Recently in Tools Category
April 22, 2009 4:30 PM
I've been playing around with a Digg account lately, trying to figure out how to best incorporate our clients content into this fun social networking site. Digg is unique because it doesn't
1.An Ace Nickname: The Username. I'm a big fan of creating plausible usernames - in this case I used my real name. As a newbie, using a normal name like "Scott Osman" or "Miranda Mocco" helps sets the precedent that you're not a bot out to spam.
2.It's all About Looks: Your Avatar. This needs to be unique from other users and if possible, consistent across social networking sites. I threw a relatively ugly yellow border around my image, as an easy way for people to indicate it's me. Check out some successful avatars and get a little feedback on what people think of yours. http://avatarwall.com/toprated. Again, I found that as a newbie, people like seeing a face, it makes communicating more friendly, but as always different people like different things.
3.Hang Out in the Cool Places: Share Your Profiles! Digg permits members to share tons of profile links, be sure to take advantage of this so your future friends can easily contact you. Be sure to include your: Twitter, AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Gchat, last.fm, facebook, linked in, reddit, and stumble upon profiles.
4.Make friends with the popular crowd. Long ago Digg had a top users list (sometimes referred to as the "holy grail"), but it was deleted. I used an alternative list set up by SocialBlade to friend top active diggers.
By friending them, you will become their "fan" whereby you receive updates on their Digg activities; it is only when they accept you as a friend that your status is certified as "mutual friends" and your activity will be received by them.
5.Identify stylish trends: Pin Pointing Submissions with Front Page Potential. How do you find the high potential articles when the majority of submissions are spam with one or two Diggs? First and foremost, digg your friends submissions as they appear, especially if the friend sends a "shout" (like a facebook wall post) promoting a certain submission. You're allowed 200 diggs a day - depending on how much of a life you have, try to use all 200.
I'm a huge fan of the Digg Noise Filter, which pulls up articles with your requested number of diggs in it. Or try the Flash based Digg Watcher.
6. Back Stabbing: Talk about your Friends. I cannot stress this one enough. You must comment on submissions, and the more people who vote up your comment, the more recognition you get.
I've certainly struggled to figure out what makes a popular comment; supporting Obama, comic book heroes, and protests all seem to be green lights. Whitty banter, sarcasm, and jokes are usually popular, and comments like "interesting submission" often get a thumbs down for being too obvious.
Being one of the first people to comment on an article that goes to the front page is a great way to build up your recognition. People who view the article will see your comment as it appears at the top of the page, hence more are likely to vote it a thumbs up, and hopefully friend you.
Check out where your popular friends are commenting and be sure to "reply" to their comments. This will call attention to yourself and hopefully be enough to convince them to friend you back.
Spend about 1 month following the above rules. In part II (which will also take me about 1 month to write!) I'll go over great strategies for submitting content that gets notable traffic. In the mean time, get commenting!
Read full post
1.An Ace Nickname: The Username. I'm a big fan of creating plausible usernames - in this case I used my real name. As a newbie, using a normal name like "Scott Osman" or "Miranda Mocco" helps sets the precedent that you're not a bot out to spam.
2.It's all About Looks: Your Avatar. This needs to be unique from other users and if possible, consistent across social networking sites. I threw a relatively ugly yellow border around my image, as an easy way for people to indicate it's me. Check out some successful avatars and get a little feedback on what people think of yours. http://avatarwall.com/toprated. Again, I found that as a newbie, people like seeing a face, it makes communicating more friendly, but as always different people like different things.
3.Hang Out in the Cool Places: Share Your Profiles! Digg permits members to share tons of profile links, be sure to take advantage of this so your future friends can easily contact you. Be sure to include your: Twitter, AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Gchat, last.fm, facebook, linked in, reddit, and stumble upon profiles.
4.Make friends with the popular crowd. Long ago Digg had a top users list (sometimes referred to as the "holy grail"), but it was deleted. I used an alternative list set up by SocialBlade to friend top active diggers.
By friending them, you will become their "fan" whereby you receive updates on their Digg activities; it is only when they accept you as a friend that your status is certified as "mutual friends" and your activity will be received by them.
5.Identify stylish trends: Pin Pointing Submissions with Front Page Potential. How do you find the high potential articles when the majority of submissions are spam with one or two Diggs? First and foremost, digg your friends submissions as they appear, especially if the friend sends a "shout" (like a facebook wall post) promoting a certain submission. You're allowed 200 diggs a day - depending on how much of a life you have, try to use all 200.
I'm a huge fan of the Digg Noise Filter, which pulls up articles with your requested number of diggs in it. Or try the Flash based Digg Watcher.
6. Back Stabbing: Talk about your Friends. I cannot stress this one enough. You must comment on submissions, and the more people who vote up your comment, the more recognition you get.
I've certainly struggled to figure out what makes a popular comment; supporting Obama, comic book heroes, and protests all seem to be green lights. Whitty banter, sarcasm, and jokes are usually popular, and comments like "interesting submission" often get a thumbs down for being too obvious.
Being one of the first people to comment on an article that goes to the front page is a great way to build up your recognition. People who view the article will see your comment as it appears at the top of the page, hence more are likely to vote it a thumbs up, and hopefully friend you.
Check out where your popular friends are commenting and be sure to "reply" to their comments. This will call attention to yourself and hopefully be enough to convince them to friend you back.
Spend about 1 month following the above rules. In part II (which will also take me about 1 month to write!) I'll go over great strategies for submitting content that gets notable traffic. In the mean time, get commenting!
Mathias Ahlgren
No Comments
No Comments
January 30, 2009 12:02 PM
Buy expiring domain names and get link juice and authority. Expired domains are great for SEO. I will try to explain why.
So what are expiring domain names?
Every day thousands of domain names expire but get bought up and changes ownership before they delete and become readily available again for registration. In the domain name industry the domain name aftermarket of buying expiring domain names is big business. Lots of "domainers" and domain name companies are spending hours upon hours sifting through lists of upcoming expiring domain names.
Nowadays buying expired, or pending delete, domain names has become more of a main-stream thing, even outside domaining circles. It takes an expired domain 30 days before it goes back into the pool of masses and become readily available again to register at any domain name registrar. Within this 30 day time period, between expiring and becoming available again, thousands of domain names exchange hands in what is called the 'domain name aftermarket'.
The life cycle of a domain name
The life cycle of a generic domain name (.com, .net, .org etc) explained by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
(Source: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm)
Expiring domain names was registered a year or more ago by someone who did not attempt to renew their domain name. Basically, once a domain is expiring it enters into an "Auto Renew Grace Period" (see above). This period usually lasts for 30 days and the owner of the domain is able to renew anytime during that time frame.
Should the owner fail to renew the domain it will enter into the "Redemption period" (see above). In the redemption period the domain name registrar becomes the owner of the domain (the original owner can still come in and renew it), and will try to sell the domain through auctions.
After the pending delete period the domain name is a goner for both the original owner and the registrar. The domain will become readily available at any registrar, as it goes back in to the pool of masses.
Domain name auction houses
Domain auction houses collect expiring domain names from different registrars and hence, have varying catalogues of names to browse. The better known ones and their major affiliate registrars are:
- SnapNames, affiliated with Moniker, MelbourneIT, DirectNIC
- NameJet, affiliated with Network Solutions, eNom
- Afternic, affiliated with Tucows
- Go Daddy, have their own Go Daddy Auctions
They work on different platforms, but what they have in common is that there is an auction and when the auction ends and you are the highest bidder, the domain is yours.
Most popular domain name registrars
The world's top 15 registrars with total domains in millions. (I highly recommend you to check out the link and play around with it, deserves a blog post on its own).
(Source: http://www.registrarstats.com/Public/RegistrarMarketShareMain.aspx)
So why should you care about expiring domain names?
Many expiring domain names hold authority in the eyes of search engines, stemming from the link juice, directory listings, and the age of domain. It is the short cut way to own a site with a reputation. The reputation and authority is carried over to the new owner, it's never voided. Deleted and readily available to register again domain names lose much of their juicy features.
With a freshly registered domain name you have to walk through the dark forest, with expiring domain names you can cruise through the woods on a bike. Buying expiring domain names can give you a domain with existing link juice. It can give you a domain already listed in dmoz and the yahoo directory, it can already have a couple of .edu and/or .gov back links and it can give you a domain with old ripe age.
Always do your research! However, don't expect to find expiring domain names like seo.com. You will come across HEAPS of junk names. Lots of crap is expiring and for that reason lots of expiring domain names deserve to be buried and forgotten. But, there are gems to be found! Make sure you always double check domain name age, PR, back links and so forth.
Best places to buy expiring domains?
SnapNames
http://www.snapnames.com
SnapNames is probably the most prominent domain auction company. SnapNames offers an "In Auction" section that works like any other online auction site (think eBay for the uber geek). They also offer an "Available Soon" section, an auction that can be joined by anyone, but is limited to those who place bids on domains before the start date of an auction. This is good for serious bidders, because it takes out people who may not be serious about the auction process.
SnapNames tries to "snap" expiring domain names from all registrars but, you will be more successful in your buying if you target expiring domain names from registrars exclusively affiliated with SnapNames. Prices start from $59 each and you will only get charged if you win the expiring domain name.
Go Daddy Auctions
https://auctions.godaddy.com
Go Daddy is both a domain name registrar and auction house. They are my personal favourite, mainly because it's the world's biggest domain name registrar, meaning a lot of domain names also expire through them. Unfortunately there are a lot of poor domain names expiring through Go Daddy. There is a $4.99 annual fee to bid on their expiring domain names.
Go Daddy 'Closeout' domains are domains that went through domain name auction already but nobody bid on. Closeouts are sold for a flat fee of just $5 plus an annual registration fee.
Go Daddy Expiring Domains start at $10 plus an annual registration fee but may increase since it is setup as an auction. Expired Names, most of the time, have more valuable names then 'Closeouts' since Go Daddy Auctions makes a domain available first with the expired names auction and if it does not sell then Go Daddy Auctions places it in the 'Closeouts' section.
The best kept secret tools when buying expiring domains!
I am intentionally keeping this section very short, as I don't want to give away everything but I realise I maybe have anyway. You have to learn this yourself....
The first tool I wanted to mention is the "Best Upcoming Auction" tool from DomainTools. My tips here are to use the filters in the right hand menu. Most expiring domains found here are auctioned off on SnapNames. Check it out on: http://www.domaintools.com/advanced-auction/top-picks.html
The second tool is Fresh Drop. I used to spend a lot of hours on this website going through expiring domains and watching/bidding in auctions. This tool is a bit under the radar, even amongst domainers. The Fresh Drop tool is free to use for Go Daddy Auctions, what it does is it scans through upcoming expiring domains (their PRO subscription membership lets you scan SnapNames, Name Jet, Pool etc. as well as Go Daddy)
(expiring domain names filtered on the number of .edu back links)
My tip for Fresh Drop is to have a good look at the column headers, notice that you can filter domain names on their Age, Dmoz, .Edu and .Gov and lots more. I love this! My other tip is to familiarise yourself with the filters on the right hand menu. Check it out on: http://www.freshdrop.net
Enjoy... and I would love to hear your comments about your experience from buying expiring domain names.
Read full post
So what are expiring domain names?
Every day thousands of domain names expire but get bought up and changes ownership before they delete and become readily available again for registration. In the domain name industry the domain name aftermarket of buying expiring domain names is big business. Lots of "domainers" and domain name companies are spending hours upon hours sifting through lists of upcoming expiring domain names.
Nowadays buying expired, or pending delete, domain names has become more of a main-stream thing, even outside domaining circles. It takes an expired domain 30 days before it goes back into the pool of masses and become readily available again to register at any domain name registrar. Within this 30 day time period, between expiring and becoming available again, thousands of domain names exchange hands in what is called the 'domain name aftermarket'.
The life cycle of a domain name
The life cycle of a generic domain name (.com, .net, .org etc) explained by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
(Source: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/gtld-lifecycle.htm)
Expiring domain names was registered a year or more ago by someone who did not attempt to renew their domain name. Basically, once a domain is expiring it enters into an "Auto Renew Grace Period" (see above). This period usually lasts for 30 days and the owner of the domain is able to renew anytime during that time frame.
Should the owner fail to renew the domain it will enter into the "Redemption period" (see above). In the redemption period the domain name registrar becomes the owner of the domain (the original owner can still come in and renew it), and will try to sell the domain through auctions.
After the pending delete period the domain name is a goner for both the original owner and the registrar. The domain will become readily available at any registrar, as it goes back in to the pool of masses.
Domain name auction houses
Domain auction houses collect expiring domain names from different registrars and hence, have varying catalogues of names to browse. The better known ones and their major affiliate registrars are:
- SnapNames, affiliated with Moniker, MelbourneIT, DirectNIC
- NameJet, affiliated with Network Solutions, eNom
- Afternic, affiliated with Tucows
- Go Daddy, have their own Go Daddy Auctions
They work on different platforms, but what they have in common is that there is an auction and when the auction ends and you are the highest bidder, the domain is yours.
Most popular domain name registrars
The world's top 15 registrars with total domains in millions. (I highly recommend you to check out the link and play around with it, deserves a blog post on its own).
(Source: http://www.registrarstats.com/Public/RegistrarMarketShareMain.aspx)
So why should you care about expiring domain names?
Many expiring domain names hold authority in the eyes of search engines, stemming from the link juice, directory listings, and the age of domain. It is the short cut way to own a site with a reputation. The reputation and authority is carried over to the new owner, it's never voided. Deleted and readily available to register again domain names lose much of their juicy features.
With a freshly registered domain name you have to walk through the dark forest, with expiring domain names you can cruise through the woods on a bike. Buying expiring domain names can give you a domain with existing link juice. It can give you a domain already listed in dmoz and the yahoo directory, it can already have a couple of .edu and/or .gov back links and it can give you a domain with old ripe age.
Always do your research! However, don't expect to find expiring domain names like seo.com. You will come across HEAPS of junk names. Lots of crap is expiring and for that reason lots of expiring domain names deserve to be buried and forgotten. But, there are gems to be found! Make sure you always double check domain name age, PR, back links and so forth.
Best places to buy expiring domains?
SnapNames
http://www.snapnames.com
SnapNames is probably the most prominent domain auction company. SnapNames offers an "In Auction" section that works like any other online auction site (think eBay for the uber geek). They also offer an "Available Soon" section, an auction that can be joined by anyone, but is limited to those who place bids on domains before the start date of an auction. This is good for serious bidders, because it takes out people who may not be serious about the auction process.
SnapNames tries to "snap" expiring domain names from all registrars but, you will be more successful in your buying if you target expiring domain names from registrars exclusively affiliated with SnapNames. Prices start from $59 each and you will only get charged if you win the expiring domain name.
Go Daddy Auctions
https://auctions.godaddy.com
Go Daddy is both a domain name registrar and auction house. They are my personal favourite, mainly because it's the world's biggest domain name registrar, meaning a lot of domain names also expire through them. Unfortunately there are a lot of poor domain names expiring through Go Daddy. There is a $4.99 annual fee to bid on their expiring domain names.
Go Daddy 'Closeout' domains are domains that went through domain name auction already but nobody bid on. Closeouts are sold for a flat fee of just $5 plus an annual registration fee.
Go Daddy Expiring Domains start at $10 plus an annual registration fee but may increase since it is setup as an auction. Expired Names, most of the time, have more valuable names then 'Closeouts' since Go Daddy Auctions makes a domain available first with the expired names auction and if it does not sell then Go Daddy Auctions places it in the 'Closeouts' section.
The best kept secret tools when buying expiring domains!
I am intentionally keeping this section very short, as I don't want to give away everything but I realise I maybe have anyway. You have to learn this yourself....
The first tool I wanted to mention is the "Best Upcoming Auction" tool from DomainTools. My tips here are to use the filters in the right hand menu. Most expiring domains found here are auctioned off on SnapNames. Check it out on: http://www.domaintools.com/advanced-auction/top-picks.html
The second tool is Fresh Drop. I used to spend a lot of hours on this website going through expiring domains and watching/bidding in auctions. This tool is a bit under the radar, even amongst domainers. The Fresh Drop tool is free to use for Go Daddy Auctions, what it does is it scans through upcoming expiring domains (their PRO subscription membership lets you scan SnapNames, Name Jet, Pool etc. as well as Go Daddy)
(expiring domain names filtered on the number of .edu back links)
My tip for Fresh Drop is to have a good look at the column headers, notice that you can filter domain names on their Age, Dmoz, .Edu and .Gov and lots more. I love this! My other tip is to familiarise yourself with the filters on the right hand menu. Check it out on: http://www.freshdrop.net
Enjoy... and I would love to hear your comments about your experience from buying expiring domain names.
Mathias Ahlgren
12 Comments
12 Comments
November 11, 2008 4:28 PM
Alright folks, my first blog post. Be nice please. I thought I would write a simple guide on how you can find available domain names to register containing keywords people search for on Google. This is a really simple guide how to register keyword rich domain names getting organic traffic. Find and register keyword rich domain names to use for landing pages, link building or 301 redirects.
There are only two tools we will use here; 1. the Google AdWords keyword tool and 2. a bulk whois checker. Google AdWords keyword tool is a great tool in many ways. We will use it here for finding domain names with keywords people search for. This is how you do it.
• Go to Google AdWords keyword tool, https://AdWords.google.com/selec/KeywordToolExternal
• Pick the keyword or keywords which you are interested in. I will pick the keyword "laptops". This keyword is quite competitive and probably isn't the best example but I am pretty sure Google will provide us with a couple of domain name ideas containing the keyword "Laptops".
• Make sure that the "use synonyms" box is ticked. We want Google to give us synonyms on our keyword(s). Then hit "Get keyword ideas".
• Filter the results on Exact matches (Broad is fine too but exact is.... Exact)
• Scroll down and click on "download all keywords" and choose text format as the output. Or you can manually add each and every keyword. But I prefer to go with the bulk approach.
• Copy and paste the keyword list into a blank word or notepad document. Then use the find and replace function to remove the [ & ] characters.
• Now you got your list of keywords, keywords containing "laptop" and keywords people search for on Google.
• Next step is to go to a bulk whois tool, the whois will tell us which domain names are available and which domain names are already registered and who owns them.
• Moniker bulk whois is one of the best ones, lets you search for 500 domain names at once (however nowadays it requires you to register but registering is an easy thing). Head over to http://www.moniker.com/domains/batch_reg.jsp. There are other bulk whois tools as well, http://www.domaintools.com/bulk-check is another ok one.
• Copy the list of up to 500 keywords (now without the [ & ] characters) and don't worry about adding a .com, .co.uk extension into the search box and hit search. Before you hit Search you can filter on preferred domain name extension, if you only want .com and or co.uk etc. Hit Search.
• Whois will tell you which domain names are available to register. Our keyword "laptops" don't give us that many available domain names to choose from. But there are a few available ones (at the moment of writing that is).
• Of the available domain names we found, mostpopularlaptop.com "most powerful laptop" gets 1000 exact searches on Google every month and bestbudgetlaptop.com "best budget laptop" gets 590 exact searches on Google every month.
• That's it really. Play around with your keywords and when you find your gem(s) then head over to your preferred domain name registry and register your new domain name!
Read full post
There are only two tools we will use here; 1. the Google AdWords keyword tool and 2. a bulk whois checker. Google AdWords keyword tool is a great tool in many ways. We will use it here for finding domain names with keywords people search for. This is how you do it.
• Go to Google AdWords keyword tool, https://AdWords.google.com/selec/KeywordToolExternal
• Pick the keyword or keywords which you are interested in. I will pick the keyword "laptops". This keyword is quite competitive and probably isn't the best example but I am pretty sure Google will provide us with a couple of domain name ideas containing the keyword "Laptops".
• Make sure that the "use synonyms" box is ticked. We want Google to give us synonyms on our keyword(s). Then hit "Get keyword ideas".
• Filter the results on Exact matches (Broad is fine too but exact is.... Exact)
• Scroll down and click on "download all keywords" and choose text format as the output. Or you can manually add each and every keyword. But I prefer to go with the bulk approach.
• Copy and paste the keyword list into a blank word or notepad document. Then use the find and replace function to remove the [ & ] characters.
• Now you got your list of keywords, keywords containing "laptop" and keywords people search for on Google.
• Next step is to go to a bulk whois tool, the whois will tell us which domain names are available and which domain names are already registered and who owns them.
• Moniker bulk whois is one of the best ones, lets you search for 500 domain names at once (however nowadays it requires you to register but registering is an easy thing). Head over to http://www.moniker.com/domains/batch_reg.jsp. There are other bulk whois tools as well, http://www.domaintools.com/bulk-check is another ok one.
• Copy the list of up to 500 keywords (now without the [ & ] characters) and don't worry about adding a .com, .co.uk extension into the search box and hit search. Before you hit Search you can filter on preferred domain name extension, if you only want .com and or co.uk etc. Hit Search.
• Whois will tell you which domain names are available to register. Our keyword "laptops" don't give us that many available domain names to choose from. But there are a few available ones (at the moment of writing that is).
• Of the available domain names we found, mostpopularlaptop.com "most powerful laptop" gets 1000 exact searches on Google every month and bestbudgetlaptop.com "best budget laptop" gets 590 exact searches on Google every month.
• That's it really. Play around with your keywords and when you find your gem(s) then head over to your preferred domain name registry and register your new domain name!
