...and why it would be good for you to own some...
======================================================
Domains are virtual real estate. The world wide web keeps growing every day. Like hot molten lava that flows into the Pacific Ocean from the Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii, cools, hardens and becomes new land upon which life will eventually flourish, people keep creating new domain names and building websites of great diverse variety upon these virtual locations.
There are top level domains (TLDs) like .com and .net. These are not the focus of this article, however, they are important to know about. They are the last part of any domain, and they reflect the general category a website would be about. If it is a .com site, then the site would presumably pertain to something commercial. If it is a .net site, then the site would presumably pertain to something having to do with the internet. If it is a .org site, then the site would presumably pertain to a non-profit organization. If it is a .edu site, then the site would presumably pertain to an educational institution. There are many other TLDs. Some of these others pertain to locale such as .ca for sites pertaining to Canada and .us for sites pertaining to the United States of America. You might find some sites with .tv or .ws and wonder about them. These two TLDs were originally allocated to island nations Tuvalu and Western Samoa, but the governments of these two nations decided that it would be in the best interests of their people to make money from their TLD allocations by letting people elsewhere in the world use them. Tuvalu is especially needing funds because their island is going under water due to global warming. Tuvalu thus needs money to help relocate their citizens. If you have a television show or own a television station, it would be great if you would buy a .tv domain name while simultaneously helping some people who inevitably will be displaced.
Second level domains (SLD) are the place where necessity, practicality, and creativity come to the fore. It's getting to the point where everyone is going to need their own domain name and website in order to get by in our society, just like almost everyone needs a telephone number or mailing address.
What are the benefits of having your own domain name? Well, let's say your name is Sarah Smith, for example. If you owned www.SarahSmith.info you could create a website all about yourself. If you were looking for a job, you could post your resume up there and direct prospective employers you meet in everday life to visit you online. If you (as Sarah Smith) were looking for a boyfriend or a husband and had some rigorous criteria, you could post these criteria up on your site along with a list of the benefits some lucky guy would have being with you, Sarah Smith, and instantly you could save yourself the headache of a lot of stupid blind dates by letting all your friends and relatives know about this information before they set you up with their nephew Herman who did not fit the profile. And if you owned www.SarahSmith.com you could create the foundation for an online business.
For an example, click on the following link to my home page and when you get there, click on the link (on the right) that says Work. When you get there, feel free to explore around. I'll still be here when you feel like continuing on reading. There's also a link to this article about domain names on that Work page you can use to come back here too.
There are top level domains (TLDs) like .com and .net. These are not the focus of this article, however, they are important to know about. They are the last part of any domain, and they reflect the general category a website would be about. If it is a .com site, then the site would presumably pertain to something commercial. If it is a .net site, then the site would presumably pertain to something having to do with the internet. If it is a .org site, then the site would presumably pertain to a non-profit organization. If it is a .edu site, then the site would presumably pertain to an educational institution. There are many other TLDs. Some of these others pertain to locale such as .ca for sites pertaining to Canada and .us for sites pertaining to the United States of America. You might find some sites with .tv or .ws and wonder about them. These two TLDs were originally allocated to island nations Tuvalu and Western Samoa, but the governments of these two nations decided that it would be in the best interests of their people to make money from their TLD allocations by letting people elsewhere in the world use them. Tuvalu is especially needing funds because their island is going under water due to global warming. Tuvalu thus needs money to help relocate their citizens. If you have a television show or own a television station, it would be great if you would buy a .tv domain name while simultaneously helping some people who inevitably will be displaced.
Second level domains (SLD) are the place where necessity, practicality, and creativity come to the fore. It's getting to the point where everyone is going to need their own domain name and website in order to get by in our society, just like almost everyone needs a telephone number or mailing address.
What are the benefits of having your own domain name? Well, let's say your name is Sarah Smith, for example. If you owned www.SarahSmith.info you could create a website all about yourself. If you were looking for a job, you could post your resume up there and direct prospective employers you meet in everday life to visit you online. If you (as Sarah Smith) were looking for a boyfriend or a husband and had some rigorous criteria, you could post these criteria up on your site along with a list of the benefits some lucky guy would have being with you, Sarah Smith, and instantly you could save yourself the headache of a lot of stupid blind dates by letting all your friends and relatives know about this information before they set you up with their nephew Herman who did not fit the profile. And if you owned www.SarahSmith.com you could create the foundation for an online business.
For an example, click on the following link to my home page and when you get there, click on the link (on the right) that says Work. When you get there, feel free to explore around. I'll still be here when you feel like continuing on reading. There's also a link to this article about domain names on that Work page you can use to come back here too.
http://www.TomSalsberg.com
Welcome back! I hope you found my site interesting. What you might find even more interesting is that, despite appearances, there really is no website with the domain name of TomSalsberg.com! What I've done is got myself some inexpensive webspace on someone elses' servers (for details see WebsiteForCheap.com) and then set things up with the company that handles my registration of the name TomSalsberg.com, so that if anyone tries to go to TomSalsberg.com they are automatically forwarded to a page on the inexpensive webspace. This can be done in such a way that the viewer sees the real, long name of the actual website such as
http://www.azwebcity.com/tom/home.html . (By the way, if you just clicked on the long URL to the left and a new window did not open, that would be because you probably still have a window for TomSalsberg.com open, and in reality the two are the same page (more about that shortly). Your browser system might see them as the same and so might not open them both up simultaneously. If you close one before opening up the other, you should see the differences and similarities just fine.)
Clicking on TomSalsberg.com and being forwarded to http://www.azwebcity.com/tom/home.html would be an example of what is called URL Forwarding.
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It helps computers find websites like people find buildings.
Another option is to do something called Frame Forwarding. That is where the registrar of the domain name you own forwards people to the URL with the long name, but sets things up on the viewer's computer so that the long name isn't seen by the viewer; the name you want the viewer to see sticks in the address bar instead.
Some people pay a lot of money to get Frame Forwarding. The folks at NameStick.com charge close to US$40 for domain name registration and frame forwarding. You can get those two services for well under US$10 at various other sites. I've tried a few domain name registrars that provide frame forwarding services, and there are three I recommend for ease of use, low cost and customer service (including over the telephone); DomainRightNow (or DRN for short), NameCheap, and 1&1. 1&1 is the least expensive, but their service has a limitation in that they will not carry over referral tags when frame forwarding, so their service is best used with splash and gateway pages that you build yourself and from where people click through to your company provided affiliate website. Namecheap and DRN are fine for frame forwarding and maintaining the integrity of the company provided affiliate tag.
All three include email forwarding as part of their domain ownership package. This can be handy if you want to create a temporary email address (or more than one) that forwards email sent to your new email address with your new domain name at the end of it to another email address. Like what other email address? Well, how about your more permanent email address provided by your home or office internet service provider (ISP)? Or maybe you have a permanent web based email address that you access from anywhere you have internet access? You could forward it there. Email forwarding can also be useful if you aren't planning on sticking with your ISP. Each of these three domain name providers can provide you with an email address you might consider permanent such as Sarah@SarahSmith.com. This you could set up to forward to your present email address. Then, after you switch to your next ISP and get a different email address from them, you can switch the forwarding tool to send email directed to Sarah@SarahSmith.com to your new, different email address. If you'd like to check out DRN, NameCheap and/or 1&1, I've set up links here for your convenience:
DomainRightNow.com
http://www.azwebcity.com/tom/home.html . (By the way, if you just clicked on the long URL to the left and a new window did not open, that would be because you probably still have a window for TomSalsberg.com open, and in reality the two are the same page (more about that shortly). Your browser system might see them as the same and so might not open them both up simultaneously. If you close one before opening up the other, you should see the differences and similarities just fine.)
Clicking on TomSalsberg.com and being forwarded to http://www.azwebcity.com/tom/home.html would be an example of what is called URL Forwarding.
URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It helps computers find websites like people find buildings.
Another option is to do something called Frame Forwarding. That is where the registrar of the domain name you own forwards people to the URL with the long name, but sets things up on the viewer's computer so that the long name isn't seen by the viewer; the name you want the viewer to see sticks in the address bar instead.
Some people pay a lot of money to get Frame Forwarding. The folks at NameStick.com charge close to US$40 for domain name registration and frame forwarding. You can get those two services for well under US$10 at various other sites. I've tried a few domain name registrars that provide frame forwarding services, and there are three I recommend for ease of use, low cost and customer service (including over the telephone); DomainRightNow (or DRN for short), NameCheap, and 1&1. 1&1 is the least expensive, but their service has a limitation in that they will not carry over referral tags when frame forwarding, so their service is best used with splash and gateway pages that you build yourself and from where people click through to your company provided affiliate website. Namecheap and DRN are fine for frame forwarding and maintaining the integrity of the company provided affiliate tag.
All three include email forwarding as part of their domain ownership package. This can be handy if you want to create a temporary email address (or more than one) that forwards email sent to your new email address with your new domain name at the end of it to another email address. Like what other email address? Well, how about your more permanent email address provided by your home or office internet service provider (ISP)? Or maybe you have a permanent web based email address that you access from anywhere you have internet access? You could forward it there. Email forwarding can also be useful if you aren't planning on sticking with your ISP. Each of these three domain name providers can provide you with an email address you might consider permanent such as Sarah@SarahSmith.com. This you could set up to forward to your present email address. Then, after you switch to your next ISP and get a different email address from them, you can switch the forwarding tool to send email directed to Sarah@SarahSmith.com to your new, different email address. If you'd like to check out DRN, NameCheap and/or 1&1, I've set up links here for your convenience:
DomainRightNow.com
Of course, once you've bought one or more domain names, you will probably want to build a website. Most people think you need to learn HyperText Markup Language (HTML) in order to build a website. Well, it helps to know a little bit about it, and it's easy to learn, but with online What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) tools you don't need to know anything about HTML and you will still be able to build a website. This page, for example, was build just with point and click technology (plus a little typing, which I learned how to do when I was in junior high school). If WYSIWYG website building tools and an inexpensive website is something you are looking for, check out the system available from AZWebCity and SuperPayLine (SPL). AZWebCity costs just US$39.95 one time only. If you are interested, go ahead and read more about it here ===>
WebsiteForCheap.com
After you have got yourself a website, unless you're not satisfied with it (which often happens) you will probably want to promote it. I've put together a webpage with a compilation of many resources which, if used as directed, should help almost anyone increase traffic flow to their website(s). To get to the link... click here.
Getting back to the subject of Frame Forwarding, I'd like to point out another advantage that this service has for online business builders who work in association with network marketing companies and as an affiliate to various companies that market various products or services (such as online advertising in the form of "traffic exchanges" and "get paid to surf" sites).
As I'm sure you already know, there is a lot of money to be made through marketing on the internet. One of the ways for a home-based business person to do so is to work in cooperation with a larger company. The larger company builds a big impressive website with a nice, short URL. I'll give you a real example from my life. R-Garden Inc., which I've been associated with as an independent distributor since 1996, owns two websites, www.RGarden.com, which is product oriented, and www.RGarden.net which is both product oriented and network marketing oriented. As a service to the independent distributors who do the network marketing, R-Garden makes available for US$30 a year, customized variations on their own sites. These sites have the same domain name, RGarden.net, but they come with an extension at the end. Mine is RGarden.net/tom.
If I introduce someone to the R-Garden products and tell them they can buy these products online at www.RGarden.net/tom, some of them will go to the internet and very conscienciously type in the full URL including my extension. I love that. However, there are some people who think maybe they will get a better deal if they leave out the extension and go to the main page instead. They're not being malicious. It's just human nature to search for their own personal greatest advantage. Of course there is no special advantage if they do this. The prices are the same, so they don't save money by doing that. Not only do they not gain by doing that, but they also lose out on the personal support I gladly provide to the people who become customers of R-Garden through my website. Still, it happens time and time again with many companies and many affiliate marketers who have their codenames and codenumbers hanging off the end of the site name. You probably have already guessed what the solution is to this problem.
Yup! My suggested solution is for you to get a good domain name and set up Frame Forwarding with it so that the affiliate codes aren't an issue anymore. Out of site, out of mind! Check out the URL I own, below, with and without the www prefix. Just to show you the difference, I've set the first one up to frame forward with the HealthyHappyWealthyAndWise.com name sticking in the address bar, and the second one I've set so it just forwards to the URL without keeping my chosen domain name, HealthyHappyWealthyAndWise.com, in the address bar (ie. no frame forwarding) but instead shows the incredibly long URL where the viewer has been forwarded to, ie. http://www.rgarden.com/mygarden/?customers_referral=51247&refmail=rgarden2222@yahoo.com (Namecheap.com calls the latter "URL Forwarding", similar to "Frame Forwarding" but without the name sticking in the address bar.)
To actually notice the difference you might need to close the window that opens up after clicking the first link before clicking the second link. Be sure to pay close attention to what URL appears in the address bar each time you click!
WebsiteForCheap.com
After you have got yourself a website, unless you're not satisfied with it (which often happens) you will probably want to promote it. I've put together a webpage with a compilation of many resources which, if used as directed, should help almost anyone increase traffic flow to their website(s). To get to the link... click here.
Getting back to the subject of Frame Forwarding, I'd like to point out another advantage that this service has for online business builders who work in association with network marketing companies and as an affiliate to various companies that market various products or services (such as online advertising in the form of "traffic exchanges" and "get paid to surf" sites).
As I'm sure you already know, there is a lot of money to be made through marketing on the internet. One of the ways for a home-based business person to do so is to work in cooperation with a larger company. The larger company builds a big impressive website with a nice, short URL. I'll give you a real example from my life. R-Garden Inc., which I've been associated with as an independent distributor since 1996, owns two websites, www.RGarden.com, which is product oriented, and www.RGarden.net which is both product oriented and network marketing oriented. As a service to the independent distributors who do the network marketing, R-Garden makes available for US$30 a year, customized variations on their own sites. These sites have the same domain name, RGarden.net, but they come with an extension at the end. Mine is RGarden.net/tom.
If I introduce someone to the R-Garden products and tell them they can buy these products online at www.RGarden.net/tom, some of them will go to the internet and very conscienciously type in the full URL including my extension. I love that. However, there are some people who think maybe they will get a better deal if they leave out the extension and go to the main page instead. They're not being malicious. It's just human nature to search for their own personal greatest advantage. Of course there is no special advantage if they do this. The prices are the same, so they don't save money by doing that. Not only do they not gain by doing that, but they also lose out on the personal support I gladly provide to the people who become customers of R-Garden through my website. Still, it happens time and time again with many companies and many affiliate marketers who have their codenames and codenumbers hanging off the end of the site name. You probably have already guessed what the solution is to this problem.
Yup! My suggested solution is for you to get a good domain name and set up Frame Forwarding with it so that the affiliate codes aren't an issue anymore. Out of site, out of mind! Check out the URL I own, below, with and without the www prefix. Just to show you the difference, I've set the first one up to frame forward with the HealthyHappyWealthyAndWise.com name sticking in the address bar, and the second one I've set so it just forwards to the URL without keeping my chosen domain name, HealthyHappyWealthyAndWise.com, in the address bar (ie. no frame forwarding) but instead shows the incredibly long URL where the viewer has been forwarded to, ie. http://www.rgarden.com/mygarden/?customers_referral=51247&refmail=rgarden2222@yahoo.com (Namecheap.com calls the latter "URL Forwarding", similar to "Frame Forwarding" but without the name sticking in the address bar.)
To actually notice the difference you might need to close the window that opens up after clicking the first link before clicking the second link. Be sure to pay close attention to what URL appears in the address bar each time you click!
http://HealthyHappyWealthyAndWise.com
http://www.HealthyHappyWealthyAndWise.com
http://www.HealthyHappyWealthyAndWise.com
I also do something similar with another domain name, one that sounds similar to the actual name of the company that I'm working with. Instead of R-Garden, though, the domain name is GardenOfHealthAndWealth. That is reflective of the name of the company, R-Garden, the product orientation, namely "health", and the financial compensation plan of network marketing, which can lead to "wealth". In this example I just have Frame Forwarding (also sometimes called "domain masking", where GardenOfHealthAndWealth.com masks the domain RGarden.net with the lengthy extension that the company adds for its affiliates).
GardenOfHealthAndWealth.com
Gateway Websites
Here is something different. In this example, I'm illustrating what's going on with another network marketing company that I belong to, MXI. In this example, the domain name I purchased is not directly reflective of the company. The expression "Big and Sweet" could pertain to anything that is big and sweet, not necessarily chocolate - which is MXI's stock in trade. Using "Big and Sweet" for this purpose lends itself to creative marketing, with talk of making "big money" selling "sweet healthy chocolate". Previously I used the same domain name to market something else entirely. I'll let you use your imagination! BigAndSweet.info is quite a versatile domain, you see.
Now, in this example illustrating Gateway Websites, the first link frame forwards with the name sticking in the address bar, and the second link, the one with www in the front of it, acts as a simple URL forwarder without frame forwarding, revealing in the end my hosting information, as was the case for TomSalsberg.com This time, however, I've created a page that loads quickly and introduces people to the MXI corporate site (chocolate option) and a third party provided, well designed lead generation and tour providing website from HCLpro (healthy chocolate living), which compliments the MXI corporate system. At the bottom of the page, I provide a couple of no-cost business opportunity alternatives, in case people aren't interested after all in the healthy chocolate product or the business opportunity that has an overhead of about $300 to start and $150 a month to maintain, but wants to make money with no overhead costs. Specifically Yuwie and ZenZuu.
Here is something different. In this example, I'm illustrating what's going on with another network marketing company that I belong to, MXI. In this example, the domain name I purchased is not directly reflective of the company. The expression "Big and Sweet" could pertain to anything that is big and sweet, not necessarily chocolate - which is MXI's stock in trade. Using "Big and Sweet" for this purpose lends itself to creative marketing, with talk of making "big money" selling "sweet healthy chocolate". Previously I used the same domain name to market something else entirely. I'll let you use your imagination! BigAndSweet.info is quite a versatile domain, you see.
Now, in this example illustrating Gateway Websites, the first link frame forwards with the name sticking in the address bar, and the second link, the one with www in the front of it, acts as a simple URL forwarder without frame forwarding, revealing in the end my hosting information, as was the case for TomSalsberg.com This time, however, I've created a page that loads quickly and introduces people to the MXI corporate site (chocolate option) and a third party provided, well designed lead generation and tour providing website from HCLpro (healthy chocolate living), which compliments the MXI corporate system. At the bottom of the page, I provide a couple of no-cost business opportunity alternatives, in case people aren't interested after all in the healthy chocolate product or the business opportunity that has an overhead of about $300 to start and $150 a month to maintain, but wants to make money with no overhead costs. Specifically Yuwie and ZenZuu.
http://BigAndSweet.info
http://www.BigAndSweet.info
http://www.BigAndSweet.info
Step By Step Instructions for Frame Forwarding
It's really simple to set your DomainRightNow domain to forward to the web page you have built with an inexpensive or free website builder. The process is similar with 1&1 and NameCheap. I'm just using the DRN system as an example. If you have any difficulties with DRN, 1&1 or NameCheap you can get help from their support departments.
First, log into your DRN account.
Next, click on the words "Manage Domain Forwarding".
Third, in the list where your domain name is shown, click on the word "masking". The DRN web page should automatically change.
On the right hand side of the DRN web page, you will see an empty field with the heading "forward to". Fill in that empty field with the address you want your domain name to forward to".
Then click the box that says "mask domain" (assuming you want the frame forwarding, rather than the simple URL forwarding, in which case you would not click the box).
You also have the option of filling in the three fields that follow below the box. They are for more advanced users. As a beginner, feel free to skip over them.
Finally, click the bottom green button that says "Save Changes", and you're done!
Give the system a few minutes or hours to apply the forwarding option to your domain. In some cases it happens instantly, but sometimes it might take as long as a day.
It's really simple to set your DomainRightNow domain to forward to the web page you have built with an inexpensive or free website builder. The process is similar with 1&1 and NameCheap. I'm just using the DRN system as an example. If you have any difficulties with DRN, 1&1 or NameCheap you can get help from their support departments.
First, log into your DRN account.
Next, click on the words "Manage Domain Forwarding".
Third, in the list where your domain name is shown, click on the word "masking". The DRN web page should automatically change.
On the right hand side of the DRN web page, you will see an empty field with the heading "forward to". Fill in that empty field with the address you want your domain name to forward to".
Then click the box that says "mask domain" (assuming you want the frame forwarding, rather than the simple URL forwarding, in which case you would not click the box).
You also have the option of filling in the three fields that follow below the box. They are for more advanced users. As a beginner, feel free to skip over them.
Finally, click the bottom green button that says "Save Changes", and you're done!
Give the system a few minutes or hours to apply the forwarding option to your domain. In some cases it happens instantly, but sometimes it might take as long as a day.
You might want to copy and paste the above instructions into a notepad file or something for future reference. Alternatively, you can come back here by visiting TomSalsberg.com, clicking on the Work link, and then on the link to this article.
Selling Domain Names
There's at least one more reason why you should own domain names. Like I said at the beginning of this article, domain names are virtual real estate. Now, although it is much easier to acquire domain names than land and buildings, and the world of domain names seems to be expandable to a degree only limited by human imagination, the reality is that domain names can be quite valuable if you find the right buyer. Some domain names, purchased for less than US$40 have been sold for thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and in a very small number of cases, millions of dollars. Why so much? Well, for one thing, the TLD of .com is the standard TLD that most people expect to have at the end of a URL. To some extent this is changing, especially in countries where their local TLD has been popularized (e.g. .ca in Canada), but not so much in the USA, and the USA is the world leader in cutting edge popular culture, setting impressions in peoples minds the world over about what to expect here, there, and using etherware to access the internet. Also, the USA presently has the most buying power per person and probably will for generations to come.
I think, because of these two reasons, the .com TLD will probably always remain king even if some other TLDs become popular. Therefore, most people place the highest value on domain names with a .com TLD. This can create a crimp in supply and a boost to demand. Where there is a crimp in supply and a boost in demand, expect elevated prices.
For example, let's look at our original example of SarahSmith.com. Chances are there are many Sarah Smith's in the world. Let's say that one of the worlds' Sarah Smiths is a netrapreneur; an entrepreneur making use of the internet. This Sarah Smith is in her 30s or 40s and owns several online real estate properties that have been serving her well and she's making a good living from her businesses. Among the domain names she owns is SarahSmith.com and she's using it to help promote herself among the people she connects with in her day to day life which leads many of them to check out her businesses, which helps make her money. Now let's say another Sarah Smith, smart, pretty, cute, and talented, has just turned twenty years old and over the past three years became a music and acting sensation, perhaps as a result of exposure on the tv show American Idol or America Has Talent or some equivalent program. Her business agent tells her that she is earning millions from royalties on her CDs, DVDs and movie theater box office sales, not to mention live show appearances. Her career agent and publicist say that while there are many fan sites on the internet with long, difficult to remember names, there is no official Sarah Smith website and they think it is important that they have it. Obviously, with a moment taken to search any WhoIs website, they would be aware of our netrapreneurial Sarah Smith and her SarahSmith.com virtual real estate. With young Sarah's go-ahead, her career agent and business manager would engage in negotiations with the business savy Sarah, and eventually a deal would be hammered out, possibly with the help of a domain name broker. Your imagination might provide you with a realistic idea of what the final figure for that hypothetical deal the two Saras might make.
Not so often will the value of domain names be as high as what you might guess would be the case for our imaginary Sarah Smiths. It's all a question of supply and demand. A domain name is worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay. At the time of this writing, I have some domain names I bought for use in business projects I'm no longer involved with, as well as some domain names I might still be using or want to use but would be willing to let go of for the right price. If you are curious to see what they are (some are very good, if you don't mind me saying so myself), and especially if you are a potential buyer, please email me through my Tom Salsberg website, and perhaps we might negotiate a direct deal bypassing my brokers and agents. If you want to buy some quality domains owned by others, I have an affiliation with Sedo who professionally specialize in this market, offering quite a lot of related services, including escrow services so you can be sure you'll get the product you pay for. I plan to list most of my domains for sale with them.
Where to sell domains? There are a lot of possibilities which I could write at length on, but, in short, I think Sedo is the best place because they are BIG and very professional, offering many services including an auction house (see banner, below) and their own escrow service so that everyone - buyer and seller and escrow agent - is happy at the end of a transaction.
To visit Sedo, please click on the following links:
Selling Domain Names
There's at least one more reason why you should own domain names. Like I said at the beginning of this article, domain names are virtual real estate. Now, although it is much easier to acquire domain names than land and buildings, and the world of domain names seems to be expandable to a degree only limited by human imagination, the reality is that domain names can be quite valuable if you find the right buyer. Some domain names, purchased for less than US$40 have been sold for thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and in a very small number of cases, millions of dollars. Why so much? Well, for one thing, the TLD of .com is the standard TLD that most people expect to have at the end of a URL. To some extent this is changing, especially in countries where their local TLD has been popularized (e.g. .ca in Canada), but not so much in the USA, and the USA is the world leader in cutting edge popular culture, setting impressions in peoples minds the world over about what to expect here, there, and using etherware to access the internet. Also, the USA presently has the most buying power per person and probably will for generations to come.
I think, because of these two reasons, the .com TLD will probably always remain king even if some other TLDs become popular. Therefore, most people place the highest value on domain names with a .com TLD. This can create a crimp in supply and a boost to demand. Where there is a crimp in supply and a boost in demand, expect elevated prices.
For example, let's look at our original example of SarahSmith.com. Chances are there are many Sarah Smith's in the world. Let's say that one of the worlds' Sarah Smiths is a netrapreneur; an entrepreneur making use of the internet. This Sarah Smith is in her 30s or 40s and owns several online real estate properties that have been serving her well and she's making a good living from her businesses. Among the domain names she owns is SarahSmith.com and she's using it to help promote herself among the people she connects with in her day to day life which leads many of them to check out her businesses, which helps make her money. Now let's say another Sarah Smith, smart, pretty, cute, and talented, has just turned twenty years old and over the past three years became a music and acting sensation, perhaps as a result of exposure on the tv show American Idol or America Has Talent or some equivalent program. Her business agent tells her that she is earning millions from royalties on her CDs, DVDs and movie theater box office sales, not to mention live show appearances. Her career agent and publicist say that while there are many fan sites on the internet with long, difficult to remember names, there is no official Sarah Smith website and they think it is important that they have it. Obviously, with a moment taken to search any WhoIs website, they would be aware of our netrapreneurial Sarah Smith and her SarahSmith.com virtual real estate. With young Sarah's go-ahead, her career agent and business manager would engage in negotiations with the business savy Sarah, and eventually a deal would be hammered out, possibly with the help of a domain name broker. Your imagination might provide you with a realistic idea of what the final figure for that hypothetical deal the two Saras might make.
Not so often will the value of domain names be as high as what you might guess would be the case for our imaginary Sarah Smiths. It's all a question of supply and demand. A domain name is worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay. At the time of this writing, I have some domain names I bought for use in business projects I'm no longer involved with, as well as some domain names I might still be using or want to use but would be willing to let go of for the right price. If you are curious to see what they are (some are very good, if you don't mind me saying so myself), and especially if you are a potential buyer, please email me through my Tom Salsberg website, and perhaps we might negotiate a direct deal bypassing my brokers and agents. If you want to buy some quality domains owned by others, I have an affiliation with Sedo who professionally specialize in this market, offering quite a lot of related services, including escrow services so you can be sure you'll get the product you pay for. I plan to list most of my domains for sale with them.
Where to sell domains? There are a lot of possibilities which I could write at length on, but, in short, I think Sedo is the best place because they are BIG and very professional, offering many services including an auction house (see banner, below) and their own escrow service so that everyone - buyer and seller and escrow agent - is happy at the end of a transaction.
To visit Sedo, please click on the following links:
DomainNamesForSale
Affiliate Marketing On Your Website or Websites
In more ways than one, everything is connected to everything else. If you have built a website about a topic, it will attract people through search engine results who are interested in that topic. Well, you can monetize that traffic, if you wish. I'm an affiliate of an affiliate brokerage company that connects webmasters with companies that pay commissions for sales that occur as a result of people going from your website to theirs, and you can select which sorts of businesses you want to affiliate with - ones that would be of interest to your readers. I think a lot of people reading this article will find the possibilities this offers intriguing. If you are one of these people, please click on the following banner:
Parking
If you have a domain, but no website to go with it, neither one you built nor an affiliate site like some multi-level marketing company that you forward the URL to, there is still a way of getting paid for traffic that flows from people interested in your domain. It is called Parking. You can park your domain with one of the several domain parking companies out there, and if people land on the parked page and click on any link on that page that leads to a site someone is paying for traffic, you can earn anywhere from a few cents to several dollars! The parking companies work for you to attract people to your domain because the more money you make, the more money they make, and there is no fee for this service. They just take their share of the earnings from paid-to-click advertising dollars that get linked to your domain.
Again, Sedo is one company I recommend. Another good parking company is Parked. Click on their banners, below, and join either or both so you can park your domains to earn money.
Affiliate Marketing On Your Website or Websites
In more ways than one, everything is connected to everything else. If you have built a website about a topic, it will attract people through search engine results who are interested in that topic. Well, you can monetize that traffic, if you wish. I'm an affiliate of an affiliate brokerage company that connects webmasters with companies that pay commissions for sales that occur as a result of people going from your website to theirs, and you can select which sorts of businesses you want to affiliate with - ones that would be of interest to your readers. I think a lot of people reading this article will find the possibilities this offers intriguing. If you are one of these people, please click on the following banner:
Parking
If you have a domain, but no website to go with it, neither one you built nor an affiliate site like some multi-level marketing company that you forward the URL to, there is still a way of getting paid for traffic that flows from people interested in your domain. It is called Parking. You can park your domain with one of the several domain parking companies out there, and if people land on the parked page and click on any link on that page that leads to a site someone is paying for traffic, you can earn anywhere from a few cents to several dollars! The parking companies work for you to attract people to your domain because the more money you make, the more money they make, and there is no fee for this service. They just take their share of the earnings from paid-to-click advertising dollars that get linked to your domain.
Again, Sedo is one company I recommend. Another good parking company is Parked. Click on their banners, below, and join either or both so you can park your domains to earn money.
Well, that's the end of this article, but probably just the beginning of your interest in the topic. If you have any questions or comments for me feel free to write to me at Tom AT TomSalsberg DOT com.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Product Review of ListInferno
Concept: Adds Thousands Of 100% Opt-In Leads To Your List
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Ease of Use: 5 out of 5
Effectiveness: 5 out of 5
Recommendation: Use Immediately - Major List Building Tool
Price: FREE
Anyone successful on the Internet tells you the gold is in
your list. But what if you can't get that list? What if
you're struggling to get just 100 subscribers a week?
Now there's a better solution, that enables anyone to add
thousands of 100% opt-in subscribers to their list, with
very little effort.
Technical eMarketer Steve Shaw, the guy behind this tool,
says that ListInferno has been designed to "give everyone
and anyone the ability to create their own big valuable
opt-in list ... this system has been designed to add
thousands of opt-in leads to your list for the bare minimum
of effort - and it's all 100% free".
So, does it live up to the hype?
When I first took a look at this tool, I thought, "Well,
there are some systems similar to this one on the net...
What makes this one so special?"
Then, when I signed up and followed the process in the
Setup Wizard, the answer was easy to see. There are some
subtle differences in this tool that make it really stand
out. And I'd be willing to bet that these differences may
well make this the most viral list building tool yet seen
online.
It's important to realize, that rather than bringing you
huge amounts of traffic, this tool brings you what anyone
wanting to make money online needs even more - quality
targetted 100% opt-in leads for your list.
This new free tool could well be the easiest, cheapest and
fastest way to build your list yet developed. In fact, by
jumping on board with this as soon as possible, you could
gain a strong advantage over your competitors.
And if they are already signed up, that's even more reason
not to waste any more time. After all, the one with the
biggest list usually wins, and makes the most money.
Definitely ride the wave on this:
Listen, I've tried this out myself - it's so easy and so
effective, it would be pretty dumb not to use it
immediately. Anything that can give you free subscribers
for virtually zero effort is worth a try - and this system
can give you lots of those.
Bottom Line: This is probably the most effective list
building system we have ever encountered - and quite
possibly there will never be anything like this again. We
mean that. We just hope it stays free... You should get it
now while it still is.
http://www.listinferno.com/?i=3568&c=a1
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Product Review of ListInferno
Concept: Adds Thousands Of 100% Opt-In Leads To Your List
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Ease of Use: 5 out of 5
Effectiveness: 5 out of 5
Recommendation: Use Immediately - Major List Building Tool
Price: FREE
Anyone successful on the Internet tells you the gold is in
your list. But what if you can't get that list? What if
you're struggling to get just 100 subscribers a week?
Now there's a better solution, that enables anyone to add
thousands of 100% opt-in subscribers to their list, with
very little effort.
Technical eMarketer Steve Shaw, the guy behind this tool,
says that ListInferno has been designed to "give everyone
and anyone the ability to create their own big valuable
opt-in list ... this system has been designed to add
thousands of opt-in leads to your list for the bare minimum
of effort - and it's all 100% free".
So, does it live up to the hype?
When I first took a look at this tool, I thought, "Well,
there are some systems similar to this one on the net...
What makes this one so special?"
Then, when I signed up and followed the process in the
Setup Wizard, the answer was easy to see. There are some
subtle differences in this tool that make it really stand
out. And I'd be willing to bet that these differences may
well make this the most viral list building tool yet seen
online.
It's important to realize, that rather than bringing you
huge amounts of traffic, this tool brings you what anyone
wanting to make money online needs even more - quality
targetted 100% opt-in leads for your list.
This new free tool could well be the easiest, cheapest and
fastest way to build your list yet developed. In fact, by
jumping on board with this as soon as possible, you could
gain a strong advantage over your competitors.
And if they are already signed up, that's even more reason
not to waste any more time. After all, the one with the
biggest list usually wins, and makes the most money.
Definitely ride the wave on this:
Listen, I've tried this out myself - it's so easy and so
effective, it would be pretty dumb not to use it
immediately. Anything that can give you free subscribers
for virtually zero effort is worth a try - and this system
can give you lots of those.
Bottom Line: This is probably the most effective list
building system we have ever encountered - and quite
possibly there will never be anything like this again. We
mean that. We just hope it stays free... You should get it
now while it still is.
http://www.listinferno.com/?i=3568&c=a1
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -