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The below is an article I am writing for a local Australian Newspaper, it is my first story, feedback appreciated!
Do you own YourBusiness.com, YourBusiness.com.au or both?
I am hoping that you said both!
Whether you be a small business owner or a large business owner, in today’s online market, it is imperative that your business also has an online presence whether it be a simple professional one to ten page website or a fully operational online business where customers can buy goods on your site via a credit card merchant check out system.
The main thing to be quite successful with your online presence is to have a good domain name which is relevant to your business. This domain name must be short, easy to remember and easy to type into the computer browser bar.
I am amazed that many Australian businesses only register the .com.au version of their business name (YourBusiness.com.au) and do not worry about also registering the .com version of their business (YourBusiness.com)
If you do not own both the .com and .com.au versions, it can be quite devastating in financial terms as you will highly likely lose potential customers and clients when running your own online presence, because the .com domain name is used globally where as the .com.au domain is only used in the Australian market.
An example of this is the Australian Football League owns AFL.com.au but unfortunately for them they do not own the domain name AFL.com, so they would be losing tens of thousands of visitor’s and potential financial revenue per day.
They lose potential revenue, visitors and clients because most Internet browsers will only enter the .com version and most of the time they have forgotten to enter the .au at the end of the .com and when it redirects to a webpage which is usually totally irrelevant to your business, or is another business selling the same product, then that’s when you will lose customers and revenue.
When this simple mistake made by the visitor or customer they will likely think that your website is closed or offline, or they will be simply be to lazy to try again and then that’s when you start to lose potential sales and customers.
I have been very familiar with domain names since the year 1999 and I have advised many business owners to ensure that they not only register their .com.au but to also register the .com versions of their domain names, some of who could have registered their .com versions of their business names when I advised them to, but decided not to and now someone else has registered the domain name and these business owners now regret their decision not to.
The owner of AFL.com would possibly be making thousands of dollars per day from people accidentally typing AFL.com instead of AFL.com.au, the owner makes money by people clicking on the advertisements on his one page website.
The same goes for registering your .com.au, I run a website called www.BeautUtes.com and unfortunately I do not own www.BeautUtes.com.au so my website loses potential revenue, new members, visitors and revenue, they enter BeautUtes.com.au and go to a blank page.
Did you know that there are tens of thousands of domain name investors who invest there money in domain names only, these people are usually the people whom are called “Domain Investors” familiarly know as Cybersqatters they seek out website owners who have not registered the .com version of their business name or need a good domain name to get their business presence online. Some successful domain investors make millions of dollars per year from the business practice, some call it illegal, but for the money to be made, some domain name investors do not care unless they are faced with legal action. See http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/ or http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrpdec.htm for recent domain name dispute cases.
Some domain names sell for millions of dollars, just for the domain name only, these people originally registered their domain names for $10, now they are selling from any between hundreds of dollars to millions of dollars.
Some say domain name investing is better that share market investing. The returns on a good domain name sale can be massive.
An excellent example of recent big domain name sales is the weekly published report on high dollar domain name sales site www.dnjournal.com There is also other websites which specialise in domain name sales and auctions which are www.sedo.com www.afternic.com www.greatdomains.com or www.buydomains.com there are many others. It is fascinating.
If you would like to register your domain names, I highly recommend the following websites, www.enom.com, www.godaddy.com, www.comscout.com or www.namescout.com there are many others, just shop around for a good price.
A good price for registering a .com domain name is around $10 per year and registering a .com.au domain name is about $25 per year. Don’t get ripped off!
If anyone would like to email me any questions regarding this article, I am happy to answer their questions or give advice to business owners and wannabe internet entrepreneurs free of charge.
William Sherman
Do you own YourBusiness.com, YourBusiness.com.au or both?
I am hoping that you said both!
Whether you be a small business owner or a large business owner, in today’s online market, it is imperative that your business also has an online presence whether it be a simple professional one to ten page website or a fully operational online business where customers can buy goods on your site via a credit card merchant check out system.
The main thing to be quite successful with your online presence is to have a good domain name which is relevant to your business. This domain name must be short, easy to remember and easy to type into the computer browser bar.
I am amazed that many Australian businesses only register the .com.au version of their business name (YourBusiness.com.au) and do not worry about also registering the .com version of their business (YourBusiness.com)
If you do not own both the .com and .com.au versions, it can be quite devastating in financial terms as you will highly likely lose potential customers and clients when running your own online presence, because the .com domain name is used globally where as the .com.au domain is only used in the Australian market.
An example of this is the Australian Football League owns AFL.com.au but unfortunately for them they do not own the domain name AFL.com, so they would be losing tens of thousands of visitor’s and potential financial revenue per day.
They lose potential revenue, visitors and clients because most Internet browsers will only enter the .com version and most of the time they have forgotten to enter the .au at the end of the .com and when it redirects to a webpage which is usually totally irrelevant to your business, or is another business selling the same product, then that’s when you will lose customers and revenue.
When this simple mistake made by the visitor or customer they will likely think that your website is closed or offline, or they will be simply be to lazy to try again and then that’s when you start to lose potential sales and customers.
I have been very familiar with domain names since the year 1999 and I have advised many business owners to ensure that they not only register their .com.au but to also register the .com versions of their domain names, some of who could have registered their .com versions of their business names when I advised them to, but decided not to and now someone else has registered the domain name and these business owners now regret their decision not to.
The owner of AFL.com would possibly be making thousands of dollars per day from people accidentally typing AFL.com instead of AFL.com.au, the owner makes money by people clicking on the advertisements on his one page website.
The same goes for registering your .com.au, I run a website called www.BeautUtes.com and unfortunately I do not own www.BeautUtes.com.au so my website loses potential revenue, new members, visitors and revenue, they enter BeautUtes.com.au and go to a blank page.
Did you know that there are tens of thousands of domain name investors who invest there money in domain names only, these people are usually the people whom are called “Domain Investors” familiarly know as Cybersqatters they seek out website owners who have not registered the .com version of their business name or need a good domain name to get their business presence online. Some successful domain investors make millions of dollars per year from the business practice, some call it illegal, but for the money to be made, some domain name investors do not care unless they are faced with legal action. See http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/ or http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrpdec.htm for recent domain name dispute cases.
Some domain names sell for millions of dollars, just for the domain name only, these people originally registered their domain names for $10, now they are selling from any between hundreds of dollars to millions of dollars.
Some say domain name investing is better that share market investing. The returns on a good domain name sale can be massive.
An excellent example of recent big domain name sales is the weekly published report on high dollar domain name sales site www.dnjournal.com There is also other websites which specialise in domain name sales and auctions which are www.sedo.com www.afternic.com www.greatdomains.com or www.buydomains.com there are many others. It is fascinating.
If you would like to register your domain names, I highly recommend the following websites, www.enom.com, www.godaddy.com, www.comscout.com or www.namescout.com there are many others, just shop around for a good price.
A good price for registering a .com domain name is around $10 per year and registering a .com.au domain name is about $25 per year. Don’t get ripped off!
If anyone would like to email me any questions regarding this article, I am happy to answer their questions or give advice to business owners and wannabe internet entrepreneurs free of charge.
William Sherman
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