Registering more than one (multiple) Domain Name

If you're thinking about registering more than one domain name, you have the right idea. Registering multiple domains names is a great way to protect your brand name, market your business, create a dynamic online identity and offers more ways to be found in search engines.

Benefits for registering multiple domain names include:

• Protect your brand and online identity.
• Keeps competition from registering a similar domain name.
• You can market and promote different products and services.
• You can point more traffic to your main website.
• Greater opportunities to market and be listed in search engines.
• Create advertising strategies for each domain to reach different markets.
• Provide more ways to be found when potential customers search the Internet.
• Capture misspellings of your domain name.

There are great benefits for registering multiple domain names and the only downside would be cost, but with quality domain name registration averaging around $10 a year it is not a huge investment to protect your brand or online identity.

Should I Register Multiple Domain Name Extensions?
Yes, think of the problems created if you bought a domain name called “tophats.com” and sold hats, and then you find out a competitor bought “tophats.net” or “tophats.info” or “tophats.us” and also sold hats, definitely a situation to avoid.

What is Full Term or Half Term Domain Registration?
Full term refers to registering your domain name for a 10 year period while half term refers to registering your domain name for a 5 year period. Some claim by registering your domain for full or half term the website ranks higher in search engines. We cannot confirm this theory as no one really knows how search engine crawlers score or weigh a website but the age of a website does seem to score higher so the longer your website has been around the more likely it will score higher with search engine crawlers.

Protect your brand name; buy domain names now.

Social Networking and Linking

There are numerous articles (tips & tricks) on the Internet on how to create links, also referred to as back links to your website, listings or social network pages. Like everything else these days some individuals follow proper etiquette and some abuse the system. At Sea N Sun we refer to abusers as the Back Linking Bandits.

Not all links are created equal when it comes to search engines. Search engine crawlers score quality links higher than bad links, therefore quality links will produce better search results for your Website, Listings or Social Network pages.

There is another type of link we like to call intrusion linking. This is where individuals leave posts, remarks, ask questions or get on your blog just to leave a link to their own site advertising their business on your real estate. These individuals are who we refer to as the back linking bandits because they are stealing blocks of your advertising space.

The other day we received a compliment on an article we had posted on our Sea N Sun blog site. Normally we would try to thank you but this back linking bandit left his comment and a back link to his site promoting the same product. Rude, discourteous and inappropriate are a few polite words that come to mind but it was not there for more than a couple of minutes before it was flagged, reported as spam and deleted. There are a few exceptions that can be overlooked, for example on Merchant Circle individuals can leave ratings or compliments. These too show up on your profile page for the world to see and many do leave back links but, if they give you a five star rating, well at least they kind of earned that spot so you are the judge.

When you create a profile at a social page, listing or setup a blog site we recommend you monitor it, it could be filling up with unwanted back links promoting other businesses. Look in the message settings of the social site so you can check the appropriate settings to receive emails or text messages to keep on top of things. Many sites offer spam protection, flag or report these back linking bandits as spam so you never see them on your site again. If your blog site doesn’t offer spam protection you might want to think about purchasing one that does and lastly delete unwanted back links from your advertising space. Look in the help of the social site to learn how to remove unwanted links if you are not sure how to.

What do I Need for a basic Website

What do I need for a Website?

So you’re a small business owner or someone with an idea and thinking about owning a Website but don’t clearly understand the technical lingo and are not sure how it all works.

Web Site Options

One option is to hire a Website developer or Web designer to build and manage your Website, clearly this is the more expensive option up front. Small business owners or individuals on a tight budget do have a second option to keep the cost of a Web site at a minimum, build your own Website.

Build My Own Website?

Sea N Sun as well as most Website design companies would prefer you hire us to build and manage your Web site for the obvious reason; we make more money, but if you can figure out how to use Facebook® or similar you can build your own professional looking Website with little or no experience.

How can I build a Web Site

Sea N Sun offers over 1,500 templates to choose, so pick a design, type your content, add pictures and publish your new Web site, it’s that easy. As you learn you can use formatting and advanced features to enhance your new Web site further.

Web Designer or Build a Website

Step 1 – Web designer or Build my own

·         Decide whether you will hire a Web designer or build your own Website.

There are many major differences doing it yourself verses a professional Web designer and a professional will likely produce better results in search engines giving your site more visibility to people searching the Web. But if you have a desire to build your own site don’t let this discourage you, with a little effort and learn as you go attitude you too can produce satisfactory results.

Develop Ideas for Website

Step 2 – Develop a clear idea

·         Develop a clear idea what you want or need on a Website.

You need to have a clear idea what you want on your website whether you build it or need to relay your ideas to a Web designer.

What do I need on a Web Site

Think about how many pages you need to cover basic information you want to relay and publish, expanding the site can be done later. The landing page (some call it Home page) should outline all your services or products with links to the other pages. If you offer two types of service then you might want a page on each to detail those services. Other pages might include an about us, contact or meet our staff etc., also think about forms, social networking or affiliations you might want to display on the pages.

Domain Name

Step 3 – Purchase a Domain Name

·         You need to search for and purchase (register) a Domain Name

A domain is a name you use to identify the address of your Website. A domain name is like your home address; just as a letter addressed to 52 Main Street, City, State, and Zip Code allows the post office to find and deliver your mail, a domain name allows Web users to find your Website.

What is a good Domain Name

Example: John sells used books and thinks it would be cool to have www.johns.com but a better name would be www.johnsusedbooks.com. Why is www.johnsusedbooks.com better? It will produce better search results with search engines like Google®, Yahoo®, and Bing® to name a few.

Hosting

Step 4 – Purchase Hosting

·         You need to purchase hosting

Now that you own a domain name you need a place for the Web Site to live and be found. Hosting companies provide a Web server and private folders that store the files (pages) that make up the Web Site.

Ready for a Website

That’s all you need to get a basic Web site up and running. Please contact us with questions or for information on a more advanced site.

• Web designer or build your own
• Develop a clear idea
• Purchase a Domain Name
• Purchase Hosting

Learn more about our Website Builder

Learn more about Domain Names

Learn more about Hosting

Purchase our Website Builder

Search and purchase a Domain Name

Purchase Hosting

Sea N Sun accredited with Better Business Bureau

Sea N Sun has proudly become a new business accredited with the Better Business Bureau. The staff at Sea N Sun has worked hard and affirms that we meet and exceed the BBB Code of Business Practices that represents sound advertising, selling and customer service practices that enhance customer trust and confidence in our business.

Once I get the customers to my website how do I get them to buy?

Question
I use keywords adwords I have submitted website to all the search engines get them to my site and they don't buy any thing
Asked by randy12 from Mountain View, CA

Answer
Give them a reason to buy and offer a deal or incentive on your landing page. If your site is not secure (HTTPS) then purchase a SSL certificate (more SSL info), a lot of people will not make a purchase from a site that is not secure. If your site is not authenticated you might want to make a purchase from an authentication service like VeriSign or MC. Take a good look at your site; is it clean and professional looking? If not then you might want to do some redesigning to the site.

How do domain names work?

When you purchase a domain name (Register a Domain Name) it does not automatically activate a website that can be found when visitors enter your domain name into a Web browser (Google ® Bing ® Yahoo ®). The domain name must have a hosted website that includes a numeric address, called an IP address (similar to 184.168.200.78), for visitors to access the website using your domain name. A domain name is basically a friendly name that will be translated or associated with a hosted website.

Your domain name and its associated IP address are stored in a common database along with every other domain and associated IP address that are accessible via the Internet.

When visitors enter your domain name into a Web browser (Google ® Bing ® Yahoo ®), the browser request uses your domain name which gets translated to find the associated IP address and, therefore, the website. People use domain names instead of IP addresses because it is easier to remember a name rather than a series of numbers.

When you register a domain name, you do not have to host a website. Besides setting up a website, there are a number of things you can do with your domain name once you register it.

• Sell it - Domain names can be a great investment. If you have registered a domain name that you are not using, maybe someone else can. You can set up a For Sale parked page to let visitors know that it's available.
• Protect your brand online - The more domain names you register, the better. Prevent others from registering a similar domain name to yours. These similar domain names can steal your customers or confuse them. You can also forward all these domain names to your main domain name's website.
• Hold on to it - Maybe you haven't decided what to do with your new domain name. Don't worry, there's no rush. You can leave it parked for the length of your registration. You can also monetize it by setting it up in a Cash Parking® account.

For more information or to purchase a domain name, visit our online store.
For more information or to purchase a web hosting plan, visit our online store.

For new .com and .net domain names and updates, allow up to eight hours for changes to become effective. Allow up to 48 hours for changes made to all other domain name extensions to become effective. This delay is because of the number of networks and agencies involved in the Internet structure. Delays apply to all domain names and registrars. Please allow for this delay when planning websites or configuring a domain name to work with your email.

Why doesn’t my Website show up in search engines?

This question gets asked a lot and has a complex answer. Professionals work hard to achieve a good ranking in search engines but you can take the first step with a free report.

Websites that are structured well and follow SEO guidelines generally score higher rankings with search engines than Websites that don’t follow guidelines. This free report identifies issues such as Invalid Markup, Missing Components, Link Text Relevance, Canonical Issues, Disallowed Components, etc in categories such as SEO, Content and Standards. By correcting issues on your Website you can take a step forward in achieving a higher score and moving up in search rankings.

Request Your Free Basic Website Error Report

Online Store “What do I Need”

Many small business owners would like an online store to sell their products or services and receive payment by credit cards. We have been asked by small business owners “What do I need to setup an online store” as they don’t fully understand it. An online store that accepts credit cards require multiple components to make it operational.

1. You need a domain name (a web address - www.mystorename.com)
2. You need hosting (a place on a web server that holds your Shopping cart and files)
3. You need a Shopping Cart (web interface to post items and descriptions)
4. You need a merchant account (interface between your shopping cart and the bank or credit card company)
5. You need a bank or credit card company (to process the credit card transactions and link to your bank account for deposits)
6. You need SSL certificate for security and encryption (banks and credit card company require your shopping cart site is secure)

To setup an online store you would need to own or purchase a domain name, hosting, shopping cart, merchant account, SSL certificate and apply to a bank or credit card company to process the credit card transactions.
 
The above are straight forward and relatively inexpensive until you get to the Bank or Credit Card Company. Most banks and credit card companies charge an application fee, a monthly fee and transaction fees. Transaction fees usually vary based on the amount of transactions per month. An example would be if you processed $5,000.00 a month from your online store the banks might charge you 5% of each transaction they process. If you processed $50,000.00 a month from your online store the banks might charge you 3% of each transaction they process and if you processed $100,000.00 a month from your online store the banks might charge you 1.9% of each transaction they process. The fees in this example are not meant to be accurate as banks and credit card companies offer different transaction fees that can vary from bank to bank.
 
Credit card processing can be expensive for most small business owners so we offer several other options like PayPal, COD or manual payments in the setup and purchase of our Shopping Cart® that may be a better cost solution.  We also offer many FREE products with the purchase of Shopping Cart® like FREE hosting and FREE 24/7 Support.http://www.snswebsitedesign.com/products/website_products.html

What is an SSL Certificate

At its most basic, an SSL Certificate is a piece of software that encrypts all information moving to and from the Certificate holder’s website. This means no exchange between the website and its visitors can be intentionally or accidentally “overheard” by a third party, regardless of whether the visitor is placing an order or just signing up for a newsletter.

Once a website visitor enters a secure area of an SSL-protected website, the following takes place:
• The visitor’s browser requests a secure session from the server on which the website is stored.
• The server responds by sending the visitor’s browser a digital copy of its server certificate.
• The visitor’s browser verifies that the server’s certificate is valid, is being used by the website for which it was issued, and has been issued by a Certificate Authority that the browser trusts.
• If the certificate is validated, the browser generates a one-time “session” key and encrypts it with the server’s public key.
• The visitor’s browser sends the encrypted session key to the server so that both server and browser have a copy.
• The server decrypts the session key using its private key.
• The SSL “handshake” process is complete, and a secure connection has been established.
• A padlock icon and “https://” prefix appear in the visitor’s browser bar, indicating that a secure session is under way (unsecured websites showing an http:// prefix typically lose customers at this point). If protected with a Premium SSL Certificate, a green address bar will also appear including the Certificate holder’s name.

Called the SSL “handshake,” this entire process takes place behind the scenes, providing an uninterrupted experience for the site visitor. If a visitor attempts to submit personal information to a website that is not protected by a valid SSL Certificate, the visiting browser’s built-in security mechanism will send a warning to the user. A dialog box will appear telling him/her that the site is not secure and that sensitive data might be intercepted in transit by third parties. When faced with such a warning, most Internet users sever the connection.

SSL Certificates not only confirm the identity of the Certificate holder’s website to the visitor’s browser but also encrypt information sent and received by the holder’s website. Information contained in the digital Certificate includes:
• The Certificate holder’s name (individual or company)
• The Certificate’s serial number and expiration date
• A copy of the Certificate holder’s “public” cryptographic key
• The digital signature of the Certificate-issuing authority

An SSL Certificate allows you to build an impenetrable fortress around your customers’ most sensitive data.

New Business Owner

The service at SeaNSun is the best out there. Not only were they extremely helpful, Steve did an extremely great job with the search engine optimization! It only took a little while and my website was showing up on the first page of the popular searches and in the #1 spot on many searches. As many of you know, it usually takes months before your website starts showing up on searches, and this kicked my new business off to a great start. SeaNSun took the time to listen to my needs, and with their extensive knowledge, created the perfect website that exceeded all my expectations. I would highly recommend SeaNSun to any business, old or new!

Sincerely,
Debra Della Cioppa

Do I need a Web Site for My Small Business

Yesteryear was a much simpler time for small business owners to advertise their local small business. Most small business owners got their name out by phone books, local newspapers, community and the chamber of commerce. Nearly everyone had a phone book to thumb through when they needed a product or service so most small business owners paid for some kind of a listing in the phone book. Those small business owners who could afford to further their marketing campaign paid for ad space in the yellow pages and the local newspapers. Small business owners with large marketing budgets might even spring for a radio or TV advertisement. These forms of marketing where also the way everyone was receiving all their information and the most likely way to brand your small business name. Simply put the more people in the community that knew who you are and the more people that have heard of your small business through advertisements the more business you where likely to generate. Like it or not, modern times, technology and a new information age are here adding complications to the way small business owners try to market and brand their small business name.

Information Age

Let’s face it, phone books and newspapers are heading the same direction of the dinosaurs. Today there are not many people left thumbing through phone books or carrying around the local newspapers but the majority of our population does own or caries some kind of internet device. There is a new breed of consumer looking for services and products that are information hungry. The internet is a major source of information and has created informed consumers that research products, services and business (companies) before they make a purchase or decide what company they may choose to supply a service.

What Good is a Web Site for My Small Business?

A Web Site could be thought of as a marketing tool. Unlike traditional forms of marketing your small business that can be very costly a Web Site is affordable and it works for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Marketing is a necessary evil small business owners must put in a budget. Without marketing not many people would know who you are or ever hear about your small business. The ultimate goal for most small business owners is having a large number of people know who they are (or have heard of them) that need their product or service while spending the least amount of money. A well designed and marketed Web Site accomplishes this task with the potential to reach a large number of people needing and looking for your product or service at a very reasonable cost.

Will a Web Site Generate more Business?

A Website definitely has the potential to generate business but not all Websites are created equal. A well designed (not so much the look of the website but the code that makes it work); optimized and marketed Website will be found by people searching the internet therefore increasing your exposure and likelihood of generating new business. On the other hand a poorly designed site that is not optimized and marketed most likely will never be seen and is not likely to generate any new business. Another factor to think about is currently nearly 50% of small business does not own Websites. If someone searches for your product or service on the internet and finds your competitor because you don’t have a site and they do, well it’s not hard to figure they stand a better chance of gaining a new customer.

I get all My Business by Word of Mouth.

Word of mouth in its own right is one of the best forms of marketing your small business. But as any small business owner or sales professional that’s been at it for years will tell you; word of mouth or referrals have a tendency to dry up. Don’t make the mistake of waiting for that dry spell and out of desperation decide I need a website. Web Sites take months to a year for search engines to fully index and list in search results so in the meantime your site will not be found. By getting a jump on marketing your small business with a Website you may gain a customer or two before that dry spell hits and gain a new chain of referrals.

What do I Need for a Website

So you’re a small business owner or someone with an idea and thinking about owning a Website or Online Store but don’t clearly understand the technical lingo and are not sure how it all works. One option is to hire a Website developer or Web designer to build and manage your Website, clearly this is the expensive option. Small business owners or folks on a tight budget do have a second option to keep the cost of a Website at a minimum, build your own Website.

We as well as most Website Design Companies would prefer you hire us to build and manage your Web Site, again for the obvious reason; we make more money building Web Sites but if you can figure out how to use Facebook® or similar you can build your own Website with little or no experience.

Before we get started on what you need to build your own Web Site or Online Store there is one major difference doing it yourself verses a professional Web Designer. A professional Web Designer will produce better search results in search engines giving your site more visibility to people searching the Web. Don’t let this discourage you from building your own site, with a little effort and learn as you go attitude you too can produce satisfactory results.

What You Need to Build a Website

First you need to have a clear idea what you want on your website, let’s use an example. Bob sells used books in his spare time and wants a Website to help in his selling efforts. Bob decides he wants a page about him, a page describing his products (used books), a contact page and three pages of content with his used book titles and descriptions. Bob now has a clear idea he needs at minimum six pages. Bob is now ready to start a 1 2 3 process to build his Web Site.

1.       Bob needs a domain. A domain is a name you use to identify the address of your Website. A domain is like your home address; just as a letter addressed to 52 Main Street, City, State, and Zip Code allows the post office to find and deliver your mail a domain name allows Web users to find your Website. Bob is now ready to purchase and register a domain name but what is a good name? Bob thinks it would be cool to have www.bobs.com but a better name would be www.bobsusedbooks.com. Why is www.bobsusedbooks.com better? It will produce greater results with search engines like Google®, Yahoo®, and Bing® to name a few.

Bob now needs to search his domain name to find out if it’s available (someone may already own www.bobsusedbooks.com). Bob goes to a domain search site to see if it’s available and register his new domain name (Hopefully Bob chooses us for his domain needs, Domain Search). Note: If Bob’s domain name is already owned our site will recommend variants so it is always a good idea to make a short list of domain names to lookup. Bob now owns a domain name and is ready to move on to step two.

2.       Bob needs Hosting. Now that Bob owns a domain name he needs a place for his Web Site to live and be found. Hosting  provides a Web server and private folder that stores Bob’s files that make up his Web Site. When a Web user types in www.bobsusedbooks.com the request is directed to the folder on the Web server at the Hosting Company. Bob goes to our Hosting Service and finds several plans to choose from. Hosting plans break down to two key factors, bandwidth and space. There are many other options for hosting you can learn more about in our article named “Types of Hosting” on our Blog site.  Bandwidth is a measure of how much traffic is going to your Web Site, unlike some Hosting companies that charge for exceeding bandwidth we offer unlimited bandwidth with all our Hosting Plans. Space is a unit of measure that all your files, pictures or video take up in the private folder on the Web Server at the Hosting Company. In Bob’s case he decides on a plan that he can store many pictures that tend to take up more space than text.

3.       Bob needs a Website. Even thou Bob may have no experience building a Web Site our Website Builder is so easy you will have a professional looking Web Site up and running in no time. As mentioned above if you can figure out how to use Facebook® or similar you can build a Web Site with our Website Builder. Bob can now purchase a plan that suites his Web Site and now has a fully function site to learn and grow with. Learn more about our Website Builder. View tours and templates or purchase a Website using Website Builder.

About WebSite Tonight

WebSite Tonight® includes many professionally designed templates, giving you more options to choose from. The CSS based templates allow you to change templates without losing content. You can redesign your site at any time without having to re-enter your content. This gives you the ability to continually adjust your site to meet your needs.

The WebSite Tonight Home page gives you a quick overview of your website and allows you to easily access your account information, website statistics, tools and resources, and other features. The home page also gives you easy access to some of the most common functions such as site organization, hosting settings, and publishing. From the home page, you can easily upgrade your account to accommodate more pages, disk space, or bandwidth if you need to.

WebSite Tonight includes tools and resources that give you added control of your website. You can apply password protection to one or more of your Web pages so that only visitors you give the password to can access those pages. WebSite Tonight allows you to create up to 10 backup files of your website project or restore a previously saved version of your project at any time. If the unexpected happens and you lose some valuable content, there's no need to panic. Simply restore your site from a saved copy. WebSite Tonight also gives you access to free statistics regarding visitor traffic to your website. The Visitor Statistics page gives you a detailed report regarding the path visitors take to get to your site and how they navigate through it. Or, upgrade to Site Analytics to get more detailed and in depth information to help you analyze your website and look for areas where you can make improvements.

Types of Hosting

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is basically your website sharing disk space on a server controlled by a company or individual with many other websites.

More information on Shared Hosting.

Virtual Dedicated Server

Virtual dedicated servers are basically a single server that is divided into parts to create more than one server or “virtual server”. Your website lives alone on your part of the server and the virtual server is controlled by you or your small business.

More information on Virtual Dedicated Server

Dedicated Server

Dedicated servers are basically a single server that your website lives on alone and is controlled by you or your small business.

More information on Dedicated Server

Dedicated Hosting IP

Dedicated hosting IP is basically an address assigned to your website. Most websites are on shared hosting where they all share the same address. If your small business needs to have a web store, intranet or process credit cards then you will need your own address (IP) as most require it.

More information on Dedicated Hosting IP

SSL Certificates

SSL certificates are used for secure data transactions. If your small business plans to setup an online store or process credit cards etc then you will need to purchase SSL certificates.

More information on SSL Certificates

Web Hosting Service

SNS provides many types of hosting plans including shared hosting, virtual dedicated servers, dedicated servers, dedicated hosting IP and SSL certificates that can be purchased at our online store.

What is all that and what do I need?

Once you purchase or if you own a domain name (i.e. your_small_business_name.com) and plan to build a website you need someone to host it. Hosting provides individuals, small business or organizations with the systems you need to store files, information, images, video, or other content that is accessible to everyone using the Web.