Buy/Sell Domain Names! Is it Profitable?

I’ve just recently stumbled across a few web sites like namepros.com and dnforum, websites that focus solely on the buying and selling of domains. And I “gotta tell ya” I was quit impressed to hear some of the success stories.

Now from my understanding, I thought profit from domain sales died at the end of the dotcom Boom. But from what I’ve seen and heard, It seems like it can be a lucrative business. Naturally there’s more to it than buying a domain name for $5.99 a year and turning around and selling it for $4,000. To come across a domain name (whether self created, expired, or purchased) spending time advertising it, sending traffic to where it’s parked, finding a broker, doing the things you need to do to up the value of the name, it’s seems like a very time consuming business.

But if you go to Sedo.com you’d be amazed at the prices that some of these domains are going for, $5,000, $10,000, even more.

It seems to me like a hidden art. There’s not very much talk about it in the general internet marketing forums. And everywhere on the net you see ebooks on “How To” write ebooks for profit, do JV (joint venture) deals, ebooks on site traffic, blogging techniques, affiliate marketing, rss feeds…… on and on and on and very little information on the business of buying and selling domain names. So that means it’s a business who’s time has passed or a very lucrative one that’s hidden from the people who jump on the bandwagon.

Just looking at current events and doing domain checks on certain subjects tells me how quickly good domains get snatched up. Believe it or not the name Farris Hassan dot com (16 year old boy who went to Iraq) is already taken.

From my studies it seems that there are a select few who are generously profiting from the buying and selling of domain names. As I mentioned above there is alot of work involved but if your willing to join a few membership sites, learn a few advertising tricks and get into the game, the selling of domain names can be a very lucrative business.

Buy Domains! Yahoo, GoDaddy, 1&1 Domains starting at $1.99/year www.wbwebhosts.com/iminate_domain

(this link must be active on your website in order to use this article)

Why Register a Domain Name?

In today’s business world, a domain name and a web presence are
a must. All major businesses have domain names. The Web is now a
part of everyday commercial life and your domain name is your
identity on the Internet. A business web site without a domain
name is difficult to find and looks unprofessional.

The Web is where people and customers around the world find
information about you, your products and your services - 24
hours a day. Here online buyers, suppliers and partners come
together. Securing a domain name ensures that your company name
or product names are on the Internet.

For the amount domain name registration companies charge, it’s a
small price to pay for increased credibility in the eyes of
potential customers.

Several thousand new domain names a day are registered. However,
with a little creative thinking, you can still find a strong
domain name that reflects your business or specific interest. Of
course, the longer you put off registering a name, the more
limited your choices become.

Equal Access

On the Web, everyone has access to a first-rate location to set
up a business. No matter how small you are, a good domain name
can put your business on equal footing with multimillion-dollar
sites such as Yahoo! and IBM. Therein lies the beauty of the
Web: nobody knows if your site is run by a large team out of a
downtown high-rise or by you from your garage.

If your site is a hobby or personal homepage, you can still
benefit from a domain name. Your site will be easier to find,
and more importantly, friends and relatives will remember it.

Domain names give you a higher profile on the Web Domain
names that include common keywords can improve a site’s ranking
in search results returned by major search engines. Many large
search directories will not list a site that does not have its
own domain name. As well, domain names are easy to remember and
customers may not have to search at all to find you.

Easy to Locate

And let’s face it, www.widgets.com is much easier to remember
and locate than http://isp/users/widgets/index.html/.

Domain names are portable

Having a domain name means you can change web hosting services
without losing customers. Your new web hosting service will
point people to the same web site. This way, you can to change
hosting services to find a better deal, or receive better
service without losing viewers or breaking links. Without a
domain name, your web site name (URL) changes each time you
move, which is confusing to customers.

Business Domain Name - Biggest Benefit Of Using A Long Web Domain Name As A Marketing Strategy

In the world of 21st century, it is no longer surprising to find that most business had already establishes a web presence to support their brick-and-mortar businesses. There are many advantages of establishing a web presence on the Internet such as selling globally to prospective customers and disseminating information to the public.

Most business owner would have already understood the importance of a web presence to their business. What most of them had failed to understand is that the domain name in their website can contribute significantly to their online marketing strategy.

First, we look at a few rules of a good domain name. Most would agree that a good domain name should:

1) be able to describe your business when people first look it.

2) include hyphen in between the words to make it easier to read.

3) have an appropriate .com, .net, .biz, .info, .org to reflect the nature of the business.

What I differ in opinion is that a long domain name “mysuperduperbrandflyingsite.com” can be as effective as a short domain name “superduper.com” depending on the context where the domain name is used. Many people would definitely disagree with me on this point as they believe that a short domain name is easier to remember. However, a long domain name can be just as effective depending on the context where it is use.

Having a catchy long domain name such as http://www.dont-miss-a-thing.com or http://www.once-in-a-lifetime.com/ would definitely helps to draw attention to your business promotion rather than promoting your website name http://www.yourcompanyname.com which is mundane.

When people reach http://www.dont-miss-a-thing.com or http://www.once-in-a-lifetime.com, you can communicate a short sales message before driving them to the appropriate web page.

Thus, depending on the context where the domain name is used, a domain name can actually help to make or break your overall marketing performance.

Justin Koh is a freelance writer whose articles have appear in most major ezines. You can find more of these at: http://www.domainnamecenter.info

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Domain Name Questions You Thought Were Too Stupid To Ask

So if your site is mysite.com, you can be sure there’s no other site on the planet with the exact same title.

Computers talk to each other via numbers; in this case it’s called an IP number. You have probably seen or heard of it when setting up your e-mail program. It looks something like this: 209.15.63.7.

So when a user wants to access your site, what they basically do, is give their computer a signal to locate your computer’s fingerprint IP. You don’t see this happening; the computers do this whole process while you see the pages load on your screen. So every online machine anywhere in the world is programmed to recognize ‘mysite.com’ with its IP number and will take you to that site.

There are two (or more) parts to your domain:

· Top level domain

· Unique or second level domain

So in the example mysite.com, .com is the top level domain and ‘mysite’ is the second level domain. GOOGLE ADSENSE

The Top Level Domains

The previous example of .com as a top level domain is one of many. Consider:

.com = commercial . net = network . edu = educational .org = organization

Another thing you can do is state sub domains (commonly known as hostnames) of the domain mysite.com. An example would be mypage.mysite.com. This will direct to another section of your site.

Technical Information

All domain names registered are profiled in a database which details everything about the domain name and personal details like address, contact, billing details and your domain name server (DNS).

Here are the steps how accessing a website works:

1. User requests site via browser (a particular IP address) using a domain name

2. The local host queries the local name server

3. If the local name server does not find the IP address on its local database, then it will query other available name servers, which in turn will perform the same steps.

4. Finally, the user is given the IP address (website) or error message.

What can a Domain Name contain?

· Letters

· Numbers

· Dashes (-)

They can’t contain any spaces or symbols anywhere in the domain and they can’t start or end in a dash. Including the top level domain (like .com), you have 67 characters to work with which gives you lots of opportunity to register a keyword rich and audience specific domain. But try to keep your domain as condensed as possible as some browsers return error messages if the domain name exceeds 58 characters.

Example

Acceptable Domains:

þ mymarketingcenter.com

þ 1resource-marketingcenter.com

þ 1-stop-marketing-center.com

Unacceptable Domains:

X -mymarketingcenter.com

X 1resource-marketingcenter.com- -

X 1 stop-marketing centre.com-

Why Should I get a Domain Name?

If you want your site found on the Web, you need one. But apart from merely identifying your site, your domain name represents your business and is the first stimulus search engines use to draw visitors in.

Many people are misled thinking they will get their domain/s when they have a need for it or when the right time comes. The problem is when they finally get around to it, their domain has been taken long ago, and they start again from square one. Many have recognized this trap so they register their domains immediately to reserve them until they are ready to use them. So for a few dollars, they protect their next business idea.

If you are a company, its even more reason to reserve your domains immediately. If your company relies on a number of brands for its majority of sales, then it would be wasteful if not tragic to discover your best brands are being held hostage to a guy working out of his living room in hope you will pay him big bucks to get your domain back. Even if you win the legal battle, why have it in the first place?

On last count, there were over 30 million registered domain names with thousands more joining daily. You just know there are thousands of people glued to their computer screens searching the availability of every imaginable domain that could make them rich tomorrow. You can guarantee that as soon as somebody finds that undiscovered, potentially lucrative domain, they will instantly register it. So delaying even for a few hours already puts you behind the 8 ball.

Test this for yourself. Open your browser and think of your favorite hobby. Now type in the name of your favorite hobby followed by .com. So if your hobby was tennis, you would type tennis.com (it’s taken). You will struggle to find a domain name that hasn’t been taken.

Now considering the CIA (yes, the intelligence guys) projects online users to increase to 1.46 billion by 2007 (it’s now estimated at 945 million) your chances for getting the domain name you really want rapidly decreases by the day!

Your Personal Website

Domain name selection for your personal site is a whole lot easier. You can just name the site after your name like maggiebruce.com or after your profession like dryourname.com. You probably have a higher chance of getting your exact name as a domain if it is less common than Smith or Jones.

With software programs such as FrontPage you can build your own website with zero HTML skills, zero programming skills and not really have much of an idea about websites at all! These programs do the coding and programming for you. All you do is put in the text and graphics which you can easily cut and paste from other applications and it will automatically generate your site for you.

You can get lots of help from free online sources and support from specialists who often give free tips and advice in exchange for their names being promoted to the network’s members.

Your Company

Trademarks

There are now tough regulations from ICANN and InterNIC that forbid you from buying other people’s trademarks and registering them as a domain name. For example, Wal-Mart is a trademarked name so anyone who owned the name previously would be forced to hand it back without any payout to Wal-Mart. The same goes for just about any trademarked name.

We strongly urge you to keep clear of trademarked names and costly legal battles.

Stick with relevant domain names for your business. You can buy as many as you like and they reinforce your company’s image as an industry leader. Your business is far better off buying its domains now rather than later which can cost several thousand dollars. Remember, the online community is exploding at staggering rates and won’t wait for you to make up your mind. Active-Domain has domains available from as little as $9.95 per year – a minute investment that could pay handsome rewards.

Your Products and Services

This is one of the most powerful ways you can unleash your brand name on the Web. Many companies reserve a domain name based on future projects not even completed yet. They rely on market research and forecasts to anticipate demand for their particular product or service.

So they name their domain name after their product or service. When it officially hits the market, it creates a buzz and people swarm from all over to buy it. Viagra is a great example. Search engines shoot it up to the top of their lists and keep it there as long as the traffic and search term requests are consistent.

So if you have a product or service you know is destined for success, buy its domain now and keep it hidden from the public eye until you are ready to launch. That way, you can focus on your project and not have to worry about if your perfect domain will be taken by somebody else.

Investors

It’s hard not getting excited and have $ signs glaze over your eyes when you see domains like business.com sell for $7,500,000.

We are not saying all domains will fetch huge sums of money but you may strike it lucky and get a good buyer if the domain has a high value.

Despite the potential for loss, masses of people still actively search to buy and sell domain names. One can only speculate that the relatively cheap cost of buying domains today combined with the moneymaking potential far outweighs the risk of not making anything at all. So people will still take their chances.

You will always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Sammer Hakim is a Dallas based copywriter and has put together a comprehensive domain name website for current and new website owners, offering free information relating to all their domain name related questions. See http://www.free-domain-name-articles.com

Know How DNS Works

Domain name Servers (DNS) are an important but invisible part of the internet, and form one of the largest databases on it. Each machine on an internet is assigned a unique address, called an IP address, which is 32 bit number and is expressed as 4 octets. The method user to represent these IP addresses is known as dotted decimal Notation”. A typical address looks like this: 199.249.150.4

It is very difficult to keep in mind the IP addresses of all the websites we visit daily, because it’s not easy to remember strings of numbers. However, we do remember words. This is where domain names come into the picture. If you want to connect to a particular site, you need to know its IP address but do need to know its URL. The DNS gets the mappings of the IP addresses and the corresponding names.

Names and numbers

DNS converts the machine names (such as www.xyz.com) to IP addresses (such as 199.249.150.9). Basically, it translates from a name to an address and from an address to a name.

The mapping from the IP address to the machine name is called reverse mapping. When you type http://www.xyz.com into your browser, the browser first needs to get the IP address of www.xyz.com. The machine uses a directory service to look up IP addresses and this service is called DNS. When you type www.xyz.com your machines firsts contacts a DNS server, asking it to find the IP address for www.xyz.com. This DNS server might then contact other DNS servers on the internet. DNS is therefore is considered as the global network of servers. The great advantage of DNS is that no organization is responsible for updating it. It is what is known as distributed database.

The three letter codes

A DNS server is just a computer that’s running the DNS software. The most popular DNS software is BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) DNS is hierarchical, tree-structured system. The top is donated by’.’. And is known as the root of the system. Below the root there are seven immediate sub domain nodes and these are ‘com’, ‘org’, ‘gov’, ‘mil’, ‘net’, ‘edu’, ‘Int’, etc.

DNS consists of two components

1. Nameserver

2. Resolver

Nameserver:

This performs the task of looking up the names. Usually, there is one nameserver for a cluster of machines. If the nameserver does not contain the requested information, it will contact another nameserver. But it is not required for every server to know how to contact every other server. Every nameserver will know how to contact the root nameserver, and this in turn will know the location of every authoritative nameserver for all the second level domains.

Resolver:

This runs on a client machine to initiate DNS lookups. It contains a list of nameservers to use. As we have read, the function of each of these nameservers is to resolve name queries. There are three types of nameservers-primary nameserver, secondary nameserver, and caching nameserver. The secondary nameservers are configured for backup purposes. Caching nameservers only resolve name queries but do not maintain any DNS database files. It is important to note here that any change to primary nameservers needs to be propagated to secondary nameservers. This is because primary nameservers own the database records. The changes are propagated via a ‘zone transfer’.

HOW ‘CACHING”WORKS

DNS uses principle of ‘caching’ for its operation. When a nameservers receives Information about a mapping, it caches this information .further queries for the same mapping will use this cached result, thereby reducing the search cost. The nameservers don’t cache forever. The caching has a component called time to live (TTL) and the TTL determines how long a server will cache a piece of information. So when the nameservers caches receive an IP address, it receives the TTL with it. The nameserver caches the IP address for the period of time then discards it.

When a process needs to determine an IP address given a DNS address, it calls upon the local host to resolve the address. This can be done in variety of ways:

Table look up. On UNIX hosts, the table is /etc/hosts.

The process communicates with a local nameservers. This is named on a UNIX system.

By sending a massage to the remote system that is identified from the information in the file/etc/resolve.conf.

When a nameserver receives a query for a domain that is does not serve, it may send back a referral to the client by specifying better nameservers. Typically operate in the recursive manner wherein any DNS server passes requests it cannot handle to higher level server and so on, until either the request can be handled or until the root of the DNS name space is reached.

The nameservers contain pointers to other nameserver with the help of which it is possible to traverse the entire domain naming hierarchy. A host with the initial nameserver addresses has to be configured. After this, it is able to use DNS protocols to locate the nameserver responsible for any part or the DNS naming hierarchy.

Thus when a nameserver receives a request, it can do one of the following:

It can answer the request with an IP address. This method is called iterative. In this, the client simply asks the server to resolve a domain name. The server accesses its database, finds its IP address and sends that back. If the server does not find the address, it sends back an error ;DNS not found’). Contact another nameserver and try to find the IP address for the requested name. Send back a referral to the client specifying the IP address of better nameservers.

A popular user interface, called ‘nslookup’is available on the UNIX system. With this, you can perform any DNS function. This program also displays the result to the user. Using is nslookup, you can obtain a listing of all the hosts in a zone. In order to do this, you first need to identify the nameserver for the zone.

The threats that are associated with the DNS are due to the lack of integrity and authenticity checking of the data held within the DNS. Also, other protocols can use host names as an access control mechanism. The internet engineering task force (IETF) has come up with DNS security (DNSSEC) extensions to DNS protocol. The main objective to DNSSEC is to provide authentication and integrity to the DNS. These are provided through the use of cryptographic’

About The Author

Pawan Bangar,
Technical Director,
Birbals, Ebirbals, SeoBirbals, Hbirbals
India.

Visit us at:
www.birbals.com,
www.ebirbals.com, www.hbirbals.com, www.seobirbals.com

pawan@ebirbals.com

Internet Domain Registration – Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions on Domain Name Registration

Here are the top ten most frequently asked questions regarding on Internet domain name registration:

Q1. Which characters are allowed in Internet domain names?

A: For normal ASCII domain names, the letters a-z, the numbers 0-9, and one special character, the hyphen or dash “-”. Note that domains cannot start or end with a hyphen. For the new tested IDNs (Internationalized Domain Names), the full range of Unicode characters are available. This allows nearly all of the languages on the planet to be represented within domain names, including Thai, Arabic, Lao, Hebrew, French, German etc.

Q2. How many characters can a Internet domain name have?

A: Generic domains (gTLDs) can have 63 characters in the second level, plus the top level domain, .com, .net etc.

Q3. How long can I register a Internet domain name for?

A: In most cases, you are allowed to register a Internet domain name for period of one to ten years. Longer periods are not currently allowed by the registry.

Q4. How long do Internet domain registrations take to make & process?

A: Typically ten minutes or so. Once you have chosen the name and paid the fee, most registration systems will register your name in near real-time.

Q5. Do I “own” a domain name I register?

A: Not really, it is more like a rental agreement. But importantly, you have the exclusive right to renew the agreement with the registry at the end of the initial registration period, so effectively you can keep the name as long as you want.

Q6. Why does my Internet domain name still show as unregistered in a WHOIS tool?

A: WHOIS tools are meant to show the nameserver / contact information for domain names held by a particular ICANN registrar. They are typical not updated in real-time and thus are not good indicators of current domain registration status.

Q7. How will I know if a Internet domain registration attempt has been successful?

A: WHOIS tool takes anything up to 48 hrs to be updated so can’t be relied on. A better indicator is whether you receive a confirmation e-mail from the domain registrar. You could also try registering the name again. By doing so, the registrar will do a “live” availability check on the name, which will indicate to you whether the name has been registered or not. This is not the same as a WHOIS look-up.

Q8. How long do domain names take to be active after registration?

A: Approximately 24 - 48 hrs, though because nameservers work as a distributed network, it can take up to 72 hrs or more before your domain name is accessible to all Internet users worldwide.

Q9. Can I register a Internet domain for later use?

A: There is no problem in registering domain names first, and using them later on. In fact, it is estimated that among 80% to 90% of all domain names are “idle”.

Q10. Can I get a refund if I make a mistake & register the wrong name?

A: Nearly all domain registrars operate a strict no refund policy. This is because they are charged a non-refundable fee by the registry to perform the registration.

John Leong is the webmaster at Internet Domain Registration Guide where you will find the latest news and information on domain name registration.

An Informational Website Provides the Ultimate Flexibility When You Are Ready to Create a Domain Nam

Content is King If you provide great content online users will
make sure that they can find your website. You can create a
domain with hyphens, longer phrases and words. You don’t want to
use the 67 character maximum allowed for domain names, but 15
plus characters is totally acceptable.

To make your domain name memorable, it should be a short phrase
that describes your website, your products or your particular
area of expertise. If you provide reliable, accurate
information, web users can use bookmarks or type the phrase
directly into a search engine to get back to your site. This
means that you will have to really focus on getting your domain
name listed on as many search engines and directories as
possible.

The other advantage to creating a domain name for an
informational site is that most surfers search by typing in
phrases and entire sentences into the search engines. A domain
name that uses all of the words of a small phrase or sentence
will easily filter to the top of the listing and keep your
customers coming back.

Hot tip: If you don’t trust the engines to help your customers
find you on a regular basis, make it easy for anyone to bookmark
your site with a reminder button on your home page.

Is Your Domain Name On Someone’s Wanted List?

A good domain name is, and will always be, essential for any
online business. If you ask me, the internet is still only just
evolving from infancy. It’s a long way to maturity.

Still the world has come a long way since Ken Olson, president &
founder of Digital Equipment Corp. etched his name in history,
when he proclaimed less than 30 years ago, “There’s no reason
why anyone would want a computer in their home.”

How technology has changed our lives within a span of a single
generation. Sooner rather than later, more and more businesses
will want to go online and cater to a global market instead of
being content with the local neighborhood. And one of the first
steps after deciding what business you want to do, is getting a
good domain name for your business.

A domain name can make or break an online venture. A domain name
is a company’s identity online. It is your brand, your
personality, your trademark. So, choosing the right domain isn’t
easy.

BuyDomains.com argues that:

“Today .COM and .NET names have established recognition and can
identify your company on the Internet forever. For this reason,
they have considerable resale value and serve as excellent
investments.

Over time, most, if not all companies will conduct a
considerable portion of their business over the Internet. A
domain name that is easy for your customers and prospective
customers to remember is the key factor in generating new
business and conducting business on the Internet.

Having relevant “keywords” to support your domain name is also
an important consideration and will enable customers to find
your online business effortlessly through Web based search
engines.

Another excellent marketing tactic you should consider is to
have multiple URL addresses (including your domain name) point
to the very same Web site. This is very simple …..This will
allow you to keep your legacy domain name, while multiple new
e-business names conduct commerce and are listed in the search
engines, significantly increasing your Web site’s overall
traffic.”

A web site is a worldwide advertisement that runs 24/7. For the
price of one print ad, or one-tenth of a 30 second commercial,
you can have a solid web site designed and running every single
minute of every single day. Show a company how a few thousand
dollars invested in a domain name & a web site now can translate
into 100 years of sales and effective promotion, and they will
all be scrambling to get in line.

Most companies, even small ones, will tell you that having a web
site is no longer an option. It offers the business owners the
opportunity of having potential customers view their products or
services day or night, without needing to an outlay of huge sums
of money.

But then, many small and medium sized businesses that are
already online have poor or difficult sounding domain names.
Names that they would readily change in an instant if they had
the right domain name. So there will always be people and
companies who will be looking at the domain resale market for a
better name for their business. This is key.

When Anysoft, a Massachusetts company, acquired any.com for
$30,000, their vice-president, Emily Shain, said it was worth
the money because the domain name was such a vital marketing
tool that would help customers find them easily.

If you are at the right place at the right time with the right
name, you could find yourself pocketing some nice cash.

Even governments are getting in on the act. The New Zealand
government shelled out NZ$ 1 million for newzealand.com. As a
result, there was understandable criticism in the NZ parliament
over the purchase as being a waste of tax payers money.

What was the government’s response? Mark Burton, the NZ Tourism
Minister had this to say, “There is no question that this domain
will provide an invaluable portal for… commercial entry into
New Zealand for those interested in tourism, commerce, and
industry.

The South African Government offered US$10 million for
southafrica.com. It has also been reported that korea.com was
sold for US$5 million to True Net, Korea’s largest Internet
service provider.”

Author, Tariq Ghafoor writes, “I feel that there’s still reason
for optimism in the domain aftermarket but in order to profit
there’s a crucial need to alter one’s perception and strategy
just like our brethren have been forced to do in other web-based
businesses.”

It’s true. The heady days of the domain gold rush has seen its
final sunset. We are seeing shifting trends in the arena. To
cope with the changes, a domain speculator needs to see himself
as a domain entrepreneur and begin to organize his domain names
and increase their value and prepare them for prospective
buyers.

Domain Registration - How to Register A New Domain Name for Your Website

Domain names are site names that provide rememberable names to stand in for numeric IP addresses. Before getting a web site on line you need to have a domain name. These are the familiar web addresses such as yahoo.com that most browsers use to find a particular web site. Domain names, in fact, are pointers to a particular IP address and we use them because they are easier to remember than a series of numbers. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a system that stores information associated with domain names in a distributed database on networks, such as the Internet. The DNS is what makes it possible to attach hard-to-remember IP addresses (such as 193.456.28.8.) to easy-to-remember domain names (such as “web-hosting-guide.org”)

All websites have an IP address in the form 193.456.28.8. The domain name system translates these numbers into names such as google.com. All domain names are registered in a central registry maintained by InterNIC, a subsidiary of ICANN - the organization which certifies domain name registrars. Domain names are filtered through Domain Name Servers (DNS) which link IP addresses with domain names. Each web site usually has a primary and a secondary DNS – duplicates that increase reliability.

The first step in registering a domain name is to choose it. The name can be almost anything you want, but to be most effective it should reflect the nature of your website. If you are selling scented candles, for example, it helps to have a domain name that has some reference to candles – scented-candles.org.uk for example.

The rules for domain names are simple – only letters, numbers or hyphens are allowed. Other than that, a domain name is limited to 70 characters, but you are advised to keep it as short as possible. Domain names can be upper or lower case – case is ignored by DNS but you can use a combination to make the name more recognizable. Since DNS is case-insensitive, yahoo.com can be advertised as YAHOO.COM.

Every domain name ends in a top-level domain (TLD) name, which is always either one of a small list of generic names (three or more characters), or a two characters territory code. There are several extensions available. The most common is .com - it has even entered common vocabulary as a way to express Internet activity – (I own a dot com business). Other extensions include .biz (for commercial sites), .org (for non-commercial organisations), .net (for organisations involved in Internet infrastructure) and .name (for personal names). There are also extensions with more specialized uses such as .museum, .aero, and .coop and are used exclusively by members of certain organizations. In addition to these common extensions, there can also be a country code extension such as .us (United States) or .uk (United Kingdom). The rules for using country extensions vary, so you need to check with your registrar to see if they are available to you.

All domains must be registered with a registrar that has been certified by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). There are hundreds of registrars and their prices vary considerably. Although registrars are closely regulated, they are permitted to offer their services through third parties; so many web hosts offer a domain name registration service even if they are not a registrar. The price of a domain name will usually be higher when dealing with these third-party services.

Domain names are usually registered for a minimum of one year, although you are permitted to buy up to a 10-year registration contract. Usually the longer the registration contract, the lower the price, so if you are sure you will be on the web for a considerable length of time you can benefit from a longer registration period. Most registrars also offer a discount on bulk purchases. If you own a number of domain names you can save money by transferring them all to the same registrar.

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Choosing The Right Domain Name For Your Business

When you’re ready to take your business on the Internet it’s imperative that you find the domain name that’s perfect for your business. Sometimes this is done with relative ease, and at other times it can be quite difficult to find just the right name for your business. We’re just going to go over a few different ideas that you can be keeping in your mind while you’re doing your domain search.

The first thing that you should do is choose the registrar that you think that you’re going to be using for your domain name registration. I’ve used many different domain name registrars including http://goDaddy.com, which I tend to think is the easiest to use. Making your domain search by making yourself a less a commonly used words in your business. For example, if you have an electrical supply business thank you should have words in your last such as electrical, supply, electrician, power, and so on. You’ll then went to a use these words as a basis to find a domain name that’s perfect for your business.

If you have a business that has a company name or a corporate name then you may just want to register your business with the business name and a dot com extention. This tends to work well on business cards and in other forms of off-line advertising. If you’re planning on trying to get some traffic from the search engines you may want to go a little bit more specific with your keywords that relate to your business. You can then build your web site around these particular keywords and order to drive some free search engine traffic to your site.

There are also many different extensions that are available such as dog com, dot net, dot org and many others. The most common, and the one that you really should try to go for first, is a dot com of course. It’s almost understood that when you tell someone a web site address that is going to end in dot com. If you buy a dot net or a dot org web site address you’ll tend to find yourself explaining the fact that it’s not a dot com more often than he probably would like to do so.

The plan on spending some time and really digging for the perfect domain name for your business. There are tens of thousands of domain names registered every day and it’s getting harder and harder to find one that isn’t already taken. If you keep running into this wall, don’t get discouraged, there are still many, many domain names available better suited for any business. Last, but not least make sure that you use your imagination. If you find yourself stuck, asked a friend for some suggestions. Choosing a domain name is important for the future of your business, so take your time and find the best one that you can.

Steve maintains multiple websites including those on cellphoneplans - legal affidavids and currncy exchange