Why Do You Need a Domain Name?

An Internet Domain Name is your Unique Identifier on the InterWeb!

Your web name is your own "unique identifier" on the internet, which can define your website and email address. No two entities ever hold the same domain name at the same time.

Your domain name is therefore unique to you. If you have a business website its possible your domain name is also your online brand. Additionally your domain name gives your web site, and e-mail addresses that professional look, being unique to your business.

Weycrest helps you to Buy a Domain Name and use it with our professional quality Web Hosting and Email Packages

Register a Cool Domain Name for your Email

Instead of a boring e-mail address such as ron382@ronhay38218.acheapisp.co.uk, why not have ron@yourfirm.com? There is nothing worse than using a Hotmail account for business, as it suggests a lack of committment. A proper e-mail address instantly conveys professionalism.

Additionally, without your own domain name, your are promoting the business of the ISP or web hosting facility providing you with the address, rather than your own. Your own domain also gives you a provider independent address. When you change ISP's you simply take your own domain with you, without having to inform everyone of your new address.

Why do I need to register a Domain Name now?

Popular "generic" domain names continue to diminish as more and more people realise they can't ignore the internet any longer. In the time it takes you to read this article, over 100 more domain names will have been registered. Could one of those domains be your ideal personal or business name?

With the continuing growth and maturity of the internet, over 140,000 new UK Domain Names are registered each month (according to Nominet statistics. The growth of "Pay Per Click" (PPC) has also increasing domain useage considerably, especially keyword rich, and generic domains.

Domain Name Industry "Healthy"

The domain name industry is in a pretty healthy state at the moment, it was recently reported with over 90,000 domains being registered every day. Experts believe the value of the domain name market (currently around $2 Billion) will double by 2010. It is thought that pay-per-click advertising and the increased use of the Internet in marketing campaigns is responsible for the significant growth.

Taking all the domain extensions (or suffixes) into account, over 120 Million domains have been registered to date.

Reserving your Domain Name

Even if you have not use for a domain name at present but see a name which you like and may be able to use in the future you should reserve your chosen name by registering it straight away. It doesn't have to be used straight away and once a web name is registered to you it cannot be taken away or used by anyone else without without your permission.

Parking Your Domain Name

If you have no immediate use for your domain you can "park" your domain, or forward your domain to an already established website. Increasingly since the onset of Search Engine Marketing in the form of Google Adwords, and Yahoo Search Engine Marketing, there has been a massive growth in the acquisition of domains purely with the intention of parking them for money. This practice has become known as "Domaining."

Domain Parking Companies

While Weycrest domain names, provide parking and forwarding facilities, there has been a substantial growth of specialist domain parking companies such as Namedrive enabling you to monetize your "parked" domain. How much you will earn will depend on how good your domain is in attracting natural "type in traffic." The downside of parking is that, while a domain is parked it is unlikely to gain any search engine presence.

Avoid Registering Trade Marks

You should avoid at all costs registering the trade marks of rivals of other business, and there is always the possibily that you could make a profit if you choose a good name that somebody might want in the future. Not that long ago name business.com sold for $7.5 million dollars, however if you acquire a domain name purely for the purpose of "cybersquatting" you could loose your name under a "Domain Name Dispute."

How easy is it to make money out of domain names?

Its becoming harder to make money out of just a domain itself, because a lot of the good ones have gone, in the popular extensions, however an increasing number of professional domainers, are starting to add value to domains with a view to selling them on later.

How do I add value to a new Domain Name?

A new domain name will not have much or any natural traffic when you first register it.

The exception to this is the new domain which attracts natural "type in" traffic. The reason for this is because, research found that 64% of those surveyed at some point bypass search engines entirely and type keywords as domain names directly into their internet browser. 24% said they would do this once a day. However finding these domains with "natural" traffic requires some skill (or luck).

However we have to assume your new domain, will have little or any traffic at all. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly it won't be listed in Google or any of the major search engines, and secondly no one will have back linked to it. So the first thing to do, is to start getting traffic to a domain. A soon as your domain is achieving some traffic, in the form of regular visitors, its starting to acquire value, over and above its registration fee and hosting costs.

How do I start to drive traffic to a domain?

Well whole books have been written about this, however the simplest method is to start a small website with content, and make a start by getting this listed in Google. The easist way for a beginner to do this is to create a blog. Then you should seek out as many backlinks for your new blog or website as possible. Traditionally this was done by acquiring directory links (Yahoo Directory, DMOZ and hundreds of others..) however increasingly these days, social bookmarking sites can be used for this, as can article submission sites, and finally acquiring paid for backlinks from websites with a Google Page Rank of PR4 and above.