ICANN has an agreement that VeriSign is allowed to raise their .COM fees by up to 7% per year. This added $27 million dollars per year to their bottom line. VeriSign took advantage of this in the first two years of its contract, raising .COM registration from $6.00 to $6.86. It was assumed that VeriSign would increase its prices every year to maximize profits, but it did not in 2009.

So now in 2010 they are taking action and rasing fees. The registration fee for .COM’s will increase from $6.86 to $7.34 and .NET’s from $4.23 to $4.65. The current wholesale price of .com domains is $7.04 including an 18 cent ICANN fee (some registrars pay a 20 cent ICANN fee). The new price will be $7.52 including the ICANN fee (or $7.54 for registrars on the 20 cent ICANN fee structure).

This increase will affect domainers with large portfolios, more than any other businesses or consumers. Verisign® stock is currently at 28.89 and has been on the incline since Jun 2009.

So make sure you buy your domains names before the price hike even though it isnt a huge increase expect to see more increases over the years to come. If you want to purchase domain names at an affordable rate Benzing Technologies is offering .COM’s for $7.49 and .NET’s for $6.14.

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In 1936, long before the rise of the personal computer, Hormel Foods created SPAM. In 2002, the company will produce it’s six billionth can of the processed food product. But that mark was passed long ago in the world of Internet spam.

Who Cooked This!? (How did it all start?)

The modern meaning of the word “spam” has nothing to do with spiced ham. In the early 1990’s, a skit by British comedy group Monty Python led to the word’s common usage. “The SPAM Skit” follows a couple struggling to order dinner from a menu consisting entirely of Hormel’s canned ham.

Repetition is key to the skit’s hilarity. The actors cram the word “SPAM” into the 2.5 minute skit more than 104 times! This flood prompted Usenet readers to call unwanted newsgroup postings “spam.” The name stuck.

Spammers soon focused on e-mail, and the terminology moved with them. Today, the word has come out of technical obscurity. Now, “spam” is the common term for “Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail”, or “UCE.”

Why Does Bad Spam Happen to Good People?

Chances are, you’ve been spammed before. Somehow, your e-mail address has found it’s way into the hands of a spammer, and your inbox is suffering the consequences. How does this happen? There are several possibilities.

Backstabbing Businesses
Businesses often keep lists of their customers’ e-mail addresses. This is a completely legitimate practice and, usually, nothing bad comes of it. Sometimes though, the temptation to make a quick buck is too great, and these lists are sold or rented to outside advertisers. The result? A lot of unsolicited e-mail, and a serious breach of trust.

Random Address Generation

Computer programs called random address generators simply “guess” e-mail addresses. Over 100 million hotmail addresses exist – howhard could it be to guess some of them? Unfortunately for many unsuspecting netizens – not too hard. Many spammers also guess at

“standard” addresses, like “support@yourdomain.com”,

“info@yourdomain.com”, and “billing@yourdomain.com.”

Web Spiders

Today’s most insidious list-gathering tools are web spiders. All of the major search engines spider the web, saving information about each page. Spammers use tools that also spider the web, but save any e-mail address they come across. Your personal web page lists your e-mail address? Prepare for an onslaught!

Chat Room Harvesting

ISP’s offer vastly popular chat rooms where users are known only by their screen names. Of course, spammers know that your screen name is the first part of your e-mail address. Why waste time guessing e-mail addresses when a few hours of lurking in a chat room can net a list of actively-used addresses?

The Poor Man’s Bad Marketing Idea

It didn’t work for the phone companies, and it won’t work for e-mail marketers. But, some spammers still keep their own friends-and-family-style e-mail lists. Compiled from the addresses of other known spammers, and people or businesses that the owner has come across in the past, these lists are still illegitimate. Why? Only you can give someone permission to send you e-mail. A friend-of-a-friend’s permission won’t cut it.

Stop The Flood to Your Inbox

Already drowning in spam? Try using your e-mail client’s filters – many provide a way to block specific e-mail addresses. Each time you’re spammed, block the sender’s address. Spammers skip from address to address, and you may be on many lists, but this method will at least slow the flow.

Also, use more than one e-mail address, and keep one “clean.” Many netizens find that this technique turns the spam flood into a trickle. Use one address for only spam-safe activities like e-mailing your friends, or signing on with trustworthy businesses. Never use your clean address on the web! Get a free address to use on the web and in chat rooms.

If nothing else helps, consider changing screen names, or opening an entirely new e-mail account. When you do, you’ll start with a clean, spam-free slate. This time, protect your e-mail address!

Stay Off Spammed Lists in the Future

Want to surf the web without getting sucked into the spam-flood? Prevention is your best policy. Don’t use an easy-to-guess e-mail address. Keep your address clean by not using it for spam-centric activities. Don’t post it on any web pages, and don’t use it in chat rooms or newsgroups.

Before giving your clean e-mail address to a business, check the company out. Are sections of its user agreement dedicated to anti-spam rules? Does a privacy policy explain exactly what will be done with your address? The most considerate companies also post an anti-spam policy written in plain English, so you can be absolutely sure of what you’re getting into.

Think You’re Not a Spammer? Be Sure.

Many a first-time marketer has inadvertently spammed his audience. The first several hundred complaints and some nasty phone messages usually stop him in his tracks. But by then, the spammer may be faced with cleanup bills from his ISP, and a bad reputation that it’s not easy to overcome.

The best way to avoid this situation is to have a clear understanding of what spam is: If anyone who receives your mass e-mails did not specifically ask to hear from you, then you are spamming them.

Stick with your gut. Don’t buy a million addresses for $10, no matter how much the seller swears by them! If something sounds fishy, just say no. You’ll save yourself a lot in the end.

The Final Blow

The online world is turning the tide on spam. In the end, people will stop sending spam because it stops working. Do your part: never buy from a spammer. When your business seeks out technology companies with which to work, only choose those with a staunch anti-spam stance.

Spam has a long history in both the food and e-mail sectors. This year, Hormel Foods opened a real-world museum dedicated to SPAM. While the museum does feature the Monty Python SPAM Skit, there’s no word yet on an unsolicited commercial e-mail exhibit. But, if all upstanding netizens work together, Hormel’s ham in a can will far outlive the Internet plague that is UCE.

CHECK IT OUT www.codeorgan.com

Check out some cool sounding websites:

www.beverageunderground.com
www.outrageouscocktails.com

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• 1. Addition of two new goal types for measuring user engagement and branding success that allows webmasters to set thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per visit. Up to 20 goals can now be defined.
• 2. Improved tracking of mobile websites and mobile apps on mobile devices even if  the device is running Javascript or not. This was made possible through the addition of a server side code snippet on mobile websites using Google Analytics
• 3. Addition of Advanced Table Filtering feature for advance data analysis and for filtering rows in a table based on different metric conditions
• 4. Creation of Custom Report with the option to select Unique Visitors as a measurement against any Google Analytics dimension
• 5. Multiple custom variables, sharing segments and custom report templates for enterprise adaptation of Google Analytics. These tools provide customization options for enterprise Google Analytics usage

These are all great new features but one of the best is the Analytics Intelligence. This new feature provides automatic alerts when there are significant changes in the data patterns of your website metrics and dimensions on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Prompting you on significant marks you should pay attention to. This will give you more time on doing corrective actions to highlights by Google Analytics. Very Sweet!

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New Features Include:

• Graphical Impression and View Counts (similar to Google Analytics)
• Driving direction requests by view count that tie back to the Zip Code or City, State driving traffic.
• Top Search Queries triggering Local Maps

This is great news! I have been following my impressions and stats but these new features will break it down even further!

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1. Quantcast

Quantcast is one of the 3 major websites dedicated to website traffic and audience. Quantcast provides publishers, marketers and agencies unmatched capabilities to measure, organize, discover and transact based on directly-measured traffic and inferred audience data.

2. Alexa

Alexa is one of the first ranking websites with advanced data regarding target population, country rank and others. The problem with these statistics is that they are provided based on Alexa Toolbar. Again, this fact makes Alexa’s data inaccurate.

3. Compete

Compete is a site similar to Quantcast. Compete’s ranking is based on the stats of +2.000.000 US citizens – this means that Compete is not so accurate outside of US. Anyway – check out Compete for your ranking and compare your results with your competitors’.

4. Dataopedia

Dataopedia.com is a web service that provides comprehensive information (50 different sources) about websites available on the Internet.

5. BuiltWith

This tools is quite complex – it shows various information about your site or any particular site (technologies used, seo, etc.) and it helps you optimize your site. Very useful when you don’t know much about SEO. It has a paid version as well with a lot more tips and info.

6. BizShark

BizShark is a direct competitor to Dataopedia. Both sites share the same concept and have similar information. You will have to decide which one suits you.

7. Website Grader

In my opinion, this is one of the most useful analysis websites. It has a great composition of information: social, seo, general, etc. It even gives you hints and a grade – to compare and further optimize your site.

8. Quarkbase

Quarkbase is another site that gathers its info from multiple sources, but here is their definition: Quarkbase is the best way to find website information contributed by website owner, lover and the Internet Community.

9. Popuri.us

This tools is a lightweight tool that gives you the most common ranks available on the web: Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, Compete Rank, Technorati Rank etc.

10. XinuReturns

XinuReturns is a tool that shows you pretty much everything – Google Page Rank, Yahoo Links, FeedBurner subscribers,Technorati, DMOZ etc. It is perfect for a fast small popularity analysis.

11. Feedcompare

This website is useful when you want to compare your number of feed subscribers with the number of subscribers. For this you must have a FeedBurner account.

There are plenty of other sites as well with interesting results, but I think these ones are the most important.

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1. Keyword Use Anywhere in the Title Tag
66% very high importance | 8% moderate consensus

2. Keyword Use as the First Word(s) of the Title Tag
63% high importance | 11.3% light consensus

3. Keyword Use in the Root Domain Name (e.g. keyword.com)
60% high importance | 11.2% light consensus

4. Keyword Use Anywhere in the H1 Headline Tag
49% moderate importance | 10.2% light consensus

5. Keyword Use in Internal Link Anchor Text on the Page
47% moderate importance | 13% moderate contention

6. Keyword Use in External Link Anchor Text on the Page
46% moderate importance | 13.6% moderate contention

7. Keyword Use as the First Word(s) in the H1 Tag
45% moderate importance | 11.7% light consensus

8. Keyword Use in the First 50-100 Words in HTML on the Page
45% moderate importance | 9.9% light consensus

9. Keyword Use in the Subdomain Name (e.g. keyword.seomoz.org)
42% low importance | 9% light consensus

10. Keyword Use in the Page Name URL (e.g. seomoz.org/folder/keyword.html)
38% low importance | 9.1% light consensus

11. Keyword Use in the Page Folder URL (e.g. seomoz.org/keyword/page.html)
37% low importance | 8.6% light consensus

12. Keyword Use in other Headline Tags (<h2> – <h6>)
35% low importance | 8% light consensus

13. Keyword Use in Image Alt Text
33% minimal importance | 8.7% light consensus

14. Keyword Use / Number of Repetitions in the HTML Text on the Page
33% minimal importance | 10.3% light consensus

15. Keyword Use in Image Names Included on the Page (e.g. keyword.jpg)
33% minimal importance | 8.6% light consensus

16. Keyword Use in <b> or <strong> Tags</strong>
26% minimal importance | 7.6% moderate consensus

17. Keyword Density Formula (# of Keyword Uses ÷ Total # of Terms on the Page)
25% minimal importance | 9.8% light consensus

18. Keyword Use in List Items <li> on the Page
23% very minimal importance | 9.5% light consensus

19. Keyword Use in the Page’s Query Parameters (e.g. seomoz.org/page.html?keyword)
22% very minimal importance | 7.6% moderate consensus

20. Keyword Use in <i> or <em> Tags
21% very minimal importance | 8.4% light consensus

21. Keyword Use in the Meta Description Tag
19% very minimal importance | 9.9% light consensus

22. Keyword Use in the Page’s File Extension (e.g. seomoz.org/page.keyword)
12% very minimal importance | 8.3% light consensus

23. Keyword Use in Comment Tags in the HTML
6% very minimal importance | 5.7% moderate consensus

24. Keyword Use in the Meta Keywords Tag
5% very minimal importance | 5.5% moderate consensus

Now keeping these in mind when you design your website will help give your website a better Page Rank in my next blog post we will go over some of the negative factors and what doesn’t work to get you ranking. I hope these help you as much as they did me.

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So get creative and submit your next design! http://www.webinspir.com/category/submit/

LinkShare has a long, productive history in the affiliate space, and the latest LinkShare innovation is already turning heads. Pay-per-call gives publishers and affiliates a new way to earn – both online and offline. LinkShare provides custom, individual phone numbers for affiliates to connect consumers with advertisers. The advertiser gets a qualified lead, and the publisher has the opportunity to earn on each call placed to the advertiser.

“This whole new platform with pay-per-call allows our publishers to get commissions in ways they never could before,” says Russ Pechman, VP of Linkshare Lead Advantage. “Online or offline, this opens publishers and advertisers to a new world of opportunity.”

Once a phone number is established, publishers can promote it on their website, flyers, billboards, banners behind airplanes – just about anywhere. Advertisers can speak directly with their prospects, whether for lead generation or closing a sale on a product.

The program is leading off with lead generation, an area where advertisers can learn a great deal about their prospective audience. More advertisers — including retailers — will be signing up over time. Pechman notes that pay-per-call could be an ideal solution for advertisers who rely on human interaction during the sales process. For example, high-cost items, financial services, real-estate, insurance and much more. What’s more, certain demographics are more comfortable with a phone call than a click. This solution opens up an important channel perhaps previously unavailable.

There are, of course, controls. Advertisers can set the requirements for a commission, such as length of call, interaction within the call (press ‘1′ for more information) and more. And LinkShare provides terms and conditions, just like online, as well as measures to prevent fraud. “We make sure we’re working with the right publishers, just as we would online,” says Pechman. Also, the human element of a phone call can give advertisers the ability to detect a genuine lead from an unqualified lead.

This is certainly an exciting development for LinkShare, publishers and advertisers. It’s further proof of the online world blending in offline and making e-commerce accessible away from the desktop. Using the vast network available through LinkShare, new lines will be opened. “It’s going to be great to see a whole new person emerge who has never had the technical savvy to try something through a website but is good at promoting things in their own way,” says Pechman.

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Do you want to become a better entrepreneur? Well who doesn’t, right?

Over the past 8 years I have started around 9 companies. Sadly most of them failed, but the good news is, I have learned a lot over the years. Some of these things maybe obvious to you, while others may not, but none-the-less there will be something that will be beneficial to you.

Here are 53 things to keep in mind if you want to be a better entrepreneur:

1. Don’t let emotions cloud your decisions.
2. Accept criticism, no matter who gives it to you.
3. Never stop networking.
4. Learn from your own mistakes.
5. Learn from other people’s mistakes.
6. Around every corner lies an opportunity for you to sell something.
7. Don’t get too greedy… pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
8. Try not to mix your family life with your business life.
9. No matter how successful you are, you shouldn’t stop learning.
10. Spending money on good lawyers and accountants will save you more money in the long run.
11. Don’t pick a stupid company name… and if you do, don’t change it later on.
12. Hiring employees won’t solve most of your problems.
13. Be agile because slow and steady won’t win the race.
14. Being agile isn’t enough, you also have to be scrappy too.
15. Having a good business partner will be a key factor in your success.
16. Don’t be afraid of the unknown.
17. It is easier to save money than it is to make it.
18. You don’t always have to innovate; there is nothing wrong with copying.
19. Have a marketing plan.
20. Don’t under estimate your competition; you can’t always know what they are doing.
21. Watching movies like Boiler Room, will teach you how to sell.
22. If you don’t have a business mentor, you better get one.
23. Your income will be the average of your 5 closest friends, so pick them wisely.
24. Diversifying is a good way to play things safe.
25. It doesn’t matter what you want, it only matters what your customers want.
26. When others are fearful, you should be greedy. And when they are greedy you should be fearful.
27. You don’t always have to pay for advice. You’ll be amazed with the free advice you can get pick up from the web.
28. The best chances you have of becoming rich is through your willingness of working hard.
29. Even the most idiotic business idea can make money.
30. Sex sells and it always will.
31. An easy way to make more money is to up sell to your current customer base.
32. Base your business decisions around metrics.
33. There is no such thing as a safe bet.
34. You don’t have to start a business to be successful.
35. Raising venture capital is harder than being struck by lightening.
36. Staying under the radar isn’t always a bad thing. Being out in the open is a great way to attract more competitors.
37. Learn to be a team player.
38. If you ever get screwed over, think twice before you burn the bridge.
39. Learn to manage both your personal and business money.
40. Live in a location filled with entrepreneurs.
41. If you don’t take any risks, there will not be any rewards.
42. Don’t let anything stand in your way.
43. Sometimes you have to wait for good deals to come to you.
44. The smartest route isn’t always the easiest route.
45. Being too aggressive can backfire.
46. With networking, it isn’t about whom you know, it is about whom your network knows.
47. It’s never a bad thing to know too many rich people. Whether you like them or not, they can always come in handy. So make sure you always play nice with them.
48. Use your email signature to promote your business.
49. Don’t be afraid of social media. It is a great channel for customer acquisition.
50. You’ll learn more from starting your own business, than going to business school.
51. Having a personal blog doesn’t only help build your personal brand, but it helps your business as well.
52. Your competitors don’t have to be your enemies, you can learn a lot from them.
53. You can grow your business by working for free.

Hopefully these suggestions will help you improve your entrepreneurial skills.

ARTICLE SOURCE – QuickSprout – By Neil Patel

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If you read the article, you’ll learn that the following products are “hot” which, although ambiguous, suggests they might be a good idea to target with your current related websites or a new website altogether.

- Chocolate
- Running shoes
- Cheap wine
- Gold coins
- Gardening seeds
- Tanning products
- Spam
- Dinty Moore stew and chili
- Condoms
- Dating
- Laxatives
- Pepto-Bismol and other stomach medicines
- Bike helmets
- Guns (because of Obama administration)

So with this list it’s almost impossible NOT to create a gun and laxatives website. I would recommend you read the entire article to get a feel for the psychological aspect behind these product increases. Learning these behavioral trends will help you predict future behaviors.

A head start can often be the difference between success and failure. Here are a couple sections in the Yahoo article that point this out:

“Consumers have trimmed household budgets and postponed buying cars, major appliances and other big-ticket items. Yet they still are willing to shell out for small indulgences and goods that make life more comfortable at home, where they are spending more time.”

“People are much more focused on their homes and their immediate happiness and they’re buying things that they can use themselves — seeds, fishing equipment. Lipstick and chocolate are small rewards that make you feel better.”

Keep in mind that these are recent trends and could not be next month. For example “gardening seeds” would make a great stand-alone website but by the time you’ve got your site built just to your specifications, planting season could be over. Remember the trends and notice consumer spending.

Get creative. Come up with an angle.  Personally I think that chocolate and cheap wine have the biggest upsides when all things are considered. But then again, I’m sure a lot of people might decide something else which means larger opportunities could be elsewhere.

As I end this I hope the information was helpful/interesting and don’t forget… always be on the lookout for great opportunities disguised as regular, every day information!

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Communicate in Writing

Even if you hash out the details of what you want the finished project to look like, send a follow-up email to confirm what you said on the phone. Keep written records of as many of the project details and discussions as possible. Having this sort of information in writing makes it easier for both you and the freelancer to refer back to your original decisions. This is especially crucial during longer projects, or when details change from your initial agreement. You’ll be able to refer back to the documentation and have a reference point for any changes the freelancer suggests, and the freelancer will have a better concept of just what you want.

Having a paper trail can come in handy after the fact, as well. It can help you decide how well a finished project stacks up to your initial expectations and it can give you a starting point for future projects. Maybe you’ll need another website eventually, or the freelancer suggested a way to tie your current brochure design to a new business card. Those notes can give you a head start on getting future projects done.

Review Drafts Thoroughly

Depending on the size of your project, you may receive multiple drafts, mock-ups and versions of the project from the freelancer working on it. While it may be tempting to just give a once-over to a draft, perhaps because it isn’t a final project or because you’ve already seen several versions, it’s crucial to go over each iteration of the project in detail. The draft stage is the point when it’s easiest to make changes or corrections — waiting until the final draft or even the final version is likely to wind up costing you extra money and delaying the finished project. The contract covering the project will likely lay out at what point the project is considered complete and you are obligated to pay — even if it doesn’t quite match your expectations.

If you aren’t sure exactly what you should be looking for in a version, most freelancers are willing to discuss the progress of the project with you: they can tell you about changes from one version to the next, as well as the constraints that may have led to a particular approach.

Check in Regularly

With especially long projects, it’s easy to hand work over to a freelancer and forget about it. But that sort of approach tends not to work well — for you or the freelancer. In order to stay on the same wave-length, it’s important to check in with any freelancers you work with fairly regularly. You don’t have to touch base every day, like you might with an employee, but send off an email every so often. Depending on your timeline, contact every few weeks may be enough, or even just following up after each milestone could do it. There’s no precise number of of times you should connect with a freelancer during the course of a project; instead, you’ll need to see what works for you.

Written by:

This article piggybacks on another Smashing article but it stops short of domain extensions. Here, we are going to discuss generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), country top level domains (ccTLDs), new and exciting domain extensions for 2009, domain hacks, and internationalized domains.

Learning this will make you even more of an awesome designer or developer for clients. You need to think of a variety of domains and possibilities for new sites, as well as uniquely branding corporate websites with domain extensions. Domain names are not a lackluster industry, it is a hidden industry that is vital to the success and maintenance of the Internet.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• The Effective Strategy For Choosing Right Domain Names
• How To Improve Your Branding With Your Content
• Domain Names: Tools, Articles and Resources

1. Boring Stuff First: Short Background Information

The birth of Domains

In 1983 the Domain Name System (DNS) was invented so people did not have to remember a long string of funny numbers. DNS inherits its structure from an even older systems but it was with the birth of the DNS that we are able to type in letters instead of numbers.

When domain names become fashionable, domains owners needed to control the rights of their domain names, and an administrative authority was necessary. Fifteen years later ICANN saw the day of light and its governing purpose is to coordinate all the unique domain names on the web today.

Current use of domain extensions

Today there are a few groups of domain extensions: gTLDs, ccTLDs, and the personal domains. The most well-known generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) is the .com, an international extension for everyone from large corporations to small personal websites. Being the most popular extension in the world, it is increasingly difficult to find a .com domain name. It has led to new and creative ways of setting up domain names. The .com will always be in demand but it is not as sought after than in the earlier years.

Other domain extensions that are frequently used on the web today are: .net, .org, .co.uk, .de, .fr and .it. As you can see, there is a healthy mix of both generic top-level domains (gTDL) and country code top-level domains (ccTLD) among many of the websites of today.

Registering a Domain Name

There are two alternatives to register a domain name: 1) via a web hosting provider, or 2) through a legitimate domain registrar. A registrar has the ability to manage gTLDs but not all ccTLDs. Each country decides which registrars that are allowed to sell its ccTLD; check the country’s domain website where country domains may be bought.

Fun facts about domain names:

1. All 3 letter possibilities are gone on .com
2. All 4 letter words are depleted on .com
3. The most popular registered domain name length is 11 characters
4. There are 255,000+ domain names that are 32 characters or longer
5. All of the top 10,000 family names are registered as a domain name
6. The most common letter to start a domain with is S
7. More than 270,000 domains contain the sequence SEX

2. gTLDs: Generic Top Level Domains

Generic TLDs are divided into three sets: unrestricted, sponsored and geographic. Unrestricted gTLDs can be registered by anyone who wants one. The core group consists of .com, .info, .net and .org. Sponsored gTLDs have been underwritten by an organization or private agency; .aero is an example for the air-transport industry. Geographic gTLDS are not common, only .cat and .asia exist today, but they are to be used in connection with a geographical, ethnic or cultural group.

List of gTLDs

The domains are marked as restricted or unrestricted. Registricted domain registers must meet certain conditions to receive such a domain; unrestricted is okay for anyone. For example, If you have clients that fall into hospitality or museum industries, you can help them obtain a restricted domain.

• .aero - air transportion; restricted
• .arpa - reserved by the Internet Architecture Board; restricted
• .asia - Asia-Pacific region; restricted
• .biz - business and commerical use
• .cat - Catalan language and culture
• .com - commerical, personal, or any use; unrestricted
• .coop - cooperatives; restricted to Co-Op organizations
• .edu - post-secondary educational institutions; United States only; restricted
• .gov - United States government orgs at the federal, state, and local levels; restricted
• .info - informational use; unrestricted
• .int - international organizations established by treaty; restricted
• .jobs - employment-related; restricted
• .mil - US military; restricted
• .mobi - mobile device based; restricted
• .museum – museums; restricted
• .name - individuals; unrestricted
• .net - originally for network infrastructures; today unrestricted
• .org - originally for organizations; today unrestricted
• .pro - professions; restricted
• .tel - services between telecom and the Internet; restricted
• .travel - travel agencies, airlines, hotels, tourism bureaus; restricted

Most major companies register a .com domain. But is it really necessary for your website? Well, a ccTLD does just fine if your target audience is in a specific country, otherwise it is advisable trying to find a .com domain. .com’s are also the most easy to understand for users and therefore good for branding purposes.

Pros of gTLDs:

• Suitable for an international market.
• There is a familiarity with .com which you will not find with any other extension.

Cons of gTLDs:

• Can be difficult to find a good and available gTLD.
• Will not rank as high as ccTLD’s when it come to regional searches. In Sweden, .se domains are more valued and trusted than a generic TLD.

3. ccTLDs: Country Top Level Domains

Depending on your site and its potential clientèle you might have thought about whether you should get a ccTLD or whether you should look elsewhere when seeking for a domain name. There is no set rule for how one should when it comes to ccTLD’s. One of the most influential countries in the world, the United States, hardly even uses its ccTLD .us.

Europe Union member countries also use the .com for sites mainly in English and country’s ccTLD for sites written in native languages. For example, if you have an Italian website with an Italian target audience, then the .it extension better choice. If the audience is international, a .com extension is preferred. Not all ccTLD’s are open for international registration, so investigate before you make a decision.

Pros of ccTLDs:

• There is more trust in ccTLDs
• The website will most likely rank better in that specific country (regional targeting)
• There will be more available domain names to choose between

Cons of ccTLDs:

• You may get lower search engine results in the United States and Anglophone markets. But this also depends on the location of the hosting server, geographic nature of inbound links, and if the content is in English.
• Some ccTLDs have restrictions regarding DNS providers.
• In extremely small markets, e.g. TT, the benefits are limiting. Unless its for domainhacking, a .com is better.
• Annual registration prices are usually higher with ccTLDs. A few countries offer free domains like .tk and .cx but it is not common.
• Commercial sites face more scrutiny that they comply with local laws.
• It is hard to manage a portfolio if you have domains with many providers.
• Payments for registration and renewals may be difficult; some DNS providers only accept wire transfers or Paypal. Incorporate those costs into domain renewals for your clients.

A Quick Look: The Top ccTLD Registries During the First Quarter of 2009

By the end of the first quarter of 2009 we had roughly 74 million ccTLD registrations which is an 18% increase compared to the same quarter in 2008. At the moment there are over 240 ccTLD extensions on the global market.

However, out of these 240 ccTLDs, the ten biggest (presented above) represent 64% of the total number of registrations. The .us domain grew fastest with a 12% increase quarter over quarter. Special promotions drove sales, especially in China. The Chinese ccTLD experienced its slowest growth in twelve quarters, with a four percent growth (can be attributed to both sales and recession). Overall, the 25 largest ccTLD’s experienced a substantial amount of growth from Q4 2008 to Q1 2009.

4. 2009 Domain Extensions Registrations

We are running out of good .coms (if you do not want to spend a fortune at auction, that is), which is the reason to look at alternative domain extensions. Many ccTLDs are now open for business internationally and more and more countries are looking to open their extension for international registration as well. It generates more revenues for the countries. Mexico will open theirextension to the public in fall 2009. Is “domain hacking” is the way of the future?

Mexico opens up to the public (.mx)

For the last 20 years it has been reserved for Mexican citizens only but people that like to invest in ccTLD might want to keep their eyes open after this summer. The current schedule known as sunrise and sunset periods:

Pre-Sunrise: Before March 1st, 2009: To participate in pre-registration phase of top-level .mxdomain names, you must already be registered under one of the other classifications (org.mx, com.mx, net.mx, edu.mx and gob.mx)

Sunrise: May 1st to July 31st, 2009: People already owning a domain name in any of the five sub-extensions will be allowed to register the same name under .mx. If two people have the same domain name, the one with proof of having the longest will get to keep it.

Waiting Period: August 1st to 31st 2009: Domain registers will go through everyone’s applications.

Landrush: September 1 – October 31, 2009: Anyone can register an available .mx domain during this period.

Cameroon Opens Registrations (.cm)

Not too many exciting things are happening with the Cameroon extension since few words end in ‘cm.’ Apart from being an abbreviation of centimeter, ‘cm’ may not the be best option for new hacks.

Sunrise period: June 15th to July 14th, 2009

Landrush Period: July 15th to 31st, 2009

Go Live period: August 1st , 2009

The Netherlands meets us half-way (.co.nl)

The Netherlands does not open up their .nl extension but the .co.nl extension just recently was opened up for international registries. It is not intended to replace the .nl extension but the “.co” could be attractive for people already using a ”.co.xx” address which means that it could be successfully used to attract business and visitors from for example the United Kingdom and India. The opening of the .co.nl was divided into three phases:

Grandfather: November 18th 2008 – 15th of January 2009: People holding an .nl domain were allowed to register the same domain with the new extension.

Sunrise: February 10th, 2009 – 10th of March 2009: Trademark holders had the opportunity apply for a domain on afirst come first served.

Landrush: March 17t to 31st, 2009 – open to all, priority will be based on lottery.Go Live: April 15th , 2009 onwards: .co.nl domains are open for everyone to register.

5. Domain Hacking: Get Really Creative

There’s a whole world of domain extensions you probably didn’t know about. Now, how do you use these extensions to your advantage?

Go domain hacking. No it’s not actually hacking someone’s domain name and stealing it. It’s the process of using real words but part of the word sits in the domain extension. One famous example is DesignM.ag. See the .ag? Their website is registered in Antigua and Barbuda.

Domain hacks find their extensions from the rainbow variety of ccTLDs. Again, you will need to check on the country registrar for information on how to register the domain and where it can be hosted.

Steps to take:

1. Create a name
   This is your chance to shine with a client if they are insistent on something extremely unique and interesting. Most ccTLDs allow for two letter domains (.com, .net, .org do not). The best example is ma.tt, the man behind Automattic/WordPress. You can try Xona, a popular domain hacking tool. I tried it out with WebHostingSearch and got some fun results; the best being the .ch extension.
2. Register with approved DNS providers
3. Brand like hell
   Because people most commonly understand .com and .net, getting people to remember a new domain extension and your domain name will be tricky. Part of using a domain hack is for branding, make sure that is stressed in all aspects of the new site.

Common list of domain extensions:

.ag – Antigua and Barbuda. Good for words ending in ‘ag.’

Examples: Designm.ag, Namet.ag

.me – Montenegro. Used for vanity sites or great with ‘me’ phrases.

Examples: Move.me, Search.me, Fa.me, David.me

.us – United States. Great ending for ‘ous’ ending words or using the word ‘us’ itself

Examples: Del.icio.us, Call.us, Email.us

.fm – Federated States of Micronesia. Used for FM radio stations. No words end in ‘fm’ so it’s domain extension really strong for online radios than anything else.

Examples: Last.fm

.gs – South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands. Works with words ending in ‘gs.’

Examples: blo.gs, rankin.gs

.at – Austria. Popular as a ccTLD; used in phrases ending in ‘at’ or words with ‘at’ in it.

Examples: Losef.at, Bureaucr.at, IM.at

.it – Italy. Heavily used for Italian sites; used in phrases ending in ‘it’ or words with ‘it.’ Not very popular as an extension representing ‘information technology.’

Examples: Beat.it, Forget.it

.be – Belgium. Another popular country extension for local sites; works with phrases with ‘be’ ending; words that end with ‘be’

Examples: Tu.be, Ado.be, Bee.be

.to – Tonga. For phrases ending in ‘to’ or using the two letter word.

Examples: Go.to., Pin.to

Pros of Domain Hacks:

• Fun, creative way to express a domain name
• Opens up for a plethora of options compared to .com or .net names
• Becoming more popular; acceptance within the community is growing

Cons of Domain Hacks:

• Must be well branded.
• Needs to be promoted for people to understand a new name.
• International, English based sites may have harder time ranking in search results.
• Has SEO disadvantages. Search engines do not care about domain extensions. With Ma.tt, the SEO value is in “Ma” not “Matt.” You may lose traction when it comes to extremely competitive keywords if the phrase is domain hacked. For example if we turned WebHostingSearch.com into WebHostingSear.ch, we lose the value of “search.” Our domain will also be registered in Switzerland and can pose issues as mentioned above.

6. Internationalized Domain Name (IDN): Special Characters in Domains

Since we are covering everything related to domain names, the last type of example to show are the internationalized domain names, known as IDN. IDNs utilitze non ASCII characters in the domain name. Considering non English words use ä, ö, å, é, è and non-Latin scripted languages are entirely non ASCII, IDN is a way to create usable domain names. Here is an example of a Swedish website.

Swedish spelling: Västerås.se – This is how a native will spell the word.

IDN spelling: xn--vsters-buam.se – This is the ASCII translation the characters Ä and Å for those that use special characters.

Standard spelling: Vasteras.se – This would be the standard spelling if we were to remove the special characters Ä and Å and call them both A.

Notice how all three domains lead you to the same website. As Västerås is a large city in Sweden, it was a good idea to get both domain names in case people were not sure how to replace the Ä and Å into English.

Pros of IDNs:

• Having the IDN allows you to keep control of your brand/corporate identity.
• Easy to type in for native speakers.

Cons of IDNs:

• Not all email boxes or web browsers support non ASCII characters.
• Security issues: homograph spoofing. It is easy to take a real domain and create a spoof with different Unicode letters that are seemingly the same. For example the letter ‘a’ can be U+0061 (Latin ‘a’) or U+0430 (Cyrillic ‘a’). A visitor would never see the different in these letters while typing, thus creating a major security problem for websites.
• Most keyboards do not have special characters, so it can confuse visitors.

We hope this article enlightens your knowledge of the plethora of domains available today. Remember a great web designer deserves a great website name.

Further Resources

• List of TLD domains

Related posts

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• The Effective Strategy For Choosing Right Domain Names
• How To Improve Your Branding With Your Content
• Domain Names: Tools, Articles and Resources

About the authors

Written by Preeti Pradhan and David Walsh of Web Hosting Search. WHS is a web hosting review site chock full of reviews and articles to help you make informed decisions about hosting and creating websites. You can also follow them on Twitter.

There are a few questions before you decide your domain name:

The first question is easy: Are you willing and able to spend lots of money on your domain name? If not, you can forget about a .com domain that’s a single real word, like Twitter.com or Amazon.com. They’re all registered, many by domain speculators, and buying one will cost a lot. You’ll need to look for a different kind of name. Real words on .net and .org domains are pretty hard to come by, too.

The other question is a strategic one and takes more thought: How do you plan to get traffic to your website? Answering this question can help you avoid a lot of confusion about what makes for a good name. Some views on this issue directly contradict others. For example, Rob Monster, CEO of Monster Venture Partners, believes that Google.com and Yahoo.com are “lousy domain names” and that podcast.com and slideshow.com are great ones. Marketing guru Seth Godin advises against real words like these and in favor of unique made-up names like Squidoo.com (his company).

Now should you have your domain name in mind…

How about some Fun Facts!

1. All 3 letter possibilities are gone on .com
2. All 4 letter words are depleted on .com
3. The most popular registered domain name length is 11 characters
4. There are 255,000+ domain names that are 32 characters or longer
5. All of the top 10,000 family names are registered as a domain name
6. The most common letter to start a domain with is S
7. More than 270,000 domains contain the sequence SEX

So now you know the facts, let’s think about choosing your name. This isn’t rocket science and you probably know you want your business or brand name in it somewhere. Don’t forget services or products you sell, they also make great domain names as people search for you online. If you domain name is already taken and not for sale then we have to think about alternatives to help you benefit in either branding yourself online or easy to remember phrases.

Let’s jump into some linguistics. FUN!

• Compound
  Example: YouTube
  Two whole words, often two nouns, stuck together. Don’t let anyone tell you that this kind of name is a “fad” and will go away. This has been the most common way to coin new English words as well as to create new names, and that’s unlikely to change in the next few hundred years.
• Phrase
  Example: Six Apart
  Words put together according to normal grammatical rules. Phrase names can be similar to compounds, but have a different pattern of syllabic emphasis. In compounds, the emphasis goes on the first word, the way we emphasize “white” in “the Whitehouse.” In phrases, the emphasis often goes on the second word, the way we emphasize “house” in “a white house.”
• Blend
  Examples: Microsoft, Farecast
  A blend combines a part of a word with another word or word part. The name Microsoft combines the “micro” part of “microcomputer” with the “soft” part of “software.” When blends involve a surprising overlap in sound between the two words, they’re a form of wordplay. Farecast is like that. It combines the words “fare” and “forecast,” and “fare” resembles the first syllable of “forecast.” When you create this kind of blend, be sure to avoid awkwordplay: don’t pile up consonants in ugly ways (like in the name Syncplicity), and don’t use important words to replace syllables that aren’t emphasized (the way the names Mapufacture and Carticipate do).
• Tweaked word
  Examples: Flickr, Zune
  Sometimes you can find a good domain name that’s basically a real word, but changed in some small way. It might have a modified spelling, like Flickr, or it might have a changed or added sound, like Zune (from “tune”) and iPhone.
• Affixed word
  Example: Friendster
  Some names are new words created by sticking a prefix or suffix onto an existing word. Friendster, for example, is “friend” with the suffix -ster attached. Biznik is “biz” with the Yiddish-derived suffix -nik (as in “beatnik”).
• Made-up name
  Examples: Etsy, Odeo
  Sometimes you can find a name that is, or seems to be, completely made up. For example, Etsy is an online hand-made goods marketplace, and Odeo is an online music website.

So we’ve figured out when building a name out of pieces, be sure that both pieces contribute something interesting. The name WidgetThing fails in this respect. LiftPort, the name of a company that wants to build an elevator to outer space, is not much better. The words “lift” and “port” have very similar meanings; both relate to moving things around. Neither relates to what makes this company really exciting, outer space.

Some great resources to find words is Visual Dictionary or Visual Thesaurus both of these resources should show you visually what would be a good match of words.

With all this understood, you found the words your looking to go with, now one last thing to think about is online advertising and how designing your domain name for SEO Ranking is important. For most search engines, having the same search term in the domain name, title, and meta tags will rank better than those with limited relevant words.

I hope this article was informative for when you choose to purchase a domain name. If you would like to purcahse a new domain for $10.99 let us help you. Click Here

Though twitter was started with ‘what are you doing?’ concept, it is no longer merely what one is doing individually but also the whole company, the market, and the world at large. It is similar to wiretapping the internet with the tweets. A twitter user can give away or take immediate information on the news or events or latest buzz in the online world well before, it is converted into news. It is the best platform for catching up with the people choices, dislikes, and understanding the market pattern. All you need to do is follow right kind of tweeple, meaning the tweeter users of your interest or choice.

Twitter also happens to be a great platform for getting opinion of the people regarding any particular thing, business, or company. It also enables to know what the people in general think of our business, company, or about us. This knowledge enables us to improve and fine tune our lacking. Here are certain sure tips to help you to make it big on the twitter.

• Never forget to add your picture or your company’s picture to your profile as people wish to connect to the real people and if they know your face then they can easily connect with you.
• Make a truthful profile description including your interests so that people can know you better and hence follow you.
• Tweet during the business hours as it is the best way to stay connected with your prospective clients, customers and establishes a strong bonding with them.
• Make use of direct message feature when you wish message the person who is following you and you are following him as well. This will enable you to maintain and strengthen your bond with that tweeter user.
• Congratulate, thank the tweeple if they have achieved or helped you respectively. Try and be genuine and humble this will fetch you a lot of goodwill over the twitter. If possible try answering the questions in the tweets or participate in the opinion polls. This will all help you to create more contacts and thereby make you have good online reputation for marketing your business.

ARTICLE SOURCE – PLAVEB – http://www.plaveb.com/blog/is-twitter-merely-a-platform-for-socializing/

Whether you decide to work with in-house staff or an outside design firm on your next Web design/redesign project, chances are you might not be familiar with some of the specialized language and terminology that designers and developers use when they discuss the project with you. Here’s a list of five types of down-to-earth, online resources to help you brush up—before or after the fact—on what they’re talking about.

1. Glossaries
One of the best ways to quickly learn about Web design concepts is to read a good glossary—that is, one with clear, concise definitions and descriptions of the terms and acronyms related to Web design. You can look up terms you’re not familiar with, or if the glossary is a short one, you might choose to skim all the entries for a quick overview. Here are several glossaries (the Web provides many to choose from—some good, some not so much) that you might find useful to cover all the bases:

• Web Design Glossary from Buzzle.com—A good short list of common terms and straightforward definitions—a really easy read
• Web Design Glossary from About.com—A longer list of terms, each of which links to a definition and additional resource articles from About.com
• The Motive Web Design Glossary—A very comprehensive, up-to-date list of terms, each of which links to a detailed definition, a list of related terms and additional information and references
• Web Design Industry Jargon: Glossary and Resources—From Smashing Magazine, this useful guide also provides links to in-depth information and additional resources from other authoritative sites (as a bonus, you might make a hit with your designer/developer by recommending this resource to them)

2. Wikipedia
No list of resources would be complete without mentioning Wikipedia. If you’re looking for an encyclopedic-type overview of Web design topics that leans toward the technical with lots of internal links to more detailed information, a bit of historical background and a huge list of references, then Wikipedia might be your best bet.

3. Web Design Reference Guide
Peachpit Press’s Web Design Reference Guide provides a “30,000-foot view of Web design topics.” It’s a collection of short articles (originally blog posts) that describe all things Web design–related, from Web basics to usability and accessibility to Web site optimization and what happens on the backend server. Although some of the articles date back to 2003 and 2004, the straightforward, conversational-style explanations of core concepts make it worth a browse.

4. Web Style Guide
Yale University Press’s Web Style Guide, 3rd edition: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites is a practical, non-technical book about designing Web sites. The book tells you what you need to know about Web design in plain language, with easy-to-understand examples and a great reference section. Now in its third edition (published January 2009), the Web Style Guide emphasizes fundamentals and contains all the latest information about Web design. And best of all, the book is viewable in its entirety online.

5. Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine launched in 2006 with the goal of providing useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers. You’re not a designer/developer, you say? No worries—the magazine provides information suitable for people with various levels of expertise, from non-designers to newcomers in the design field to seasoned experts. The glossary mentioned previously is a good example of the type of helpful information you can find on the site.

The magazine also specializes in presenting the latest trends and techniques in Web design. For example, Web Design Trends for 2009 lets you get up to speed quickly on some of the new design features your Web designer might suggest for your site. Whether or not you understand all the technical details, the examples give you plenty of ways to see new features in action.

Raise Your Web Design IQ
Regardless of your role in your company, if you’re involved in a Web design project at any level, it’s advantageous to arm yourself with the basic knowledge you’ll need to understand and communicate effectively with your designers/developers. If you don’t find the information you need from the suggested resources don’t hesitate to contact us at Benzing Technologies.

ARTICLE SOURCE – ACS Creative – http://blog.acscreative.com/blog/top-of-mind/0/0/making-sense-of-web-design-lingo

HTML5 is the next edition of the highly successful HTML4 which is about 10 years old now. The word is being spread around, though slowly, on the topic of merging to the next progressive web experience. A bunch of questions circle my head on how profitable web design will become when HTML5 is released.

With HTML5 the difference is staggering enough to notice in the code from HTML4, as you can see in our previously posted article. The benefits range from less code to easier formatting to more CSS control of the user interface.

HTML 5 provides a number of new elements and attributes that reflect typical usage on modern Web sites. Some of them are semantic replacements for common uses of generic block (<div>) and inline (<span>) elements, for example <nav> (website navigation block) and <footer>. Other elements provide new functionality through a standardized interface, such as the <audio> and <video> elements.

Now back to my original question how profitable will HTML5 be? with new tags and easier formatting will it be easier for garage designers to pull off? Will any geek with a keyboard and a Redbull be able to program a website? My thoughts are this…if code is becoming simpler to design more people will start to think they can do it themselves. Competition will become even heavier and only the best of the best would survive. This doesn’t mean their websites will look good because design is not everyone’s forte. But technically the code is simple enough for joe smoe to create a header,footer, add a video and type some text.

The real money in the future of web design is creative design and backend programming of websites. Web Designers are a dime a dozen unless they can save you money or better help you generate money. Now of course the information I discussed above is only my opinion. HTML5 is a ways away yet and yes there is complexity to HTML5 as seen here.

Fan pages also became more like profile pages, in that status updates now appear in feeds. Over the last month, fan pages have gotten even more publicity, as Facebook announced that administrators could create vanity urls for their fan pages. All of this begs the question: What makes a good Facebook fan page?

One of the most important things to make a good Facebook fan page is to make it pop. This requires more work, but it pays off as users want a page that’s going to jump out at them. Many fan pages fail simply because they don’t grab the user. All successful fan pages have at least some html or flash that is graphically appealing to users.

Another idea for creating a good Facebook fan page is to offer incentives or specials. Make your fan page a resource for people and they will return again and again. If you’re a small restaurant, you might post weekly coupons or specials. If you’re a service provider, you might use the fan page to answer questions from your fans or offer discounted services one day per week. You have to find what’s most relevant to draw people to your fan page, and then ultimately to your business or website.

Similar to incentives, another way to build an interactive Facebook fan page would be to run contests or giveaways for fans. Contests are great for fan pages because they build a loyal audience and makes your fans feel like a VIP. With the economy how it is, everyone is looking for all kinds of giveaways and contests. Think about partnering with another brand or Facebook page to give a prize away and encourage your fans to “cross-over.”

Fourth, leverage all your resources. Odds are that many of your customers and friends may be using Facebook and not even know that you have a fan page. Use your website, email, instant messaging, printed material and other social networking sites to drive people to your fan page.

Lastly, give fans the opportunity to connect, interact and have fun with the fan page and your brand. Many fan pages fail and lose fans because there’s no interaction with fans and no reason for fans to come back daily. Most people check their Facebook several times a day, but how often do they check for updates to your fan page? It doesn’t have to be something complex, but just a way to get people to interact and participate, because ultimately, the power comes when it’s not you, but other users who help spread and promote your fan page virally.

Article Source – Tutorial Blog – http://tutorialblog.org/what-makes-a-good-facebook-fan-page/