Tips On How To Register A Domain
Picking a domain name is one of the most fun, and sometimes stressful parts of planning your online business. It is also one of the most important steps in branding yourself and your products. Your domain name is the web address or URL that your visitors will type in the address bar. Your business name on the other hand won’t come into play as much because you are going to be recognized by your brand, name, or website. Decide before you register any domain name what image or brand you wish to project in your online business.
If you are having trouble deciding on a brand, just use your name for the domain. For example, www.JohnDoe.com. You should register this domain anyway.
Dot Com Should Be Your Domain Of Choice
I registered my name with a dot com, dot net and dot name. I also registered the same extensions with hyphens, for example www.John-Doe.com. I did it this way because I don’t want anyone taking advantage of me when it becomes a total success 
Try selecting a domain name that’s memorable. Trying to find a name that is easy to remember and that has one or two words that are easy to spell may be quite difficult. Many of those domains have already been taken. You will have to be creative to come up with the one or two name domains. After you find one that you think you will be happy with, ask your friends or business associates if it sounds sticky BEFORE registering it.
A great tip to keep in mind is that when people think of sites they always type in a dot com. So select your domain with dot com extension. You can also register the other extensions (dot net, dot biz, etc) so that you won’t be taken advantage of later.
Private Registration
During the registration process, you are asked about private registration for an extra fee. This service protects your identity from the prying eyes of others. It can be quite expensive to add this on because the fee is about $9.00 per domain. If you are registering 5 domains that would be an extra $45 dollars. That option is up to you, but if you have a business address then you can just use that instead of your home address.
I would also suggest you register the hyphen version of your domain. For example, register www.DomainName.com and www.Domain-Name.com. For an extra $7 – $10 a year for registration, I recommend this method because the first time you create a winning product, experienced marketers will quickly jump on a closely related open domain. This would mean easy sales for them if a customer accidentally types in the wrong domain.
Where you land in the yellow pages…
Both online and brick and mortar business names are listed in alphabetical order. Many directories and links pages place websites in alphabetical order just as the phone books list businesses. Don’t try to cheat your way to the top by putting an A in the name. If your domain name is widget.com, you won’t get to the top by saying your business name is “A Widget”. The search engines are too sophisticated for that trick.
Registering a domain is like buying a piece of real estate on the internet. You get your own address and no one can take the land from you as long as you pay yearly for it. After you buy the real estate, you need to build a house on it, which is your hosting account…more on that tomorrow.
Select Your Name With Your Future In Mind
If you’ve decided that you want to be more of a “do it yourself” person until you feel more comfortable with possibly outsourcing, let’s take a look at some of the basic steps to start your business….specifically names.
What’s In Your Name?
It’s okay to be creative with your business name, but you need to think into the future and not just the here and now. Having those cute names can damage your chances of success later. Who would you do business with first, “Candles by Casey” or “Kelly’s Kute Kuwel Kandles“? I mean which one would you take more serious? Just food for thought.
This same principle applies to your website address. For example, if I wanted to buy candles and I have landed on your website and someone else’s, and for the most part you both offered the same products and pricing. I’m looking at CandlesByCasey.com and Kellys-Kute-Kuwel-Kandles.com…again which one would you choose to open up your credit card to online?
And before you say anything else, YES you are definitely going to register at least one domain….it’s no more than $10 bucks so you don’t have any excuse.
Do not have a website address like:
Kellys-Kute-Kuwel-Kandles.TooCheap2BuyADomain.com
with an email address of
KellyKarter@Kellys-Kute-Kuwel-Kandles.TooCheap2BuyADomain.com
This is an example of how, if there was a free domain service at http://TooCheap2BuyADomain.com, your domain name would look like. That’s because all they do as add the sub-domain name you pick onto their existing domain.
Come on people, just don’t do that alright?
Okay, back to the business name……
Are you going to establish an official business, or will you just do business as a d.b.a.? It is not a requirement by any means that you officially establish a legal entity, but it is smart. In my state I only paid $50 to form my business. I did some research on how to do it, completed the process, and in this electronic world we live in, I received my articles of organization the next day.
Secondly, establishing a business protects your personal assets against lawsuits and judgments, and you can avoid double taxation….everybody wants to avoid taxes right? Most of the information about starting a business can be found on your states’ website. Do some research before jumping head first into this though, but I found it to be relatively easy.
After officially establishing your business, you will be able to open a business bank account because you do not want to mix personal and business activities. You can then setup an account at paypal and/or 2CO for payment processing, and always keep a clear paper trail of any monies coming into and out of your business.
An accountant once said to me “play now and you will pay later”…so keep that in mind as you set your plan.
Outsource! If Not, Which Hat Would You Like To You Wear Today?
Say the word outsource and many people new to internet marketing run for the hills. It’s really because it’s not understood the importance of what it can do for you.
Running your online business does require wearing different hats
…and a lot of times you will have to wear these hats at the same time. Often people are swayed into believing that they can sit at their desk behind their cute little computer, punch a few buttons and money will mysteriously come flying out of their PC. I know it’s not portrayed quite that simple, but you know what I mean.
That portrayal or fantasy is what leads people in a straight line to failure. They walk into the arena with these visions of grandeur dancing in their heads of money falling from the sky. They don’t see reality again until their pockets are empty. Sad but true. Speaking of the truth, let’s run through a quick list of titles, or hats, you might have to wear in your online business:
- Sole Decision Maker
- Bookkeeper
- Legal Clerk
- IT Specialist
- Sales and Marketing Representative
- Customer Service Representative
- Graphics Designer
- Web Master
- Researcher
Whew! Those are really a lot of hats, and they are all mine? Yep they are, and these or many more may be required for your business.
Any one of those roles, if not done by you, would harm your business by NOT doing it.
When you start becoming more successful, you will find that these roles and tasks are becoming cumbersome (not that they won’t be before then) and you won’t have enough time to do them all. But, right now if you just learn the roles, and what’s required of them, it will help you in the future.
That’s because you will have to learn to outsource some of your tasks and projects. Once you know and understand the requirements of the role, you will be in a better position to state exactly what you need and evaluate whomever you will hire.
You are only one person, probably working full time like me, and working as hard as you can to get your business to achieve your financial goals.
If you continue to perform all of these roles, you will become a “Jack of all trades and Master of none“.
You will not have developed the expertise in the area that is destined for you. You will also waste a lot of time and incur the same expenses or more than if you would have simply outsourced the task.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. I was trying to create some graphics for one of my products. I teetered around with these graphics for almost a month. I just couldn’t get them to look like I wanted them to.
I searched for answers, researched forums, and tried to gather as much information as possible about these graphics. Well one day I was talking to some friends about this dilemma I was having, and they asked me “Why don’t you just outsource it, I know a really good graphics designer?”
Hmmm, I thought well I don’t have the money to pay for a graphics designer. My friends said well just go ahead and spend another month trying to figure out what to do on your own. Then I started thinking, I’ve already wasted a month and have gotten nowhere. What can I lose by getting a quote.
So I bit the bullet and contacted the graphic designer. I was quoted $100 and a turnaround of two days because he was working on another project. Well I jumped on that immediately. I wound up getting the graphics back the next day instead of two days.
Think about the money I lost for not doing this sooner. How much money could I have made if I would have just outsourced this earlier and focused my attention on the making money part of my business?
You need to understand how and when outsourcing will benefit you. It doesn’t have to be a scary or nail biting situation. You just need to embrace it and learn about it just as you’ve learned about everything else.
Make Money Online By Just Grabbing the Bull By Its Horns!
So you’re thinking about grabbing the bull by its horns and getting into internet marketing (a.k.a. make money online) thing?
Did you make the decision to quit your day job and rake in the big bucks? Be honest. It’s okay to think that way, but you’ve got to plan that way also.
Making money online is a lot of hard work
Huh? Yep a lot of long hard working hours. Yeah, Yeah, what about all that I’ve read about making money online and becoming an overnight success?
Well all I can tell you is that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
Go with your gut instincts and let that guide you.
Listen, there IS success on the internet, just not the easy and fast way that you may have been hearing about.
In addition, its not a free ride either.
Making money online often requires more money than initially believed.
It seems with all the hype, people have forgotten that they are starting a real live business; and all businesses need “seed money” and “grow me” money.
It takes time to build and grow a business before it starts to pay you back for all the time and efforts you put into it. So you need to keep a little stash away for ongoing business expenses.
If you’re just starting out, you’ve got a lot to learn
You need to turn into a sponge and absorb as much knowledge as you can. And at the same time you need to filter out irrelevant information and build you a library of sorts of the most important and relevant material.
You should also look closely at the mistakes that others have made and freely write about.
Why should you look at somebody elses mistakes?
Because the trick is to avoid the same mistakes that others have made so you can cut time off of your learning curve.
I’m not saying that you’re not going to make mistakes because that is inevitable.
But what I am saying is that there is no sense in making the same mistakes as others, especially when they are telling you exactly what they are.
And as you go along you’ll make some different mistakes and you should keep note of those and the actions you took to correct it.
You know why?
Because it could be the making of your own special report or software to help people not make the same mistakes as you did.
People will pay for prevention, and the best part about this is that you will have first hand experience with this issue and can offer specific advice.
Another thing to do is to take a deep look at your competition. Your competition can reveal some holes that you can easily fill.
Don’t be afraid to even buy some products from them to see how well their stuff really is. Again you may see some glaring holes that can be your goldmine.
Sign up for their newsletter, go to their forums, read all that they have and learn as much as you can.
Remember, this is your business and not some hobby…well at least I am assuming this to be true.
So now it goes back to the age old adage:
Treat this like as a hobby and you will be rewarded like a hobby; Treat it like a business and you will be handsomely rewarded like a business!
Get Your Business Started Off on the Right Path
Many people come online with the intentions of making money under the guise of it being quick and easy, and are soon dismayed when the don’t see any results. My question to you is if business is business, let it be online or offline, what makes you think that you can just jump in with little to no preparation and simply make it work? If that were the case then everyone should be rich right? For some crazy reason, people really think that all they need is a PC and internet connection, that product that they bought and boom!….money is on its way.
Well I decided to write a book to give you the real, unedited ‘no hold barred’ process of how to properly build your “virtual” brick and mortar internet business. I dispel the hype and untruths about internet marketing so that you start on a level playing field and have a fair advantage.
You know that money can be made in this business, but not like it has been portrayed. Gone are the days of sticking up a website and the money floodgates open up to you.
People are leary and cautious of spending their money and being scammed. There’s a lot of competition and savvy consumers to contend with so you must be top of your game. There is so much information available to you out on the net so I didn’t regurgitate that same information to you.
I attempted to recommend resources that are free; however there were times when that could not be achieved. I have a personal and ethical rule to only recommended resources that I think are reliable either through my own personal experience or through highly regarded people I know in this business.
CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE E-COURSE ON “HOW TO KICK YOUR DAY JOB TO THE CURB”
In addition, here is something that you might as well get out your head now. You will have to spend some money and don’t let anyone fill your head up with the idea that you don’t. How much I can’t say because I don’t know your personal goals.
But I assure you that by the time you finish reading this book you will have a very good idea.
Want more information on my eBook? CLICK HERE.
