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Advice for E-Entrepreneurs (Domains)

Peter2

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Coolbeans, when you guys say "buy" though, is that the same as registering? Like, if you buy a screename, it's permanently yours, or is it the same as registering and you have to renew the registration each year?

Yes, when I say buy, I mean register a name. You can renew annually or prepay for multiple years at the time of registration.
 
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M-M

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So register.com is a good choice?
 

Diane Kennedy

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Great thread. I have 100's of domain names myself. And I have had the same issue of someone grabbing my GoDaddy searches if I don't buy right away.

I'm not a lawyer, don't even pretend to be...but, I've run into a few issues with the domain names.

You can't use a person's name (unless they are considered in public domain).
You can't use a name that is registered or trademarked. (The other company can get it back)
If you grab a name that is someone else's business and even if it's not trademarked or registered, they can get it back from you UNLESS you have it operating. (answer is to point it to an operating website)

On a sidenote, did anyone see the story about the man who made $330 million by buying up popular websites with a .cm (Cameroon). So, if I typed google.cm, I'd go to his site. It was just populated by google ads and from the clicks, he made $330 million.
So he picked up all the people who did typos.

We typically buy common mispellings for our websites as well. So, if someone makes a mistake typing, they still make it to our sites.
 

FT1

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I like Namecheap.com. $8.88 reg fee which includes Whoisguard and they have prompt customer service.

Regarding Godaddy being "spammy"... since when did upselling become spam? Upselling is a very efffective biz practice. If a guy is ready to hand you money, why not ask "would you like an apple pie with that?" Mtg companies, fast food resturants, ecommerce businesses, etc., all use the techinique because it works.
 

Z5 FILMS

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I like Namecheap.com. $8.88 reg fee which includes Whoisguard and they have prompt customer service.

Regarding Godaddy being "spammy"... since when did upselling become spam? Upselling is a very efffective biz practice. If a guy is ready to hand you money, why not ask "would you like an apple pie with that?" Mtg companies, fast food resturants, ecommerce businesses, etc., all use the techinique because it works.


I'll use your fast food example of what these registrars would be like, if they were real Brick & Mortar businesses.

Register.com

You pull up to the Register.com store. The parking lot is nice and clean and no vagrants or people loitering. "Thank you for visiting Register.com may I take your order?" the voice on the drive-thru speaker box asks. "Yes, I would like to order the domain xyz.com". "Good choice. It's availible. Would you like to buy some hosting or perhaps an additional domain today?" the voice on the box repsonds. "No thank you" you reply. "OK, that will be $35 for one year and you receive discounts for additional years should you choose to buy them, please pay at the window". You pay at the window and are finished.

Easy enough.


GoDaddy.com

You pull into the GoDaddy.com parking lot. The second you pull in someone jumps out and slams a big sign in front of your car with a picture of Danica Patrick on it. The man yells at you "Hey buddy!! Domain names are 8.95 a year here!" "Umm..Ok" you respond. The man then just stands there with the sign refuses to move out of the way, so you have to drive around him. You proceed to the speaker box and stop. Nobody helps you at the box so you say "Hello?" A voice comes on and asks "So how much hosting would you like to buy? You can save 20%!" You're confused. "I just want to buy a domain name" you say. "You have to tell that to the NEXT box. This box is for hosting. So how much hosting would you like to buy, buddy?" the voice responds. As you look ahead you don't see another box. "But there's not another box" you reply. The lady replies back, "Sorry, this box is not a customer service box, it's for ordering hosting". At that moment a dirty looking guy starts banging on the trunk of your car shouting "Buying domain names in bulk is cheaper!!".

You start to panic and look for another box. You notice there IS another speaker box, but it's located on the passengers side of the car making it difficult to communicate with. You hit the gas. No sooner than you do that, two people jump out in front of your car. One is screaming "custom logo design!" The other nutcase is yelling "Earn money on parked domains!". You hit the gas and they jump out of the way. You get to the box. "I would like to order xzy.com" you scream out the passenger window. Your request is ignored. A recording comes on and for the next ten minutes the box plays a recording of a long list of other domains you could potentially buy. "Thanks, but no thanks" you say at the end. A voice comes on. "Thank you. Your domain is availible. Please proceed to the next box". As you start to roll up, a giant stop sign pops up in front of your car. The same dirty guy that was banging on your trunk a minute ago, is now banging on your hood.

He starts screaming "STOP! You've found a great domain...Now protect your name, increase your traffic and more!!!!"

You're really pissed now and ask the man to move out of the way. He says "If you order more domains right now, I will move out of the way. Otherwise, you're going to have to get out of your car, walk 200 yards acrcoss the parking lot next door, and hit that little switch on the wall in order to deactivate the stop sign."

"But it's 100 degrees outside" you say. "The domain is only $8.95. Do you want the domain or not?" he replies. "OK", so you get out, walk all the way and hit the switch then walk back to your car. As you are walking back, you notice the guy with the Danica Patrick sign is now fist fighting with a customer in the parking lot.

You get back in your car and the man is still standing there with the sign. "What now? I walked my a$$ all the way over there and hit the switch! WHAT NOW?"

He flips the sign around. It says "Registration Process Expired" on it. The man starts to scream "Your session has expired following 20 minutes of inactivity!!!" He then starts to laugh and you and tells you that you have to drive around and start all over. Meanwhile the guy in the car behind your has overheard what you were trying to order and saw you get rejected, and he is now stealing your domain name.



THIS is GoDaddy.com for you...
 
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FT1

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Or, you simply check the "no thanks proceed to checkout" box and go straight to checkout. Also when you're logged in it offered an "express checkout" option that bypassed all the offers. At least that's how simple it was for the couple dozen or so domains I bought through godaddy.com before moving to namecheap.
 

Bilgefisher

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I registered a website I think may be worth something. How do I go about selling it? It seems there are online auctions at every domain registration site, but not one uniform auction site. Any ideas?
 

John

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There seem to be a lot of horror stories out there about people losing domains that their businesses depend on. If you have a profitable business that depends on your domain name to operate you should take steps to protect it. I'd recommend the following:

1. Pay up to register the domain for 10 years. This way, at least for the next 10 years you won't have to worry about lost reminder emails or botched auto-renews. It amazes me how many people have extremely valuable domains that they definitely plan to keep for the long term who renew the registration on a year-to-year basis.

2. Register a trademark for the domain name. This way if someone else somehow gets ahold of your domain through an accidental expiration, dishonest/incompetent registrar, etc. you'll have the legal ammo you need to force them to transfer it back to you.
 

aptohosting

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Oh god, Registerfly created hell on EARTH for soo many of my customers thank god they are off the map. I lost 2 domains there also :-(
 

Rawr

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MJ, can you please share the info on

http://www.domainsbyproxy.com

I tried to look for the sign up button but there is none, which seemed odd. How much do they charge? What happens if your site gets sued by someone, they pony up the info pronto?
 
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Shawn

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MJ, can you please share the info on

http://www.domainsbyproxy.com

I tried to look for the sign up button but there is none, which seemed odd. How much do they charge? What happens if your site gets sued by someone, they pony up the info pronto?


Thats just Godaddys private registrar. So you pay an extra what $10 or so a year and it displays their contact info on the whois instead of yours. And yes if someone wants to sue you, they'd issue a subpoena to them to hand over your contact info.
 

LightHouse

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Thats just Godaddys private registrar. So you pay an extra what $10 or so a year and it displays their contact info on the whois instead of yours. And yes if someone wants to sue you, they'd issue a subpoena to them to hand over your contact info.

they charge extra??!!?

1and1 does that for free with a 8 dolalr or so domain name if you so choose. How odd.
 

Nate

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I own these two sites...think they could be worth anything?


thelivesite.com
onlinesoda.com


I've always thought you don't want the word "the" in your domain.

onlinesoda.com - Brandable, I like it.

thelivesite.com - Not nearly as good as livesite.com would be.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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I've always thought you don't want the word "the" in your domain.

onlinesoda.com - Brandable, I like it.

thelivesite.com - Not nearly as good as livesite.com would be.

In general YES. In my case, my book might be titled "The Fastlane To Millions" so it was prudent to register that. I also own "FastlaneToMillions.com" -- really depends on the purpose of the site but you are correct - having a "The" can serve to add confusion and misdirect new and potential customers.
 

MJ DeMarco

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In general YES. In my case, my book might be titled "The Fastlane To Millions" so it was prudent to register that. I also own "FastlaneToMillions.com" -- really depends on the purpose of the site but you are correct - having a "The" can serve to add confusion and misdirect new and potential customers.

The ultimate domain spoiler in terms of scarce brandability is the "DASH" (My-Cool-Website-Place.com). People drop dashes both vocally and mentally.
 

kimberland

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As someone with a hyphenated last name
(the hubby's name was hyphenated),
I completely agree.

No matter how many times I say that there's a dash,
odds are it gets left out.

(Which is why my pen name is dash free)
 
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BLK85

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How would you go about buying a Domain that is taken? There are a few I want for a business idea but all the ideas I have are taken, but there are no websites.
 

bert

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How would you go about buying a Domain that is taken? There are a few I want for a business idea but all the ideas I have are taken, but there are no websites.

I would do a whois on the domain (you can use a site like http://www.domaintools.com/) and contact the owner from the e-mail, phone#, or even the address that's listed (assuming the owner doesn't have whois privacy on).
 

hakrjak

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If you own a bar called "Jack's Place" for example, but jacksplace.com is taken -- is it still worth your while to register Jacksplace.net and just use that as your domain, or should you always make sure your domain is a .com, even if it must be more complex and longer?

I'm wrestling with this for one of my biz ideas right now.

- Hakrjak
 
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Nate

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Darren of problogger.net wrote about this. I'm too lazy to go find the link, but he says he came up with the name "problogger" for his site. problogger.com was taken, so he went with the ".net".

A while later when he was making good money and the owners of problogger.com weren't doing anything, he offered to buy the ".com" and they sold.

So he now has both, but has come to be known as problogger.net

The ".com" domain of course is MUCH better... and is actually how I found him in the first place.
 

AllOutOrNothing

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.com is the way to go..... or else u be kicking urself in the long haul.

"If you own a bar called "Jack's Place" for example, but jacksplace.com is taken "

the .net would be a bad idea

jacksbarplace.com would be better. rather than sacrificing for the .net
 

biophase

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.com is the way to go..... or else u be kicking urself in the long haul.

"If you own a bar called "Jack's Place" for example, but jacksplace.com is taken "

the .net would be a bad idea

jacksbarplace.com would be better. rather than sacrificing for the .net

While I agree that .com is best, I think that getting a .net of your exact store name isn't bad either. It all comes down to SEO, if someone typed in Jack's Place on Google, would you rank ahead of the .com? In most cases you would if you're site was receiving higher traffic.

There are many .net sites out there that are very popular. One that comes to mind is:

http://www.slickdeals.net/ vs. http://www.slickdeals.com/

The .net is the popular one.
 
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biophase

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BTW, I use 1and1.com for registering. It's $5.99 a year and you get private registration included.

I have a bunch of URLs. Here are a couple. What do you guys think of these?

Real Estate Related
oldtownscottsdale.net
oldtownscottsdalecondos.com
milleniumparkcondos.com
printersrowloft.com

Forums related
bluerayguru.com
chatfurniture.com

My friend recently picked up this one, I was suprised it was available:
golfranges.net
 

Luke12321

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Biophase, try to find domains 7 characters or less. While it is hard to do, it is still possible. If you find one, buy the .net as well if avail.
 

china

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Well, I had some fun today! Prior to now, I owned a couple of dotcom names but I had never done anything with them. Because of this thread, I went out and purchased about 100 new dotcom names.

The shortest one I purchased today was: la4tv.com (I actually like it because LA has a lot of TV production.) Is this a good name or a bad one? Since it was available, I have to assume it's not a great name but it is only 5 letters.

I purchased a few that I would like to develop myself but I have no idea how to develop a website. Does anyone have any books they can suggest?

I purchased these through names.com and now I'm wondering if I am locked into these google applications that come with the websites?
 
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Foxy26

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My name FOXY and I am new in the game. I want to learn how to increase my cash flow with little to nothing income and turn it into something that leads to profit.
 

Rawr

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My name FOXY and I am new in the game. I want to learn how to increase my cash flow with little to nothing income and turn it into something that leads to profit.


Post of the year!

Hi Foxy, welcome to the very wrong thread in a very wrong part of the forum!

And welcome to the Fastlane!
 

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