Tag: domains

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Domain Name Management Tips

Here's What to Know About Domain Names
Here’s What to Know About Domain Names

Whether you have a new online business or an existing one you’ll want to review my tips on domain name management.

Review
Periodically review the domain names you own. If you don’t need one or are not pursuing that aspect of your business, save money and don’t renew a domain name you won’t need in the future.

Secure
When you start your business, secure domain name variations of your company name to protect your brand. Consider buying the .us variation in addition to the .com if you are a U.S. based business and other country extensions if you have a presence there.

Save Money
You don’t need to buy hosting for every domain name you own. You can use domain forwarding to point domains you own to your main desired domain where your website resides.

Select
New or old, periodically it makes sense to review the domain names you do own. For those you are using for your website and online presence, set your renewal in five year increments. For those you may let go in the future consider one year or two year renewals.

Need help with our domain name management? Contact www.McCordWeb.com today.

Posted on

Domain Management Tips

What to Know About Domains
What to Know About Domains

Whether you have a new online business or an existing one you’ll want to review my tips on domain name management.

Review
Periodically review the domain names you own. If you don’t need one or are not pursuing that aspect of your business, save money and don’t renew a domain name you won’t need in the future.

Secure
When you start your business, secure domain name variations of your company name to protect your brand. Consider buying the .us variation in addition to the .com if you are a U.S. based business and other country extensions if you have a presence there.

Save Money
You don’t need to buy hosting for every domain name you own. You can use domain forwarding to point domains you own to your main desired domain where your website resides.

Select
New or old, periodically it makes sense to review the domain names you do own. For those you are using for your website and online presence, set your renewal in five year increments. For those you may let go in the future consider one year or two year renewals.

Need help with our domain name management? Contact www.McCordWeb.com today.

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Domain Don’ts

Should You Buy a Domain When Offered?
Should You Buy a Domain When Offered?

Thinking about buying a used domain name? Be careful, very careful, even if a domain is offered to you for a great price and it really looks like a great keyword match, take a deep breath and do your homework before you jump on buying that domain name.

Why should I be careful?

It today’s environment when great domains become available it is typically because they have been burned out by spammers. A domain will carry history, it is not just a name and when you take it over thinking you are getting a fresh start; it may be banned by spam registries, Internet Service Providers, and been used and abused by spamming or black hat SEO’s.

Even $200 is too much to pay for a domain that has been abused. You may never be able to use the domain name in an email address and the history may be so tainted that you will never be able to remediate it and place on any search engine with it.

My recommendation is – No Go.

My candid recommendation on buying a used domain, based on how things are, is that I would pass. A domain name does not assure SEO placement, and if you really love the domain you may be able to buy it fresh and clean and never used before as a .us or .biz.

If the price tag is even higher, hire an expert to do due diligence for you. I’ve seen domains go for $10,000. You’d hate to pay that kind of money and find out that the domain had been horribly abused making its value to you nearly nothing. Be careful and do some Google searches first before you consider buying any used domain names.

If you need savvy help reviewing statistics before you buy a domain, contact us at www.McCordWeb.com.

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Is Earthlink Blocking Your Emails?

I’ve recently had a problem with Earthlink and Mindspring blocking emails from my main domain to certain clients. It is problematic and annoying. Here’s what I have done to resolve the problem.

1. First, always make sure you are reviewing your junk mail folder as typically bounces and non-deliveries of emails will be sent here. If you don’t routinely check this file, you will never know if your email has been bounced back to you.

2. If you do find that your emails are regularly (more than several times) is being bounced back with a blocked mail message from Earthlink, then you need to take action. For me the first thing I did was to correspond with those clients using a different email account like my Gmail or MSN account until the problem was resolved. I then replied to one of the blocked email messages and Earthlink sent me instructions on how to resolve the problem.

3. I have to get the IP address of my mail server from my web host. Sometimes you can find this IP address in your domain records under the MX listing. If you don’t see it there, ask your web host.

4. Then using the syntax Earthlink wants in the subject line, send an email to Earthlink asking them to whitelist your IP address.

I found that they had not blocked my IP address as they confirmed that it was not on their blocked list and told me that it was most likely an intermittent problem.

It is a pain to have to go through this hassle, but if it had been blocked, this would have effectively resolved the problem or advised me of a bigger issue that needed more attention like my web host being a spammer haven with a whole block of IP addresses blocked. If you find that this would be the case, it would be a good reason to change web hosts immediately.