When it comes to increasing website traffic, many webmasters often look to SEO or banner advertising. Both methods are often very expensive and do not result in permanent gains unless continuously maintained. But if you have a high-traffic website, registering typos of your domain could be a cheap way to bring in more visitors.

According to a recent study, some sites can increase their traffic by 1% simply by registering “wwwdomain.com” to redirect typo-prone visitors “www.domain.com.”

This may not seem like a lot, but even for a site that gets 1,000 visitors per day, this traffic adds up. Take 10 extra visitors per day and multiply by 365, you get 3650. Assume a domain costs $10 and divide that number of 3650, and you’ll realize that you’re paying less than a quarter of a cent ($0.0027) per visitor!

This is significantly less than the cost of PPC ads, which can run up to $1.00 or more per click. Just remember to redirect the typo domain to your site, otherwise you won’t gain any traffic!

Continue reading: Register typo domains to increase site traffic

In an effort to boost profits, the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA) has announced the release of some 1,200 “premium” generic keyword .ng domains. The question is, does anyone care?

Sure, ccTLDs are on the up, but only in developed countries and not in places with bad reputations for spamming and scamming. Names like casino.ng or sex.ng might fetch several hundred or perhaps several thousand dollars at auction, but not much. And I suspect few domainers are scratching to get their hands on cars.ng. Vacation.ng might be a goldmine, if it weren’t for the fact no one goes on vacation to Nigeria.

If NIRA were smart, it would hold most of these “premium” names until a sufficient market exists to garner high sale prices. But as it stands now, does anyone really give a hoot about .ng?

Photo | cgarbiano

Continue reading: Nigeria to release "premium" domains

I’ve worked with a number of domain registrars over the years and have had to navigate through dozens of different control panels in the process. While no interface or check out process is perfect, the control panel I hate using the most has to be Go Daddy’s. Why? The company barrages me with dozens of special offers every time I register a domain.

I know what I want to buy and would rather not be told what I need. I don’t want a .net and .org with my .com, and I’m most certainly not reserving a .name. I’m not doing ecommerce so I don’t need SSL. Getting indexed in Google isn’t hard, so I won’t buy your search engine submission package.

Go Daddy should stop overwhelming their customers with “special offers.” Granted, a lot of online stores do this and Go Daddy does offer an express checkout, but even that entails scrolling through a long page of ads. Out of all the registrars, Godaddy is by far the most annoying to order from. And no, a couple of hot girls doesn’t make up for it.

Continue reading: What really irks me about Go Daddy's control panel

The second news about Chile’s horrific earthquake got out on Saturday, domainers around the world rushed to their computers to get their hands on possibly valuable domains. Some of the names registered include earthquakechile.com, chileanearthquake.com, and donatechileearthquake.com.

These domains will probably be sold on eBay or other auction sites very soon to cash-in on the post-quake hype. It’s a shame to see people take advantage of a situation like this to make money. Most of the names registered, take chile-earthquake.org for instance, will probably earn their “investors” little or no money.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Domainers flock to register Chile earthquake domains

You’re not famous or noteworthy, so why should you have you register yourname.com? Personal domain registrations have been on the rise for many years now and while you may not be accepting a Nobel Prize any time soon, there are a number of reasons why you should register “your .com.”

First and foremost, you never know when you might need the domain and chances are good you share the same name with hundreds if not many thousands of others. Just look at Susan Boyle, who failed to register SusanBoyle.com before her astonishing performance on Britain’s Got Talent.

Finally, if you don’t already have a personal website, why not make one? It could be a blog, but it is becoming increasingly common for professionals to showcase their résumé and other credentials online. There are plenty of reasons why you should own a personal domain.

Continue reading: Why you should register yourname.com today

According to a story published on TechCrunch today, Yahoo has filed a trademark for Y.com. Why is this so odd?

First of all, Yahoo does not own the domain Y.com. In fact, no one does. The majority of .com names under three characters are reserved by the IANA and have been unavailable for registration since 1993. Perhaps Yahoo thinks the domain will some day become available?

Finally, even if Yahoo gets the trademark, that does mean the company will ever get the domain. The trademark only applies to search sites. If someone were to register it and develop another type of site unrelated to Yahoo, the use of the domain would be perfectly legal. Not to mention that in arbitration cases, panels do not consider the extension to be part of the trademark.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Yahoo files trademark for Y.com

Everyone knows how annoying it is to spend hours thinking of a good domain only to find out it’s taken. In the YouTube video above, Internet entrepreneur and amateur comedian Chris Pirillo pokes fun at this unfortunate fact of life. Using Wordoid as an example, he points out how useless and shoddy domain generators can be.

If a domain generator can’t help me, I find a thesaurus to be very helpful when registering domains. There are a number of online word tools that will bring up a variety of synonyms for any given word. The best domains are all taken, but there are still many good ones out there!

Continue reading: Choosing a good domain

When you make a registration, do you buy the domain or rent it? This is a difficult question to answer. You certainly have all rights to the name and can develop it as you wish, so long as your content complies with civil and trademark law. But do you really own it?

Many people think domains in terms of “buying,” but as far as I’m concerned, you’re just renting it much like you would a storefront. You pay a yearly fee to a registrar in return for use of the name. Granted, the fee is not for the name itself but for the registration. In addition, one can pay a high price to “buy” a premium domain but still have to pay the yearly registrar fee. So technically speaking you “own” the name, but will irreversibly lose it in the event you fail to pay the fee.

It would be interesting to see in the future if registrars come out with a one-time registration fee for domains. Instead of paying £10 a year for a name, what if you could pay £500 and own it for life? If this were to happen, then I would call domains owned property. But for now, we’re all stuck paying rent to a landlord.

Continue reading: Do you buy or rent a domain?

Bored of traditional domain registration? There’s a new service on the market called Tweetname that lets customers buy domains using Twitter. Simply sign up and tweet the name you want to register. You will then get a message back stating whether or not the registration was successful.

Is the service a good idea? It’s definitely innovative, but nothing more than a novelty in my opinion. The biggest downside is the price- $11.95 (£7.46) per domain. That is 33% more the price of many competitors. So I think I’ll stay with my current registrar, thanks.

Photo | Flickr

Continue reading: Register domains with Twitter

Believe it or not, it is possible to delete a domain before it expires. Maybe you know you won’t be using a name and want to free it up out of kindness, or perhaps you registered a controversial domain and don’t want associated with you. Regardless of your reasons, removing a registration is very easy to do.

To delete domains, simply go to your registrar’s website and login. Navigate to the domain control panel. There should be an option to delete a domain. If there isn’t, open a support ticket or email customer service. You may have to contact the registrar directly to perform the removal.

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This year has been a big one for both the domain and web hosting industries. Significant growth has been seen in the ccTLD market while more prominent TLDs continue to sell for record-high prices. A recession has brought more entrepreneurs and investment online, spurring heavy growth in the hosting and data center realm.

Here are some of the more memorable stories of 2009:

Continue reading: InternetBlog: Best of 2009

Usually if a domain you planned to register is taken, the .com version is the first to become unavailable. You have your heart set on that phrase, but don’t know what alternative extension to use out of the dozens of choices. Which should you pick?

I ran into this problem a few weeks ago when I wanted to register danielfoster.com, but found it was taken. The first alternate extensions that came to my mind were .net, .org, .info, .biz, and .us, and .name. In any circumstance, I would pick .net over all the others. I ended up doing this, but if my site could possible fall under the “goodwill” category, I would have opted for .org. If I had an American company, I may have settled for the .us ccTLD. In the UK, the .co.uk ccTLD would have been a no-brainer or in Germany, .de. Under no circumstances would I have registered a .biz or a .info.

The domain extension you register says a lot about your site. It appears in search engines, directories, and advertising– and is often the only part of your website people ever see. So make it good, really good.

Continue reading: If my .com is taken, what is the next-best extension?