A domain is a name that identifies IP addresses on the internet. The domain name Yahoo.com represents about fifteen (15)  IP addresses. Domain names are used to identify Web pages. For example, in the URL www.gohome.com/index.html, the domain name is gohome.com.

You register a domain name by registering with a domain name services registrar. The domain name industry is regulated and overseen by ICANN, which is an organization responsible for providing standards and procedures for certifying companies as domain name registrars.

Domain name registration has grown over the years. Network Solutions was the first domain name registrar to ever provide such a service. That was over ten years ago but today there are many accredited registrars. Only a domain name registrar is permitted to access and modify the master database domains that are on InterNIC servers. The fee is determined by the registrar as far as getting a domain name and some registers have special domain name packages.

Do You Really Need a Domain Name?

You use a domain name to create an identity on the World Wide Web and domain names can also be used for branding purposes, such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc.  In picking a domain name, the title shouldn’t stray far from what your company is all about. This will allow you to market your web-site as a subsidiary of your business and put your domain name on business cards and advertisements.

Once you select a domain name, you must register it with a domain name registrar. This is a task you can do easily.  Many ISPs offer a complete package that includes hosting and the registering of the domain name for you. Fees probably will include a one time set-up fee for all of the backend technical work that needs to be accomplished. Then pay your service provider a monthly, semi-annual or annual fee for Web site hosting services.

Many domain registrar services have competent online tools to help you get your domain name and hosting site up and running.

There are approximately 68 million .COM domains registered. That’s a lot of domain names out on the Internet that are either already taken or just parked in some obsolete spot gathering dust and all kinds of age. The most common names like loser.com. Jamesbrown.com are already taken by net investors who resell the rights to the names. Can you imagine someone having www.elvis.com ? He’s just waiting on the highest bidder!

There are 900 possible combinations for two letter sequences.  If you’re looking for ‘ET’ then you just won’t find it!  Even allowing for digits, again every single web address is taken. Of course, that’s ignoring the fact that .COM registrars now mandate a 3-character minimum length, so it wouldn’t be an option.

Many of the three-letter sequences are taken. Adding digits to a domain name creates a number of garbage domain entries. If you’re dying to acquire great domains and unique domain names, they’ll free up sometimes only to be auctioned off through unique domain name sales.

The longer the domain name that you choose, the more that the possibilities are that it could be available presuming that you’re willing to accept an arbitrary sequence of letters and/or digits. For example, most organizations have 4 letter acronyms (WQAM.com and AFTA.org so you may have a chance using over 4 letters to get the domain name that you want in acronym style!

Of course many of the registered domains are ever visited, with a huge percentage having nothing more than a ‘parked page’ (users pay domain registrars to put up ads for themselves on these type of parked pages). There are so many combinations and back door tricks to domain name cataloging and classification until the possibilities are endless.

The rule is to obtain a domain name that closely resembles who you are about which gives you and identity and brand on the internet.

Use common sense when choosing a domain name because your domain name, or URL, can have an impact in both the online and offline marketing of your web-site. Long or difficult to spell domain names can make people ignore your web site and it has to be pretty good for them to stick with it.  Short domain names register better with people’s memory and are easy to remember.

Obtain a domain name that will help you in your marketing niche and strategy. Like I stated before, you can use your business name as your URL. If your business name is already taken by someone else then get a URL name close to what you are doing. Purchasing a business name domain name isn’t the only way to go, and when a keyword domain name could do just fine.

If you plan on using the .net extension, you may want to wait on deciding your name until after you have found an available domain name that is suitable to your type of business. If you follow the steps below, you should be okay in identifying your name brand to the internet community.

Structure Your Brand Name - Put your domain name on your letterhead, business card, printed materials; put it on your phone recording, the side of your car; don’t forget to include it with your email.

Keep it Short & Memorable - Don’t get a URL that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet.

Secure a .com URL - I strongly recommend purchasing a .com domain name as opposed to a .net, .info, .biz or anything else. If your chosen domain name is not available in a .com, keep looking until you find one that isn’t taken. There is nothing wrong with the other extensions but when you have a .com extension, it sounds like you’ve been on the net a long time.

Remember, your domain name is an extension of your business and your brand of product or service.

Received some mail a little while ago from Domain Registration of America, a company that had the details of domain names we own and nice little reminder that our domain name is going to expire along with a payment slip for renewing. The price they quoted to renew was £18.75 (roughly $37.00 at this moment) !!

If we didn’t register domains ourselves we would have probably taken this letter as an official renewal letter and paid it! To be fair, it does say on there that you don’t HAVE to renew through them and you don’t HAVE to pay the bill, but lets be honest, who reads the small print very often.

If you have received one of these letters, you do NOT need to renew through them, they are simply another company like many other companies out there (including us) that your domain can be renewed through. DO NOT be fooled into paying their prices.

Does someone else own YOUR Online Identity?

Your domain name, its very important to you. It’s your identity online. Why would you want anyone else to own it?

Before you go with a registrar to get your domain name, what should you bear in mind? There are plenty of hosting companies out there that offer you a free domain name. Before you think what a great bargain you just got, find out who will LEGALLY own the domain name. YOU need to be the owner and have control over where that domain name is hosted. If you are not the legal registrant, but the hosting company is, you could find that you have no control over where the domain resides.

What if you fall out with the hosting company? Perhaps their uptime doesn’t live up to your expectations…any one of a million reasons to move your website to someone else. For your website to be seen somewhere else, you need to change the nameservers that the domain name points to. If you don’t have the facility with the registrar to do that yourself, then you are relying on the hosting company to do it for you. Many hosting companies will do that for you quite quickly, but then why should you rely on someone else to do it.

What if you are in dispute with that company over something?

A friend of mine took up bargain hosting and domain name registration for his online shop, he got his domain name as part of the package. For a while everything went well, the shop was gaining customers all the time, and things were looking good.

Then he was sent an email from the hosting company that he was using too many resources even though his package said it was “unlimited”. He of course disputed needing to pay more and suspended his hosting until it could be sorted out. So, he decided to go with another hosting company, that would be easy enough he thought, just a matter of moving his site to someone else, after all, there are plenty of them out there. Trouble was, he found he didn’t actually own the domain name. The hosting company had bought it on his behalf but he wasn’t the legal registrant. Absolutely nothing he could do about it, not without expensive legal proceedings to get ownership of his own domain name.

He either had to stick to his principals and have no shop online, or sort it out with the hosting company and pay more so that he could at least carry on in business.

Scary? Yes it is, and it happens all the time!

There are lots of reports where they REFUSE to change the nameserver details until your dispute is settled. No-one gets to see your site because it can’t be hosted anywhere else, which is even more important when its a business that relies on its website for turnover. Would you give someone else that much control over your offline business? No of course you wouldn’t.

Ideally you should have a control panel for your domain name which allows you to change at the very least, the legal registrant and nameserver details yourself, so if the control panel is not advertised, ask the company how you change the details if needed. You may think it will be complicated if you’re new to online business but its no harder than filling in a form - and we’re all used to that right?

If the company you decide to go with assures you, that you will be the legal registrant, then get it in writing, and once the domain is registered go to whois.net, put in your domain name and check it right away. It will have the legal registrant details, and if there is any discrepancy contact them right away about it.

Lynnette Friar
http://www.allynne.com

copyright 2007 Allynne-Group This article may be reproduced as long as the author and links are unaltered.