I recently asked the members of my social network on Linkedin and Twitter what domain name generating site they preferred, and I received several responses, the favorite was Nameboy.com. Although Nameboy.com does offer many features and options to help you brainstorm that perfect domain name for your blog or affiliate site, it’s not the only game in town. Choices range from sites that generate a random short list of available names to a site that produces several lists based on keyword themes.

Following is a list of ten domain suggestion sites offering domain name generating or spinning features:

1. Makewords.com

This site offers a random name generator that can produce random domain names in 27 languages including Klingon.  Not much use if you have a keyword phrase you want to target, but it might be useful for those Web 2.0 sites.

Generating names on this site is done by choosing a wordlist, entering a keyword, and clicking on Search button.  Wordlists are built around a theme such, emotions, entertainment, actions, and shopping to name a few.  You can only choose one domain extension at a time, and I did find a few domain names that the site indicated were available, but when I clicked through to purchase them on Godaddy.com, they were already registered.

Using the example keywords of hockey and equipment produced available domains such as hockeyequipmentcatalog.com and hockeyequipmentshop.com, perfect for an affiliate or e-commerce site.  The site generated the domain names hockeyequipmentcompare.com and hockeyequipmentcritique.com, ideal for a hockey equipment review site or blog.

In addition to the wordlists programmed into the site, you can also add a wordlist of your own after you register for a username and log in.

Another feature is a bulk name check using a list of words that you cangenerate from the Google adwords tool and paste into a query box.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The site allows you to enter a primary word and an optional secondary word to generate available domain names. Options include add a hyphen and chosing a domain name that rhymes with the keyword.  Using the example generic keywords of “hockey” and “equipment” yielded seven pages of available domain names. Some on target if you wanted to have both of those phrases in your domain name, others were odd suggestions such as “phieldgameapparatus”.  The availability of the domain names are indicated on the site, so there is no need to check the name on a domain register’s site.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Global Internet is a domain name registrar/web host/web design company.  Clicking on a link buried in the middle of the page just below the domain name lookup query form takes you to their domain name suggestion page.  Enter keywords and choose the preferred domain name length, and click on suggest.  The query I ran, resulted in 100 results with six domain extensions listed on one page.

Variations ran from using the exact keyword combination such as hockeyequipmentcompany.com to a variation using similar words such as allsportsequipment.com. You’ll need to sort through some odd combinations such as hockeyfarmequipment and cleaninghockeyeequipment.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Start your domain name search by entering keywords and choosing to have either registered and suggested domains, registered domains, or suggested domains.  Using the example keywords resulted in over 300 results.  The results showed eight different domain name extensions and are displayed 25 at a time.  Clicking on the domain name suggestion takes you to their domain name registration page to complete the purchase.  The domain suggestions were on par with the first three sites in this post.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I visit the Domaintools.com site almost daily to look up domain name registration information, so I was surprised the site had a domain name suggestion tool.  I typically hit the site look up the whois info, and then I’m gone.

Clicking on the Suggestion tab turns the Whois query box into a domain name suggestion query.  Using the term hockeyequipment yielded 20 results.  If you want a list of 80 more, you’ll have to pay for the Silver Membership at a cost of $15.00 a month or $149.00 a year.  The 20 results did show the availability across six top level domain extensions which is helpful if the .COM name is taken and you would consider a TLD such as .US or .INFO.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Another domain name registrar/web host company with a domain name suggestion page.  Entering the example keywords returned what appeared to be three pages of results, but when I clicked on pages three and four, there were now results.  Overall 100 results were produced, most of them were not very appealing such as hockeypoolequipment.com and easyhockeyequipment.com. Five domain name extensions are shown.

One star for at least making an effort.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

This suggestion site is part of the services offered by this domain name registrar.  Enter multiple keywords separated by a space and choose from choices that will effect the resulting list of domain names.  The similarity filter for example, returns domain names that combine similar words to the keywords entered in the query box.

Using the keywords examples of hockey and equipment returned 10 results.  With the filters in the default settings resulted in domain names such as, hockeyequipmenthq.com and nhlhockeyequipment.com

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Another domain name registrar/web host company with domain name suggestion page.  Entering the example keywords returned what appeared to be three pages of results, but when I clicked on pages three and four, there were now results.  Overall 100 results were produced, most of them were not very appealing such as hockeypoolequipment.com and easyhockeyequipment.com. Five domain name extensions are shown.

One star for at least making an effort.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Domain name searches start with entering a list of keywords that will be combined to construct domain name suggestions.  Combinations are created in the order that they are entered in the query box.  Using the example keywords, hockey, equipment, and catalog appeared in the first box was not combined to create the available domain name hockeyequipmentcatalog.com.  If you have an idea of the words that you want to combine to create a new domain name, this site will work for you.  For my needs, bustaname.com turned out to be a bust.

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

While the site’s promise of assisting you in creating huge lists of keyword-rich, generic domain names and checking their availability was appealing, the delivery of the promise was filled with frustrations.

I’m a big fan of Firefox and the Adblock Plus plug-in. Most sites work fine with this plug-in activated, but this one did not. I had to deactivate the plug-in to use the site, since they are using an iframe filled with a page from Godaddy.com to check the availability of the generated domain names. Even after deactivating the plug-in, the look-up box from the Godaddy.com site went blank when I entered the Captcha code.

I even tried copying and pasting using Internet Explorer and the form on the Godaddy site went blank after I entered the Captcha code.

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

After reviewing these sites, I discovered that although my favorite site was returning some great domain names, I will visit another site to make sure no stone is left unturned in the quest of a perfect domain name. Which site do you prefer?

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Copywriters tap into the power of fear knowing that most prospects reading an ad or viewing a commercial have two basic questions in their mind:

1. What do I gain by buying your product or service?

2. What do I lose if I fail to buy or respond to the offer?

Combe, Inc., the manufacturer of the hair dye product Just for Men use the fear factor in the following TV ad spot.

The commercial shows an executive, dressed in a gray suit and gray shirt in the back of an elevator. “One day you find it’s not business as usual”, the narrator warns. “Your hair is gray.” The other occupants step off the elevator. He’s left alone to contemplate how his gray hair may be sending his career down the tubes and how he might not be a seen as a valuable player.

Roll the distressing imagery of a crashing elevator car. The man looks panicked – his life is about to end. Suddenly he hits the emergency stop button and Just for Men rescues him from certain doom.

He emerges from the elevator in a red shirt and khakis with the important building plan in his hand. His coworkers crowd around him as they hang on his every word. His coworker gives him a handshake for that sweeeet presentation.

Hey mid level excutive in your 40’s or 50’s, feeling a little insecure about your career path? Keep the gray and you’re doomed, dye your hair and you’re back in the game. So what’s it going to be?

More common uses of fear in advertising is in the call to action. By limiting either the duration of the special offer or the amount of customers accepted. The potential customer fears they miss out on the deal and the product or service that they are interested in will cost them more.

What are some ways you’ve used the fear factor as an effective motivator in your marketing materials?

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Over the years, the search engines have been placing an increasing value on links that point back to your business’s web site. These links along with other factors are rolled into a formula or an algorithm. Search engines use these proprietary algorithms to determine where your site ranks for a specific geo-targeted keyword or keyword phrase. Off page optimization is the process of creating links on highly respected external sites that can improve your rankings in the search engines and result in additional traffic to your web site.

Major Search Engines
The first place to start are sites that are focused on local search or have sections of their site that provide the visitor with the ability to find goods or services in a particular city. Chances are these sites may already have your company’s basic contact information. The majority of local searches begin at one of the three major search engines: Google, Yahoo!, or MSN. Take some time to test these major search engines to make sure your business information is in their databases and that the information is accurate and up to date. Google and Yahoo! allow businesses to update the information directly from their Web site, and MSN uses a third party to maintain its database of business listings. To find the link to update your businesses information, look for a link entitled “Edit this listing” on your Google and Yahoo! business profile.

Online Yellow Pages
The next type of web site that online users visit to find local businesses are Internet yellow pages. Just like print editions, online yellow pages are focused on organizing business information into categories based on industry specialties. Instead of thumbing through the pages to find businesses, users type in a keyword that describes the product or service they are in the market for along with a city, state or zip code. A few of the most popular online yellow pages are SuperPages.com, Citysearch.com, Yellowpages.com, and Dexknows.com. The same steps of verification of your business data or adding your listing should be performed on these sites to increase your company’s visibility on the Internet.

Data Aggregators
These online databases are often tapped by the major search engines as sources for business information. Some of these companies were created to service the direct mail industry and have now evolved into sources for local search engines and Internet yellow pages. The four sites that feed all of the major search engines are as follows: Amacai.com, Acxiom.com, Geosign.com, and InfoUSA.com. Visit each one of these sites and make sure your site is listed and the data accurate and up to date. Google and Yahoo Yellow Pages use the data from the database at infoUSA, which contains information on 14 million U.S. businesses.

Consumer Review Sites
Consumer Review Sites or Social Local Search Sites are the online equivalent of asking your friends and neighbors for the name of a good mechanic, dentist, or doctor. The two busiest social local sites are Yelp.com and Insiderpages.com. The popularity of these sources of local business listings is growing. Market share of visits to these online directories with user generated content increased 44 percent from August 2005 to August 2006 according to Internet analysts at Hitwise.

Leverage the growth of these sites by listing your business if it’s not already listed. Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool and it’s the reason why these sites are so popular. Increase the visibility and improve your company’s reputation by encouraging your customers to leave a favorable review of your business.

Other Local Directory Sites
Web sites run by Internet entrepreneurs focusing on smaller communities can be found by searching on Google.com with the search phrase incorporating your town such as “Batavia, IL, business directory.” While these sites may not be as popular as the previously mentioned business directories, each additional link pointing back to your site increases your status in the major search engines.

Community Organizations and Newspapers
If you are a member of a community organization such as the local chapter of Rotary International or the Chamber of Commerce, ask about having a link from the club’s site to your web site. Look for opportunities to feature your business in your local newspaper. For example, most newspapers either share content with their online edition or have a separate editorial staff.

Spending time creating business listings on local search engines, Internet yellow pages, and other web sites should result in an increase in visitors to your business’s web site. Statistics show that consumers who conduct online searches are more likely to buy a product or service in their geographical area.

Local SEO Series:
Part 1 of 3: Local Search Engine Optimization – Introduction
Part 2 of 3: Local Search Engine Optimization – On Page Techniques
Part 3 of 3: Local Search Engine Optimization – Off Page Techniques

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On page optimization is the process of changing or “tweaking” elements of pages of a web site to achieve top performance. Performance is measured in an increase in the amount of visitors that view your web site. The first step for on page optimization for local search is to develop a list of geographical terms that are relevant to your company’s location. This list would include terms such as counties, schools, cities, nicknames for cities, and landmarks. Armed with this list, create a paragraph that answers the who, what, why, and where of your business.

Who are you and how long have you been in business?
What does your company produce or sell?
Why should I choose your company instead of your competitors?
Where is your company located and what geographical area does it service?

The following is an example of before and after local search optimization techniques that have been applied to text found on a typical “About Us” or “Contact Us” page for a fictional bakery.

Before:
The Red Hen Bakery is located at 1315 Paramount Pkwy, Batavia, IL.

After:
Located in Batavia, IL, The Ren Hen Bakery has created delicious pies, wedding cakes, and cookies at our Fox Valley location since 1976. Situated between Kane and DuPage counties, our bakery is just 10 minutes north of I-88 (Ronald Reagan Memorial Tollway).
Our complete street address is 1315 Paramount Parkway; the closest cross street is Schuler Drive.

If you’re coming from the “Windy City” of Chicago, take I-88 west to the Farnsworth exit. Head north on Farnsworth for three miles. Take a right on Hubbard and travel east for approximately a half a mile. Turn left on Paramount Pkwy and travel about a half a mile. Our store is on the west side of the road and ample free parking is available on the south side of the building.

Your goal is to write in a style that is helpful for online users and is keyword dense for search engines to index and subsequently help your site to rank higher in the search engines for local search terms.

Use this same list of geographically relevant keywords in different page elements of your web site. The most important part of each page to apply this technique is the title. The title tag is that part of the page that is displayed at the top of the visitor’s browser. The text shown in the title tag is also what potential visitors see if your site appears in the results of a search engine query. It’s that reason that the title has to be crafted as carefully as a headline for an ad. It has to be compelling and informative enough that the visitor is motivated to click on the link to visit your site. Studies have shown that the ideal spot to have the keyword appear is at the beginning of the string of text that makes up the title. Since placing a geographical keyword at the beginning of the title may look odd, incorporate it in a natural position as close to the left as possible. For example, the following title, “For delicious wedding cakes & birthday cakes for the Batavia, IL area, visit The Red Hen Bakery,” is more effective than the following, “Batavia, IL – Wedding Cakes, Cupcakes, and Birthday Cakes – The Red Hen Bakery.”

Another page element to optimize for better local search engine rankings is the description meta tag. This is a short paragraph that is hidden from view on the Web page, but is seen and indexed by search engine spiders. This text is often displayed in the search engine results page along with the title. The same concept applies to the description meta tag as the title tag. Write a compelling statement that convinces someone scanning the results that they should click on the link to your site. Google displays a maximum of 150 characters, so plan your description carefully or you’ll run the risk of having the most important part not being seen by a potential customer.

Each page of your site should include company contact information. This should include street address, city, state, phone number with area code, fax number, and email address. If your site contains this as a graphic, the search engines will not be able see and index this information; it must be in a text format. Change the format on each page to rank well for the abbreviated and non-abbreviated form of the state where your business is located. For example, Illinois is abbreviated as IL or ILL; to rank well for this state all three variations should be used.

An example of good local search optimization can be seen at www.fleckensteins.com, the web site of Fleckenstein’s Bakery. The index page or home page has the name of the town the bakery is located in as well as the names of the surrounding communities. That information is in the title tag and the meta tag. The full street address, phone numbers, and operating hours are all in text toward the top of that page. The result is that their site appears on the first page of Google if someone types in one of those fifteen town names and the word “bakery” in the search box.

According to the vice president Fleckenstein’s Bakery, Ray Fleckenstein,

“We created the site in 1998 and it has been very effective for us. The site’s primary purpose is an informational tool for potential customers. The bridal market is where we see most of the leads coming from via the web site. Brides often search the Internet for wedding cake bakeries, so if they are from our area, they find us.”

Local SEO Series:
Part 1 of 3: Local Search Engine Optimization – Introduction
Part 2 of 3: Local Search Engine Optimization – On Page Techniques
Part 3 of 3: Local Search Engine Optimization – Off Page Techniques

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Over the past 10 years, the World Wide Web has helped build a global marketplace. Now with little cost and time, a small business can create a web site that can reach new customers across the street or across the ocean. Compared to other advertising and marketing methods, you can’t beat the Internet as a cost-effective marketing tool to grow your customer base.

Although the Web site strategy of most businesses is focused on reaching distant customers with products that are easy to ship, this is usually not the goal of most retail bakeries. Most companies focus on attracting customers from the immediate geographic area. By refining or optimizing the elements of your company’s Web site, you’ll capture the attention of that local market and increase sales volume.

According to research by The Kelsey Group and Constat, Inc., 80 percent of U.S. small-to- medium size businesses reported that 75 percent of their buying and/or selling of products and services occurs within a 50-mile radius. Reaching customers within that 50-mile radius can easily be achieved with a web site optimized for local visitors.

A recent survey by comScore reported that the local search is growing at a 20 percent increase year over year. Of the 3,000 survey participants, 60 percent used the Internet as their first choice for locating goods and services in their area. Half of these online users used a major search engine such as Google.com or MSN.com and the other half used a mixture of Internet Yellow Pages and local search sites such as Citysearch.com or Local.com. When they questioned the survey participants about their specific behaviors using the Internet to find local businesses, they discovered that 50 percent of the searchers only contacted one business listed in the search result, and 30 percent contacted between two and five businesses.

Based on this survey, if your web site doesn’t show up in the first page of these search engine results for terms specific to your niche followed by the name of your town, chances are they may take their business elsewhere. Getting your site to appear higher in search engine results is both an art and a science. It involves both on page optimization and off page optimization.

Local SEO Series:
Part 1 of 3: Local Search Engine Optimization – Introduction
Part 2 of 3: Local Search Engine Optimization – On Page Techniques
Part 3 of 3: Local Search Engine Optimization – Off Page Techniques

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Following is a list of 32 sites that I’ve used in the past to distribute our press releases out onto the Internet. This should not be your only method of press release delivery, but it should compliment a more traditional approach of sending press releases to targeted news sources such as trade journals, local newspapers, magazines, and websites relating to the subject of the press release.

The two benefits of using these free press release sites are:

1. Some of the sites feed press releases to Google news.

2. Most of these sites allow links back to your site and typically don’t wrap the links with the No Follow tag. There are some free press releases that I’ve sent out three years ago that are still on these sites with backlinks back to a page deep within our site.

Recently, I submitted a press release to one of these sites and the press release appeared on Google News. That day, a writer in the UK saw the release on Google News and called us about the product. After a brief interview with the company’s officers, she wrote an article about this new product.

Since most of these free press release sites require that you register and set up a profile, use a spreadsheet to keep track of all the user names and passwords.

32 Free Press Release Sites:
http://www.prbuzz.com
http://www.prcompass.com
http://pressabout.com
http://express-press-release.com
http://illinois-press-release.com
http://www.1888pressrelease.com
http://www.businessportal24.com/en
http://www.clickpress.com
http://www.free-news-release.com
http://www.free-press-release-center.info
http://www.freepressreleases.co.uk
http://www.i-newswire.com
http://www.newsreleaser.com
http://www.newswiretoday.com
http://www.pr.com
http://www.pr9.net
http://www.press-base.com
http://www.pressbox.co.uk
http://www.pressmethod.com
http://www.pressreleasespider.com/AddFeed.aspx
http://www.prlog.org
http://www.prurgent.com
http://www.theopenpress.com
http://www.pressreleasepoint.com
http://www.mediasyndicate.com
https://prndirect.prnewswire.com
http://www.powerhomebiz.com
http://www.afreego.com
http://www.press411.com
http://www.prnuke.com
http://www.afly.com
http://www.press-library.com

Do you know of any that I’m missing? Please leave them in the comments section and I’ll add them to the list.

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