Archive for July, 2009

When it comes to domain names…how should you go about getting your domain name?

1. Don’t pay tons of money! By that I mean anything over $10 per domain name! Here comes my shameless plug LOL MaryDesigns.net sells domain names for only $10/year! Some places we won’t name that are very popular on the web sell domain names for $35/year and up! We make it affordable to …

2. Buy more than one if you can afford it! It’s a good idea to buy common misspellings of your domain name or other versions of it and then forward these to the real domain name. For example: MaryDesigns is the name of my company BUT many people commonly mistake it for MaryDesign. I don’t loose these people when they leave off the “s” because I also own the version without the “s” and have it forwarded to the real site Also, if there are other versions of your domain name available…purchasing them is a small insurance policy that nobody else can.

3. When choosing your domain name…try to keep the name as short as possible. It should be as short as possible while still allowing it to be something people will actually remember. Make it something relative to YOU.

4. While we are talking about the “naming” process, abandon any ideas of getting rich buying a domain name that has something to do with somebody else’s identity. The time of “Oh I’ll by this domain name and when it’s discovered that I’ve got it they will pay big bucks for it” is pretty much over. Not only wasn’t or isn’t this a very nice thing to do…it almost never works. If you decide to do it you should probably make sure you have enough saved up for a lawsuit. They don’t pull out the checkbook and pay up anymore guys! They either blow you off and get another domain name OR SUE YOU! This same thing applies to buying domains with well known companies in them because you hope your website sales will do well. Do it at your own risk. Example: motorolaphones.com <----Motorola actually owns this but it's an example of something I wouldn't suggest doing. Just saying!

5. My last piece of helpful (I hope) advise is … If you search and find that a domain name is available and you really want it…BUY IT THEN. Buy it EVEN IF you aren’t going to build on it in the immediate future. Don’t go searching for domain names to see if they are available and go away to think about it. If you assume it’s still going to be there waiting on you when you get back you are probably going to be wrong. Buy it before somebody else does. I’ve seen clients do this over and over. They go away to think about it and when they get back…it’s gone.

Man I thought I was going crazy! Looking up and down that tool panel and thinking I must surely be too tired or something because I can’t find the slice tool. Yes, I DID just jump right into using it without reviewing what was new LOL. It’s awful I know but dang! I’ve got work to do! LOL

As soon as I can get a spare second I’ll figure out everything that is new … in the mean time….if you are like me and don’t read instructions or whatever and you’re missing the slice tool…here is where they moved it!

OK, back to work!