Choosing a domain name is really important as it is the center of your internet business. There are lots of things that you need to consider while choosing a name because it will represent you on the Web. Here are my seven handy tips about choosing domain name -

1. Keep it short

There are places which let you register names up to 63 characters. You need to keep in mind that people won’t remember such big names. You should register short names which visitors and customers can remember. I always recommend my clients to restrict the domains to seven characters (suffix excluded).

2. Dot com, dot net, or something else?

There are plenty of extensions out there right now and I would recommend you to go for .com for businesses. This extension is used the most while searching for Websites. It is also the oldest extension around. This will show that you business is old enough and that you have a good presence on the Web.

3. Stay away from the trademarked names

I am saying this for two reasons and they are really good. First – it doesn’t look nice. You might have heard stories about someone who bought a “some-huge-multi-million-dollar-company.com” and then sold it to the company for a lot of money. But you need to remember that these companies have spent a lot of money and time for creating their brand and what goes around comes around. Also, the companies aren’t really signing checks for getting their names back; they just call lawyers.

4. Register your domain RIGHT NOW!

Domain names are getting snatched at lighting speed and hence you will have to register your domain fast or else you will end up with something that no one wants. You don’t need to have any ecommerce department or Webmaster or Web design consultant for this. You can book a domain even if you do not have any Web pages. Register fast or you will lose out.

5. One might not be enough

Sometimes, it is a good idea to register the similar domain names at once. You can register Chris.com and Chris.net at the same time or someone else might take it. You can also register the full company name and easier, shorter version for remembering it well. Some people might make typos for your company name. Don’t get a separate Web page for each. The typo domains can just point to the same Website.

6. Character types

You might know about this; domain names can only contain dashes, numbers, and letters. Symbols and spaces aren’t allowed. Also, the domain names aren’t case sensitive.

7. Ask around

If you have a shortlist containing your preferred names; then it is recommended that you ask your clients and friends about what they have to say. It isn’t hard to get a name that is too hard to remember for other people. Your domain should be easy to say, easy to spell and you shouldn’t need any explanation about why you choose that particular domain name. It should ideally be self-explanatory.

Finally, if you have got the right domain name but aren’t sure if it is the one .. then register it right away before someone else does it.

It is really important to select the right domain name for your blog. The importance of picking a domain is underestimated by a lot of people. Hence I am writing this article to tell you that this is serious and hence you should make the right choice. Pick up something that you think is the best. Here are my two bits to go about it.

Keywords - Keywords play a really important role in any domain. Good keywords help you to get a higher rank in search engines. Getting something like Webhosting.com can be pretty hard and you might need to spend a lot of money for it. However, niche markets are coming out these days and hence the keyword possibilities are increasing. So you should use your creativity for getting one keyword in your domain.

Branding -We sometimes forget about our audience and users in a quest for getting keywords. You should make sure that your domain is catchy and also easy to memorize so that the users can get back to your Website without forgetting about it. Sometimes, catchy and unrelated domains get the job done for you. For instance – Google; it has nothing to do with the search engine but still dominates the Web. Branding should be kept in mind while registering domain names.

Length, hyphes, etc. - Shorter domains are easier to memorize but you shouldn’t just buy looking at the length. If you get something like psju.com then it won’t be of any use because it doesn’t relate to your niche. You can use hyphens in the domain but try to avoid them because the value goes down as the domain name gets bigger. It is also recommended that you avoid double letters or else you might lost traffic to typos. Stay away from things like wordpresssetup.com; it will confuse the readers.

Extension - The most popular domain extension is .com but you shouldn’t limit yourself to just that. You should get an extension that suits the site the most. If your blog relates to any organization, then it should be .org. If you are being informative and your blog is an informational site, then .info is good too. .com is a big plus simply because people type .com without thinking anything else.

People have been asking me for some Google SEO tips and hence I was thinking about writing this article for a long time. I sat down; jotted all the vital points and have finally completed it. On-page SEO is now really important after Google Panda update. Old SEO techniques that were used years ago might not be useful now. In fact, they might be harmful for your blogs. Here I am jotting down my two bits –

Domain age – Google prefers Websites that are relatively older and hence I would recommend you to buy older domains for your new projects. Or if you are buying a new one, keep it for at least five years.

Upgrade the blog at regular intervals – It is important that your blog is updated regularly. Google likes sites which are up-to-date. I make sure that all my online properties are updated at least once a week and my blog posts are regularly updated too.

Write for visitors – It is recommended that you publish articles which provide information not for Google but to the visitors. I am not saying that you should ignore the concept of keyword density but your visitors should enjoy reading the article. A high keyword density doesn’t guarantee you a higher ran. Also, you should use LSI keywords.

Press release submission – This is another great way to get powerful backlinks and traffic. But your press releases should be powerful. A press release that is written well will attract a lot of publishers and this will give you a lot of links in turn.

Flash – Flash might look very attractive to you but it is useless from Google’s point of view because Flash can’t be read by Google.

Meta tags – Using meta tags can be effective in SEO. They aren’t so important now but I still use them anyways.
Heading tab – Use heading tags like H1, H2, and H3; they are useful provided you use it in the right way. Heading tags should follow up each other and I don’t use 2 H1 tags. Also, you should put the targeted keyword in heading tags.

Setting sitemaps – Sitemaps are important. For my WordPress blogs, I don’t just set up simple sitemap but also video and image sitemap.  All these sitemaps are then submitted to main search engines. This is really important and shouldn’t be ignored.

Mark out the keywords – Highlight your keyword by making it bold, underlined, and italicized in all your posts.

External links – The external links should be built for almost all the pages of your site and not just for the home page. This will show Google that the post has useful stuff to offer.

Distribution of articles – submitting articles to the article directories are effective but aren’t as powerful as they used to be some time ago. These days, I first publish my articles and then submit them to many article directories. This can be done by some kinda article submitter software too.

Images – You should use images as illustrate your article and it is also good from the SEO point of view. The image should contain a title and description along with the keyword.

The social media bubble is growing and everyone knows how to use Google+, Facebook, and Twitter. Of late, I realized that a lot of organizations and businesses know that they can make money by having online communities but a lot of them either don’t grow one or don’t have time for it. I am blogging about some tips for making money through social media skills.

1. Your skills should have a price tag – The big problem I often notice is that a lot of people do have all the necessary skills but don’t get paid for it. This is primarily because they don’t put a price tag on themselves. If you know all about social media and know how to use it strategically, then you should work around it. There are chances that people will pay you for it.
2. Work for free but just once – You will have to prove how good you are at growing the online communities both to your potential clients and to yourself. I will recommend you to find some cash strapped tiny business or any non-profit organization and then offer to do the work for free. This will go on your resume and will also build your knowledge and self-confidence. You will end up growing your network too and there will be clients who will recommend you.
   
3. Landing your first paid client – You might find it hard to work for free but it is ideal to start like this because you get a lot of experience. Also, you will get more clients through your existing one. So how to sign that first client? For me, it happened through my existing friends and contacts. You can tap your networks through Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and your own blog. Also, don’t hesitate to tell your friends, they will help you spread the word and you might get to a gold mine through this.
4. Decide what are your services – Your offerings shouldn’t just say ‘do social media work’. Are you going to teach people how to use Facebook and Twitter? Will you make blog strategies for the companies to implement? You might even grow online communities for the clients. You should also consider the type of clients that you wish to work for – organizations, businesses, individuals, or all. If a new acquaintance asks you about what you do, then you should be able to explain everything in simple terms and you should use examples too.
5. How much are you going to charge? – Social media consulting prices can start from free and go up to several hundred dollars per hour. Irrespective of your price tag, there will be people who will either think that you are dirt cheap or that you are too expensive. It is essential to find a sweet spot between the experience and skills.

Your charges can change from one client to the other. If one client can afford to pay you more then you can charge more money per hour or per project. Some times a client can lose interest in you once you reveal your price. If you are worried about this, then you can offer that client several tiers of services having different price tags.