It's mysteries are deep as oceans and it's knowledge as expansive as the universe. The public domain now becomes ultimate natural resource.
Information has always reigned king since the beginning of time. There are millions of us who know not the sheer power and value of the information that is freely available to anyone who knows where to look.
The new millennium, and the information-age is very much like the GoldRush of 1849 in which hundreds of thousands of people rushed westward in a stampede of gold seeking pioneers. Some were young, some old, some in between, but all sought a common goal. Gold. Only this time it is different, the gold we seek in this age is information, and it's not mere thousands, but hundreds of millions people who are on this new quest blazing new trails and forging great new paths to wealth.
Information is abundant and widely available. You can mine this gold at anytime, from any place in the world. You do not have to travel vast distances facing the perils of the land to stake your claim. All you need is a computer and a connection to the web. From anywhere in the world you are able to seek out, find, download, and refine your treasure from the warm and cozy comfort of home.
Never before, in the history of man have you been able to procure such wealth so quickly. You are able to locate information on any subject in an instant, and your results are displayed before you faster than you could have ever imagined.
Your "gold pan" quickly become full of the valuable information-ore. Each time you find a nugget it motivates you to find more. You become entranced with the new found riches and it almost becomes obsession. The desire to find more pulses through your veins like a hot drug, steadily increasing your craving for more. The more you find the more you want. It the realization becomes obvious that you have "Gold-Fever" and now you can't stop searching for more information.
This is what the public domain is. It's an internet goldmine chock full of free information ready for the taking.
Stake your claim!
Eric Wichman is founder of PD Times a public domain resources site specializing in free resources for web content and references for webmasters, researchers, marketers, and businesses alike. Be sure to tell your friends about this great new resource for businesses using the public domain