The search engine and the directories give higher preference when your domain name is relevant to your site content or theme.

Let me give you an example of three different ways you could look at your domain name and how the major search engines will view them for indexing.

www.trafficnmore.com

www.trafficNmore.com

www.traffic-N-more.com

Which one would you have chosen?

www.trafficNmore.com, Right!

The search engines may not necessarily see it that way.

Even though trafficNmore.com is easily understood by the eye of the visitor, the search engine will not see the difference between trafficnmore.com and trafficNmore.com.

Both are good ranking for a site dealing with traffic issues.Even though you have the approval of your visitor looking for your information, you could get a higher ranking with the search engines by using www.traffic-N-more.com and still keep the eye appeal for your visitor.

Here is why.

The hyphen breaks up a longer domain name to reveal the major keywords that describe your website content or theme. This makes it easier for the visitor to understand and most importantly allows the search engine to detect your keyword for indexing right off the bat. Cool, huh?

Moral of the story, give your visitor a break, be nice to the search engines and they’ll be nice to you and give you lots of reoccurring traffic for free.

Debra Gravelle
Free Traffic. Free Download.
http://www.traffic-n-more.com/toolbox.htm
admin@traffic-n-more.com

About The Author

Debra Gravelle has been a business consultant and planner for 22 years.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Email addresses, which must be valid, phone numbers and physical addresses which also must be valid. I personally think it’s both absurd and dangerous to make this information so easily available. Once again the right to privacy of law-abiding individuals is being abridged supposedly to help catch lawbreakers. Since this information would be provided under a court order, making it publicly available just invites abuse.

Spammers, scammers, stalkers and the idle whacko can easily get this information. And it’s a nice start on identity theft, too. However, for most people, the most likely result is an increase in the amount of spam you get. But, much worse can and has happened.

So what solutions are there? Basically there two ways to protect your privacy if you are a private individual without access to a legal entity such as a company to own the domain name (note that if it is a company, you must provide accurate information. This only moves the problem to a slightly less personal level).

First you could lie. No, that’s not one of the ways. Unwise and illegal too, and you are a law-abiding type, right? So, first, a proxy registration is one alternative.

Essentially you make a binding legal agreement with a company which will register the domain name as if they owned it and then provide their own information to meet the requirements. For each domain, they will set-up a special email which they will monitor and forward to you, usually after spam filtering, if you want them to.

They, of course, retain your data and will also monitor physical mail. You will be notified of first class mail which appears to or could be legal documents or if registered or couriered mail arrives. They will, for a fee, ship such to you, if you agree and pay. Generally such items would be sent by courier. Phone callers will be directed to use the email or physical address shown in the WhoIs record

Of course, under subpoena or other specified conditions they will provide your details. You will have full rights as owner - as long as you behave and don’t violate the agreement.

The other alternative, usually called “private registration”, is a little different. Here your name would still appear as registrant. You would provide the names of the admin and technical contacts. But the address, email and phone number would be provided and monitored by the organization handling the private registration in essentially the same manner as a proxy registration. Thus with this alternative you remain in full legal control of your domain name since it is registered in your name rather than the name of a proxy.

On the face of it this second alternative sounds better, but your name is hanging out there on view and you may have valid reasons for not wanting that (perhaps the company you work for takes a dim view of moonlighting, or you have had a stalking problem or are doing something perfectly legitimate but don’t want your name linked to it).In that case, a proxy registration is the only real alternative.

In case you’re thinking you can hide out and do whatever sort of bad stuff behind a proxy or private registration, don’t even dream about it. These outfits take it very personally if you misbehave and the legal agreements spell it out.

If you decide to pursue a proxy or private registration, make very sure that you are working with a legitimate company with a track record. A domain name can be a very valuable possession. Both your registrar and, if it’s a separate organization, the entity that does the proxy or private registration must be quality, legitimate outfits. Registrars offering extremely low prices which are way out of line with the going rates - unless it’s a special - just might be after your credit card and identity. Also, this time, actually read the agreement and TOS so you do know what you’re doing and what could happen under what circumstances.

Wondering why I’m writing about this? Well, it’s because I’m getting more and more spam and I started doing some research on possible solutions. And I figured, I wan’t the only one looking to do something about the problem. And then, I discovered that some registrars will provide free proxy or private registration with your domain name purchase. So think about it and do some checking before you buy a domain name. Your privacy is a precious possession.

Copyright 2005 Richard Keir

Richard teaches, trains and consults, on and off-line. And he writes a lot. Visit http://www.AboutWebHosting.info for articles, information, resources and links related to web hosting and domain registration and http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites for more on eCommerce in particular.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

What Is A Trademark?

A trademark is a distinctive item that is used to identify a logo, product, device, package or service. The trademark identifies the item as being provided by a particular firm. To protect these items you can obtain a mark from the patent and trademark office that prohibits others from trying to gain economic advantage from your mark.

Domain Name

The patent and trademark office views domain names in a unique way. The office views the “http://www” element as a part of the file transfer process, not your domain name. The “.com”, “.net”, etc., designations are considered top-level domain identifiers and are also disregarded for the purpose of a domain name trademark. For example, our domain name is http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com. If we submitted the domain name for registration, only the “sandiegobusinesslawfirm” portion would be considered for a mark.

Locators Cannot Be Registered

A domain name is a locator for file pages. When you type in your domain name, a server locates and displays files. If a domain is used solely for this purpose, it will not be granted a mark. Instead, the domain name must be incorporated into the site. For instance, Amazon is recognized as an online bookstore and the site actually has the word “Amazon” on every page. Since “Amazon.com” is more than a locator, Amazon can apply for and receive a trademark. If Amazon used the domain name, bookstore.com, the company would be able to register “Amazon”, but not “bookstore.”

Generic and Descriptive Terms

Domain names that are generic or descriptive in nature cannot be registered because they fail to designate a distinctive product or service. For example, “sandiegobusinesslawfirm” is comprised of generic terms and describes who and where we are, to wit, a San Diego business law firm. This domain name cannot be trademarked. The same result would occur with bank.com, book.com, advice.com, etc.

You may be thinking, “What about ‘Coke?’ “Coke” is a trademarked term because it is a distinctive term for a soft drink product. It just so happens that a brilliant marketing plan has convinced most people to refer to soft drinks as “cokes”, even if they actually prefer another brand!

Trademarks are an important factor in protecting your Internet business. Armed with a trademark, you can keep competitors from pulling traffic off the search engines when people search for your site.

Richard Chapo is with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com - a law firm providing legal advice to California businesses. This article is for general education purposes and does not address every facet of the subject matter. Nothing in this article creates an attorney-client relationship.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Now I understand that you don’t want your regular e-mail address in ads that you run on free ad sites to prevent spam, but let’s look at this matter constructively.

If you don’t buy anything from Yahoo! off-line, why would you buy from a Yahoo! online? If you’re serious about your business you have to show it through your actions. And the first action to take is to buy your own domain name and use it for all of your e-mails.

Let’s say you are to purchase a product from me. Will you be quicker to purchase from me and trust me if my e-mail address is “edmund@ebizmodelsyoucancopy.com” or if you read an ad from “edmund@yahoo.com?” I’m the same person, but which e-mail address makes you trust me more and believe I’m operating a legitimate business?

If you’re not ready to put up a website, create a professional presentation with your e-mails. They’re your main form of communication online and it’s the main brand people see when you communicate. Every time you send an e-mail you’re advertising. Do you realize that you’ll never make decent money online if your e-mail address ends with “@hotmail.com”?

When you come up with a name for your website or Internet Business get a .com or .biz entity, not a .net, .info or any other domain entity. Why?

When you want to send a package overnight what company do you think of first? Probably Federal Express (FedEx). This is simply because they were the first company to do overnight shipping. You can use UPS or Airborne Express or some of the other smaller companies, but FedEx is the company that gets the most business because they’ve practiced the idea of overnight shipping in the first place. On the same analogy, you need to have a .com domain because that’s where visitors will go first no matter how many new domain endings are created years and years from now.

If you have any other domain name then you’ll be setting yourself up to lose visitors to whoever has the .com domain for your name. Outside of earthlink.net how many .nets come to your mind right now? On the other hand, how many .coms can you think of?

When you hear about a cool company and want to see if they have a website, do you try their name with a .com or with a .net or .info or .tv first? If I’m a compulsive gambler, I’ll bet all my money and assets that you will try the .com first every time and you always will because it’s always going to be your first choice before any other domain entities.

So if you haven’t already, get a great domain name for your Internet Business and buy it before it gets taken. This is a small price to pay for a huge investment. If you’re not willing to invest a few dollars then you don’t have a business. If you want to be taken seriously by your prospects, take your domain name just as serious. This can mean life or death for your Internet Business in its initial stages of birth.

Copyright © Edmund Loh

About the Author:
Edmund Loh is the author of the E-Biz Wiz Blog and Starting An Internet Business Special Report. Visit E-Biz Wiz Blog for proven ideas, tips and information on starting your own Internet Business and subscribe to the 12 Day Internet Marketing Success Course. http://ebizmodelsyoucancopy.blogspot.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Over the years a common question that I am repeatedly asked by new internet marketers is, Why do I need a domain name? It is an important question that we have all asked before.

If you are relatively new to this wonderful thing called the internet, understanding why you need your own domain name is crucial to your online success.

Let’s start with a simple a simple example. You’re at a party doing a little networking. You meet a person who shows interest in your pet care business and they ask, “What is your URL?” To which you reply something like,
“www.geotowns.com/heartland/carlisle/854534/”

Now my question is, do you really think they remembered that? If they did, do you really think they got the impression that you are operating a serious and reputable business? I doubt it.

Can you fix it? You bet. Buy your own domain for less than 2 cents a day! Then you can tell them your domain is something like. “www.PreciousPets.com” Doesn’t that sound a lot more
professional and easy to remember? Oh, and by having your own domain name you also get your own email address. So now instead of saying, “You can contact me at John070368@hotmail.com” You can say, “You can contact me at John@PreciousPets.com”

But hang on, there is more. For that measly 2 cents a day having your own domain name can also drastically increase your traffic volume. How you ask? Many search engines will only include you in their results if you have your own domain name. This cannot be overlooked. You NEED to listed in the results of search engines. After all, to get customers, they need to be able to find you!

In conclusion having your own domain name will…

- Increase you Professionalism
- Make your URL more Memorable
- Give you your own Email Address
- Help get you listed in the Search Engines
- Increase your Traffic levels

I firmly believe that your own domain name is one of the best investments, if not THE best investment, you can make in your site. After all, I doubt 2 cents a day will break anyones bank.

Oh, and after you expensive it to your company it would cost a fraction of a PENNY! I think you get the picture. To purchase your own domain name check out http://www.listopt.com/web_solutions.html

For more articles on this topic and others visit http://www.article-directory.net

Here are some guidelines that you may use in choosing a name:

– one that you like and will be proud to use and promote
– flexible so you can still use it when want to add or change your product line
– short, easy to say, easy to spell and of course easy to remember

Search the net and you’ll find lots of domain name registrars. Or you can ask your friends and colleagues for their recommendations. Domain name registration prices vary from $7.85 a year to $35 a year. Check out their terms of service and it they have customer support available.

One important side note, make sure you’re prompt in renewing your domain name every year. If your domain name expired access to your site will be lost and that will have a big impact o­n your o­nline business. So don’t want to get caught unaware, so you might want to use a domain registrar that provides an auto renew feature. You will find it handy and very useful when your renewal date comes.

Read the full article here.

RTE Business - New EU domain registrar is appointed

If you’re interested on how long it took the dotEU process with ICANN took, read this article in  The Register – EU domain jumps final hurdle | The Register.  It’s an interesting process and a good story.

If you have a dying or domain that has just died, you may want to know how you can profit from it.  A good article in Self SEO gives you a glimpse of the other side of domain name business and how you may get a share of it.

Read the full article here:Dead Domains - find out How to give them a Good Send Off - Self SEO

How, you may ask?

There’s an interesting article written on this topic at selfseo.com. Head on there now.

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