e-Business-Formula Internet Marketing Discussion Forum

Kevin Robb · Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 8:29 pm Post subject: New Blog Domain Name

Hi All

Seeking some help here if I can.

I am about to set up a new Blog to carry out a market test...the Blog will not sell anything as everything on it will be given away.

The Blog will be directed to the very busy Home Biz / Home Opportunity / Work at Home area.

What I need is some assistance in working out a suitable and descriptive domain name for the site...something that might appeal to the market as listed above.
Preferably the name will be less than 24 characters, hypens are fine and it must be a dot com name.

Any ideas we can start working with? Rolling Eyes

Cheers

Kevin Robb

Steve MacLellan · Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 206 Location: Canada

Hi Kevin,

homebizblog.com is registered by Jeff Hennessy, but the record is set to expire March 10th. There isn't an active website for this domain name -- he isn't using it.

Best Regards,
Steve MacLellan

Kevin Robb · Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2005 9:04 am Post subject:

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the http://www.homebizblog.com suggestion.

I put a watch on the domain but unfortunately it has been renewed.

Can you or anyone else here offer some alternative suitable domain name ideas?

Cheers Wink

Kevin Robb

kellylowe · Joined: 22 Jan 2005 Posts: 101 Location: Ozark, Arkansas

www.workfromhomeblog.com

It is available. I checked Cool

Kevin Robb · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 5:55 am Post subject:

Thanks Kelly,

Your idea brings up the following question.

If you do a search on Google using the term "WorkfromhomeBlog" you get zero results, however if you search using "Work-from-home-Blog" you get hundreds of results.

So does this make the domain with hyphens more valuable or not?

I would be interested in everyones response.

Cheers Wink

Kevin Robb

Rick Wilson · Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 18 Location: Rhode Island USA

Hi Kevin!

If you don't need the word "blog" in your domain here's a few off the top of my head ...

HomeBizResourceNews.com
HomeBizMarketing News.com
NetBizResourceNews.com
WorkAtHomeResourceNews.com
FreeHomeBizResources.com
FreeHomeBizResourceNews.com

As for using hyphens ... Over at the SSWT forum it's talked about a bit:

http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=366&highlight=domain+names+hyphens

Hope this helps a bit. Wink

Have A GREAT Week!

Rick Wilson aka CorpRebel Cool

Kevin Robb · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 6:05 am Post subject:

Hi Rick,

You have provided some good options for consideration, Thank You.

The link to the SSWT forum is great, there is a wealth of information in that thread...everyone should check it out.

It provides a clear explanation as to the value of hyphens in a domain name.

Cheers Wink

Kevin Robb

Lynn Terry · Joined: 25 Sep 2004 Posts: 66 Location: TN, USA

[quote="Kevin Robb"]If you do a search on Google using the term "WorkfromhomeBlog" you get zero results, however if you search using "Work-from-home-Blog" you get hundreds of results.

So does this make the domain with hyphens more valuable or not?
[/quote]

The number of results in a search engine doesnt matter so much - it's the number of searches you'll want to look at. Using WordTracker's free trial, you'll find that "workfromhomeblog" gets 0 searches. "work from home blog" (spaces are the same as hyphens) gets 0 searches as well. However, "work from home" gets over 5,000 searches a day.

Considering that the domain name lends very little weight to your rankings, the only real issue is [b]how[/b] people will link to you (ie which keyword phrase they will use as "link text").

People often link to my site like this:

[url=http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com]Self-Starters Weekly Tips[/url]

They do that because it is the domain name and title of my site. Of course, that doesnt help me very much in my quest to rank well for "learn internet marketing". So I have to request that link text (learn internet marketing) specifically, or go out and manually obtain keyword-rich inbound links.

If your domain is "workathomeblog" or "work-at-home-blog", people will likely link to you this way: [url=http://www.workathomeblog.com]work at home blog[/url]. Having ALL of your inbound links set that way will dillute the keyword phrase "work at home" and you will rank well only for "work at home blog" (which gets 0 searches).

You dont want to "over optimize" or get spammy, of course... but those are some things to consider when choosing your domain name.

p.s. My domain name doesnt stop me from ranking well for "learn internet marketing" on Google. I am currently #3: http://www.google.com/search?q=learn+internet+marketing . So dont spend *too* much time on the domain name... as your rankings are really determined by your content and link strategy Wink

Kevin Robb · Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2005 4:41 pm Post subject:

Hi Lynn,

Thanks for kicking in here with some solid detail.
That's what this forum is all about, creating discussion and working through the issues. Very Happy

The hyphen vs no hyphen raises it's head quite frequently as a topic so I thought I would see if there had been any change of opinion in recent times.

[b]Lynn wrote:[/b]
[quote]Considering that the domain name lends very little weight to your rankings, the only real issue is how people will link to you (ie which keyword phrase they will use as "link text")[/quote]

Agreed.

[quote]People often link to my site like this:
Self-Starters Weekly Tips
They do that because it is the domain name and title of my site. Of course, that doesnt help me very much in my quest to rank well for "learn internet marketing". So I have to request that link text (learn internet marketing) specifically, or go out and manually obtain keyword-rich inbound links. [/quote]

This opens up a whole new topic...that being said your explanation is very clear.

Cheers Wink

Kevin Robb

Kevin Robb · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2005 2:10 pm Post subject:

Hi All,

Domain name update...

I have registered the domain name http://www.homebizletter.com

Over the next few weeks I will prepare the site and let you know actually what I am going to do with it.

Remember it will be a Blog and it will not sell anything...anyone care to guess as to it's purpose?

Cheers Wink

Kevin Robb

kellylowe · Joined: 22 Jan 2005 Posts: 101 Location: Ozark, Arkansas

To offer home business advice and information?

My guess is that you would use the site to direct visitors to other sites, where things are being promoted, for more information.

Am I right???

Kevin Robb · Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:22 pm Post subject:

Hi Kelly,

Your assumption as to the purpose of Homebizletter.com is close, but it actually has something to do with list building...

I'm working on it now, when I get a little further on with it I will let you all take a look and see if you can tell me how it's going to work.

Coming soon...

Oh the suspense!!!

Don't keep me waiting!!

Tell me more!

Cheers Wink

Kevin Robb

Chris (cat) · Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:46 am Post subject: A Few Thoughts

This post will probably be in a few sections so bare with me.

I tend to agree with Lynn with this one, no one will be typing in the keyword/phrase then adding blog on the end.

Although you can advise people how to link to your page on your "link to us" page, some and this is a small percentage will link to your page using the exact domain name, ie home biz blog.

Kevin if you actually go to nichebot.com, I find this the most accurate online as it runs off word tracker and google.

Type in "home biz", you will find its getting very low hits. Put "blog" on the end and you will find know one is looking for that phrase at all.

So even with a huge inbound link campaign, you will still not be receiving any free traffic through the SE's.

Now if you type in "home business" you will see that the keywords "home based business ideas" and "best home based businesses" are getting reasonable traffic with not much comp.

So how could you use this?

The fact is people don't have to know that the site is a blog, being a blog some people will know and some people won't.

People are looking for good content, period. So if it is good they will come back and you can tell them how to receive good info straight to their desktop for constant updates.

So lets say you go with "home based business ideas". I would place it on all the blog directories, on all major SE's, on my yahoo and my msn pages, blog once a day every day for two weeks, use pingomatic after each blog and due to the low comp on the SE's you should get close to first place on many of the major SE's.

I did a search for inbound links to the first 10 websites ranked on google for the keyword "best home based businesses". The top few have quite a lot of inbound links but the 6th onwards have very few.

This means that as they are sites, not blog you will climb up on google quite quickly, reasonably anyway.

On to the second topic, hyphens in domain names.

Lets say that the theory is correct that it doesn't matter either way, hyphens or not. Why not then go the hyphen.

Now lets say the theory is correct? You've lost nothing by going the hyphen and you get higher rankings.

After reading Michael Wongs book on SE's I'm convinced. He states that he has done some testing (not conclusive) and hyphen urls rank 300% better than non hyphen!

Just a thought anyway. Wink

Cheers, Chris
Anam cara

Chris (cat) · Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 3:14 am Post subject: Just To Add

Sorry, I just viewed Lynn's last comment -

[quote]So dont spend *too* much time on the domain name... as your rankings are really determined by your content and link strategy [/quote]

I agree with Lynn to an extent.

A good linking strategy will bring in more traffic and help rankings but how about content?

Well content does help but let me put it this way. Do you want to write great content that will boost your rank to 1st position for a keyword/phrase that gets 50 hits across the web per day.

Or good content that get you to the same ranking but on a keyword that gets 1000 hits a day?

Of course this is a balance and its up to you how you want to build your site. Lots more hits, more competition more, more effort to get first page ranking.

The way I see it is you need two things to succeed online, traffic and trust.

Traffic through SE's, linking and other methods. This basically gets people to your site.

To make sales you then have to build trust to get them coming back. This means good content, information, email courses, forums, etc.

Why do I not put content in the "traffic" category.

Because by picking the right keywords, you can get high rankings with little content on your site.

So no content what does the person do? Not come back of course. There is not content on the site now, so why would they "trust" the webmaster to have content on the site the second time around?

Therefore in my view, good content builds trust but does not necessarily bring in traffic. Repeat tarffic yes (trust), initial not much.

Cheers, Chris
Anam cara

Linda Ogier · Posted: Sun Apr 17, 2005 2:58 pm Post subject:

Chris, Chris, Chris..... that is some of the most eloquently put, incredibly useful info I have read.

THANKS! Very Happy

Cheers,
Linda.