| |
Recommended Hosting Provider:
MaxNoc.com
Domain Name Registration and Privacy
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir
The internet is a wonderful thing, except for a few small details. When you register your first domain name, you get your introduction to one of them. Theres a lot of information they want. Your name, your email address, your physical address, your phone number. For each of 4 separate categories, and the Registrant, Admin and Technical categories are publicly available (for almost all TLDs - Top Level Domains, with the possible exception of .ws - Western Samoa).
Email addresses, which must be valid, phone numbers and physical addresses which also must be valid. I personally think its both absurd and dangerous to make this information so easily available. Once again the right to privacy of law-abiding individuals is being abridged supposedly to help catch lawbreakers. Since this information would be provided under a court order, making it publicly available just invites abuse.
Spammers, scammers, stalkers and the idle whacko can easily get this information. And its a nice start on identity theft, too. However, for most people, the most likely result is an increase in the amount of spam you get. But, much worse can and has happened.
So what solutions are there? Basically there two ways to protect your
privacy if you are a private individual without access to a legal entity such as a company to own the domain name (note that if it is a company, you must provide accurate information. This only moves the problem to a slightly less personal level).
First you could lie. No, thats not one of the ways. Unwise and illegal too, and you are a law-abiding type, right? So, first, a proxy registration is one alternative.
Essentially you make a binding legal agreement with a company which will register the domain name as if they owned it and then provide their own information to meet the requirements. For each domain, they will set-up a special email which they will monitor and forward to you, usually after spam filtering, if you want them to.
They, of course, retain your data and will also monitor physical mail. You will be notified of first class mail which appears to or could be legal documents or if registered or couriered mail arrives. They will, for a fee, ship such to you, if you agree and pay. Generally such items would be sent by courier. Phone callers will be directed to use the email or physical address shown in the WhoIs record
Of course, under subpoena or other specified conditions they will provide your details. You will have full rights as owner - as long as you behave and dont violate the agreement.
The other alternative, usually called "private registration", is a little different. Here your name would still appear as registrant. You would provide the names of the admin and technical contacts. But the address, email and phone number would be provided and monitored by the organization handling the private registration in essentially the same manner as a proxy registration. Thus with this alternative you remain in full legal control of your domain name since it is registered in your name rather than the name of a proxy.
On the face of it this second alternative sounds better, but your name is hanging out there on view and you may have valid reasons for not wanting that (perhaps the company you work for takes a dim view of moonlighting, or you have had a stalking problem or are doing something perfectly legitimate but dont want your name linked to it).In that case, a proxy registration is the only real alternative.
In case youre thinking you can hide out and do whatever sort of bad stuff behind a proxy or private registration, dont even dream about it. These outfits take it very personally if you misbehave and the legal agreements spell it out.
If you decide to pursue a proxy or private registration, make very sure that you are working with a legitimate company with a track record. A domain name can be a very valuable possession. Both your registrar and, if its a separate organization, the entity that does the proxy or private registration must be quality, legitimate outfits. Registrars offering extremely low prices which are way out of line with the going rates - unless its a special - just might be after your credit card and identity. Also, this time, actually read the agreement and TOS so you do know what youre doing and what could happen under what circumstances.
Wondering why Im writing about this? Well, its because Im getting more and more spam and I started doing some research on possible solutions. And I figured, I want the only one looking to do something about the problem. And then, I discovered that some registrars will provide free proxy or private registration with your domain name purchase. So think about it and do some checking before you buy a domain name. Your privacy is a precious possession.
About the author:
Richard teaches, trains and consults, on and off-line. And he writes a lot. Visit http://www.AboutWebHosting.infofor articles, information, resources and links related to web hosting and domain registration and http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websitesfor more on eCommerce in particular.
TRAFFIC GENERATION The Number One Skill That Will Generate Cash Flow. (Part 3 of 3)Ron HuttonCopyright 2005 Ron Hutton
If youre feeling a bit of confusion and frustration about how to get visitors to your website and generate more sales, I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way until I stopped listening to every "big time" marketer that came along with the latest traffic generating trick.
Youve got dozens of gurus vying for your attention and every one of them has the solution to all of your problems. Right? The proliferation of messages that promise a traffic explosion using new techniques can become overwhelming.
Time out.
Take a deep breath.
Sit back in your chair.
Relax.
Now, if you will focus your energy on a very short list of traffic generation strategies that actually DO work, and commit to continually improving your skills in these few areas, you will be amazed at what you can achieve... WILL achieve.
In part 1 of this article series, we discussed the fact that...
There are only 3 ways to get traffic to your website:
1) Buy it.
2) Borrow it.
3) Steal it.
Since 3 is not an option were going to consider, that leaves us with "buy it" and "borrow it".
We also talked about the "Holy Grail" of web traffic. What is it? FREE TRAFFIC! I want it. You want it. Every disillusioned internet marketer wants it.
Heres the truth...
Its a myth.
It doesnt exist.
There is no such thing as free website traffic.
Well resume our discussion where we left off...
In parts 1 and 2 of this series we discussed what your first two priorities should be for buying website traffic (PPC search engines and ezine advertising). Next, lets talk about borrowing traffic.
There are 2 traffic borrowing strategies that well talk about here.
1) Search engines.
2) Writing and submitting articles.
Theres no disguising the fact that the print books, ebooks and reports written on these two strategies number in the hundreds and even thousands. Therefore, Ill make no attempt to provide comprehensive treatment on either of them.
However, theyre both important and worthy of at least a primer. So, lets start with search engines.
If you want to make money with your website today, this week or this year, what is the absolute worst investment of your time?
Search engine optimization.
I know that some marketers dont want to hear this, but its a fact for some of the reasons stated above and plenty of others. The mathematical (im)probabilities of achieving a top ranking for a search phrase that will result in meaningful traffic that includes buyers is lets just say the odds arent in your favor.
There are strategies that work with search engines to drive traffic to websites, but one thing they absolutely do not include is any attempt to optimize a sales page or for that matter an entire website thats designed to convert visitors into customers. The strategies that work with search engines offer them what they crave most, which is content. Perhaps in the future we can discuss this in some detail.
The next big time waster thats closely related to search engine optimization is submitting your website to the search engines. If your site wont be listed in the top 2, 3 or 4 pages of a search engine, nobodys going to see it anyways. This debate rages back and forth even with SEO experts who make their full time living doing nothing but consulting on SEO. Submit? Dont submit?
Following is an excerpt from Jill Whalens High Ranking ezine. Jill does this stuff full time and shes well respected. Im including this because its enlightening. Here we go...
*** BEGIN EXCERPT ***
READER QUESTION: Is manually submitting each site better?
JW: You dont actually need to submit your site at all to search engines -- neither manually nor in an automated fashion. They all have spiders that "crawl" the Web and find all pages that exist, as long as there is a link to them from a page they already know about.
READER QUESTION: Once submitted ...do you keep submitting ...if so how often? (So you dont get kicked out.)
JW: Never.
READER QUESTION: The Microsoft submit supposedly submits to hundreds of search engines and directories
JW: Its a waste of time and bandwidth.
READER QUESTION: Is this good or bad (the number of SEs submitted to)
JW: Its neither, just useless.
READER QUESTION: I heard the more the better ...but there are some pretty cheesy search engines out there
JW: "The more the better" is incorrect. There are only 4 major search databases that matter: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask Jeeves. Their databases power all of the other engines that make a difference.
*** END EXCERPT ***
Interesting, huh? So, lets move on.
Writing and Submitting Articles:
I KNOW that there are talented writers online who have not capitalized on their writing skills yet.
If youre in this group, you need to write and submit articles.
IF YOURE NOT IN THIS GROUP, you need to write and submit articles.
You see, nobody is out there grading you. Google does not moralize over your ability (or lack thereof) to write a coherent article. Google will, however, spider the links back to your IBSoftShop if you include it in your articles resource box. The more you do this, the better youll get.
Writing and submitting articles is a long term approach to generating traffic that you should start right now. Set time aside weekly to consistently get your name and your sites URL out there in various article directories. Can you spare one hour a week? If yes, do this.
I just published an article on this topic titled "How to Vote for Your 0wn Website in the Search Engines." You can read it here: http://www.gothrive.com/articles/vote-for-your-own-website.html
Next, can I save you some time?
Heres a short list of activities and "programs" that will consume your time with very little if any result:
- Start Page Networks
- Exit Traffic Exchanges
- Safelists
- FFA Pages
- Lurking in Forums
There are others too, but who really benefits from a start page network, exit traffic exchange, safelist or FFA page? The person who owns and runs it. They benefit because they get to market to you and you get to market to other people who want nothing other than free traffic. Remember free traffic? Forget it.
You could spend the next year whiling away the hours on free traffic schemes or you could find PPC traffic that will turn your $10 investment into $49.85 in profit and then duplicate this success 10 times, 50 times or 100 times. Which will you choose?
About the author:
Ron Hutton is a 20 year sales and marketing veteran with a passion for coaching and training. Subscribe to "GoThrive Online", for big juicy marketing tips in small, easy-to-chew, bite size servings. 17 Free Cool Tools... http://www.gothrive.com
Recommended Hosting Provider:
MaxNoc.com |
|