General information on - domain name E-Mail Accounts For Your Home Based Business As a Work at Home Business you need to have at least 7 E-Mail Accounts. 1 - Personal Account yourname@Domian.com This is the Account you only give Your Friends and Family. It is just that a Personal Account. To keep this account as Spam Free as Possible Never Mix this Account with your Business Account. 2 - Business Account Biz@Domain.com This Account is your Main Business account and should be given only to your Business Partners and Associates. Again you do not want to Advertise this account or use it to sign up for Programs. 3 - Sign-Up Account(s) Most Internet Marketer will have many Sign-Up Accounts. These are the Accounts to use to sign-up for programs and information on the Internet. Here are Some Example of Sign-up Accounts I use * Subscribe@Domain.com - I use this Account to subscribe to E-Zines * hits@Domain.com - I use this account to sign up for Click Exchanges * sig@Domain.com - This is a 1 Message Autoresponder Address I use in my signature Line. * SlContact@Domain.com - Contact E-mail Address used when Joining Safelists * SlDump@domain.com - List E-mail Used when Joining Safelists * Junk@Domain.com 4 - Web Page Accounts webpage@domain.com These are Accounts I use for Form-mail or Mail-to Addresses on my Web Pages 5 - Autoresponder Addresses newsletter@Autoresponder.com There are typically 2 way's to subscribe to an Auto-Responder either with a form or an E-Mail Address. Each Autoresponder would have its own E-Mail Address. 6- Business Cards name-bc@ domain.com I learned this trick from Joe Christopher the Master List Builder. Joe likes to track where people got his E-Mail Address. I never got to ask him this question but I wouldn't be surprised if Joe used something like joe-lh@Domain.com for his letterhead and Joe-ml@domain.com for his mailing Labels 7 - Offline Ads name-oad@domain.com Actually you may want to have separate E-Mail Address for each Ad you run for tracking purposes. 8 - Collection Accounts Just because you have 10 or more E-Mail Accounts doesn't mean it has to be a Management Nightmare. I have a Class of E-Mail Accounts that I call Collection Accounts. How do Collection Accounts Work Most Web Host's allow you to set up at 3 Different Types of E-Mail accounts. 1. Pop 3/smtp 2. Forwarders 3. Default Pop 3/SMTP These are your Standard E-Mail accounts you use with Outlook Forwarders These E_mail Accounts work like ReDirect URLS. I have an E-mail Address called mike@Domain.com. I have an Account Mike-bc.domain.com but all mail that is sent to mike-bc.domain.com actually goes to mike@ domain.com The Real power of this is that I can have an ULIMITED number of accounts Forwarded tot Mike@Domain.com. Like Mike-LH@Domian.com and Mike-Ads@ Domain.com Similarly I may have Mike-Newsletter@domain.com and Mike-Ezine@Domain.com all going to OnlineRequests@domain.com Another Twist on Forwarders. Let's say you have many Domains. Domain1, Domain2, Domain3 and Domain4. You can actually forward Name@domain1.com to Name@Domain4.com Any E-Mail account that has other accounts Forwarding E-Mails to it are Collection Accounts. Default default@Domain.com This is a real Special Collection account I like to think of it as The Catch-All Collection Account. The Default E_mail account is like a Lost and Found let's say somebody sends an E-Mail to something@domain.com and that account doesn't exist it then get's routed to default@Domain.com Domain Names 101.9 - Net Real Estate Domain Names 101.1: What Is A Domain Name? A domain name is simply another name for your website url, or website address. For example: "www.domainname101.ca". < This is a domain name. If you own a website, whatever your website is called, this is classified as your domain name. When people ask you, "what is the website address?", they could also say "what is the domain name?". Domain Names 101.2: How To Buy A Domain Name? There are many companies out there that offer great domain name registry services for a great price. If your paying somewhere between $20, to $30, to $40 per domain, you're getting ripped off. The average price you should be paying for registering a domain name is around $10-$15 per year, per domain. Step 1) You must search for an available name to buy: Here are a couple of companies I would recommend to anyone. - www.godaddy.com - Always have great deals. - www.domainsatcost.com / or .ca - Great support & reasonable prices. - www.afternic.com - Buy & sell "used" domains. - www.netfirms.ca - Well established registar company. Once you visit these websites you will need to look for their "search function" in order to search to see if the domain name you want is available for purchase. Within some industries like the real estate industry, you might have to search for hours before you find a suitable domain name for your business. Try mixing up the name in different variations, for example: In this example I will use "Domain Names" for my search - myDomainName.com - DomainNames.com - Domain-Names.com - findDomains.com - searchDomainNames.com - Domainworld.com - Domainuniverse.com - localDomains.com As you can see, I've tried to mix up the words "Domain Names" as much as possible. In fact, there are many companies world wide that are deciding the name for their business by the availability of domain names. Sounds funny doesn't it? Just try searching for a domain name for "Web Design". You might be there for hours. It may take you a few weeks to find the right domain name for your business. Once you find it, buy it! In the past, I used to recommend to my clients that they hold off on registering their business name before searching for a domain name. Domain names are valuable net-real-estate and shouldn't be taken lightly. Things To Avoid When Searching For A Domain Name: - 1) Avoid a lengthy domain: There's nothing worst when you see someone with a domain that is way too long like; www.this-is-my-domain-name-for-sale.com . Try asking your clients to type that one in!!! The smaller your domain is, the easier it is to remember, and the less of a chance you have of someone miss typing your domain when trying to visit your website. - 2) Avoid dashes if possible: Dashes are fairly new to the domain world. Most people don't think about using dashes when typing a domain name for example; www.domain-name.com. If you do use a dash, make sure to keep it to 2 words only, no more. - 3) Avoid domains where .com .ca .net and .biz are already taken: I made this mistake when I started out. I desperately wanted Smartads.info because smartads.com was taken. Over the years, I've had numerous people tell me that they couldn't find my company, or they didn't think I was in California. Many clients of mine were never able to remember that my domain was smartads.INFO. On top of that, I'm sure my efforts over the years have brought smartads.com a huge amount of traffic to their website from people searching online thinking it was my business they where visiting. Domain Names 101.3: How Long Should I Buy My Domain For? Most people register domain names for only 1 year. This is a big mistake for a couple of reasons: 1) The internet is full of scammers online who register a domain name for 1 year in order to spam, and scam as much as possible until moving onto another domain. At the same time, most companies rise and fall within 1 year. Because of this, Google and other top search engines look at this and weigh a domain name higher if the owner registers a domain name for more than 1 year. In fact, I recommend that you max out your domain name to a 10 year ownership if possible. This will tell search engines who are looking into it that you mean business, and that you're here to stay. 2) People all over the internet register their domains for 1 year and sometimes forget to renew their domain when the renewal is due. There are companies out there that have lost their domains from a service called "domain back-ordering" were an individual can order a back-order on a specific domain claiming ownership for that domain if it goes up for sale. This is a serious matter, I've lost 2 important domains because of this. Trust me, this is one mistake I will never make again. If you go on vacation, or don't pay attention, and you happen to miss the domain renewal date, someone might snatch your domain right from under your nose. If your budget permits it, always try to max out the number of years you can buy your domain for. This way you'll ensure that you have that domain for a very long time. Domain Names 101.4: What is A Domain Name Extension? An extension is the 2, or 3 digits after your name for example; www.domainname.COM. For a long time .COM was the only extension a person, or business could use. Nowadays, there are many extensions meaning different things, let's take a look at the available extensions, and see what they stand for: - .Com - Universal (Commercial) - .Net - Network - .Biz - Business - .Org - Non-Profit - .Info - Information - .Tv - Television - .Ws - Web Site - .Coop - Business Cooperatives - .Name - Personal Use - .Pro - Professionals - .museum - Museum (Sources of information) - .travel - Travel Industry - .Us - United States - .Ca - Canada - .Uk - United Kingdom To view all the domain extensions for each COUNTRTY, go here for the master list: http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/topleveldomains/countrycodeA-E.asp These extensions are reserved, and cannot be bought for personal use: - .Gov - Government - .Edu - Education - .Mil - Military Domain Names 101.5: How To Protect Your Domain Name? This topic is a very serious issue and should NOT be taken lightly. 100's of companies across the globe are being used, abused, and scammed. The reason for this is because the owner of the domain name is sometimes NOT the real owner. If you pay for a service from your web development company that includes; your website, your hosting service, and your domain name, take action right away and make sure that YOU own the domain name rights. Many web design companies out there are registering their client s domain names for them which can ultimately give them all rights and privileges to that domain name. When a web design company registers your domain for you, they can change the ownership to them, not you without you knowing about it. If you fail to pay for their services for any reason, they can then go back and take down your website, and control who uses the domain name. I've had so many calls asking for help with their domain name because their web design company won't change the ownership for them. If your in this situation, you have a couple of options: - Give up now and start fresh - If the domain is valuable, take them to court right away - Contact www.tucows.com with proof of purchase - Perform a "WHOIS" lookup on the domain name (Which tells you who owns the domain name) - Go to www.whois.net and enter your domain name - Save and print any information listed there Also, try to avoid ANY company that you don't recognize either by mail, or by email that states that you need to re-register your domain name before it expires. Do not trust any organization you don't recognize. There are a number of companies that pool into the domain name data base in order to fish out suckers that might need to register their domains for another year very soon. I've gotten numerous direct mail stating that my domain is up for renewal, one of them even demanded $800 to renew my domain name. As you might know, I called this company and had a few words with them. Prevention: The number 1 preventative action you can take, is by holding control over your domain name. Make sure to register the domain name yourself, once you have all control yourself, then hire a web design company. Do NOT give them access to it unless you really trust them. If you do give them access to your domain manager in order to point your domain name to your hosting services, try to immediately change the password after the service is complete. NEVER give out your password for your domain manager to anyone unless you really have to. I'll put it another way: Would you give the combination to your safe to anyone? This situation is exactly the same. Control over your domain name is sometimes as serious as controlling your business. Domain Names 101.6: What Is A Sub-Domain? Sub-domains are exactly that. http://sub.domainname.com. Sub-domains are typically used to separate a section of your content online to target a specific area. Sub domains are also used to store information that you want no one to see. Yahoo is a great example of using sub-domains. When you go to the "Canada" side of Yahoo, you're actually going to http://ca.yahoo.com/. "ca" for Canada .yahoo.com. This helps them to separate all information for their Canadian website. Domain Names 101.7: How To Forward A Domain Name? Domain name forwarding can be a useful tool to use. Again, I will use Yahoo for the best example of this. I just mentioned to you how Yahoo! uses a sub-domain "ca.yahoo.com" for the Canadian content side of their website. Most people don't know about going directly to ca.yahoo.com, most people associate Canada with the extension .CA. Yahoo uses this knowledge by registering www.Yahoo.CA and forwarding the domain name to > ca.yahoo.com. Try it out yourself, in your browser address bar, type in www.yahoo.ca and see where it takes you. Sometimes you need to protect your name by registering different domain name extensions, if you don't want to build a website for each extension, and you don't want each extension to go to a blank page, simply forward your other domain names to your main website. Another method of forwarding is by registering domain names that have a small spelling mistake which people might make all the time. Spelling mistakes are common, people are ultimately human. I know of some companies that register domain names with their company name, but that have spelling mistakes in them. They then forward > these domains with spelling errors to their main website. This ensures that there's no loss of potential business. Usually you can forward a domain name within your domain manager from the company you registered the domain name with. Domain Names 101.8: How To Setup Your Domain Name? This section above all has baffled a lot of people. Many of you might think that by registering a domain name, you can now show your website. This cannot be farther from the truth. Sure, you just registered a domain name, but your domain is like having an address without a house. In order to have the house, you need to have a "hosting service" in place. Without getting into what is a hosting service, I will tell you this; A hosting services is basically a "holding place" for your website files so that people can see your website online. Hosting is storage for your website. Your domain name needs to point to that storing place in order for the general public to view your website files. If you don't have any hosting services in place, try searching for (depending on your needs): - Small business hosting services - Affordable hosting services - Secure hosting services - eCommerce hosting services - Dedicated hosting services Changing The DNS: Once your hosting is setup, now you need to point your domain name to your hosting services(storage). We do this by changing the "DNS" Domain Name Servers that tell the internet were to look for your hosting service. Step 1) You need to find out the "addresses" to your hosting service, they usually go like so: dns1.hostingservice.com, dns2.hostingservice.com. If you don't know where to find the DNS addresses, simply contact your hosting service for them. This is typically the #1 reason why your web design company needs access to your domain manager. They need to get in and update the DNS addresses in order to point your domain name to their hosting service. I highly recommend that you learn how to do it yourself in order to keep control over who uses your domain name. Step 2) Within your domain name manager, you'll need to look for a link that should say; Change DNS, Update DNS, Manage Domain, etc. Once you find this area, simply type in, or paste the 2 DNS addresses within slot #1 and, slot #2. Click on the update, change, or submit button. That's it. Within 24-48 hours, your domain name should be pointed to your hosting service. If you have any problems with this step, simply contact your hosting service provider, or contact your web design company in charge of your website. Remember, if you give someone access to change the DNS for your domain name(s), make sure to change the password for your domain name manager right away to ensure security over your domain name(s). Domain Names 101.9: How To Protect Your Company Name Online? This step is not needed for all companies, but if you plan to do all of your business online, this may save your company name later on. Branding online is very important. If by chance you do become very popular, there are going to be individuals who are going to try to use your success for their own advantage. When I started out, "Smartads" wasn't a word that was really well known. Over the years, companies have been popping up with "Smartads Banners Ads", "Smartads This", and "Smartads That". They did this because I didn't secure all of the domain name extensions across the board. If you're just starting out, and you're very serious about big business online, I recommend that you search for a domain name that has most extensions available, for example: Make sure that these extensions are available... - .com - .whatever your country is (Ex. .CA for Canada, or .US for USA) - .net - .biz - .org - .info - .name If all of these extensions are available for your business name, make sure to buy them all!!! Use .com as your main website, and forward the other domains to .com. Trust me, this will help to protect your branding online by not allowing for Joe Shmo's to take your good name and use it for themselves. If you truly have a big budget, and your business has offices across the globe, make sure to buy all the domain names that you can, including every country extension your business operates in. Some people online might advise you not to buy all of the above extensions, but I want you to think of this. Let's say years down the road your company launches a new amazing product or service, and you need to build a new website for it, you now have the ability to use one of your domain names to illustrate this new product or services and keep your company branding tight! In Conclusion: A domain name is your website address. You can buy domain names from domain register companies. Make sure to max out the amount of years you claim ownership for your domain name to 10 years. Avoid using lengthy domains, or too many dashes. Learn about the domain name extensions and see if they apply to you. Protect control over your domain to avoid loosing it later on. Use sub-domains to illustrate different content not related to your main content. Forward other domain names if needed until you want to use them. Setup your domain name by getting a hosting service to store your website files, and change the DNS info to point your domain to your hosting services. Protect your company branding by buying up all the extensions possible for your domain to prevent anyone from using them against you. By: Martin Lemieux Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Martin Lemieux is the owner of a successful article directory network with over 80,000 author submitted articles, with over 30,000 active authors world wide. www.Article99.com - Authors Club www.article99.com/web-design/domain-names/ Domain Name Tips www.MyFamilyLiving.com - Family Article Directory Copyright, All Rights Reserved. Reprints accepted as long as the entire article remains the same including this author resource box. The Online Business is Yours! by Eko Wulandari Of course it's possible to make true. Anne Ahira said make internet marketing as yours. Why? Because the future of internet marketing is looking bright. The problem is you aren't the only one in the world with the idea to start an online business. With millions of people turning to the internet to try and strike gold with internet marketing, the competition has become ever so high online. So what can you do? The internet marketing just like Anne Ahira did gives you more than hundred ideas to begin it right now. Anne Ahira is one of the best Internet Marketing as I known. Just search Anne Ahira's name in yahoo or google, you can find easily Anne Ahira as one of the best Internet Marketing. If you're Indonesian, take a look for while in asianbrain.com. Asianbrain.com is the first and the biggest Internet Marketing learning center in Indonesia. And Anne Ahira is the founder of asianbrain.com. In asianbrain, it's much easier for you to understand what it is online marketing exactly. Anne Ahira will guide you how to take a quick commute to your computer, surf the internet for making money. You know that thousand of people now make their business online. So that's why, Anne Ahira will teach you how to survive in internet marketing. Anne Ahira is not only just teaching, but also giving personal motivation for you. But....after you are learning internet marketing with Anne Ahira, of course to make it real business you have practice it! You may believe it by coming directly to the asianbrain.com and you'll get what I've said. If you new comer in internet marketing world, don't worry.....it doesn't matter for you to be like Anne Ahira. Coz Anne Ahira will teach you directly, step-by-step and of course there's exclusive forum for student in asianbrain.com. This forum will help you much. If you've problem, anything connected to internet marketing, no matter about how to make website, the SEO, the Google adsense, the parking domain, etc....you just send your question. And no later long, the moderators of the forum will give you the answer. Yeah just don't care first about the high competition in the internet marketing, the future of internet marketing is bright. That's the fact, but you still have a chance if you try it. Coz Anne Ahira already gave you prove, that she can be survive in Internet Marketing competition. So, why do you take a moment coming to asianbrain.com? Have a nice experience then... About the Author copyright by: Eko Wulandari Do You Need Web Hosting? Nearly everyone that is serious about making money online will need a website and somewhere to host it. With so many web-hosting companies out there which one do you select? Once you have found and registered a domain name you are ready to move on and choose your web hosting company. A web host should be competitively priced, provide you with all the tools necessary to host your web pages and include at least 10 email addresses so you can track sales, info, support, etc. You will want a package that meets your current needs of today and any future needs as you expand. Make sure you have sufficient Bandwidth and Disk Space and the facility to have multiple domains or sub domains. Multiple domains and sub domains can be very useful features for creating other websites within the same account without the need to purchase more web hosting. Thus saving you money and time. Which web hosting company do I use? Will it do everything I want it to? Is it reliable? Will there be support there when I need it most? Are their prices competitive? There are so many good and not so good Web Hosing companies out there its just mind-boggling. I spent many hours, days and weeks researching this subject and finding a web host turned out to be much harder than first anticipated. I got frustrated and downhearted with something I assumed would be plain sailing. Then purely by chance whilst at a friends wedding I got into a conversation with a guy sitting at the same table as me. Believe it or not he was a website designer and recommended an excellent web hosting company to me. He told me he used them all the time and had no problems with recommending them to others. Isn’t it strange how things like this just happen sometimes? I had never met this guy before and have never seen him since, yet he helped to solve one of my biggest niggling problems at that time. I finally got a Web Hosting company I could put my trust in. It had a 99.9% up time guarantee, 24/7 support and a 30-day money back guarantee which gave me the chance to give it a free test run. It came with great, easy to follow movie tutorials, an online forum and an extensive knowledgebase that answered most questions. I found the tutorials invaluable when setting up my first website. There are tutorials to help with most things and if you encounter a problem that is not in the tutorials there is still the customer forum, knowledgebase or telephone you can use. In fact they now have a â€?live support system’ in place where you can chat online to a real person. They have four main plans starting with Hatchling as their basic package, then Baby, Swamp and Semi Dedicated. I decided to go with the 'Baby plan' because I could host unlimited sites and emails all on the one account. It came with everything I needed and will serve me well for many years to come. I am a big fan of tutorials, it makes the learning curve so much easier in whatever you are trying to achieve and certainly helped with setting everything up in the correct way. If you are in need of a web hosting company then make sure you choose well. Think about your requirements right now and any you may need as your business grows. It makes good business sense to do your research and seek out a top-performing host that is going to serve you well for many years to come. I was lucky, because the recommendation I received turned out to be top notch and provided me with everything I required from a website hosting company. About the Author Do you require a top performing web host? Check out: Hostgator John Reece works as an Internet marketer producing quality ebooks to help others. He tries to be a bit different by bringing workable business ideas for offline and online use and produces an excellent FREE NEWSLETTER with a free Webhosting : Drawbacks of choosing new host There are many people who are not switching to new web host due to fear of old web host and so are bound to suffer from old web host. The users are even ready to pay any amount which can be even ten times more than what they are paying just because of fear of switching over process which they think is quite complicated can even lead to loosing of their website. The new entries of the customers in this web world will themselves presume that expensive and branded names such as yahoo or MSN or MasterCard can definitely provide the best service. But there is need to think again. One should never choose the hosting plan only in terms of money whereas he/she should opt the plan on the basis of return he/she is getting from it. One can easily find sufficient space for his/her site with all the required features for a mere amount of less than $10 per month â€" with discounts for paying quarterly or yearly. The following are the aspects to be looked at while choosing a hosting company- SPACE: There are several websites, which uses less than 100 Megs of space. However 50-100 megs of space is quite sufficient even if one is planning to build a large community or upload entire albums of photos. By keeping this point in mind one should be able to upgrade with no additional charge. EMAILS: One should check for a new host that can at least offer 10 Pop3 emails. If one is running a home based business, he/she needs at least 10 addresses or even more if there are many members like own staff or family and friends who would love to use email address and effectively advertise for him/her every time they send out an email. The new host should also offer web-based emails, so as to enable to check emails anywhere. SUPPORT: One should check if the new host could answer to questions within 24 hours. If this facility is not available then surely it is not the right choice. The host to be selected must offer some sort of live chat capability during regular business hours as well, and a 24-hour a day help desk where one can email in questions. One should also check before signing the contract that proper physical address and phone numbers are available. To ensure one must Email their support or use their chat live capability before agreeing to their service. Thus support is another feature to be taken as serious issue before signing a contract. USER FRIENDLY RATING: Most important feature to look at is the kind of control panel new host is providing. One should also ask for a demo and should also check if he/she is having a free 24-hour FTP access so as to make modifications as per choice when required. Also it is necessary to have a site builder, bulletin boards, or chat rooms so as to enable one to interact with his/her customer using a new host's services. One more thing to check is that, if one is having access to popular features such as PHP, CGI, ASP, Java scripts, Perl scripting then will the new host can handle all this? Now after deciding to shift to new host, there are still some things to take care of like firstly one must make sure that all of the files that have created his/her current site are on his/her computer so that they can be moved. If one has created own pages using something like FrontPage or Site Builder or Dream weaver, then surely he/she is having these files. However if one uses a web based builder, then there is need to download each and every page of his/her site along with their dependent files to a folder on his/her PC. It seems to be a complicated process but it is not so. One can either use an FTP tool to download files or can download them using the “File â€" Save Asâ€? method outlined below. If one chooses to FTP own files down to own computer, all what is required is just availability of an FTP tool. In case one opts for another method i.e. to choose the “File â€" Save Asâ€? method, then the following steps must be followed- The first thing is to do is to go to one’s own browser can be Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or Mozilla. Thereafter find the toolbar and look for the "File" button, as this will be required. Now simply one should go to the first page in his/her website. After it is fully loaded, one must click on "File" then "Save As" and save the file and all dependent files to a folder on his/her website. This procedure is required to be done for every page. After completion of that the possession comes in the hands of owner. It is always advisable to keep one’s site backed up to his/her own computer in a separate folder, as well. Once one is having all the files the second thing is to make sure that any other files on one’s web host are backed up. In case one is using web-based mail, then he/she should forward emails to an 'off-network' email address or even should archive emails to the computer's hard drive. As soon as user switched to new hosts his/her all mails get deleted. Deleted. Now it’s required to upload all of the new files to the new host's servers. Also the new host should provide with the FTP info needed and to do this and/or live support one should keep in mind the following things in order to play safe. The next thing to do is to create an email account to match each email account from the old web host. If case one is having 3 email accounts then it is must to have matching accounts on the new servers as this will prevent to have bouncing emails later when the switch goes through. Now one can change the domain name's name servers and for this the new host will give the information. Thereafter one will probably have a primary and secondary name server. If a user is registering own domain name then the registrar should have a management area. However if one registers his/her domain name through the current host, then one must make sure that he/she is having the access to change these items once. It will take around 24-48 hours for the name server change to propagate so that the domain name is pointing to new servers instead of the old ones. Now one must make modifications as early as possible lets say within a week time else he/she have to suffer from a long waiting period problem. Before canceling the old host one must allow at lea