A free domain name?

Register.com sent me and unsolicited email about free domain registeration that they are giving away till 3/25/08. I thought it looked like an interesting deal so I headed over to the site to read the find print.

It is actually free for 1 year from the date of registration (you will need to buy your own hosting plan separate from the domain if you wish to use it), the catch is that they want your credit card information on the account so that when the free year is up they can charge you for a second year and so on. They charge $35.00 for 1 year domain registration!! What a rip off!

I actually do not recommend register.com’s hosting plans to anyone who wishes to have control over their site/ SEO. I used them back in the day and was grossly disappointed. I don’t even recommend them for domain registration because it is way over priced but with a free domain why not use them?

The key is to transfer the domain to another registrar at the end of the year and THEN pay for the next years registration. This is what I plan to do!

I got my free domain registration for customgiftsbytalina.com, I will redirect it to my business site (www.craftedcustomgifts.com) thus reserving my business name as a domain so nobody else can use it and misrepresent the business.

A free domain name could be benificial to you as a blogger. Getting a domain registered and buying a hosting plan means you own your blog. It wont be hosted at a free blogging site (like blogger.com, wordpress.com or MSN spaces) which increases your chance for making money off that blog, plus you have more control!

Free blogs often cannot use all the nifty little plugins (like comment luv) that exist because they are unable to edit template files and so on. Free blogs are free so the capabilities and benefits are often limited. If you are a serious blogger this free domain name offer can launch you into the world of professional blogging/ owning your own site!

If you want ot claim your free domain head over to their promotion page (http://www.register.com/promo/acquisitions_lp_1.rcmx?trkID=EMAoFkNb1W) and get started.. The offer is only good for the week so don’t wait if you want one.

Then mark your calendar and remember to transfer the domain registration to another registrar of your choice before it expires next year!

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Looking to make money with your site/ blog?

Lots of people are making money with their blogs or websites. Whether it’s adsense pay per click, affiliate sales marketing, paid posts or other advertising people everywhere are making money off their websites.

I just learned of a new way for site owners to monetize their sites Net Audio Ads™ Pay-Per-Play advertising is an Audio-only advertising channel that site owners can earn revenue for 100% of their traffic.

Right now they are running a special for site owners interested in monetizing their blog via pay per play advertising. Basically in opting to place pay per play advertising on your site you are allowing advertisers to have a five second audio clip that plays on your site.

They are running a special right now for publishers (site owners). If you sign up before February 1st 2008 you will share in all the affiliate revenue generated. After February 1st 2008 publishers will only be compensated for the ads that advertisers choose to specifically place on your site. Now is the best time to sign up if you are even remotely interested in this new and lucrative new advertising revolution.

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Choosing a webhost is now easier!

Many readers have inquired about website hosting plans and services. There are a number of options to choose from and often times the choices can seem overwhelming. I have found another helpful resource for those shopping for web services. If you visit http://www.webhostingchoice.com you will find a very easy to use tool that allows you to search for plans and services that fit your needs. I believe this tool is helpful and will save time with it’s side by side comparisons of services within your search range. If you are looking for information on a number of hosts and services and would like to see them all in one place you would benefit from following the link posted above.

Also, if you are new to site building or if this is your first website you would also benefit from the informative articles the have posted on the site. These informative articles can help to make sense of buying hosting service and a domain.

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Blog marketing idea- blogger business cards

I just found a great deal for bloggers who wish to market their blogs outside the realm of the internet. You can get 100 FREE business cards, you just pay the shipping cost! These blogger business cards are a great way to market your blog in the “real world”! On ooprint.com you can design your blog business card with their user friendly site, the blogger specific templates allow you to list your blogs main keywords & tags on the business card along with your preferred contact info.

If you are looking for ways to grow your blogs readership real world marketing through blogger business cards is a great idea that you may want to look in to!

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Payperpost, Google, page rank, paid links and the debate.

Did you know that many bloggers who get paid to blog are suffering from dramatic page rank drops? Do you know why? It is because of Google’s rules about “passing page rank” through paid links.

Payperpost is a great way for bloggers to get paid for writing but questions have been raised about whether or not they are asking you to break google’s “passing page rank” rules. Some payperpost writers claim that using “rel=nofollow” in the html for sponsored links is against the payperpost terms of service. Not using it will surely impact your page rank and may even get your sites removed from google so what decision will you make? Which one is more ethical? Are you looking to make money or to provide helpful content to web users, do you have to choose one or the other?
I thought the goal of payperpost was to create internet “buzz” for advertisers and to refer readers to opportunities that were relevant and useful to the target audience. I didn’t think payperpost was a round-about way for advertisers to buy page rank and optimal search engine placement.

Yes, I know that many people are saying that google page rank means nothing anymore and that they are “a soft monopoly” that is loosing respect and creditability over all this. I am just not sure if I believe it just yet. Google is my preferred search engine and they do have many users who believe their results are the best, besides I do get over half of my traffic from their search results!

I guess it all goes back to what we believe is the best type of search results. Do you like your results to be free of paid results and do you think paid results are often irrelevant, do you care? Do you think that advertisers who pay for publicity should also benefit from preferred search engine placement?

Shouldn’t their be a way for the small businesses and the “great content” producers to get into the search engines without having to pay and arm and a leg for publicity? What are your thoughts about all this and where do you think the coin will fall?

Their are some great debates going on about the google/ payperpost saga that you can read about on the payperpost forums. This is a very controversial topic and each blogger has to decide which way they will go.

Additionally, any site owner that chooses to place advertisements on their site for personal gain should consider the pros and cons very carefully! For more reading on the paid links/ page rank issue check out these sites:

• Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings
• Matt Cutts on text links and pagerank
• Why paid links in the search results can be bad
• Information about buying and selling links that pass PageRank
• Paid Links To Manipulate PageRank

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