Domain hijacking is the process by which internet domains are basically stolen. Many people confuse domain hijacking with the reuse of an expired domain. One is a legal process and one is not. Domain hijacking is theft, reuse of an expired domain is opportunity usage. Domain theft is an aggressive form of domain hijacking that usually involves an illegal act. In most cases, identity theft is used to trick the domain registrar into allowing the hijacker to change the registration information to steal control of an unexpired domain from the legitimate owner.
* In domain hijacking or domain slamming for some reason, you can’t get into your own domain, you’re not receiving email from that domain, and you discover that it’s now registered to someone else. Needless to say, to a small online business this can be devastating.
* It could happen for a number of reasons. Maybe you have a particularly valuable domain name that someone wants to sell. In fact, .com domains are supposedly more likely to be stolen than any others. It’s also possible, though unlikely, that whoever stole your domain did it as an attack on your business or you personally.
* This is also done by sending a forged fax to the domain registrar, impersonating you (the registrant)? Other attacks are more subtle: the email that tells you your domain name is about to expire, and that you need to renew. Are you sure that email is actually from your registrar? That last form of attack is called domain slamming, after a similar and now illegal practice formerly engaged in by certain phone companies, which switched user’s long distance phone companies without their knowledge or consent.
* Domains can also be hijacked when registrars don’t follow all the procedures. The gaining registrar (to whom the domain is transferred) is supposed to get the approval of the domain name registrant or administrative contact before going forward with the transfer. Likewise, the losing registrar (from whom the domain is being transferred) is supposed to notify the registrant of the transfer during the five-day grace period before the transfer is completed. Either way, that’s YOU if it’s your business. You can deny approval of the transfer, but only if you know about it.
Protection from Domain Hijacking
All it takes is one easy step to protect yourself from potentially losing your domain name in this manner. You can place a ‘lock’ on your domain name. Your domain name registrar should allow you to lock your domain name either by phone, fax, email, or online domain manager using your login and password. Your domain registrar will let you know which method they require. Once a lock is placed on your domain nameArticle Submission, a transfer of registrar cannot be completed unless the lock is removed by you.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Jumpstart Your New Website with an Expired Domain Name
If you are planning to register a new domain and start promoting your website you should know about the value of using expired domain names. As you probably already know when a domain name is created it is registered for a specific period of time, generally 1 year. If the original domain registrant doesn't pay for the renewal by the end of the year the domain will expire and will then be available to whoever would like to purchase it.
There can be a lot of advantages to going with an expired domain over registering a new one. The best thing about an expired domain name is that the website is established and usually has existing traffic. Often an expired domain will already have numerous backlinks. Backlinks are links on other websites that point to the website in question. Many expired domains will also already have a Google Page Rank value and be indexed in all the major search engines. If you can purchase an expired domain name that has backlinks and PR you will be getting a significant head start on gaining traffic to your new website.
When registering a new domain name you are starting out with a blank slate. No one knows about the website and there are no listings in the search engines. When you purchase an expired domain name you will still have to work on promoting the website and getting appropriate backlinks, but much of your work will have already been done for you. When you purchase an expired domain you will be taking advantage of the work that someone else has already done to promote the website.
When you are researching to find out what expired domain you would like to purchase you will want to find out how well the domain is doing in the search engines. Do a check of the backlinks and the Page Rank. You should also check with Alexa to see what sort of traffic the site may be getting. Of course when visitors go to the site they will see a parked domain instead of actual content, but once you obtain the domain name you can change all that.
Most of the time there are completely legitimate reasons for a domain expiring. Perhaps the original owner has lost interest in the site or they just didn't have the time to manage it. In some cases a domain name will expire because the original registrant is deceased. Sometimes, but rarelyArticle Search, a domain is allowed to expire because the website has been banned by the search engines. This is easy to check. Just do a Google search for the domain name and see what comes up. If you see listings you can rest assured that the domain hasn't been banned. There are also online tools that can be used to verify information on domain names.
There can be a lot of advantages to going with an expired domain over registering a new one. The best thing about an expired domain name is that the website is established and usually has existing traffic. Often an expired domain will already have numerous backlinks. Backlinks are links on other websites that point to the website in question. Many expired domains will also already have a Google Page Rank value and be indexed in all the major search engines. If you can purchase an expired domain name that has backlinks and PR you will be getting a significant head start on gaining traffic to your new website.
When registering a new domain name you are starting out with a blank slate. No one knows about the website and there are no listings in the search engines. When you purchase an expired domain name you will still have to work on promoting the website and getting appropriate backlinks, but much of your work will have already been done for you. When you purchase an expired domain you will be taking advantage of the work that someone else has already done to promote the website.
When you are researching to find out what expired domain you would like to purchase you will want to find out how well the domain is doing in the search engines. Do a check of the backlinks and the Page Rank. You should also check with Alexa to see what sort of traffic the site may be getting. Of course when visitors go to the site they will see a parked domain instead of actual content, but once you obtain the domain name you can change all that.
Most of the time there are completely legitimate reasons for a domain expiring. Perhaps the original owner has lost interest in the site or they just didn't have the time to manage it. In some cases a domain name will expire because the original registrant is deceased. Sometimes, but rarelyArticle Search, a domain is allowed to expire because the website has been banned by the search engines. This is easy to check. Just do a Google search for the domain name and see what comes up. If you see listings you can rest assured that the domain hasn't been banned. There are also online tools that can be used to verify information on domain names.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Buying a Domain Name to Increase Site Traffic
Why do they simply walk away? For some it may be that they have lost interest, while others it may be that they are not reaching their intended goals. The bottom line about all this is that this piece of junk now can serve as an opportunity for you to capitalize on.
So why would you and how do you take advantage of an abandoned website? Firstly, you will need to search for domain names that are about to expire. There are numerous sites that will provide to you for a small fee a list of domain names that are about to be thrown on the junk heap. Once you have a list, search for some domain names that are relatively close to your own. Chances are that the same site visitors that visited the site may be interested in your site. So you can take advantage of the site traffic from this forgotten site. Sure, it may not be much but even if it has a steady trickle of traffic you can make something out of it.
Once you have found a few domain names you think you can work with, you should then evaluate the power of the name. You can do this by checking its Google page rank. Many site owners spend a considerable amount of time and money building their page rank. Next, type in the URL of the domain in any search engine and see how many external sites are linking into the site. Link exchange programs take a long time to build, here again you can take advantage of another site owner’s effort.
After you have purchased the domain nameArticle Submission, the only thing to do is to have the site traffic redirected to your website. This is easily accomplished by making some customized changes in your control panel which is usually located with your host company.
So why would you and how do you take advantage of an abandoned website? Firstly, you will need to search for domain names that are about to expire. There are numerous sites that will provide to you for a small fee a list of domain names that are about to be thrown on the junk heap. Once you have a list, search for some domain names that are relatively close to your own. Chances are that the same site visitors that visited the site may be interested in your site. So you can take advantage of the site traffic from this forgotten site. Sure, it may not be much but even if it has a steady trickle of traffic you can make something out of it.
Once you have found a few domain names you think you can work with, you should then evaluate the power of the name. You can do this by checking its Google page rank. Many site owners spend a considerable amount of time and money building their page rank. Next, type in the URL of the domain in any search engine and see how many external sites are linking into the site. Link exchange programs take a long time to build, here again you can take advantage of another site owner’s effort.
After you have purchased the domain nameArticle Submission, the only thing to do is to have the site traffic redirected to your website. This is easily accomplished by making some customized changes in your control panel which is usually located with your host company.
Hyphenated Domains Are Dead!
A hyphenated domain is one that includes dashses between each word. Lovely-wedding-gift-ideas.com would be a good example of what is called a hyphenated domain. It's also a good example of a domain that's soon to become extinct.
For years search engine optimizers and affiliate marketers have been using this type of domain name quite heavily. The idea was that by including the primary keywords for your market in the actual domain name itself that this could and would influence your search engine ranking. This did seem to work for quite some time. It was an accepted practice.
There was a problem however. Search engines change. They change their algorithms and with these changes some websites can simply disappear from search engine results altogether. And change they did. March 2006 saw Google implement something called BigDaddy which immediately dumped 95%+ of hyphenated domains from their search index.
Why did they do this? Google hate people manipulating their search results because it makes them look bad. They run a business and like any business they want to stay in control of how their customers see them. Having search results filled with www.best-credit-card-options-online-guides.com doesn't look good. It makes their search results appear very unprofessional to say the least. Bearing in mind too that most of these extra long hyphenated domains were filled with keyword stuffed pages of rubbish that had no actual value to visitors and you can see why Google made this change.
Were all hyphenated domains dropped? Of course not. Some stayed in the search index especially those with just a single dash in the domain name itself. That being said the day will come when dashed domain names will probably be moved to Googles secondary or supplemental search index. This effectively means that your domain would be dead in terms of search engine traffic.
Does the title "Hyphenated Domains Are Dead!" seem a little harsh? It's not meant to be. It's there as a wakeup call for your business. For the newbies out there just starting in business online please don't fall into the trap of using dashed domain names. Anybody who advises you to purchase a domain name with more than a single dash doesn't know what they're talking about and should be avoided. Serious online marketers are dumping their dashed domains as quickly as possible and moving towards either:
1. Branding their websites with much shorter domains.
2. Just using non-dashed domain names instead.
From a business point of view it's actually a good thing. Using hyphenated domains was just a lazy way around being truly creative. There are plenty of great .com, .netArticle Submission, .org and .info domains left unregistered. There are as many great .coms for sale too - true you might pay a little more but at least you'll be getting a domain that you'll want to keep forever.
The days of the disposable dashed domain names are over. If you're running an online business now it's time to take it seriously with a proper domain name. You do want to take your business seriously don't you?
For years search engine optimizers and affiliate marketers have been using this type of domain name quite heavily. The idea was that by including the primary keywords for your market in the actual domain name itself that this could and would influence your search engine ranking. This did seem to work for quite some time. It was an accepted practice.
There was a problem however. Search engines change. They change their algorithms and with these changes some websites can simply disappear from search engine results altogether. And change they did. March 2006 saw Google implement something called BigDaddy which immediately dumped 95%+ of hyphenated domains from their search index.
Why did they do this? Google hate people manipulating their search results because it makes them look bad. They run a business and like any business they want to stay in control of how their customers see them. Having search results filled with www.best-credit-card-options-online-guides.com doesn't look good. It makes their search results appear very unprofessional to say the least. Bearing in mind too that most of these extra long hyphenated domains were filled with keyword stuffed pages of rubbish that had no actual value to visitors and you can see why Google made this change.
Were all hyphenated domains dropped? Of course not. Some stayed in the search index especially those with just a single dash in the domain name itself. That being said the day will come when dashed domain names will probably be moved to Googles secondary or supplemental search index. This effectively means that your domain would be dead in terms of search engine traffic.
Does the title "Hyphenated Domains Are Dead!" seem a little harsh? It's not meant to be. It's there as a wakeup call for your business. For the newbies out there just starting in business online please don't fall into the trap of using dashed domain names. Anybody who advises you to purchase a domain name with more than a single dash doesn't know what they're talking about and should be avoided. Serious online marketers are dumping their dashed domains as quickly as possible and moving towards either:
1. Branding their websites with much shorter domains.
2. Just using non-dashed domain names instead.
From a business point of view it's actually a good thing. Using hyphenated domains was just a lazy way around being truly creative. There are plenty of great .com, .netArticle Submission, .org and .info domains left unregistered. There are as many great .coms for sale too - true you might pay a little more but at least you'll be getting a domain that you'll want to keep forever.
The days of the disposable dashed domain names are over. If you're running an online business now it's time to take it seriously with a proper domain name. You do want to take your business seriously don't you?
Domain Names: An Unusual and Profitable Characteristic
A few days ago I decided to take a quick look at some of those domains. I had a new idea for a few possible websites and wanted to see which ones were getting enough hits to warrant further consideration. As I created a report showing traffic on some of my domains I was amazed to find one of my domain names had a lot of impressions (website page views). Where normally that name had a few impressions each day it had several hundred that day along with several dollars of profit where there usually was none.
That was the first time I had noticed such a drastic change in one of my domains in such a short period of time – one day. The previous day there were the normal few views and no money to be made from that domain name. I asked my co-worker if he heard anything in the news involving video games since the domain name showing unusual traffic was related to video games. He said no, he had heard nothing. Since he was a thirty-something and was usually aware of such things I first thought it might be just an aberration, but it was unsettling nevertheless. As a stock and options investor, I am very familiar with the effects of news on those financial instruments so news was the first thing to cross my mind that might change the activity on a domain name so fast.
Later that evening, right before turning off my home computer, I thought of that domain name again and took a quick glance at its statistics. Wow! There were a lot more impressions and many more dollars showed as profit off that surge of hits.
About that time my son, nineteen and an ex video game fanatic, who was in Korea (I was in Southern California), came on and sent me a message via Instant Messenger. We conversed a short while then I asked him if he had heard any news about Xbox because by then I was suspecting something big must have been said in the news related to that specific video game platform. My domain name XboxStars.com was going wild with hits, compared to its usual half-dozen hits or less each day. He said, “Dad, I think they announced they are coming out with an Xbox 2”. Immediately I knew that was why my domain was getting so much action. It was reacting to the news! Maybe even over reacting. The news had probably been released that day. I never really saw the actual news related to that announcement, but I later checked some of the video game sites and their forums and there was lots of talk about Microsoft’s announcement related to Xbox2 to have some games created in Japan and speculation that some version or prototype of Xbox 2 would be at a well known game convention the next week.
I followed the impressions and clicks for the next few days and sure enough, the action had it been graphed, would have looked like a huge peak, rising very high and then falling like a rock in just a matter of a few days. Until that day I had never realized a domain name could react to news. Here is how it played out.
Date Domain Impressions Earnings
02-25-05 XboxStars.com 1 $00.00
02-26-05 XboxStars.com 1 $00.00
02-27-05 XboxStars.com 4 $00.00
02-28-05 XboxStars.com 1 $00.00
03-01-05 XboxStars.com 261 $97.77
03-02-05 XboxStars.com 483 $30.33
03-03-05 XboxStars.com 404 $28.15
03-04-05 XboxStars.com 569 $22.05
03-05-05 XboxStars.com 2 $01.22
03-06-05 XboxStars.com 4 $00.00
03-07-05 XboxStars.com 4 $00.00
(as of 03-07-05 9:00 am)
I had noticed some domain names had ups and downs before, but never associated that with potential news affecting the domain name. One especially, but with not so pronounced activity, I did a cursory check on, and found out the name is related to football. Although initially the name Insidend.com didn’t sound related to a sport I guess the “inside” and the “end” could be construed as being related to inside linebacker and end zone, defensive end, or tight end, etc. That’s a far stretch, but then again football is an extremely popular sport and is often in the news during football season. Whether or not football is affecting this particular domain remains to be seen, but now I’ll be on the lookout for such possibilities when I register new domain names or see huge changes in activity on any of my domain names.
I had better do some follow up research on other domain names that seem to have a lot of fluctuating activity. Take a hint from my experience. If you have any domain names that could be subject to reaction to news events you may be able to plan a strategy to capitalize on certain events depending on the circumstances. This could be especially profitable if you are selling something on a website with such a name.
That was the first time I had noticed such a drastic change in one of my domains in such a short period of time – one day. The previous day there were the normal few views and no money to be made from that domain name. I asked my co-worker if he heard anything in the news involving video games since the domain name showing unusual traffic was related to video games. He said no, he had heard nothing. Since he was a thirty-something and was usually aware of such things I first thought it might be just an aberration, but it was unsettling nevertheless. As a stock and options investor, I am very familiar with the effects of news on those financial instruments so news was the first thing to cross my mind that might change the activity on a domain name so fast.
Later that evening, right before turning off my home computer, I thought of that domain name again and took a quick glance at its statistics. Wow! There were a lot more impressions and many more dollars showed as profit off that surge of hits.
About that time my son, nineteen and an ex video game fanatic, who was in Korea (I was in Southern California), came on and sent me a message via Instant Messenger. We conversed a short while then I asked him if he had heard any news about Xbox because by then I was suspecting something big must have been said in the news related to that specific video game platform. My domain name XboxStars.com was going wild with hits, compared to its usual half-dozen hits or less each day. He said, “Dad, I think they announced they are coming out with an Xbox 2”. Immediately I knew that was why my domain was getting so much action. It was reacting to the news! Maybe even over reacting. The news had probably been released that day. I never really saw the actual news related to that announcement, but I later checked some of the video game sites and their forums and there was lots of talk about Microsoft’s announcement related to Xbox2 to have some games created in Japan and speculation that some version or prototype of Xbox 2 would be at a well known game convention the next week.
I followed the impressions and clicks for the next few days and sure enough, the action had it been graphed, would have looked like a huge peak, rising very high and then falling like a rock in just a matter of a few days. Until that day I had never realized a domain name could react to news. Here is how it played out.
Date Domain Impressions Earnings
02-25-05 XboxStars.com 1 $00.00
02-26-05 XboxStars.com 1 $00.00
02-27-05 XboxStars.com 4 $00.00
02-28-05 XboxStars.com 1 $00.00
03-01-05 XboxStars.com 261 $97.77
03-02-05 XboxStars.com 483 $30.33
03-03-05 XboxStars.com 404 $28.15
03-04-05 XboxStars.com 569 $22.05
03-05-05 XboxStars.com 2 $01.22
03-06-05 XboxStars.com 4 $00.00
03-07-05 XboxStars.com 4 $00.00
(as of 03-07-05 9:00 am)
I had noticed some domain names had ups and downs before, but never associated that with potential news affecting the domain name. One especially, but with not so pronounced activity, I did a cursory check on, and found out the name is related to football. Although initially the name Insidend.com didn’t sound related to a sport I guess the “inside” and the “end” could be construed as being related to inside linebacker and end zone, defensive end, or tight end, etc. That’s a far stretch, but then again football is an extremely popular sport and is often in the news during football season. Whether or not football is affecting this particular domain remains to be seen, but now I’ll be on the lookout for such possibilities when I register new domain names or see huge changes in activity on any of my domain names.
I had better do some follow up research on other domain names that seem to have a lot of fluctuating activity. Take a hint from my experience. If you have any domain names that could be subject to reaction to news events you may be able to plan a strategy to capitalize on certain events depending on the circumstances. This could be especially profitable if you are selling something on a website with such a name.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Yahoo Domains For Just $9.95 Per Year
A few days ago I decided to take a quick look at some of those domains. I had a new idea for a few possible websites and wanted to see which ones were getting enough hits to warrant further consideration. As I created a report showing traffic on some of my domains I was amazed to find one of my yahoo domain names had a lot of impressions (website page views). Where normally that name had a few impressions each day it had several hundred that day along with several dollars of profit where there usually was none.
That was the first time I had noticed such a drastic change in one of my domains yahoo in such a short period of time – one day. The previous day there were the normal few views and no money to be made from that domain name. I asked my co-worker if he heard anything in the news involving video games since the domains yahoo name showing unusual traffic was related to video games. He said no, he had heard nothing. Since he was a thirty-something and was usually aware of such things I first thought it might be just an aberration, but it was unsettling nevertheless. As a stock and options investor, I am very familiar with the effects of news on those financial instruments so news was the first thing to cross my mind that might change the activity on a domain name so fast.
Later that evening, right before turning off my home computer, I thought of that domain name again and took a quick glance at its statistics. Wow! There were a lot more impressions and many more dollars showed as profit off that surge of hits.
I followed the impressions and clicks for the next few days and sure enough, the action had it been graphed, would have looked like a huge peak, rising very high and then falling like a rock in just a matter of a few days. Until that day I had never realized a domain name could react to news. Here is how it played out.
I had noticed some domains yahoo had ups and downs before, but never associated that with potential news affecting the domain name. One especially, but with not so pronounced activity, I did a cursory check on, and found out the name is related to football. Although initially the name Insidend.com didn’t sound related to a sport I guess the “inside” and the “end” could be construed as being related to inside linebacker and end zone, defensive end, or tight end, etc. That’s a far stretch, but then again football is an extremely popular sport and is often in the news during football season. Whether or not football is affecting this particular domain remains to be seenFree Reprint Articles, but now I’ll be on the lookout for such possibilities when I register new domain names or see huge changes in activity on any of my domain names.
I had better do some follow up research on other domain names that seem to have a lot of fluctuating activity. Take a hint from my experience. If you have any domain names that could be subject to reaction to news events you may be able to plan a strategy to capitalize on certain events depending on the circumstances. This could be especially profitable if you are selling something on a website with such a name.
That was the first time I had noticed such a drastic change in one of my domains yahoo in such a short period of time – one day. The previous day there were the normal few views and no money to be made from that domain name. I asked my co-worker if he heard anything in the news involving video games since the domains yahoo name showing unusual traffic was related to video games. He said no, he had heard nothing. Since he was a thirty-something and was usually aware of such things I first thought it might be just an aberration, but it was unsettling nevertheless. As a stock and options investor, I am very familiar with the effects of news on those financial instruments so news was the first thing to cross my mind that might change the activity on a domain name so fast.
Later that evening, right before turning off my home computer, I thought of that domain name again and took a quick glance at its statistics. Wow! There were a lot more impressions and many more dollars showed as profit off that surge of hits.
I followed the impressions and clicks for the next few days and sure enough, the action had it been graphed, would have looked like a huge peak, rising very high and then falling like a rock in just a matter of a few days. Until that day I had never realized a domain name could react to news. Here is how it played out.
I had noticed some domains yahoo had ups and downs before, but never associated that with potential news affecting the domain name. One especially, but with not so pronounced activity, I did a cursory check on, and found out the name is related to football. Although initially the name Insidend.com didn’t sound related to a sport I guess the “inside” and the “end” could be construed as being related to inside linebacker and end zone, defensive end, or tight end, etc. That’s a far stretch, but then again football is an extremely popular sport and is often in the news during football season. Whether or not football is affecting this particular domain remains to be seenFree Reprint Articles, but now I’ll be on the lookout for such possibilities when I register new domain names or see huge changes in activity on any of my domain names.
I had better do some follow up research on other domain names that seem to have a lot of fluctuating activity. Take a hint from my experience. If you have any domain names that could be subject to reaction to news events you may be able to plan a strategy to capitalize on certain events depending on the circumstances. This could be especially profitable if you are selling something on a website with such a name.
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