Have you heard about domain names that sold for over a million dollars? Inspired by this, you imagine registering a great domain name, hanging onto it for a while, and then selling it off to become the next multi-millionaire.

First of all, many of the truly great domain names are already taken. Second, the dot com bust took some of the wind out of inflated domain name prices. (If you sell your domain name for millions of dollars worth of stock in a publicly traded dot com flop, what is the name really worth?)

The cybersquatter buys domain names totally on speculation. Sometimes he will register names of famous brands, companies, or individuals. Time and again, these domain name speculators learn the hard way that they must respect intellectual property rights.

However, you can still make money from domain names if you are sensible in your approach. Here are some suggestions on ways to profit.

1. Affiliate Programs: Use your domain name to promote an appropriate affiliate program.

2. Informational Sites: Create content and then profit from it by earning advertising revenue through Google AdSense or a similar program.

3. Redirect to Your Own Site: Some reasons you might want to do this include preventing competitors from using a particular domain name and benefiting from searches some users perform by domain name. (For example, if they wanted to order flowers, they might just type “flowers.com” in their web browser.

4. Product Sites: Create your own or sell someone else`s product appropriate to your domain name.

5. Park Your Domain Names: You might feel that your name has real potential for resale value. There are companies that will allow you to park your domain on their servers, advertise that your name is for sale, and split advertising revenue with you.

The trick is to generate traffic for your domain name. That traffic in turn will create revenue.

First, you will have a fully developed website. A fully constructed building on a piece of land increases the value of the real estate property. Similarly, the value of your domain name is enhanced by a complete and operating website.

Second, you have traffic. Just as a shopping mall with no traffic results in no sales, so a website must have traffic to generate income.

Third, you have income.

Similarly, the gross income, net profits and cashflow of a website have value. For example, if someone offered you $1,000 for your domain name and website when it was generating $10,000 per day in profits, you would likely laugh at him.

You really can profit from your domain name investments by adding value and properly developing your web properties.

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We all know that as the number of people who cater to domain name and some of the domain name services increase, some transformations under the domain name industry were being made and thus brought certain bangs to the lives of most people everywhere else in the world. An evidence for such claim is the many people who are searching some possible means that will greatly aid them in getting their own domain names.

Speaking on how to convert a domain name to IP address, I am sure that many of you are still not aware that this thing exists in the world of the internet. So to let you know something about how to convert a domain name to IP address, this article is particularly written.

When it comes to the ways in converting a domain name to IP address, it is interesting to know that the Domain Name System or DNS plays a very vital role in this area. It is in converting a domain name to IP address that the Domain Name System takes a great part. Well, it is greatly for the main fact that the DNS is such a powerful tool that is designed to contribute a large factor in converting a domain name to IP address. And as its main purpose or function, the DNS takes hold of everything when it comes to converting a domain name to IP address.

Since the DNS is converting a domain name to IP address, it is then a nice thing to know that the IP or the Internet Protocol address is a 32-bit integer.

Aside from converting a domain name to IP address, the DNS also grants independence from knowing the physical location of a host.

In the process of converting a domain name to IP address, it is considered that the DNS is a distributed database by the TCP/IP applications to map a domain name to IP address.

So by converting a domain name to IP address, the clients and the servers will be able to communicate with each other.

And so with the process of converting a domain name to IP address, the system will then be able to access the DNS through a resolver, which lets the resolver to get the domain name and return back the IP address or get the IP address and search for the domain name. For that matter, the process for converting a domain name to IP address involves the functioning of the TCP for opening a link or sending a datagram through the UDRP. It is then understandable that everything is really in control when converting a domain name to IP address.

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Have you heard about the new standard for domain name whois privacy that the Canadian Internet Registration Authority or the CIRA has recently announced?

Recently, numerous reports have noted that the Canadian Internet Registration Authority has proposes a new standard for the domain name who-is privacy. In their proposal, it is considered that the new policy for domain name who-is privacy will provide all the dot-ca domain name owners with an enhanced domain name who-is privacy safeguards, bringing the domain name who-is privacy policy in line with the currently enacted Canadian privacy laws.

Today, the new proposed domain name who-is standard becomes the hottest subject of a general public consultation. And this domain name who-is policy will see the CIRA to pursue in collecting complete information from dot-ca domain name owners, however, it will create only a little amount of the details that are available to the general public in its web-based domain name who-is look-up directory.

Along with such introduction, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority itself have assumed that this new domain name whois standard will ensure greater privacy protection barriers under the dot-ca regime than are recently accessible with so many other internet domains just like the dot-com. In some reports about this matter proposed by the CIRA, it is noted that the president of the CEO of CIRA had mentioned that this new standard for the domain name and who-is privacy is all about protecting the people’s fundamental right to privacy in the virtual reality. Along with that statement, the president of the CEO of CIRA also mentioned that since the internet is a wonderful and trans formative force, it is then right to take some great care to ensure that such dimension serves the people, and not the other way around.

It further holds that the policy for organizations with dot-ca designations will not be changed, so the same date will continue to be accessible through whois. And lastly, the new policy holds that CIRA will pursue to ensure that all registration data is available to law enforcement agencies.

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We all know that in the world of domain names today, the presence of the DNS domain name system is very much significant. It is interesting to know that the acronym DNS actually stands for Domain Name System/Service/Server.

The DNS domain name system is actually a powerful tool that contributes a great part in the domain name process. It is often described as an internet service that translates or transforms the domain names into an IP or Internet Protocol address.

Aside from knowing such basic function of the DNS domain name system, it is also interesting to learn that a basic possession of the DNS domain name system is caching. This property takes place in situations when a server welcomes information about a mapping, it caches that information.

In terms of caching, it is very nice to know that every server has a cache for currently applied names along with records of where the mapping data for a particular name was taken. So when a particular client is asking the server to determine a certain domain name, the DNS domain name system then does check if it has the power for a domain name, and if it does, the system doesn’t need to cache the information. However, if it has no authority for a domain name, the DNS domain name system then checks its cache whether the domain name has been resolved currently, and if yes, the DNS domain name system reports the caching data to its clients.

There are some instances that the DNS domain name system cache can be examined when the system cached the data once, but didn’t adjust it. Due to the reason that the information about a certain domain name can be changed, the server may have inaccurate data in its caching table.

So whenever an authority responds to a request for a domain name, it then involves a Time to live value in the answer which indicates how long it assures the binding to linger.

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Domain names are the hottest net-real-estate on the internet. It’s no wonder services like: “Domain Name Back-ordering” is available to the public. Can someone really back-order your domain right from underneath you? Guess again…

So what is Domain Name Back-ordering?

This is a service that allows anybody on the internet to reserve a domain name if and when it goes up for sale! Guess again…

Companies all over the internet are ordering this service for website url’s that seem to be popular! What if by chance you just happen to forget to re-order your domain name? Let’s say that you go on vacation and neglect to check your emails that are now telling you to renew your domain name?

Someone else now owns your domain name because you simply neglected your duty to keep your net-real-estate up-to-date!

Unless you own a Canadian domain name protected by the CIRA, or you have a trademark on your domain name or business name, you are “really” out of luck.

. On the flip side, some of those websites are simply a mistake. I think the point here is; avoid making that mistake and renew your domain name for at least 5 years.

Google is apparently looking through the “WHOIS Data Base” to see which websites have the staying power online and are serious by registering their domain name for more than 1 year at a time.

Again, should domain back-ordering be allowed?

Just like a patent for an invention, you should have up to 1 year to claim that domain unless you transfer the domain name to another company or individual. This way we would have less domain name theft and less “hick-ups” from companies who simply forget their important responsibility.

Protect Your Net-Real-Estate!

Your website address is the most important commodity you have online. It is as important as your business name itself. It is what ties your company offline to online. People know you through your domain name. Potential clients may end up visiting your website later on, you wouldn’t want some other company in your place?

Please be careful when give out the access information for your domain name to anyone that isn’t within your trusted circle.

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There was a time that the concept of domaining and people called domainers was so new that no one knew it would be it’s own specialty. Today, it’s still a growing industry (despite the slowdown in the overall economy right now), and finally, professional people in the more mainstream, online and offline, are seeing the value of a good domain name.

If you are new or considering jumping in, where do you start? The first question is what is your ultimate goal with domaining? Do you want to start with a few good domains, and develop them? Do you want to spend a lot of money on one domain? Do you intend to buy a group of (probably) lesser domains and flip them? Each of these plans has a pro and a con, and in a group of domainers, you’ll find someone who tried one of these plans.

If you really don’t know the answer, then a good place to start is to read how some of the most successful domainers today got started. In the early days, domainers were secluded and worked alone with no communication with other domainers. There was no way to know what they did, what worked and what didn’t. Even until a few years ago, the top people in the industry didn’t speak publicly on what they were doing, or how they got started. This has changed. People like Frank Schilling, Rick Schwartz, and a few others started speaking more openly online. Michael Gilmour has an interesting story on how he started in domaining not that many years ago.

I recommend that you do some reading – not unlike reading the biographies of leaders in other industries, or reading about the underdog who made it from no-where. I really recommend reading Frank Schilling’s now retired blog “Seven Mile.” Frank generously shared his experiences, his thoughts on many, many domaining topics, graciously answered questions, and gave us all hope that we can be the underdog. He stopped blogging in early 2008, but the information there is invaluable.

It caused quite a stir when Frank and a few other well-known domainers starting openly sharing their thoughts. Take advantage of it! Sometimes all you need is one kernel of an idea to get you on the right track that works.

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I logged into my Google Adsense account today and out of curiosity, checked how much money it had made me since I started using it. I was really shocked. Apparently from June 23, 2003 to November 3 2008 I’ve made $289.99. I’ve never used adsense on any of my main sites but I still thought that I had made over $1,000.

Breaking Down My Stats and Puitting Things Into Perspective

For me, the most important stats on the adsense report page is the Page CTR (Click Thru Rate) and the Effective CPM. Google explains the Effective CPM as :

From a publisher’s perspective, the effective cost-per-thousand impressions (eCPM) is a useful way to compare revenue across different channels and advertising programs. It is calculated by dividing total earnings by the number of impressions in thousands. For example, if a publisher earned $180 from 45,000 impressions, the eCPM would equal $180/45, or $4.00. However, please keep in mind that eCPM is a reporting feature that does not represent the actual amount paid to a publisher.

Most channels seem to have a CTR of 0.5% and an ECPM of around $1 however AlcoholView and Finding Love were much higher. AlcoholView had a CTR of 1.10% and en ECPM of $5.35 whereas Finding Love had a CTR of 0.80% and an ECPM of $2.19. Both of these stats are considerable higher than all other channels.

Both AlcoholView and Finding Love are mini sites I created to test the waters with their related niche. I was also curious to see if you could make money with a site using free articles.

I probably spent less than an house creating AlcoholView and less than 2 hours creating Finding Love (as I added some other affiliate links). All I did was upload WordPress, activate a free design and then add a few free articles from an article directory. Other than that I haven’t did anything with them. My original plan was to go back and spend more time on them later if they were converting well but I never made the time.

The domain name AlcoholView expires soon so I decided to list it for sale on a few forums but I’ve not had any offers as yet. I’m tempted to renew the domain again and add some more articles as the ECPM is really high. But then again, this is time that could be spent working on another site. Even though the site has made a few dollars here and there I think that to increase page impressions and Search Engine traffic I really need to spend some time writing original articles but I’m not sure how much time I would have to spend on the site to get it to a dollar a day through adsense, and I’m not really willing to waste more time on it either.

Which is why I’m going to cut my losses, sell these sites and move on. Although they didn’t make money, I’m glad I built those sites as it convinced me that free articles are generally speaking, not a great way to add content to a site.

Selling Text Links : A better alternative to Adsense for Mini Sites?

Adsense is not usually a big earner which is why it’s sometime called ‘Webmaster Welfare‘. Which is why it would be better to just get some inbound links to my mini sites and once it has a PR of at least 3, I can sell text links on it. I know that Google frowns upon this but if the site got a PR penalty I wouldn’t be that bothered.

I created a few other content based mini sites using original articles recently and I think thats the strategy I’m going to apply to them. The sites in question are Htaccess Basics and Taekwondo Patterns. I spent the best part of a working day on each site doing research for the articles and writing the posts. The articles are original and informatitive so they should be able to get inbound links natrually though I will probably add links to them on some other sites I own.

As I wrote in my article Using WordPress To Create Mini Sites last month, the idea is to spent a little time building the site and then move on. I know I can build sites of this quality within a day so if these sites prove to be profitable I am going to start developing more (though I am going to wait to see how these two perform before I commit time to it).

So to summarise, this is how I plan on making money through mini sites :

• I’ll create a mini site using wordpress using a free design.
• I will spent about a day writing original content to the site and making sure the site is actually useful to people.
• I will try and get some inbound links and get a PageRank within a few months.
• Once it has some PR, I will then sell text links using Text Link Ads, LinkWorth or LinkXL.
• I will then repeat the process.

Some things to note :

• If the site gets a little traffic, I may add adsense or promote a related product through the site. I might also spend some more time adding content to the site so that traffic increases.
• I won’t worry too much about getting a PageRank penalty. The whole point of this process is to get the site to a point where it is making money and move on.

I actually have 3 or 4 old sites which I am doing this on just now. They are sites which had good traffic at one point but have not been updated in years. However, since they still retain a PageRank I am able to make a few hundred dollars a month by selling text links on them.

I’m sure some of you will be interested in developing a mini site of your own so if you have any questions, stories or tips, please share them by leaving a comment

Also, I encourage you to subscribe to Self Made Minds, as they have written some great posts regarding mini sites and continue to make good money through them.

Thanks,
Kevin

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