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Domaining Featured Articles Web Development

Domainers Tools – Keyword Research & Insights

These tools are extremely important in helping to find out how valuable a domain name is. Keyword research can give you a rough idea of how often a particular phrase is searched for at the top search engines. The Google keyword tool is one of my favorites, it tells you how strong the advertising competition is for a particular keyword or phrase – plus you can check the popularity of a keyword based on a language or a specific country… very useful for ccTlds.

You shouldn’t register or buy a domain name based on just one particular tool – you need to research a little further. The Google tool for example only provides data based on searches done via Google – it doesn’t take into account other search engines – ie. Yahoo or MSN Live.  Using a number of keyword research tools can help you get a better idea of the overall searches & the market.

The Google Insights tool is very powerful. I’ve probably only uncovered 10% of its uses so far. It can look a bit daunting and complicated to use – but take a look at this guide to help you understand it better : How to Use Google Insights

KeywordSpy is somewhat underrated. If used together with google keyword tool it can help you get a lot of information on how popular and valuable a particular search term might be. I use these tools not only for finding domain names but also for SEO and even for deciding which keywords to use for parking.

These tools can help you find out what keywords are helping to rank a particular site in search engines… what people search for and where they are located. For example the word “Condo” is searched for more in the USA than it is in Europe, if you had a domain name with that keyword (PalmCondos.com for example) you could save time by targeting your sales to the US market (and anywhere else that they use the word) rather than wasting time trying to sell it to someone in a country where they don’t use that word much. Information like this can help you decide not only whether to register a particular keyword ccTld domain, but also give you some idea of keywords to use when parking or developing the site.

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Domaining Featured Articles

Investing in Indian Domains – My Story

There have been some mixed views when it comes to investing in Indian domain names. For some, it has been very lucrative but for other speculators its so far been quite frustrating. Like with the introduction of any new extensions, too many people jumped in head first when .in (India’s top level domain extension) was first released. Those who put some thought into it and had a plan – have already seen good returns. Those who followed the hype without research have been left with a sour taste.

The .in Extension Hasn’t Matured Just Yet!

The .in is a fairly new extension and that is something a lot of people forget. What is now a third-level tld; the .co.in was India’s mainstream extension for some time.

The .in extension was introduced as somewhat a “vanity” domain extension. Speculators were unsure whether it would ever catch-on because of the .co.in already being in use before .in was released. Besides, for many years people in India had always preferred the gTld’s (top level domains – .com / .net / .org) over their own country codes.

Some of the initial doubts were quickly banished – especially when the .in Registry launched a promotion where people were able to register Indian domains for around $3 – $4 each! Millions of .in domain names were registered and toward the end of the promotion we even saw the LLL.in buyout.

Less Doubters, More Investors… But Not Exactly a Good Thing Yet!

The liberalization of registration rules in 2005 led to a drastic increase in .in domain registrations. People soon realized that the .in extension presented a great opportunity for local and international companies wanting to represent their business in India. It wasn’t long before some big name companies started launching their websites on the .in extension – albeit they still had their presence on the .co.in extension too.

Like I said… a LOT of domains were registered. This didn’t mean that these domains were registered for immediate use – ie. they weren’t registered by the companies or “end-users”… these domains were registered mainly by domain speculators – people like you and me. People without an interest in developing websites on the domain names that they had bought. This had some obvious implications. It hurts the extension a little if sites aren’t being developed on them. The less developed sites equals less promotion and in turn means less awareness of the extension – all of which contribute toward number of sales.

Sales throughout the first years were quite rare, most of it was being done amongst domainers for small profits.

The Importance of Planning & Research

Those who invested in the extension with a solid plan – ie. registering only quality names / keywords / popular search terms and with the intention (or at least expectation) to hold the domains for a few years, maybe 3-4 at least – weren’t worried.  In fact I don’t think it bothered them too much that now there was so much negative hype… because they knew this wasn’t going to be a get-rich-quick kind of thing. It hardly ever is! The wise investors were in it for the long run. They knew they had to be patient… they’d done their planning and researcing.

The worry and negative views came mainly from those who invested heavily without a plan, without researching the market, without — and this was the most important fact — without taking into account, that the names they registered for $3-$4 each will cost $14+ to renew in the coming year. I believe this was the downfall for many domainers. Especially when they didn’t realize in time what was ahead.

A bit of Luck…

I have to admit, I was quite lucky. I wasn’t one of those who had a solid plan, nor did I realize that the $3-$4 price was actually a promotion and not going to be around the following year! However, I didn’t start taking notice of the .in domains until late towards the end of the promotion period. By then most of the good names had already been taken – even out of the 3 letter domains, only the poor quality letters had remained. This was good for me, because it stopped me from pouring too much money into the extension at this stage.

Saying that, I still ended up with about 80+ LLL.in domains. Really poor ones at that!

As soon as the promo had ended and the buyout had occurred, it struck me! I had some liabilities on my hands. These little domains needed to be shifted at the right time otherwise I’d be left with a big renewal fee come 2009 – and so it began… my plan.

There’s Money to be Made in Indian Domains… but…

I knew that there was money to be made on .in domain names. Come on! if you think about the size of the Indian population, take into consideration the rate of growth, economic stability and availability of internet and broadband – its a developing country, developing very fast!… sooner or later… these domains will be needed by the upcoming companies. It’s just a matter of time.

I only had a handful on keyword .in domains – names like www.Steroid.in – and LoveStory.in / LoveSongs.in – nothing amazing, but still some decent names. Names which I’d decided I would hold for at least 3-4 years.

But at the same time, I had a strong feeling that the three letter .in buyout would not hold come 2009. Those who didn’t think about it would realize (when it was too late) that they wouldn’t be able to afford the $14 renewal fees on each of the names. I knew this would affect the market in general because there were too many investors who jumped in because of the hype and the low reg fees during promotion.

Analyzing the Markets and other Domainers

I’d come across at least 4-5 people (none from India by the way) who had registered thousands of  three letter Indian (.in) domains. What this told me was that thousands of these domains will likely end up expiring because these people didn’t have the funds to renew them. UNLESS – they were wise enough to sell parts of their portfolio in time to make a profit, enough profits to renew the better quality names.

I kept an eye on these people with large portfolios, I’m sure a lot of the investors had also been doing the same. In my view, they controlled the LLL.in market – maybe without even realizing it. What they did (or didn’t do) would decide for me and for many others on what course of action to take with our own small portfolios. If they didn’t sell their domains at the right time (I’ll get to that later) then it could prove to be costly for them. They’d be faced with renewing thousands of names that weren’t exactly the cream of the crop. And I assumed if the time had passed then they’d most likely end up dropping large quantities of their portfolio.

So my plan was to carefully monitor what other people were doing. At the same time I kept a close eye on the markets to see how much 3L .in’s were going for. Within a few months the base price had jumped to around $10-$12 even for the lowest quality LLL.in domains.

Time to Sell the LLL.in

This was it, I made the decision to sell as many as I could. I knew that once 6-7 months had passed on each domain, the prices would start to drop. I’d assumed the peak pricing period would be around June-July when most of the names from the buyout’s backend were nearing their 6-7 month lifeline. So I sold about 30 domains and had a decent profit – around 150% ROI on most of my 3 letter .in domains.

I kept the better quality ones for a little while longer to see how the market pans out. Around August/September 2008 it started to head downwards as I expected. So I began to sell off some more. If I’d left it any longer then I knew that the less time remaining on registration for each name, the less people would want to pay for them.

During the last few months of 2008, I also started to pick up some premium LLL.in domains and keywords. Like I said before, I have a feeling the better names will do well in a couple of years time.

A little bit More of that Luck

I was lucky enough to make a couple of decent sales via Sedo. Most notably, a 3 Letter .in – a semi-premium name which I’d bought for $30 ended up selling for $900 and a few more sold for $300-$400 each (which I’d picked up for $10 or less). This meant I had enough funds to renew my remaining names and at the same time invest in a few more premium names. By now, the keyword domains started getting some type-in traffic too – and they were making enough from parking to fund their own renewals.

NostraShaymus’ Pridictions come True!

Excuse the pun! 😉

Just as I’d predicted, the holders of large .in domain portfolios failed to sell at the right time and ended up dropping thousands of names – many of which are double premiums. This has left a lot of people in bad situations because they’d also kept their investments and hadn’t planned in advance. Those who renewed their low quality names will most likely regret doing so, especially in the short term; because better names are dropping each day. This will likely continue for a few more weeks.

A double premium which was worth $30-$40 a few months ago is now worth little more than reg-fee at best. Especially with the re-introduction of the Indian domain registration promotion ($4 at name.com). The good thing is that the promotion will help a lot of the dropped LLL.in domains to be registered again…  and no doubt this will in turn bring the prices back up pretty soon.

I Done Alright… luckily…

Although I was lucky with a few sales, I still think the fact that I had researched the market and had a plan helped me to become stronger in this niche. I’ve taken advice from others with more experience (Jagusa / MediaWiz etc. from NamePros.com) and also followed what was going on in the aftermarkets.

I had done enough to position myself well and take the right actions at the right time. I sold at the peak and re-invested when the prices went down. In fact this is probably the best time to invest. The financial situation around the world is at a low, the LLL.in buyout failed after those big drops and people are quite strapped for cash… perfect ingredients to invest if you have the funds (just remember to do some research and go in with a plan).

Investing for a Brighter Future

I’ve recently bought a dozen or more all premium three letter indian domains for around $60-$80 each. Names which I know will sell in a years time for $200 each. Not that I’m planning on selling them so quickly. My plan now is to invest in a few more and hold them for a few years. I don’t think I’ll sell any of my all premium domains unless its to end-users. I’m happy to wait for offers of $1000 + on each name. Going by occasional sales and increasing interest in Indian domains, I don’t think that it’s going to be a long time before my names get to that 1k mark.

You can see a few recent sales on the InForum.in Blog – Click here… again, nothing amazing.. .but it shows names going to end-users which means more sites will spring up. Its a positive sign.

What about YOU? Tell me your story…

I congratulate you for having the patience to read down all the way here…  🙂 That was quite an essay huh?!

So that’s me and my views, what about you and yours? I’d love to hear from other .in investors. How have you found the market? What are your views on investing in Indian domains? Whats your plan? Share it by leaving a comment below.

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Blog Featured Articles

Demonised.com Site Updates

It’s been almost a year since I started developing Demonised.com; my domaining, designing and developments blog and it had sported the same funky and vibrant theme since its launch. I’ll be first to admit that I have been very lazy at writing articles and adding content during this time. But to my defence, I’ve also been very busy with client projects and a major domaining project that’s eaten up about 6 months of my time.

Anyway, I decided this site needed some major changes. Starting with the design and layout. It’s not so much that I didn’t like the original template I’d spent hours customizing. Nor was it that anyone had said they disliked the theme. But the truth is I felt it was a bit dated, I was growing bored of that “web 2.0” look with all those shiny / glossy graphics.

So here it is, right before your eyes. The new theme. I haven’t had much time to customize it yet, its pretty much the stock theme I purchased from Elegant Themes. I just love the simplicity and minimal graphics. I’ve got some ideas for customization, but I’ll do that gradually over the next few weeks.

I’ll also be doing some major updates to my domain portfolio, not just in terms of aesthetics, but also by adding another 500 or so domains that I’d left behind all this time.

The links section and the faq section will also get some new content. However, the most important thing is that I will now be able to add new articles much more often than before. So, come back tomorrow and have a look around, you’ll a few new bits and pieces… and some available domain names lists.

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Featured Articles Promotion & SEO

Get Free Unlimited Backlinks

Check out this fantastic new concept in building backlinks and getting traffic to your sites. Its absolutely free and is available only via invites (which I’m giving away here). The site is similar to Squidoo but certainly not the same, it has some very powerful features that will make this a HUGE success. Its set to come out of beta stage within days, the key is to get in early and you’ll benefit a whole lot more!

What are you on about?

I’m talking about a new site called Qassia. It was launched in January 2008 and has been in beta stage since then. The site has over 20,000 users already and is currently in closed beta stage (meaning they are not allowing new sign-ups unless you get an invite).

How is Qassia going to help me?

Promoting a site can be very difficult and time consuming. Site owners are forced to spend hours upon hours doing mundane and unproductive tasks such as exchanging links. Many give up, and splurge on advertising – which is why Google Adwords earns $1 billion per quarter.

Qassia is a tool that allows users to get unlimited backlinks to their sites… but not only that, the more you participate the more promotion your sites get. You’re probably thinking there are tons of other sites like this (social bookmarking / squidoo etc)… and you’re absolutely right – except this site has some powerful features that will make it very popular (in my honest opinion).

What can I do at Qassia?

You can add your websites, and get unlimited quality backlinks. There is no need to pay, or to link back to Qassia. Websites are processed instantly and ranked by the amount of credits you have amassed. To earn credits, you can add “intel” (your knowledge, views etc.)

You can also earn money – real money! Revenue share. But like non-other!!!! You get 100% revenue share… well actually, you’re not even sharing!!!

Did you say 100% Revenue Share?

Yep!. You got it. Unlike other similar sites (Squidoo or Knol for example give like 50% revenue share) – at Qassia you get to keep ALL the revenue that your articles / content generates. You get to keep 100%. So not only do you get quality backlinks but you also earn from within Qassia!

Think about it… you submit your articles / content / views etc… in return you get traffic to your sites (which means more sales or more people click on ads from within your site – either way more revenue)… but on top of all this you also have the chance to earn money (100%) from the actual article/content you submitted at Qassia.  Great huh!

How will Qassia generate traffic?

At Qassia, you will get credit for adding your “intel” (intelligence, knowledge, feedback, views etc etc). The more credit you get, the better your sites will rank. This provides incentive for site owners to contribute to Qassia. Thus harnessing the minds of millions, Qassia will become the largest repository of intelligence on the web.

OK OK… Give me the Invite already!!!

As I’ve mentioned above, you can no longer register on Qassia unless you get an invite – that’s exactly what I’m giving you here. Just click on the link below and you’ll see the “sign-up” button on the page that loads. Click on that, fill in a simple form – and away you go!

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HERES YOUR INVITE

CLICK HERE TO SIGN-UP

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Enjoy!!

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Domaining Featured Articles Web Development

Make a Site in 30minutes + Free Hosting

Many of you are put off from building websites because you don’t want to commit to paying web hosting fees without a guarantee that your site will generate enough money to pay for the hosting. But worry not… I’ve found a great solution… free web hosting – with no adverts or banners from the hosting company. Perfect!

Parking doesn’t pay enough?

I see a lot of people on domain forums looking for ways to monetize their domain names – parking them is one option but unless you have keyword rich domains you’re probably not going to make more than $0.15 per click. Besides getting traffic in the first place to generate those clicks is hard enough considering you can’t even promote your domains once its parked (against most parking companies terms and conditions).

The other option is to develop your domain names into websites…

Make a quick simple website instead

When I say develop your domain into a site – don’t worry, I don’t mean a full blown website… you can build a quick mini-site even a one page website! It doesn’t have to look amazing, just some decent content and you’ll already be better off than parking.

Parking vs Building a Quick Site

Parking a domain name means you can no longer promote it or advertise it anywhere! (except parking with WhyPark.com) Its against most parking companies terms and conditions to promote a domain name in anyway once it has been parked. So you’re relying on type-in traffic alone.

Now, that’s fine if you’ve got a keyword rich domain like “CheapHolidays.com” because its a search term… people search it and could end up on that domain. But what if you’ve got a domain name like “UltraSpecs.com” – a great brandable domain but no ones going to search for “ultra specs”. So then you’re buggered if you park something like that. You’ll get little to no traffic and probably not a single click.

But if you turn that into a one page website… fill it with loads of content about specs (vision/glasses etc) add some google adsense and/or some affiliate links – submit it to a few search engines and directories… and bam… you’ve traffic and will more likely get some revenue – plus if you decide to sell the domain you can get more because it will have traffic.

Put off by hosting fees? Don’t be… get it FREE!

This is one of the major stumbling blocks for people when it comes to site building. A lot of people are put off by the thought of having to pay like $10 a month for hosting without knowing if the site will generate enough money to even pay for the hosting!

Free Web Hosting with Website Builder

But don’t worry… you don’t need to pay to get hosting! Theres loads of free hosting providers out there – the best one by far is 000webhost – they provide 250MB storage space and 100,000MB bandwidth – AND theres no branding or annoying adverts like most other free providers.

Click the banner below to get yourself a free account…

Another great thing is… it comes with a WEBSITE BUILDER – so its easy to build a quick site.

Build a site in Under 30 minutes

It will take you about 30 Minutes… probably not even half that once you’ve done one or two first and gotten used the process. Don’t be scared… I know it can seem daunting even thinking about building a site – but it really is quite simple.

Free Web Hosting with Website Builder

Here’s the process, maybe if you see this you’ll have a little less fear…

Step 1. Prepare all your tools, download a demo copy of Dreamweaver or a free wysiwyg editor if you don’t have something simiar already. No need to download any website editors, because the free hosting company above gives you all the tools you need to make your site.

Step 2. Find some content for your domain, if the domain name is about “travel” then do a search in google, use some info from WikiPedia, find some free pictures on somewhere like www.sxc.hu

Step 3. Copy all the content you find into one document (maybe into word or dreamweaver etc. – you’re going to do this so you have everything in one place. Use this content to write your own content. Don’t copy it, write it in your own words where you can and if you do copy something, make sure you include a list of sources at the end of the content. – This step will probably take you the most time, but the more unique the content you produce the more chance of getting better traffic from search engines.

Step 4. Add some google adsense codes into the page, maybe a few affiliate links

Step 5. And thats it really, just save everything in the site builder and visit your url… there you have it… a quick one page website… go and promote it.. do some link exchanges with friends or on forums… submit it to some free web directories and you’ll see traffic soon enough.

Simple or what!

Well, I’ve laid out the basic steps – just so you see how simple it is… if its your first time, then it might take a little more than 30 minutes, but after the first and maybe 2nd site you build… you’ll be able to do it in under 30 minutes with no problems at all.

I know this is a really simple outline… I know you want more… so next time I’ll write about where to get free content, list free article directories, how to link exchanges and site submissions etc… but for now, just get used to your new FREE hosting account and make a site just to get used to all the “site builder” features at the free host.

Let me know what you think!

Feel free to ask questions… maybe make some of your own suggestions… use the comment box below.

Free Web Hosting with Website Builder
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Blog Featured Articles

Welcome to Demonised.com

The wait is finally over! Well for me anyway. Demonised.com is now live and accessible to public. Please take a moment to have a good browse around the site and make sure you add it to your bookmarks for future reference. Keep in mind the site was only launched about 12 hours ago, design wise its pretty much complete, but in terms of content theres a lot to be added.

For more information about what this site is about please visit the ‘about section.

Don’t forget – add the site to your favourites and feel free to register, it only takes a few seconds and you’ll be able to stay upto date with site updates, available domains lists and special offers.

Tell me what you think of the site, leave a comment below.

Thanks for visiting and hope to you’ll be back here more often.

– Shay (site owner).

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Domaining Featured Articles

Submit your dot Asia site for FREE

I’ve almost finished with MySites.asia – my first .asia website. Its a free website directory for developed Asia based websites only. You can submit your developed Asian website, no registration required… just visit the site and click on “submit a site” at the top.

Add your developed .asia sites to the directory and you’ll not only be helping the .asia extension gain popularity, but you’ll also be helping your own site get better search engine rankings and traffic.

Also, if you’re interested in exchanging links, then get in touch with using the “contact” form either through demonised.com or via mysites.asia directly…

Let me know what you think.