Music-Whiz.com is running a competition to see who can contribute the most information during a one month period. The prize? A 12 month .com, .net or .org domain name registration donated by LayerDomains.com !

Music-Whiz.com is a community maintained music information site. Our members add and edit information about their favourite bands and artists, albums and songs. You can upload images, post comments and rate your favourites and least favourites. Every contribution you make to Music-Whiz.com increases your contributor rating (CR), a value which indicates to other users the contribution you have made to the database.

Let’s see who can make the most contributions during the competition period!

Whoever contributes the most information during the competition will win one 12 month .com, .net or .org domain name registration thanks to LayerDomains.com. You can check if a domain name is availablie by using the form on the front page of LayerDomains.com.

Entry is simple:
1. Register for a free account at Music-Whiz.com
2. Go to the competition page
3. Click the "Enter Competition" button
4. Add information about your favourite artists and bands.

The competition will end on 13 November 2008, at which time an interim winner will automatically be declared. Once the winner’s contributions have been verified, I will contact them and request their details and chosen domain name.

You will need to create a free account at LayerDomains.com to receive your domain.

If your new to domain names, this is a great way to get your first one, have a play with it, and not waste a cent in doing so.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Cheers,
Richard

As with any other post, I did a little research first and registered some free domains with both of these services. There didn’t seem to be much of a case for using either of these services - until now.

Looking at my Google analytics statistics a week or so later, I noticed a small number of visitors coming from one of my newly registered dotTK domain. One thing that I knew for sure was that I hadn’t shared my new domain with anybody, and it couldn’t have had any promotion from anywhere else. The new domain was Music-Whiz.tk, which redirected to one of my works in progress, Music-Whiz.com. I have been trying to find out where this free traffic is coming from… but it appears to come from absolutely nowhere.

So I tried to replicate the results by registering dotTK domains for this site and a couple of other sites I run.  As yet, I haven’t been able to produce the same results.

So I haven’t been able to find out where this traffic is coming from… but I thought it was worth mentioning. Wherever these visitors came from one thing is clear,  if you have just started a new website, it seems perfectly reasonable that registering a few free dotTK domain names could in fact benefit your site.

Have you had a similar experience? Please let me know by posting a comment.

HostingRealm is running a contest with all sorts of prizes. The prizes are comprised of shared hosting accounts, reseller hosting accounts, virtual private servers, dedicated servers, and more! m

Prizes for the contest

• A basic VPS for 3 months donated by Crissic Solutions, LLC (A $59.97 value)
• A business shared hosting plan for 1 year donated by Crissic Solutions, LLC (A $95.88 value)
• A business reseller hosting plan for 1 year donated by Crissic Solutions, LLC (A $143.88 value)
• A US1 free for 3 months donated by HostingForYou (A $71.85 value)
• An advanced reseller for 1 year donated by HostingForYou (A $311.88 value)
• A gold shared hosting plan for 1 year donated by MidnightSoftware (A $305.88 value)
• An Inter VPS for 3 months donated by Steadcom (A $134.85 value)
• A stellar shared hosting plan for 1 year donated by Exact-Hosting (A $58.99 value)
• One free domain registration for 1 year donated by Exact-Hosting (A $9.99 value)
• Two copies of the Domaining Manifesto donated by John Motson (A $54.00 value)
• Two Shared 0.5 plans for 1 year donated by Fused Hosting (A $23.40 value)
• Two Shared 0.75 plans for 1 year donated by Fused Hosting (A $23.40 value)
• One VPS6 for 1 month donated by Atjeu (A $85.00 value)
• One Swamp plan for 1 year donated by HostGator (A $155.40 value)
• One Basic shared hosting plan for life donated by Cirtex Hosting
• One Bronze shared hosting plan for 6 months donated by AYKSolutions (A $83.40 value)
• One Starter reseller hosting plan for 6 months donated by AYKSolutions (A $119.80 value)
• One 6 month server management plan donated by BlueTrident (A $300.00 value)
• One [cx]Argon VPS donated by CreativeVPS (A $128.85 value)
• Three gigadeal shared hosting plans for 3 months donated by JaguarPC (A $53.73 value)
• Two partner plus reseller accounts for 1 month donated by JaguarPC (A $39.94 value)
• One freedom VPS hosting account for 2 months donated by JaguarPC (A $79.94 value)

How It Works

Now that you have read the prizes and are hooked on the contest, let’s explain how it works.

This contest will last forty five days, and end on July 16, 2008. All of the prize drawings will be done randomly. Drawings will be held in a chat room, the location is to be announced at a later point. Each point is one entry in the drawing. You can obtain more entries in the drawing by accumulating more points.

You can earn points in many ways:

• Any social bookmark (Digg, StumbleUpon, Furl, Delicious, etc.) is worth one point
• Making a blog post about this contest on your site in your own words is worth two points
• Making a blog post about this contest on your site by using our post is worth three points
• Subscribing to our newsletter is worth one point

Stay tuned for more ways to earn points, they will be announced during the next few weeks via the newsletter and with posts there.

When you have completed one of these tasks, leave a comment here saying what you have done and post URL’s so they may verify it.

Good luck to everyone!

There are several web sites out there claiming to provide you with a free domain name in exchange for advertising of some sort on your site, or a link back to them. Type in ‘free domains’ in any search engine and you will no doubt very quickly come across the infamous ‘.co.nr’ or ‘dot tk’ free domain sites.

These services are quite attractive to someone who is struggling to build their first web site but come with some severe limitations.

I’ll start with ‘.co.nr’ free domains. While these domains do look quite similar to ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.co.nz’ ccTLD ’s, what you actually get is a sub-domain, not a real domain name. Co.nr is a domain name and all ‘.co.nr’ free domains are sub-domains of co.nr.

On first thoughts you might think, that’s not too bad, it looks ok and so what if it’s a sub-domain, but there are several problems with the way that ‘.co.nr’ domains are implemented. You have two options when you set-up your ‘.co.nr’ sub-domain, you can redirect your ‘co.nr’ sub-domain to your server (which means that visitors to your web site will see your terrible looking server address) or you can have your ‘co.nr’ sub-domain ‘mask’ your server address (this way your visitors will only ever see your ‘co.nr’ sub-domain and will never see your actual server address). The way that ‘co.nr’ masks your server address is by opening up a hidden frames page and having your site open in a frame.

Even still this might not seem like a major problem, but here’s where it gets tricky. One of the most important resources for a webmaster is their site’s statistics. Site statistics provide valuable information such as page views, unique visitors, and more importantly, referrers. Without knowing where your site’s traffic is coming from, it’s impossible to measure the effectiveness of any link exchanges, advertising campaigns, or SEO changes.

The only advertising that ‘.co.nr’ ask you to place on your site is a link back to them.

Now, onto ‘.tk’ free domains. I first looked into ‘.tk’ about a year ago and backed right away for two reasons. Number 1, they were loaded with advertising which you couldn’t control, and number 2, they seem to be very slow.

While researching for this post I visited a few ‘.tk’ websites to see if my original thoughts were still valid. I still found them to be quite slow to load up. There is still some forced advertising at the top of your pages, but I did notice that they do now provide you with site statistics through their homepage. It’s a step in the right direction, but being ad-supported is the biggest problem with ‘.tk’ domains.

It’s absolutely critical for your website that you have complete control over how, what and when advertisements are placed on your site. Advertising space is the most valuable part of your site’s design and to waste space on advertisements which don’t work for you.

No matter which one of these free ‘domain’ programs you chose, there are some problems that they all share.

Firstly, most search engines and directories are aware that these domains are free (and as a result easily abused and usually not very useful). Your site could be different, but unfortunately you will automatically be grouped in the same basket as all the other people who have these domains. There are many directories which won’t allow these free domains to be submitted. Those that do but require a reciprocal link usually won’t be able to verify that their link exists on your site, and then won’t allow you to add your site. Many search engines will not index free domains either. Those search engines that do index them may not index them properly simply because the pages contain frames.

Secondly, these free domains still look strange to the average internet surfer. Internet surfer’s like to have confidence in the sites that they are visiting. With these free domains, it’s nearly impossible to get your web site visitors to trust you. If they don’t trust you, they won’t come back, and they almost certainly won’t spend any money on your site.

Thirdly, if you do decide to use one of these domains, you will not be able to make as much money off selling link spaces as you would otherwise have been able to make. When you sell link spaces to other websites, those websites like to see your site as one that will deliver them traffic, or help build their sites PR , or both. Unfortunately, because your site and your free domain are perceived by search engines to be two completely unrelated sites, it’s difficult to build your site’s PR while still using your free domain.

In conclusion, there are a lot of problems with using these free ‘domain’ services, and I recommend you move straight to getting a real domain. If you must use a free ‘domain’, don’t waste your time on link building or building your PR. If your site is going to last you will want to purchase a real domain anyway and all your work before you get that domain will be waste.

It’s my experience that the TLD you choose does not directly influence your sites rankings in search engines. I have several .info, .com and .net domains and I have not noticed any significant difference in their ability to rank well in search engines.

Having said that though, when (or if) it comes time to sell your domain, many buyers have their own preconceived notions of which TLD’s are better. This comes down to personal preference so it’s important when selling any domain that you reassure potential buyers that the domain extension either suits the domain or is good for some other reason.

Many people perceive that because .info domains are cheaper to register than any other TLD , they must be rubbish - this simply isn’t the case. I’ve actually met many people who believe that TLD’s which describe their content are worth more than .com or .net domains. I don’t necessarily agree with that 100%, but I do think it’s worth taking into account.

No matter what your thoughts on TLD’s, the safest option is always a .com domain. The .com TLD is the most widely recognised and trusted TLD for web surfers. If the .com you want is already taken, then I recommend you consider what the domain is being used for and choose another available TLD which suits it.

Here is a list of common TLD’s and their originally suggested use:

• .com - Recommended for commercial entities.
• .org - For miscellaneous organisations, including non-profit groups.
• .net -For companies involved in Internet infrastructure.
• .biz - For a business related site.
• .info - For an information providing site.
• .edu - For colleges and universities. (Not available publicly)
• .gov - For government agencies. (Not available publicly)
• .mil - For the military. (Not available publicly)
• .tv - For television/entertainment.
• .name - For individuals
• .mobi - For sites that are designed for mobile devices.

My personal opinion is that if you are developing a website, it is better to use the relevant TLD where there is one available. This helps your visitors easily identify the purpose of your website. For example, the domain DomainingGuide.biz implies that the site is a business venture, and so will be trying to sell something to you (the visitor). Instead, I have chosen DomainingGuide.Info which implies that this site will provide information on domaining - GUESS WHAT? It does!

Most domainers don’t strictly stick to the recommendations of the above list, but if you are planning on selling a domain, then you might find it easier to sell if the TLD is .com (i.e. suitable for any type of website).

I think that having a TLD that matches your website content is doing a service to your visitors and is also helping to keep the internet easy to navigate for everyone. People should be able to expect a certain type of website simply by the TLD it uses. In some countries (Australia is an example), there are greater restrictions on which domains can be registered by different entities (E.g. .id.au domains can only be registered by an individual and must only use letters from the individuals name, .com domains can only be registered by registered businesses).

Which brings me onto my next point. Each country also has it’s own country specific domains available. These are known as ccTLD’s or Country Code Top Level Domains. I only recommend using a ccTLD If your website is targeted at a particular country and you only expect visitors to be from that country. Web site’s which use ccTLD’s are unlikely to gain the trust of visitors outside the country that their domain is specific too - that is bad for business.

There are always exceptions to this rule, one example that springs to mind is Del.icio.us’s successful international use of the .us ccTLD. The .us TLD is intended to be a website specific to the United States. The interesting point here is that Del.icio.us have used the domain name of icio.us and added a subdomain of del, to form a readable, one word domain - "Del.icio.us" or "Delicious". I really doubt that you didn’t know that already, but I think with a bit of research and effort, you could probably find a domain like this yourself. Even more interesting is the fact that apart from the length of the domain (icio.us), it appears to be a pretty unmeaningful, useless domain.

Firstly, when choosing a domain name the first thing you need to consider is how you will be using the domain.

If you are choosing a domain to park , then there are three types of domains that I think will work best:

• Generic keyword domain , such as buyComputer.com. Domains such as this will be easier to attract traffic to. But be careful, you also need to consider the keywords in the domain. BuyComputer.com is a good domain to park because it will usually attract reasonably high-paying ads on it. On the other hand, a domain such as BuyChewingGum.com probably isn’t going to make you much money. After all, how many chewing gum makers would be advertising online?
• Previously registered domain . Let’s say for example that Yahoo went bust and you somehow got a hold of yahoo.com in your portfolio. Ordinarily, a domain like this wouldn’t yield much traffic, but because it was previously registered and housed a successful website, it would probably still generate traffic. That traffic would click on the ads on your parked page and make you money.
• Typo domains , such as yagoo.com. A typo domain is a domain that is very similar to another registered domain. The intention with a domain of this type is that web surfers will mistype the URL of the other website, and instead end up at your site. For example, if you owned yagoo.com, there is a chance that someone who wants to go to yahoo.com could accidentally hit the ‘g’ key instead of the ‘h’ key and you would receive that traffic. Just watch out - some companies or websites might get a bit annoyed that you are taking some of their traffic. So be careful.

If you’re building a website and choosing a domain for it, there are two types of domains you might want:

• Descriptive domains , such as computerForum.com. A descriptive domain is always good. In terms of choosing it for your website, it is great for SEO and it also helps your website visitors immediately know what your site is about.
• Easy to remember domains , such as Gibbous.Info. Now this probably isn’t the best example of this sort of domain but the key reasons behind this sort of domain are that it is memorable, usually short, and doesn’t really have a meaning. Take Google for example. We all know Google, but since the word ‘google’ doesn’t really mean anything, Google have been able to define this term themselves and now people searching for something online say "I’ll just google it". A word of warning though, domains of this type should be easily pronounced and spelt. Silent letters would be real killers for this type of domain.

Finally, if you are looking for a domain purely to resell, then generic keyword and descriptive domains are good. But as well as that, for some reason, people really like short domains. These short domains are usually 4 or 5 letters long and don’t even need to make sense. You may have seen these advertised for sale as "LNLN.com’s" or something similar. ‘L’ represents letters and ‘N’ represents numbers. I personally don’t really see the attraction with these domains, but a lot of people do.

In any case, I don’t recommend buying domains purely for resale until you are comfortable with how domaining works.

All internet domains must be registered through a domain registrar. Common domain registrars are GoDaddy, Registerbird and Name.com, although there are literally tens of thousands of registrars and domain resellers. The prices at each registrar are usually quite similar with prices which are about:

But keep an eye out because all of these registrars provide coupons and special offers providing discounted domains (the current .info prics is an example of this).
There are also lots of domains available on the aftermarket. The aftermarket refers to any place where domains which are already owned are being sold by their current owners. There are websites such as Sedo which specialise in selling aftermarket domains, but you can also find domains for sale on most webmaster/domain related forum website.

I accidentally started domaining about 8 months ago, and now own 21 domains including 6 fully developed websites. I have not spent one single cent on hosting, domains or anything else related to domaining. This site is designed to help begginner domainers do exactly the same thing I have done. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not really making any serious money off any of my domains, and I wouldn’t even know how much any of them are really worth. But this is just the beginning. Imagine what I could be doing if I invested some real money into this?

I’m going to use this site to help beginner domainers avoid the common pitfalls of domaining, find out strategies to help monetise and build their domain portfolio, and enjoy this profitable hobby just like I am.