By Domainers For Domainers

I don’t usually like multi-national corporations. Or at least I don’t like the IDEA of them taking over the whole world until all of us are only buying from six companies.

It kind of goes against the grain of my own maverick-minded company that strives to offer excellence in the overwhelming flood of obsolescence and shlock work.

But when it comes to web hosting, I have to give in to the big guys.

For one, the locals are usually a lot more expensive. I hate to make economy my first point, but I want to get my money’s worth and just can’t throw it around carelessly.

But cost-effectiveness is a factor. And that brings up my second point: effectiveness. The big guys like GoDaddy and 1and1 are really in hot competition and offering all kinds of perks that make their services more attractive.

Good up time. A lot of storage space. A lot of bandwidth. Many email addresses. Many databases. 24-7 live support. Power backup systems. Climate controlled data center.

Armed storm troopers with high-powered rifles that will shoot on site if anyone even thinks about messing with their system.

OK, I made that one up, but suffice it to say they are on top of their security. I am still shopping around, but I can’t see the local company giving me that much.

Little did I know what that even meant when I got my letter from the automobile manufacturer.

I had written them with a great marketing idea. They could buy my great domain name (that had their company name in it) to create a 360 view webpage/site. It would be a lot shorter than the URL they now used, and be an easy to remember type in to use in print ads.

So much for the great idea. They wrote with a threat that I should hand over the domain or suffer the consequences.

They said I had diluted their mark and called me a … what? Cybersquatter?

I was outraged, especially when I found at least a hundred other domains with their name in it for sale on Sedo and Afternic.

But what are you going to do when a monstrously large multi-billion dollar corporation says they are going to take you to court? You gonna fight?

What on earth does spam have to do with a website, you may wonder. It surprises many to find out that most websites have features that invite spam.

Spam, once only a mild irritation, has evolved into a full-fledged threat like a mosquito the size of an airplane. And make no mistake, it can suck the life out of your website, even to the point of shutting it down.

“My site?” you ask. Probably.

It is easy to find out if you are vulnerable. If a site has email addresses shown on the page, roll your mouse over it. If you see “mailto” in the lower left hand corner of your screen, then the answer is absolutely yes.

Mailto is the simplest way for a web designer or developer to enable email-ability from a website, but it also makes the address open to collection by spammers.

They have developed software called SPAM-bots that methodically race through the code of websites looking for one thing: email addresses.

These get collected and passed on (sold) to marketers who use automated software to send out spam by the thousands.

This explains the unsolicited emails in most company inboxes (lest you think it is someone in the office visiting unsavory websites).

If a website is specially targeted, then spammers can flood the inbox with spam until the bandwidth is all used up and the site is down. Or even piggyback your server to send spam to others.

Either way, it is bad news for business owners. Especially since sifting through all that junk mail takes a lot of time and many legitimate contacts usually get thrown out with the trash.

There are a lot of web designers out there and a lot of developers too. For the business owner shopping around for someone to make a website, it is a little confusing.

Web designers are basically graphic artists. Some put out really beautiful websites, smooth, creative and elegant. Some put out websites that are homey and cheap.

Developers, on the other hand, are usually programmers and often work with web designers. They can usually add more interactive functions and features to a site, using free scripts they find on the Internet or developing new, specialized ones (more expensive).

Some companies say they do web development because it sounds fancier or they know how to do flash. And they can charge more.

But the real test of quality is to check out their own site. I mean REALLY check it out. Are there links that don’t work? Text that overlays where it shouldn’t? A number of missplellings? (I did that on purpose).

Did you know that websites sometimes look different on different browsers? Check out their work on Internet Explorer, then go to Firefox or some of the others. If it screws up, then they aren’t that careful.

I always felt that “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” works both ways. If they aren’t that careful with their own site, then how do you think they will do with yours?

It seems pretty obvious that a lot of newbie domain investors have an idea that they can get rich quick with just about any domain they can think up. This is not too surprising since all the domain brokerages have lists of big priced domains that have recently been sold.

And the newbie thinks, “Hey, mine is just as good as that one!”

A false hopefulness is sparked when they finally find one of their domain ideas that is actually available and even more when they see (what they think as) comparable domains selling for a high price.

Granted, a lot of a domain’s worth is just getting it under the nose of those who want a particular domain and are willing to pay anything for it. But pricing your domains based on these sales is not wise.

Let’s face it, not all domains are worth a million dollars. In fact, a lot of them end up being very hard to sell. And bear in mind that the highest priced domains are one word or two word domains.

Granted, a sale is often based on presenting it to the right buyers, but nobody is going to spend an arm and leg for something they are only partly convinced will be worth it. Buyers are a little cautious these days.

So if you want to hang on to that domain until the prices raise, then go ahead. But if you want to sell it, then bring it into a reasonable range.

This blog is intended for anyone who has any interest or involvement with domain names. Whether you are a newbie to the Internet wanting to start your own website and needing a good domain, or if you invest in domains for a living.

Or maybe you need some good website hosting. Or need some input on how to choose a good web developer. Or want some input on registrars. Or have questions about website security or SEO.

Here we can exchange good tips, vent frustrations, or ask questions. Or carry on like an insufferable know-it-all (who knows, you might be just that!).

Don’t be shy, but if you are too obnoxious…well, let’s just see what happens.