Category: Digital Marketing

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A brandable or a descriptive domain? Which is better? 1

A brandable or a descriptive domain? Which is better?

Brandable domain vs descriptive domain and what are they?

There has been always a great debate over a brandable domain vs a descriptive domain, and which type is the best for a business. This is expected because when one registers a domain name, securing the ideal domain name has always been a challenge. Each type of domain has its merits and there is no right answer to it. It is because a domain name is more than just a string of words. Rather, it is a business’s digital identity and address in the vast Internet landscape.

A brandable or a descriptive domain? Which is better? 2

A domain is more than just a string of words. It is a business’s online identity!

Gone are the days when people discover your business through word-of-mouth. In fact, people now discover new businesses by searching online, and the domain name plays a huge role in this. It is a crucial part for how people identify a business online.

A brandable or a descriptive domain? Which is better? 3

Business discovery has moved from word-of-mouth to searching online.

There are two types of domain name, namely a descriptive one and a brandable one.

A brandable or a descriptive domain? Which is better? 4

Some examples of a descriptive domain name.

Descriptive domain name

A descriptive domain name informs the audience clearly and specifically on what a business does, the services it offers or the type of contents on its website.

Example: tennis.com, digitalmarketer.com, wine.com, runningshoes.com, etc.

A brandable or a descriptive domain? Which is better? 5

Some of the most famous brandable domains.

Brandable domain name

On the other hand, a brandable domain name does not include any description or keywords to inform the audience exactly what it is about. It is more of a made-up word, a wordplay, or a re-creation of existing words, making it creative and unique, and hence its potential for branding. This type of domain is usually aimed to evoke certain emotions or feelings from the audience on the get-go.

Example: spotify.com, zapier.com, lego.com, airbnb.com, etc.

A brandable or a descriptive domain? Which is better? 6

Take a look at all the pros and cons of both types of domain name.

The advantages of using a descriptive domain name

One of the advantages of a descriptive domain name is that it is straightforward and direct. This type of domain is usually pretty much self-explanatory, in which the audience can immediately grasp the idea of what the website is going to be about. Website owners need not spend extra time and effort to educate their audience about what their websites are about.

Another advantage of a descriptive domain name is it usually contains keywords. It is keyword-friendly and most people search these keywords to find what they need. Websites using descriptive domain name might enjoy a slight advantage in the search engine ranking results. However, effort is still required on the website owner’s end to improve SEO.

Last but not least, a descriptive domain name is easy to remember for users. It tends to use words that users already know and can easily recall. Users find it easy to comprehend and a lot easier to find you. The domain name could be directly the solution the audience is looking for.

The disadvantages of a descriptive domain name

A descriptive domain name also comes with its disadvantages. One of them is that it is less effective in creating an emotional impact for the audience. Although it is powerful in telling the audience what a company does, but it lacks in building the personality of a brand. It is difficult to build an identity around it, as it does not really tell people anything. Most of the time, it is boring and does not stand out. For example, you are more likely to remember Adidas, rather than athleticshoes.com.

Another disadvantage is that a descriptive domain name might become a limitation for a business in expanding their product range or services. What a business does or sell now does not mean it will be the same five years down the road. Businesses change over time, and a descriptive name that is too descriptive does not help at all. Imagine if Amazon started with booksforsale.com.

In addition, a descriptive domain name does not stand out. The terms and phrases used in it have probably been used by countless other businesses. A business will not be able to differentiate itself if there are many others using the same general terms. For example, there may be many other John’s Bakeries operating at the same time in a country. The audience will find it much more difficult to identify a certain John’s Bakeries, and they might end up in another wrong John’s Bakeries.

Last but not least, a descriptive domain name is harder to trademark, as the words in it are generic and used by many people on a daily basis. These words are not allowed to be trademarked, leaving the identity of a business that is using them vulnerable. Any businesses or anyone can just easily swoop in and take over the identity. Without a trademark, malicious players can also easily impersonate websites that use a descriptive domain name to do harm.

We have talked a lot about a descriptive domain name, now let’s talk about a brandable domain name.

The advantages of using a brandable domain name

One of the advantages of a brandable domain name is that it is unique and memorable, which helps a business to stand out more and set itself apart from the crowd. As mentioned above, it is creative and unique, with potential for branding, because the registrants can use made-up word, clever wordplay, or recreate existing words. The audience tends to remember creative words like these, rather than generic terms and words. For example, people are more likely to recognise Lego, rather than toybricks.com.

Another advantage of a brandable domain name is that it is more powerful in evoking certain emotions in people. It is far more suitable for businesses to build their identity around it, compared to generic terms and phrases in a descriptive domain name. Businesses nowadays are building a relationship with their customers, rather than just describing what they do or what they sell. This is no surprise as it is a new trend now, where a study by Accenture shows that 66% of consumers are attracted to buy from brands that align with their values. Therefore, a brandable domain name is beneficial for companies to share their personality and values to resonate with customers.

In addition, a brandable domain name allows sufficient flexibility for business change. Most businesses do not stay the same forever, and in time they will expand to offer more products or services. In such a situation, a brandable domain name is able to remain relevant and accommodate the changes. For example, John’s Bakeries is only limited to breads, but John’s Delicacy is flexible enough for any food that John is interested in selling as time passes by.

Last but not least, a brandable domain name is much easier to trademark. It is unique and not too generic for trademark registration. A business can protect itself through trademark protection, and reduces the possibility of other parties stealing or impersonating it. No one else gets to use the unique brandable domain of a business. For example, Apple has registered trademarks for the term “apple” for the products it sells, rather than for terms like “computer”, “watch” etc, which impossible to get trademark rights, due to them being too generic.

The disadvantage of a brandable domain name

One of the disadvantages of a brandable domain name is that it requires time and effort to build up the brand. When a business has just started, the audience does not know the brand and cannot relate with it. It needs to invest time and money to raise awareness, such as search engine optimization, online marketing, content marketing, any form of advertising or even public relations. All these require investment to build the identity of the brand.

A brandable or a descriptive domain? Which is better? 7

Which type of domain name should a business go for?

How to choose between a descriptive and a brandable domain name?

There is no one true answer when it comes to choosing between these two types of domain name. What businesses need to consider are their marketing strategy, target audience and their projected growth direction. Here are some of the questions we think business owners can ask themselves when deciding between the two types of domain name.

1. What kind of title makes the most sense if end users are looking for businesses of this nature?

2. Will the domain name still be relevant down the road in the long term?

3. Is the domain name the main branding tool?

4. Which is more critical for the business? Customers, marketing strategies, search engine results, brand awareness?

5. What type of domain name are the competitors using? What are their strategies in growing their business?

One interesting point Seth Newman (CEO of BIGNAME Commerce) mentioned is that he thinks descriptive domain name is only good when people do not shop by brand. His company owns envelopes.com, bags.com and folders.com. For items which brands matter for the people, it is a whole other story.

Our view on descriptive vs brandable

For us, we recommend that if a business needs to be clear and precise on what it does, as well as simple, straightforward and easy to find, go for a descriptive domain name. If a business wishes to build a unique identity and relate to certain values and personality, then a brandable domain name is the better choice.

What about a combination of the two?

It is sometimes also possible to achieve a balance between the two. Businesses can use a combination of a descriptive term and a unique brand term, and enjoy the best of both worlds. Some great examples include Microsoft, Walmart, The Home Depot, IBM, Mastercard, Vodafone, Dell Technologies etc.

Conclusion

The debate for a descriptive vs a brandable domain name will continue on, and there is no one-size-fits-all to it, as both types have their merits. In the end, it all depends on how a business plans to grow itself, its future plans and the marketing strategies it adopts. Any domain for brands that can conjure a strong image in the mind of the audience or is memorable, will always be a good domain.

Sign up as a reseller of WebNIC and sell a wide range of domain names, regardless of whether they are descriptive or brandable. We carry more than 600 domain extensions, and your customers will be spoilt for choice to register their desired domain name. Contact us to sign up!

About WebNIC

WebNIC is an accredited registrar for ICANN, and various countries including Asia, Europe, America, Australasia, and Africa. With offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Taipei and Jakarta, we serve 5,000+ active resellers over 70 countries. To join us and become a reseller, live chat with us or email us at [email protected].

Must-know Domain Name Rules When Registering One 8

Must-know Domain Name Rules When Registering One

Domain Name Registration Rules and Best Practices

Every single day, there are hundred thousands of domains registered on average, and this shows no signs of slowing down. Registering a domain name might seem easy, but there are more to it than you realise. There are some rules and regulations, which we need to follow when it comes to the domain name’s format. Also, we will be sharing with you some of the best practices and things to take note of when you register a new domain name. These are some of the things that people often overlook, and we believe you should be aware of.

The Rules of Registering a Domain Name

Before we start discussing the rules, we would like to make it clear that these rules apply to the label of the domain name. A label of the domain name is also known as the second-level domain (SLD) of a domain name. Let’s take a look at some sample domain names:

webnic.cc

wikipedia.org

google.com

In our samples above, “.cc”, “.org” and “.com” are top-level domains (TLD), whereas “webnic”, “wikipedia” and “google” are SLD, also known as the label of a domain name. The rules we are about to discuss apply to the label/SLD.

What is Allowed

The label of a domain name allows only letters, numbers and hyphens. The letters part is a no-brainer, and we all know very well that they are the core component of a domain name. It is also recommended that a good domain name consists of only letters, as they are more intuitive and has a higher level of memorability.

Numbers are allowed, too! However, it is not recommended to use numbers for your domain name, and they are typically avoided because they can cause some confusion. People are unsure whether the numbers in a domain name use the single-digit number, or the spelled-out version of the number (for example, “7” vs “seven”). If you truly want to register for a domain name that consists of numbers, then the best practice is to register both versions, the single-digit version and the spelled-out version (for example, “blue3” and “bluethree”). After you register them, you can easily set up a redirect from the incorrect domain to the correct domain. This best practice helps to minimise traffic lost for your website due to the incorrect domain. However, one thing we find interesting is that in China region, numbers in domains seem to be quite popular. Therefore, we think having numbers in the domain name is quite a subjective topic, and it really depends on your needs.

Hyphens are allowed, too, but there is a catch! Hyphens can be added in any part of the domain name, except at the beginning or end of the domain name. For example, “done-for-you” is allowed, whereas “-doneforyou” or “doneforyou-“ is not allowed. Two continuous hyphens are not allowed, too (eg. “done–foryou”). With all that said, hyphens are also typically avoided like numbers, as they increase the complexity and obstacles for users. It may be more difficult for users to find a site if there are dashes in the domain name, and traffic might be lost. After all, “done-for-you” and “doneforyou” are very different when users search these domain names. The best practice is to leave out hyphens completely and use alternatives, unless it helps with clarity significantly.

What is not Allowed

Periods/dots are not allowed when registering a domain name. They are only allowed after registering a domain name, and then configuring the hosting settings. Usually, when a website uses subdomains, which have a URL structure such as “r.webnic.cc”, it is used to separate a website’s contents under the same hosting. Under these circumstances, “r.webnic” is an allowed domain name label, but this can only be done after registering for a domain name and configuring the hosting.

Spaces, symbols and special characters are not allowed. Special characters include all the following,

! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) ; : , ? / \ = + < >

my awesome website.com (Not allowed)

my@wesome website!.com (Not allowed)

myawe s()me*web*site?.com (Not allowed)

If you are trying to be creative with your domain names by using spaces, symbols and special characters, just forget about it!

Other General Domain Name Rules to Take Note of

Apart from what is allowed and what is not allowed above, the following are some of the general rules for SLD that you can keep in mind, too.

1. SLDs that are registered can no longer be registered again.

2. SLD is not case-sensitive. Typing in “Google.com” or any fancy styles such as “gOOgle.com”, “GooGle.com”, “GoOgLe.com” will still lead you to the same “google.com”.

3. SLD has a 63-character limit. TLD is not counted in the character limit. However, the best practice is to always try to use shorter domain names as they are typically easier to remember and type.

4. Consider the word difficulty and its spelling difficulty. This is more of a best practice advise rather than a rule. Do try to use simple terms instead of bombastic words which might cause users confusion. For example, use “drinks” instead of “beverage”.

5. It is strongly advised not to register any domain names that might infringe the trademark of a brand or any domain names that imitate a brand. Legal action can be taken by the brands against you.

Conclusion

We hope that you now have a better idea and a deeper understanding of the domain name rules. With this in mind, you are now better equipped when registering for a domain name. You now know clearer what is allowed and not allowed, and it can be useful to you in your domain name registration journey. WebNIC has more than 20 years of experience in the domain wholesale and reseller service, and we are here to help you enjoy a smoother experience in your domain name registration journey. Sign up as our reseller now!

About WebNIC

WebNIC is an accredited registrar for ICANN, and various countries including Asia, Europe, America, Australasia, and Africa. With offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Taipei and Jakarta, we serve 5,000+ active resellers over 70 countries. To join us and become a reseller, live chat with us or email us at [email protected].

Consider These Things Before You Register a Domain Part 2 9

Consider These Things Before You Register a Domain Part 2

Things to Consider Before You Register a Domain With Any Providers (Part 2)

In this blog, we will be continuing our Part 1 knowledge on things you should consider before registering a domain with any providers. If you have not read Part 1, it is recommended that you do so. Click the link below to read Part 1.

Click here to read Part 1

As we all know, a domain name is required for setting up a website. You need to consider many things when registering a domain name, and Part 1 outlines 5 things to consider. Here in Part 2, we outline another 5 important things you need to know, if you are actively helping your customer to register domain names.

6. Make sure of the domain renewal procedure

Every domain name has an expiry date. If the domain owner wants to retain the ownership of the domain after the said date, it must be renewed. Your job is to make sure that the domain renewal procedure of the provider is clear, easy and transparent. You need to ensure the provider communicates clearly and transparently about the renewal rate, and the step-by-step process of going through the renewal process. You need to consider if they offer easy options for you to either auto renew the domain, or provide punctual notifications to renew the domain name manually, or an easy process to cancel the renewal.

It will not be ideal if the provider does a poor job for its domain renewal process, whereby you forgot to renew, or their renewal process is difficult and confusing, or you are shocked by the renewal rate etc. Such things might result in you losing your perfect domain name. It is recommended to choose providers who provide accurate, punctual and transparent notifications for the domain name renewal process.

At WebNIC, we ensure transparency in our domain renewal process. We state clearly the renewal rate, we provide a clear and easy to use dashboard for doing or cancelling the renewal process, we also make sure to always provide in time notifications to inform domain owners to renew their domain names.

7. A crucial factor – customer support experience

When you register a domain name, you have to consider the customer support experience provided by the domain registration service provider as well. It plays a big part and it makes a huge difference to your experience. We have all been there, and it is very unpleasant when you need help to solve an issue urgently, and yet the provider responds to you at a very slow pace. Even worse, some providers might not have anyone there to assist you. It really is the worst ever possible experience you will have if the provider’s customer support service is very poor.

We at WebNIC make it our priority to provide a high-quality customer support experience to all our partners. We are ISO-certified and our standard operations procedure (SOP) ensures that every single support request from our partners are handled within 24 hours. We also provide live chat customer service.

8. Be aware of domain slamming, registrar-lock and auth-code

As mentioned in point number 3 in Part 1, when a user registers a domain name, his/her contact info will be recorded in the WHOIS database. Spammers and marketers will then use programming robots to “mine” this info from the WHOIS database and send the owners tons of spam mails. The contact info will be exploited, if the domain registration provider does a lousy job in protecting it. Therefore, this is why you should take this into consideration when registering a domain name with any provider, to ensure that the provider provides sufficient protection on this aspect.

Another possibility that might happen that is related to the contact info is that some domain registration providers will also “mine” the contact info from the WHOIS database. They then send an email to the contacts, attached with documents similar to a renewal invoice to trick the domain owners to remit payment for their domain renewal. Unsuspecting, the domain owners will make the payment and without realising it, they have initiated a domain transfer. They have been slammed, hence the term domain slamming, also known as domain hijacking. The worst thing that might happen after an event like this is that their websites and email services will come crashing down and become out of service, because the DNS services are terminated from the original provider.

To counter the issue of domain slamming and unauthorized domain transfers, some providers’ domains run on a protocol called “EPP”, and to transfer a domain, an auth-code is required. It is like an extra layer of protection to protect a domain from unauthorized transfer. You need to make sure that the provider offers such protection for the domain name you wish to register. However, extra protection like this works as a double-edged sword, as it can also be used by providers to prevent you from transferring. All they need to do is not provide you the auth-code if you truly need it for transferring your domain name. It is good to make sure that the provider you choose have auth-code protection, and in addition you can truly control it freely on your own.

WebNIC offers free WHOIS privacy and protection, as well as auth-code protection. We have also configured our system to allow you to freely control them on your own through our partner dashboard. You can feel at ease, knowing that our protection will prevent spam mails and domain slamming issue from happening on you.

9. Beware of domain expiry sniping

There is also a thing called domain aftermarket, where people buy and sell registered domain names. It is also big business and can fetch thousands, or even up to millions of dollars. The ideal situation should be that when it comes to your domain names, you are the rightful owner with full control over them, and if someone is interested in them, you are the one selling it to them personally. However, some providers will take advantage of their customers and actively check out the domain names they register to see whether any of them can fetch a premium price in the aftermarket. These kinds of providers are essentially researching advance interest for their customers’ domain names and what kind of price they can fetch. Then when the domain names near expire, they have determined that the domain name is worth more than the owner’s actual renewal is worth to them, and intentionally not remind the owner of the expiry, so that they can snipe it and make it theirs. Make sure to steer clear of providers like these, and ensure that you are always notified about domain name expiry as mentioned in point 6 above.

At WebNIC, we make it our commitment to protect and safeguard our partners’ registered domain names, and ensure that they have full control over their domain names. We do not engage in domain expiry sniping and we always make sure to send domain name expiry notifications to all of our partners.

10. Domain Parking and Monetization

You might not be aware that domain parking is also big business, but it truly is. Domain parking is the act of registering a domain name, but not using it for any services such as an email or a website. You might then ask, how is a thing like this big business? The secret lies in monetizing all the parked domains with ads. You might experience this before, whereby you click a link to somewhere or made typo errors when entering a web address, the browser then shows you a somewhat empty page or search page, and popping up dozens of ads. That is what we called a parked domain and monetizing it with ads.

WebNIC is committed to full transparency and trustworthiness. Our partners have full control over their own domain names, and whether they want to monetize them or not. Our partners’ trust is our priority.

Conclusion

So, there you have it, a total of 10 points combining Part 1 and Part 2 here about the things you need to consider before you register a domain with any providers. Therefore, we would like to kindly remind you to take note of all these things when starting your domain registration business. Be sure to keep them in mind. We hope they are informative for you and you have a clearer understanding that there is more to it than meet the eyes, when it comes to domain registration business. Fortunately, WebNIC is a trusted domain registrar with more than 20 years of experience in the domain wholesale and reseller service. We make sure to provide high transparency and trust to our partners without taking part in any of the unethical actions as mentioned above. In addition, we offer a wide range of domains to help our partners to become a domain reseller and grow their domain business with us, we also work hard to provide a high transparency level and most importantly, a high level of trust and service quality to all our partners. You should choose WebNIC as your preferred registrar to work with for your domain registration business!

About WebNIC

WebNIC is an accredited registrar for ICANN, and various countries including Asia, Europe, America, Australasia, and Africa. With offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Taipei and Jakarta, we serve 5,000+ active resellers over 70 countries. To join us and become a reseller, live chat with us or email us at [email protected].

Consider These Things Before You Register a Domain 10

Consider These Things Before You Register a Domain

Things to Consider Before You Register a Domain With Any Providers (Part 1)

Setting up a website requires an essential step, which is registering a domain name. It is even more so important now as the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the process, where many businesses are moving online and therefore registering their preferred domain names. The domain name registration industry has evolved a long way since more than 30 years ago. It has become so huge that it is now a billion-dollar industry. As of the first quarter of 2020, there are well over 365 million domain names registered. It shows that people around the world are actively registering domains and the number of registered domain names are slowly but steadily increasing. If you are actively helping your customer to register domain names, here are 10 the (or 5) things you need to consider before you register a domain with any providers.

1. Be Cautious of the Advertised Cost

Domain registration providers like to display an attractive low price to draw the interest of users who are looking to register a domain. It is their marketing tactic and it is widely used by many providers. However, most of the time, the unbelievable low price displayed is for the first-year registration fee only. The real and hidden cost of annual renewal is usually at a much higher price, and many users who are attracted by the low price rush to register, only to after that discover the steep increase in renewal cost. Make sure to be extra careful and check the real cost of registering and the annual renewal cost of the domain name!

At WebNIC, we make sure to show the original price beside our advertised price for high transparency, as shown here in our promotion page.

2. Beware of Hidden Fees

Registration fee is a consideration factor, but so are hidden fees. Some providers take advantage of the fact that most users tend to be lazy to read the “Terms & Conditions” and add in these extra charges in it. Hidden fees can include many things, most notably for the below scenarios:

“Upsell” and “cross-sell” for domains or services that the user might not actually need. One example is automatic selecting other domain extensions for the user’s selected .COM domain (auto tick .NET, .ORG). Or cross-sell other unnecessary services, which he/she might not need at the moment.

“Transfer-out” fees. Some providers secretly charge a processing fee if the domain owner decides to transfer his/her domain name to another provider. It is against the policy of ICANN and if you happen to come across this situation, be sure to report the provider to ICANN. Less ethical providers might also intentionally complicate the process and charge you a service fee to help you perform the transfer-out process.

“WHOIS or RDAP” fees. Some unethical providers also charge extra fees on processing WHOIS or RDAP info. For example, if the domain owner wishes to update the email address in the WHOIS database, an unethical provider will charge him/her to do so.

Note that hidden fees are not limited to these only, but it might also include many other questionable charges, some even to the extent of too ridiculous to comprehend. Be sure to be on the lookout for such providers.

We at WebNIC do not intentionally hide extra charges in our Policy & Agreement. We state clearly applicable charges and do not charge users unnecessarily.

3. WHOIS Privacy

Every domain name owner’s info is recorded in a public database, WHOIS. The info can include the owner’s full name, email address, phone number, address and more. The info is easily accessible by the public by doing a domain search on WHOIS. It is sensitive info and hence most of the good reputation registrars will offer WHOIS privacy protection for free. Make sure to stay away from providers who charge you a fee for this feature. A good domain registration provider allows you to freely change your WHOIS privacy settings easily for free.

Beware of providers who also offer “privacy services” by offering to put their details instead of the domain owner’s details on the WHOIS database. This approach secretly gives them ownership of the domain instead of the original domain owner, and it is a disguise of the so-called “privacy services”. Essentially, they own the domain and they can secretly sell it should they see more value in selling it rather than retaining it for the domain owner. If a dispute case occurs, it is almost a guaranteed outcome that the original domain owner loses the case, regardless of whatever “Terms & Conditions” outlined by the providers. It is because the provider owns the name in the WHOIS database.

Another thing to look out for regarding WHOIS privacy is the price trap. Some providers promote on the surface free WHOIS privacy, but it comes with a catch. They configure their system to offer free for the first year, but when the domain renews, it then resets at a much, much higher fee. There are also cases where it is free for the first month, but from the second month onwards, it resets to a higher fee. Be sure to watch out for charges like these, as mentioned in point number 2 above.

WebNIC offers free WHOIS privacy service as stated in our Policy & Agreement. We do not charge hidden fees and we also make it easy for our partners to edit their WHOIS settings through our partner dashboard.

4. Data Protection

Some providers fail to protect a domain owner’s information by not offering a proper WHOIS privacy service, causing his/her data to be susceptible to exploitation by hackers and scammers. Sometimes, they make it even worse by taking advantage of the data they have on a domain owner when he/she registers a domain with them. Not only do they force domain owners to pay a premium for “privacy services”, they also sell the domain owner’s data to third-parties, such as marketing companies for a profit.

At WebNIC, we make it our commitment to protect and safeguard our partners’ data and their respective customers’ data. Our privacy policy clearly outlines our obligations to our users.

5. The Multi-year Registration Package

If you are registering a domain through a multi-year package because it’s cheaper, be sure to confirm your registration years after paying the registration fee. Some providers offer multi-year on the surface, but secretly helps the user to register 1 year only, pocketing the remaining money. Usually, providers offer plans like this with a strict no refund policy. An awkward situation might then occur whereby they provide poor customer service up to the point that it drives the customer away. In the end, they pocket 5 years’ worth of registration fee but only paid for a 1-year registration, which is most often at a hugely discounted price, further reducing their cost. They stand to gain more money through this unethical approach. Make sure to steer clear of snake providers like these.

WebNIC is committed to full transparency and trustworthiness while working with our partners. We deliver what we promise, and we place trust as our first priority in providing all of our services.

Conclusion

There are still more things to consider before a user registers a domain with any providers. The 5 points mentioned here are just Part 1. Do stay tune for part 2. Therefore, before you start selling domain registration services, make sure to keep these things in mind when choosing your preferred domain partner. The great news is, WebNIC is a trusted domain registrar with more than 20 years of experience in the domain wholesale and reseller service. We do not engage in any unethical actions as mentioned in this article here. Not only do we offer a wide range of domains to help our partners to become a domain reseller and grow their domain business with us, we also work hard to provide a high transparency level and most importantly, a high level of trust and service quality to all our partners. If you are still wondering which registrar to work with, then WebNIC is your best choice!

About WebNIC

WebNIC is an accredited registrar for ICANN, and various countries including Asia, Europe, America, Australasia, and Africa. With offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Taipei and Jakarta, we serve 5,000+ active resellers over 70 countries. To join us and become a reseller, live chat with us or email us at [email protected].

Read Part 2 here:

PART 2 CONTENT
reason for blogging

Top 10 Reasons You Should Get Blogging

The Advantages of Starting a Blog

Did the thought of becoming a blogger ever cross your mind before? You are not alone as many people have come across this thought before. Blogging is a potential career and it is only normal to see a growing blogging community everywhere in the world. If you are still unsure about whether you should start blogging, here are 10 reasons why you should.

  1. Challenge and improve yourself

Top 10 Reasons You Should Get Blogging 11

Blogging is well-known to be a challenging task, but it is a great way to improve yourself. Blogging will definitely increase your knowledge in web skills, such as starting a website, hosting it, maintaining it and monetizing it, etc. Your web technical skills will improve and benefit you in this technological world. It will also improve your writing skills and expand your general knowledge for whatever topics your blog is about. Blogging is about planning, dedication, and consistency, and you will find yourself better at these aspects once you start to blog.

  1. Demonstrate your creativity

Top 10 Reasons You Should Get Blogging 12

Blogging is not limited to writing articles and publishing words only. You can choose from publishing any forms of creativity to help your audience enjoy your content. You can use photos, artworks, images, infographics, videos, animations, music, podcasts, etc., whichever type of creative you prefer. You can even design an interactive customer journey for your blog so that the audience feels very engaged and love your content. There are limitless opportunities to build your blog and the only limit is you. Feel free to express your creativity and be who you want to be through blogging.

  1. Meet and make new friends

Top 10 Reasons You Should Get Blogging 13

Blogging provides a good opportunity to help you meet people and make new friends. You can join many different blogging communities across the world and learn from the people there. It is also a good chance for you to share your knowledge and help members of the communities. Although blogging seems like a one-man show, but soon enough you will meet fellow blogging peers who share a common interest with you and reach out to you. You might also build new connections with people by attending real-life blogger meet-ups or interviewing people to create content. Blogging helps you build a strong network of friends and peers and this is important for your blog’s success.

  1. Enhance your career

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Blogging is a good method to showcase your skills and qualities to your potential employers. It is a sign to your employer that you have the necessary web skills which are in high demand in today’s technology world. Blogging also shows that you are passionate about what you do and you are motivated and dedicated. It boosts your career prospects and gives you a huge advantage over other people. Blogging improves your web skills and qualities, such as SEO and website security, which are sought after by many employers and you get more advantage in the negotiation, too with matters related to your job, such as salary, employee benefits, etc. Your career prospects will definitely receive a huge boost by blogging.

  1. Make your voice heard by telling stories

Top 10 Reasons You Should Get Blogging 15

Blogging helps you to express yourself and your voice on things that matter to you. You can share your personal experience and tell your stories to help people who are in a similar situation as you. Blogging also lets you express your opinions and receive bits of advice from peers, or even provide advice to other people to help inspire and motivate them. You might find satisfaction in helping people through your blog. This is especially true when it comes to topics such as illness or hardship, where your blog content has helped other people and has served a good cause. When your blog achieves a certain success, you can even run donation campaigns and help those in need. Blogging can be a meaningful activity and help you to express your views and concerns.

  1. Earn money

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Blogging can help you to earn money online. There are numerous ways to monetize your blog to generate a side income for you. In case you do not know how, check out this link here. The few common ways to make money with your blog is through advertising, affiliate marketing and sponsored posts. Once your blog becomes successful with a huge audience, you can even earn a full-time income through blogging.

  1. Raise your profile

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Blogging builds up your profile and distinguishes you apart from others. You can raise your profile and unlock more new opportunities when you make your name known by creating quality blogs. You never know what opportunities can come your way. Raising your profile helps you gain more exposure to the possibilities of working with big, well-known brands around the world. Big brands might seek you to write a review for them, employers are confident with your capabilities, publishers might reach out to you to publish your contents. Blogging raises your profile and sets you apart.

  1. Position yourself as an expert

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Blogging improves your expertise on your subject matter, and positions you as an authority. It provides a chance for you to pursue more in-depth knowledge of the topics you are discussing. You can present your topics and ideas in any way and as long as you like. In a sense, you become the specialist, and this is an opportunity for you to receive media spotlight, invitations for an interview, take part in a big project or get approached by big companies to be the consultant of the topic. Blogging further improves your knowledge and help you to achieve professional and personal growth, opening the door for big opportunities in the future.

 

  1. Acquire new knowledge and skills

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Blogging helps you to grow and learn new knowledge and skills. This is extremely important for your professional growth to showcase to other people you are a valuable talent. Other than technical knowledge and skills, blogging also helps you to build up your networking and interpersonal skills. When you consistently produce quality content, you will go the extra mile to learn new things to ensure the quality of your content, and this will result in strong growth in your knowledge and skills. Blogging provides you with knowledge, skills and increases your overall competencies.

  1. Blogging is easier than you think

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Technology is so advanced and user-friendly now that you can start a blog as fast as within a few minutes, with just clicking a few buttons. There are many blogging platforms and tools now available online to assist you in managing your blog. Most of these platforms provide you the option to choose and use any of the built-in free templates and layouts, and they are designed to be easily used by anyone. It makes creating and uploading content and images to your blog quick and easy. Blogging is not as complicated as you think. Just remember to get a unique .blog domain, and make your blog stand out from others!

Now you know why you should get blogging! We hope these reasons are enough to resolve your doubts about whether to walk the blogging path. In case you do not know, .blog is available on WebNIC, the leading authority in technology services, offering a one-stop online solution focused on domain wholesale service, web security wholesale, online security solution, trademark protection, and digital brand management. We are an accredited registrar for ICANN, and various countries including Asia, Europe, America, Australasia, and Africa. With offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia, and Taiwan, we serve 4,500+ active resellers over 70 countries. Click the green button on the bottom right of your screen to chat with us and learn more about how to get .blog!

The Online Business Trend and 3 Tips for Choosing Domains 21

The Online Business Trend and 3 Tips for Choosing Domains

In this modern era, online business has become a trend around the globe as technology keeps improving day by day. Technology has made it possible to sell anywhere, anytime! The number of people who purchase online is increasing fast every day. This trend provides a great opportunity for many entrepreneurs to start their businesses with a low cost because they can run their businesses online without owning a physical shop. Starting an online business is now easy with the help of technology.

As more people spend their time online now, this has resulted in an increasing number of customers who prefer to purchase online rather than offline. This is due to the fact that online shopping is much more convenient and time saving, which is why companies have to start building their presence online. To start an online business and build a presence online successfully, companies need an attractive and user-friendly website for customers. No website can operate without a domain. So, if your business goal is to sell products online successfully, it is important to select a suitable domain for your business. It is a very important factor, as your domain name is the core component of your online presence! A successful domain will lead customers to your business effectively and showcase your brand power online. So, the golden question is, how should you select a suitable domain for your business? Here are some tips for you to ensure that your domain reaches customer easily and effectively.

1) Create an Easy to Remember Website Domain Name for your website
The best domain names are always short and simple, and will always be easier to remember for your customers, compared to long domain names. The shorter the domain is, the smaller the chance of error when typing in the domain name. It is even better if you can come up with good domain names that leave a big impression in the mind of an internet user! Up to the end of the year 2018, there are more than 150 million domain names registered with the “.com” extension. So, chances are that your desired domain names are registered and taken! If that is the case, you may consider using other extensions such as “.com.my”, “.my”, “.co” and others. The spelling and pronunciation of your domain name is also very important because complicated or tricky spelling, pronunciation may confuse customers who are searching for your company website. Make sure to use names that have easy spelling and pronunciation!

2) Selecting the Right Extension is Also Crucial for a Successful Domain Name
There are approximately 1500 domain names extensions (TLDs) as of December 2018. The most popular domain name extensions include “.com”, “.net”, “.org”, “.co” and so on. Most of the short and simple domain names have been registered with “.com” extension. It will be much more difficult if you want to register your business website with short and simple “.com” domain names. However, fear not, as more and more new gTLDs (generic Top-Level Domains) have become available in these recent years such as “.house”, “.car”, “.app”, “.photography” and others. The tip is to select an extension which is the most related to your business as it is effective for customers to remember. For example, Ekia who is running a business with cars may register her domain name as Ekia.car, and customers can immediately understand what business she is conducting easily with just a quick glance.

3) A Great Domain Name Always Contains Keywords of the Company Business
Keywords will increase the chance of customers reaching your website higher when they enter the keywords into search engines. It also tells customers about what your website and your business is about. Selecting suitable keywords and publishing quality contents may help to increase your customer’s shopping experience. Keywords with higher rank in search engines allow your website to reach more customer online effectively. In order to create an effective domain with your target keywords, you must be creative in choosing and combining your keywords to ensure your domain name stand out from others.

So, what do you think of these tips? We hope it helps smoothen your process of domain name search for your business website. Make sure to choose your domain name wisely, as it goes a long way and leaves a significant impact on your business website. Think carefully and use these 3 tips!

SEO For Bloggers: Here’s What You Need to Know 22

SEO For Bloggers: Here’s What You Need to Know

If you want to build a successful blog, then you must learn the knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO). Grasping the know-hows of SEO will help a lot in ranking your blog higher in the Google search results. This will give your blog more exposure and traffic, increasing your blog’s success. Here’s the key points about SEO for bloggers you need to know.

  1. Data is your friend to help you make informed decisions

Doing SEO is not a game of luck. It is a process of analysing data available to you and make the best decisions possible. You have to know how to interpret and learn from the data you collected. Google Analytics is currently the best option to collect and analyse data from your blog. It gives you valuable insights on your blog’s performance, such as how much traffic is visiting your blog, where is the traffic from, how much time visitors spend on your site, what keywords are your blog ranking for etc. This data helps you to make informed decisions and to identify improvements you can make to your blog. Another tool good for collecting data about your blog is Google Search Console, which gives you details on the technical side of your blog’s SEO. It identifies whether the pages on your blog are included in Google’s search results, and whether there are any pages with error. With more data available, you can gain insights and make informed decisions to improve your blog’s performance.

  1. Understand your site structure

Every website needs to be organized in a certain “structure”, and that includes your blog, too. A blog with a good structure helps both humans and search engine to navigate easily between the pages, making it easier to understand your blog and what it is about. When search engines can easily crawl (read) and index (include in search results) your blog, it will definitely give your blog’s SEO a boost. Technical SEO deals with this and a good site structure is a fundamental component in improving SEO. Identify and fix site errors and uploading an XML file, a file where you provide information about the site structure of your blog, is very important in improving SEO.

  1. Make your blog load fast and mobile-friendly

Mobile is now the main device that users use to browse the Internet, so it is only natural to ensure that your blog is mobile-friendly and quick to load. It improves the overall user experience and more importantly, it is one of the ranking factors for Google to show your blog higher up in the search results. In terms of SEO, a mobile-friendly blog performs better than blogs which are not. This link here helps you to check if your blog is mobile-friendly and provides tips on how to check and improve your site load speed.

  1. Speak using your audience’s words

SEO is mainly about “keywords”, words and phrases which people type in Google Search Engine to look for info. Researching and identifying the right keywords will help your blog to reach the right audience. Learn how to do keywords research to understand what people are searching for and align your blog contents to their needs. When your contents resonate and fit with what people need, it will boost your SEO performance.

  1. Create quality contents to improve SEO performance

We have heard “content is king”, but quality content is actually more important and should be the ultimate goal. Quality contents provide value to your audience and position your blog to be an authority in your niche. Quality contents get more reads, shares and have a higher chance to be linked to by external websites. These give Google a signal that your contents are valued highly by users and as a result will rank you higher, improving your SEO performance.

  1. On-Page SEO is important to mark your content as relevant

On-page SEO is a technique to optimize your individual blog pages so that each page can rank higher in the Google search results, helping your blog to earn relevant traffic. It involves optimizing your content, as well as your blog page’s HTML source code with keywords. Keywords play a huge role here to tell search engines about the topic of your content, making your content more relevant for certain searches. You can define a list of must-have keywords for your content and litter them throughout your content. You can also insert the most important keywords into your blog page’s HTML code, the title tag and the meta description. This sends a strong signal to search engines about the topic of your content, and rank you higher for that topic. It is also important to optimize your meta description to show visitors that your content answers their need, making them click into your blog.

  1. Local SEO requires a different approach

If your blog is targeting an audience of local people, you need to be aware of a few extra considerations when doing the SEO for your blog. Local SEO is similar to organic SEO, with the addition of a geographical component in your SEO efforts. Although local SEO is more suitable for local restaurants or shops, this could be useful for you if your blog is targeting a specific local audience. Here’s some easy tips you can start following, add the name of the targeted city in your blog’s HTML, such as title tag, meta description, header tag, alt attributes and put the city name in the URL.

  1. Build natural backlinks

One important way to boost your rankings on the Google search results is to have many quality backlinks to your blog. Backlinks are other third-party sites linking to you. They like your content and put a link to your content on their website. This is a strong signal for Google to know that your content is indeed a quality content. Links from high authority website is a huge benefit for your blog’s SEO. For example, a link from Forbes is worth a lot more than a link from a new website. Earning these backlinks will require quality content that people think is worth linking to. You can also earn backlinks by doing it the old-fashioned way, through marketing and PR. Some other methods include guest blogging for other bloggers, broken-link building, email outreaching to promote your content, writing testimonials, donating to non-profit organization in exchange for a link, participate in interviews etc.

  1. Forget about SEO shortcuts

When you are making efforts to build up your SEO, remember to stay away from cheating methods, known as black hat SEO. Black hat SEO is a practice against search engine guidelines and try to game the algorithm through unethical methods. You might come across these methods on the Internet, such as buying backlinks, keyword stuffing, link farms, comment spamming etc. Stay away from these as search engines algorithm today are advanced enough to detect them now! There’s no shortcut to working on SEO and it requires time to see the success. It is a long-term effort and you have to continue creating great content to gain success in SEO.

So, now you have a general idea about SEO for bloggers. It seems like there’s a lot to it, but it actually requires very little technical knowledge. Once you grasp the technical knowledge required, then it’s all about rinse-and-repeat until you see success in your SEO efforts.

Blogging is essential for any SEO efforts, and you should let your customers know the importance of blogging. Do you know they can now use “.blog” in the URL of their blog? Help them take advantage of using “.blog” in their blog’s URL and gain SEO benefits for their blog. It is now a good chance for you to promote “.blog” to prospective bloggers and WebNIC welcomes you to join us and offer “.blog”. WebNIC is a leading authority in technology services, offering one-stop online solution focused on domain wholesale service, web security wholesale, online security solution, trademark protection, and digital brand management. We are accredited registrar for ICANN, and various countries including Asia, Europe, America, Australasia, and Africa. With offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan, we serve 4,500+ active resellers over 70 countries. Click the green button on the bottom right of your screen to chat with us and learn more!

How to Monetize Your Blog To Earn Money Online 23

How to Monetize Your Blog To Earn Money Online

When you first started out blogging, you recall how daunting and challenging it has been. After all, building a successful blog requires an extensive knowledge and effective strategies. It’s a steep learning curve and not everyone is able to do it. For those that do, it was definitely well worth the effort, because a successful blog can generate an income that you didn’t think could be possible! The secrets to a high-income generating blog lie in how you monetize your blog. Years of hard work, time and efforts will have finally paid off once you know the secrets and you’ll be on your way to the bank laughing while earning money online! Here’s how to monetize your blog.

 

 

1. Advertising

Do you know you can allocate advertising spaces on your blog to earn advertising fees? Sell these advertising spaces privately or join Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad networks such as Google AdSense, Media.net, Infolinks etc., to rent out spaces on your blog for ads. Private advertising skips the “middle man” and allows you to deal directly with an advertiser. From there, you can negotiate with the advertiser on the details of the ads, the placement, the size, the format, the duration, the design, the charges etc. This gives you fine control over the appearance of the ads for a high-quality blog. Should you decide to go along this direction, here’s a recommendation for you: publish a page on your blog specifically for this purpose. On this page, you should introduce your niche, your audience, your traffic and position yourself as a good choice for them to run ads on your blog.

 

Joining PPC ad networks is also an alternative way to earn advertising fees. This will simplify your tasks as all negotiations with advertisers are performed by them. They will decide which ad will appear on your blog, based on biddings by advertisers. Through the PPC ad networks dashboard, you should be able to define and choose the ads that appear on your blog, such as the designs, the colours, the formats etc. This will ensure that the ads are relevant and meet your expectations and requirements to fit well with your blog.

 

2. Affiliate marketing

Do you know you can earn a commission when you promote other business’s services and products on your blog? Some businesses offer an affiliate program and you can sign up to earn commission on every successful deal that is referred by you. The way it works is that you craft and publish contents that promote the services and products that are relevant to your blog topic, and then insert your own personal tracking links into the contents. If any of your visitors click on the links and resulted in a purchase, you’ll get credit for referring the purchase and earn commission. Here’s a few recommendations if you want to do affiliate marketing: only promote services and products relevant to your niche, and it’s best if you have personally used it and recommend it. For best practice, put a disclaimer notice on your blog about affiliate marketing, so that your visitors are well informed. This is important in gaining trust from your audience that you spent so much effort to build up.

 

3. Sponsored posts

Do you know you can get paid for writing a blog article featuring a business? This is what they call a sponsored post, where a business sponsors you to write about them. It usually comes in the format of product reviews, launch news, lists, feature etc. Sometimes, a business might even prepare the post for you and pay you to publish it on your blog. It is important to keep in mind that you put a disclaimer telling your audience that this is a sponsored post. It is required by law in some countries and also showcases your transparency to your audience, which will definitely go a long way in establishing your blog’s credibility and success.

 

4. Influencer marketing

Do you know if you are an authority in your niche, then you are an influencer? An influencer is a person whose thoughts, advices and recommendations often shape his/her audience’s perceptions of a business or product? This is more apparent in younger generations who grow up watching and seeing influencers. Congratulations if you are an influencer with a loyal audience, you get more advantage when monetizing your blog! You will have a higher chance to receive many free products from many different brands requesting for a review write-up, or even get invited to exclusive brand events, in return for featuring them! You can even run competitions on your blog to giveaway free products, sponsored by brands, and in the process gain many advantages. You can feature the brands, and they in turn feature you on their social media. You can design the competition in a way that asks people to follow you or subscribe to you to gain an entry. Competitions are highly engaging and shareable which benefit your blog. The possibilities are limitless, the only limit is your creativity! This will grow your blog readership and further position your blog as an appealing voice online, which provides more opportunities for monetization.

 

5. Become an online entrepreneur

Do you know you can start an online business and sell to your blog visitors? You can sell a wide variety of things such as digital products, ebooks, online courses, coaching service, consultation or even a paid membership site? Do you have a library of valuable contents on your blog? Turn them into digital products to sell online! Do you have extensive knowledge about your niche? Write it into an ebook to sell online! Do you have particular skills or abilities? Turn them into online courses to sell online! Do you have vast experience on a topic? Put it to great use by offering coaching service and consultation! Do you create exclusive contents or have access to them not found on your blog or online? Set up a paid membership site to sell exclusive contents, services or products to your audience! Other than selling online, you can sell services online! One good example is if you have good writing skills, then you can leverage your skills to become an in demand freelance blogger. Become an entrepreneur and do business online is easy and fast now with the help of technology! In fact, it is even possible to automate your entire sales process, helping you to earn money 24/7/365.

 

 

So, now that you have a few ideas how to monetize your blog, get started building an awesome and quality blog! It will definitely take up a lot of time and effort to build a successful blog, but the rewards are well worth it! Make sure to stay consistent and focus on creating quality contents. Once your blog starts to gain momentum and grow at a rapid pace, the possibilities to monetize it will be endless! Making money online is no longer a dream!

 

That’s not all. In case you don’t know, you can now use “.blog” in the URL of your blog. “.blog” leaves a lasting impression for your audience, and also helps them remember you easier, different to the familiar “.com” we are accustomed to. Get “.blog” from WebNIC, a leading authority in technology services, one-stop online solution focused on domain name wholesale service, online security solution, trademark protection, and digital brand management. We are accredited registrar for ICANN, and various countries including Asia, Europe, America, Australasia, and Africa. With offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan, we serve 4,500+ active resellers over 70 countries.