Category Archives: Education

07Sep/20

Slow Internet?

I’m just like you, I’d bet. Frustrated with S-L-O-W #InternetSpeed right now. But actually, I was shocked that the internet itself didn’t crash and burn. Having some background in #InternetTechnology, I thought surely this would be that proverbial straw… Forbes and other resources indicate that traffic has increased 70%. My own sense is that estimate is way too low, but then I am not out there collecting statistics on usage. Just a hunch.

The #GoodNews is, are there steps you can take for yourself to make sure that the things you control are all OK.

He’s not going to tell me to reboot, is he?

Yes, occasionally reboot your #CableModem, #Router, and the devices you connect with to make sure they are running clean and error-free. To reboot your cable modem many #ISPs (#InternetServiceProviders) have a #VoiceMenu when you call their service line that gives you an option to #RebootYourModem. Many also provide that option through a #MobileApp.

You can also run an #InternetSpeedTest at http://speedtest.net/ to see if your service is measuring up at any given time.

Baking cookies for a tech-savvy friend or neighborhood geek never hurts, LOL.

At any given time consider that an issue you may be having could be one or more of the following:

  • Your own device – PC, phone, tablet, etc.
  • Your physical location compared to your router if you are on #WiFi
  • Local or common wiring in your locations – some of it may be YOUR responsibility, and some will be your service provider’s responsibility
  • Any of the physical parts such as the actual card in your computer where the cable plugs in or the #WiFiMagic takes place
  • Your cable modem
  • Your wired or WiFi router
  • Your local service provider (#COX #CoxCable #CenturyLink #ATAndT #Verizon #Comcast #BrightHouse, etc.)
  • The internet backbone itself
  • All those same devices listed above in the location owned by the sites and servers that you are connecting to
  • And the actual server(s) you are connecting to
That’s a LOT of “moving parts” and at any given time any one of them, any combination, or all of them at once could be having issues that contribute to what appears on your end as poor performance. So, it may be your ISP. Or maybe not.

OR, maybe the Almighty is just giving your bum and internet break!

Excuse me now, I gotta stand up and move a bit…

#PoorInternetPerformance #SlowInternet 

20May/18

What is a vanity URL and why you need one

What is a Vanity URL and why you need one

What is a vanity URL

photo credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vanity,_price_10_cents_-_for_sale_here._LCCN2014646772.jpg

Just what is a Vanity URL or Vanity Domain and why would you ever want one?

First a note for our techie critics. Technically a URL and a domain name are not the same thing. A domain name is a URL. But not all URLs are domain names. But for the layman’s purposes, in this article, we will use the terms interchangeably.

A vanity URL or vanity domain name is simply a domain name or URL that points to another domain name or URL. A Vanity URL can point to another website or even to s specific page within a website making it easier for you to brand, and easier for your customers to find. Looking at the second question is the best way to explain. Let’s say you have a business with one of those replicated websites with a long, cryptic name, such as www.BigAffiliateSales.com/affiliates/?=affiliateid=10101010102. Not too cool, is it? Hard to tell someone, impossible to remember, and it would never fit in a readable type size onto a business card. So you do the wise thing and buy a vanity domain name that is shorter, more memorable, and helps you brand yourself, your company name, or gives you some “SEO Juice”, or some “get me found on Google” superpower.

Here are some examples. Note, none of these have been checked for availability, and are not intended to be anything other than examples.

Your name is Jane Smith and you want to brand yourself or make it easy for people who know you to find your site online so you buy JaneSmith-dot-something or and redirect or forward  it (point it) to your affiliate URL. When someone types in or clicks on your vanity URL they go directly to your actual, long, forgettable affiliate URL. You could do the same thing with your company name. The third possibility given above is where you try to squeeze a little SEO juice out of your vanity domain. So you buy the domain name AFewWordsJammedTogether-dot-something. Having used words someone might search on will help you get found easier on Google.

Here are some tips on choosing a vanity domain name.

  1. Shorter is usually better than longer. The best exceptions are short phrases with SEO juice
  2. Make it memorable if you can
  3. Acronyms that mean nothing to the layman or shortened words that may be hard to guess for the common person not familiar with your company or organization, though short, are probably not the best choices
  4. If the dot-com version is not available, you may want to choose one of the new Top-Level-Domains or TLD’s. A Top-Level-Domain is simply the ending – the part after the last dot, such as dot-com, dot-net, etc. There are many newer Top-Level-Domains to consider, like dot-club and others that may be perfect for your vanity domain name.
26Dec/16

New top level domains create future opportunities to get ahead of the curve

how do you get ahead of the curve with domain namesAre you seeking ways to beat competition to the punch, to get ahead of the curve?

Are you seeking ways to beat the competition to the punch, to get ahead of the curve? It’s not always easy. Web prophets abound that tell us what the future of the web will look like. But sometimes it can be straightforward. For years the dot-com domains have ruled the web. If you didn’t have a dot-com, net, or org, you were nuttin.

You may know people, maybe you are one of them, who thinks that no matter what domain you want to visit, your fingers add “www” on the front and “.com” on the end. Certainly, in today’s online business world, the dot-com domain is king. At 30fold Domains, we work with businesses often that have to get very creative in order to get a dot-com domain name that is short and memorable, yet descriptive and powerfully branding.

The culprit is short-term-thinking

Many articles I’ve read on the new domain endings, or top-level-domains, advise avoiding them and going for the dot-com. I totally agree, your primary business website begs for a good dot-com…today. But don’t dismiss the wonderfully creative things you can do with the new top-level-domains.

This is a great area to let your creative juices flow, especially on a more focused, niche driven, micro site. All the other marketing rules still apply, but don’t discount the power of a domain name other than your dot-com that can fit into your strategy. Many such domain names are already in use and are very effective. Consider the forward thinking people who scooped up brand.me or about.me. Dot-ME is one of the top-level-domains based on country name abbreviations just like dot-US and dot-UK. There’s one for each country. There are also more and more generic top-level-domains becoming available that will allow you a lot of flexibility.

Search for domain names here.

New top-level-domains spell “opportunity”

For some, these new top-level-domains or extensions offer the opportunity to finally get their company name. Acme-dot-com has not been available for a long, long time. But maybe, barring a more creative re-branding involving a new company name, you can grab acme-dot-something-else!

Wikipedia keeps a list of top-level-domains or TLDs (you didn’t think techies would miss an opportunity for an acronym, did you?).

How creative can you get with dot-BE, (just-let-it-dot-be?). To that end, be aware that while some countries, such as Columbia (dot-CO) and Montenegro (dot-ME) have figured out this is another source of ongoing residual income (Elvis money), other countries actually restrict you from getting their TLDs unless you live in that country or have a registered business there. But there are plenty of non-restricted TLDs where price is the only inhibitor. You can see if your desired domain name is available and check prices here.

You may have been disappointed that someone thought of grabbing your club’s name as a domain name before you did, but now you can grab QuiltMeAQuilt-dot-CLUB, since “CLUB” is now a TLD. It’s a great alternative for many who could not get the dot-ORG they thought was such a good fit. At 30fold Domains we offer most of the country domain names (assuming you or your entity meet the requirements of that country) as well as most of the generic ones. There are nearly 1000. Here’s a list of some of the one’s we currently offer as of this writing.

  • ac
  • academy
  • accountant
  • accountants
  • actor
  • adult
  • ag
  • agency
  • ai
  • airforce
  • am
  • amsterdam
  • apartments
  • app
  • archi
  • army
  • art
  • asia
  • associates
  • at
  • attorney
  • auction
  • auto
  • autos
  • baby
  • band
  • bar
  • barcelona
  • bargains
  • bayern
  • be
  • beer
  • berlin
  • best
  • bet
  • bid
  • bike
  • bingo
  • bio
  • biz
  • biz.pl
  • black
  • blog
  • blue
  • boston
  • boutique
  • build
  • builders
  • business
  • buzz
  • bz
  • ca
  • cab
  • cafe
  • camera
  • camp
  • capital
  • car
  • cards
  • care
  • careers
  • cars
  • casa
  • cash
  • casino
  • catering
  • cc
  • center
  • ceo
  • ch
  • charity
  • chat
  • cheap
  • church
  • city
  • cl
  • claims
  • cleaning
  • clinic
  • clothing
  • cloud
  • club
  • cn
  • co
  • co.in
  • co.jp
  • co.kr
  • co.nz
  • co.uk
  • co.ve
  • co.za
  • coach
  • codes
  • coffee
  • college
  • com
  • com.ag
  • com.au
  • com.br
  • com.bz
  • com.cn
  • com.co
  • com.es
  • com.mx
  • com.pe
  • com.ph
  • com.pl
  • com.ru
  • com.tw
  • com.ve
  • community
  • company
  • computer
  • condos
  • construction
  • consulting
  • contractors
  • cooking
  • cool
  • country
  • coupons
  • courses
  • credit
  • creditcard
  • cricket
  • cruises
  • cymru
  • cz
  • dance
  • date
  • dating
  • de
  • deals
  • degree
  • delivery
  • democrat
  • dental
  • dentist
  • design
  • dev
  • diamonds
  • digital
  • direct
  • directory
  • discount
  • dk
  • doctor
  • dog
  • domains
  • download
  • earth
  • education
  • email
  • energy
  • engineer
  • engineering
  • enterprises
  • equipment
  • es
  • estate
  • eu
  • events
  • exchange
  • expert
  • exposed
  • express
  • fail
  • faith
  • family
  • fan
  • fans
  • farm
  • fashion
  • film
  • finance
  • financial
  • firm.in
  • fish
  • fishing
  • fit
  • fitness
  • flights
  • florist
  • fm
  • football
  • forsale
  • foundation
  • fr
  • fun
  • fund
  • furniture
  • futbol
  • fyi
  • gallery
  • games
  • garden
  • gen.in
  • gg
  • gifts
  • gives 
  • glass
  • global
  • gmbh
  • gold
  • golf
  • graphics
  • gratis
  • green
  • gripe
  • group
  • gs
  • guide
  • guru
  • haus
  • health
  • healthcare
  • hockey
  • holdings
  • holiday
  • homes
  • horse
  • hospital
  • host
  • house
  • idv.tw
  • immo
  • immobilien
  • in
  • inc
  • ind.in
  • industries
  • info
  • info.pl
  • info.ve
  • ink
  • institute
  • insure
  • international
  • investments
  • io
  • irish
  • ist
  • istanbul
  • it
  • jetzt
  • jewelry
  • jobs
  • jp
  • kaufen
  • kim
  • kitchen
  • kiwi
  • kr
  • la
  • land
  • law
  • lawyer
  • lease
  • legal
  • lgbt
  • life
  • lighting
  • limited
  • limo
  • live
  • llc
  • loan
  • loans
  • london
  • love
  • ltd
  • ltda
  • luxury
  • maison
  • management
  • market
  • marketing
  • mba
  • me
  • me.uk
  • media
  • melbourne
  • memorial
  • men
  • menu
  • miami
  • mobi
  • moda
  • moe
  • money
  • monster
  • mortgage
  • movie
  • ms
  • mx
  • nagoya
  • name
  • navy
  • ne.kr
  • net 
  • net.ag
  • net.au
  • net.br
  • net.bz
  • net.cn
  • net.co
  • net.in
  • net.nz
  • net.pe
  • net.ph
  • net.pl
  • net.ru
  • net.ve
  • network
  • news
  • ninja
  • nl
  • no
  • nom.co
  • nom.es
  • nom.pe
  • nrw
  • nyc
  • okinawa
  • one
  • onl
  • online
  • org
  • org.ag
  • org.au
  • org.cn
  • org.es
  • org.in
  • org.nz
  • org.pe
  • org.ph
  • org.pl
  • org.ru
  • org.uk
  • org.ve
  • page
  • paris
  • partners
  • parts
  • party
  • pe
  • pet
  • ph
  • photography
  • photos
  • pictures
  • pink
  • pizza
  • pl
  • place
  • plumbing
  • plus
  • poker
  • porn
  • press
  • pro
  • productions
  • promo
  • properties
  • Protection
  • pub
  • pw
  • qpon
  • quebec
  • racing
  • re.kr
  • realestate
  • recipes
  • red
  • rehab
  • reise
  • reisen
  • rent
  • rentals
  • repair
  • report
  • republican
  • rest
  • restaurant
  • review
  • reviews
  • rich
  • rip
  • rocks
  • rodeo
  • ru
  • run
  • ryukyu
  • sale
  • salon
  • sarl
  • school
  • schule
  • science
  • se
  • security
  • services
  • sex
  • sg
  • sh
  • shiksha
  • shoes
  • shop
  • shopping
  • show
  • singles
  • site
  • ski
  • soccer
  • social
  • software
  • solar
  • solutions
  • space
  • storage
  • store
  • stream
  • studio
  • study
  • style
  • supplies
  • supply
  • support
  • surf
  • surgery
  • sydney
  • systems
  • tax
  • taxi
  • tc
  • team
  • tech
  • technology
  • tel
  • tennis
  • theater
  • theatre
  • tienda
  • tips
  • tires
  • tk
  • today
  • tokyo
  • tools
  • tours
  • town
  • toys
  • trade
  • training
  • travel
  • tube
  • tv
  • tw
  • uk
  • university
  • uno
  • us
  • vacations
  • vegas
  • ventures
  • vet
  • vg
  • viajes
  • video
  • villas
  • vin
  • vip
  • vision
  • vodka
  • vote
  • voto
  • voyage
  • wales
  • watch
  • web.ve
  • webcam
  • website
  • wedding
  • wiki
  • win
  • wine
  • work
  • works
  • world
  • ws
  • wtf
  • xxx
  • xyz
  • yoga
  • yokohama
  • zone 

Search for domain names here.

What others? How about dot-lol? There are nearly a thousand, so if you are not sure, add a guess to your search and see what comes up. For example, search for TheNameYouWant-dot-YouAreKiddingRisht and see if the extension (TLD) “YouAreKiddingRight” exists. So snap and share your dot-photos while giving travel-dot-tips and offering valuable-dot-services. In the world of buying domain names that put you ahead of the curve so you can tell your competition, “thats-dot-life”.

22Feb/15

WordPress Vulnerability found in Video Gallery

One of the drawbacks of being a do-in-yourself web person is having to keep up with hackers who create mayhem. Even if a web professional maintains your site it does not a guarantee your site is hacker safe. But having great partners, whether you choose to go the professional route or DIY, helps ensure you are getting the best protection.

If you use WordPress software on your site, and if you do not keep it and all plugins and themes up to date, you may be allowing a WordPress vulnerability. 30fold Domains recommends Wordfence to help you

  • fend of would be hackers
  • and get early warning when there is a potential threat.

Not only can their plugin help keep your site safe, they also publish regular up-to-the-minute information. Wordfence gave such a warning today. According to their blog post, if you use the WordPress Video Gallery you should remove it from your blog. Even the very latest version **as of this writing makes your WordPress site’s database vulnerable to Zero Day SQL Injection.

If you use a web professional, there’s nothing wrong with helping keep them up to date by letting them know about things you hear, and even logging into your WordPress dashboard occasionally to take a look around. If your dashboard indicates updates are required to the WordPress core, to plugins, or themes, find out what your webmaster’s schedule is for updating your site. A good webmaster will keep you informed or at least make the information available to you and make it easy for you to check in. If such documentation or access is not provided, you may need to find a new webmaster. It is your site, and your reputation on the line.

** Programmers are constantly updating their code as new threat’s emerge or are discovered. This article does not suggest any software vendor is unreliable. It is based on the latest information available at the time of posting. If you use a software mentioned in this article we recommend you also contact the source for additional information on update and patch release schedules.

27Jan/15

Understand Different Types of Web Hosting Plans

Understand Different Types of Web Hosting Plans

If you are new to web hosting, the plethora of plans and plan types can stifle the imagination. Will shared hosting be sufficient? Do you need a dedicated server? First, let’s figure our just what each of these are.

Shared Hosting

As the term implies, shared hosting is where you share the actual machine your website is on with many others. There may be hundreds or even thousands of other sites being served off the same machine. For most. starting off with a shared server plan saves big bucks and delivers all the power and space needed.

Virtual Dedicated Server

With a virtual dedicated server plan, you are still sharing the hardware, but you have more of it. You are sharing it with fewer other tenants. You have more control, and you have more responsibility. But you are less likely to hit limitations in disc space, memory, and bandwidth. A virtual dedicated server is literally “machine inside a machine”. The software allows the server to compartmentalize a “virtual computer” that can be get slow, have errors, and even be rebooted, all without affecting the other virtual machines on the single physical computer.

Dedicated Server Plans

When you reach the place where you know you need to be “all alone on the box” you are talking about a dedicated server plan. You may still have multiple sites on the box, but they will all be your sites. Some people actually buy our dedicated server plans, then run their own shared hosting plan from it. Those folks are probably not reading this … and would not need to. This is a great plan for someone who want to design websites and host them their self.

How can you know if you need a dedicated plan? Speak to one of our friendly tech reps at 480-420-4678. Be sure to let them know you were visiting www.30foldDomains.com, and you just need help figuring our which hosting plan fits your needs. But 95% of you will need a shared hosting plan. You may grow out of it, but that’s OK. Moving up it not that hard to do. So unless you have reason to believe you will grow out of shared hosting within a few months, save some dollars and get shared hosting.

27Jan/15

How To Building An Online Storefront

How To Build An Online Storefront

Only a few years ago building an online storefront was a daunting, time consuming, and expensive task. You had to be a good programmer or know one. Just any programmer would not do. You needed one that specialized in online transactions. Unless you were expecting millions of dollars of sales it was not for the small business person or entrepreneur.

Today there are many ways to get your products online quickly and without great expense. If you want to be in the bookstore business, for example, take a look at what 30fold has to offer in the way of turnkey bookstore business sites. In just a short time they can have you up and running with over 250,000 Christian products, or if you need a general bookstore, 2 million titles. You need not order, stock, or ship any product. You do not have to worry about transactions either. That is all built in. The only thing you bring to the table is your ready market.

Let’s say for example, you run a non-profit organization, a school, or fundraising group. It could be anything, honestly. If you have people who already subscribe to your cause who would be willing to buy their books from you to support your cause rather than from one of the big box stores or popular online bookstores, then you have a perfect scenario for having a 30fold store. These stores are brandable. You can even list your own product in them, and feature those products on your front page.

Here’s an example of their “secular” store – http://www.30foldbooks.com. And you can see a Christian store here: http://www.MountaintopChristian.com. You choose templates and colors from easy online forms, so administering your store does not require any rocket science like HTML.

If a bookstore is not what you are after – maybe you want to sell products that you contract to ship or manufacture, then our Quick Shopping Cart might be the perfect match. Similar to the 30fold stores mentioned above, administration is form based. Choose a template and colors you like, add branding with your logo, add your products and prices, use PayPal or set up a merchant account that plugs into your store, and publish. Presto, you are in business. Your doors are open, and ready for customers. We have expert staff on hand to help you through any of the details as well – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Sign up for PayPal and start accepting credit card payments instantly.

Do you need more flexibility? Do you have some programming and HTML expertise? Want to remove the training wheels? Then perhaps all you need is one of our standard hosting programs which allow you to install great eCommerce packages like nopCommerce, osCommerce, or ZenCart. You are now the supreme commander of your eCommerce universe with access to the many templates, designs, and more that are offered for these dynamic open source products. Just keep in mind that using an open source product, while increasing your store’s flexibility, also requires much more of you.

Or, maybe you realize, “I have a business to run. I don’t have time to fool with programming. Give me a professional who can do this for me.” Then our {dream website} team can go to work for you. They will start with your ideas, budget, and dreams, and design and build a customized, scalable eCommerce website that suits your needs and that can grow with your business.

27Jan/15

How to Create Your Own Blog

How to Create Your Own Blog

A lot of times when I talk to people about blogging, eyes glaze over. But if you are going to make any kind of dent in the internet, blogging is an essential weapon to have in your arsenal. Blog well and you can do great things for yourself. Perhaps you have a soapbox to stand on, information to publish, and opinion you feel is important. A blog is a great easy way to accomplish all these goals. There are many resources available to create your own blog such as WordPress.com and Blogger.com—but what if you want to create your own BRANDED Blog? What does it mean—BRANDED Blog? That means your blog not only has your name on it, but you actually own the domain name. So rather than sending traffic to blooger.com/SomoneLessImportant, you wend them to a domain name you own, like SomeoneVeryImportant.com.

So, what is blogging? Blogging can be compared to online journaling. Functionally, maintaining a blog is no more difficult than writing an email. However, setting up a blog may be more difficult. There are plenty of free services out there that will offer you a free blog. Why free? Because content is king. What you are essentially doing is offering your services as a writer for free. They are going to advertise on your blog pages. You, through your blogging prowess are going to attract visitors and readers who will click on their ads, strategically placed on your page based on very cleaver algorithms that predict the type of reader who will be attracted to your work. So, is it really free if you donate hours of your valuable time to their benefit? Any clue what they would pay for all that writing?

Enter, the branded blog. What’s a “branded” blog? It is simply a blog where if there are any ads – you get paid. The domain name – it belongs to you, and hopefully, if you have planned well, deepens people’s memory of you and what you do. Take 30fold for example. 30fold is our “Brand” name. We have 30fold, Inc. represented byhttp://www.30fold.com. We protected our brand by buying most of the important TLD’s, dot-com, dot-net, and dot-org. We branded deeper with our blogs. Another division of our company provides a powerful legal and identity protection service benefit, and a business opportunity we provide at http://www.30foldbenefits.com.

When you use a branded blog, branded with your domain, each time you add an article you deepen the impact of your branding effort. That is, you are getting double duty. You are not stopping other activity and branding as a discrete activity. This is a great time multiplier – a veritable multifunctional Swiss Army Knife of your time.Watch Full Movie Online Streaming Online and Download

Setting up a blog is often not a trivial pursuit. We make it super easy to create your own with our automated tools. Select a new or existing domain, and WordPress® Site/Blog, and within minutes you will be creating your first entry on the internet. Wordpress is indeed the most widely used blogging tool out there. And, if you want a WordPress blog, we make that easy as well. WordPress is one of the many value added applications you can install with just the click of a button into any of our 30fold Domains hosting solutions, or get your blog and hosting as a single, affordable bundle.

27Jan/15

Do It Yourself Websites

Do It Yourself Websites

There are many important considerations as you think about putting your business on the web, especially if you planning on using a do-it-yourself website solution. There are important questions to ask even leading to the decision to use a do-in-yourself site vs. having a professionally created website, but here we will assume that, at least for now, you are going to create your own site.

  • Is your business local, national, or international?
  • Do you want to sell things, give out information, or provide a means for your customers to contact you?
  • How does a website fit in with your overall business plan and marketing plan?

And then, of course, there are many technical considerations.

  • Do you need special security so you can process transactions?
  • How big a service do you need, and how expensive?
  • How much traffic are you likely to have?

But for most, the challenging part is not that. It comes down to “how do you do it, and how much will it cost? Well, if your needs are not yet at the Fortune 500 level, and you just want to get some web hutspa – and show you are a legitimate business, perhaps a do-it-yourself website can be a beginning solution for you. Today, do-it-yourself website solutions like our Website Builder is nearly as easy to use as email.

So, sit down with a notebook or stand at a whiteboard and map out a few things.

  • Decide first what do you want your site to do.
    • If you need to sell a product or products, you need an eCommerce solution.
    • If your needs are basically that of an online sales brochure, Website Builder will fill the need nicely.
  • Now think about colors that match and complement each other and fit your company image.
  • Start collecting pictures and text, and decide what’s important.
  • You need to know what your message is – and ask yourself what content supports that message.
  • Consider how you will break the information up. What are the logical units of information, and how does it flow? Is it discrete bits of information, or does it need to be taken in a certain order like steps or layers?
  • Put yourself in the place of someone who might typically visit your site. What information do they need? What are they seeking?
  • What result do you want to get? Do you want them to fill out a form, subscribe to a newsletter, buy a product or service, or pick up the phone and call you? Does your content support them taking that action or step? It it easy for them to do?

Even though you are thinking of this as a do it yourself project, it is a good idea to involve others to help you test ideas, words, pictures, even colors. Choose people who know less about your business than you do – and perhaps even less about the web. Make it work for someone who did not design it – like your customer or visitor.

It’s also nice to know that, as you go through the process, if you have any questions on using our tools, help is just a phone call away. And our help staff is located in the USA, so you are not being shuttled off to a foreign land where the help staff may be a little harder to understand. And if you decide to let a professional do your website, we can help with that as well.

26Jan/15

Understand Domain Names

Understand Domain Names

It all begins with the domain name. Your online business life begins with getting the right domain name. Getting the right domain name can make a huge difference. It’s similar to location in Real Estate. Here are some tips for choosing a domain name.

  • Shorter is better than longer
    That said, really short domain names like one to four, even five characters, are very, very hard to find, and you may pay a premium price for them. These typically are considered “Premium Domains” because their value is so great.
  • Memorable
    The more memorable you can make your domain the better off you will be. When someone sees it on the back of your work vehicle, will they remember it when they return home? Sometimes abbreviations or acrostics work – and sometimes they do not. So be careful that when you shorten or abbreviate that you do not loose the memory factor.
  • Make it as close to your business name, business genre, or branding as possible.
    For example, what cleaning company would not die for officecleaners.com? Don’t get too excited… I checked. It’s taken. But if you can come up with something similar that is relatively short, and memorable, grab it!
  • What if a domain name is taken. Is all lost?
    Not necessarily. At least, not forever. You can use our domain name backorder service to grab names down the line. Here’s what happens often. There’s a great domain name, and someone has an idea they will use it … or maybe they just think someone else will pay big bucks for it, so they buy it. When their plans do not materialize, often they let the domain expire. You have a couple of options.

    • Approach the owner and make an offer to buy the domain now or
    • Backorder the domain and hope they get tired of waiting
      A customer of mine did this. The dot-com domain they wanted was taken, so they got the dot-net version, and spent just a few bucks to backorder the dot-com. Low and behold, about 15 months later, he began getting offers from people to sell the domain to him … which I advised him to resist, since none of the offering parties actually owned the domain. They were domain scalpers. They look for expiring domains, match them with companies or entities they think may be interested, and try to broker a deal, making a profit. They do not invest a dime until a fish (like you) bites. But my client had already purchased the backorder, so the second the domain expired, the backorder service grabbed it for him.
  • Multiple word domains are GREAT for SEO
    If you can string two or three words together that make a memorable phrase, the search engines love it. One of the things that help you in the search engines is called subject agreement. Subject agreement simply means that you have agreement between elements like the URL or domain name, the page title tag, the description tag, the keywords tag, h1 tags in the body ( an h1 tag is an HTML term referring to text marked as “headings”), and actual content. The more agreement you have the better off you are. Another thing that helps with this agreement is when link anchor text (like the blue underlined text you see on this page) also agrees. That’s why text-ads are often so much more valuable in advertising on the net than great looking graphic ads.An example of multiple word domain names is MyOwnWebHostingBusiness.com. Grant it, it is a little long. But is there any doubt what the subject is? Can you see that if someone was searching on how to have their own web hosting business, this might pop up in the search? Do you see how we employed the power of using relevant keyword rich anchor text for the second link in this paragraph?

Have you wondered about those last letters after the period or “dot”, or even the letters that precede the first period? What do they mean? Well, let’s take a look at the anatomy of a domain name. This will help you understand domain names

Understanding domain names - anatomy

Text Case
Did you notice in the picture above there is a mixed case – that is, some capital letters, some lower case letters? Domain names are NOT case sensitive. It is important to point out two things. First, depending on the web server settings, everything after the dot-com MAY be case sensitive. Secondly, because the domain name itself is not case sensitive, for marketing and readability, it’s perfectly fin to mix case. For example, there’s a website called Mountaintop Christian Store. The owner selected the domain name, “mountaintopchristian.com”. It’s a little long and hard to read, but making the “M” and “C” capital letters, it looks better and is readily readable as if the words were separated by a space—MountaintopChristian.com
Protocol
The most common protocol is the one you see pictured above – http://. The letters mean hyper text transport protocol. If you see an “S” added – like this, https:// it simply means that the transport is happening over a secure channel. Not all websites use the “S” or secure channel. If you are shopping or working with any information that needs some security, you will want to look for this. But note, httpS is not the only way to provide security. You may occasionally see other protocols. For example, if you get a little deeper into the internet you may have occasion to use “ftp” or file transfer protocol which would be designated as ftp://.
Sub Domain
This part, the sub domain, is often but not always optional. The most typical sub domain is “www”, but it really can be anything someone creating a site wants. Often, to maintain a consistent branding and domain, you will see a company use sub-domains for various parts of their company, such as
service
.companyname.com. In this instance, go figure, this company’s service department can me accessed using the “service” sub-domain. You may want to use a sub domain for various parts of your online efforts – for example,
blog.
yourdomain.com.
Domain
This is the “pay load” – the part you are branding with.
Top Level Domain
The TLD, or Top Level Domain refers to the portion of the name that is often, but not always, indicative of the type of site or organization behind it. You see, the internet was not invented at all for the way it is used today. It was originally a military communication system. Eventually, it was adopted by academia and by research outfits. So the original use was pretty logical. The ubiquity of the net, and commercial use were never in the original plan. Today, one organization rules over the use of TLD’s as well as the registration of domain names. It is called ICANN. They are like the planet wide Secretary of State office for Domain Name Registration. Our organization serves like a satellite office. You can not actually register a domain directly from ICANN. You go to a registrar or an agent or affiliate of a registrar such as 30fold Domains.Some common TLD’s are
.com – spoken as dot-com, typically designating a commercial site
.org – an organization – but then, face it, almost any entity can qualify as an organization.
.edu – this one remains restricted. You must be a certified post-secondary educational facility to get one of these.
.gov – this one too. Restricted. Hopefully obvious, at least to English speaking people. Government.
.mil – Military. Ditto.
.net – once used only for “internet” bodies, like domain registrars before they were a large commercial enterprise – back when Network Solutions was the only game in town. Kind of like the AT&T deregulation and break up story.Today there are many new TLD’s, like .info, .name, and a host of two letter TLD’s that designate a country. You know the cool one, “.tv” being used commercially to indicate a television related or video related entity? Well, not in reality. .tv stands for Tuvalu Island. ICANN created a two letter TLD based on the international two letter codes – for example, .us for United States. Tuvalu Island had no need for its own TLD, so they figured out how to make some money from it. If you think creatively you can do some neat things with these new extensions, like ItsAllAbout.me. Guess what, at least as this is being written, you can own ItsAllAbout.me. You can bid on it via GoDaddy Auctions.

To get started, you will want to search and see if the domain name you want is available. If it is not you may be able to find information on the current owner using a whois service. But sometimes the owners do not want to be found and will hide their information. When registering a domain through 30fold Domains you can purchase such privacy as you register your domain, or you can add it on to a domain name you purchased previously.