We are now officially in the second half of the year. The 1st of July is the of the year time when I analyse my goals and objectives for the year to see how well things are going according to plan.

This gives me a chance to set new objectives, make adjustments or even adapt to ways of doing things and create new strategies altogether.

If you run an ebusiness, or plan to do one, the remainder of this year may be your very last chance to get your category-killer domain name at bargain prices. All domain marketplaces, big and small are now seeing an increase in demand for quality ebusiness domains.

I really can’t see how people can even begin to have the slightest doubt that domains will be increasingly in great demand. Everyone that does business on the Internet wants to stand out in the crowd. Whether it is a blog or full eCommerce website, everyone wants the perfect domain name.

Some may not realise as yet that they can in fact buy their desired or category killer domain name on the domain aftermarket, while some simply can’t afford it, as yet.

We are hearing more and more stories of people making huge sacrifices and taking big risks just to secure their perfect domain name. As they say “the early bird will catch the most worms”. Those who “get” domains before their competitors do, will reap the rewards.

If you are in the business of buying and selling domains, perhaps you could use the rest of 2009 to cleanse your portfolio. Get rid of domains that are a liability and invest in domains that will become assets and increase in value.

Some people learn just by listening, while some can only learn from experience, or from their mistakes.

Whatever your domain name strategies are, you really want to make quality domains the central theme of your domain game.

Need an affordable premium domain for your eBusiness?
Choose from over 500,000 quality aftermarket domains at eBusinessDomains.com!
Simply enter your keyword and click search in the Domain Search Box.
Instant domain transfer with most domains!

Domains | Domain Auctions | Premium Domains | Domain Newsletter | Domain Forum | Skull

With domain registration costing as low as $1.99 for some domain extensions, and the possibility of selling those said domains for $x,xxx, one could easily get into the habit of registering domains on impulse without much research.

But with that been said, you would be surprised to learn the number of people who buy domains on the aftermarket as well, purely on impulse, without any clear purpose or strategy.

Domaining can be a very deceptive business. This is even more so with aftermarket domains. You buy a domain name on the aftermarket thinking to yourself, well, from now on, its only going to cost me $8 per year for renewal.

Sometimes you just register or purchase domains because you have enough money on your credit card to successfully checkout or complete the transaction. This is fine if you have a clear and definitive intention and methodology to monetize the domain name, successfully.

However, some people spend today, and realise that rather than making sensible investments, they have instead accumulated senseless liabilities.

If you have had issues with spending frivolously on domain names, here are a few essential questions to ask yourself before you buy the next domain name.

1. Can I afford this domain name?
If you are buying domains at $1.99 (mostly for .INFO) or the average $8 (for .COM) then the answer will most likely be a resounding “yes!”. However this is a trick question. I believe the fact that you can afford the $8 registration for a domain name is the problem here. Registering one domain at a time or taking advantage of bulk registration deals will not be a problem. You will only start feeling the weight of your overspending when you have to settle the credit card bills or have to contend with huge renewal expenditure for your entire domain portfolio.

So perhaps the question that you really want to ask is, “Can I afford to maintain my domain portfolio if I buy one more domain name?”

2. Do I really need this domain name?
This is again another trick question, as the answer will depend heavily on your domaining strategies.

If you are investing in domains for development, you will need to be proactive in your buying activities, in that you only buy domains that you will have the time and resources to develop, successfully.

If you monetize domains through Pay Per Click (PPC) or domain parking, then you will need to gather enough data to help you determine if the domain will be able to earn enough revenues to cover its renewal fees and more.

One of the golden rules of domaining is never to buy domains for the sole purpose of reselling them later. This will help you eliminate loads of mistakes and to avoid errors in judgement. However, if you are in the process of buying and selling domains, simply buy domains that someone else would want to buy, without the need for any hype.

3. Will I use this domain?
This question was dealt with above. However you do need to have a clear purpose for every domain that you purchase. Each domain name should help you in some way or another in your domaining strategies. This can be brand protection, monetization or development.

4. Can I buy the domain name cheaper or find a similar domain name?
This is a multi-million dollar question, for people who are selling domains. Think of the choices that your potential customers will have. When you do, you will either decide not to buy a particular domain for re-sale purposes or know how to price the domain accurately.

For domain buyers, I believe the question is self-explanatory. Simply do some research before each domain purchase. Read blogs and follow up on the daily domain news.

5 . Can I wait to buy this domain name?
I think in 99% of all cases, the answer will be a resounding “NO”! If you have found a great domain name that is unregistered, the chances are that it will not remain unregistered for long. Quite a few times when I am researching domains, I find a few that are unregistered. By the time I settle down to register them, I realise that someone else had beat me to them, only within the last few hours.

The same thing applies with an aftermarket domain name. You have a little bit more luxury where time is concerned here, but you still want to get your domain name before your competitors do.

With such tight time constraint, you want to be sure that you really NEED the domain name.

6. Will this domain save me time or money?
This is really a question that is normally asked by end-users. Will buying and using the domain name help you to reduce costs, such as marketing and advertising? Will it save you time in trying to promote and establish your brand?

7. Will this domain help me financially?
This I believe is the most important of all these 7 questions. Except for the cases where you are buying a domain name solely for brand-protection purposes, you definitely want to acquire domains that will make you money.

If you develop the domain name, the website should give you a decent Returns On Investment, and provide you with a consistent flow of revenues. If you park the domain name, it should at least comfortably earn enough to cover the annual renewal fees.

Ask yourself those questions whenever you plan to make a domain purchase and I guarantee that you won’t regret wasting money on domain names that will prove to be liabilities rather than assets.

Need an affordable premium domain for your eBusiness?
Choose from over 500,000 quality aftermarket domains at eBusinessDomains.com!
Simply enter your keyword and click search in the Domain Search Box.
Instant domain transfer with most domains!

Domains | Domain Auctions | Premium Domains | Domain Newsletter | Domain Forum | Skull

How much priority do you give domain names when writing your business plan?

You have brainstormed the niches, short listed your findings, and now have selected what kind of ebusiness you want to invest in.

You have given careful though about the look and feel of the website, have some ideas for your branding approach and have even put together your business plan and plan of action. Perhaps you have even registered a company name.

You are almost ready to do business. Everything is now in place. Now you are getting ready to launch your ebusiness. Then, after all this time, after months and months of hard work, planning and preparation, you finally do a search for your chosen domain name and find, to your dismay, that the domain name is already registered by someone else and is not even for sale on the domain aftermarket.

It’s almost 10 years now since the start of the millennium. The Internet plays a vital role in the success of any business, whether it will be a traditional bricks and mortar business or a pure ebusiness. Once you have decided which niche you want to invest in, your next priority should be to secure the perfect domain name.

The domain name is the web address that people will type in their browser to get to your website. An example of a domain name is eBusinessDomains.com. A domain name can be relatively inexpensive when purchased new, but can hold tremendous value for a business if it is a top quality domain name.

A domain establishes your identity on the Internet and is the primary link between the offline and online worlds. A quality domain names have become an integral element of a successful company, whether the majority of its business is conducted online or not.

When making decisions relating to branding, it is imperative that you get your domain name strategies right. Securing the right domain name(s) for your business can be an expensive and tiresome task, but once done successfully, everything becomes so much easier.

Paying $10,000 for a quality domain name will give you credibility in your niche for as long as you are in business. Going forward, it will cost you less than $10 to renew the domain name at your domain registrar on an annual basis.

The choice is clear. Spend a hefty amount now by investing in a premium domain name that will appreciate in value. Or, register a crappy domain name for $10, and spend boatloads of cash trying to turn that said crappy domain name into a brand.

Domain names should be factored into your business plan from the outset, and should even be considered even before you register a company or a trademark.

Generic domain names can be extremely valuable. The only problem is that most if not all of them were purchased a long time ago. The good news is that a lot of these valuable generic domain names may be for sale by their owners, on domain marketplaces such as eBusinessDomains.com.

Although companies can use premium domain names for different products or aspects of their business, in most cases it would be better for a business is to have consistency between its company name, its trademark and its domain name.

This prevents both existing and potential customers from confusing the company’s brand with that of others.

Need an affordable premium domain for your eBusiness?
Choose from over 500,000 quality aftermarket domains at eBusinessDomains.com!
Simply enter your keyword and click search in the Domain Search Box.
Instant domain transfer with most domains!

Domains | Domain Auctions | Premium Domains | Domain Newsletter | Domain Forum | Skull

A few weeks ago a blogged about the birth eBD.me. We had only acquired the domain name then.

It was only after acquiring the domain name EBD.me that I found out that “EBD” is widely used as an abbreviation for Emotional and Behavioural Disorder, sickness that is quite widespread in a few countries.

I have also since then found other possible abbreviations such as:

- Evidence-Based Dentistry
- e Business Designer
- Electronic Brakeforce Distribution
- Experience Based Design
- Evidence-Based Diagnosis

Of course if you haven’t gathered as yet, we are interested in the term eBD, as an abbreviation for e Business Domains.

We will be using eBD.me as a URL shortening service. This is for our own private use, but its usage is open to the public. After all there is no harm in making it available to everyone as it will only help to build our brand.

This is our first .ME domain registration, and as such our first website being launched on the .ME domain extension.

It was quite funny that after creating the logo I asked my girlfriend what she thought about the logo, and her first reaction was “What is that?” pointing to the .Me icon within the logo design.

It became apparently clear that it would take some time for non-domainers to catch on to the .Me domain extension. This further underpins my belief that it may be a waste of time trying to brand certain domain extensions.

The good thing is we are not really branding anything here, but rather strengthening the eBusinessDomains.com brand. The URL will be used for linking and URL shortening purposes. So it will operate in the background, and will only be noticed by people who actually visit the eBD.me website.

If you are not familiar with URL shortening services, these are used widely on Twitter, in affiliate marketing and for link cloaking purposes.

For example, we can take the long URL:
http://www.ebusinessdomains.com/premium-domains.htm

and turn it into:
http://ebd.me/premium

Both links will take you to the same web page.

The eBD.me site is quite easy to use. Simply copy and paste the link into the space provided, click the “Make it short” button, and you will immediately get your much shorter link.

The links will remain permanent, as we have no plans to sell the eBD.me domain name.

Need an affordable premium domain for your eBusiness?
Choose from over 500,000 quality aftermarket domains at eBusinessDomains.com!
Simply enter your keyword and click search in the Domain Search Box.
Instant domain transfer with most domains!

Domains | Domain Auctions | Premium Domains | Domain Newsletter | Domain Forum | Skull

If you understand the term “there is no smoke without fire”, then you will understand this blog post.

I believe more and more domainers are now realising that quality domain names are now the order of the new domain day. Domain parking is now showing some slight recovery, but still a very long way to go. However regardless of any recovery, I believe domainers now realise that end-users are only interested in premium domains.

Domainers owning premium domain names that are not performing well with domain parking will try and approach end-users in an effort to make a sale. This is a clever idea. But…

I offer consultancy services to quite few businesses. Some are non-profit organisations while some are startups by friends etc.. When I am approached to give my input or to come on board, as an accountant, I automatically become more interested in the business plan.

Without a concrete business plan, especially in these hard economic times, the idea is nothing more than a fantasy or even a joke.

Almost in every country, there is a very high failure rate amongst small businesses. There are quite a few reasons for this. Many blame this on the lack of capital or access to borrowings. However, in my opinion, it is mostly down to the lack of a well thought out and structured business plan.

Anyway, lets get back to websites. I am literally confused by the number of startups today that are still trying to do business the old-fashioned way. They just want to set up shop, and if there were any form of advertising to be done, it would be through traditional media.

I spent so much time in so many meetings preaching the gospel of Internet marketing. I try to let these people realise that if they establish a web presence, not only would they cut cost, but they would reach far more people, and have much less work to do.

It is 2009. Websites were important in 1999, and even more so now. If you are serious about business, then you have to be serious about ebusiness. You can’t leave a web presence out of your business plan.

Now, if end-users don’t get the importance of having a website, they surely won’t “get” domain names. You can’t have the smoke without the fire.

Educate end-users about the need for a website, get them hooked, and then you can start preaching the gospel of domain strategies. Because all you really have to do is let them know how the right domain name will enhance their web presence and earn them more credibility in their respective niche.