The Softnik Blog

Domain Punch professional - Searching Within Whois Record Data

Here is an under-utilized feature available within most of our domain name products (Domain Punch Professional and Watch my Domains ISP).

You can find it under the Edit menu and is labeled Whois output search settings.

Simply type in any text string and the software will display all the domains that have the text within the whois data records. Here are two typical applications...

• Quickly find domains that have a specific registry status. The software will automatically extract and display only the first displayed status text. So this option will help you find additional status settings.
• Find domains that use a specific administrative email contact or a specific phone number. It is important to keep the domain whois records up-to-date. If your contact information has changed, you can use this feature to find domain records that need to be updated.

Are your web pages competitive?

Keyword Strategy Studio is a fantastic software product to check the competitiveness of your web site for any keyword phrase you want to target. You can even compare your site with that of your competitors. The best part is that you don't have to do anything extra to get this information. It is found and displayed whenever you lookup any keyword phrase.

After you analyze a keyword phrase, simply click on the "Competition" tab and you will be able to see the top competing sites arranged in order of their strengths. The "strength" is calculated based on the rankings of these sites at the top three search engines.

You can right click, select "Setup Columns..." and enable the display of the actual ranks in addition to the "strength".

Keyword Strategy Studio Updated

There is a minor update available for Keyword Strategy Studio (build 050808). This fixes a bug in keyword builder that caused the keywords to be copied to the wrong list when the "Export to another list" option is used.

We have also enabled sorting the entries in the "compare ranks" view in Keyword Explorer. The sorting was originally disabled because it will make the list appear in wrong SE ranking order. You can now get back the original ranked list by clicking the "#" column header.

Domain Punch Professional: Quickly Access Registrar Management Interface

Many users of Domain Punch Professional are not aware that they can access the registrar's management interface with a single click from the software. Even I had forgotten about this and remembered it only because recently a customer asked a question about it!

This option is available under the "Edit > Domain Management Settings" menu. Remember to first highlight a domain in the list by clicking on it before choosing the menu option.

Some settings are required for this. But you need to do this only once (for each registrar).

• Registrar's account login URL
• Your login/user name
• The account password (stored in the local registry in an encrypted format)
• If the account page uses POST method
• The various POST variables used in the registrar's HTML account login form. You can find this by looking at the HTML source of the login page.

You can also specify your own data using the following variables. The software will automatically fill in the required information.

• {login}
• {password}
• {domain}

Here is an example settings for Tucows (opensrs)

URL

https://manage.opensrs.net/index

POST

Yes

Post Data

reg_domain={domain}
reg_username={login}
reg_password={password}
action=login

Why Unsubscribing From Mailing Lists Is Very Good Idea

If you have any type of an Internet based business you know about auto-responders and mailing lists. Every body keeps repeating the "money is in the list" mantra!

Let us take a look at this concept from the other side!

Why do you subscribe to mailing lists?

Here are five valid, good reasons to subscribe.

1. To get notified when a favorite resource or product is updated or modified.
2. Because it is a competing product or service and you wish to monitor the competition.
3. Because you really like the ezine / list posts and wish to learn some thing from it.
4. Because you find the marketing methods interesting even though you don't have much interest in the actual product or service.
5. Because you like to buy products and services that help you or your business and the list has often recommended good products and services in the past.

Check your mailing list subscriptions at regular intervals and get rid of the ones that have not been helpful to you. The lists you don't want are the ones that distract you from your original strategic plans and make you chase other short-term schemes and tactics.

Distractions are the biggest reasons why many Internet based businesses start to fumble and ultimately fail. Unfortunately the Internet is full of distractions in the form of opinions and ideas from every one. It is very important that you learn to identify the practically useful ideas and ignore the distracting ones. This is not always easy to do because what is a bad idea for your business may not be bad for some one else.

The best way to remain focused on your task is to create a solid strategic path for your business. You should then learn to look at ideas through the lens of your long term strategic plan.

IM Toolpad Updated

We have updated IM Toolpad. This fixes a problem with results from Live. The PDF reports have been made more printer friendly by removing the darker colors.

Five Types Of Products That People Will Always Want To Buy

We  often get emails from people asking about the keyword research they should do for finding a good niche.

Is keyword research based on faulty and random search volume counts the right method for deciding the type of product or service you want to offer?

Good products that fill a need will always do well. Here are five types of products that will always find buyers! Combine these product types with a unique twist or idea and decide the kind of Internet business you wish to create.

1. Products that make or save money

People always want to make more money. If your product or service will help them earn more or save money highlight it. Even if your product is not directly connected to making money, it is always a good idea to explain how it can save money for them.

2. Products that help people learn

People are always looking to learn something new. "How to" guides are always popular for this reason. This is also the reason why there are so many ebooks on all types of topics. Be careful about this because it is one of the most competitive niches on the Internet. However, this is one of the easiest niches to enter.

3. Products that entertain

It is no surprise that the top searches on Yahoo Buzz are almost always about TV shows, actors and sports. This niche does require some unique expertise. Go for it if you have a good talent for creating entertaining videos, cartoons, etc.

4. Products that make life healthy and comfortable

People want to live as comfortably as they can, without any aches and pains. Do you have an idea for a product that will help them do that? This niche is often abused and may have a bad reputation because of all the spam associated with magic herbs and pills.

5. Products that save time and effort

People love pressing buttons and getting things done! Do good research on popular topics and make your work available to your customers for a price. Create a software that will save your customer hours of work.

How To Delete Unwanted Projects in Keyword Strategy Studio

Here is a quick Keyword Strategy Studio tip...

All the projects created in Keyword Strategy Studio are stored in folders within the "data store" directory. Each project has it's own folder with the same name as the project.

To identify the "data store" directory simply click on the ribbon bar button called "set data store path".  Observe where the data is being stored and click "Cancel".

Just browse over to the data folder and then delete the unwanted folders. These will not appear within the "Open projects" option any longer.

You can also backup your data by just saving the contents of the "data store path".

Domain Name Strategy - Finding the right names

It may appear as if all good domain names are taken. However, it is still possible to find and register reasonably good domain names.  Here are some good techniques for finding good domain names...

Domain Names By Combining Multiple Words

Create a collection of good "wordlets" that can be used to create domains. Examples include words like zone, pad, bay, and so on. Pad these to existing regular words to create new names. You can use a number of free or paid software products to create such domain names and automatically check if they are available. Please see converting keywords in a text file to domain names. You can use a software like Domain Name Analyzer to manage such wordlets and create domain names.

Domain Names From Current Trends, Magazine Headlines

You can get a lot of domain name ideas from reading newspapers and magazines. See some of the creative headlines and check if you can create domain names out of them. Make sure that these are not trademarked terms.

Domain Names From Coined terms

You can create good domain names by inventing new words. This is probably a good idea if you are planning to use it for a new product or as a business name. Again, make sure that the term is not a trademark.

What To Avoid While Registering Domain Names

Avoid domain names that are too long and have repeated alphabets, hyphens or numbers. Some people recommend domain names with multiple keywords in them because of search engine optimization reasons. However, a better long term strategy is to use good, pronounceable and brand-able domain names.

Internet Business Strategy - The brand and domain names

As you create and grow your Internet business you will often need to register new domain names.

You should ensure that you own the ".com" version of your brand name. Try and get the same name in other relevant TLDs like net, org, biz, info, etc and also in your local country code (.uk, .us, etc).

You should also keep a watch on emerging technologies and new domain extensions made available by ICANN (example? the Mobi TLD). ICANN does approve new domain extensions now and then. Keep a watch for this and do a defensive registration to ensure that you own the brand under the new domain extensions. Of course, you may not need to register your domain names in every ccTLD and TLD, just do what you think is best!

If you have different products, try and register the ".com" versions for the product names. You should also register domain names for products you plan to develop. It is always a good idea to registrar the domain name even if your plans are far into the future.

A Warning About Domain Name Availability Checks

Avoid searching for domain name availability at the registrar websites. There have been reports of certain registrars and websites monitoring searches and then blocking the domain name. It is safer to use a software like Domain Name Analyzer because it has an option to check for availability with minimum number of lookups and also use the registry whois servers. Since the software is run directly from your own computer, nothing is monitored or logged.

Go to the registrar website after you have decided the name to register and do the registration immediately. It is better to keep a credit balance in your domain name registrar account. This will ensure that your domain name registration is successful on the first try.

Domain Name Portfolio Management

Registering domain names is only the first part, you should make sure that you renew these domains on time. As already mentioned in the previous post, you could end up losing a good part your business if you forget to pay the $10 domain renewal fee!

Domain name portfolio management is a very important part of your Internet business. There have been posts on this subject before. So I will just link to them!

• Eleven Steps To Safeguard Your Domain Names
• Ever lost a domain name because you forgot to renew it?
• Our software products for domain name management