Archive for Website Creation
What Characters Can I Use For My Domain Name?
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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?
You can only use letters, numbers, and hyphens. Hyphens can’t be at the beginning or end of your domain name. You can not use spaces or other symbols. Remember that domain names are not case sensitive, so www.PODForYou.com is the same as www.podforyou.com.
Domain names must be at least 3 characters, but not over 63 characters. Keep in mind, however, that domains with hyphens and longer domain names can be harder to remember. It’s very easy for a surfer to forget a hyphen and land on your competitor’s site. Shorter domain names are also less prone to typing mistakes.
Try to stay away from the number 0 which can be confused with the letter O unless it’s part of a bigger number like 1000. Also, try to stay away from domains that use 2 for the word “to” and 4 for the word “for.” It’s very easy to forget that the number was used instead of the word. People tend to think of words when typing internet addresses.
How To Choose A Domain Name
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photo credit: tuppus So what’s in a name? Plenty if you’re trying to choose a domain name!
Think about it….. choosing a domain name is a bit like getting someone’s name tattooed on your arm. As long as your business is alive, you’re stuck looking at that name day after day. Choose one wisely!
What is a domain name? A domain name is your address on the internet. When you type an address into your browser, you type the (www.) or (http://www.) first. Then you add the domain name. (in our case podforyou) Type the extension. (.com, .net, .info, .gov, .org, .biz, .bz, .mobi and so on) There you go….. our address looks like this: www.podforyou.com or http://www.podforyou.com.
Sometimes an address will also end with a folder extension. For example, our forums are located in the /forums directory of our site. To get there, you have to type in www.podforyou.com/forums.
Get Those Visitors!
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Actually, this is one of the hardest parts of the whole process for me. I can write the content (brilliantly, I might add) 
and I can plot and scheme better than anybody I know…. but dragging those visitors to my site while they’re kicking and screaming can be a bit overwhelming at first. I quickly learned, thankfully, if you do the planning and write the content well, getting the visitors to come is much easier.
Think of the planning and content like measuring the ingredients for a cake recipe- it gets messy and confusing sometimes, but if you do it well, finding tons of willing volunteers to eat the cake (visitors) is a snap. Search engines will send you free traffic if you’ve done your homework and included a bunch of targeted keywords in a niche that’s not too narrow or over-saturated.
Once everything is in place, then it’s time for you to expand your wings and start marketing your site a bit more. Start with free marketing using social networks. You can do several things like: build a Squidoo lens concerning your niche, Twitter about your exploits, create a MySpace or Facebook account…. the list goes on and on.
After you’ve started receiving search engine traffic and traffic from social networks, it may be time for you to experiment with paid advertising. I’ll warn you though…. GO SLOW! Advertising is sometimes like gambling….. you give sites your money and you may or may not see a good return of your investment. NEVER spend more on advertisement than you can comfortably afford to lose.
Even if you find a great moneymaker, things sometimes happen that are beyond our control. I’ve heard several shopkeepers bemoan the fact that one of our POD companies crashed while they had advertising campaigns running. It happens…. trust me….. you don’t want to spend a ton of money that you can’t afford to lose when there are so many variables involved.
Content, Content, Content
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Without quality content, your site will be dead in the water. You may have the best-looking site with the best products available, but if customers can’t find you, what’s the point? Keyword-rich content helps to reel those customers in through the search engines.
Before we go any farther, let me just point out: content does NOT have to be pages and pages of articles like this one. One good example of what I’m talking about is using CPShop to begin an affiliate t-shirt site. Now, if you were doing a dog t-shirt site, you could add some dog articles to help draw visitors to your site. But, what kind of articles would you add to a naughty t-shirt site? *pauses* Ok… I could probably think of some, but that’s beside the point…. *wicked grin*
Content can be as complicated as writing a series of articles OR it can be as simple as writing good, keyword-rich descriptions! I am gonna put this in big, bold letters: DESCRIPTIONS CAN MAKE OR BREAK A PRODUCT-ORIENTED WEBSITE!!! No descriptions or cruddy descriptions = no way for search engines to find you = no customers = no money!
Plots, Plans, and Schemes
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You may not need a secret formula, but I wasn’t kiddin’ earlier when I said ya gotta plot…. ya gotta plan! There are a lot of considerations to make before you run off and slap up some website thinkin’ you’re gonna make a wad of cash.
My best piece of advice is to do what you love. You’ll have tons of ideas about a niche that you know and love. I have a cooking/foodie site because I know and love a lot about food! *at least that’s what my scales keep tellin’ me* 
Then you have to research and decide which topics to pursue for that niche. For my example, I had to think about things like: Do I want to concentrate on one style of cooking, like Italian, Chinese, etc? Do I want to stick to one type of food, like vegetables, desserts, etc?
When you are narrowing down your topics, you need to also ask yourself, “Which topics will be the most profitable?” Simply posting recipes and monetizing with AdSense may not be as profitable as writing reviews about wine refrigerators and offering product links, for example.
Also, you need to research and pick the best affiliate programs for your niche.
Let’s say that you’re going to do a t-shirt shop with affiliated designs. Which do you think you will find more products to choose from, boys and girls?
A. Dogs
B. Warthogs
Well, duh! Dogs, of course! There are tons and tons of dog t-shirts available from a wide variety of vendors.
One caution, though….. make sure your niche is not over-saturated. There are probably 82 gabillion sites on dogs. Sometimes the niche needs to be narrowed…. perhaps a site that focuses only on one breed would be easier to rank well in the search engines with. But don’t narrow it down too far! “Labrador Retrievers” might be easy to find information and products for…… “chocolate labrador retrievers” would be harder……. “blind chocolate labrador retrievers with arthritis” starts to mosey into the, “I’m a tad anal” category.
