In the physical world, you can distinguish a business because of its structure, window displays, or signs. You can tell that a bank is a bank, or a clothing store is indeed a clothing store.

In the Internet, however, it is an entirely different story altogether. Your domain name is the only clue to your online business. You do not have visual clues: no location, no look, and no store design. Instead, users have to type in a word or a set of words to reach your site. Your prospective visitor has no way of knowing what your site is all about until he/she finds it and reads its contents. Who can ever tell that Amazon.com sells books? Or that Excite is a search engine?

Your domain name can spell your success on the Internet. A good domain name is the best asset you can ever have. It can make your business stand out in the crowd, or just float aimlessly in space.

The need to provide immediate clues to an online business led to the prevalence of generic domain names. Generic names instantly provide the user with an idea of what a business is all about, what to expect and look for in a site. For instance, Etoys.com is a toy store.

The temptation of the generic name has been so powerful; that some companies even paid ridiculously high prices to get the name they want. The domains Loans.com and Wines.com were both bought for $3 million each. Telephone.com was acquired for $1.75 million, while Bingo.com sold for $1.1 million.

However, generic names do not necessarily create the “buzz” that you’d like surrounding your website. Branding has always been about proper names: McDonald's did not name their store Hamburger. Hertz is not called Car Rental. FedEx is not Mail Carrier. Kodak is not Photographs. Microsoft is not Computer Software.

For better branding results, your domain name should be memorable and easy to remember. Remember the following tips when creating a domain name.

The domain name should be short

The domain name should be simple

It should be suggestive of your business category

It should be unique

It should be easy to interpret and pronounce

It should be personalized

It should not be difficult to spell

It should not be difficult to remember

Domain names can be registered through many different companies (known as "registrars") - a listing of these companies is available at ICANN: http://www.icann.org. You can register for 1 to 10 years - prices can vary anywhere from $10 to $20 per year. Most web hosting companies, as explained later, will handle the registration process for you, but make sure that you are properly listed as the owner of the domain when it is registered. If you have registered a domain name for a specific period, make sure you renew it in time. You can be surprised at the number of cases, where site owners have let a domain name slip by if they have not renewed in time.

Using expired domains to skyrocket your traffic

At some point while you’re building your website, you’re going to have to buy a domain name. This is the address that users type into their browsers to reach your site. That takes about five seconds, and depending on the name you want and whether anyone else owns it, it won’t cost you more than a few bucks.

But domain names are also a golden opportunity to make some easy money.

I’m not talking about Internet real estate, where you buy up good names and sell them on for a profit—if you haven’t got into that now, forget it. The bottom’s fallen out of the market and the best domains are long gone.

I’m talking about expiring domains.

Thousands of webmasters invest time, effort and money to promote their site and build up traffic. Many of them then lose interest and move on, leaving their site active. That means that although they still own the domain, they’re not actively promoting it. But they don’t need to. All the automatic marketing systems they’ve put in place are still bringing in traffic. The site runs itself.

Now, at some point the ownership of those domains is going to expire. If you snap up those domains once they come back onto the market, you’ve got a pre-built stream of customers. You can either rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to your domain. You could set up an affiliate program get paid for users someone else paid for.

It’s that easy.

There are tons of options, and lots of easy ways to make lots of money with very little effort. Opportunities like these are everywhere.

There are websites that actually do all the legwork and let you reap all the rewards. Do be careful when using other sites though. There are some swindlers out there that will sell you subscriptions, provide you with outdated lists, take your money and keep the good domains for themselves. It happens, and there’s little point in taking a risk, so be careful. One last thing. You might have seen the articles published in the Wall Street Journal or Business 2.0 magazine about how a few people (we call them "domain profiteers") are making fortunes from investing in Internet domains and either holding them for passive income or reselling them for huge profits.

The smart investors with big money are now jumping into this market. By the way, when we mention smart investors, you should know that Ross Perot's Perot Investments, Inc. and Howard Schultz's (Chairman of Starbucks Corp.) Maveron LLC have each invested millions of dollars into companies that are buying domain names today for income and future profit. You know these guys are not going to put millions of dollars at risk on a whim or some fly-by-night idea!

So, if you would like more information on how a few savvy insiders have been cashing in with expired domain names go here: http://tinyurl.com/33m7wh

John J Farina is a writer and a successful affiliate marketer. He also provides expert reviews on which affiliate programs to join and ones to avoid like the plague. If you would like to take a look at the affiliate programs he is currently involved with please do so at: http://www.johnnysreviewsite.com ||

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