Archive for Domain Names
Yahoo Raises Domain Renewal Fees
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photo credit: orangeacidOh, come on! I just gotta ask…. has Yahoo completely lost their ever-livin’ minds?
In a surprising move, Yahoo is jacking up the prices of their domain registration renewals… going from $9.95 to $34.95!!! If you have a domain expiring with Yahoo within the next 90 days, you should have already gotten an email with your price increase. I’m pretty sure is about to pee their pants in excitement!
Yahoo cites increasing costs of offering the service for the reason behind the move. Uhm…. huh? I can understand the recent raises from our POD companies due to increased costs of transportation and goods purchased…. but DOMAIN REGISTRATION?!?!? Heck, even my hosting company offers domains for $9.49, yet Yahoo is going to charge almost 35 bucks for renewals?
If you have a domain being hosted by Yahoo, you might want to begin investigating the transfer process before your renewal date unless you want to pay an exhorbiant price for the privilege of doing business with Yahoo.
What Is Cybersquatting?
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When the internet was young, lots of money could be made by buying a domain name with a big company’s trademark in it. Then the person would dangle the name in front of the company like a carrot. Some people even went as far as to create a site at the domain name and post deragatory remarks about the company to encourage them to purchase. Most of the time, the company would eventually cave in and fork over big bucks to get control of it.
Or the cybersquatter would monetize a site located at the domain name and make money from traffic intended to go elsewhere.
Either way, that changed in 1999 with the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (PDF). This law subjects cybersquatters to civil lawsuits, so you’ll likely see a big company pull a big lawyer out instead of their big wallet. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather stay away from a courtroom facing some big conglomeration. Makes me sleep better at night. 
My advice? Stay away from domain names that contain another company’s name or a trademark.
Where Do I Register My Domain Name?
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Now that you’ve got your list of possible domain names, it’s time to pay a little visit to a domain name registrar. I use for my registrations. (You can find a search box at the bottom of this site.)
There are hundreds of other domain registrars out there, like ….. just make sure you choose a domain registrar that is trustworthy. If you want to know why, just Google the name RegisterFly. Not pretty!
One reason that I stick with is their Super Bowl commercials. Nope…. I ain’t impressed with flashing boobies. But any company that spends that kind of mega bucks on a commercial year after year isn’t some fly-by-night organization that will disappear with my domain name tomorrow. Who knows? They may go under next week, but I know that they didn’t just open their doors yesterday.
It’s sort of like comparing Wal Mart with the new mom and pop gift shop in town. Twenty years from now, it will be more likely that Wal Mart is still standing while the mom and mom shop is long gone. I’d rather trust my domain name to someone who’s less likely to disappear in a few years.
Now that you’re at the domain registrar’s site, it’s time to take your list of domain names and do a search. Search for your favorite one first. If you’re lucky, it will be available. If you’re not lucky, move to the next best choice. Keep going until you find one that’s open.
PURCHASE THAT NAME ASAP! Trust me….. if you like the name, don’t walk away to think for a bit. I don’t care if the cat pukes a hairball on your foot. Buy the name and THEN clean up the mess.
While you’re at it, it’s a very good idea to buy a few variations. Let’s say you luck up and get dogs.com…. it wouldn’t hurt to buy dog.com and “dogs” with different extensions: dogs.biz, dogs.mobi, etc. This prevents competitors from snapping them up later. You can point them all to your site.
If you can afford to, register your domain for more than one year. This does two things: 1. it shows the search engines that you plan on being around for a while and 2. saves you from the hassle of registering your name each year. Trust me, I forgot to do it one year and I’ve been kicking myself ever since for losing that name! 
What Do I Do With My List Of Possible Domain Names?
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- How To Choose A Domain Name
- What Characters Can I Use For My Domain Name?
- How Do I Come Up With A Good Domain Name?
- What Do I Do With My List Of Possible Domain Names?
- Where Do I Register My Domain Name?
- What Is Cybersquatting?
The very first rule of thumb: DO NOT do a domain name search at a domain registrar until you have the money in your pocket and are absolutely ready to register.
I made that mistake early on. I did a search at a popular registrar trying to find a good name that I wanted to register the next week. I spent 30 minutes and finally found the perfect name. What happened when I went back? It was taken! Companies will snap up good domain names that were searched for but not registered. And sorry, but I’m not giving a few hundred bucks to someone just because they think they can gouge the price. Lesson learned.
So what do you do then? Normally, I take my possible domain names and type them into my address bar. If someone owns it and has a site there already, I cross it off my list. If there is nothing there, I circle it as a maybe. Just remember, even if there is nothing there yet doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been registered. Someone could own it already and just hasn’t had the time to build a site.
After getting at least 6 or 7 possible names, I ask my friends for their opinions. What may sound great to you may be ridiculous gibberish to others. Maybe they think it’s hard to spell or remember. If you have to explain what it means, you probably need to cross it off your list. (NOTE: Make sure you ask people that are familiar with your niche. If I had asked my mom about POD For You, she would have asked me what it meant. The people in my industry, however, automatically know that POD means print-on-demand and would understand the name.)
After you have your list of possible names, put them in order from your favorite down to your least favorite. IF you think that you’ll waffle on a name when it comes right down to registering it, do yourself a favor and cross it off your list now. You don’t want to wind up with a name that you’ll ultimately hate (I have 2) OR search to find it open, but be indecisive and kick yourself later for letting it slip away.
How Do I Come Up With A Good Domain Name?
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The first step is to think about your niche and the content of your site. It would be silly to use something like dog.com for a site about cats. Brainstorm on a piece of paper and write down as many keywords and keyword phrases as you can think of.
One good tip that I’ve used throughout the years is to use a keyword tool. Keyword tools, like Wordtracker and Good Keywords give you lots of ideas about what search terms people are using to find sites in your niche. Having a good domain name with keyword phrases that are searched often helps your site to place higher in the search engine ranks.
For example, I was searching for a domain name for an art review site. By doing a search, I realized that the words “up and coming” were used to search for new artists. I chose a domain name that included those words. I get several hits from terms like “up and coming artists.”
Experiment with the keywords and keyword phrases until you come up with several variations of a domain name that you like.
