Making Money Online - Domain Names & Web Hosting

Domain Names

Before you obtain a website you will need to register a Domain Name for your site. Think carefully before you decide on a domain name, it is not good if you choose a name, get it registered and then later on decide that is the wrong name for you. It will just create more hassle for you in the long term, after all Making Money Online is your main goal.

For your Company Logo

• Ask family or friends to give you an honest opinion on your chosen name, some times it helps to get a different, fresh perspective from others. A name that sounds good to you may sound completely awful to others.

• Your domain name is unique to you, as no two parties are allowed to have the same name.

• With domain names, symbols and spaces are not allowed, only letters, numbers and dashes are permitted, domain names are not case sensitive either.

Remember, your domain name is not only shown on the Internet. Business stationary and any advertising will have your domain address on it too, another reason to think long and hard about the name you use. First impressions count, you do not get a second chance to make a good first impression, especially when Making Money Online.

Search for domain names on any search engine, then once on domain name sites, type in your proposed name in their search facility to see if it is available to use. Prices will vary, there are many sites offering this service. What is your product or service? How will it relate to your chosen domain name?

You may find the name that you want for your website has been already taken, in which case you will need to rethink your strategy. It would be handy to draw up a shortlist of various names that would be suitable for your site. Think wisely before you actually register your name:

• Is it easy to remember/spell?

• Is it too long?

• Try to avoid using hyphens in the name

• Does the domain name connect with the product(s) you sell?

Domain names are only allowed to include letters, numbers, and dashes, spaces and symbols are not permitted. Also, domain names are not case sensitive. Your domain name can end in .com, .co.uk, .net, .biz, .tv etc. Some are more expensive to purchase than others. Also, a lot of E-Commerce websites tend to purchase the domain name chosen ending with say .com, but they will purchase others ending with .co.uk etc in addition.

Each “additional” domain name will have to be bought separately. Many E-businesses find this action prudent and worth the extra cost to avoid other businesses using their chosen name with a different ending. This could circumvent the possibility of lost sales to your business from your competitors.

There is the prospect that your business could develop into various topics of interest, or alter completely. Therefore, it may be wise not to make your domain name too specific to a particular area of your expertise. That way your chosen name for your site won’t be made “redundant”, entailing extra costs for a new name.

Special Note : When talking about business Domain Name, I am referring to your core Administrative site, where your databases and autoresponders live, in time you will have several Domain Names, each name keyword specific to the area you are promoting but all linking to your Core Business Domain for Statistics.

Having more than one dot option for your domain name need not be a problem, you can have extra registered domain names forwarded to your main web site. Obviously this will only be an option if you are financially able to cope with extra fees.

Ensure that you pick a reputable domain name provider, preferably one that is well known and reliable. When purchasing a considerable number of domains, try to * “park” them with one domain name Company. Domains are a lot simpler to administrate and maintain if they are together in one trustworthy place.

A parked page is a page that will be displayed, informing visitors that this will be the location of your future site. This way, it gives you time to create your web site and protect your chosen domain name from being used by others.

Some web promotion experts recommend putting your main keywords into your domain name to facilitate good search engine rankings. This is not necessarily the case, a good domain name that reflects your business is more important; besides, your sales copy can incorporate your chosen main keywords.

It is vital that you know when your domain name is due to be renewed, some domain name suppliers usually notify you when it is due. However, ultimately, it is your responsibility to make sure it gets renewed.

Quick Note:- The onset of your company should have a Domain Name with your company name, after you have mastered the different revenues, you will start to accumalate many domain names related to products and services that earn you income.

I believe that your company domain name, should be hosted and show a brief introduction of yourself/company, you would then as time progresses upload all your required data bases, autoresponders and other such tools to this domain.

Then when you start creating individual sites for specific products, etc, all your administrative taskes come from your core domain (your company site), which simplifies yours tasks.

WHOIS

When you register your domain name, it will be automatically published in the WHOIS (directory of domain name information). This directory is publicly available, and lists personal information such as your address, telephone number, email address.

An organization called ICAN - the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is responsible for overseeing the domain name registration system.

ICAN requires that all accredited domain name Registrars publish accurate and up to date information. Domain names could be cancelled, if contact information is not accurate.

There is controversy surrounding the WHOIS database, as some feel that protection from fraudulent activities (identity thieves or phishing for example) could be compromised.

Potential Problems With WHOIS

The information held within the database is not always accurate, the reasons for this are because:

• False information is deliberately given upon registration

• Genuine people not wanting their personal details to be made available to the general public

It is possible to have your domain registered privately through a third party. For a nominal fee per year, there are companies that will protect your identity. The company that provides you with this service, will have their contact details published in the WHOIS directory instead of yours.

You will still retain full rights and control over your own domain and you will continue to be the owner of that domain. Many hosting services have the option of private registration available with their hosting plans – for a fee.

Registering your domain privately could add some credibility, as it is thought that if someone is paying for the service of private registration, it is highly unlikely that they are not genuine. This would probably be a good idea to adopt if you work from home.

There is a difference between wanting anonymity and wanting privacy.

Web Hosting

Finding a good hosting service can be daunting, but it is vital that you do your homework on this subject. There are so many companies out there in cyber space offering many different plans.

If you are new to all of this, it makes good commercial sense to find a web hosting company that will offer you a plan that will best suit your business. Get it wrong and you could be committing financial suicide.

The technical jargon can be a nightmare to understand, but it is essential that you understand exactly what is involved in Web hosting and the specific requirements that you will need.

To give a professional look and feel for your business it is vital that you choose a good web hosting service. There are many hosting services that offer free hosting, steer well clear of these. Free hosting web sites are not the ideal solution for a business. It usually means that you have to show banners or ads in key areas of your site, making your site look very unprofessional and garish.

There is no such thing as a free lunch; if you want to portray a professional image then you will need to pay for it.

The disadvantages of free hosting are as follows:

• Limited web page space

• Restricted Bandwidth

• Their adverts, banners, pop-ups etc will be mandatory

• Any visiting traffic may distrust your integrity

• Search Engines could disregard them

• Poor help and support assistance (if at all)

• No guarantees of site availability and permanence

To have a professional looking website you will need a reputable host that will offer you a good hosting plan. There are plenty to choose from and the pricing of hosting plans can vary greatly. You don’t have to spend an absolute fortune to obtain a good plan, but it is not recommended that you settle for a too cheaper plan. Again, as the old saying goes “you get what you pay for”.

With a good host you will receive help and support and any “downtime” will be managed professionally – your website needs to be accessible to prospective customers when they visit. Consider how many web pages you may need and allow for site expansion. It is also very important to remember the bandwidth required for coping with visitors to your website.

Web Server Storage Space Required

Web server storage space is what room your web host allows you to store your HTML files, graphic (JPEG, GIF) and any other files that you use on your website. Usually this is stated in terms of megabytes.

A good way to check a rough estimate of how much space you will need is to check your hard drive. Go to the local directory and find your web site files, then right click on properties and see how much space the files use.
As your web site will probably get bigger eventually, it’s best to allow for this by multiplying the amount of space used by your files by at least three or four. Therefore when you search for a web hosting company, check that the plan you choose will allow for you to have three or four times more space. This will allow for any growth of your web site to take place.

These days, most good hosting companies offer a tier of unlimited webspace.

Make a “web host” comparability list, listing all the features, pricing etc. After you have researched enough, it will be easier to choose a plan that is the most suitable for you. Cheap plans are not necessarily the best; you could end up paying more in charges in the long term. Ensure that you choose a plan that can be upgraded later should you need it.

Web Hosts Policies

Here are a couple of examples within policies that could have a deciding factor in your choice of Web hosts. I am not mentioning names (there are * in place of names) mentioned but are contained in their terms and conditions.

• You will not send bulk email whether opt-in or otherwise from our network. Nor will you promote a site hosted on our network using bulk email
• High resource use policy

Resources are defined as bandwidth, processor utilization or disk space.
**** may implement the following policy to its sole discretion:
When a website is found to be monopolising the resources available, ***** reserves the right to suspend that site immediately. This policy is only implemented in extreme circumstances and is intended to prevent the misuse of our servers. Customers may be offered an option whereby ****** continues hosting the website for an additional fee.

Examples as shown above represent how important it is why you must research thoroughly when choosing web hosts.

Bandwidth Mistakes

Do not under-estimate the amount of bandwidth required for your site. Bandwidth is the quantity of data that will be viewed by the visitors to your site.

If you do not allow for enough bandwidth, you could find that your bill could rocket sky high. Bandwidth (data transfer) is measured by your web host as the total amount of data that has been viewed by your site visitors; this figure is usually shown in gigabytes.

Byte Conversion
1KB = 1024 bytes
1MB = 1,048,576 bytes
1Gig = 1,073,741,824 bytes

Your charges will depend on the amount of bandwidth you use in a month, which will include all outward and inward bound traffic, email and anonymous FTP (file transfer protocol) traffic.

Anonymous FTP traffic means visitors that visit your site will be able to view or copy files with out having to log in to an account, so can remain anonymous. Most sites do not allow anonymous FTP access for security reasons or some may require the visitor’s email address as a courtesy to the site owner.

How much bandwidth will I need?

It can be a little difficult to guess how much bandwidth you will need, one of the factors being what type of site you will host. For instance if you are selling software with a free demonstration download, depending on the amount of visitors requesting this, you are likely to need a larger bandwidth. Let’s say your free download was 1.5 Megs for 10,000 downloads, you would need at least 15GB of bandwidth.

As a rough guess, if an average visitor wants to view a megabyte of data, and you feel that you may have five thousand visitors in one month, then you will use five gigabytes of bandwidth.

Just bear in mind that every time a page, image etc is viewed by your visitor, this will be traffic generated so if you have a 50kb image on your page this will be counted every time it is requested from the server.

There are Web hosting companies that offer “unlimited” transfer, do be aware that as bandwidth is expensive, it is unlikely to be true. Check all of the “small print”, any web host worth their salt will explain the transfer limit.
Some Web hosts state that you must qualify for “unlimited” bandwidth, in other words if you only use up to a certain amount of gigabytes per month. Once you go over their specified allocation, you will no longer qualify. Which could mean extra charges or site removal.

Other Web hosts may offer “unlimited” bandwidth, but not allow you to offer certain file types other than normal HTML and graphics.

The bottom line is- if you go over your bandwidth limit, it could render your site inaccessible or put your charges up significantly.

Website Host’s Terms and Conditions

Yes, we all know how tedious it can be to read terms and conditions, acceptable use policy etc, but if you don’t then it could be detrimental to your business and finances. It is surprising how much important information there is within these policies, stuff that you would not realise was there had you not read them. How many times have you heard other people say “I didn’t know this wasn’t included or that was”! No doubt you have, lots of times.

Unfortunately, not reading the small print is not an excuse that would be accepted by your web host if you have contravened any of their terms and conditions. This could result in penalties or worse still, your web site being suspended. Imagine the impact on your business should that happen.

Reading the web site terms and conditions is paramount prior to you signing up for an account. If you are not sure of some of the terminology used, email or telephone for explanations of any references that you do not understand. If you do not get a response or even a quick enough response, then maybe you had better move on to another.

Check with your web host about using email to communicate with prospective buyers and that you do not Spam. Discuss any other issues that you may have with regards to use such as newsletters etc.
When you have chosen and accepted a plan watch out for changes in terms and conditions, it is your responsibility to be aware of current policies.

Compare uptime (your site being live online) percentages from different web hosts and avail yourself of web host’s downtime schedules for maintenance and repairs