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Here it is almost 2009 – is there still a market for buying and selling domain names? The answer is yes! The glory days maybe over when everybody was doing it and making millions overnight, but there still plenty of opportunity for you now. Think of all the people coming on line. Think of all the continual growth in the internet marketing year after year. Think of the all the extensions there are. Nevermind the .coms, what about .name? or .mobi? Plenty of chances there to make some money!

You have to keep your ear to the ground. New movies, new businesses, or a business that has a .com but not a new one, for example for mobile phones. Check out the whois database. Any domains coming up for expiry? Any new product that just came out that seems to be popular? Does it have a website? If you are doing your homework, it will have one: yours!

Tip – .mobi for mobile phones is going to be the next gold mine! Companies more and more are going to the hand helds, this is your chance. All the big domains are wide open all over again with this new extension!

With services like GoDaddy or HostGator, buying and selling domain names is easier than ever. At GoDaddy, you can buy domains for pennies and turn around and sell them dollars.

So don’t think there aren’t chances to make some money on the side – or even a full time income – with domain names, there are new chances everyday!

Can I Really Make Money With a Reseller Web Hosting Account?

It’s been touted as one of the easiest ways for the somewhat-web-savvy individual to make money on the Internet – reseller web hosting. Supposedly, all you have to do is purchase a reseller hosting account, find clients, and watch the money roll in, month after month after month. We all know what the hype says in this situation – reselling web hosting accounts is a no-brainer business opportunity. However, can the reality of the opportunity live up to the expectations that the hype produces?

Before you dive into the great money-maker of reseller web hosting, there are a couple things that you need to know. First off – it isn’t quite as hassle-free as it’s hyped up to be. See, even if you do manage to obtain hundreds of paying clients for your branded web hosting services, you still need to support your clients. At the very least, this means that you either have to hire people to handle your support requests, or you need to dedicate your own time to the cause. Now, as a reseller, you will not likely have root access to the server, so in a lot of cases, you have to be the middleman between your clients and your web hosting company when support requests surface.

The second area is probably where you’re going to run into the biggest obstacles — getting clients. See, when bandwidth and disk space was just starting to come down in price several years back, that may have been a good time to jump on the reseller web hosting bandwagon. However, over the years, literally tens of thousands of people, who have the exact same ideas that you do, jumped on that wagon, and unfortunately, the wheels fell off from it.

Now, this isn’t meant to completely discourage you from pursuing the ‘make money via reseller hosting’ opportunity, but if you hope to make it work for you – you have to do something that other mainstream business owner hopefuls haven’t already tried. You have to differentiate your offers!

There are ways to make money with a reseller hosting account, but the newcomers who are succeeding in this market are not relying on reselling web hosting services alone – they are tacking on supplemental services. For instance, some are offering website design services, and then subsequently offering website hosting packages to their clients. Or they cater to a specific segment or niche market. Others are taking needed services, such as shopping cart systems, affiliate management systems, and credit card processing and combining them with website hosting services to offer to the public. Unfortunately, the viability of running a profitable, no-effort reseller hosting business out of your bedroom or spare room just isn’t likely anymore.

So, while there are ways, even today, that you can make money reselling web hosting, you’re going to be hard-pressed to be able to make money through offering hosting services as a stand-alone service.

Trent E. Smith is a freelance writer covering mostly topics in Internet and Technology.

Buy Domain Names and Web Hosting at Low Rates From a Reliable Provider

Some people buy domain names and web hosting separately and others buy them together. Some companies, such as GoDaddy offer a variety of packages that include both, as well as freebies. A domain name is simply a web address that you choose. This will be your URL that people type into their web browsers in order to get to your site. A web host is a place that keeps your website so that it can be presented to internet users.

First things first, when you buy a domain name, it should be something that is simple and obvious. It needs to be something that others can remember. Your best bet is to choose a.com or.net, although they can cost more than other extensions. Since they are the most common, they are easier for people to remember. GoDaddy offers low rates for all types of extensions, and you can obtain lots of freebies with each domain registration.

Before you buy domain names and web hosting both, determine whether it would be cheaper to buy them separately. For convenience, you can check with your internet service provider to see if it offers any type of hosting plan. The downside of this is that if your ISP experiences a lot of downtime, your host might as well.

Obviously, reliability is an extremely important factor in regards to hosting plans. Unless you’re running a fairly large business, a shared hosting plan is the ideal choice. This means that your site will be one of many that is hosted by the company. You will have to share things like bandwidth and space with other webmasters. Unless you’re expecting a huge amount of traffic, this shouldn’t matter.

As you buy domain names and web hosting, make sure you get 24/7 FTP access. That way, you can work on your site and make new updates whenever you want. Some providers, such as GoDaddy, offer site building tools. You can register, create, and maintain your website easily. If you prefer making your website with software like Dreamweaver or Microsoft Frontpage, you’ll still need hosting and FTP access in order to upload everything to the web.

How much does domain name registration and web hosting cost? It depends on the type of plan you want and for how many months you want to register. The cheapest plan with GoDaddy is an Economy Plan which includes 10 GB of space and 100 GB of transfer. The prices range from $5.99 a month for three months to $3.79 a month for 3 months.

Buy domain names and web hosting from GoDaddy and receive huge discounts! You can also find deals on bulk orders, renewals, transfers, and expired domains. As for the hosting, GoDaddy provides excellent support, and has a guaranteed 99.9% uptime.

Why Business Web Hosting?

When you have an online business your website is your first impression, its how you greet your current as well as prospective customers. Every little glitch or server error is a statement of who you are as a company. It may not be fair and many of the problems that you may have with a host may not be your fault, but your customers dont know this, and they dont care either. If you want to be taken seriously you need to consider business hosting, which will give you a high quality product and professional image so you are sure you are always giving your customers the best impression possible.

Free Services?

When you look into web hosting for your business you may get caught up in the idea that you can get your site hosted for free, but you must remember an important saying when it comes to reliable hosting, You get what you pay for. This statement could not be more true when it comes to choosing a hosting provider and while the free business hosting services arent a bad idea for your personal website it is generally not what you should choose for your business website. You need to make sure that your website operates as it should and is online during all times of the day and night, without fail. Every minute is a potential first impression and you simply cannot chance your business with a free service that doesnt come through with you.

Reliable Hosting is What it is all About

Reliable hosting is what you are looking for when you need a host for your business website. In addition to reliability you need security. When you run a business online your customers want to know that their information as well as their transactions are kept private and when you deal with a free hosting service you are probably not offering your customers the reliability or the security that they are looking for. You will be a much more appealing prospect for your current as well as potential customers when you are able to offer them a website that is always available as well as secure.

Too many people overlook the importance of these things and it affects their business in the short term as well as in the long term. Too many people are wondering why they arent doing as well as they could be, and it all comes down to choosing the right business hosting. It doesnt seem like it could be this simple, but it is! Dont simply choose a business hosting service because it is affordable, choose one that will allow you to provide your customers with everything that they need and want from a business.

Often when shopping online or at your local mall you will see ‘Member of the Better Business Bureau, or BBB’ and right away you feel good about shopping at the site or store. But what is the Better Business Bureau and why does it is inspire confidence, especially when shopping for a web hosting company?

The Better Business Bureau has been tracking complaints and keeping tabs on both profit and non-profit web hosting companies for more than 15 years now. Each year millions of consumers rely on the Better Business Bureau rating reports to tell them whether or not a web host is trustworthy or not.

The Better Business Bureau is unlike the local Chamber of Commerce in the fact that it does not promote any web host over another. The BBB gathers information on hosting companies both private and non-private then publishes its findings in their reliability reports. The whole idea is to keep the consumer informed and let them read through all the available information to better formulate which web hosting company is one they want to deal with.

One of the main functions of the Better Business Bureau is to try to help resolve complaints from customers against businesses. If a customer is unsatisfied with the company that they have dealt with they can file a claim with the Bureau and they will then contact the business on the customer’s behalf and try to help resolve the matter. Many people think that the Better Business Bureau only helps with companies that are members of the local BBB or accredited by the BBB, but the fact is that they help with complaints from both accredited and non accredited businesses. According to the Bureau, they are able to successfully resolve about 70 percent of all the complaints that are filed.

How does a web host become an accredited member and should it lend to your confidence?

To become an accredited member of the BBB, a web hosting business must have been in operations for at least one year. They must then fill out an application and pay member dues. Part of the application process is proving to the Bureau that the web host can adhere to the standards that the BBB requires to become a member which could include proving that the business is fully licensed an provides the level of service that they advertise.

At any time a web host can lose its accreditation for any number of reasons. The main reason for losing accreditation is too many complaints from customers. So when you see that a web host is accredited by the Better Business Bureau it should indeed lend a vote of confidence to your decision to use that particular company. That is not to say that non members are all shady, but the stamp of approval certainly helps. The easiest way to know you are dealing with an affordable web hosting company that you can trust is to check out the Better Business Bureau’s website which is BBB.org.

See the BBB ratings of web hosting companies to find the best web host for your needs.

Kingsrealm Consulting Group has announced the release of their annual best-of-the-best web hosting providers – a business guide for small and mid-size companies. This free report outlines the top choices for a wide range of categories including low cost, high powered, and customer support.

Says Kingsrealm CEO We have found over the years that choosing a hosting provider can be a minefield of uncertainty for most companies. Even the best made plans for web hosting can go bad and leave a company scrambling for a quick solution to a hosting nightmare. This annual report serves as a guide to help companies who need to find a hosting provider make that decision a good one.

The guide is broken down into useful categories tailored to every business. Whether your web hosting needs are traditional or extraordinary there is a selection that will provide you the maximum power and flexibility for your needs at far lower cost than you might have imagined.

Having vetted and time tested these companies on over 500 projects we have kept the best and scrapped the rest so you dont need to deal with the junk. We have created a truly useful resource to keep your business safe and productive.

The report The best Hosting Providers A Business Guide is available from the company as a free .pdf download.

Download the report: www.kingsrealm.comBest-Hosting-Solutionsindex.htmlThe Best Hosting Providers – A Business Report

About Kingsrealm
Kingsrealm Consulting Group is a full service interactive agency, offering a broad spectrum of Online PR, Social Media, Digital Marketing and Systems Engineering services custom tailored to grow your business and boost your bottom line.

Choosing the best website hosting provider can be a challenge. The website-hosting-advisor has come across thousands of companies that offer limitless products and services for website design hosting. A couple of basic steps to follow when searching for the best web host are: 1) Free or Paid Hosting and 2) Compare Host Plans.

Pay or Not to Pay?

Website-hosting-advisor has researched a large percentage of web sites that are free and are associated with the large portals such as Yahoo and AOL. The tools these businesses offer such as email, community interest portals and photo management software are straightforward and make setting up your site easy.

What is the downside to free website hosting? BANNER ADS! Website-hosting-advisor can not say it loud enough. Typically
you’ll have to put up with banner ads on your homepage or other ads you don’t get to pick; its how these businesses can afford to set up their infrastructure for free. You have no control over ads that show up on your site. If that is acceptable for you than a paid web hosting solution of $5/month or lower may be your best web hosting solution.

Most businesses want a web site that functions as an online brochure that provides information, but not sell its products.
Standard packages are ideal for this type of site. Packages that offer e-commerce, media concentrated applications for video & audio, dedicated servers, and complex business necessities come at additional cost.

A large group of low price or discount hosts offering solutions below $5 and $15 per month. Other hosting solutions start above $15, and customer service is usually the primary difference between inexpensive and higher priced hosting solutions. Clarifying expectations ahead of time can mean the difference between great online experiences or completely frustrated event without support occurrence. The extra $10 per month may be worth the piece of mind it buys for your best web site host.

Comparing Hosts

Do you know whether you need a standard hosting plan or an ecommerce web solution? Take some time and visit several hosting
company’s web sites. Go over plan options and see which offer the services and support that provide your best site host criteria. Because of the similarities, hosting plans can become confusing. Most major providers have “Compare Plans” page you can print. It’s good to print out the various packages and have them in hand while you shop.

Once you know whether you need a standard hosting plan or an eCommerce solution and whether price or premium hosting is right
for you, it’s time to shop for your best website host. Website-hosting-advisor will tell you any of the major search engines will provide a multitude of responses with a query such as Web Hosting or eCommerce hosting. You can even narrow your search with more definition. A search for “Cheap eCommerce hosting” will yield most companies whose solutions fall in the low price category.

J.O. Moen

Determining the real commercial value of an aged domain is quite difficult and tedious. Domain traders make it a point to grab aged domains from auction houses just to taste their hidden powers and commercial advantages. However, experienced and seasoned domain traders always doubt about the commercial viability of such domains. According to domain name experts, considering the actual age of a given expired domain is a very small factor.

Expired domains that are really old, say 12 years, may provide you some undeniable advantages due to their ripe, old age; lot of people can identify its name because of the old acquaintance. Now the big question is why do domain name traders desire the issue of age so badly? Is there something that you and I do not know? One conventional bit of thought says that all good quality domains were registered first and in actuality, they should be too good to be neglected. This seems a valid argument and a sensible issue as far as the issue of age is concerned.

On the other hand, some domain name traders are too skeptical about old domains, just because they may have nothing to offer you, except that they have a past record of continuous and consistent renewal. An old domain may just be a simple domain with no established history of traffic and inbound links. Experts also suggest that an old domain may have belonged to two categories of owners- an established business or industry that will never let their domain slip out of their hands, or an old domain owned by small businesses or individuals, who might have lost their control over their domains due to some unknown reasons.

However, there is one single significant advantage associated with old domains, especially when they relate themselves with the leading searching engines. Google has a verifiable system of grading domain names according to their age; its massive and humongous search technological algorithms ensure that really old domains are placed at their relevant search engine rank positions. However, at what position such domains get their ranking is still uncertain and unsure.

Fixing the actual price for such domains are actually very difficult and you may decide it going by the current market trends, while buying one such domain. However, one thing to note here is that people are ready to pay a fair price for such domains, just to utilize them for developing meaningful web sites. If you wish to buy an old expired domain, ensure that you are checking its age; if the age is more than say 8 years, you can definitely go for it. Age factors can help you find out the quality of generics, as this is a better indicator of finding the value of an expired domain name. Most of the premium and better quality domain names sprout from an internet boom era of late 1990’s.

However, buying expired domains based on their perceived age could be a tricky issue and you may need to learn and understand how the age of a given domain expired can really help you in your domain trading business.

John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web site called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

5 Questions To Consider When Shopping For A Web Hosting Package

As you look to establish an online presence, it is very important that you select the right web hosting company. Web hosting is the service that delivers your website to people when they type in www.yourname.com. There are thousands of these companies online today, and knowing the right questions will help you select the one that meets your needs. Here are some to get you started.

1) Is domain registration included, or do I have to pay extra?

Most of the best web hosts today offer free domain names (the .com) when their clients sign up for a long-term package. Registering your domain with the company you host with reduces headaches and hassle that can result from trying to import your domain to your hosting company. However, understand that this feature is often only available when you pre-pay for one year or more.

2) How many websites can I host with this hosting package?

Many internet marketers have a large number of websites. These websites can be informational sites, or websites used to target very small niches. Whatever the reason, having the ability to host extra domain names at no extra charge can save you from purchasing a brand new hosting package for each domain you register.

3) What is the percentage of guaranteed uptime?

When a web host experiences downtime, your websites are inaccessible and your company could lose money. Leading hosts will guarantee the amount of uptime which should exceed 99.8% for the best companies.

4) What level of service does the company provide?

From uploading files to configuring systems, hosting a website can be a tricky business. You need a company that provides world-class support when you need it. Before signing up for a hosting package, make sure the company youre considering provides support through multiple methods: email, phone, helpdesk, knowledgebase, and a customer forum. The best companies will offer 24-hour phone support in case of emergencies. When hundreds of thousands of pounds are on the line, you want to have this level of service.

5) Does the company offer a money-back guarantee?

Occasionally people run into web hosting companies that provide poor service or slow web servers. In order to prevent yourself from being locked into a year-long contract with a company that does not provide the level of service you need, make sure the web host you’re considering offers a 30-day money back guarantee. This is standard in the hosting industry, and nearly every reputable host offers it.

There are bargains to be had buying domain names on eBay. I buy a few every week and bid on lots more. Here’s a few tips for a successful domain buying experience on eBay.

1. Know the Value of What Are Buying

There are lots of resources on the internet to check the value of domains. If you are buying 3 character domains 3character.com provides a price guide each month. Another great source of historical price data is EBay itself. At EBay.com click on Buy tab. In the search box type in ‘domain names’ and click on the Search button. The brings up the following navigation:

Computers & Networking > Other Hardware & Services > Domain Names > .com

Click on the Domain Names link to get a list of all domain names. Now click on the Advanced Search link. Then next page click on the checkbox near the top that says “Completed Listings Only” and ensure that the ‘In this Category’ pick list reads ‘Domain Names’. Now scroll to the bottom and click on the ‘Search’ button. You should now see a listing of recent selling items. The items in red are those which failed to sell and the green items are those which did sell.

2. Check Buyer Feedback

After each EBay transaction both the buyer and seller are invited to rate the performance of the other. This provides a valuable rating tool that allows you be comfortable that the seller will carry out their oblgations after you pay them for a domain. On the far right of each EBay listing is a section that says “Meet the Seller”. To the right of the sellers name is a number in brackets – this indicates the number of unique feedbacks by other buyer or sellers. Below this is the percentage of positive feedbacks. Personally I look for unique feedbacks of at least 10 and percent positive feedback of 100% or at the least in the high 90’s. You can click on the feedback number to see the individual comments of other EBay’ers who have bought or sold with your potential seller.

Of course you can never eliminate the risk that seller will not perform but knowing your seller you can signficantly limit the risk. I have done hundreds of purchases on EBay and my losses from non-perfoming sellers – less than a dollar.

3. Double check the domain extension

If you want a .com domain make sure that check that its what you are buying. A few times I’ve read through the domain description too quickly and ended up buying a .net domain or .info domain when I thought I was buying a .com domain. Ouch!

4. Check for handling charges

A few domain sellers charge a handling charge for transferring the domain to you. Read the EBay listing carefully to see if there is a handling charge. If there is a handling charge deduct this amount from the maximum that you are willing to pay for the domain.

5. Check the Registar

If you have a favourite registrar where you want all your domains to be located make sure that the domain is already at that registrar. Or if you are willing to accept a domain at a different registrar – ensure that registrar offers a free push. Among the registrars offering a free push of a domain to a new account are GoDaddy, Moniker, ENom, Fabulous, Dotster, DynaDot, DomainSite and NameCheap.com. If its a different registrar make a quick check of the web site to ensure that a free push is offered.

6. Check the Expiry Date

Once you buy a name you will be responsible for any renewals. Some sellers place names on EBay which are about to expire. You may still decide to buy but you need to be aware of the upcoming renewal fee. Best place to check both the registrar and the expiry date is a whois checker like Whois.sc or very often the registrar and expiry date are listed in the item description.

7. If it looks to be good to be true…

If you see an extremely valuable domain being offered for pennies on the dollar be cautious – fraud does happen on EBay – you don’t want to be the next victim. A couple of things you can do. One is simply to forget the listing on the theory that it simply is too good to be true. Alternatively you could contact the owner of the domain using the whois information and confirm that the owner is for selling on EBay. Or you can is contact the seller via their EBay listing and ask if they will accept payment via Escrow.com – see suggestion below.

8. For large amounts

If you are not comfortable paying the anticipated price because of the potential for fraud an option is paying through Escrow.com. You will need to contact the seller to confirm that they will accept payment via Escrow.com and to discuss who will pay the escrow charges. Normally the escrow charges are either paid by the buyer or split between the buyer and seller. If the buyer won’t accept escrow – move on to the next domain – there’s lots of opportunities to buy.

9. Use sniping software

Sniping software is used on EBay to automatically place bids just a few seconds before an auction ends. The advantage of sniping software is that you avoid bidding early which would tend to drive up the price of the domain. By using sniping software you get to bid in the final seconds of the auction without having to be at your computer when the auction ends. The sniping software that I use is Auction Defender – available at AuctionDefender.com. A free trial version of the program is available. Cost of the program is $14.95 with a charge of $9.95 per year after the first year if you want to continue to receive support and upgrades.

10. Be selective on the auctions you bid on

While there are a few gems there are also a lot of junk domains listed on EBay. Domains that are poor names, the wrong extension or just overpriced. You will be a lot better off buying focusing on quality rather than attempting to every domain on the list.

These suggestions may seem complex but after a few days of reviewing EBay listings you’ll be bidding like a pro.

Peter Gibson is web master for NameSlam.com. NameSlam offers resources for buying and monetizing your domain names as well as offering a selection of high quality names for sale.