Blog-Domains and Shop-Domains: New Players at the Web

Blogs have changed and evolved. They’ve transformed from basic web pages to share one’s thoughts to hubs for personal bloggers building virtual communities, and companies seeking to engage with their customer base. Today, blogs are more important than ever and are for everyone, not just the enthusiasts.

Universal. That is one word to describe blogging: Blogs can be found virtually everywhere. Here you can find a live look at activity across WordPress.com where a majority of users are bloggers. In addition, WordPress.com blogs are written in over 120 languages.

As well as having global appeal, blogs are also valuable outlets for writers of all backgrounds and types. “Beginner bloggers” to “Hopeful Income Generators”, who use ads, marketing, and reviews to monetize their personal blogs, are all part of the makeup of the blogging community.

Beyond the individual or personal bloggers, larger brands and companies have found blogs to be a useful resource for connecting with their consumers. Small businesses and large corporations almost universally maintain an online presence to share news, promotions, and more with their consumer base.

So really, what are you waiting for? Join in the conversation and start your own blog. We recommend you use a Blog-Domain for it.

Marketplaces such as Etsy, eBay and Amazon provide an outlet for sellers of products — anything from vintage clothing and handicrafts to electronics and books — to reach a mass market at a relatively low cost. Not only do they make it easy to connect with millions of consumers, but they provide many of the tools and services that make it simple to manage, promote and grow your business.

Yet many people open up a shop on a popular online marketplace and wonder why their items aren’t selling. Etsy and eBay give you the storefront, but you must do your own marketing and digital optimization to be successful. Getting one step ahead of this game can help you master the ins and outs of an building your online business. With new domains like .shop, .life, and .guru popping up more and more in Google search results alongside standard dot-com domains, online merchants of all sizes are in a great position to enjoy the perks that come with these new extensions. Using new domains like the Shop-Domain in a customized way or as a logical shortcut to a merchant page within an e-commerce marketplace makes a lot of sense.

If you’re a small seller with great products looking to stake out a strong brand identity, you will undoubtedly feel limited by the dedicated URL provided to you by the Amazons and Etsys of the world. These URLs are usually long, unwieldy strings of words and characters that don’t lend themselves to your promotional efforts. Using a .shop domain makes it possible to turn your web address into a valuable piece of real estate, and it’s a lot easier than you may think.

In the past, if you wanted a domain name you had to pick from an available .com, .net, .org or .biz ending, and the vast majority of the good names are already taken. This is especially true of .com domains. It is often nearly impossible to find some combination of words to get an available domain name, and you end up with a less-than-memorable link or you have to change the name of your business or product to arrive an alternative that is available.

All of that has changed with the recent introduction of .shop domains. Launched in September 2016, .shop is operated by GMO Registry, Inc., and there are already almost 200,000 registered .shop domains according to NameStat.org, a company that keeps track of these things. This is good news for owners of online businesses that operate in online marketplaces, because let’s face it, a web address like BlueSkyJewelry.shop is a lot better than www.XYZmarketplace.com/…. It’s memorable, unique and best of all, it’s all about your special brand. You start by registering for your new .shop domain at a registrar like www.domainregistry.de/…. Then log into your account and select the new Shop-Domain you’d like to redirect. Click “forward” or “redirect” and enter the web address you want to forward the domain to — in this case, you’d simply copy and paste the link of your Etsy, Amazon or eBay store. Save the changes and you’re done.

Marc Müller

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http://www.domainregistry.de/… (German)
http://www.domainregistry.de/… (English)
http://www.domainregistry.de/… (German)