Maintenance Window

Date – July 2, 2010
Time: 00:00 hrs – 03:00 hrs GMT/UTC
Duration: 3 hours

Affected Systems – Domain Name Registrations, Renewals, Transfers, Management on the Live interface.

This outage shall have no impact on your domain names, which will continue to work properly. Please feel free to get in touch with our Support team, in case of any queries/doubts.

We deeply regret the inconvenience caused due to this issue. Feel free to contact our support desk, should you require any further information.

Short, sweet and simple

Google or Altavista, Gmail or Zapakmail, Facebook or friendsconnect; can you see the pattern? The names before or are short, sweet, and simple. They can easily be remembered and talked about, provided the websites using the names give exceptional service. If your service is exceptional, your domain name should also be exceptional.

Unique and fresh

The domain names you are considering should not look like a carbon copy of the names already in use. It should be striking and unique. Do not make your domain name sound like any other domain name, no matter how much you like the other website do not copy the name. Your name should also not sound stale. It should be fresh like twitter, flickr, etc. Your domain name should be different, unlike any other name

Easy to remember and easy to pronounce

The domain name should be easy to memorize and easy to pronounce. A name that is easy to remember and easy to pronounce is easy to share, and the name that gets shared among friends over phone or in face-to-face meeting fetches more traffic.

You should keep these points in mind while selecting a domain name for your website because at times a good domain name could be the difference between a success and failure on the Internet.

A good domain name may not make us millionaire or build a big business for us, but a bad domain name will certainly suck money out of our pockets giving zilch in return. Therefore, you should follow the following steps while buying a domain name.

How to buy a domain name

1. Define the nature of your website: You need a short and descriptive domain name if you are going to be next Twitter, Flicker, or Facebook. What I mean to say is that if you have a ground breaking product or services to offer then short, simple, catchy, and easy-to-remember domain names like the ones in the previous sentence should be considered. But if you are offering informational products or free information on a certain topic then keyword-rich domain names should be bought. For example, if you are operating in weight loss market then domain names consisting of the keyword weight loss should be considered.
2. Length of the domain name: One-word domain names are the best thing to have, but if you are reading this I am sure you cannot have one, unless you have millions of dollars to invest. Two-word domains are the second best thing. Lots of two-or-three-word domains are still up there to grab, so better rush now.
3. Use Google Adwords keyword tool to find out which term in your niche has decent monthly search volume. Try to get a domain name related to that keyword. It will be a goldmine for you.
4. Using wrong spelling or complex spelling in the domain names is not a good idea.
5. I will also not suggest using hyphen in the domain names.
6. A domain name represents your business; hence, it should be brandable.
7. Using foreign word is also not a good strategy while registering a domain name.

These are some of the points that you should keep in mind while booking a domain name for a business. What else do you think is important? Please use the comment box and write in your suggestions.

With Every domain name Gossimer offers a free DNS management control panel as well as a free privacy protection service. The free privacy protection service saves the buyers a minimum of $6 on every domain name they register with Gossimer as the privacy protection service is offered for a fee of anything between $6 and $14 by other domain name registration companies. To keep the registered domains safe from the hackers on the Internet, Gossimer has added another layer of protection to every domain it sells.  This domain theft protection service is offered as a free gift with every domain purchased from Gossimer.

“As the web is going local, we at Gossimer thought of providing an impetus to this movement by offering our regional domains at a lower cost.” Said Marvin Dreyer.

He further added, “A website or a web-based service provider that concentrates its resources to serve people in one geographic location should benefit from this promotion. A .co.uk domain will look more tightly positioned to serve people in the United Kingdom than a generic .com domain name.”

As a valued customer of Gossimer, you will also get an easy-to-use control panel, and a bulk tool that will make managing your domain portfolio easier. Instead of wasting your time in managing your domain portfolio, you can concentrate now on expanding the portfolio. Every domain sold by Gossimer comes with a host of free services that will make your domain more secure and stable.

About Gossimer, LLC

Gossimer is a full-feature, fastest growing domain name registration and webhosting company. Since 2001, Gossimer is providing web hosting, email hosting, and domain registration services from New Jersey. The company is well known for its exceptionally responsive customer support, knowledgeable technical support, server uptime, and attractive web hosting packages.

For more information, please visit: http://www.gossimer.com

The process of domain name purchasing should begin with keyword research. Choose top 5 keywords from the list and starting forming the domain name that will work for your niche. Start the permutation and combination taking two or more keywords, or by adding suffix or prefix to the keywords. Once, you have a list of tentative names that will work for you, I will suggest verifying the domain names on the following criteria before finalizing one of them.

1. Is it simple to spell?
2. Does is any contain confusing letter:  p, c, z, q, and x?
3. Is it easy to remember?
4. Is it unique?
5. Have you got .com domain? If not make sure, you go for .net or .org domain.
6. Is it short? Keep it as short as you can.
7. Does it contain numbers or special characters: hyphen (-), underscore (_), etc.?
8. Is the domain name infringing anyone’s copyright?

As discussed earlier, keywords are the subjects about which the searchers need information, hence content of any page is a natural choice for the keyword placement. Along with using the selected keywords in the content, you can also use keywords in various HTML tags. You can use the following tags to place the keywords. On the cost of repeating, I must say, one should abstain from abusing the tags written below. The tags are:

• Domain Names
• Page Names
• 404 Pages
• Title Tags
• Heading Tags (h1, h2, h3 etc.)
• Description Tags
• Keyword Tags
• Alt Tag
• Link Text
• Anchor Text
• Site Maps
• Navigational Structure

A rule of thumb: place the keywords as early as you can in the content as well as the in the tags described above. Generally, including keywords twice in the first paragraph, and at least once in the last paragraph of the article is considered as a good SEO practice.

The keywords are important, but your sole objective should not be to place keywords within content at equal interval, rather the goal should be to include the keywords within the content as naturally as you can. Keyword placement should neither decrease the readability nor should it look forced. People are coming to your site to get useful information, not to read keyword-stuffed senseless articles. Keep this in mind!

2. Whatever name you want to register make sure it has some relevance with your business.  Note that the keywords in your domain name should be relevant.  For the said example, the keywords free and games are relevant.  Search engines will recognize your worth only when they find your site relevant.

3. Use the .com extension for more traffic.  Available extensions are .com, .in, .net, .org, .info, etc.  All of these extensions can be easily searched by the search engines.  But it is always .com which is the most popular and widely used.

4. Shorter domain names are easier to remember, have much less risk of being mistyped, and they’ll fit easily on your business cards and correspondence.  It should be short and easy to remember.  Yahoo.com and in.com are excellent examples of unique domain names.

5. Register multiple extensions – it makes sense to register various domain name extensions.  People often type in the wrong extensions with the same name.  For example, instead of .com, they might type .net or .org.  So if you own allthefreegames.com, also register for allthefreegames.net and allthefreegames.org., then point one site to the other. This guarantees that you don’t lose traffic due to some mistaken extension.

6. Search for the available domains at http://www.gossimer.biz.  Chances are that if your domain name choice is very short and common, it’s already taken, therefore, try entering different variations of the desired domain name.

7. The final step – once you decide on the domain of your choice, subject to availability of course, register them immediately at http://www.gossimer.biz/.  They might not be available tomorrow!

Memory and spelling go hand in hand when it comes to choosing your domain name.  If you don’t want to lose a lot of visitors, you might have to consider registering more than one!  Take de.li.cio.us for example.  Not everyone can remember where to place each period, so they registered delicious.com as well.  Think of words that can be easily misspelled by simply replacing an s for a z.  I am sure that the owners of deliciouz (a shoe and accessories store in Walnut Creek, California) receive many website visits from people looking for that famous social bookmarking site.  I wonder how many clients they get that way!

Famous domain names are no exception:

Yahoo (and Yahooo)

Google (and Gooogle)

And what about whole endings that sound the same?  A really great example of this is with a media company who saw benefits in using both realize and realeyes.  If you clicked on each link you’ll notice that both domain names host the same website!

You might not have expected that numbers could be relevant, but they are!  Take woot and w00t for example!  For many keyboards, the letter o and the number 0 are right next to each other.  Google probably doesn’t mind, or doesn’t realize that someone might type G00gle a little differently.  It looks like Yahoo considered a numbered Yah00, but choose to make it into an error page.

Lastly, domain name extensions are important too!  Using those two major search engines as our examples again, you will find that Google ending in .net will be redirected to the .com website.  Yahoo, in the same context, sends you to an error page (they want you to get it right!).

You’ll notice with us that we have registered Gossimer.com, Gossimer.net, Gossimer.info, Gossimer.in (in case someone leaves out the fo in .info), and Gossimer.co.in, which redirects to Gossimer.biz.  Gossimer is all about domain names and webhosting (through Linux or Windows Plans), that is why giving access to customers, regardless of what domain name extension they use, is a priority.  With a little bit of foresight and imagination, you too can profit from anticipated spelling mistakes and confusions!

The multitude of blogs now in the worldwide web serves as a rich resource of information for everyone.  Blogs provide useful information about health, products, entertainment, current events, and even earning opportunities.  Setting up a blog is not entirely difficult.  As a matter of fact, several websites host blogs for free.  Depending on what a person’s intention is for making a blog, there can be various ways to proceed.  For personal blogs intended to share with friends and family, free blog hosting services will suffice.

However, for those who intend to make more from the website, it is absolutely necessary to have your own domain.  Most advertisers who pay good money for sponsored posts or banners prefer blogs with their own website.  That would entail paying for reliable web hosting services and domain names.  The most popular blogs in the internet actually make tons of money from advertisers.  Among those that have already gained millions of readers or followers are those that have been around for years and have already created their own niche in the blogosphere.  Experts advise that it’s the only way to go for serious bloggers.  Get a niche and fill your blog with interesting content.  Popular blogs such as these are valued at millions of dollars.  Every now and then, news crop up about such blogs selling between $10 to $20 million.  These may not be much compared to sale values of famous social networks or auction sites, but it is indeed substantial wealth.

For those gifted with creativity coupled with the flair for writing, blogging can be a rewarding endeavor.  Needless to say, the internet has now become a playground for those persistent in finding opportunities.  Unfortunately, just as there are limitless opportunities, the internet is likewise plagued with thieves and scammers.  While it is wise to tread with caution, it can also be a great adventure for the stout at heart.  If you are brave enough, carpe diem!

A domain name is perhaps the most important aspect of your website.  This is perhaps one of the first things they will see.  The domain tells you about the site itself.  Look at sites like www.foodtv.com, or corporate websites like www.microsoft.com, you know immediately what you are getting into.  It is what your viewers will automatically relate your business to.

Your domain name is also referred to as your web address.  This is basically your address in the World Wide Web.  As it goes, the easier your address is to remember, the easier your viewers can get to your website.

We can help you get the best domain name to fit your business.  It can help increase your revenues by bringing more viewers to your site.  It can increase the value of your company by presenting it with the utmost professionalism.  Read through and your web site will have a name that fits you and your business perfectly, like a glove.

Action Steps

Make a list.
It would be good to get a good long list of possible domain names.  If you have a particularly good customer base, you can put out a contest to get the best domain names for your business.  You can give a prize for the winner.  You can also build a list of possible domain names by going through your employees.   Set up a shared account where they can contribute a domain name while viewing other people’s suggestions.

I recommend.  One way you can collaborate on a project is by going through a shared account online.  The platform of Google Docs is perfect for this.  You can set up a spreadsheet where your employees can view all the suggestions and contribute.  If you are having trouble with the list yourself, there are online tools available like Gosimmer’s Domain Name suggestion tool to give you a list to choose from.

Follow these guidelines.
To make your domain stand out among the rest there are certain guidelines you would have to adhere to.  To begin, you need to find a short domain name that is easy to understand.  As long as you can convey your business in the least amount of characters possible, you’ll be fine.  I would not recommend using initials because it comes out unprofessional, slang-like and un-customer friendly.  The next factor you have to think about is if you are getting a memorable domain name.  Domain names must convey who you are and what your business does.

I recommend. You can read through this article to see how you can think of great domain name for your business.

Protect your brand.
Protecting your brand is not a common thought that goes through someone’s head while he or she is shopping for a domain name.  Some people who are starting up a new website might actually have an established business up and running.  The motivation can be to prevent anybody using your established name to make money from your reputation and tarnish it.

I recommend. Read this simple article about protecting your business’s reputation.  It also comes with cautionary tales and lessons in protecting the reputation of your business.

Does it sound and look right?
A lot of the business owners let their web developers choose the domain name for them. This can lead to a lot of problems when you notice that your domain name isn’t quite the same as what you had hoped.  For example, it could be that your company “Pen Island”  would have a domain name that would say “penisland.com” and that just does not sound or look right.  Use a hyphen or think of a different name that would work better.

I recommend.  If you don’t understand the difference, try reading the company name and the domain name slowly enunciating each syllable.  Read through this blog for other funny domain names.

Use SEO experts in choosing your domain name.
Your domain name can also help pull up your ranking in Google.  Google’s patented search engine takes into account several aspects of the domain including the legitimacy of a domain.  Google records the length of domain registration, the address of the website owner and the administrator, the strength of the hosting company, and the number of pages of the website.  The more favorable your website is, in terms of these factors, the higher your ranking should be.

I recommend.  If you do not have a SEO consultant employed in the development of your website, it is best to get one now.  You can go to http://www.seoconsultants.com/ to find one that is closest to your area.  You also need a good web hosting company to host your domain name, such as www.gossimer.com.

Tips and Tactics
Think about several domain names and don’t fall in love with a single one.  You don’t want to set your heart on a domain name only to find that it is already in use.

You don’t have to use your business name for your domain name.  You can choose one that refers to your business but has better name recognition.

If you hired a person to develop your site for you, make sure that he knows about the English language and not just the proper terms.  When you hire a person, make sure to double check the domain name to avoid untoward incidents like the example in the above section.

Shop around for better deals.  Even if your domain is hosted by a specific company it does not mean you cannot transfer the rights to it after.  Some providers have the capability of transferring the domain name to their company for a fee.  You get to keep your domain name and still get a good deal out of it.

Best Blogs and Forums
If you want to ask questions about your domain you can also go to this site: http://forums.seochat.com/google-optimization-7/choosing-domain-name-223734.html.

You can post a question and most experts would answer you for free.

If you liked the funny domain names, you can find more at http://www.grupthink.com/topic/22