The question is actually much bigger than that. There are literally hundreds of top level domain name extensions (TLDs). As of March 2009, there were 280 of them. Of course, most of them are reserved for country codes, like .ca for Canada and .mx for Mexico. A much smaller number are for general use.

Here is a list of the most popular domain extensions and what the represent:
.com is intended for commercial websites. It is the most popular.
.net was originally intended for network providers, although individuals and commercial sites are purchasing them now.
.org represents the word “organization” and is primarily used by non-profits.
.biz is used for small business websites.
.info signifies a resource website.
.mobi is reserved for mobile device websites.
.tv was intended for the islands of Tuvalu, but is now being used to represent television.
.us is for the good ol’ USA.
.ws was originally designated as the country code for Western Samoa, but is now commonly used as an acronym for websites.
.name and .me are intended for personal use.
.edu is reserved for educational institutions.
.gov is reserved for US government agencies.

Does it really matter?

Yep!  Not only does the domain name extension tell the visitor what type of site it is, but it is a professional representation of you.  I can’t swear to it, but I’d also bet that the search engines give you more credit in rankings for having a more popular domain extension like .com.  And having a .com extension on your URL will probably make you easier to find.  I don’t know about you, but I always assume a .com before anything else.

Do I need to purchase them all?

In my opinion, no.  Personally, I never have.  I purchase the .com every time.  (Although I’m tempted to try for one of the new .co extensions… keep reading…)   It really just depends on how important brand protection is to you.  If you found a great .com and want to make sure nobody else gets their hands on your idea, purchase a group of domain names with the most popular domain name extensions.  

What if the domain name I want is taken?

If you absolutely have to have a particular domain name and the .com is taken, go for the .info or the .biz.  … ORRR  the brand new .co!   The .co domain extension was originally intended for Columbia usage, but has now been released for public company/corporation/commerce use.  Could you get much closer to a .com?  Just give up an ‘m’ and you’re golden.   If the inital price of a .co is any indication, the demand will be high!  As I type this article, the price at www.GoDaddy.com is $29.99!

How to Create Your Own Professional Website

For Less Than $200!

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As soon as I get a new client, I create a website information sheet for them. I collect information from the client for products and services they already use and add to that sheet whenever something is added to one of their domains.

However, in my years of working with website clients, I’ve come to discover that the clients are not nearly as organized as I am. If they have existing websites, nine times out of ten they can’t tell me where their critical website information is or how to access it, or it’s scattered in different documents and emails throughout their computer.

If you are one my clients, don’t worry. I have this information for you. You should still have a copy of your own though. (Email me if you don’t.)

If you are not one of my clients, that’s okay. I’ll still share. Save this example website info sheet to your computer and update it with your information. Send me a message if you need help.

EasyFLV Suite comprises of the following set of software:

• EasyFLV Streaming Video
• EasyFLV Multitrack Streaming Video
• EasyFLV Batch FLV Converter

 
EasyFLV Streaming Video Software
Add streaming video to your website in just minutes! This software adds streaming video to your website in just a few steps. It generates the web video players, the required code to put on your website and the instructions for uploading files. Comes with professionally designed streaming video players in various styles and sizes. Highly flexible and very easy to use. You can use this software to: – Put up product tours – Display messages to your users – Display user testimonials – Display interviews – Make video blogs – Share family moments – Just about any video you want.

EasyFLV Multitrack Streaming Video Software
Do you want an easy way to run multiple video tracks together? Presenting EasyFLV Multitrack Streaming Video Software. Stream multiple video tracks through one video player via a playlist! Adds multiple streaming video tracks to your website and streams them through a playlist. Generates the streaming video player, the required code to put on your webpage and instructions for uploading files. Contains a collection of professional streaming video players in standard video window sizes. Highly flexible and very easy to integrate!

EasyFLV Batch FLV Converter
Converts all popular video formats (MPG, AVI, WMV, MOV, RM, 3GP etc.) to FLV format. Batch FLV Converter converts your video files to streaming video FLV format in batch mode. It gives excellent FLV quality even at low bitrates and supports a wide variety of video formats for conversion like MPEG, AVI, WMV, MOV, Mp4, 3GPP, Mp4, RM, RMVB etc. This flv converter also comes with a built-in flv player to test your flv files after conversion. Supports FLV Widescreen conversion.

EasyFLV helps you add video to your website or webpage in minutes. You can use this software for unlimited number of websites!
 

EasyFLV Suite

2CheckOut.com Inc. (Ohio, USA) is an authorized retailer for goods and services provided by Connecting Rainbows.

Did you see a Twitter background somewhere that you liked and want something similar? Have your own idea for a custom Twitter background and need someone to create it for you? Email me at and I’ll see what I can put together for you.

Here’s a sample of some of the custom Twitter backgrounds I’ve done so far:

Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and Live Search, all use different criteria to determine your placement in search results. And to make it even more difficult, they generally won’t tell you what that criteria is. But there are a few things that you MUST do to have a chance at getting listed in a good position in the search results. By using these techniques, I have gotten several of my client’s websites listed on the first page of Google search results for their desired keyword phrase.

Keyword Selection

A keyword is a word or phrase that is used to describe your web page and that you want the search engines to find you with. This is the most important decision you will make regarding your search engine strategy. If you choose a phrase that is too popular/competitive in your market, you will have a poor chance of getting good results. Don’t choose a keyword that 5 billion other websites are using. Choose something unique, but in demand. Try the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find ideas that have plenty of searches and lower keyword competition.

For example, on HeavenlyCrosses.com, I recommended a keyword phrase of “Disciple’s Cross Necklaces”. Why? Because no one was going to search on “Heavenly Crosses” unless they already knew about the website. “Disciple’s Cross” was way too competitive and so was “cross necklaces”. But combining them together gave the website a better chance of being found. And it worked! Google it and see!

Title Tag

The title is the information that shows up at the top of your website browser when you are viewing a website and on the page tabs if you have more than one window open. This is also the title line and link at the top of the individual search results. You MUST put your keywords in the title! The title is created by using the “title” tag in your web page’s HTML code. I recommend limiting your title to a maximum of 64 characters.

Using this web page as an example, the title tag would look like this:
<title>First Page of Google Search Results</title>

Description Meta Tag

The description is just that; a description of your web page. This is placed in your HTML code in a “meta” tag, but does not show up anywhere on your actual website. It shows up as the website description in the search engine results. You MUST put your keywords in the description! I recommend limiting your description to a maximum of 160 characters.

Using this web page as an example, the description tag might look like this:
<meta content=”What you need to have on your page and in your website code to help boost your placement in Google search results and other search engines.” name=”description” />

Keyword Meta Tag

It is debatable whether or not the search engines still use the keyword meta tag, but I say, when in doubt, include it. It certainly can’t hurt.

The keyword meta tag is HTML code that gets inserted into your web page. It doesn’t show up anywhere, but the search engine spiders might read it. So put your keywords in that code just for safe measure. I recommend limiting your keywords to a maximum of 20 words.

Here is an example keyword meta tag:
<meta content=”Google search results, first page of Google, search engine optimization, keyword meta tag, keyword meta tag, title tag” name=”keywords” />

Keyword Relevancy: Content is King

Your selected keywords should be what your web page is about. Therefore you must have your keywords in your web page content. Put them in headings (using H1 and H2 tags). Put them in picture descriptions. Put them in your paragraphs. If your keywords are relevant to your web page, this should come naturally. Just don’t over-do it or the search engines might get upset with you for trying to manipulate them.

Domain Name/URL

Putting your keywords in your website’s domain name and/or URL is another one of those debatable search engines techniques. Some say it isn’t used, but I say it is. After all, if you search on something and the words you searched on are in the URL, they are highlighted in the Google search results. That says to me that it is being noticed and counted. If you already have your domain name, don’t worry. It’s just another suggestion. No one thing will make or break your search engine results.

Incoming Links

The more links you have coming to your website from other quality, related websites, the better your search result placement will be. Make sure you ask those linking to you to use your keywords in the link text whenever possible. For example, use a link like affordable website solutions instead of using the website URL or your company name.

Getting incoming links to your website is part of what is called “off-page search engine optimization”. The code that links to your website is on someone else’s website, not yours, thus “off-page”.

Hopefully these tips will help you get better placement in the search engines! Good luck with your quest to reach the first page of Google search results.

I’m here to help if you need me!

At this point in time, the backgrounds are designed to work on Blogger blogs. (Drat!)

If you have a blog on Blogger, this is a MUST SEE website! Especially if you like to change your Blogger background with the seasons. They have some really nice holiday backgrounds.

Go to The Cutest Blog On The Block and see for yourself.

P.S. For those of you as loyal to WordPress as I am, they have have plans to make these backgrounds compatible with WordPress soon. I’ve also contacted the website owner to see how much of the free designs we can tweak for use with our hosted WordPress blogs. In the meantime, there are some cute “accessories” we can use now.

Now imagine that your website developer has gotten angry with you for some reason and has gone into your hosting account and DELETED your entire website!!! You don’t have a backup of your website and your hosting company is going to charge you $150 to restore the site. Now you owe your former website developer money for a website that doesn’t even exist or you’re out money to have it restored. What do you do? Obviously, you pay the $150 and get your website back, fire your website developer and change all your passwords (and PINs) so it doesn’t happen again.

Guess what? This story did not happen in my imagination. It is all true. And it just happened over the weekend to one of my new clients.

Could this happen to you???

This true story brings up many questions, comments and concerns, some of which I’m still trying to find the answers to. (Please feel free to share your experience and knowledge.)

 
Who Owns Your Website?

I’ve posted this scenario on a legal website asking who owns website files? No answer yet.

If you have hired someone to develop your website and had them purchase the domain name and hosting account, they probably own it. Not you! Make sure you are the master of your domain.

I also read somewhere that if you hire an independent contractor to create something for you, unless it is declared that you own the purchased creation and they have given you the files, the contractor actually owns the rights to the creation, even though you paid for it to be created. Go figure! (As a website developer, my rule is clear: You pay for it, you own it! And yes, I’ll put that in writing and give you the files!)

 
Do You Really Trust Your Website Developer?

Make sure you own your website accounts and files. Have your own website backups just in case. Keep in touch and don’t make assumptions. (You don’t want to end up with a huge invoice for a website you don’t like.)

You never know what can go wrong with a business relationship. Make sure you are covered in case something does.

I just finished creating the custom business card design for two of my websites. Here’s what they look like:

     

(Of course the resolution for the actual design is better than shown here.)

I created my custom business card designs in Adobe Photoshop starting with a template I got from VistaPrint.  I uploaded my completed design and ordered my cards.  I ordered 250 of each card.  With the design upload and the printing, my product total after discount was only $12.96. 

Do you have a custom design or logo to put on your business cards?  (If not, I hope you know who to ask for help. Hint. Hint.) Give VistaPrint a try.  It’s a great deal.  Here’s the link I used:

75% Off Premium “Custom” Business Cards at VistaPrint.com!

But did you know that most blogging software (like WordPress) automatically prevents your comment links from being followed by search engines? The software puts a tag rel=”nofollow” on your link telling the search engines not to count your link. NO comment link love!

I don’t know about you, but I like getting some link love for commenting on other blogs. And since I try not to be a hypocrite, I want to make sure that I am giving you plenty of comment link love when you comment here.

Therefore, I have activated two WordPress plugins on this blog:

1. The DoFollow WordPress plugin disables the automatic nofollow. Now all comment links on this blog will be followed by search engines and given incoming link credit.

2. The CommentLuv WordPress plugin gives bloggers double comment link love! This plugin will check your comment link for an RSS feed and, if it finds one, will add a automatically add a link to your latest blog post. Now you not only get a link to your website, but you get an internal page link to an individual blog post too!

Want to give some comment link love to your blog readers? Here are the links to the WordPress plugins mentioned above: DoFollow and CommentLuv. If you need any help installing these plugins, just let me know.