Whether you have read my blog in the past or not,  you need to read this post if  this title does not ring a bell. More importantly you need to know what may determine about 90% of your happiness or misery. I will share with you  the words of  H. Jackson Brown Jr. These words have  hung on my old home office for years now. They applies to domaining because domaining is part of your life. (more…)

I am asking my readers to submit 2 of your best domains if you will. For a period of two weeks I am going to insert them into the Featured Domain marque at the top of my side bar. I will also publish them in  “DNoptimizers – The Blog”
You owe me nothing. Like I mentioned in my post earlier this year, one of the things I am working on in 2009  is “gratitude”.  If  gratitude was important to Christ then it is a virtue I have to make a conscientious effort to master.  I know it is no biggy but it is my humble way of saying thanks to you my readers.
The rules are short and simple.
Rule #1 Domain must be a .com
Rule #2 Must not be a domain your grammy will not want to visit.
Rule #3 All domains must have selling price.
Rule #4 All submitted domains must be accompanied by your name, your email address and must match the whois record.

Only 4 simple rules. If your domain sells in this period, Like I said you owe me nothing but feel free to donate to my favorite charity which for now is me.

In all a little more exposure never hurts a domain name. Use the form below to send your best 2 domains. To leave a regular comment please use the form below this one or click on the comment icon below this form.

Lets domain!

 Ebay has it, Yahoo has it, Amazon has it, Domaining.com has it, NamePros.com, DNforum has it, Sedo has it, Afternic has it and DNoptimizers.com has it. If you do not know what it is then you need to read this entire post. You also have all weekend to make it happen for your site.
Does your website have it? Do you need it, how difficult is it to have one. So what is it? What is a Favicon?

A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a website icon, /files/includes/shortcut-icon.css, url icon, or bookmark icon is an icon associated with a particular website or webpage. A web designer can create such an icon and install it into a website (or webpage) by several means, and most graphical web browsers will then make use of it. Browsers that provide favicon support typically display a page’s favicon in the browser’s URL bar and next to the page’s name in a list of bookmarks. Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page’s favicon next to the page’s title. The Microsoft Windows Shell also uses favicon to represent “Internet shortcuts” to web pages.”
Source; Wikipedia
So the next question, do you need it?
Yes you do for branding purpose. Check out the Favicon of DNoptimizers.com, Pretty snazzy heh!

It is also cool because people like me who have many bookmarks below our browser, It makes it easy for me to list a lot more since for example I do not have to spell out Domaining, I just rename it to “D”. With Domaining’s distinctive Favicon, I can tell it anywhere without using up premium real estate.

Think about your favicon as your mini logo. The mini-me of your logo or that distinct part of your logo.
You probably just looked up at SkyDomains and wondering why the Favicon is so plain.

Well for now that is what it is. SkyDomains favicon is a work in progress.
This entire post was originally intended for the blog post of “DNoptimizers The Blog” So if you want to learn how to make a favicon, there is a FREE  tutorial at DNoptimizers.com for that. In just 9 easy steps you could be smiling at your new  favicon. We trimmed all the fat– trust me.

Almost every domainer who has been through 4 seasons of domaining already has a favorite registrar. While I have not sampled all the registrars, I have however tried most of the popular ones over the years. I think I probably started with Network solutions at 70 bucks or 35 bucks a domain, I can’t really remember now. From network solutions, I remember being with Joker.com, no this is not a joke, It is a real registrar for real. From Joker, I have some how ended up at enom and have tried GoDaddy, Fabulous and 1 & 1.

Let me start from the worst. I did not have a good experience with one and one. Nothing dramatic happened but I just totally hate their interface and never really fell at home there.

A lot of  domainers use Godaddy but I must tell you that I am not a fan. I still have 2 dot info domains there because I have transferred everything thing else to either Fab or enom. I especially loath the inconsistency of their pricing structure. One dollar today 18 dollars next year. Not cool. Also I dislike all the offers you  are bombarded with while trying to register a simple name. Not cool. It reminds me of the gas station near my house that asks me about 5 questions including if I need a car wash. I just want some gas, make it snappy!
While there interface is not bad, I have however seen better.

Enom is one of the most customer friendly registration interface out there. Simple and with a lot of useful tools for free. Fwd, url redirect and what not are all bundled in for free. They are also easy to navigate. One of enoms strongest point is its stability with price. You know what you are going to be paying at any giving time. Price is also one of there biggest downfall as they are not always the cheapest and will charge you 3 percent for using paypal or credit card. Not cool!  Wake up enom.
In spite of all this, I feel safer and most relaxed with my enom domains but enom just did not make it as the best registrar in the world. Maybe 4 years ago it would have been but things are different now.

Fabulous.com, Well what can I say this is fast becoming a really cool place for the domainer. If you want to register a .com .net or .org, Fab is the place. There price is not always the cheapest but at least it is consistent just like enom but without the 3 percent fee. If you park with them you can also pay with your PPC earnings. There interface is simple and easy to follow. There support is as good as it gets with a registrar. Overall all I have to say is good things about Fab. I know some of you do not even know that you can register your domain names at Fabulous. You need to check it out.

I hereby confer to Fabulous.com the title of “The Best Registrar in the World”

PS: I have not been compensated in anyway to write this review. At press time, this page was published without any affiliate links. I currently have 1 domain registered at one and one, 2 at Godaddy, some in Fabulous and the rest at enom.

Like I promised, for most of this week I will be posting what I believe as best in the world. Best in the world to me is usually based on research and documentation but mostly on personal experience. At the bottom of this post you will find a listing o f the top 20 webmaster forums in the world.

I have listed them here for statistical purpose but I am point out a few salient points that  I think the modern day domainer should be concerned about

For a newbie domainer, I am about to recommend a forum I do not even visit that often anymore but I believe it is a good place to start. It is more like kindergarten but the knowledge you will get here, however  rudimentary will help you throuugout  your domaining career. It is also worthy of mention that the people at this particular forum are much nicer and your idiosyncrasies will most likely be more tolerable here than the top domainer forums listed below.

The forum is DiscussNames.com managed by Afternic. Spend at least 3 weeks here, do not buy any domains until you have read most of the important post in that forum. Do a search on a fellow called “Danielr” and read as much of his posts as you can. This will prove to be invaluable information as you grow in your domaining career.

From DiscussNames.com I will recommend DNforum.com. A lot of players in this forum. It is very active. Less tolerant but by now  you should know your right from your left. I am a platinum member at DNforum. Don’t worry, the best time to upgrade is when they have a sale and hopefully it will align with when you have just made a sale so you don’t even feel the pinch. It is a once in a lifetime payment so it shouldn’t hurt much. Remember you do not have to pa y to be a member. A lot of big players frequent this forum and it is a rather very informative forum.

NamePros is like the name says is where most of the big player like to hang out. It has a rather vibrant market place.
Has a boutique feel about it, some say it is more classy. I think it is heavily moderated. If statistics alone are used as a measure, NamePro  is the top domain forum in the world edging out DNforum in Alexa  and compete ranking

Overall as a webmaster, digital point is the best, it offers everything and an unbelievable knowledge base for all,

So her it is the final verdict

Digital point (Best webmaster forum in the world)
NamePros (Best Domainer forum in the world)
DNForum (My personal best Domainer forum)

TOP 20 Webmaster Forums in the world.

Non of the links here if any is an affiliate link. I have not been compensated in anyway directly or indirectly to write this post. As of the time of this post I have a paid sticky post on DNForum. I did not ask nor was any discount given to me. As of press time I do not have any personal relationship with any of the owners of the forums listed above.

This is a very bold title I must admit but by the time you are done reading this post, you will see why I beleive so and chances are that you will share my believe too. When I started my first Website,
PetHall.com, that was around the  year 2000. There were not many developed websites then. I arrogantly felt that only pets.com was my competitor or inspiration. I poured my all into PetHall.

At its peak, PetHall had free email for subscribers, that is somebody@pethall.com( Yes this was big back then) We had free greeting cards, horoscopes, you name it. PetHall was built to be a portal for pet lovers and they embraced it as such. PetHall also had one very important component, it had a fledging pet classifieds section. I had e-Classifieds Enterprise edition installed (e-Classifieds was the thing then) We were doing so good at the classifieds section that we had a couple of shelters listing stuff there: of course everything was free. I had no clue on how to monetize it then but that is not the reason for this post.

Here is the dilemma, back then I had to hire freelancers every time I wanted to do anything to my site. I did not know how to FTP or do anything then. This would not have been much of a problem if not that every time my host went down, I had to repair or reinstall my classifieds. After moving from host to host trying to find a stable host, I gradually lost all my customers.

This was when I decided that enough was enough. After days o f extensive research, I learnt of this host Called ICDSoft They had a very bold statement about their up-time and reliability but what caught my attention was that they claimed to respond to all Support request within (if I remember correctly) 15 minutes.
You guessed right, instead of signing up I gave them a try. I wrote, ” My name is Frankie I am thinking of signing up but  I am also wondering how long it will take  you guys to get back to me” I hadn’t even left there site yet when my hotmail messenger service (I used hotmail then) popped up and this is what they wrote ” So Frankie how did we do? Let us know if we can be of any service to you” I  wrote back “impressed” I signed up and PetHall has never had a problem since then. Now this is why I signed up with ICDSoft but the reason I have stayed with them and hosted virtually all my sites there until recently is this. When you are new to domaining or not that tech savvy, this peoples support is unprecedented. They have helped me install scripts that they should not even bother with. They have helped me with all sorts of technical issues that they have nothing to do with just because I host with them. As of this writing, the following sites are still hosted with them PetHall.com, SkyDomains.com (yes this blog ) FleaMarketFinds.com, HearingDogs.com and PetMessageBoard.com.

While the links above and below are affiliate links, I put my websites where my mouth or shall I say my keystrokes are. ICDSoft is second to non when it comes to service and if you are a newbie and not too tech savvy, ICDSoft is  your best launching pad.

The Second is like it. HostGator is the choice of most experienced domainers. They have a very attractive price package. You get to host multiple domains on one account. A little tech know how is required. Overall service is pretty good. DNoptimizers.com is hosted by HostGator

Tech support is pretty good at HostGator though they will not bend over backwards for you. For most people the tech support is great but I have been spoilt already by ICDSoft 

Now  you know where I host my sites. Like I already stated, all t he links and banners in this post are affiliate links. I however pledge my believe in this post. I have not been influenced by the affiliate payouts as you can use domain tools to see that PetHall.com has been hosted with ICDSoft for a while now. Like I said, I put my domains where my keystrokes are. After you have checked this sites out, please do not forget that I do not get credit if you do not use the links or banners I have provided in this post.

If this review has been helpful to you please let me know. I plan to do a series of what I call the best in the world which is basically a review of services I use or have used.

Seriously, since every industry is going for a bailout, we might as well propose and apply for one. The economy has dealt us multiple blows. PPC has declined or vanished in some cases. Infact I have recorded a few days now with 0.00 earnings for the day from PPC.

To make matters worse, the landscape is becoming tougher for domainers with legal actions and what not. If you have a really good name, you might want to trademark it somehow and tie it to a service  or one day, some company with a lawyer and a dream could just be after your domain. We have seen even our industry greats fall prey so this is no longer exclusive to cyber squatters.

I say we propose a “Domainer Bailout  Fund” to Congress, who is with me?

On a more serious note, while this post was intended for humor, It is imperative that we as domainers start finding and getting our own lobbyist in Washington. If no one is there for us when the laws are passed, more than likely, the laws will be against us.

 Develop your dreams

Have you ever wondered if  it is just you or the rest of the world does not get it? Have you ever told someone the url of a site. Let us use PetHall.com for example. Why will the person go home and type PetHall.com into Google? What is your browser for?

If you already know the place you are going to? Why do you need directions? This is like using GPS to go to your best buddies house. A route you are very familiar with.

Now 80 percent will type in the whole url in Google  as “PetHall.com” while some will just go and google “PetHall”.

Now it really sucks to be you if you are the owner of PetHall and when your name is googled, you are not #1

I have a .comsite  each time it is googled, Google  asks the googler if they mean thesite.org? this site is a .com!

It is amazing how little main street knows about simple browsing. Do you have similar experiences or stories?

Develop your dreams

Yes we heard you loud and clear. We have decided to change the name of our bid for contract website from Vowels.me which got little love to DNoptimizers.com which shows a lot of potential.
From day one, almost every domainer complained about the name Vowels.me, for non domainers, I always had to explain the story behind  Vowels.me which I thought was a pretty cool story.
In the end this Vowels.me will go into history as one of my worst branding efforts yet.
The fact is after all the complaints and suggestions from well meaning friends and readers of my blog, I had to sit down and do a little thinking. The only site I ever paid adwords for is a non dotcom. I really  do not want to go that route again. Do not get me wrong, I will advertise but this time for a different reason.

Aside from the fact that the name itself even for a dotcom was just not good enough, I still say where is the love? where were all the dotMe people when I needed them. I had thought wrong that being one of the few dotMe sites out there, it will be notoriously popular. Anyway that is history now.

Behold the new DNoptimizers.com

The Mariam Websters Dictionary defines Optimizer as  “to make as perfect, effective, or functional as possible ”

So if you want to make your domain work for you, We have the contractors and freelancers to do it there

If you want to write a new code for a program
If you want to redesign your site
If you want a new site built from scratch
If you want a new minisite, built and optimized
If you want a new logo, If you want a better logo
If you want Content writers
If you want Tech Writers

What ever demands  issues life  brings your way on  your quest for perfection online, DNoptimizers.com is there for you. DNoptimizers specializes on content , minisites, web development  and the general everyday challenges of a domainer.

The way it works is simple.

Lets say you have a project you want done. You want the best job and yet you want the best deal. You go to DNoptimizers.com and you  register, post your bid, and sit back as multiple professionals in that field bid for your contract. You get to choose who you want for the job. You do not always have to choose the lowest bidder, but you get to choose who is best for your particular project.
Even well established webdevelopment companies can bid for a project if the project is large enough for them. DNoptimizers.com is the market place for everyone. No one is excluded. Register now and try it out.
It is an exciting way of getting things done.

Develop your dreams

It is old news now that Domaining.com went to a partial membership system.  Well before that happened or should I say before it affected me or  best, before I was aware that it affected me, (Yes you guessed it right, bloggers “gots to pay” too for the premium service) I was already thinking what I am going to do about the whole thing.
The fact is even though Domaining.com legally belongs to Cybertonic, it i s still ours, it is our community, we are domainers and Domaining.com is us. So how does one become a good member of the community ?, they help the community grow in anyway they can. So I decided I will feature one domain name every month for the next year just to support my community.  Almost immediately I made that decision, I got a reality check, I was involved in the pay or no deal show. Yes bloggers got to pay too (At least this one has to). No free loading.

I just paid my$25  membership and I feel good about it. I am proud of it because this is our community. We need to do everything in our power to make it grow. A lot of infrastructure has been put into this site not to mention man power to get it to its present level. The site reflects  all of us.

It is often argued that anybody can do what Domaining.com does, I have even somewhat subscribed to that thought but I have also visited some of the stuff put together by other parties and I have this to say ‘ Not Good enough”
Sorry but that is my candid opinion.

Some people say why pay for something you can get free. To you I have this to say, “I can read reviews free online but I subscribe to “Consumer Reports” because I believe in them. I can read stories in “Best Life” online but I subscribe because I think it is a decent  mainstream magazine that needs to be encouraged.

It is not just about the blogs, it is not just about the featured names and who sees it first or next. It is about being part of a community. It is about belonging. It is saying I am a domainer and I support Domaining.com and her efforts.”

Things are tight and times are hard but if you put your mind to it, you can spare the $25 bucks per year for something you believe in. Remember “He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap” Ecclesiastes 11:4

Lift your head up imagine this is going to be your best domaining year ever , sow a seed of hope, pray and never stop working hard towards your goals. Always believe in the magic of  your dreams. 
Yes you can, yes we can.

Vowels.me is now DNoptimizers.com

Develop your dreams