SORRY FOLKS BUT I CAN’T ALLOW COMMENTS HERE

I can’t allow comments here because I want this place to be an organised, brief (yeah, sure!) collection of hints and tips for students of Alex Jeffreys. I recognise that many of you have incredible talents – talents that I do not have. But I’m sure that I have knowledge that I can offer too. We all can.

I may add to this list of topics AND within the topics over time to help you all – so CHECK BACK regularly. (Please refer others here if you wish.

THIS TOPIC – DOMAIN NAMES:

1.0 – Thinking of Your Best Domain Name…

This is definitely something you should think about before rushing in all gung-ho. Here are a few ideas…

Write your 10 best possible names out on cards and keep shuffling them around from 1 to 10. Once you get the order to your preferences, start punching them into your browsers URL field on your computer – NOT a domain name provider – not YET – not until you are ready to buy anyway (WARNING: more on this in a moment).

Then just go down the order of your list if your 1st choice is already owned by someone else.

2.0 – Selecting Your Best Domain Name…

I remain totally unconvinced as to one way or the other regarding domain names that are your name or something else. Most people here have used their own names and that is OK. But what if your name is John Smith or Mary Jones?

I recently saw a lady who said on a post that she used a dot-net suffix because her dot-com name had already been taken. As I mentioned to her – why not just add her middle initial? eg MaryJonesdotcom is taken but MaryTJonesdotcom is probably free. Have a think about it.

Back to personal names versus “catchy” dot-com names…

If you write good content and you have your title tag and meta tags in place (something I initially overlooked here in my madness to get this blog up and running – another tip for newbies) the search engines and ‘bots will crawl all over your site. I am now getting more hits on this blog than a second hand dart board.

So, the question is moot. What do you prefer?

I know all the SEO folks will probably disagree with me but they all disagree with each other all the time anyway. They are like economists. They are all right and all wrong.

But here are my tips, based on my fairly extensive experience:

2.1 – definitely go for a dotcom name rather than dotnet or dotanythingelse name. People’s brains are totally conditioned to dotcom everything. You will lose people if you do not use dotcom – LOTS of them.

2.2 – don’t be too cute or too smart. This applies to me more than anyone. Often, the things I think are really clever… no-one else gets or appreciates. My own family tell me this ALL the time.

2.3 – don’t be too long. My own domain name borders on this. For instance, I wouldn’t have FredFarkleLovesAlexJeffreysInternetMarketingCoachingdotcom. Too long. People are lazy. And it will definitely inconvenience you if you have to keep typing that – AND – there is massive scope for error.

2.4 – Try to avoid running letters like v, i, o, l and m together – eg Madammmadamedotcom. See all those m’s together? Same with ooo and vvv – too much like w’s and the other hard to discern letters.

3.0 – Purchasing Your Domain Name (WARNING!)…

I have seen several people ask questions about domain names and their best options and configurations. I recently answered Nikki on Dean Holland’s blog and thought, since it is such a popular topic, that I would briefly cover it here…

Just a quick warning on name checking…

Be careful. Some unscrupulous domain name providers (sellers) will log your search then register the name so you have to buy it back off them for an obscenely inflated price. That has happened to me – several times. Though, I never pursued the purchase – NOT with an unscrupulous company like that. (Don’t ask me because I won’t tell you which company it was – but I am aware that several do this sort of thing).

The best way, as far as I’m concerned, is NOT to enquire at a name provider UNTIL you are ready to go ahead with BUYING it right then and there. If not, just bung your proposed domain name into a URL and see if it comes up blank. That will give you a good idea if it is available or not.

There are a lot of thieves out there in cyber space. Be wary!

In any event, whatever you choose, it’s up to you. People will always come if you are offering great text – just don’t make it too hard for them to find you.

Note: These are my experiences and thoughts. You must make your own choices.

Best Wishes

Gary Simpson

PS: If you liked this topic then please tell others about it or LINK to it. You can always leave a comment, if you so wish, at the “HINTS & TIPS” page on my main blog page.

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