Amey
18th April 2008, 07:30 PM
How to select the right domain name that will keep your customers coming back to the correct site
If you want to market your products and services online, one of the most worthy first steps is selecting a domain name.
At a cost of a few bucks a year, the best domain name helps your business mature a recognizable online mark. It promotes name recognition among your customers and keeps them coming back to the correct location.
When you set up a average account with an ISP, you're allocated an e-mail address and, in most cases, a Web site at the ISP's domain; [email]yourname@isp.com[email] and http://www.isp.com/~yourname are common formats. The e-mail address and the URL be in the right place to the ISP, on the other hand: If you switch service providers, you have to change both of them.
A domain name that you register and control fundamentally makes your Web site and e-mail address transportable. You get the flexibility of being able to change your hosting service without having to also change your Web and e-mail addresses.
Naming Tips
A good domain name should be brief and unforgettable. Some thriving sites use coined argument, such as reao.com.au and auction.com. Others use a occupational name, such as remax.com. Be careful when using homonyms or other sound-the same terms. These make it easier for customers to misspell your name and may send them to a competitor's Web site. Also, make certain there are no unfortunate connotations to your prospective domain, such as the ones chosen by celebrity agent lookup service whorepresents.com and mental health professional directory therapistfinder.com.
Dot com Still Rules
According to the most recent statistics from VeriSign's Global Registry Services, there are 112 million registered domains. VeriSign, which manages the .com, .net, and several other top-level domains (TLDs), says that .com remains the most popular, accounting for about half the total. The top five TLDs also include .de (the country code for Germany), .net, .uk (United Kingdom), and .org.
In general, as long as a domain name hasn't been listed by another else, you can register it. There are some exceptions, such as earmarked names. For specimen, .com domains inauguration with "bq--" are reserved to back foreign language Internationalized Domain Names.
I recommend against trying to register a trademark that belongs to another corporate, or a celebrity name (even one that hasn't been registered). The trademark owner or celebrity could make a good case to get ownership of the domain at an arbitration hearing.
An English-language domain name isn't case-restricted--meaning that a browser will not characterize between upper- and lower-case characters in a URL--and can include letters, numbers, and hyphens. No spaces or punctuation marks are allowable. Some TLDs have additional restrictions, such as residency requirements for many country code TLDs.
You can search to see if a domain name is obtainable by looking it up in a whois database. Domain Tools offers a free and easy-to-use whois lookup service for several popular TLDs. If you need help coming up with a name, use this site's domain recommendation tool. It's particularly handy if you're struggling to find a good .com domain that is at a standstill available.
Acquiring a Domain
You can register a domain name with a domain registrar. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) maintains a directory that lists hundreds of approved registrars. Annual costs to register a domain are set by each registrar, but are on average US$35 or less for a .com domain.
If you like a domain name but a whois lookup says it's already engaged, you can offer to purchase control of it from the current registrant. You'll need to talk a mutually appropriate price, and for a good domain name this will likely be far more than the register cost.
Similar links:
Real Estate Using Social Bookmarking sites top 20 (http://www.reao.com.au/showthread.php?t=1732)
Real Estate 100 ways to promote your website (http://www.reao.com.au/showthread.php?t=1731)
If you want to market your products and services online, one of the most worthy first steps is selecting a domain name.
At a cost of a few bucks a year, the best domain name helps your business mature a recognizable online mark. It promotes name recognition among your customers and keeps them coming back to the correct location.
When you set up a average account with an ISP, you're allocated an e-mail address and, in most cases, a Web site at the ISP's domain; [email]yourname@isp.com[email] and http://www.isp.com/~yourname are common formats. The e-mail address and the URL be in the right place to the ISP, on the other hand: If you switch service providers, you have to change both of them.
A domain name that you register and control fundamentally makes your Web site and e-mail address transportable. You get the flexibility of being able to change your hosting service without having to also change your Web and e-mail addresses.
Naming Tips
A good domain name should be brief and unforgettable. Some thriving sites use coined argument, such as reao.com.au and auction.com. Others use a occupational name, such as remax.com. Be careful when using homonyms or other sound-the same terms. These make it easier for customers to misspell your name and may send them to a competitor's Web site. Also, make certain there are no unfortunate connotations to your prospective domain, such as the ones chosen by celebrity agent lookup service whorepresents.com and mental health professional directory therapistfinder.com.
Dot com Still Rules
According to the most recent statistics from VeriSign's Global Registry Services, there are 112 million registered domains. VeriSign, which manages the .com, .net, and several other top-level domains (TLDs), says that .com remains the most popular, accounting for about half the total. The top five TLDs also include .de (the country code for Germany), .net, .uk (United Kingdom), and .org.
In general, as long as a domain name hasn't been listed by another else, you can register it. There are some exceptions, such as earmarked names. For specimen, .com domains inauguration with "bq--" are reserved to back foreign language Internationalized Domain Names.
I recommend against trying to register a trademark that belongs to another corporate, or a celebrity name (even one that hasn't been registered). The trademark owner or celebrity could make a good case to get ownership of the domain at an arbitration hearing.
An English-language domain name isn't case-restricted--meaning that a browser will not characterize between upper- and lower-case characters in a URL--and can include letters, numbers, and hyphens. No spaces or punctuation marks are allowable. Some TLDs have additional restrictions, such as residency requirements for many country code TLDs.
You can search to see if a domain name is obtainable by looking it up in a whois database. Domain Tools offers a free and easy-to-use whois lookup service for several popular TLDs. If you need help coming up with a name, use this site's domain recommendation tool. It's particularly handy if you're struggling to find a good .com domain that is at a standstill available.
Acquiring a Domain
You can register a domain name with a domain registrar. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) maintains a directory that lists hundreds of approved registrars. Annual costs to register a domain are set by each registrar, but are on average US$35 or less for a .com domain.
If you like a domain name but a whois lookup says it's already engaged, you can offer to purchase control of it from the current registrant. You'll need to talk a mutually appropriate price, and for a good domain name this will likely be far more than the register cost.
Similar links:
Real Estate Using Social Bookmarking sites top 20 (http://www.reao.com.au/showthread.php?t=1732)
Real Estate 100 ways to promote your website (http://www.reao.com.au/showthread.php?t=1731)