Choose Your Domain Name

When you decide to host your own website, you will need to register for a domain name first. It is worth the time and trouble to research what domain name you should get. There are actually a couple things you should do first before you register a domain name.

1.) Check for blacklisted domain name
If you are using a generic domain name, it is a good idea to check if it is blacklisted.
You can use this service: http://lookup.uribl.com/ to check if you domain name has been blacklisted.

2.) Research your keyword
It makes sense that your domain name should contain your keyword. It makes it easier for people to find you, and with some basic SEO optimization it will help you rank on search engines, such as Google.

3.) Look at how the domain name reads
Is it easy to read, or remember? How difficult is it to type? The domain name should be short and easy to remember. You will be surprised how some businesses get this wrong, with hilarious results.

Here are some fine examples of funny domain name:

1. Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their Web site is www.whorepresents.com/
2. Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange Advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com/
3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net/
4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at www.therapistfinder.com/
5. There's the Italian Power Generator company, www.powergenitalia.com/
6. And don't forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales, www.molestationnursery.com/
7. If you're looking for IP computer software, there?s always www.ipanywhere.com/
8. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is www.cummingfirst.com/
9. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site, www.speedofart.com/

Magazines From Amazon For May

Has anybody seen the offers from Amazon.com for magazine subscriptions this month? This is an amazing value for money subscription whichever way you look at it. Magazines are a fast way to get the latest news and happenings for your favorite topic, compared to books. Personally, I read a lot of magazines, and most of the magazines I read are published in the US. If you were to buy them where I live, the price in USD might be the same, the exchange rate will make a dent in your wallet.

What I normally do is to get magazines from local distributors, who I happen to know a few. But what I like to do most is to get back-copies from them. I flip through magazines, reading only topics that interest me, and I study their layout, writing styles, advertisements, etc. So getting back-copies work for me, and it costs a lot less.

For the month of May, if you order from Amazon.com, you will only be paying USD1.00 (depending on the magazine) per issue. The downside is these subscriptions on apply to the US. The good news for those in the US is the free shipping that is part of the subscription. The categories for magazines are on the left sidebar.

Why the drastic price cut?
Firstly, I do not know the subscription rate for the second year, you might end up paying the full price. The subscription rate for the first year might just be their cost of acquisition per customer. It is not unheard off to operate at a loss in order to get a subscriber. You could make it back over the course of customers lifetime purchases.

Secondly, with the explosion of on-line magazines and the incredible growth of the internet, the publishing industry is probably getting a lot tougher. The printing cost per issue of magazine is off-set by advertisement income,and if you can print the magazine outside the US, that reduces the printing costs even more. Again, over a customers lifetime, the initial loss can be covered by future business.

Thirdly, US magazines are exported world-wide, and Asia is the growth is right now. It could be that the exports can be sold at full price, even counting the additional cost of shipping and distributors margins.

Buying Smart
While brick and mortar stores are essential to the sustainability of any country's economy, there is really no excuses for not buying smart. If you find a better deal on the internet, that's where you should be buying.

What Is Your Product

I just read this post on Problogger.net, and this is one post that really got me thinking about blogging. The title of the post is Poor Bloggers Focus Too Much On Blog Posts. If you have a blog, I suggest you check this out. You may not agree with what is written, and judging from the comments some valid points were raised, but there are some gems in it.

A blog is a promotional medium and a communications platform. And in order to really monetize a blog, you have to ask the question: ...What is your real product? What is the thing that you can provide to others in exchange for some of their money?

Don't just plaster your blog with banners and contextual ads. Your blog has to serve a purpose, and be of value to your readers. There must be something you can help them with, a solution to a problem, anything that is of value to them.

Your product should be something which is valuable to your audience which they will be willing to fork over a little money for. When you have that, your blog is a promotional medium for an actual business.

The REAL answer to full-time incomes from blogs is to answer that question: What is my product? And if you don’t have one, you need to create one.

After reading that guest post, I followed the author to his blog and am really glad I did. Some of the posts are insightful and reading them is a good use of your time. For me, the biggest take away is this: Write for the blog you want, not the one you have.

Building A Business On-line

Building a business on the internet is not as easy as it is made out to be. There are plenty of misconceptions as to what an on-line business is.

What it isn't
1) A website isn't a business. No matter how matter "Business in a box" or "Plug and play" websites or products you have.

2) A digital product isn't a business. You may have the best e-book in the world on your chosen niche, but it isn't a business until it sells.

3) An Adsense website isn't a business. You could have 30 websites optimized for adsense and it still doesn't make it a business.

What a business is
1) A business is a product or service that serves a market. In order words, there must be a market, and there must be a need or problem to be solved. There must be buyers in order for a business to be created.

2) It must create value to both customers and owners of the business. Value that is above what the customer pays for the product or service. And it is an entity the owner can sell, and when the owner sells the business, the buyer must be able to continue to run the business.

3) It must be automated, in whole or in part, that allows the business owner to focus on his core competency and not have to do the daily routine work that adds no value to the business.

Doing business on the internet is simply using the internet to put your products or services in front of potential clients. There is still work to be done, order fulfillment to handle. The advantage is when you have created a product it service, you can sell it to a world-wide market, and if it is a digital product, it can be delivered immediately.

Fake It Until You Make It

Of all the business advise I have ever heard or read, this one takes the number spot. I first started hearing this many years ago in the Direct Marketing or MLM industry. The idea is you dress up to look the part of a successful marketer, drive a fancy car and get up to your eyeballs in debt trying to emulate the lifestyle of the truly successful. Not a great idea, huh? (No offense to MLMers, I'm talking about those black sheep)

In internet marketing, I am sad to say that people actually subscribe to this bad advice. Don't you really think we can't tell the difference between someone really good at what they do and someone who is faking it. Having said that, scammers tend to have beautifully created websites and convincing sales copy. But that's another story.

I have been in forums where these people are newbies to internet marketing, then when I go to their site, they try to sound like they are internet marketing gurus. I guess it takes all types in any industry.

Seriously, you don't need to do stupid things like this. All you need to is to find one thing you are good at, and build it up from there. The main trouble isn't that they don't know squat, it is that they don't know internet marketing. Well, forget about what the so-called internet gurus tell you. Or rather do your due diligence whenever you read an ebook or report, and a little research doesn't hurt.

By all means, research your niche and build your website. What you want is to get the conversation going. By that I mean, being relevant to your readers. From my own foray into website building, I can tell you that if you keep it real, you can build up your readership. If you keep adding relevant content, people will keep coming back.

What Do You Mean Free Gifts

Anybody who has been doing internet marketing knows about Giveaway Events. There are many Giveaways on the internet, for many niches and many big names internet marketer will have their products featured. The purpose of participating in a giveaway event is to build your list, which in itself is one of the main goals in internet marketing.

By its nature giveaways are supposed to be free, after all it is supposed to be an event where you get free gifts. The only trouble with that is, in internet marketing circles free doesn't mean free. Marketing is an exchange, an exchange of a product or service for money usually. Or in this case your email address. So in order for an exchange to take place, both parties must have something they both want.

Now you might think this is a win-win situation. It doesn't quite work out that way. What would you do if you see an product or report you are interested in? You enter your email, download the product and read it. Then you might decide that the report is nothing new, so you unsubscribe from the marketer's list. So the internet marketer has to repeat the cycle again. Of course, the process is automated so it isn't much hassle for the marketer. The problem is they are training people to unsubscribe. No one has time to scan through all the emails from marketers, not when the emails asks you to buy more products or contain old and rehashed information.

I would prefer to see marketers offer free gifts without the need to opt-in. Put links in your reports, they can lead to your opt-in page or your website. But let us review your report first, if the way your market is the right fit for us, you can be assured that we will opt-in. In order for the marketer to make money, well...what's in it for me?

Just One Idea For A Website

When you start a website, the temptation is to start writing before you finalize the design of your website. You might have one idea, and it grips you so hard that you just can't wait to get started on it. Well, this may be the only time it is a good idea to sleep on it. Better yet, write down a set of rules for your website. Then anything that doesn't fit in gets thrown out. That's another name for this, and it's called finding your niche.

Finding your niche is akin to finding your voice. To be heard you need find something worth talking about, on a subject that people are interested in. Something you won't get tired of in a few months. This is because you need to create content for your website, and you do this whether it is a personal website or an internet marketing site.

Once you have found the one idea, it gets easier to figure out what your website should look like. There are probably thousands of great looking themes you can use for your website, free or paid. Some themes work better with certain topics, and your theme should fit your subject. While it comes down to your personal taste, a website isn't only about you. It is also about your readers.

I like to think of a website as a magazine. It is about content, and style. With a website, it is also has to be user friendly and easy to navigate. But it can't be about everything, and the narrower your focus is, the better it will work.