Choose the Right Domain Name and Improve Your Sales
So you're starting a website and have visions of making hundreds, even thousands of dollars in sales a day.

You've done your market research, found a profitable niche, planned your website's theme and layout.

Now all you need to do is build the site, buy a domain name and - voila - the cash starts rolling in.

Hold on there cowboy. While making lots of money with your website is very possible, it's not as easy as it used to be.

Increasing competition, fickle web searchers and crazy search engine algorithms make earning money from your website a little harder than it used to be.

Don't get me wrong though: If you're serious about making a living online and you work hard, you can make more money than you ever dreamed possible. The key is that you have to realize that every little decision you make in your web business helps propel you to the top and give you that edge.

One way to get an edge over your competitors and and keep your customers coming back is to choose the right domain name. (Your domain name is the unique name that identifies your Internet website.)

Here are the top 3 ways the right domain can help you build a killer cash generating website.

#1 A good domain name helps your customers remember your website.

How many times have you found a great website, forgotten to bookmark it and then completely forgot the name of the site? While some Internet users do use the bookmark function, many other Internet users do not.

They assume they'll be able to return to a good website by remembering the URL or through the search engine where they found it. But that's not always the case. Search engine rankings fall; people forget which search engine they used or which keyphrase your website came up under.

Tip: Choose a domain name primarily for your target audience. Make it simple - preferably 2 words only or 3 short ones at most. Try to choose a .com or a .net or even a .org ending - people just don't remember a funky extension like .name, .tv or even .biz.

If you can, make it an action phrase that describes what your website can do for your customer. For example, if you repair laptops, something like: www.fixlaptop.com would be a lot easier for your customer to remember than www.laptopland.com

Why is this easier? Because people don't have time to remember your URL. They are focused on what THEY want to do (i.e. 'fix laptop'.) therefore it's much easier to remember your URL if it describes what they want to do.

Choosing a domain name like this also has the added advantage of telling your customer EXACTLY what you can do for them. No questions or confusion. ('Do they sell laptops? Do they sell laptop parts or add ons? Do they fix laptops?')

#2 A good domain name helps the search engines rank you for your chosen keyword.

Although this is still up for much debate, many webmasters and SEOs think that a domain name with your top keywords in it is much better than a domain name without your keywords.

They think that search engines use the domain name to help rank your website. So, in theory, someone with a website about affiliate programs would rank higher (all other things being equal) if their domain name was http://www.affiliateprograms.com than if their domain name was http://www.makemoneyonline.com.

Tip: Try to include your top keyword or keyphrase in your domain name if you can - but not at the expense of your audience. If they can't remember it, they probably won't come back or recommend it to anyone.

#3 A good domain name establishes you as an authority on your specific niche.

I was advising someone just the other day who wanted to start their first affiliate marketing website. They were about to make the same mistake almost all newbies make: choosing a domain name that was way too general.

Here's the thing: Unless you have the resources of Amazon, Yahoo or shop.com, you just can't compete with the overly general sites. Successful marketers will tell you that the most profitable websites are found in the niches. A good domain will reflect your niche and, as such, establish you as the authority in that area.

Think about this, if you need a part for your Toshiba Laptop, what would you rather go to a website named www.laptops.com or a website called www.Toshiba-laptop-parts.com?

Which one do you think will have a larger selection of Toshiba laptop parts? Which one do you think is the authority on Toshiba laptop parts?

Choosing a good domain name can help you stand apart and keep your customers coming back to buy more. By following these three tips, you can choose the right domain name and skyrocket your website sales.

About The Author:
Kathryn O'Neill is contributing writer to Web Conversion: How To Sell More Online
For more free tips and articles on how to improve your web conversion rate and put more cash in your pocket, visit:
http://www.web-conversion.com


The Future of RSS is Not Blogs
The Future of RSS is Not Blogs
By S. Housley
Blogs vaulted RSS into the limelight but are unlikely to be the force that sustains RSS as a communication medium. The biggest opportunities for RSS are not in the blogosphere but as a corporate communication channel.
Even now, businesses that were initially reluctantly evaluating RSS are beginning to realize the power and benefit of the RSS information avenue. The inherent capacity for consumers to select the content they wish to receive will be the driving mechanism for keeping advertisements to a minimum and content quality consistent.
Like the Internet when it first started, blogs were emboldened by the "cool factor". As the novelty of being new and cool wears off, Internet webmasters and bloggers alike are realizing that maintaining a website or blog is time-consuming. "Coolness" often wears off if a channel is not monetized. With the ease of blogging and the array of blogs available, only a handful will be able to sustain fresh, constant, unique content and generate any sort of reasonable or significant revenue. As a result, blogs as we know them today will fade into the background, with many blogs being abandoned.
RSS, being a tool that saves Internet surfers time and allows webmasters to re-purpose and re-package existing and new content will, in my opinion, continue to thrive. A business effectively using RSS can bring new site visitors, increase search engine positioning, and generate product interest. The flexibility of RSS as a communication medium and the expansion capabilities of the enclosure tag will allow RSS to flourish as an online marketing tool. Each day businesses are adopting new uses for RSS, and users are becoming accustomed to skimming content that *they* choose in a single centralized location.
As businesses adopt RSS and consumers experiment with feeds, the popularity of RSS will grow. Ultimately, consumers are the driving force behind technology. The convenience of RSS and increased popularity will set a precedent for consumer expectations. Businesses using RSS as a communication vehicle are able to create keyword-rich, themed content, establishing trust, reputation, and ongoing communication with current and prospective customers.
The big consumer benefit to RSS is that consumers opt-in to content of interest, totally controlling the flow of information they receive. If the quality of the content in the feed declines, users simply remove the feed from their RSS reader and they will not receive any additional updates from that source. The RSS reader acts as an aggregator, allowing users to view and scan multiple content streams in a timely fashion.
Consumer expectation will drive businesses that are slow to adopt. Ultimately, RSS will be a standard, like email addresses and websites are now a "must" for businesses. RSS feeds will join their ranks.
Unlike blogs, businesses can easily justify RSS feeds, as they will be increasing customer and corporate communication. RSS will create new revenue channels. RSS has the potential to help companies develop strong relationships with consumers and create brand loyalty. RSS Feeds will draw existing customers and prospective clients, translating to a new or renewed income stream. Businesses using RSS feeds as a communication medium to notify interested customers of specials, discounts, product announcements, technical support tips, news and industry studies will ultimately sustain RSS as a viable and valued communication medium.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.
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Your Website Survival Guide 2005
In the big, wide online world there are millions of websites and billions of webpages. In the increasing sprawl of this virtual jungle there must be an evolution. Some of these webpages must grow stronger and thrive whilst others will weaken and die.
There are 3 types of websites in this jungle. It's important that you ask yourself which category your website fits into. Your website survival may count on it.
The Poster Site
A stunning work of art with intricate graphics that both amaze and dazzle the visitor. Poster sites are created by graphic designers for large companies
or for use by the graphic design firms themselves. They're built to look good. Usability is not normally a factor nor are good search engine rankings. Looking good takes second place to being useful.
The poster site has its place in the virtual jungle for those companies who need to put a pretty "shop front" on the Internet e.g. grapic designers. Unfortunately many companies who hire someone to design their website normally winds up with a graphic artist who recently learned how to use Dreamweaver and is now a "website consultant". The end result is a stunning piece of artwork that is of little or no use to the visitors or potential customers.
Poster sites are the supermodels of the online world - they look great but aren't useful for anything other than looking great.
Pros
Looks great
A definite WOW factor for visitors
Cons
Normally difficult to navigate
Lousy rankings in search engines
The Content Site
A site littered with valuable, useful information that visitors and search engines love. Content sites are normally run by hobbyists who have an all-consuming passion for a specific topic or subject. They write, collect and publish online massive amounts of information on one specific topic.
Content sites are also used by intelligent online marketers who have realized the true value of providing useful content to visitors. This has lead to not all content sites being created equal with some lazy online marketers using spammy tools to create "dud" content.
Content sites tend to be quite plain looking on the outside but are stuffed full of useful information on the inside. Web surfers love content sites. Why? Because they find exactly what they're looking for or a link to it. The whole idea of the Internet in the first place was to fulfill this need for useful information.
Pros
Valuable information for visitors
Visitors likely to return again
Search engines love them
Cons
Normally not as "pretty" as poster sites
Spammy techniques being used to create "dud" content
Don't Have A Clue Site
These are interesting. A DHAC site is an anomaly. They're designed by people who decide they want a website but have no clue how to go about it. They contact their ISP for information on how to do this. 45 minutes later their first creation is online.
The DHAC site has the following features:
Graphics that take 10 minutes to load
50% of the graphics are missing
Flashing banner
Animated graphical menu
Flashing body text
75% of the links don't work
Graphics scattered about the page
Blue text on green background
Frames used extensively
Incomplete HTML tags
H1 tags used for all the body text i.e. huge text
It's not fair to generalize like this I know but we've all seen these sites. They're there and they give us a direct path that we should not follow.
Pros
Good to poke fun at
Great examples of how not to design a website
Cons
They're awful
Some websites will thrive and survive in 2004 and beyond.
Other websites will weaken and die.
Which category does your website fall under?

This article was provided courtesy of Affiliate-Advocate.com where you'll find tons of information on online affiliate marketing