Web Hosting Box

Most webmasters and Internet users know that a domain name is simply the primary web address of a website. However, most people don’t bother to spend a couple of minutes to consider how domain names actually work. If you are an aspiring webmaster, developer, or are simply planning on managing your own network of e-commerce websites, then it is recommended that you have robust understanding of the domain name system (DNS), in order to have a full grasp on your industry and how it works.

Understanding the Levels of a Domain Name

A domain name is comprised of three different levels, each one serving to represent a different aspect of the domain. The first level, commonly known as the domain extension, is the TLD (top level domain). The TLD is basically the part of the domain name that occurs directly after the primary domain name. For example, in the domain name “www.examplewebsite.com”, the TLD would be .com. Popular TLD’s include .com,.org,.net,.info,.biz and .tv. However, most people don’t realize that there are nearly 200 different types of TLD’s available for registration, with the majority of these TLD’s being ccTLD’s (country code top level domains). An example of a country code top level domain would be .com.au (intended to be used for commercial Australian domains). A complete listing of every TLD currently offered for registration can be researched on the website of the Internet assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

Websites and IP Addresses

In basic terms, a domain name is simply a linguistic representation of an IP address. Every device that connects to the Internet is assigned an IP address, whether it be a cell phone, laptop, or a web server (which hosts your website). An IP address is simply a number that is separated by dots, which usually appears similar to the following –165.124.28.88. Every website also has its own IP address. It is even possible to access a website by typing in its IP address in the address bar of your web browser. However, it is much more difficult to remember a string of segmented numbers than it is to remember a simple name. Thus, the domain name system was invented, and is explained briefly below.

The Domain Name System and How Domain Names Are Registered

When you register a domain name, you are actually leasing it for a limited period of time (most registration lengths range from 1 to 10 years, depending on the registrar). A domain registrar is a company that is accredited by the appropriate governing authorities to distribute and register domain names within the domain name system. Many web hosting providers are also domain name registrars, and will even provide free domain registration services and/or a domain name for life when you purchase one of their hosting plans. The domain name system is actually the largest digital database on the planet, containing the registration and administrative details of hundreds of millions of domains at any given time.

Many people that attempt to build a monthly residual income using reseller web hosting will ultimately fail after trying to generate traffic without much success. However, the smart resellers that learn to offer a variety of web-based services in conjunction with their hosting reseller services usually are the ones who have the most success. One way to boost your monthly income with reseller hosting is to offer domain names in combination with web hosting services. In fact, some hosting resellers include free domain name registration for a year (or in some cases for life) with all of their hosting plans for any new customers. The following paragraphs discuss the advantages of reselling domain names, as well as how much money you can expect to make doing so.

Deciding Whether Domain Reselling Is Suitable for You

If you already own a business that provides web-based products or services, then you may stand to make a great amount of profit through reseller domain hosting. This is especially true if you provide your clients with search engine optimization and marketing services such as link building, website creation, advertising promotions, and branding. If you are already a hosting reseller and you may be able to tap into your current client based in order to immediately begin earning a residual income basis. By offering domain registration with various services you can increase the likelihood of converting prospective clients into paying customers. Even if you do not yet own a business that offers web-based products or services you can capitalize on the ever-expanding hosting industry by starting today.

How to Make Profit of Reselling Domains

As a domain registration reseller you should be focused on generating a small profit per customer on a yearly basis. By doing this you can ensure that thousands of customers are bringing you a few dollars each year, ultimately adding up to several thousand or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you attempt to make a larger profit margin on each customer then there is a higher chance that they will not want to use your services, as they may be able to find more comparative prices online. Thus, you should sacrifice making a large profit margin per customer in order to offer a lower price instead. Aside from keeping the price and profit margins low, you should also consider offering additional services or trial services in order to make your domain registration products more appealing.

How Much Money Can Be Made with Domain Reselling

If you fully utilize all of the tools and resources given to you by your reseller hosting provider it is possible to make thousands of dollars per month (as long as you can solicit several thousand clients). On average, you should be able to make a profit of at least one dollar or more per client, per year. Thus, in order to make $20,000 a year with domain reselling, you would need to maintain a profit margin of one dollar on average while soliciting 20,000 new clients.

The keys to being successful with an online business are diversification, diligence, and persistence. Unfortunately, a single revenue stream is often not enough to create a full-time income, especially if you are depending only one website. Most successful online entrepreneurs continually expand their network of websites by building new sites and entering new niches on a constant basis. Rather than giving up and becoming disheartened when one endeavor does not go your way, you should grab motivation and experience from such occurrences and begin working on a new endeavor. In order to continuously expand your online reach you need to build new websites and have access to your own network of sites.

Diversifying Your Business through Several Websites

In the online world, each website that you own represents a new business opportunity – the ability to penetrate a new niche and begin creating a new revenue stream. With each revenue stream you can significantly increase your monthly and yearly income gradually. Unfortunately, if you operate your entire online business through a single website, you’ll be unable to adequately target multiple markets and optimize your site for keywords that are commonly searched for in search engines. As you continuously explore new niches and business opportunities online, you’ll undoubtedly be registering multiple domains. In fact, the average webmaster registers about 10 domains per year.

Recognizing the Importance of Multiple Domain Hosting

Although the majority of hosting providers offer plans that allow for the hosting of an unlimited amount of domains, it is still important to ensure that your hosting plan includes multiple domain capabilities. It is, however, important to note that although a plan may allow you to host an unlimited amount domains, this does not mean that you have access to an adequate amount of server resources to host more than several hundred domains simultaneously. Each website that you associate with your web hosting account consumes server resources, and therefore places an additional burden on your hosting Web server.

Security and Business Presence

By owning a network of sites you can efficiently build links to your main sites in each niche, and also have smaller websites within the same niche that are designed to funnel traffic to your heavily monetized sites. This can improve conversion rates by allowing you to introduce presell articles and concepts to your site visitors and it can also diversifying your search engine optimization efforts. You will also be able to create more leverage within each industry/niche because you’ll have a significant online presence, which ultimately results in thousands of unique visitors within your control on a daily basis. When new products or services are released in each industry you can take advantage of their popularity instantly using one of your many sites within your network.

If you are planning on selling products or services or accepting payments on your website then you need an SSL certificate. Therefore, it is important to make sure that your web hosting plan includes capability to host a wildcard SSL certificate (at SSL certificate can be used on my website), or you’ll have to purchase multiple web hosting plans in order to gain access to multiple SSL certificates.

The goal of nearly every webmaster is to continuously expand a network of websites that generate residual income. However, this goal cannot be accomplished without registering and acquiring a large collection of domain names, which will be used as the web addresses of the sites. Aside from registering completely unique domain names, many domain speculators choose to register alternative versions of their primary domain name for various reasons. Fortunately, most domain name registrars will provide a discount when several versions of the same primary domain name are purchased. In this, the more domain names you have access to, the more websites you can establish, and ultimately the more web traffic you can capture at one point in time. The following information discusses several techniques used by professional domain speculators when registering multiple domain names.

Capitalizing on Keywords

Keywords are basically the linguistic gateway that connects web traffic to your website. Any phrase that is commonly input into a search engine is considered to be a keyword, and is therefore capable of generating residual traffic if a website can successfully rank highly for a popular keyword. Thus, the first step in registering multiple domain names should be finding available domain names that contain popular keywords or key phrases within your desired niche. Not only will these phrases make it easier to rank highly for the keywords themselves within the search engines, it will also make it more likely that random web surfers will type in the name of your website simply by guessing the keyword. This especially true if you can register popular keywords with popular TLDs such as. com,.org, or.net.

Capturing Misspelled Traffic

It is also a good idea to purchase possible misspellings of your primary domain name, in order to capture type-in traffic that may misspell the name of your website while attempting to return to it. For example, if you own the domain name “exampledomainname.com”, then you may want to consider purchasing the misspelling of that domain – “exmapledomainname.com”. This not only maximizes the possibility of receiving random web traffic, it also keeps competitors from registering such misspellings and effectively taking some of your rightfully earned traffic. Aside from basic misspellings, you may wish to purchase plural or singular versions of the primary domain name. For example, the registrant of the aforementioned domain name may want to consider also registering “exampledomainnames.com”, as people commonly confuse plural and singular forms when remembering website addresses.

Varying Syntax and Preventative Measures

When purchasing alternate versions of the primary domain name, it is best to consider all possible formatting, with and without hyphens, using numbers, and even registering what are known as negative versions of your primary domain name. For example, if your domain name is “yourcompanybrand.com,” you could consider registering domain names such as “the-truth-about-your-company-brand.com” or “your-company-brand-sucks.com.” By doing this you can effectively prevent competitors from purchasing such domain names and negatively effecting your reputation in the future. Your goal as a domain speculator and registrant is to purchase all possible versions of your primary domain, especially if that domain is intended to be used as a business website.

The domain name of your website is not only important to the opinions of your site visitors, it also has a significant impact on the success of your Internet endeavors in relation to various factors, including search engine optimizing, monetizing, and reselling your site. Search engines utilize a plethora of algorithms and techniques to detect the overall value and authority of a website and its pages, in order to provide the most valuable content to visitors based on their input. Thus, some of the more important aspects of search engine optimization and domain selection include keyword optimization, quality content, efficient search engine optimized web design, and off-site optimization (which includes building backlinks). The following information discusses three reasons why it is imperative to select the right domain name for your website.

Initial Search Engine Optimization Efforts

Keyword optimization is perhaps the most important aspect of selecting and registering a domain name. Domain names that are contain exact matches for specific popular keywords that are commonly searched for within search engines are much more likely to receive residual web traffic with minimal effort from the webmaster a website owner. In other words, if you register a domain name that contains a keyword or phrase that is commonly searched for, then you have a much higher chance of receiving an immediate boost of traffic with minimal initial effort. On the other hand, domain names that do not contain keywords are unlikely to receive traffic from search engines without a significant amount of tweaking, customization, and link building efforts.

Reselling Sites for Profit

If you ever decide to resell your website for profit in the future, having the right domain name will allow you to demand (and receive) the highest asking price. In fact, the majority of website buyers will only consider purchasing a domain if the domain name meets a certain set of criteria (which usually includes containing a popular keyword or phrase). It is well-known that websites with shorter domain names which contain popular keywords statistically sell for higher prices than unattractive domain names, regardless of the search engine optimization attributes and content contained on the website. If you want to maximize your chances of reselling your website for profit in the future, and demand the highest asking price, then you’ll want to select an ideal domain name.

Recognition and Branding

Your domain name is essentially the brand of your website, and is ultimately the phrase that your site visitors will remember when attempting to return to your site. If you want to effectively brand your website and create a significant amount of recognition for your products and/or services, then you’ll want to choose a domain name is memorable, contains commonly used phrases or keywords, and has a popular TLD (domain extension) such as .com,.org, or .net. Most people associate web addresses with these three TLDs, and are therefore more likely to return to a website if such a domain extension is used.