Today, in the last part on carrying out due diligence using Domain Tools we will have a look at the information contained in the Server Data, Domain Tools Exclusive and WhoIs Record sections.

Server and Who Is Data

The Server Type information simply tells you what server type the domain is being hosted [...]]]> “due diligence”

Today, in the last part on carrying out due diligence using Domain Tools we will have a look at the information contained in the Server Data, Domain Tools Exclusive and WhoIs Record sections.

Server and Who Is Data

The Server Type information simply tells you what server type the domain is being hosted on, in this case Apache 2.2.3. The next line is more interesting as it tells you the IP address, a link to the WhoIS data, the Reverse IP (Reverse IP is easiest way to find all the .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us, and .info websites hosted on a given IP address). With carboncopyPRO there are 3,041 other domains hosted on the IP. This is red hot information.

In this instance the 3,041 other domains are those of the members or associates of CarbonCopyPRo, so if you can get this list you are in a position to contact every one of these people to try and solicit their opinions on the business, irrespective of where they are in the organisation. Domain Tools will give this information for a mere $20 but you can get it for FREE by going to ip-address.com, see below.

Reverse IP Domain Information

The Ping information is, essentially, information to determine whether a specific IP address is accessible. It works by sending a packet to the specified address and waiting for a reply. A ping is normally used to troubleshoot Internet connections.

The DNS Lookup provides information on where the domain name is hosted.

The Traceroute is a service that records the route through the Internet between your computer and the specified destination computer, in this case between your internet connection and the server for the CarbonCopyDomain.

The remaining information in this section is technical in nature and of little assistance with our due diligence exercise with the exception of the WhoIs History. If you want to get the details of the record you will have to take up a membership of Domain Tools, I don’t think there is any way around this.

Continuing with the third post on how to carry out your due diligence before spending your money on a associate type business venture. We are part way through a detailed check on domain name, home page and the web site’s owner. Today we are going to have a look at the domain’s [...]]]> “due diligence”

Continuing with the third post on how to carry out your due diligence before spending your money on a associate type business venture. We are part way through a detailed check on domain name, home page and the web site’s owner. Today we are going to have a look at the domain’s indexed and registry data.

Indexed and Registry Data

The first part of the Indexed Data, Visitor by Country and Visitor by City is of great interest becuase it tells us from wherer most of the site visitors come i.e. where most of the business is carried out. In the case of CarbonCopyPRO it can be seen that most visitors 61.4% come from the US, with other countries such as Canada 5% and the UK 4.4% lagging a long way behind.

So what does this mean? Four possible interpretations are:

• It is simply a reflection of populations.
• The business is most suited to the US and other countries are finding it more difficult to attract new members.
• The US is where marketing activity has been most intense.
• Oher countries are lagging behind and this is where the opportunity is greatest.

Alexa Trend/Rank – Alexa.com is a well known and trusted websites that ranks websites and provides a whole lot of other information to boot and this will be covered in a later post. Here we are primarily looking at the Alexa traffic rank, which is 51,026 i.e. there are 51,025 sites that get a higher ranking with Google being no 1. No surprise there. The Alexa rank provided by Domain Tools is a three month average, as you can see there is considerable variation in the traffic rank, certainly from week to week, with a very small drop in ranking over the last three months.

Alexa Provides More Information

The next line is Compete Rank, this is somewhat similar to Alexa, however less information is available. Click on the link and you will see (at the time of writing) a steady increase in unique visitors since the end of 2008.

Quantcast is another analysis site which provides valuable information on demographics. It summarises the CCP site as “This site reaches over 5,910 monthly people, of which 3,398 (57%) are in the U.S. The site attracts a more educated, largely male, younger audience.”

Registry Data shows where the website is hosted, when the domain was created, when it expires, nameserver data, domain name status and the who.is server.

In the next post we will cover the Server Data, Domain Tools section and Who Is Record.

CarbonCopyPRO Front Page Information

The first and third lines, Website Title and Meta Description are self explanatory. The second line Title Relevancy at 36% is an indication of how relevant the website title is compared to the rest of the index or home [...]]]> Following on from yesterday’s post we come to the Domain Tools results page.

CarbonCopyPRO Front Page Information

The first and third lines, Website Title and Meta Description are self explanatory. The second line Title Relevancy at 36% is an indication of how relevant the website title is compared to the rest of the index or home page. In the case of this example, the home page is one of a rotating series of images followed by a log in page as shown below.

Carbon Copy Pro

Login Page

As a result there is not much information to go on to measure the titles

SEO Text Browser

relevancy and so the score is low. Under the Title Relevancy is a link Seo Score , this takes you to an explanation page that shows you how the home page (or any other page) looks to a search engine i.e. it is a SEO Text Browser and is a good indication of how seo friendly the page is. The SEO text version of the CCP page is shown further down the page on the right hand side. As you can see on the image to the right there is not much text on the page and so Title Relevancy in this case is almost irrelevant.

This SEO Text Browser works in real time and shows text of the page at this time i.e. not a cached page.

The Images and Links are self explanatory. The About Us and Wiki Article link leads onto a page where the site owners and others can add and add information about the website, its aims and related sites. In the case of CCP no one, including the owners, has added any information, that which is there has been extracted from the website.

The Related Sites are a short list of sites that have either a direct or indirect relationship with CCP. Some of the sites are part of the CCP network of sites, others are competition.

In my next post we will cover the information provided by the Indexed and Registry Data for CCP

What [...]]]> Due diligence is an exercise that you carry out prior to purchasing a business, whether it be a ‘bricks and mortar’ business or one that is virtual or on-line.  The aim of due diligence is to discover all the skeletons that may be lurking around before you hand over any of your hard earned cash.

What should you do if you are not buying a business outright but are thinking of buying into an on-line business, so that you become an associate of that business? On the assumption that you want to make a living, either part or full time from your business association means that carrying out due diligence is almost as important as buying outright. OK, the upfront cost of getting into the business might comparatively miniscule but the results of getting into the wrong business can be devastating both to your living standard and ego, so caution is advised.

This post is the first of a number on how to carry out due diligence if you are considering signing up with an Internet business as an associate or similar.

Carrying out due diligence on an online business can be more of an art than a science when compared to your normal ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses. As with any due diligence research you need to start early and be prepared to walk away if you uncover any horror stories that cannot be explained by the seller or compensated for by a lower entry fee. You start your due diligence the moment a business becomes of interest to you and your aim is to uncover everything before you buy into the business.

You can learn a lot both about the business, its websites and its market by checking their website(s) using Domain Tools. As an example we will take the main website of CarbonCopyPRO, www.carboncopypro.com, but the same check can be carried out on any website. First go to www.domaintools.com and enter the domain name of the website you want to check in the Whois Lookup search box. This will take you a page full of details about the site, this information and its relevance to your due diligence will be discussed in the next post. Below is an image of the first section on the results page.

CarbonCopyPRO Front Page Information