AJIBOYE Forums - Domain Name Registration

How to transfer your domain name to another person.

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EST

Step 1) First log into your AJIBOYE DOMAIN NAME MANAGER and UNLOCK your domain name. By default domain names are LOCKED to prevent unauthorized transfers and loss. Domain name transfers will automatically fail for a LOCKED domain.

Step 2) Next, retrieve your domain name AUTHORIZATION CODE. The code is required to complete domain name transfers. You will need to provide the code to the new OWNER so they can successfully complete the transfer steps on their end. To retreive your domain name authorization code, in your DOMAIN NAME MANAGER, click on the domain name you want to transfer; this will give you more management options. Look for the AUTHORIZATION CODE and next to it will be a SEND BY EMAIL link. Click on this link and an email will be sent to you containing the authorization code. You can then forward that email to the NEW OWNER so they have it ready for step 3 below.

Step 3) The NEW OWNER starts the transfer process by registering the domain name with whatever registrar they want. During this process, they will be told that the domain name is unavailable for a NEW registration since it is already owned by you. So they will choose to a TRANSFER registration instead. This will cost them just about the same price as a NEW registration, and they can complete the process. Just like any registration, they get another 1 YEAR extension on the domain name registration i.e. if a domain name is currently set to expire in Febuary 2011 and it is transfered to another person, the domain name will now get another 1 year upon successful transfer, and will now expire in February 2012.

IF THE NEW OWNER WANTS TO USE AJIBOYE TOO

During this step, if the NEW OWNER wants to also continue to use AJIBOYE as the domain registrar, they can purchase the domain name TRANSFER registration on our domain name registration page ( i.e. www.AJIBOYE.com/buy-your-domain-name ) but it is very important that they DO NOT USE the same AJIBOYE account that currently owns the domain name you are trying to transfer. The NEW OWNER must setup a new AJIBOYE account with a different login email and password.

Once this step is done, the new REGISTRAR will send an email notice to the NEW OWNER requesting that they authorize the transfer request. The email will contain 2 security codes and a link to THEIR OWN DOMAIN NAME MANAGER where they can complete the transfer authorization. To complete the authorization, they will need those 2 security codes IN ADDITION to the DOMAIN NAME SECURITY CODE you will have provided them in STEP 2 above.

Step 4) Once the NEW OWNER completes the transfer authorization in step 3, the CURRENT OWNER ( i.e. YOU ) will receive an email requesting you to APPROVE the TRANSFER. At this point, you will log into YOUR DOMAIN NAME MANAGER and go to the PENDING TRANSFERS section. Here you will see that they domain name is already listed and you will then select it and click on the ACCEPT/DECLINE option. Please CHECK THIS OPTIONS CAREFULLY TO MAKE SURE YOU APPROVE THE REQUEST. IF YOU DECLINE THE REQUEST, the new owner will need to re-initiate the transfer request again, which takes longer and make things more confusing for everyone.

Once you've succesfully approve a transfer request, you are done. The domain name will be removed from your account and the NEW OWNER will see it listed on their end, in their DOMAIN NAME MANAGER.

Please note that due to the security checks and balances enforced by these steps, and they fact that you have to coordinate the actions with the NEW OWNER, a domain name transfer can take anywhere from a few minutes if you are both working together at the same time, to a few days ( i.e. about 14 days ) if you are not.

Is it Possible to Make Money on Domain Parking?

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Sooner or later most of people and practically all the organizations face with the necessity of domain name registration. The majority of them end up with registering one domain name and start their own or corporate website. However, there are also minority of web users, who register a great number of domains, hoping to use them later or, in most cases, to make some money out of such investment. So, let’s discuss a few ways of making money or monetization of unused parked web domains. Parked domains are those, which are owned by someone but stay parked at the DNS server of domain registration company instead of being linked to a real website hosting plan.

There are actually a few ways of using your parked domain, which can generate direct or indirect money income to the owner of a parked domain.

1) Pay-per-click advertising. Parked domain is usually displayed as “Under Construction” page, but it may be more reasonable to display a page with advertising on it. Actually, some domain name registrars do so with their parked domains and share the revenues with the owners of such parked domains. So, it could be a good idea to contact your domain name registration company and ask about the opportunities to place paid PPC advertising, such as Google AdSense, at your parked domain home page.

2) Google AdSense for Domain. This is a specific offer from Google to monetize parked domains. All you have to do is to ask your domain name registrar to change some DNS settings, and submit your parked domain to Google Adsense for Domains. After a setting up, Google will display relevant ads and links on your home page instead of “Page not Found” or “Under Development”. Visitors’ clicks on such content will generate some profits to you as the owner of the parked domain.

3) Sell your parked domain. This is what most people do with the unused park domains. Many have turned this activity into a serious money-making business, based on the fact that the amount of SEO-attractive domain names is constantly decreasing, while the amount of those, who wish to enter online business, arises. The easiest way to sell your domain is to submit it to specialized domain-selling online marketplaces, as Sedo, for example.

Beware of Domain Slamming

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Domain registration is a type of business activity, which is known to be pretty profitable. Unfortunately, as with any other highly profitable business, scams are possible about domain registration. Thus, it is necessary to understand the process and beware of certain known fraudulent scams, referring to domain registration.

Domain slamming is one of the known scamming procedures, which involves tricking of the domain owners into switching from their existing domain registrar to a scamming domain registrar. So, this type of scam is operated by internet service providers/website hosting providers/domain registrars, that wish to increase the database of their clientele. They simply look for expiring domains and contact such domains owners, calling them to renew their domain registration. They usually provide a web link for domain prolongation, following which results in transferring a domain form one registrar to another. Actually, this type of scam is not widely spread these days, since now the regulations require actions from both registrars to transfer a domain. However, in the past, even the companies with world-known names, such as VeriSign, had this kind of Internet sin…

So, if you are a domain owner, be attentive to any messages you receive about your domain expiration, transfers, etc. Always contact your domain registration company to double check the information. Furthermore, you can use Whois online service to check the status of your domain.

The Procedure of Domain Name Transfer

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Sometimes it is necessary to transfer a domain from one registrar to another. The reasons for such decision may be different, for example, you change website hosting company and want them to hold your domain as well. No matter why you wish to transfer your domain, it is crucially important to understand the procedure and follow it strictly in order to successful transfer your domain to a new domain registration company.

First of all, it is necessary to mention that ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Figures) has special policy on transferring domains between registrars. This policy says that it is only the Administrative Support (usually, this is the initial registrar) and Registered Name Holder (domain owner), who can approve the transfer of the domain to a new registrar, called Gaining Registrar. By the way, the authority of Registered Name Holder supersedes that of Administrative support.

Typically, the procedure of transferring a domain looks like following:

1. Domain owner notifies his old registrar that he wishes to transfer his domain to a new registrar. If there is a domain lock on the registration, old registrar notifies a code for domain lock to domain owner.

2. Domain owner contacts new registrar and provides a code for domain lock.

3. New registrar contacts old registrar with the notification of the transfer request.

4. Old registrar contacts domain owner to get the authorization of transfer request.

5. Once received a confirmation from domain owner, old registrar releases a domain to a new registrar.

6. The new registrar notifies domain owner on the completion of the procedure.

Usually, the whole process takes about 5 working days, however, the delays are possible. That is why, it is recommended not to initiate domain transfers, when the domain is about to expire, since that can result in impossibility to transfer the domain and even losing it.

What is Domain Parking?

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Domain parking usually refers to the situation, when an individual or organization purchases/registers a domain name, but does not use it for publishing a website on it. Actually, every domain name needs to be linked to a domain name server (DNS), but if you are not ready yet to invest in website hosting, your domain name registration company can “park” your purchased domain on their own web server. Thus, you become the owner of a domain name, but do not use it for any purposes, such as publishing content or setting up email accounts.

Domain parking is used for many reasons. Some choose domain parking, when they are not ready to build a website yet, but wish to own a particular domain name before it is occupied by someone else. Others buy domain and park them just to resell them in future. It is also possible to redirect traffic from the parked domains to a main domain. However, whatever your motivation for domain parking is, this is a quick and inexpensive way to become the owner of a domain name.

Domain names are usually parked for the term of one year. During this time you can, surely, move your parked domain to a hosting provider and develop fully-functioning website. Alternatively, you can keep the domain parked for future use or resale.

When internet users visit the domain name, which is parked, they usually see the information such as “Under Construction”. Sometimes, domain name registrars publish their own advertising on such parked domains to monetize them.

New gTLD Draft Application Guidebook is available

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:00 EDT

As reported, the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has just published online the draft of a document called gTLD Application Guidebook, which regulates the procedure of top level domains registration.

Actually, this news will be of greater interest for domain name registrars rather than for common Internet users or website owners. However, even they may find it useful to learn a few key facts from this document, which is currently available for public discussion at ICANN website.

So, what new terms and rules are about to be implemented in regard of domain name registration process?

First of all, the new version will introduce new measures of trademark protection, including such mechanisms, as Uniform Rapid Suspension, Trademark Clearinghouse, and the Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Proposal. Some novelties will appear in the field of geographic domain names, namely the country names are going to be placed under taboo. A new gTLD Registry transition process model is described; as well as the revised base agreement for signing between all future registries and ICANN is presented.

Helpful Tools for Domain Name Choosing

Mon, 31 May 2010 00:00:00 EDT

It is a well-known rule of search engine optimization and internet marketing, that keywords have a crucial impact on the site effectiveness and success. Unique keywords-rich site content is what every SEO expert would recommend you as the means to improve the rankings of your site by the search engines. Though having keywords on the pages of your site will undoubtedly give a push to your site, having keywords in the domain name will be of no less importance. That is why, before contacting your domain name registration company, be sure to consider all the available options for your future online project and try to put some keyword into the name of your web domain.

To make the process of domain name choosing easier, more effective and less time-consuming, a number of online tools exist to help people pick up the very best domain name, based on the suggested keywords and, what is also of great importance, availability of those names for registering.

DOMIZE

Domize is a free online domain checker with an extremely simple web interface and pretty quick processing time of the suggested domain names. Just type into a word or a phrase, you would like to use as a domain name, and the system will check all the available options in multiple domain zones, such as .com, .org, .net, .biz. The available domain names (those, which are not currently occupied by someone else) are displayed in blue, while the unavailable ones are displayed in red. To be honest, first I have been a bit frustrated with the alternative suggestions, since they are produced simply by cutting off the last letter in my entered word rather than by offering some semantically close words, like synonyms or singular/plural variations, for example. However, if you click “advanced” search button, you will be able to give certain commands, for example [like:your_keyword] will return you the suggested domain names with the synonyms of your keyword.

DOMAINSBOT

This is another online tool for evaluating possible domain names, capable of checking the status of the suggested domain name. Domainsbot also checks the name in top domain zones and shows you whether a particular word or phrase is available for registration or not. This online service provides links to registrars and also hosts a number of additional tools for analyzing the domain name, such as domain classifier, typo generator, etc.

BUSTANAME

This is a sophisticated tool, which can be recommended to everyone, interested in registering a SEO-optimized domain name. Though it is free to use, this online service offers multiple options for domain name analysis and generation. For example, one can choose particular zone, where to search for available domains. Furthermore, it is possible to specify the use of a prefix (I, e, my, the) or a suffix (ly, ster, let). Going even further, BUSTANAME offers trying to hyphenate (writecontent -> write-content), pluralize (content -> contents), or drop the last vowel in your keyword (writer->writr) to find the best variant among the available options.

Finally, if you believe software applications can do the job better than online tools, you can try some specialized programs for domain name analysis, such as Domain Name Analyzer from iDoz.net. However, please be extremely careful about downloading any SEO tool – a huge amount of them are really harmful and do not do any good in terms of internet marketing.

Domain Names and Intercapping

Tue, 25 May 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Though domain name registration may seem to be a pretty easy process, it is, actually, not always that way. To be successful with internet business, one should approach to choosing a domain name with a special attention, reason, and thorough consideration of all possible options. Since the majority of short one-word domain names have already been occupied, many people use compound words as the names for their domains. However, before you contact your domain name registration company, please spend some time for evaluating you domain in order to foresee possible linguistic issues and misinterpretations of your domain name.

To make the scope of this article clearer, let me show you one example of a domain name. There is a website, which is focused on discussing multiple programming issues. The service is called Experts Exchange. Originally, the domain name was “ExpertsExchange.com”. However, if you look at it attentively, you will notice another variant of reading it (ExpertSexChange.com). In order to prevent such misunderstanding and double reading, owners of the site decided to change the domain name into experts-exchange.com.

This is just one example, how intercapping can influence the meaning of the domain names. Actually, DNS servers are not case-sensitive, so it is better to separate words in your domain name with the help of hyphen. Keep in mind, that the domain name is one of the aspects, considered by search engines while linking it to particular words. So, if you want your website to be linked to “experts exchange” instead of “expert sex enchange” it is better to hyphenate the domain name properly. However, the given example is already occupied :-)

Non-Latin Characters in Internet Address Receive Final Approval from ICANN

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:00 EDT

Following the previously reported plan about the use of non-Latin characters, such as Arabic or Cyrillic, in the names of internet addresses, the ICANN has reported recently about issue of the final approval for the use of national scripts in the last part of the domain name following the dot. Currently four countries received the approval from the ICANN to use their national script symbols, such as Cyrillic or Arabic, in the process of domain names registration. These countries are Egypt, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Since the program of domains internationalization develops in stages, currently the alternative symbols are allowed to use in the country code top level domains only. For example, the Russian Federation as of April, 2010, is granted to use its own domain zone “.??”. Initially, the trade marks holders and state authorities will receive priority in registering local domain names. After about 6 months period non-Latin domains will become available to most of the consumers and web site owners.

With these changes the domain name registration is believed to become more flexible. It is expected that the Internet should get closer to the customers, who would prefer using their native language and alphabets instead of English while browsing the Internet.

Location-Based Domain Leasing

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST

A good domain name is a core of the whole internet marketing campaign. However, the problem is that practically all the good domain names in .com level are already occupied. However, recently the company, called Root Orange, offered in interesting solution for domain registration dilemma.

Thanks to the company’s patented technology, a separate domain name can now be splitted into the so called “localized domains”. In other words, one domain can now be used by several web sites instead of one. The core idea here is that the traffic from the generic domain is directed to the localized sites. For example, customers visiting domain “brakeservice.com” can be directed to a particular localized web site, based on the location of a customer. That means, for example, if you are living in Ohio and using brakeservice.com, you will be directed to your local Ohio brake service company.

This revolutionary approach in domain registration and use, which is actually nothing but leasing, is beneficial for all parties of the process. Customers get contacts in their local area, generic domain name owners receive an additional way to monetize their domains, and businesses get the chance to use a powerful top-level domain names for promoting their products and services on the local level.

Internationalized Domain Names Introduced

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST

It looks like the times of Roman alphabet as the only characters to be used for domain names are coming to an end. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number has announced at the end of year 2010 about the launch of a new revolutionary program that will allow using non-roman characters, for example, Cyrillic or Arabic, in the domain names registration process.

Experts consider that using local scripts in domain names will improve the Internet experience for those people, whose native scripts are other than Roman alphabet with A to Z characters. Thus, the European Union has already introduced the use of non-roman characters in the local .eu domain names. The accented characters, such as 'ç' or 'ñ', and basically any other character which is used in one of 23 official languages of the European Union, are now acceptable for new domain names registration.

So, basically internet is getting more and more liberalized these days. However, many experts consider internationalized domain names to be an additional risk factor, which will increase the fishing risks and spreading of multiple scams in the internet. As of January 2010, Egypt, the Russion Federation, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were the first countries to have passed the Fast Track String Evaluation within the IDN ccTLD domain application process.

Tips to Choosing a Domain Name - Part 1

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Here are a few tips to consider when you go to register your domain name:

1. Keep it short

Although some places allow you to register a name with up to 63 characters, you should keep in mind that people need to be able to remember it and type it easily into their browser. Try to register the shortest name that your customers and visitors will associate with your website. As a general guide, try and keep it under seven characters if possible (not including the suffix).

2. Dot What?

There are many different extensions available for your website. For businesses, the best extension is .com because it is the first extension that most people try when searching for a website. Also, as it is one of the oldest extensions, .com shows that your business has been around for a while and that you have a well-established presence on the web.

3. Avoid Trademarked Names

There are two main reasons for this. First, it is not very nice. You may have heard the stories about the madcap guy who thought ahead and bought "some-huge-multi-million-dollar-company.com" and sold it to the company for heaps of money. However, remember that those companies have spent lots of time and money creating their brand and what goes around comes around. Secondly, companies are no longer opening their pocketbooks to get their names back; they are calling their lawyers.

Tips to Choosing a Domain Name - Part 2

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Here are a few tips to consider when you go to register your domain name:

4. Register Your Domain Straight Away

Domain names are being registered very quickly. You must register soon unless you want to get stuck with a name that no one else wants. You do not have to have a webmaster, or an ecommerce department, or a Web design consultant, you do not even need a web page. Just get out there and register before you lose the opportunity to get the name you really want.

5. One May Not Be Enough

For many people it is a good idea to register several similar domain names. If you have "yourbusinessname.com", register "yourbusinessname.net" so no one else can take it. You can register your full company name and a shorter, easier to remember version. Some people even register common misspellings of their company’s name.

6. Character Types

Domain names can only use letters, numbers and dashes. Spaces and symbols are not allowed. Also, domain names are not case sensitive.

7. Ask Around

After you have decided on several available name choices, check what your friends and clients have to say. A name that may make perfect sense to you may be too hard for other people to remember. Is your domain name easy to say? Is it difficult to spell? Do you have to explain why you selected that particular name?

The Importance of Your Domain Name

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

As with any brand name, logo or trademark, your domain name represents part of your business identity. If you name it correctly, customers will associate it with your particular product or service. Remember that your domain name will more than likely be used for a number of purposes, including your website, email address, etc. It will form an important part of your marketing campaign.

If your domain name can be remembered easily you will attract more customers. People will use your website or email address to get immediate and convenient access to the information or service that you are providing.

Domain names are portable. You can move address, change your phone number, get a different Internet service provider, change the company that hosts your web site and still retain the same domain name. This provides an extremely flexible method of keeping in touch with your customers and users.

Domain Name Tips - Part 1

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

The domain name you chose is extremely important. Here are a few tips to consider when you are thinking about registering your domain name.

DO know the domain name format. Domain names can generally be up to 67 characters long (including the extension) and contain two or more of the characters a-z, 0-9 and '-' (hyphen). Some domain names must contain a minimum of 3 characters (not including the extension). Domain names cannot start or end with '-' (hyphen). Domain names are not case sensitive, therefore DomainName.com and domainname.com and DoMaInNaMe.com are all the same.

DO know your target audience. Choose domain names that are appropriate for them. Depending on who you are targeting this could mean choosing names that sound sincere, cool, current, active, professional, or that use key words from the target industry.

DO keep domain names short and simple. In general, the shorter the domain name the easier it is to remember and the less chance of users noting and remembering it incorrectly. Restrict the domain name to one, two or three words at the most. Give preference to words with fewer syllables and words that are easy to pronounce. Short is good, however, do not use hard to remember acronyms, such as fgej.

DO register a long domain name containing a list of relevant words for your website to achieve a higher ranking in some search engines. Many of the major search engines rank web sites higher if the search terms are found in the domain name. You can use up to 63 characters to create a long domain name with keywords and automatically redirect visitors to the real web site.

DO use the appropriate pluralization. For example, newhomes.com is probably better than newhome.com if the web site is not relating to "a" particular home. If in doubt you should register both domain names.

Domain Name Tips - Part 2

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

The domain name you chose is extremely important. Here are a few tips to consider when you are thinking about registering your domain name.

DO use words that can be visualized. Vision is the strongest of human senses. It is even better if you can use words that involve several of the 5 senses. This usually involves choosing more common nouns, verbs, and adjectives. For example, the word "fire" is easily imagined. It includes strong cues in four of the five senses - visual (red and yellow flames), auditory (crackling and other noises), feeling (heat) and smell (smoke).

DO plan for the future. If you are planning on providing other products or services from this domain name in the future then do not limit the relevance to the initial product or service. That being said, some Internet marketing experts believe that your website should have only one subject or focus. All products or services listed on the website should be related to each other. A website with a wide focus is not as attractive to someone who is looking for particular information.

DO register the domain name in the correct global or country level domain. For universal appeal use a .com, .info, .biz, .org, or .net domain. For local appeal use an appropriate domain in your country, such as .co.uk or .org.au. Note that many domains have restrictions on what domain names can be registered. In some domains you can only use a name that is derived from a registered business or organization name.

DO check that you are not infringing on an existing trademark or other name that belongs to another company or individual. An available domain name does not necessarily give you the right to register and use it.

Domain Name Tips - Part 3

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

The domain name you chose is extremely important. Here are a few tips to consider when you are thinking about registering your domain name.

DO NOT use hyphens between words if you can avoid it. A domain name with hyphens is harder to describe when said aloud. It is commonly accepted that a domain name with multiple words does not include hyphens. An exception to this rule is when choosing a domain name that has many words or words that are hard to make sense of. Consider using capitalization when displaying the domain name in marketing material instead. For example, SuperBaitAndTackle.com is easier to read than superbaitandtackle.com.

DO NOT use confusing spelling. If your domain is targeted at a worldwide audience then stay away from words that are spelt differently around the world, such as words ending in ize(US)/ise(UK). This also applies to many words that have different meanings throughout the world. Some common English words are offensive in other languages.

DO NOT choose domain names that are very similar to others if possible. After all, you want customers coming to you, not your competitors. An exception to this rule is if you register the domain name of a commonly misspelt word, in the hope of catching additional customers, provided that you are not infringing on any trademarks.

DON'T choose domain names with words that join to form unintentional words such as "Jeans Wearing" which can read "Jean Swearing". Avoid them altogether or use capitalization in marketing material (JeansWearing.com) or hyphens in the domain name (jeans-wearing.com) to separate the words if really necessary.

How You Get a Domain Name

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

In order for you to own a domain name, you need to get it registered. Therefore, the process of choosing a name includes working with an authorized domain registrar. Registrars take the form of websites that can search the domain name database for you and see if the name you want is available. If it is, you can usually fill out an online form, pay a modest fee and become the name owner.

There are plenty of domain registrars on the web and prices for the service have come down dramatically in recent years. A good domain name registrar will help you search for your domain name and handle both the registration and annual renewal process. In addition, you may want to have several different domain names, all pointing to your website, so you can widen your reach for people searching on the web.

What if the domain name database search shows that somebody else already owns the name you want? You may be able to buy the name from the owner. The database search will show the current owner's contact information. Many people have registered catchy or interesting domain names for the sole purpose of selling them to another person or business, not for building a website.

Strategies for Picking Your Domain Name

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

If you want to create your own unique domain name rather than buy one, then you will need to have some names in mind before you visit the domain registrar. Some internet marketing experts suggest a couple ways to come up with domain names. One is to gather a group of friends to brainstorm a list of 100 potential names to check out.

Here are a number of general pointers for choosing a domain name:

Keep it short

A long domain name may be descriptive of your business, but it will be harder to remember and type into a web browser.

Put two words together

Combinations of short words often work well. For example, you could add "city" or "planet" as a second word to make it appear your business comprises a broad range of products or services.

Make it easy to spell

If the name is difficult to spell, people may enter your web address incorrectly or you will have to spell it out for them whenever you talk about it. Try and avoid hyphens and dashes for that reason, also.

Use the .com or .net extensions

There are many alternatives to using .com and .net extensions in your domain name, however, try and avoid them if possible. The others extensions, such as .us, .biz, .info, .tv, are largely unfamiliar to people. If you confine your business to a specific country, you may like to consider using that country's extension.

Think about keywords

If you want search engines to direct traffic to your website, make sure your domain has one or more of your target keywords to help you get a good ranking on those search terms.

It is also a good idea to try and include some part of your business name into your domain. If you are creating a new business, you may want to create a name that works for both.

Type-In Traffic

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

There are many important things to consider when you are looking at the registration of your domain name. When you are securing or buying domain names, you may want to purchase more than one.

It may well be worth your while considering buying a name with the keywords that capture "type-in traffic." Type-in traffic refers to users who type in keywords in the address bar of their web browser instead of using a keyword search on a search engine.

Do Not Register Domain Names That Are Too Long

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

There are many considerations when you go to register your domain name. One thing you need to think about is the length of your domain name.

Having a domain that's too long serves absolutely no purpose. It is difficult for people to remember and visitors to your website will not want to type in a long address each time they visit your site. Even though you can register domain names up to 63 characters long, that doesn't mean you should to use all 63 characters.

Try and Avoid Hyphens

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

When you are looking at your domain name registration, you will need to consider many different aspects. One thing you will need to think carefully about is whether you use hyphens in your domain name.

Many people find a domain name with a hyphen difficult to remember. Consider this, your website is Toms-Camping-Gear.com, when a visitor wants to return to your site they type in TomsCampingGear.com because they forgot to use the hyphens. This defeats the purpose of marketing a website if it is hard for visitors to return.

Domain names with hyphen can be okay in certain circumstances. You may like to redirect visitors from a domain name with hyphens to your main site which does not include hyphens. If you are relying on search engine traffic, as opposed to traffic from people typing in your website, you make like to consider using a hyphen.

Try and Reserve a .com Domain

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

There are many important points to remember when you are registering your domain name. One aspect you will need to consider is the extension your domain will have.

The .com extension is by far the most recognized domain name and if it is available you should definitely register it. With this in mind there is no advantage when determining search engine rankings based on the domain extension, so if a good .net, .us, .org, etc is available you should at least think about registering them also.

Protect Your Name

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

When you are considering your domain name registration, you will need to look at many different aspects. One thing you will need to think about is the protection of your business and brand.

It is highly desirable to register multiple extensions, such as .net, .org, etc. This prevents other people from registering the alternate domain name extensions based on the brand that you have created. This can cause confusion for your customers and could cost you money in lost sales if you do not protect yourself. Think of it this way, if you run CampingGear.com you can also register CampingGear.net, CampingGear.org and any other extension that is available.

Domain Name Privacy

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Your domain name registration involves many different considerations. One thing you will need to look at is the issue of domain name privacy.

In recent times, the option for private registration has become a possible. You can find the owner of a website on any registered domain by doing a ‘whois’ lookup. The information provided would be your name, address, phone number and email address. Adding domain name privacy is like an unlisted phone number with the phone company. There is an additional cost but these days it is almost becoming compulsory.

Purchase Domains that are Similar in Spelling to Yours

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

The registration of your domain name involves many different aspects. One area you may like to consider is the registration of domain names that are similar in spelling to yours.

People misspell words all the time. Unavoidably, they will still land on someone's web page. That could quite easily be yours. If your website is www.abccorporation.com, you may like to purchase www.abccorperation.com. If you have www.maximizeyoursales.com, you may like to buy www.maximiseyoursales.com. It is simple to redirect these names to your main web page after you own them.

Your Domain Name is a Potent Marketing Tool

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

There are many important aspects to consider with your domain name registration. The domain name you choose can play an extremely important part in the success, or failure, of your online presence.

Some webmasters do not understand the implications of choosing good domain names. Your domain name is far more than just a web address or URL. Your domain name is your marketing brand and is in fact, the most important marketing tool you have. It should be a principal part of your marketing plan and should assist in drawing traffic to your website. Your domain name also provides the first impression for your visitors. It is important to remember that your domain name makes an impression even before your customer visits your website.

Basics of Acquiring a Domain Name

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

The process of domain name registration can be somewhat daunting, particularly if you are new to the area. Before you begin looking for your domain name, here are a few basic facts that are useful to remember:

Anyone can register domain names
You can register as many domain names as you like
You can register a domain name even if you do not own a website
You can register a domain up to 67 characters long
You can register up to 10 years in advance

The Benefits of a Good Domain Name

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Having a good domain name can give you a decisive edge over your competitors that they often find hard to overcome. Your position in your industry can often be dictated by how good your domain name is. The following are the benefits of a good domain name.

It Gives Exclusivity

Your domain name allows you to carve out a piece of the Internet and it is yours forever. No one can use it or take it away without your permission. Having your own slice of the web can help build name recognition for you and your company.

It Adds Credibility to your Website

In business-to-business dealings, people tend to choose business partners with websites that have their own domain names. Having your own domain name gives you and your organization a professional, business-like image that is usually associated with large companies. It tends to project you as a serious business person, operating an established venture in a professional fashion.

It Allows for Permanence while giving you Flexibility

Ownership of your domain name gives you the option of moving your website to any host while maintaining your address. Therefore, it allows for the continuity of your business and allows you to shop for the hosting service that gives you the best value for money.

It Promotes Branding

Your domain name can help shape the way your company and your products are presented to your market. If the domain name is descriptive of the services and products that you offer, then you can have an extremely effective marketing tool at your disposal.

What an Effective Domain Name Should Contain

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

There are many important aspects to consider with your domain name registration. Here are some of the characteristics of an effective domain name:

It Should be Memorable

Ideally, your domain name should be easily memorized from casual conversation. People should hear it once and remember it forever. A successful domain name sticks on your mind while an unsuccessful domain name requires a lot of advertising to establish itself in the mind of the consumer.

It Should be as Simple and as Short as Possible

Your domain name should be simple to remember, uncomplicated, straightforward and as short as possible. The spelling of your domain name should be obvious from the spoken word. In addition, it should put across one idea only.

It Should have the .com Extension

You should do whatever you can to get a .com name as it has become the default extension for almost everyone. The .com extension seems destined to remain the standard default extension for commercial websites for the foreseeable future. Don't use a .net, .org, or .web, etc. as your primary extension as it seems second nature for most internet users to type .com into their browsers when they want to find a site.

It Should Contain the Benefit

If your company’s name is taken, try and register your benefit. If you company's domain name is taken, for example Wally Pens, then you can use your product's benefit as a domain name (www.sturdypens.com). As another example, a company called Holiday Sports Network may register their benefit, www.funtravel.com, instead of their full name or the HSN acronym.

It Should Contain Your Most Important Keywords

Some search engines provide better listings to websites that include important keywords in their domain names. Consider the keywords that people may search for when they use the search engines to look for the products that you have on offer.

Useful Advice in Domain Name Registration

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

After having selected your domain name, consider the following points in registering the domain name:

Register Multiple Extensions

It is a good idea to register various domain name extensions, called top level domains. People often type in various extensions because they want to be sure to investigate all the websites that have the same name. So, if you own www.mysite.com, you should also buy www.mysite.net or www.mysite.org, then point one site to the other. This ensures that you will not lose traffic due to an incorrect extension.

Register Multiple Variations

Another good idea is to register different variations of your domain name so that you are assured of catching visitors who enter words that are very similar.

Register Misspellings

If your business name can be easily misspelled, chances are that it will be. Be proactive and register the misspelled name so that you are guaranteed of catching the traffic.

Register Both the Full Name and its Acronym or Abbreviation

If your selected name is long, register both its full version, as well as its acronym. Many big companies failed to do this and have seen the consequences of this oversight. An example is General Motors which only registered www.gm.com but not www.generalmotors.com.

Domain Name Registration Tips

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Here are a number of tips on things you should consider when registering your domain name:

1. If you are starting a new business, select a name that will help you with Business Directories. Most of these Directories list alphabetically so the closer you get to a name starting with 'A' the higher your placement will be in the listings. However, be aware that this does not apply to search engines.

2. Try to keep you domain name under 10 characters. The shorter your name is the easier it will be for people to type it correctly.

3. Try to choose a name that includes what you do. This will help with your search engine placement. For example, if your business is ‘Dog Washing' then a good domain to register would be www.dogwash.com.

4. Register your domain name for 2 years or more as this will show the search engines that you are serious about your business and they will take more notice of you and your placement in their listings.

5. Register other domain name options for your business such as .com, .net, .net.au etc. This will protect your brand online and will ensure that competitors cannot set up similar names to attract your business.

6. Make sure you register your domain name with someone you trust. Make sure your name and your business name is listed as the owner of the domain name that you are registering. This is critical and can save hours of crisis management down the track. Similarly choose a reputable domain name registration company when you register your domain name.

7. When you have your domain name registered you will then need to find a host for your domain name, emails and/or website. Try and choose a hosting company that has its servers situated locally, as this in general will make your website faster to access and any communication between you and the host will be easier.

8. As a minimum, subscribe to email box hosting so that you can have professional email addresses, for example yourname@yourdomainname.com. This will also protect you if you ever need to change your Internet Service Provider as you will always be able to keep your domain name email address.

Your Domain Name Should Be Your Website Name

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Naming your website after your domain may seem obvious, however, you may surprised to learn that not every website is named after the domain name, even when the webmaster owns that domain name.

Naming a website after its domain name is very important because when people think of your website, they will think of it by name. If your name is also your URL, they will automatically know where to go. For example, when people think of amazon.com, they do not have to wonder what URL to type into their browser to get there as the name of the site is also the URL.

Imagine if your business, or website, is called "Acme", but someone else holds that domain name. Instead, you have an ambiguous domain name called, "mybusiness.com". What happens when your customers, remembering that Acme has a product they want, type "www.acme.com"? They will end up at your competitor's website.

What if you are not able to get the domain name of your choice? It really depends on how committed you are to that particular name. If you have an existing brand name that you are known for, you will more than likely not want to drop that name just because you could not get the domain name. If so, you may want to try to purchase the domain name from the current owner. Have a look at the "whois" information for the domain and contact that person listed to see if they are willing to sell it.

Conversely, if you are just starting out, you may prefer the cheaper alternative of trying to obtain a domain name first, and then naming your website (or business) after that domain.

Generic Names or Brand Name Domains?

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

There are some people who believe that your domain name must be some generic name like "cars.com" if you are selling cars. For example, take a look at how much money those generic names are being sold for. However, if you were looking for a car, you would probably have some brands in mind already and you are more like to try out things like generalmotors.com or toyota.com rather than just cars.com.

For that reason, it is very important that a domain name that matches your brand name. The very name that you use to advertise your product is the name that you will want for your domain because that is the first thing that people will type into their browser. It is also the easiest thing for them to remember and whatever that is easily remembered, will be more likely to be tried out than the ambiguous domain name.

Long or Short Domain Names?

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain names can be as long as 67 characters. You do not have to settle for an ambiguous domain name like avab.com when what you really want is AcmeVideosAndBooks.com.

However, there appears to be some disagreement about whether a long or short domain name is better.

Some people argue that shorter domain names are easier to remember, easier to type and far less prone to mistakes. For example, "getit.com" is easier to remember and less prone to typos than "connecttomywebsiteandobtainit.com".

Other people argue that a longer domain name is easier on the human memory. For example, "gaepw.com" is a sequence of unrelated letters that is difficult to remember and type correctly, whereas if we expand it to its long form, "GetAnEconomicallyPricedWebsite.com", we are more likely to remember the domain name.

Many of these arguments are in fact academic as it is increasingly difficult to get short meaningful domain names. If you manage to get a short domain name, the key is to make sure it is a meaningful combination of characters and not ambiguous. Long domain names that contain your website keywords also have an advantage in that they fare better in a number of search engines.

Should You Use Hyphenated Names?

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

When you consider your domain name registration, you may need to think about whether you should use a hyphenated name. Here are a few things to consider:

Disadvantages

1. It is easy to forget the hyphens when typing a name. Many users are familiar with typing things like freecpluspluscompilers.com but not free-c-plus-plus-compilers.com. They may very well leave out the hyphens and end up at your competitor's site.

2. When people recommend your site to their friends verbally, hyphens in your domain name can lead to more potential errors than when the name does not contain hyphens. For example, how do you think your visitors will refer to your site if it is named "acme-books-and-videos.com"? They may say, "I visited Acme Book and Videos dot com yesterday. It was fantastic." Their friends, remembering that comment later, might type into their browsers "acmebooksandvideos.com".

3. It is a pain in the neck to type.

Advantages

1. Search engines can differentiate your keywords better and therefore return your site more prominently in search results for those keywords occurring in your domain name.

2. The non-hyphenated form may no longer be available. At least this way, you still get the domain name you want.

Plurals, "The" and "My" Forms of the Domain Name

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Quite often, if you are unable to obtain the domain name you want, the domain name registrar will suggest alternate forms of the name you typed. For example, if you wanted website.com, and it was taken, it may suggest:

thewebsite.com

mywebsite.com

websites.com

If you take the "the..." and "my..." forms of the domain name, you must always remember to promote your website with the full form of the name. If not, people are likely to forget to affix the necessary "the" or "my".

Alternatively, it is not a good idea to take the plural form of the domain name (eg. websites.com) if you cannot also get "website.com". This is because it is highly likely that a visitor will fail to type the "s" in the name.

What is Domain Name Front Running?

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Many people have long suspected that a practice known as "domain name front running" exists. Domain name front running happens when someone monitors attempts to check out currently nonexistent domain names and then quickly snaps up those names before the person inquiring can buy it through a registrar. The aim is to sell the domain name to the interested party at an inflated price, producing a tidy profit without even having to develop a website on the domain.

This practice has not been proven to occur, however, since such monitoring is technically possible and easily accomplished, and anecdotal accounts from victims are plentiful, many people believe that domain name front running is real. In particular when they lose a domain name they have just checked.

Unscrupulous Domain Name Registrars

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

An associated issue to domain name front running is that of unscrupulous domain registrars. Recently a domain name registrar was found to have registered every domain name that was entered into their search box. If you went to that registrar to check whether a domain name was available, your domain name was instantly snapped up by them. Unlike the alleged domain name front runners, however, their process was designed to be more anti-competitive than anything else. You can still register the domain name at their advertised price but only with them. No other registrar will allow you to purchase that name, because as far as they are concerned, the domain name has already been bought.

Lessons from the Domain Name Front Running and Bad Domain Registrars Scams

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Here are a few tips to consider when you are looking at your domain name registration.

1. Before you even go to a registrar write down a few domain names that you are interested in. List the possibilities and make a decision to buy even before you reach the registrar's page to check.

2. Only go to the registrar that you plan to purchase from. Do not check the domain with other registrars. Do not check for the existence of a domain by typing it in your browser window. If domain name front running exists, that query for a nonexistent domain name will be noted and it may not be worth the risk.

3. Once you see that the domain is available, purchase it right away. It may be available now, but not a few seconds later. Do not check and then imagine that the name will be around at some time in the future when you figure out what to do with that domain name. If you do not have a plan for the domain, then do not check it. Or just buy it first and plan later. Whatever the case may be, once you check it, you should regard yourself as having committed yourself to the name.

4. If you have uncertainties about whether one set of domain names is better than another, buy them all, if you can afford it. New domain names are relatively cheap compared to second hand domain names bought from another owner. You can always let a domain expire if you decide you don't want it later.

5. Finally, do not do what a lot of newbies do and post in a forum asking for opinions about whether a particular domain name is good for such and such a purpose. When you do so, you run the risk of someone quickly registering that domain before you can. They may not even want to sell it to you later, since good domain names are hard to think of, and they may want to use it for the same reason you did when you broadcast your intentions to the world.

Better Identify Your Audience

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Better Identify Your Audience

Another benefit to country-specific domain names is that you are better to identify where your customers are actually located. This makes things more convenient for both you and the customer. You can easily display products and services targeted at shoppers in that particular region and customers do not have to worry about choosing the geographic area they are located in. Again, this gives your site that local feel and instills the confidence the customer needs to feel safer doing business with you.

Maximize Your Potential

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Maximize Your Potential

When factoring in their distinct advantages, you may want to consider registering both a country-specific TLD and a traditional extension such as .com or .net. This is a simple but strategic move that makes your business appealing to both international and national audiences. You should never overlook the potential sales and business that can be reaped from a domain name and all it takes is another small investment for an additional name that could result in huge benefits.

What is a Domain Name Transfer?

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

What is a Domain Name Transfer?

A domain name transfer describes the process of taking the name you registered with one registrar and moving it to another. This simply means you only want to switch your domain name service provider. Everything about your website and actual domain name remains the same. Keep in mind that a domain name transfer isn’t the same as transferring your website from one server to another.

The Transfer Process

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

The Transfer Process

The first step in transferring a domain name is initiating the transfer. While it is up to you to make the request, only the new registrar can initiate the transfer. After purchasing an account and getting set up with the new registrar, you should see a link or button that reads “transfer domain”. In most cases, you will be prompted to enter the domain name, confirm and click “OK”.

What you don’t see behind the scenes is the email exchange between the new registrar and the WHOIS database regarding your domain. The transfer process moves along once the WHOIS administrative contact accepts the transfer by clicking on a link in the email. Once the transfer has been approved, the new registrar sends notification to the TLD Registry (Top Level Domain) for further approval.

In order for your domain name to work, it be must active. If it is inactive, pending, or locked, you will not be able to make the transfer. This is why it is recommended to transfer your domain name well before the expiration date to avoid such issues. If your domain is active and registered for 60 days or more, the TLD registry will inform the new registrar that the transfer can continue. From there, the registry lets the old registrar known that a transfer request has been made. The old registrar generally has about five days to respond to the TLD registry. If they do not respond in the given amount of time, the registry will automatically assume approval by default. While this helps you make a transfer from a hesitant registrar, it also increases the potential of domain theft. For this reason, it is advisable to sign up with a registrar that offers domain locking and other protective features.

Using a Generic Domain for SEO Purposes

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Using a Generic Domain for SEO Purposes

Although having a website is easier and more affordable than ever. However, actually getting your content in front of potential customers is becoming progressively difficult. This is mainly because so many businesses and industries are being established online. Regardless of what you specialize in, competition in the market is sure to be heavy. Unless you have a budget to put forth thousands of dollars on advertising and SEO web design, there is a possibility that your site will just sit collecting dust in cyberspace. Fortunately, there are numerous strategies that can get you one step closer to the traffic you desire. Believe it or not, your domain name plays one of the most significant roles in increasing search engine visibility and bringing in quality visitors. While some tend to go for flash or unique terms, this article will explain why you may want to keep your domain name simple with generic keywords.

Why a Generic Domain?

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Why a Generic Domain?

When registering a domain name equipped with generic keywords, you stand the chance to rank higher and faster than some of the most well designed and optimized sites. This is a very crucial aspect of SEO. Although search engines literally return hundreds to thousands of results, you want to find yourself at the head of the class instead of the last few pages or even somewhere in the middle. Let’s be honest – how many pages do you sift through when looking for products or services on Google? Probably not many. Most web surfers don’t make it past the first two pages. This means your web pages needed to be listed somewhere in the top 20 in order to be viewed. One of the best ways to achieve this ranking is with a good, generic domain name.

How Generic Domain Works

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

How Generic Domain Works

The average search engine is more like an advanced variation of the Yellow Pages. You can typically find the exact product or service you’re looking for in the phone book underneath a generic name. On the web, search engines like Yahoo function in a similar manner, delivering search engine results based on sites with URLs and content relevant to what is being requested. For example, if your business “Computer Company” sells laptop computers, you can dramatically increase search engine traffic by using the generic term “laptop” in your domain name rather than the name of your business. This simple strategy could put you light years ahead of competitors who focused on the trendier names.

Some organizations pay thousands of dollars on advertising but the internet has evolved tremendously. With this evolution have come a variety of new ways to attract the increasing number of potential buyers. There is a lot that goes into site promotion and to be honest, nothing is ever guaranteed. While investing in quality advertising can prove beneficial, site promotion all starts with choosing a good domain name.

Domain Tools supports many other types of searches besides records

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Tools supports many other types of searches besides records

- Search domain names using partial word(s) in Domain Search

- Partial word(s) searching on active domain names

- IP address searching

- Invent a new domain with our domain suggestions

- Domains for sale searching

- Searching domains at auction

- Full domain

If you are trying to resolve a problem concerning a service provided by your registrar

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

If you are trying to resolve a problem concerning a service provided by your registrar

If you have a dispute regarding your registrar the best step that you can take is to deal with the registrar directly.

If you do not know who your registrar is, you can use the tool found at www.ajiboye.com

There are many organizations such as ISPs (Internet Service Providers), hosting companies, and others who act as resellers for registrars. If your complaint concerns a reseller, please contact either the reseller or the registrar.

ICAN accepts registrar problem reports for compliance monitoring and statistical analysis. You may submit a report via the Registrar Problem Report Form but please note that ICANN does not resolve individual complaints.

Every domain registration includes the following domain tools

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Every domain registration includes the following domain tools

* URL Forwarding

Redirect traffic from one domain to another.

* Email Forwarding

Automatically forward emails to other valid email addresses.

* DNS Management

Retain total control over your DNS records.

* Transfer Lock

Protect your domain from unauthorized domain transfers

There's no reason to spend a lot for a domain. Take advantage of our already low prices and register yours today.

How to get accurate results?

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

How to get accurate results?

In this changing system of increased competition and new registrars, the only way to get an absolutely accurate domain report is to:

- lookup the domain in the shared domain registry

- locate which registrar has reserved the name

- visit and query that registrar's database for the correct information

Domain Name Registration

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Registration

Rapid Registration

Get your domain live in minutes through Ajiboye streamlined registration process. It's quick and easy to get your domain name registered, hosted, and e-mail setup in literally minutes.

Easy Domain Management

Take control of your domains through the user-friendly Ajiboye Control Panel, which gives you the power to easily manage multiple domains, subdomains, doma in forwarding, A-records, name servers, locking, transfers, and more.

Domain Privacy

Protect your identity on the web with Ajiboye Domain Privacy, it allows you to set your WHOIS record as private. Enabling domain privacy is as easy as clicking a button in the control panel.

Domain Satisfaction Guarantee

Buy confidently with Ajiboye. If you mistakenly register the wrong domain name email our Billing team at ajiboye.com within 48-hrs of purchase. We will cancel & refund the old name and register the correct one.

How to Register Your Own Domain Name

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

How to Register Your Own Domain Name

If you have a web site, you should seriously consider registering your own domain name. A domain name is a name like "ajiboye.com", which you can use to refer to your website. Note that you do not have to be a company or organisation to register a domain name. Any individual can do it too.

Importance of a Domain Name

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Importance of a Domain Name

There are a number of good reasons for having a domain name:

* If you ever change your web host, your domain name goes with you. Your regular visitors or customers who knew your site name as www.ajiboye.com (for example) would not have to be informed about a change of URL. They would simply type your domain name and they'd be brought to your new site.

* If you get a domain name that describes your company's business or name, people can remember the name easily and can return to your site without having to consult their documents.

* If you want good sponsors (advertisers) for your website, a domain name is usually helpful. It tends to give your website an aura of respectibility.

Registration Overview

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Registration Overview

Getting a domain name involves registering the name you want with an organisation called ICANN through a domain name registrar. For example, if you choose a name like "example.com", you will have to go to a registrar, pay a registration fee that costs around US$10 to US$35 for that name. That will give you the right to the name for a year, and you will have to renew it annually for (usually) the same amount per annum.

Some web hosts will register it and pay for the name for free (usually only the commercial web hosts), while others will do it for you but you'll have to foot the ICANN fees.

Although some web hosts suggest that you put them as the technical contact, you may prefer to keep yourself as one, so that when you want to transfer your name to a new web host, you don't have to wait for your old host to approve the transfer. Apparently a few have been known to take their own sweet time to do this, while unscrupulous ones have actually refused to do it.

Domain names disappear extremely fast. Many people claim that all the good domain names are gone. I doubt that — but it is probably true that most good domain names that are descriptive of products and services have been taken. If you want a domain name for your site, I suggest you act now, or face the anguish of having lost that name later. After all, US$10 (more or less) for a year's ownership of the name is pretty cheap when you realise that you're cornering a good name for your website.

Step By Step Instructions

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Step By Step Instructions

If you want to register a domain name, here's what you need to do. Please read it all before acting.

* Think of a few good domain names that you'd like to use. It won't do to think of only one — it might already be taken (it probably is!).

There's more to it than meets the eye.

* You will need either a credit card or a PayPal account to pay for the domain. This is a requirement of most if not all registrars. It will allow you to claim and get the domain name immediately on application. This is not an option (unfortunately).

* If you already have a web host, obtain from your web host the names of their primary and secondary nameservers. Don't worry if you don't understand what these things mean. Just save the information somewhere. The information can usually be obtained from their FAQs or other documentation on their site, usually under a category like "domain name" or "DNS" or "domain name transfer" and the like. If you can't find it, email them. You'll need the information to point your domain name to your website after you buy your domain. Don't worry if you don't have a web host yet. Just read on.

* If you do not have a web host, you can always allow the registrar to you to park your domain name at a temporary website specially set up for you. This way you can quickly secure your domain name before it's too late and still take your time to set up the other aspects of your site. As far as I can tell, many registrars automatically park your domain by default whether you ask them to or not, so if this is your situation, you probably don't have to do anything special to get it done.

Domain Name Registration Lookup

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Registration Lookup

There are literally thousands of online services that allow webmasters to lookup domain name registration information. These services will tell the webmaster if a domain name is available for registration or already registered. Many domain registrars allow users to place so called backorders which will basically make the domain registrar register the domain name in case the original owner does not renew the domain name in time.

Why Choose Ajiboye.com for Domain Name Registration

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Why Choose AJIBOYE for Domain Name Registration

* Low prices.

* Full Domain Name Service (DNS) hosting.

* Complete online access to DNS service management.

* Domains are free with hosting. There is no need for you to manage multiple vendors as AJIBOYE provides a free domain (applies to .com, .net, .org, .info) with every hosting plan.

* ICANN–accredited registrar. We provide registration services only with ICANN accredited registrars..

* Domain Protection Services. Protect your business and your domain from spammers, hackers, telemarketers, and competitors.

Domain Transfer

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Transfer

* Convenience— manage your domain registration and website hosting from one provider.

* Cost reduction— it costs less to buy a domain name from Ajiboye.com.

* Consolidate— Transfer your multiple domain registrations to a single registrar.

If youâ��re ready to transfer your domain name, youâ��ll need to do...

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

If you’re ready to transfer your domain name, you’ll need to do the following

1. Complete and submit the online forms. You must provide your Administrative Contact e-mail address for the receipt and acceptance of the transfer confirmation. Use of another e-mail address will result in transfer failure.

2. After you've submitted the online forms, you'll receive an email from us with complete instructions. It is very important the Administrative Contact e-mail address you provided during sign-up is valid and functional so you receive our messages.

3. Follow the instructions in the confirmation e-mail to complete the domain name transfer process instructions completely in order to conclude the domain transfer process.

4. The process will not be complete until you respond to our confirmation email.

Resons for current registrar could refuse the transfer

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Your current registrar could refuse the transfer for the following reasons

* The domain is not paid for;

* The domain is less than 60 days old;

* The domain is involved in a legal dispute; and/or

* Your current registrar refuses based on its company policies.

Domain Name Services

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Services

Protect Your Domain Name.

You have selected a domain name to represent your business. In order to make sure you have everything you need to make your new domain a success we provide added domain services. These domain services provide you the ability to enhance and protect new domain name registrations or monitor the status domains not currently available.

Domain privacy

Domain Guard

Domain Monitor

Domain Parking

Domain Name Privacy

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Privacy

When you register a domain name, your information is stored in a public database called the “Whois” database. This standard domain name registration process can expose your personal contact information to the general public, allowing telemarketers, hackers, and spammers to invade your privacy when they perform a whois search. Domain Privacy enables us to conceal your private information and replace it with our own, using a special anonymous system. This type of anonymous domain registration is only available on .COM and .NET domain names.

Anonymous Domain Name Registration Process

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Anonymous Domain Name Registration Process

Our Information is placed in the “Whois” database, not yours. We accept all incoming email messages, filter them for spam and viruses, and forward them to a private email account known only by you. We maintain all of this information in a separate database not accessible to the public.

Domain Guard

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Guard

The more successful your site becomes, the more likely it is to inspire copycats or typo-squatters. These imitators may seem harmless, but they can steal your customers and hurt your reputation, sometimes without your knowledge. With Domain Guard, we let you know each time a new domain name similar to yours is registered, helping you protect your trademarks, copyrights, and brand. If you have a unique domain name and want to keep it that way, you need Domain Guard.

Domain Protection Process

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Protection Process

There are many possible variations of a domain name. You provide us with yours and we send you an email letting you know when a similar domain name is registered. You can also watch domain names you don’t own to keep an eye on similar businesses.

Domain Monitor

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Monitor

Domain Monitor is a domain name status monitoring service that alerts you when a "taken" domain name becomes available or expires. Monitoring these status changes is vital if you want to purchase a domain currently not available.

Domain Monitor can also assist you in keeping an eye on the competition. If your competitor makes any changes to the domain name record you can be alerted immediately.

Domain name registration - some tips

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain name registration - some tips

A domain name should be easy to remember and spell correctly. If you can get a domain name that describes your business or interest, that is fine. Unfortunately most generic terms are already taken. Instead you could go for a non-generic domain name that does not describe what you offer, but that is distinctive.

Having your essential keyword phrase in your domain name may increase your ranking slightly in the search engines ("domain-names.com"), mainly because it will cause the link text ot contain these keywords. However, the boost is very small, and we would not recommend that you get a new domain name just to get a better search engine position for that keyword phrase.

Moreover, search engines will probably reward domain names where the keywords are divided by an underscore (_) or a hyphen (-), which means that you would have to get the hyphenated as well as the unhyphenated version to make sure your visitors find you.

If you select a non-generic term, check that this name is not a registered trademark for that type of products or services in your country (contact your local patent board). If you can, check the US as well. Then register your newfound domain name as your own trademark. This will make your position much stronger if there is a domain name dispute.

"Transfer-out" fees

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

"Transfer-out" fees

Buried in the fine print of a registrars' "Terms of Service" will be a hidden fee authorizing them to charge your credit card a "transfer-out" fee if you move your domain to another registrar. Often times, this transfer-out fee is 2 or 3 times the cost of the original registration.

This practice violates the ICANN policy on domain transfers. In most cases if this happens to you a simple call to your credit card company will have the charge reversed, if you notice. Registrars who use this practice play the numbers game as many will not.

"Pay-as-you-go"

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

"Pay-as-you-go"

This is where you make a multi-year interest-free loan to the registrar. It works like this: You register a domain with them for example, 5 years (perhaps to obtain a discounted rate), you expect your domain name to be registered for 5 years. Think again, some registrars will pay the registry for 1 year and pocket the rest of your money.

Then for the rest of your five year term they'll renew each year for one year. Usually this is coupled with a strict "no-refunds" policy, so an odd situation occurs: they stand to make more money from your original registration if they lose you as a customer before your full 5 years are up, so providing poor service to the point where you leave actually adds to their bottom line.

How To Choose A Domain Name - 1

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

How To Choose A Domain Name - 1

Your Domain Name is the doorway to your website. A good name makes your site inviting and easy to find and will encourage visitors to return again. Follow these guidelines and tips for choosing a Domain name that entices visitors and bolsters your online success.

1. Your number one goal is to choose a domain name that helps people find your site, your products and your services. Always keep this in mind.

2. Your Domain Name should describe the goods or service you offer. Choose an unique brand name only if you are willing to invest the capitol and time to promote brand awareness.

3. Your domain name should match the business you are in which should match your site name. If your company offers auto cad services then the best domain name would be AutoCadServices.com And your website's name could be "Auto Cad Services".

4. Choose a name that is memorable. Refer to number one goal. If visitors and clients can't remember the name of your site then your chances of retaining business is nill.

5. Choose a domain name that is easily readable. Avoid acronyms, initials and abreviations; they make your domain name too cryptic.

How To Choose A Domain Name - 2

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

How To Choose A Domain Name - 2

# Keep the domain name short. Short makes the domain more memorable and it gives users less chance to mistype when entering the name into their browser.

# Use keywords in your domain name. Keywords not only excite the search engines but also paint an image in your customers mind about what to expect from your site. A user searching for bottle brushes will know they hit pay dirt with BottleBrushes.com

# Always choose dot.com as a top level domain. Surfers will consistently type .com in their browser before any other TLD. If your competitor has .com and you have .biz, you lose.

# Limit your domain to two words if you can. Three words or more becomes unwieldy and awkward to remember. An exception would be a common, everyday phrase. 90DaysSameAsCash.com works well but see our next tip.

# Hyphens and numbers are a no-no. Imagine telling someone your domain name and then reminding them to use a hyphen between this word and that word and, oh yea, don't spell the numbers. It just leads to confusion.

How To Choose A Domain Name - 3

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

How To Choose A Domain Name - 3

# Try not to use "and" or "the" in your domain name unless you have to and never use "the" as the first word in the name. If a surfer forgets the "the" you have lost another one to the competition.

# Don't wait too long to decide on your name. The internet is full of tales of lost opportunity and the big one that got away. NameSeek offers free domain parking while you work on hosting.

# Buy the name first then develop the site. Establishing your identity is a function of site development so you need your identity first. You can take advantage of NameSeek's free domain parking as you develop.

# If there is a singular and a plural version of your name, get both. Also go for common misspellings; don't lose plurals and misspellings to your competition. You can have many domain names that all refresh visitors to one site.

# Avoid profanity in your domain name even if you seek an adult site. Some search engines may decide to ban a purely tasteless or vulgar name but profanity is also tacky and unprofessional.

Domain Name Registration

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Registration

Domain name registration is by no means a confusing aspect of making a website. If you want to make a website you'll absolutely need to have a website. Without it you'll have no way for visitors to find your website.

In addition to the information below please take the time to read my blog entry on domain registration tips. Some of the information will be repeated below but I figured that I would include it for those who choose not to read the blog.

Domain names can be registered anywhere from 1 up to 10 years. Generally the registration cost goes down when registered for multiple years so if you feel that you'll be keeping the website for quite some time it makes sense to save some money and register the domain for multiple years.

Domain registration fees vary among domain registrars. There is no need to pay over $10 for a domain name such as a .COM, .NET, etc.

Domain Registration Tips

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Registration Tips

1. Don't Register Domain Names That Are Too Long

2. Try To Avoid Hyphens

3. Try To Reserve A .COM Domain

4. Protect Your Name

5. Domain Name Privacy

What is a third level domain name?

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

What is a third level domain name?

Third level domain names consist of three parts (like in .co.uk names). For example, in the third level domain name example.com.cn, "CN" would be the top level part, "COM" would be the second level part, and "EXAMPLE" would be the third level part, which is the part you register. We offer domain names with the .com.cn, .net.cn and .org.cn extensions as well.

Two Steps in Domain Name Registration

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Two Steps in Domain Name Registration

The first step in any domain name registration is to find out whether your chosen domain name is available or not by carrying out a domain name search on the internet.

The second step in domain name registration is the actual registration. Here one submits all the required information for domain name registration to the domain name registration authorities, otherwise known as registrars. Registration fees are also required at this point.

Domain name registration is carried out on a first-come-first-served basis and the registrars don't check for any trademark or copyright infringements. So, we were to discover, if you REALLY want that name - you have to be first at going through the domain name registration process!

Domain Name Registration - Dot What?

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Registration - Dot What?

When going through the process of domain name registration, aside from the actual name, we also had to decide on the extension we wanted to have for our domain. As I mentioned earlier, we could trade globally, so the most obvious choice for us was a dot com, the most popular and sought-after extension to any domain name.

Getting back to the two-step process. Through our internet service provider (ISP) we carried out a search to ascertain whether our chosen name was available for domain name registration. YAY. The results looked great - the name.com was available for domain name registration!

To be sure, we decided to visit another domain name registration site (there are so many to choose from! ) and do a check there. To our amazement, we discovered that the chosen domain name was NOT available for domain name registration, as the name had already been taken.

The search engines use several techniques for domain

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

The search engines use several techniques for domain

* domain names that correspond to the search term are taken into account,

* more links from other web sites are better than less links,

* using the term searched after twice on a page is in general better than once,

* using the search term in page title as well as text helps the ranking.

The domain name could have no hosting account associated with it

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

The domain name could have no hosting account associated with it

Even if it doesn't look like there is a web site behind a domain name, it still might not be available for registration. Sometimes people purchase domain names as investments, in the hope of selling them later at a profit, or starting a web site at a later date. In these cases, they may not have a hosting account associated with it, an the domain name will look like it's available for registration.

How to register a Domain Name?

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

How to register a Domain Name?

Similar definitions: Domain name purchase, domain name registration, buy domain name, buy domain names cheap, domain names reseller, icann domain names, domain name search, domain check, low cost names, web domain, eurid domain names, nominet domain names, afilias domain name, neulevel domain names, neustar domain names

Registering a domain name is a very simple operation and it only takes a few minutes to secure your precious very own domain name. In order to register your domain name, you do not need any technical skill or particular knowledge.

Begin by searching an available domain name using our interface located in our home page http://www.ajiboye.com , you can search for a single domain name or you can conduct a bulk search and check the domain availability for multiple domain names even under different domain name extensions (ex: .info, .org, .biz, .name, .com, .net, .eu, .fr, .it, .co.uk, .in, etc…) at the same time.

Domain Name Registry

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Registry

Our simple interface allows selecting the extensions you want to perform the domain name search and you can enter multiple domain names, in a single domain search, separating them by a new line or a space or even a coma. Then click on “Check availability now” and our servers will automatically check and query each domain name Registry corresponding to your selected domains and extensions. In a matter of seconds you will know if one or more of your domain names are available for purchase. A list of available domains and the corresponding domain name prices will be shown. At this stage you will still be able to add and or remove domains to the list by selecting the appropriate link or button. When you are done, click on “Register NOW”, enter your personal and payment details and start enjoying your domains names.

Private Whois â�� Domain Privacy

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Private Whois – Domain Privacy

Similar definitions: Domain Whois privacy, Proxy Whois, private registration, private domain name, unlisted domain, domain by proxy, domain Proxy, WHOIS anonymizer, anonymous Whois, anonymous domain, hide registrant, protected domain name registrations

The private Whois service is offered to Registrants willing to protect their privacy and it is oriented in particular towards those people tired of receiving unsolicited emails, also known as spam. Spammers are continuously extracting all emails they can collect from public Whois database. Once your email has been collected by spammers you can be assured to receive spam messages for years, or even forever.

Our Domain Privacy service (Private Whois) is engineered in order to prevent or at least mitigate the impact of spammers to your incoming mailbox. Lately spammers have started sending unsolicited messages not only by email but also by regular mail. Consequently it is more and more important to actively protect your email and address details.

Determine the Purpose of Your Site

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Determine the Purpose of Your Site

Before registering a domain name, it makes sense to determine the purpose of your website. For example, if you are a book distributor and want to sell novels online, you may want to incorporate relative terms into your domain. If you want to brand your site, come up with something that is unique and can be easily pronounced – Google is a perfect example.

Domain Extension

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Extension

If at all possible, you want to register your domain name with the popular .com extension. While this extension is highly recommend, keep in mind that your ideal domain may not be available exactly how you want it. When this is the case, you should get creative and think of a few combinations that will get you as close to the desired name as possible. Some options include adding a (-) to the name, although it is not advisable to use more than one. If you just can’t find that .com, don’t hesitate to use .net or .biz as they make the best alternatives.

Think Keywords

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Think Keywords

If you want to generate traffic from search engines like Google and Yahoo, it wise to research a few primary keywords relative to your initiative and incorporate them into your domain. This could possibly boost your search engine rankings and drive in more traffic as well.

Length of Registration

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Length of Registration

Good domain names are hard to come by. For this reason, we suggest registering your name for as long possible. If you prefer to renew each year, be sure to do so on time or you just might lose it to someone else.

Domain Registrars

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Registrars

A domain registrar is what you need to register your domain name. There are a several registrars to choose from and while they basically offer the same service, you will find that the price tends to range widely. If you want to save money, you should look into a company that offers free domain registration with the purchase of web hosting service. In general, you should easily be able to find a respectable registrar offering domain registration for $10 or less per year.

Domain Privacy

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Privacy

The last factor you need to consider is the possibility of somebody looking for you on the web. Anyone can search for domain owners on the WHOIS website. Depending on what you have going on, you may not want to make this information accessible. In this case, you could opt for domain privacy which will keep your domain name private on the WHOIS database. A registrar typically charges an additional fee for this service, but you might find it to be worth the extra costs.

How Search Engine-Friendly is Your Domain Name? - 1

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

How Search Engine-Friendly is Your Domain Name? - 1

A search engine-friendly domain name can put you on a path to achieve the rankings and traffic you need to be successful online. It can aid in helping target your audience, increase conversions and open the door to multiple streams of revenue. If these benefits are desirable to you, the following tips should come in handy when going to the registrar to acquire the name.

Think SEO and User-friendly Domain - In order to be considered search engine-friendly, your domain name must be preferably short and easy to remember. This way, users can recall it much faster and the probability of generating quality traffic becomes much greater. In most cases, a long, complicated name will only work against you and hinder your success.

Focus on Keywords - Keywords add to the success of a domain name because they play such a critical role in the SEO process. When implementing keywords into your URL, search engines like Google will index it faster, thus increasing the possibility of higher click-through rates and most importantly, more exposure.

Be Cautious of Hyphens - Many SEO experts speak strongly against inserting hyphens in a domain name. This is because they can lead to complications such as users forgetting where the hyphen is to be positioned within the domain. Because there could be many similar websites that contain domain names without hyphens, you want to be very careful that you do not direct visitors to your competition.

How Search Engine-Friendly is Your Domain Name? - 2

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

How Search Engine-Friendly is Your Domain Name? - 2

Optimize for Type-in Traffic – Some internet users have a habit of typing keywords directly into their browser bar instead of a search box. To leverage this type of traffic, you may want to register a domain that contains your targeted domain in its entirety to increase your traffic through this prevalent market.

Choose a Fitting TLD – There are many top level domain to choose from, but you will likely have more success from SEO standpoint by choosing a .com.

Establish Inbound Links – Inbound links are another part of the SEO process. You certainly want to establish quality links that include your domain. If your site is devoid of such links, the search engines will conclude that it lacks relative content. Keep in mind that poor links will negatively effective your optimization efforts. For this reason, you want to avoid link farms and questionable practices employed by questionable SEO firms.

Choose a Good Domain Name Registrar – The key to obtaining an search engine-friendly domain name is to register the name with a respectable registrar.

Registering a search engine-friendly domain will not guarantee you increased traffic or visibility. Even SEO itself calls for you to promote your site in traditional ways and most importantly, make sure it contains quality content web surfers will be interested in. Once you come to realize this, we are confident that these tips will go a long way in helping you achieve the visibility and success you desire online.

What Do You Get with a Cheap Domain Name?

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

What Do You Get with a Cheap Domain Name?

A domain name is very critical to your online identity. Though extremely valuable, registering one is actually quite affordable these days. Be that as it may, one must remain aware of all the tricks of the trade in order to ensure a quality purchase. There are many registrars on the market that are in the business of selling cheap domain names. In fact, if you search long enough, you can easily find offerings for as low as $1.99 or $2.99. Prices like these are hard to pass up, but there has to be a catch, right? You got it. It is important for you to realize that while they serve the same general purpose, not all domain registrations are created equal. What we mean by this is that different registrars will include or omit different services with your registration.

Standard Features

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Standard Features

A quality domain name with a .com extension will cost your around $10 a year. At the very least, this service should include the following features:

- Free domain forwarding

- Free personalized email address and alias forwarding

- Free domain parking

- Free domain registration privacy

- Full DNS Access

When you purchase a cheap domain name, more than likely, you will be missing out on many of the above features. This might not be a tremendous deal depending on your specific needs, but if you really want to make the most out of your domain name and web presence, it is definitely better to have them.

Common Tricks

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Common Tricks

To help ensure that you get the best deal possible, we have listed some of the most common tricks registrars employ when offering cheap domain names. You may be surprised at how many of the big name companies are involved in the trickery.

Bait and Switch
Limited Time Discount
Must-buy Add-ons

Although the tricks mentioned in this article aren’t necessarily scams, they are very confusing and could spell trouble for the newcomer. Therefore, you want to conduct solid research because unlike most things you buy, there is no refund on a domain name registration.

Boost Customer Confidence

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Boost Customer Confidence

Having a country-specific domain can help increase confidence in customers as many of them feel more comfortable purchasing from local merchants. For them, it makes it much easier to track their sales and follow up with any questions or concerns regarding the product. Even though business is conducted across international borders everyday, some customers would just like to know that they are dealing with someone residing in the same country rather than one operating in a foreign locality.

What is Transfer - Out Fee?

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain registration is a pretty simple and clear procedure these days. There are thousands of domain name registrars, hunting for clients and offering their best services. However, while domain registration is pretty clear, transferring your domain from one registrar to another could sometimes bring some unpleasant surprises. One of them is the so called “transfer-out” fee.

Transfer-out fee is the fee, which the domain registrar may request from domain name owner, when he decides to change his domain registration company and move his domain to another registrar. Sometimes transfer-out fee can be twice as much as you pay for domain name registration.

Though experienced domain name registration companies with strong reputation rarely apply transfer-out fees, this still can be an issue with smaller companies. While there is a dispute among web community experts as to whether transfer-fee practice is legal and ethical, it is strongly recommended to read the Terms and Conditions of domain name registration before accepting them.

What is Domain Name Parking?

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

In the majority of situations, people, who choose new domain name registration, are about to create their own websites, and thus they usually order website hosting at the same time or soon after domain name registration.

However, there are situations when it is necessary to register a new domain name in advance (much earlier before the web site is actually ready and can be launched online). For example, you have been dawned with the idea of a brilliant name for a new web service, and before someone else registers the same name, you may wish to register it for yourself and then start developing the website.

In such cases, domain name parking may be very helpful. Actually, this is one of the services, offered by almost all domain name registrar, and it means pointing your domain name to some neutral temporary web page (a dummy page) before your website is ready and you can point your domain name to your own domain name server address.

In case of domain name parking, your domain name will be accessible via Internet, however it will display the page defined by your domain name registrar by default. The content of such dummy page may vary from contact information of domain name registration company to Google ads.

However, it is important to remember that domain name parking is a temporary solution. Of course, if you have registered the domain name with the intension to resell it in the future, it can be parked for unlimited period of time, but if your primary goal is to build a professional website – it is better to order professional website services and point a newly registered domain name to your own hosting.

Domain name Registration - Step by Step Guide

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Once you have decided to start your own website project, the first thing to do is to register your own web domain name. Domain registration is not a very complicated business and can be performed in a couple of simple steps.

Devise an attractive and preferably key-word based word or word combination, that you would wish to use as your domain name;
Before contacting your domain name registrar company, check if the domain name is still vacant: just type the domain name you are thinking about into the address bar of your browser, and if you get no result – go ahead, the domain name is not occupied;
Research the offering from different domain registration companies and choose the one, you trust the most;
Contact your chosen domain name registrar and request a domain name registration;
Be ready to provide your contact data for new domain registration;
If you already have a website and you wish a new domain to be pointed to it, be ready to provide the addresses of the primary and secondary DNS servers (this info can be obtained from your hosting company);
In case your do not have a website yet, ask your domain registration company to park your domain;
Enjoy being a unique domain name owner ;-)

Public DNS Services

Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Recently the IT community was presented with the new tool from Google, called Public DNS. The benefits as well as the potential drawbacks of Public DNS are actively discussed on the web these days, so let us learn some basics about this new feature.

The term Domain Name System or DNS refers to the field of web hosting and domain name registration. Actually, DNS servers work as traditional phone books, translating names into physical addresses of the web sites and pages. The key disadvantage of common DNS servers is that they require time to update the information, so when you register a new domain or relocate from one hosting provider to another web hosting company, your website is unavailable for some period of time before the DNS server updates their databases.

Google offered its Publish DNS servers to resolve that situation as well as to speed up the browsing experience of internet users. The company says its Public DNS Service helps to increase the speed of web pages loading and to increase the security of web browsing.

However, there are also many opponents, saying that using Public DNS from Google is no good, because it allows one more chance for the Internet giant to gather information on how exactly you use the Internet.

Anyway, if you want to try Public DNS, change the DNS servers’ addresses in your network configuration to 8.8.8.8. and 8.8.4.4.

Domain Name Tips

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

When you register your new domain the very first thing you have to do is choose the name of your website. This is a critical step, because if your address is not clear, people may not come to your site or, they may not even know that your website exists.

Below are some tips to consider when you are choosing your domain name:

1. A domain name can be up to 63 characters long, but you do not have to use all 63 characters.

2. Choose a website domain name that is very easy to remember or write down quickly. Try and make it no longer than 2-3 words.

3. Make sure your website domain name is easy to spell and can be pronounced clearly.

4. Avoid the use of dashes. Domain names with dashes can be confusing or and not so easy for people to remember or find.

5. Stay clear of using acronyms (e.g. nmm.org instead of NewMediaMasters.org) as they can be confusing and don’t assist people with remembering what your website is about.

6. Some people like to use "2" instead of the words "to" and "two" and "4" instead of "for" and "four". It is not a good idea to do this, as it easily confuses people, in particular people who are not computer literate.

7. Make sure your website domain name does not impinge on any existing trademarks.

Commercial of Non-Profit Domain

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

When you are registering your website domain name there are a number of Top Level Domains (TLDs), including .com, .org, .us, .net, .info, .biz, and various country names (.it, .es, .br, .fr, .ru, etc.) you can choose from. Some of the things you need to consider are:

For a commercial business, you will more than likely want to register the .com version of your domain name and also possibly the newer .biz variation.

For non-profit organizations, or individuals, you will most likely register the .org variation and possibly the .com and .us variants (for US-based businesses).

Thinking farther than the extension you select for your new website domain, it is a good plan to look after your website domain name by registering several extensions (.net, .org, etc.). This approach deters people from exploiting your new domain name. Select one main domain extension and set a redirect from the other domains to your main one.

Privacy and Security

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Your website domain name should be registered in your own name and be under your ownership. This doesn’t mean that it must be registered in your own domain registrar account, but that you are identified in the domain contact information as the owner of the domain.

As part of your website domain registration, you will have the option to keep your domain name private. This is a feature you may want to think about taking advantage of. A private domain registration keeps your private information details like name, email address, etc. out of the global Internet database. This will stop a lot of spammers from sending junk mail to your email account.

Why Register Bulk Domain Names?

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Some people register more than one domain name, and a few of the reasons are highlighted below:

So they can be used as domain name pointers, which address any misspellings customers may make when typing in your domain name.

Some people also register domain names relating to a business or service they may want to provide in the future. You may want to own jerrysbakery.com, jerryscakes.com and jerrysbread.com, even if the bakery is the only business you are currently involved in.

It is advisable to purchase names similar to yours to stop competitors from using them. Many times, businesses will not only purchase the .com version of their name, but also the .org, .net, .info, .biz and .us versions also.

Protect Your Name on the Internet

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

When you set up a website for your business you will more than likely want to register a domain name integrating your business name, or any trademarks that you own.

However, just because you have a trademark it doesn’t necessarily give you an automatic right to a domain name incorporating your trademark. It is possible that someone else may have already registered the domain name you want to use for their own use.

You may be able to take legal action if you believe:

Someone is using a domain name to pretend their goods and services are in fact yours
Someone has taken out your trademark as a domain name with the sole purpose of selling it back to you

What is a Domain Name Registrar?

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

A domain name registrar is a company that is authorized by a central Internet authority to add new domain name records into the Internet's central "domain name database". To be recognized as a legitimate domain name, a domain must be registered with an endorsed registrar, or a company reselling domains through an accredited registrar.

Generic, Business Names and Trademarks

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

When registering your domain name, there are a number of considerations you need to make concerning the actual name you choose. Many people choose to register their business name as a domain name, but it is also worth taking into consideration choosing a generic name, which is related to your business.A generic name may be easier for your customers to remember and it will also have a greater resale value if you choose to sell your site sometime in the future.

You must also confirm whether the name you are registering infringes on any other trademark. People have registered celebrity or company names in the hope of making fast money by selling them back to their "owners". This practice, known as “cybersquatting”, can easily backfire, as it is against the law. It is not possible to trademark generic terms to the point of the exclusion of others using the word combinations. However, generic one word domain names are very popular and it is nearly impossible to locate one, so try and find two word combinations that motivate and support your business.

Domain Names - Keep Them Short and Simple

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

When registering your domain, it is important to think about the length of the name. Consider this. You have found your domain name and decided that you want to create a fantastic website. You have chosen the name, www.wally-ihavethebestwebsiteintheworld2.com. Can you see what is wrong with this name? On the positive side, it is descriptive, it challenges and it is generic. However, it is also a mixture of numbers, letters, abbreviations, hyphens and it is terribly long.

Ideally a domain name should be easy to remember and simple to tell to someone over the telephone. If possible, the first letter should be close to the letter "a", as some search engines and indices categorise alphabetically. Domain names should also be as short as possible.

Choosing a Domain Extension

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

When you register a domain name, you must also consider what extension, or extensions, you are going to choose. There are many countries that now lease out the rights to use their extensions around the globe. One example is the .tv domain, which in fact belongs to Tuvalu. There are now over 250 Top Level Domains (TLD's) around the world.

If your first choice of names isn't available as a .com, many people are tempted to register the name as a .net, .biz or .tv etc. You should think carefully about making this decision. As well as costing you more, they also don’t have the recognition of .com, which is considered the best of the domain extensions.

It is great to be proud of your country, but remember that the web has removed a lot of international barriers. You need to consider your target audience. If your target audience is only people within your own country, a country specific domain may be okay. However, it is worth remembering that the real global economy is still growing and to allow for future expansion and opportunities, it is probably better to go for a .com. Also, some countries have very complex procedures for registering a local domain name.

Basic Guidelines for Choosing a Good Domain Name

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Below are some basic guidelines for choosing a good domain name:

1. Choose a name which is as short as possible

2. Select a name which is as generic as possible, but related to your business

3. Do not use hyphens, numbers or misspellings

4. Try and have a name with the first letter as close to "a" as possible

5. Make sure the name is easy to remember

6. Ensure the name is easy to spell and cannot be confused with other similar sounding words

7. Try and secure a .com extension, as it is the best top level domain. Some of the newer extensions may take a few years to become accepted

8. Do not double up on letters, for example runninggenius

How to Get a Domain Name That Isn't Taken

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

The choice of your domain name can be the difference between success and failure of your website. Ideally you want a catchy domain name that will stick with your visitors and keep them coming back. Below are some basic steps to obtaining a great domain name that hasn’t already been taken.

Step 1

Make a wish list of domain names you would like to use. Be creative with the list and use your imagination to come up with a list of possibilities. Every option must be easy for people to remember, and be as short as possible.

Step 2

Select a domain registrar to secure your domain name.

Step 3

Visit the registrar you have chosen and start going down your list of possible names, removing any which are not available. You may have to go through many domain names before you find one that is available.

Step 4

Register the domain name you have chosen. It is a good idea to save money by registering the domain for as long as you can, as yearly fees tend to be lower when you choose a long term for your registration.

Why Do I Need a Domain?

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain names are very important for your business and for the success of your website. They provide you with a branded name on the Internet. Domains also make it easier to remember the address of your website. It is imperative for a business to have a domain so they can advertise their products and services across the web.

The name of the domain itself is very important and careful consideration must be made regarding the name as it will play a critical role in any advertising campaign. Domains can also protect a copyright or trademark.

Domains are also a great way to build a family website, a personal hobby website, or a blog, so that it can be shared with everybody.

Interesting Facts on Domain Names

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Choosing an attractive and effective domain name is a pretty challenging assignment even for experienced web masters. That is why it is important to think twice when choosing right domain name. However, it is also important not to loose much time – cyber squatters are hunting for the most valuable domain names constantly.

Below are some of the interesting and easy-going information just to make domain name registration less stressful activity ;-)

Fact #1 All the two-letters and three-letters domain names are already taken… That means if you were thinking about extremely short URL, which will be easy to remember – forget that idea. On the other hand, if you are creative enough you can still register a four-letter domain name, where 20% of possible letter combinations are still available.

Fact#2 There were some speculations in the web that domain names starting with “S” are treated specially by the search engines and they are more attractive for visitors (some people tried to explain it with the association with “sex”). However, the truth is that “S” is nothing but the most popular letter at the beginning of domain names (over 5 million domain names start with “S”).

Fact#3 All the English male and female names are already taken, thus leaving no chances for all those, who considered using first name for a domain name. The same situation is with the 10.000 most popular family names. On the other hand, this fact is true only about English personal names; the chances with some ethnic names are perhaps more promising.

Fact#4 First domain names registered date back to 1985. Among the oldest domain names are:

symbolics.com

bbn.com

think.com

xerox.com

hp.com

Fact#5 A domain name length in .com zone is limited by 63 characters. By the way, it is said that all the domain names with all letters “a” from 1 to 63 have already been taken.

Fact#6 The most popular domain names are 11 characters long.

Well, that is all for now. Of course, the practical value of this information can be doubted, but domain registration is not only about practical approach, it is also about fun and creativity…

Domain Names SEO

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Names SEO

When it comes to choosing the right domain name, we have a choice between search engine optimized domain names or branding, depending on the purpose of your purchase, if you’re driven by money, it would be wiser to choose a domain name optimized for search engine.

Example – It is important to note that search engines are artificial intelligence, therefore www.ajiboye.com is recognized as ajiboye instead of separate keyword ‘aji’ and ‘boye’. To make your domain name search engine friendly, try www.aji-boye.com, the hyphenated domain names allows the search engine to treat it as two separate keywords, thus making your domain name more readeable to the search engine and in turn more visible to people searching for the keywords ‘aji’ and ‘boye’.

The drawback of having too many hyphen in a domain name is confusion among the readers, it is harder to remember, looks unprofessional and spammy. The catch is to find the shortest possible domain name with the right combination of keywords. Remember, the domain name has to be memorable.

Expired Domain Names and Auction

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Expired Domain Names and Auction

Why choose expired domain names when you can pick your own favorite domain names? There are a number of reasons, for instant:

* Expired domain name existed for a number of years, making its presence noticeable by search bot such as Google.

* It could have had a Google Pagerank of 3 to 5, making your new web/blog’s ranking slightly higher than a new domain name.

* The name is truly unique but cost a bomb, thus making your blog/website branding easier.

Before you proceed with the purchase of expired domain names, do check with the Internet Archive Wayback Machine on its previous contents, you don’t want to be associated with some illegal activities, or worst, the so called domain name you wanted is in Google’s blacklist, thus making indexing by Google Bot almost impossible. This can be solved by requesting Google to review your domain name again at Google Webmaster Central, state your reason clearly, such as you are a new owner and has no affiliate or whatsoever with the past owner.

Domain Name Suggestions

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Suggestions

When choosing a domain name you have to weigh the option on branding or SEO (Search Engine Optimization). A good domain name with the right keyword will help you rank better, not to mention, the right keywords allows ad bots (Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher and other) the ability to pick the right ads for your blog/web based on your domain name keywords. For instant, if your domain name is www.make-money-online.com, you are likely to see more ads on money making technique, making money online, earn money online, and more.

Keywords are important, try Google Search Based Keyword Tools to find the right keywords for your soon to be purchased domain name.

Furthermore, most Domain Registrar such as ajiboye.com comes with a default domain name suggestion tool.

Domain Name Transfer

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Transfer

Your hosting provider sucks? Want to move to another web hosting company? Fear not, the procedure for transferring a domain name is fixed according to the law.

* The end user contacts the new registrar and proves its identity.

* The end user orders the new registrar to transfer the domain name to their service.

* The new registrar sets the transfer procedure in motion at the appropriate registry.

* The registry contacts the old registrar and asks it if it approves or rejects the transfer, no reaction within five days counts as approval.

* The old registrar contacts the end user to confirm the authenticity of this request, no reaction is interpreted as a rejection.

* The old registrar approves the transfer at the registry.

* The registry completes the transfer by changing the entry in their database.

* The new registrar will notify the end user of transfer completion

Please note that to transfer a domain name from one domain name registrar to another, the current domain name has to be registered with the existing company for a period of 3 to 6 months. If the duration of the domain name registered is less than the minimum months as stated in the term and conditions, transferring it to another new registrar is prohibited.

Cheapest Domain Name Registration

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Cheapest Domain Name Registration

At less than $12 US dollars, some big hosting provider offer less than $10, how much cheaper can it be? $1 for a domain name? Based on my own personal experience, it is highly advisable to avoid these cheap domain name provider and hosting companies, for a simple reason – their server is unreliable (believe me, really really unreliable).

Domain Name Registration

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

When choosing a domain name for a web site it should be permanent and very easy to remember. Think about how repeat customers will find your web site if its domain name changes every year. Remember it is not easy for a visitor to remember a domain name that is difficult to say aloud, for example www.sed45geh.com.

There are a couple of important things to think about when choosing a domain name:

Use existing words - If you can, use a combination of English words for your domain name, like possums-are-great.com. However, do not let the total domain name get too long.

Create a unique name - If you make up a unique name, like Lynchet or Tozrig, you increase your chances of obtaining a shorter domain name.

Domain Extensions or Types - There are numerous domain suffixes for you to select for a given name, for example .com, .net, .org, .au, .us, etc.

There are many excellent web sites at which you can register your domain. You will be able to look for available domain names and then as register them.

Domain Types

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

When you have found a domain name you like, there are numerous different types of domain suffixes you can choose from. Let’s say you have chosen "oursite" as your domain name, you then have the choice of registering oursite.com, oursite.net, oursite.org, oursite.us, oursite.biz, oursite.au, and lots of other extensions. The list below is a reference of the accepted usage for certain extensions, however, the adherence to these guidelines is becoming less and less with the passage of time:

.com - Stands for company or commercial, however in practice can be used for just about any web site.
.net - Stands for network and is normally used for a network of web sites.
.org - Stands for organization and is generally used for non-profit web sites.
.us, .au, .co, .uk - Are country specific domain extensions that usually require the person registering the domain to be a citizen of the given country.
.biz, .info - These and other like names like them are domain types that have been added as a result of there not being a lot of short and intelligible domain addresses left to register.

When you are deciding the right domain suffix for you, the following rule of thumb may help. In the United States go for a .com or .net. In other countries, go for a .com first, and if that has gone then use your country’s domain extension.

Buying Existing & Expired Domains

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

In some cases it is very difficult to come up with a domain name and it may be simpler to purchase an existing domain from someone who is prepared to sell. The cost of a domain name can fluctuate greatly and it is probably a good idea to spend some time researching the real worth of the domain to see how worthwhile the purchase actually is. There are domain name forums, which are a reasonable place to start for buying and selling names.

A less expensive, but more difficult way to get a good domain name is to look at list of expired domain names. These are the domains that other people have registered more than a year ago but have decided not to renew. This means that these names are now available to the public.

DNS Information

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

DNS is short for Domain Name System. When a person on the Internet types in your domain name, www.yourbusiness.com, the browser will check with the Domain Name System to locate the IP address that hosts your site. When you register a domain name you may have to enter the IP address for your server before your domain name will work correctly. Some domain name registrars will request your IP address during registration, whereas others need you to go in and manually fill in the information after you have settled your account.

Registering a Domain Name with a Free Email Address

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

It can be very dangerous to register a domain name using a free email address. There can be a couple of problems related with using a free email address when you register your domain name. The first is the email service may close down without warning. This will leave you stuck when it comes to making alterations to the domain name or transferring it to another Registrar, as you won’t be able to receive and respond to email confirmation messages. You will also miss out on receiving email reminders informing about the expiration of your domain name.

The secondly issue is that free email services are public services that are used by many people and are generally more vulnerable to being hacked. If your email account gets hacked, they would be able to make changes to your domain name records without you knowing.

The third reason is that some free email services remove accounts a defined period of inactivity. If you forget to log in for a few months, you could very well find that your email address has been removed. Worse still, your email address could have been re-allocated to somebody else, thus providing them with full control over your domain name.

Can I Register a Domain Name If I Don't Have a Website?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

You can certainly register a domain name even if you do not have a website. Many domain name registrars provide a free "holding service" for domain names. They will make all the necessary arrangements for you, to ensure that the domain name you have registered is reserved for you. At some time in the future, you can "point" the domain name at a website by submitting a simple template and making the required arrangements with your website hosting company.

Domain Name Leasing

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

An alternative to purchasing a domain name is to lease a domain name. An advantage of leasing, which is similar to what you may do with a car, is that you do not need a large amount of cash up front. All aspects of the lease are negotiable, including the terms, amount, and length of the lease. Furthermore, your lease can also contain a clause, but not an obligation, to purchase the domain name later on.

There are many domain names that are being used primarily as personalized email addresses. Therefore, the worth of such a domain name depends upon the value of its lease and the amount of people keen in having the domain name in their email address.

Ensure You Have the Contacts Right!

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

When registering a domain name, make sure that you put your name as Administrative Contact. This shows who is authorized to act on behalf of the real owner. This is different to the Technical Contact, which is generally a person at the ISP who is looks after the name servers. A number of providers place their own people as Administrative Contact on the domains that they register. This is not good from your viewpoint as it means that only the ISP can approve or disapprove of changes to that domain (like moving it to a different ISP). It is theoretically possible that some providers could attempt to hold your domain hostage, if, for example, they said that you owe them money. If you are Administrative Contact, you have the authority to change providers without seeking the approval of your previous provider. However, a person at your ISP should be listed as Technical Contact, to enable them to make technical changes, like updating the address of the servers, when needed.

Keep Those Contacts Up to Date

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

After you have registered your domain name, it is extremely important to keep your contact details up to date. If for some reason you change your email address from the one that you listed in your contact record for the domain you registered, make sure you submit a contact change request to change this contact from your old address to your new address before the old address stops working.

You will have a lot of trouble completing the change if you wait until the old address stops working before trying to change your contact to the new one. This is because registrars require the change of email request to either originate from the current registered contact address. Some registrars have password protected Web forms available for domain changes, but if you forget your password, you could be in difficulty if your registered email address is no longer valid.

Watch Your Expiration Date

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

After you have registered your domain name, it is a good idea to keep a watch on its expiration date. Many people have accidentally allowed their domain names to expire when they really wanted to keep them. When this happens, the domain name becomes available for registration by other people. Some registrars neglect to tell registrants that it's renewal time. You may think they would be keen to take every opportunity to make more money out of you, but sometimes they fail to let you know.

Do not to rely too heavily on your registrar letting you know when it's time to renew your registration. It is a good idea to keep track of your own domains and when they are due to expire. It can be as easy as creating a file and placing it on your computer's desktop so you can check it regularly.

If you are considering switching your domain to another registrar, make sure you do it well in advance of the expiration date. Registrars will not allow you transfer a domain after it has expired, so you will have to finalize a registrar switch well before the lapse date, as it can take some time for all the processes to be fully completed.

What if the Domain I Want is Already Taken?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

As soon as a domain name is registered, no one else can register that domain name. This continues to be the case as long as the current registrant maintains their paid registration. So if you want that name, what can you do? There are still a couple of options:

Register the domain name with a different extension. Other popular domain extensions that you may consider include .com, .net, .org, .biz, and .info. You may also like to look at us.com, as well as .la, .eu.com, .uk.com, and .de.com. So there are many options to get the domain that you want.

Contact the registrant directly and offer to purchase the domain name registration. To examine contact information for any registered domain name, look up the name using "WHOIS", where you should find the contact details.

What is the Domain Redemption Period?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

What is the Domain Redemption Period?

The redemption period is a Domain Registry period of up to 30 days that occurs when a domain name is deleted after having expired unrenewed. Instead of just getting deleted and returning to the pool of domain names available for registration, the existing registry keeps a hold on the domain name in a what is technically called as REDEMPTION PERIOD. During this 30-day redemption period, the original domain registrant (owner of the domain) is allowed to retrieve the domain name from deletion by contacting their Registrar. This process costs an additional fee.

This extra 30-day period - redemption period - extends the time available to renew expired domain names by 30 days. However, all names that enter the redemption period are removed from the zone files in the global DNS, as a result, any Web site or email services associated with the domain name gone into redemption period will stop working and would appear offline.

Pending Delete Phase

In addition, after the 30-day redemption period there is a 5-day Pending Delete Phase. When a domain is in Pending Delete Phase, no one is allowed to renew the domain and it cannot be yet registered because its still not returned to the public domain pool. After the 5-day Pending Delete Phase the Registry will release the domain name back into the public pool of available domain names enabling fresh registration.

Renew domain before redemption phase

It is strongly recommended that you renew your domain registration in time before the domain name is placed in redemption lock because once its placed in redemption, the zone files of such domain gets automatically removed from the Domain Name Service and associated website and email etc services will cease to work.

Advantages Of Using Pre-Owned Names

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Advantages Of Using Pre-Owned Names

The name was part of a link exchange - Webmasters work hard to get their sites involved in link exchanges. This means the domain names are listed on other sites, and this is useful for getting traffic. If you take over a domain name, you can inherit these incoming links and the resulting traffic.

It was listed in Yahoo, DMOZ and/or Looksmart - A small industry has sprung up recently, which consists simply of selling tools and reports to allow people to quickly find domain names which are listed in Yahoo, DMOZ, Looksmart or other directories yet have expired. By expiring, these domain names are up for grabs, and all of the resulting benefits for the original site transfer to the new site. For a well placed entries, this can literally mean hundreds of thousands of hits per month.

There are hundreds of thousands of sites listed in Yahoo and millions in DMOZ. Anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred expire each month. Eventually the expiration would be discovered and the entry removed. However, if someone purchases the domain name quickly enough, the entry will remain and you will gain that traffic.

It has a good page rank in Google - Another thing that webmasters work very hard on is gaining page rank with Google, the number one search engine. A high page rank implies that the site appears nearer the top in search results pages. When you purchase a domain, you can inherit the resulting page rank and traffic. Note that you will need to duplicate the page or pages referred to by Google in order for this to work properly.

The Downside Of Using Pre-Owned Names

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The Downside Of Using Pre-Owned Names

You inherit spam - If the previous owner received spam email, then when you take over the domain you may very well inherit it. Why is this? Well, when you own a domain name, you get the email sent to every single username on that domain. Of course, most email servers are smart enough to "bounce" email messages for users who do not exist, but that email still gets sent to the server. For a domain which received a lot of spam, it could mean a significant amount of bandwidth used just for junk messages to non-existent users.

You can inherit robot activity - I got a domain once which someone had listed with a number of robots (programs which perform automatic functions). These robots were exceptionally active and caused a tremendous amount of traffic - so much so that I had to give up using the domain for a couple of months until the robots stopped visiting.

You might inherit enemies - Sometimes people give up domain names for a reason. One of those reasons might be an enemy - someone (or a group) that is targeting the name for some malicious act. For example, the name might be the target of email bombs or denial-of-service attacks. In these instances, you could find yourself inheriting these issues.

The domain could be banned - If a site gets involved in spamming search engines (attempting to fool them for higher placement on the results pages), it can be banned. By purchasing these old domain names, you might be similarly banned. This normally would not effect your existing domains, but it might reduce the value of the domain name that you purchased.

Things to do before giving up a domain name

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Things to do before giving up a domain name

Be sure you really want to expire the domain - Once someone else purchases your domain name, you may find it impossible or very expensive to get it returned. You will lose access to the use of the name entirely. So be sure that you want to give it up before you actually allow it to expire.

Be aware of expiration dates - Keep an eye on your domain name expiration dates as you may not get notified by the registrar before expiration. This can happen because email is not a perfect delivery system, because of a glitch in the registrar system or even because you didn't check your mail or email for the renewal. Don't accidentally lose your domain names.

Change your email addresses - Once you lose access to a domain, you will lose access to any email that is going to that domain. Think of all of the private emails that you get, and imagine them going to strangers. Well, once someone else gets the domain he may receive those private emails.

Change any links that you can - If you are allowing a domain to expire, be sure you salvage any links that you might want to keep. While you can do this after a domain name expires, it makes more sense to do it beforehand. For example, if you had owned three domains that all went to the same web site and you allowed two of them to expire, you might want to spend the time to change the links to the domain name that you keep.

What is a Domain Name?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name in its simplest form is just an Internet Website address. Just as your house or apartment has its own unique identifying address for the post office, so does each and every Website in existence.

The domain name system was originally created for the benefit of humans. The actual address used by computers is numerical in format and is referred to as an IP, or Internet Protocol, address. An IP address takes the form of four series of numbers separated by periods. An example of an IP address is 215.55.258.145, and as you can see this would not be easy for most of us to remember. So to compensate, the domain "name" system was created. Its much easier to remember a website named "thiswebsite.com" than it is to remember a number such as the one above, right?

Notice there is no @ symbol in the Website address. The @ symbol is normally used for email addresses only, thus (with rare exceptions) you would not be able to visit a website with an address such as ebooks@electronicperceptions.com. Instead you would send email to that address. You can usually take the last part of an email address and find a website with it though because everything after the @ symbol is normally the website at which this email address exists.

You have likely seen Website addresses that look like this: http://www.ajiboye.com/user/~somename.

These are not really domain names in full, but rather they are subsections of a domain name. The actual domain name is http://www.ajiboye.com and the rest of the address denotes where on that domain you would like to view pages. So if you were to have your website at the location above, you would not have your own domain. Instead you would have web pages hosted in a directory on someone else's domain.

Why you need a Domain Name

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Why you need a Domain Name

If you are like some people, you may be wondering what the big deal is with getting a domain name. Why does anyone want or even need one? Well the answers can vary with circumstances, however there are some pretty simple initial reasons.

Individuals sometimes like to have their own domain for vanity or notoriety reasons. Other times they have a family or genealogy Website and having a domain name for that site helps it to be found and remembered easier. For instance if your name is Sheila Brooks, you could try to get the domain name of "sheilabrooks.com" so that anyone looking for you online would easily find you. If you have a family Website then a domain name such as "ajiboye.com" would give it a nice touch. If you are an up and coming author, artist, activist, volunteer or otherwise it would also give you a unique and memorable address with which to promote your causes.

In the business world, domain names are becoming as common as telephone and fax numbers. If your advertisements and business cards don't display a domain name, you run the risk of being completely passed over by customers that prefer to browse merchandise and services online.

A good domain name is vital for a business. If the name does not match your business name or slogan then it must be closely related to one or both. Your domain name must also be easy to remember so that customers do not have to work hard to find your site online. Having a registered domain name with a live Website is sometimes the first priority for a business today, because it is a very inexpensive way to get your business name and information in front of the public.

Other primary reasons for a business to register one or more domain names is to protect copyrights and trademarks, secure unique product names and increase their brand awareness with the public.

Domain Transfering

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

What Is Domain Transferring

Are you getting the service that you require from your domain registrar? Actually, thinking about it for a minute, it might be a better question to ask, do you even know what services are available? Are you aware that you can shop around and get better prices, more features and far better customer service?

Guess what? All domain registrars are not the same.

Okay, let's back up a minute. Way back when the internet was young (maybe 5 years ago) all domain names were handled by Network Solutions, Inc. In those dark, evil days you had no choice. It didn't matter what you thought of the process, it was unimportant that you were not getting service and the price, well, was a standard high fee.

A few years ago the government decided that Network Solutions would no longer be a monopoly. The government wanted to do this to deregulate the industry and encourage competition, and also perhaps to spur a little bit of growth into this thing called the internet.

Okay, so now you do have a choice. In fact, there are well over a hundred different domain registrars at last count. They seem to be springing up all over the place, and the level of support and service, as well as the price, seems to vary greatly.

You may not know it, but you can change domain registrars at any time. It's actually not very complicated at all.

Here are some of the questions that you may have regarding domain transfers.

How much does it cost?

It depends upon the domain registrar. I have found that many will transfer your domain for no cost to get your business. Others will charge a few dollars ($5 to $20 or more), but will drop the fee if you extend your domain for a couple of years. Shop around and find a good deal.

What are the advantages of transferring?

You may not like the domain registrar you are currently using - perhaps they have poor support or cost too much. You can shop around and find the best solution for your needs.

Remember, though, that if you are like most people, domain registration is something you will not do very often, so perhaps customer support is not all that important.

What are the disadvantages?

Transferring a domain can be confusing. Also, there is no guarantee that the new registrar will be any better than the old one. Again, remember that domain registration is not something that you should need to deal with very often (if you are like most people) so it may not be worth the effort to change.

Can any domain be transferred?

Yes, any domain registered with any registrar may be transferred to any other registrar.

What does a registrar do?

The registrar manages your domain name. They maintain security and the structures that make the domain work.

Does changing registrars have any effect on ownership?

No. When you change registrars you are only changing managers. You still retain ownership.

Are there reasons why a domain may not be transferred?

Yes. Some of these are listed below.

- The domain name is in a legal dispute of some kind. - The identity of the domain name holder is in dispute or unknown. - The domain name holder is in bankruptcy. - The domain has only been with the registrar for 60 days. - The registrar refuses to transfer for other reasons.

How is a domain transferred?

This varies from registrar to registrar. Some require a notarized form to be delivered to them, others can do it using a web site form. How long does the process take?

The registrar will usually take five to ten days to review and validate the request. Once it has been validated and put into action, it will take a couple of days for the change to filter through the internet.

Will the web site associated with the domain be accessible during the change?

Yes. This normally does not effect access to your web site. The registrar is changed, not the web site address and other information.

Good Domain Names

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Good Domain Names

No matter what domain name you buy its unlikely to be worth $ millions straight away, but with some careful though and preparation you can maximise your domain names potential.

Using hyphens

Almost every word in the dictionary has been registered already so its more than likely that you will have to register a combination of words. Should you buy a domain name with a hypen in it? Generally speaking the answer is no. There are several reasons why not. Describing a domain name with hyphens can be awkward. Customers have a habit of forgetting the hyphen and typing in the wrong URL. It’s a misconception that hyphens improve search engine rankings, the leading search engines now concentrate on content and pay only limited attention to the URL itself.

Consider a ccTLD

There is no evidence that Country Code Top level domains (ccTLD’s) are treated differently by Search Engines, though there can be advantages and disadavantages if your business is regional Submitting your domain to search engines Once you have configured your domain to point to your Web site, you will need to ensure that search engines are aware of it. If they aren't, your site will receive very few visitors - even if you have managed to find a memorable, snappy domain name.

This can be achieved by either directly submiting your URL to the search engines through using a submission service such as the free submission service on our site .

Please be careful when using automated submission tools as the Search engine are penalising sites submitted in this way. Ours is manual for this very reason.

Or by linking your site to others, this is the preferred way for search engine to “discover new sites”.

Ensuring you own your domain

Just because you buy a domain name doesn't mean you own it. Some less reputable suppliers register domain names in their own name. You can see who owns a domain name by using a lookup call Ajiboye search e.g Ajiboye

Selling your domain name

Is your domain name near to expiry? Don't let it lapse without offering it for sale first, there are lots of good sites who only charge if your domain sells. You might be pleasantly surprised, domain names have fetched a $1 million before now!

What is Redemptionperiod?

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

REDEMPTIONPERIOD:

A domain name is placed in REDEMPTIONPERIOD status when a registrar requests the deletion of a name that is not within the Add Grace Period.

A name that is in REDEMPTIONPERIOD status will not be included in the zone file. A registrar can not modify or purge a name in EDEMPTIONPERIOD status. The only action a registrar can take on a name in REDEMPTIONPERIOD is to request that it be restored.

Any other registrar requests to modify or otherwise update the domain will be rejected. Unless restored, the domain will be held in REDEMPTIONPERIOD status for a specified number of calendar days. The current length of this Redemption Period is thirty calendar days.

For someone interested in registering previously registered - but now expiring domains: the domain will always go into REDEMPTIONPERIOD status before it is released to be re-registered. It will remain in REDEMPTIONPERIOD status for 30 days at which time it will then move to PENDINGDELETE status.

If a domain is renewed by the original registrant during the REDEMPTIONPERIOD status, the domain will NOT go to PENDINGDELETE status.

IP address

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical label that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes. An IP address serves two principal functions in networking: host identification and location addressing. The role of the IP address has also been characterized as follows: "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there."

The original designers of TCP/IP defined an IP address as a 32-bit number and this system, now named Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4), is still in use today. However, due to the enormous growth of the Internet and the resulting depletion of the address space, a new addressing system (IPv6), using 128 bits for the address, was developed in 1995 and last standardized by RFC 2460 in 1998. Although IP addresses are stored as binary numbers, they are usually displayed in human-readable notations, such as 208.77.188.166 (for IPv4), and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:1:1 (for IPv6).

The Internet Protocol also has the task of routing data packets between networks, and IP addresses specify the locations of the source and destination nodes in the topology of the routing system. For this purpose, some of the bits in an IP address are used to designate a subnetwork. The number of these bits is indicated in CIDR notation, appended to the IP address, e.g., 208.77.188.166/24.

With the development of private networks and the threat of IPv4 address exhaustion, a group of private address spaces was set aside by RFC 1918. These private addresses may be used by anyone on private networks. They are often used with network address translators to connect to the global public Internet.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) manages the IP address space allocations globally. IANA works in cooperation with five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) to allocate IP address blocks to Local Internet Registries (Internet service providers) and other entities.

Hostname

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

A hostname is the unique name by which a network-attached device (which could consist of a computer, file server, network storage device, fax machine, copier, cable modem, etc.) is known on a network. The hostname is used to identify a particular host in various forms of electronic communication such as the World Wide Web, e-mail or Usenet.

On the Internet, the terms "hostname" and "domain name" are often used interchangeably, but there are subtle technical differences between them.

Hostnames are used by various naming systems, NIS, DNS, SMB, etc., and so the meaning of the word hostname will vary according to the naming system in question, which in turn varies by type of network. A hostname meaningful to a Microsoft NetBIOS workgroup may be an invalid Internet hostname. When presented with a hostname and no context, it is usually safe to assume that the network is the Internet and DNS is the hostname's naming system.

Host names are typically used in an administrative capacity and may appear in computer browser lists, active directory lists, IP address to hostname resolutions, email headers, etc. They are human-readable nicknames, which ultimately correspond to unique network hardware MAC addresses. In some cases the host name may contain embedded domain names and/or locations, non-dotted IP addresses, etc.

On a simple local area network, a hostname is usually a single word: for instance, an organization's CVS server might be named "cvs" or "server-1".

Online naming compared with offline naming

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain naming has four major goals or criteria, which are sometimes contradictory and tradeoffs must be made. Many of the goals are similar to offline naming goals, but there are important differences. A quick summary introduction of the four goals follows:

1. Image – Names project an image or may have a neutral image if the name is entirely new (coined words). Choosing a name to project a good, appropriate-to-the-business image is similar to offline branding, but online domain names have additional characteristics that affect the image. For example, short one-word domain names have a better image than long names, everything else constant.

2. Memorability – Without reminders, such as seeing a product on a store shelf, memorability is more important online than offline. In addition to having a better image, shorter names are easier to remember than longer names, everything else constant. There are sometimes conflicts between memorable shocking names and image. Memorability also requires that your name or brand be distinguishable from competitors, which is often a problem with generic names. Is the company iHosting.com, eHosting.com, iHost.com or eHost.com? Memorability is more important for smaller companies with smaller marketing budgets and less known products. No one is going to forget the names Pepsi or Coke. Online, the exact spelling of the domain name must also be memorable. When typing in a domain name, close does not work.

3. Minimize Trademark Problems – There is no such thing as a perfectly legally safe name, but you can minimize the risks. Trademark problems fall into two groups:

• Can you prevent competitors or other businesses from using a name similar to yours?

• Can a competitor or other business legally challenge your name because it’s similar to their name?

If a competitor can use a name similar to yours, you will have both memorability and customer-confusion trademark problems. In severe cases, you will have difficulty building a brand name. For example, there is BankOne, CapitalOne, and occasionally fraudulent firms that use the “one” in their name to mislead customers/victims.

There are often conflicts between minimizing trademark risks and memorability and image, since other companies may have already used most dictionary words. It’s difficult to claim total ownership of dictionary words – especially popular dictionary words. The major difference between online and offline trademarks is that every online firm is effectively national and international, with trademark conflicts possible with other firms regardless of physical location. In the past, small firms could just worry about trademark conflicts with other firms doing business in their geographical area. Online there are anti-cybersquatting laws and mandatory dispute resolution, but these are narrowly aimed at cybersquatters 1) operating in bad faith and 2) without any trademark rights.

4. Buy the Domain Name at a Minimum Cost – There is no comparable activity for offline names. Offline, one can just pick a name and use the name after making sure there are no trademark problems.

Why Domain Names Must Be Memorable

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Every customer who forgets your name is money that you can forget about.

Domain names must be memorable because domain names stand alone without reminders. Customers do not see your product on a shelf to remind them. Customers do not see your store on a street to remind them. Customers type in domain names from memory.

Domain names must be memorable because there is no packaging or logo design to help customers remember your brand. Long and difficult-to-spell names, OK offline, aren't acceptable online. Every customer who forgets your name by just one letter is lost money.

Domain names must be memorable because you may be competing with hundreds of online stores. You are not competing with a handful of other products on a shelf or a handful of local stores. If forgotten, it’s not easy to re-find a domain name.

Even offline, memorability is often overlooked or minimized. In my opinion, memorability is overlooked or minimized for two reasons:

• Businessmen and businesswomen who devote a significant portion of their life to their business often forget that their business is just one out of a thousand businesses to customers and one out of a million businesses to potential customers. Consumers are bombarded with thousands of advertising messages every day. Even if a customer notices your message, few customers will make an effort to remember your name. Sometimes customers may write down or bookmark your name, but many won’t.

• Most books on branding are written for famous brands, which are household words.

Choosing a Domain Name

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Picking a Domain Name for Your Affiliate Marketing Website that Works

You may be surprised at how important this step really is. The domain name is just important as the website itself, so you will want to be sure you pick one that works for your affiliate business. The wrong one can hurt your business and cost you money in the long run.

Here are some things that you will need to keep in mind when you come up with the domain name for your affiliate marketing business:

• Easy to remember

• Easy to say

• Have keywords listed in it.

• Try to stick with the normal dot com

• Use internet tools to find similar domain names

• Use 2-4 words within the domain and keep them as short as possible.

Domain Name Auction Tricks â�� Hidden Reserves

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

One common legal sales tactic is to auction domain names with a high hidden reserve price. The reserve price may even be as high as the buy-it-now price.

Bidders do not know about the reserve price. Consequently, bidders could lose a week of time hoping to buy the domain name.

Sellers do this because the auction generates exposure for their domain name. The cost to list a domain name for sale on an auction site is only a few dollars. The more expensive commission to the auction site does not have to be paid unless the item is sold.

The only loss to you is if you waste weeks trying to win a name cheap at some of these auctions. The seller is just waiting for a big-spender to come along. To counteract this, see if the same domain name has been “auctioned” previously. Also look at the seller’s past auctions.

Meanings of different domain names

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Surfing the borderless space of the Internet, we visit hundreds of websites, each having its unique name or domain name to be more exact. Following is the list of different domain names and their meanings:

.aero – websites related to air-transport industry

.arpa –reserved only to support operationally-critical infrastructural identifier spaces as advised by the Internet Architecture Board

.asia – websites from Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific territories

.au – for Australian websites

.biz – business websites

.cat – websites of Catalan linguistic and cultural community

.com – commercial websites

.coop – this is reserved for cooperative associations

.de – websites from Germany

.edu – websites of post-secondary educational institutions

.gov – this domain is reserved for U.S. Government only

.info – this is a generic top-level domain name

.int – only for websites of organizations established by international treaties between governments

.jobs – for websites, dealing with human resources

.mil – websites related to the USA Military

.mobi – websites related to mobile products and services

.museum – websites of museums

.name – this domain name is reserved for individuals

.net – generic top-level domain name

.org – generic top-level domain name

.pro – domains restricted to credentialed professionals and related entities

.tel – these domains are reserved for publishing contact data of individuals and businesses

.travel – websites dealing with travel business

.uk – websites from the UK

Address resolution mechanism

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

A domain name may have several name components (e.g., ahost.ofasubnet.ofabiggernet.inadomain.example). In practice, full host names will frequently consist of just three segments: ahost.inadomain.example, and most often www.inadomain.example. For querying purposes, software interprets the name segment by segment, from right to left. At each step along the way, the program queries a corresponding DNS server to provide a pointer to the next server which it should consult.

As originally envisaged, the process was as simple as:

• The local system is pre-configured with the known addresses of the root servers in a file of root hints, which need to be updated periodically by the local administrator from a reliable source to be kept up to date with the changes which occur over time.

• Query one of the root servers to find the server authoritative for the next level down (so in the case of our simple hostname, a root server would be asked for the address of a server with detailed knowledge of the example top level domain).

• Querying this second server for the address of a DNS server with detailed knowledge of the second-level domain (inadomain.example in our example).

• Repeating the previous step to progress down the name, until the final step which would, rather than generating the address of the next DNS server, return the final address sought.

The mechanism in this simple form has a difficulty: it places a huge operating burden on the root servers, with every search for an address starting by querying one of them. Being as critical as they are to the overall function of the system, such heavy use would create an insurmountable bottleneck for trillions of queries placed every day. In practice caching is used to overcome this problem, and, in fact, root nameservers deal with very little of the total traffic.

Circular dependencies and glue records

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Name servers in delegations appear listed by name, rather than by IP address. This means that a resolving name server must issue another DNS request to find out the IP address of the server to which it has been referred. Since this can introduce a circular dependency if the nameserver referred to is under the domain that it is authoritative of, it is occasionally necessary for the nameserver providing the delegation to also provide the IP address of the next nameserver. This record is called a glue record.

Caching and time to live

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Because of the huge volume of requests generated by a system like DNS, the designers wished to provide a mechanism to reduce the load on individual DNS servers. To this end, the DNS resolution process allows for caching (i.e. the local recording and subsequent consultation of the results of a DNS query) for a given period of time after a successful answer. How long a resolver caches a DNS response (i.e. how long a DNS response remains valid) is determined by a value called the time to live (TTL). The TTL is set by the administrator of the DNS server handing out the response. The period of validity may vary from just seconds to days or even weeks.

Caching time

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

As a noteworthy consequence of this distributed and caching architecture, changes to DNS records do not always take effect immediately and globally. This is best explained with an example: If an administrator has set a TTL of 6 hours for the host, and then changes the IP address to which the host resolves at 12:01 pm, the administrator must consider that a person who cached a response with the old IP address at 12:00 noon will not consult the DNS server again until 6:00 pm. The period between 12:01 pm and 6:00 pm in this example is called caching time, which is best defined as a period of time that begins when you make a change to a DNS record and ends after the maximum amount of time specified by the TTL expires. This essentially leads to an important logistical consideration when making changes to DNS: not everyone is necessarily seeing the same thing you're seeing. RFC 1912 helps to convey basic rules for how to set the TTL.

Note that the term "propagation", although very widely used in this context, does not describe the effects of caching well. Specifically, it implies that when you make a DNS change, it somehow spreads to all other DNS servers (instead, other DNS servers check in with yours as needed), and that you do not have control over the amount of time the record is cached (you control the TTL values for all DNS records in your domain, except your NS records and any authoritative DNS servers that use your domain name).

Some resolvers may override TTL values, as the protocol supports caching for up to 68 years or no caching at all. Negative caching (the non-existence of records) is determined by name servers authoritative for a zone which MUST include the Start of Authority (SOA) record when reporting no data of the requested type exists. The MINIMUM field of the SOA record and the TTL of the SOA itself is used to establish the TTL for the negative answer. RFC 2308

Many people incorrectly refer to a mysterious 48 hour or 72 hour propagation time when you make a DNS change. When one changes the NS records for one's domain or the IP addresses for hostnames of authoritative DNS servers using one's domain (if any), there can be a lengthy period of time before all DNS servers use the new information. This is because those records are handled by the zone parent DNS servers (for example, the .com DNS servers if your domain is example.com), which typically cache those records for 48 hours. However, those DNS changes will be immediately available for any DNS servers that do not have them cached. And any DNS changes on your domain other than the NS records and authoritative DNS server names can be nearly instantaneous, if you choose for them to be (by lowering the TTL once or twice ahead of time, and waiting until the old TTL expires before making the change).

Security issues

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

DNS was not originally designed with security in mind, and thus has a number of security issues.

One class of vulnerabilities is DNS cache poisoning, which tricks a DNS server into believing it has received authentic information when, in reality, it has not.

DNS responses are traditionally not cryptographically signed, leading to many attack possibilities; The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) modifies DNS to add support for cryptographically signed responses. There are various extensions to support securing zone transfer information as well.

Even with encryption, a DNS server could become compromised by a virus (or for that matter a disgruntled employee) that would cause IP addresses of that server to be redirected to a malicious address with a long TTL. This could have far-reaching impact to potentially millions of Internet users if busy DNS servers cache the bad IP data. This would require manual purging of all affected DNS caches as required by the long TTL (up to 68 years).

Some domain names can spoof other, similar-looking domain names. For example; "paypal.com" and "paypa1.com" are different names, yet users may be unable to tell the difference when the user's typeface (font) does not clearly differentiate the letter l and the numeral 1. This problem is much more serious in systems that support internationalized domain names, since many characters that are different, from the point of view of ISO 10646, appear identical on typical computer screens. This vulnerability is often exploited in phishing.

Techniques such as Forward Confirmed reverse DNS can also be used to help validate DNS results.

Phishing

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

In the field of computer security, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feel are almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users, and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies. Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.

A phishing technique was described in detail in 1987, and the first recorded use of the term "phishing" was made in 1996. The term is a variant of fishing, probably influenced by phreaking or password harvesting fishing, and alludes to baits used to "catch" financial information and passwords.

Phishing techniques-I

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Social engineering:People have a built-in reaction to things that seem important. Subjects’ lines worded to arouse anxiety usually prompt immediate action. An email with the subject: "to restore access to your bank account ..." will usually get instant attention and prompt most people to click to read what happened.

There has been extensive research on the subject. It is so pervasive that even corporate and government sites are actively informing their users on the issue.

Link manipulation: Most methods of phishing use some form of technical deception designed to make a link in an e-mail (and the spoofed website it leads to) appear to belong to the spoofed organization. Misspelled URLs or the use of subdomains are common tricks used by phishers. Another common trick is to make the anchor text for a link appear to be valid, when the link actually goes to the phishers' site.

Filter evasion: Phishers have used images instead of text to make it harder for anti-phishing filters to detect text commonly used in phishing e-mails.

Phishing techniques-II

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Website forgery: Once a victim visits the phishing website the deception is not over. Some phishing scams use JavaScript commands in order to alter the address bar. This is done either by placing a picture of a legitimate URL over the address bar, or by closing the original address bar and opening a new one with the legitimate URL. An attacker can even use flaws in a trusted website's own scripts against the victim. These types of attacks (known as cross-site scripting) are particularly problematic, because they direct the user to sign in at their bank or service's own web page, where everything from the web address to the security certificates appears correct. In reality, the link to the website is crafted to carry out the attack, although it is very difficult to spot without specialist knowledge. Just such a flaw was used in 2006 against PayPal.

Phone phishing: Not all phishing attacks require a fake website. Messages that claimed to be from a bank told users to dial a phone number regarding problems with their bank accounts. Once the phone number (owned by the phisher, and provided by a Voice over IP service) was dialed, prompts told users to enter their account numbers and PIN. Vishing (voice phishing) sometimes uses fake caller-ID data to give the appearance that calls come from a trusted organization.

Other techniques: Another attack used successfully is to forward the client to a bank's legitimate website, then to place a popup window requesting credentials on top of the website in a way that it appears the bank is requesting this sensitive information.

Damage caused by phishing

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The damage caused by phishing ranges from denial of access to e-mail to substantial financial loss. It is estimated that between May 2004 and May 2005, approximately 1.2 million computer users in the United States suffered losses caused by phishing, totaling approximately $929 million.

The United States businesses lose an estimated $2 billion per year as their clients become victims. In 2007, phishing attacks escalated. 3.6 million Adults lost $ 3.2 billion in the 12 months ending in August 2007. Microsoft claims these estimates are grossly exaggerated and puts the annual phishing loss in the US at $60 million. In the United Kingdom losses from web banking fraud—mostly from phishing—almost doubled to £23.2m in 2005, from £12.2m in 2004, while 1 in 20 computer users claimed to have lost out to phishing in 2005.

Anti-phishing

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Anti-phishing software consists of computer programs that attempt to identify phishing content contained in websites and e-mail. It is often integrated with web browsers and email clients as a toolbar that displays the real domain name for the website the viewer is visiting, in an attempt to prevent fraudulent websites from masquerading as other legitimate web sites. Anti-phishing functionality may also be included as a built-in capability of some web browsers.

Anti-phishing strategies â�� Social responses

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

There are several different techniques to combat phishing, including legislation and technology created specifically to protect against phishing.

Social responses

One strategy for combating phishing is to train people to recognize phishing attempts, and to deal with them. Education can be effective, especially where training provides direct feedback. One newer phishing tactic, which uses phishing e-mails targeted at a specific company, known as spear phishing, has been harnessed to train individuals at various locations. In a June 2004 experiment with spear phishing, 80% of 500 West Point cadets who were sent a fake e-mail were tricked into revealing personal information.

People can take steps to avoid phishing attempts by slightly modifying their browsing habits. When contacted about an account needing to be "verified" (or any other topic used by phishers), it is a sensible precaution to contact the company from which the e-mail apparently originates to check that the e-mail is legitimate. Alternatively, the address that the individual knows is the company's genuine website can be typed into the address bar of the browser, rather than trusting any hyperlinks in the suspected phishing message.

Nearly all legitimate e-mail messages from companies to their customers contain an item of information that is not readily available to phishers. Some companies, for example PayPal, always address their customers by their username in e-mails, so if an e-mail addresses the recipient in a generic fashion ("Dear PayPal customer") it is likely to be an attempt at phishing. E-mails from banks and credit card companies often include partial account numbers. However, recent research has shown that the public do not typically distinguish between the first few digits and the last few digits of an account number—a significant problem since the first few digits are often the same for all clients of a financial institution. People can be trained to have their suspicion aroused if the message does not contain any specific personal information. Phishing attempts in early 2006, however, used personalized information, which makes it unsafe to assume that the presence of personal information alone guarantees that a message is legitimate.

Furthermore, another recent study concluded in part that the presence of personal information does not significantly affect the success rate of phishing attacks, which suggests that most people do not pay attention to such details.

Helping to identify legitimate websites

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Most websites targeted for phishing are secure websites, meaning that SSL with strong cryptography is used for server authentication, where the website's URL is used as identifier. In theory it should be possible for the SSL authentication to be used to confirm the site to the user, and this was SSL v2's design requirement and the meta of secure browsing. But in practice, this is easy to trick.

The superficial flaw is that the browser's security user interface (UI) is insufficient to deal with today's strong threats. There are three parts to secure authentication using TLS and certificates: indicating that the connection is in authenticated mode, indicating which site the user is connected to, and indicating which authority says it is this site. All three are necessary for authentication, and need to be confirmed by/to the user.

Secure Connection

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The standard display for secure browsing from the mid-1990s to mid-2000s was the padlock, which is easily missed by the user. Mozilla fielded a yellow URL bar in 2005 as a better indication of the secure connection.

Unfortunately, this innovation was then reversed due to the EV certificates, which replaced certain high-value certificates with a green display, and other certificates with a white display.

Which Site?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The user is expected to confirm that the domain name in the browser's URL bar was in fact where they intended to go. URLs can be too complex to be easily parsed. Users often do not know or recognize the URL of the legitimate sites they intend to connect to, so that the authentication becomes meaningless.

A condition for meaningful server authentication is to have a server identifier that is meaningful to the user; many ecommerce sites will change the domain names within their overall set of websites, adding to the opportunity for confusion. Simply displaying the domain name for the visited website as some anti-phishing toolbars do is not sufficient.

An alternate approach is the petname extension for Firefox which lets users type in their own labels for websites, so they can later recognize when they have returned to the site. If the site is not recognized, then the software may either warn the user or block the site outright. This represents user-centric identity management of server identities. Some suggest that a graphical image selected by the user is better than a petname.

With the advent of EV certificates, browsers now typically display the organizations' name in green, which is much more visible and is hopefully more consistent with the user's expectations. Unfortunately, browser vendors have chosen to limit this prominent display only to EV certificates, leaving the user to fend for himself with all other certificates.

Who is the Authority?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

A browser needs to state who the authority is that makes the claim of who the user is connected to. At the simplest level, no authority is stated, and therefore the browser is the authority, as far as the user is concerned. The browser vendors take on this responsibility by controlling a root list of acceptable CAs. This is the current standard practice.

The problem with this is that not all certification authorities (CAs) employ equally neither good nor applicable checking, regardless of attempts by browser vendors to control the quality. Nor do all CAs subscribe to the same model and concept that certificates are only about authenticating ecommerce organizations. Certificate Manufacturing is the name given to low-value certificates that are delivered on a credit card and an email confirmation; both of these are easily perverted by fraudsters. Hence, a high-value site may be easily spoofed by a valid certificate provided by another CA. This could be because the CA is in another part of the world, and is unfamiliar with high-value ecommerce sites, or it could be that no care is taken at all. As the CA is only charged with protecting its own customers, and not the customers of other CAs, this flaw is inherent in the model.

The solution to this is that the browser should show, and the user should be familiar with, the name of the authority. This presents the CA as a brand, and allows the user to learn the handful of CAs that she is likely to come into contact within her country and her sector. The use of brand is also critical to providing the CA with an incentive to improve their checking, as the user will learn the brand and demand good checking for high-value sites.

This solution was first put into practice in early IE7 versions, when displaying EV certificates. In that display, the issuing CA is displayed. This was an isolated case, however. There is resistance to CAs being branded on the chrome, resulting in a fallback to the simplest level above: the browser is the user's authority.

Security before threat and Click-thru syndrome.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Because secure browsing was put into place before any threat was evident, the security display lost out in the "real estate wars" of the early browsers. The original design of Netscape's browser included a prominent display of the name of the site and the CA's name, but these were dropped in the first release. Users are now highly experienced in not checking security information at all.

However, warnings to poorly configured sites continued, and were not down-graded. If a certificate had an error in it (mismatched domain name, expiry), then the browser would commonly launch a popup to warn the user. As the reason was generally misconfiguration, the users learned to bypass the warnings, and now, users are accustomed to treat all warnings with the same disdain, resulting in Click-thru syndrome. For example, Firefox 3 has a 4-click process for adding an exception, but it has been shown to be ignored by an experienced user in a real case of MITM. Even today, as the vast majority of warnings will be for misconfigurations not real MITMs, it is hard to see how click-thru syndrome will ever be avoided.

Lack of interest and lateral communications

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Another underlying factor is the lack of support for virtual hosting. The specific causes are a lack of support for Server Name Indication in TLS webservers, and the expense and inconvenience of acquiring certificates. The result is that the use of authentication is too rare to be anything but a special case. This has caused a general lack of knowledge and resources in authentication within TLS, which in turn has meant that the attempts by browser vendors to upgrade their security UIs have been slow and lacklustre.

The security model for secure browser includes many participants: user, browser vendor, developers, CA, auditor, webserver vendor, ecommerce site, regulators (e.g., FDIC), and security standards committees. There is a lack of communication between different groups that are committed to the security model. Webserver vendors do not priorities the Server Name Indication (TLS/SNI) fix, not seeing it as a security fix but instead a new feature. In practice, all participants look to the others as the source of the failures leading to phishing, hence the local fixes are not prioritized.

Standards gridlock and Venerable CA model

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Vendors commit to standards, which results in an outsourcing effect when it comes to security. Although there have been many and good experiments in improving the security UI, these have not been adopted because they are not standard, or clash with the standards. Threat models can re-invent themselves in around a month; Security standards take around 10 years to adjust.

Control mechanisms employed by the browser vendors over the CAs have not been substantially updated; the threat model has. The control and quality process over CAs is insufficiently tuned to the protection of users and the addressing of actual and current threats. Audit processes are in great need of updating. The recent EV Guidelines documented the current model in greater detail, and established a good benchmark, but did not push for any substantial changes to be made.

Browsers alerting users to fraudulent websites

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Another popular approach to fighting phishing is to maintain a list of known phishing sites and to check websites against the list. Microsoft's IE7 browser, Mozilla Firefox 2.0, Safari 3.2, and Opera all contain this type of anti-phishing measure. Firefox 2 used Google anti-phishing software. Opera 9.1 uses live blacklists from PhishTank and GeoTrust, as well as live whitelists from GeoTrust. Some implementations of this approach send the visited URLs to a central service to be checked, which has raised concerns about privacy.

According to a report by Mozilla in late 2006, Firefox 2 was found to be more effective than Internet Explorer 7 at detecting fraudulent sites in a study by an independent software testing company.

An approach introduced in mid-2006 involves switching to a special DNS service that filters out known phishing domains: this will work with any browser, and is similar in principle to using a host’s file to block web adverts.

To mitigate the problem of phishing sites impersonating a victim site by embedding its images (such as logos), several site owners have altered the images to send a message to the visitor that a site may be fraudulent. The image may be moved to a new filename and the original permanently replaced, or a server can detect that the image was not requested as part of normal browsing, and instead send a warning image.

Augmenting password logins

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The Bank of America's website is one of several that ask users to select a personal image, and display this user-selected image with any forms that request a password. Users of the bank's online services are instructed to enter a password only when they see the image they selected. However, a recent study suggests few users refrain from entering their password when images are absent.

In addition, this feature (like other forms of two-factor authentication) is susceptible to other attacks, such as those suffered by Scandinavian bank Nordea in late 2005, and Citibank in 2006.

A similar system, in which an automatically-generated “Identity Cue” consisting of a colored word within a colored box is displayed to each website user, is in use at other financial institutions.

Security skins are a related technique that involves overlaying a user-selected image onto the login form as a visual cue that the form is legitimate. Unlike the website-based image schemes, however, the image itself is shared only between the user and the browser, and not between the user and the website. The scheme also relies on a mutual authentication protocol, which makes it less vulnerable to attacks that affect user-only authentication schemes.

Eliminating phishing mail

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Specialized spam filters can reduce the number of phishing e-mails that reach their addressees' inboxes. These approaches rely on machine learning and natural language processing approaches to classify phishing e-mails.

Monitoring and takedown

Several companies offer banks and other organizations likely to suffer from phishing scams round-the-clock services to monitor, analyze and assist in shutting down phishing websites. Individuals can contribute by reporting phishing to both volunteer and industry groups, such as PhishTank. Individuals can also contribute by reporting phone phishing attempts to Phone Phishing, Federal Trade Commission.

How to avoid HOSTS phishing

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

A way to reduce the risk of HOSTS phishing is to write protect your HOSTS file. This can be done manually by right clicking your hosts file and selecting write protect.

However, it won't be enough because write protection can be change programmatically. You can get a number of utilities that will tell you when the hosts file has been modified or possibly even warn you when a program is trying to modify it. The best advice would be to keep your anti virus and anti spyware uptodate.

Keep your windows security updated and on high settings to avoid ActiveX script vulnerabilities.

Phishing Message Delivery: Email and Spam

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Phishing attacks initiated by email are the most common. Using techniques and tools used by Spammers, Phishers can deliver specially crafted emails to millions of legitimate “live” email addresses within a few hours (or minutes using distributed Trojan networks). In many cases, the lists of addresses used to deliver the phishing emails are purchased from the same sources as conventional spam.

Utilizing well known flaws in the common mail server communication protocol (SMTP), Phishers are able to create emails with fake “Mail From:” headers and impersonate any organization they choose. In some cases, they may also set the “RCPT To:” field to an email address of their choice (one which they can pickup email from); whereby any customer replies to the phishing email will be sent to them. The growing press coverage over phishing attacks has meant that most customers are very wary of sending confidential information (such as passwords and PIN information) by email – however it still successful in may cases.

Techniques used within Phishing emails:

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

• Official looking and sounding emails

• Copies of legitimate corporate emails with minor URL changes

• HTML based email used to obfuscate target URL information

• Standard virus/worm attachments to emails

• A plethora of anti spam-detection inclusions

• Crafting of “personalized” or unique email messages

• Fake postings to popular message boards and mailing lists

• Use of fake “Mail From:” addresses and open mail relays for disguising the source of the email

Things to note with this particular attack:

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

• The email was sent in HTML format (some attacks use HTML emails that are formatted to look like they are plain-text – making is much harder for the recipient to identify the hidden “qualities” of the emails dynamic content).

• Lower-case L’s have been replaced with upper-case I’s. This is used to help bypass many standard anti-spam filters, and in most fonts (except for the standard Courier font used in this example) fools the recipient into reading them as L’s.

• Hidden within the HTML email were many random words. These words were set to white (on the white background of the email) so were not directly visible to the recipient. The purpose of these words was to help bypass standard anti-spam filters.

• The non-standard HTTP port of 4903 can be attributed to the fact that the Phishers fake site was hosted on a third-party PC that had been previously compromised by an attacker.

• Recipients that clicked on the link were then forwarded to the real Westpac application. However, a JavaScript popup window containing a fake login page was presented to them.

• This fake login window was designed to capture and store the recipient’s authentication credentials. An interesting aspect to this particular phishing attack is that the JavaScript also submitted the authentication information to the real Westpac application and forwarded them on to the site. Therefore, the recipient would be unaware that their initial

What is Domain name?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

A domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS).

Domain names are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes.

They are organized in sub-ordinate levels (sub-domains) of the DNS root domain, which is nameless. The first-level set of domain names are the top-level domains (TLDs), including the generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as the prominent domains com, net and org, and the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Below these top-level domains in the DNS hierarchy are the second-level and third-level domain names that are typically open for reservation by end-users that wish to connect local area networks to the Internet, run web sites, or create other publicly accessible Internet resources. The registration of these domain names is usually administered by domain name registrars who sell their services to the public.

Individual Internet host computers use domain names as host identifiers or hostnames. Hostnames are the leaf labels in the domain name system usually without further subordinate domain name space. Hostnames appear as a component in Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for Internet resources such as web sites. Domain names are also used as simple identification labels to indicate ownership or control of a resource. Such examples are the realm identifiers used in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the Domain Keys used to verify DNS domains in e-mail systems, and in many other Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

Purpose of Domain names

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

A domain name can have many different purposes. Here are some of the more common purposes for a domain name:

Exposure - The most basic purpose of all for a domain name is for the owner of the domain name to have whatever they choose to put up on the domain name’s website gain exposure on the World Wide Web.

Profit - One purpose that many have for buying domain names is that the domain names will make them money. They hope that they will either be able to park the domain name and collect money through the use of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements, develop the domain name by building a website on the domain, or resell the domain name in the future for a price greater than they paid for the domain name. In fact, there are even domain name professionals called domainers that do just these 3 types of things.

Fun- Of course we can’t leave out the fact that owning a domain name is just plain fun. One of the major purposes of a domain name is to bring joy to the owner and users. If you want to start a blog or build a website about your favorite rock band or put up a showcase of your graphic design work then its a cinch with a domain name and a website.

Reorganization: An important purpose of domain names is to provide easily recognizable and memorizable names to numerically addressed Internet resources.

What is sub-domain name?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

A sub domain name is a domain name that is a part of a larger top level domain name.

An example is probably the best way to explain what a sub domain name is.

Let’s say that you want to buy a domain name so you head on over to a popular domain name registrar. While you are over there you have some questions and need to get help. You stumble across their help center which has a URL. In the URL the “help” portion is the sub domain and the URL portion is the top level domain.

Another common way of categorizing a site instead of using subdomains is to use folders.

Top-level domains

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The top-level domains (TLDs) are the highest level of domain names of the Internet. They form the DNS root zone of the hierarchical Domain Name System. Every domain name ends in a top-level or first-level domain label.

When the Domain Name System was created in the 1980s, the domain name space was divided into two main groups of domains. The country code top-level domains (ccTLD) were primarily based on the two-character territory codes of ISO-3166 country abbreviations. In addition, a group of seven generic top-level domains (gTLD) was implemented which represented a set of categories of names and multi-organizations. These were the domains GOV, EDU, COM, MIL, ORG, NET, and INT.

During the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to create additional generic top-level domains. As of June 2009, there are 20 generic top-level domains and 248 country code top-level domains. In addition, the ARPA domain serves technical purposes in the infrastructure of the Domain Name System.

During the 32nd International Public ICANN Meeting in Paris in 2008, ICANN started a new process of TLD naming policy to take a "significant step forward on the introduction of new generic top-level domains." This program envisions the availability of many new or already proposed domains, as well a new application and implementation process. Observers believed that the new rules could result in hundreds of new top-level domain to be registered.

Second-level and lower level domains

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Below the top-level domains in the domain name hierarchy are the second-level domain (SLD) names. These are the names directly to the left of .com, .net, and the other top-level domains.

Next are third-level domains, which are written immediately to the left of a second-level domain. There can be fourth- and fifth-level domains, and so on, with virtually no limitation.

The www preceding the domains is the host name of the World-Wide Web server. Each label is separated by a full stop (dot). 'sos' is said to be a sub-domain of 'state.oh.us', and 'state' a sub-domain of 'oh.us', etc. In general, sub domains are domains subordinate to their parent domain.

Second-level (or lower-level, depending on the established parent hierarchy) domain names are often created based on the name of a company (e.g., microsoft.com), product or service (e.g., gmail.com). Below these levels, the next domain name component has been used to designate a particular host server.

Modern technology allows multiple physical servers with either different or even identical addresses to serve a single hostname or domain name, or multiple domain names to be served by a single computer. The latter is very popular in Web hosting service centers, where service providers host the websites of many organizations on just a few servers.

Use of domain name in web site hosting

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

A domain name is a component of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) used to access web sites, for example:

URL: http://www.example.net/index.html

Domain name: www.example.net

Second-level domain name: example.net

A domain name may point to multiple IP addresses to provide server redundancy for the services delivered. This is used for large, popular web sites. More commonly, however, one server at a given IP address may also host multiple web sites in different domains. Such address overloading is possible through a feature in the HTTP version 1.1 protocol (but not in HTTP 1.0) which requires that a request identifies the domain name being referenced. This enables virtual web hosting commonly used by large web hosting services to conserve IP address space.

What is a Premium Domain Name?

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Whether you are looking to buy or sell a domain name it is important to ask yourself first, “What is a premium domain name?”. After all if you are the seller you do not want to sell a premium domain name for less than you should and of course if you are the buyer then you most certainly would like to be able to get a bargain on a premium domain name and purchase one for less than maybe it is really worth.

Read on to learn some criteria for judging whether a domain is considered a premium domain name or not. (The following tips will be just a few of the things to keep in mind. To read a more in depth article that contains 25 things to look for then read our how to choose a domain name guide).

After you are done readings through the premium domain name guide then head on over to our domain auction database to find some great premium domain names and regular domain names at bargain prices.

1. Perceived Value - The perceived value of a domain in the domain marketplace will have a lot to do with whether a domain name is considered premium or not.

2. Memorable - The more memorable the domain name the more it is worth. If a domain is easy to spell, is short, is easy to pronounce, is potentially brandable, doesn’t have different variations on the way it could be spelled, and ends in .com then chances are you are looking at a premium domain name.

3. Generic - If a domain name is an exact match keyword only domain name (i.e. petfood.com is an exact match keyword only domain for the generic keyword phrase “pet food” while petfoodabc-online.com is not).

4. Commercial Intent - The more commercially oriented a domain name is then the more valuable it will be. For example, a decent domain name in the “mortgage” niche may be more valuable than a decent domain name in the “rosebushes” niche.

5. History - A domain name’s history plays an important role in helping to determine whether it is a premium domain name or not. The longer a domain name has been registered then generally speaking the more valuable it is. This is especially true for those who are interested in developing the domain name by adding a website and marketing the website as the age of a domain is an important ranking factor for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes.

Rules of choosing a Domain Name â��I

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Learning how to choose a domain name is of the utmost importance whether you are looking for a domain name for your business or for a personal website or blog. Here are 25 rules to follow that will help with choosing the best domain name. Once you have read through these rules for choosing a domain name then be sure and use our instant domain search tool to very quickly search for different domain names. Also, be sure and use our find a domain tools and our auction domain tools to make your search for the best domain name a snap!

Some of these rules are more important than others and a lot will depend on whether your domain name is being purchased for business use or personal use but generally speaking these are domain buying rules to follow in almost every scenario.

1. Stick with “.com” - The .com TLD (top-level domain) is by far the most widely accepted extension for a domain name. If you are looking for a domain name for a business then it is even more important to choose a .com for your domain name because of the credibility boost that a .com domain name brings. Yes, there are still some very successful businesses that have domain names ending in .net or .org but just think, as a new business do you really want to chance having a lot of your customers forget that your domain name ends in .net and instead type in your domain name + .com when they go to find your website? There are some exceptions to this rule of course. If you run a business that is based in a country outside of the United States then it can be smart to use a local TLD (.uk for the United Kingdom, .au for Australia, .ca for Canada, .de for Germany, .cn for China, etc.).

2. One Possible Spelling - Try to find a domain name that only has one possible spelling. Most people cannot spell so make it easy for your website visitors to remember by choosing a domain name without a confusing spelling.

3. Shorter is Better - The shorter your domain name is then the easier it is for your visitors to remember, the easier it is for your visitors to type, and the easier it is for your visitors to tell others about your domain name. All of these are good things.

Rules of choosing a Domain Name â��II

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

• Commercial Appeal - A quick way to test if your domain has commercial appeal or marketability is if you think that the domain name will look good up on a billboard or in a commercial. This is especially important if you are looking for a business domain name but it is of course important for personal domain names as well.

• No Hyphens - If at all possible then avoid using a hyphenated domain name. Sure, many businesses will use a domain name with a hyphen or even two or three but the two main problems with hyphenated domain names is that people forget where the hyphens go (or forget them altogether) and hyphenated domain names can lose traffic to similar domain names that do not have hyphens (i.e. a visitor wants to return to your domain name which is www.bobs-carpeting.com but instead types in www.bobscarpeting.com and inadvertently ends up on a competitor’s website). A hyphenated domain name can often seem like a cheap substitute for the same domain name without the hyphen in the eyes of many visitors. You don’t want to send the message to your website visitors that you are settling for second best and could only register www.bobs-carpeting.com and not the better domain choice of www.bobscarpeting.com. This is why in all of our auction domain tools we allow you to use our advanced search options to find only domains without hyphens if you so choose.

• Other Extensions - If you find the perfect domain name ending in .com then it usually makes sense to try and grab as many of the other common extensions that are available as well and then redirect those other extensions to your domain name that ends in .com. For example, if you are able to purchase the domain name sallysmusicblog.com and you definitely have long term plans for the website then it is probably a smart thing to go ahead and register sallysmusicblog.net, sallysmusicblog.biz, sallysmusicblog.info, etc. as well and then just redirect all of the non .com domains to your .com domain name. This has two benefits: when people type in sallysmusicblog.net then they will automatically be redirect to sallysmusicblog.com and also it will prevent other people from purchasing a domain name that is the same as yours but just with a different extension and potentially stealing traffic away from your website.

• Singular vs. Plural - Make sure that you set up a website on the domain name that makes the most sense when choosing between the singular and plural of the words in your domain name. One thing that you definitely should do is purchase both the singular and plural variation of your domain name if applicable and then redirect the not as good sounding domain to the best sounding domain. Keep in mind that for some domain names the singular will sound better than the plural while with others the plural will sound better than the singular. For example, if you have a site that is devoted to health insurance plans then healthinsuranceplans.com sounds better than healthinsuranceplan.com but to avoid confusion and keep the singular domain away from your competitors then it would be best to buy both of the domain names and then redirect healthinsuranceplan.com to healthinsuranceplans.com.

Rules of choosing a Domain Name â��III

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• Price - To register a brand new domain name you will pay a set amount a year. While it is always awesome to be able to find a great domain name by hand registering the domain name it is often more likely that you can find a top notch domain name at a domain name auction. Whichever route you choose be sure and do your homework. You may also want to read our guide on how to choose a domain name registrar so you can get a good deal on your domain name while still choosing a reputable registrar.

• Keyword Rich - Choose a domain name that is full of keywords that are related to your website. If your site sells vitamins then try and choose a domain name that contains the word “vitamins” in the domain name. Use our advanced search option for any of our domain tools and also use our domain alerts to receive personalized alerts when domains containing certain keywords you specify become available to register or buy at auction. You also may find it helpful to take a look in our fully searchable keyword domain repository to view exact match keyword only domain names that are available to register.

• Type-In Traffic - Type-In traffic is when someone navigates directly to a website by simply typing in what they are looking for and then “.com” on the end into their URL bar in their browser. If you can find an exact match keyword only domain name then you have a good chance of receiving some type in traffic to the domain and also receiving some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefit to using the domain name as well. Use our tool that helps find domains with type-in traffic and also learn more by visiting our type-in traffic page.

• Avoid Numeral Substitutions - Numerals in a domain can work ok but avoid substituting common words with numerals as they can often be confusing and hard to remember. For example, try not to use the numeral “4″ instead of “for”, “2″ instead of “to”, etc.

Rules of choosing a Domain Name â��IV

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

• Avoid Slang - Stay away from slang spellings of words for the same reasons that you should stay away from numeral substitutions. It is one thing to think up a great brandable name that is easy to remember and quite another to buy a domain name with “u” instead of “you”.

• Watch Out for the Numeral “0″ - The numeral “0″ is often mistaken for the letter “O” and vice versa. Make sure that there is no confusion between the 2 in your domain name.

• Brandable - 15 years ago know one knew who or what a “Google” was but now Google.com is an extremely valuable and very brandable domain name. Don’t get too carried away with being clever but a brandable domain name can go a long way in making your site successful.

• Easy to Type - The easier the domain is to type then the better the domain will be.

• Easily Understood - When someone reads or hears your domain name for the first time then they should be able to easily understand what your website is all about. Of course, there is often a give and take between trying to find a domain that is easily understood and one that is brandable as well.

Rules of choosing a Domain Name â��V

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

• Copyright Issues - Steer clear of domain names that are infringing on an existing copyright. You can use the online search function of the US Copyright Office if you have doubts about copyright issues for a particular domain name.

• Unique - The more unique a domain name is then the easier it is to remember. Stay within the constraints of the other rules when searching for a unique domain name but if you can be clever and pull it off then finding a unique domain name can pay off handsomely for years to come.

• Use a Thesaurus - If you feel stuck when trying to choose your domain name then bring up 2 different tabs: open up Thesaurus.com in one tab and then our instant domain search tool in another tab. Plug in the word or words that most closely describe your website into the thesaurus and then as your find good synonyms then start entering the word combinations into our domain search tool to instantly check the availability of the domains.

• Search Dropped Domains - Dropped domains are domains that have just recently changed from registered status to unregistered status. Many times a company will go out of business, someone is not able to afford the domain registration renewal fee, or someone will just forget to renew their domain name. When this happens a domain is dropped and available for anyone to snap up and register for themselves. Search through our database of dropped domains that we have compiled from multiple sources to find a great dropped domain name.

Rules of choosing a Domain Name â��VI

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

• Memorable - If you can easily remember a domain name after hearing it just once then there is a good chance that you have found a memorable domain name.

• Domain Auctions - Domain auctions can be great sources for finding bargain domain names. Use our domain auction tools to search through domain names for sale by auction from multiple auction sources.

• Industry Jargon - While it is important to make sure that your domain name is easily understood by everyone who reads it, at the same time a good strategy can be to use industry jargon specific to your website niche for your domain name. Using industry jargon can increase the credibility of your website in the eyes of your website visitors who are familiar with jargon in your websites niche.

• Brainstorm - If you have a business partner or a friend then use them to bounce some ideas around. Start by thinking of your ideal domain name and then throw out as many words and combinations of words related to that ideal domain name as possible. Sooner or later you are bound to have a flash of genius and find a great domain name. To rapidly search for available domain names then use our instant domain search tool.

• Start Now! - Start choosing a domain name as soon as you can before someone else snaps it up!

Domain hijacking

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain hijacking or domain theft is the process by which registration of a currently registered domain name is transferred without the permission of its original registrant, generally by exploiting vulnerability in the domain name registration system.

Domain names expire after a fixed period of time and become available to the public. If their original owner allows them to expire even momentarily, they may be immediately purchased by another party. Although this may be frustrating for a domain owner who is slow to renew, generally the new purchaser is not considered liable in this scenario and the original owner has no recourse.

The most common tactic used by a domain hijacker is to use acquired personal information about the actual domain owner to impersonate them and persuade the domain registrar to modify the registration information and/or transfer the domain to another registrar, a form of identity theft. Once this has been done, the hijacker has full control of the domain and can use it or sell it to a third party. This can be financially devastating to the original domain name holder, who may have derived commercial income from a website hosted at the domain or conducted business through that domain's e-mail accounts. Additionally, the hijacker can use the domain name to facilitate illegal activity such as phishing, where a website is replaced by an identical website that records private information such as log-in passwords.

Responses to discovered hijackings vary; sometimes the registration information can be returned to its original state by the current registrar, but this may be more difficult if the domain name was transferred to another registrar, particularly if that registrar resides in another country. In some cases the original domain owner is not able to regain control over the domain.

The legal status of domain hijacking remains unclear. It is analogous with theft, in that the original owner is deprived of the benefits of the domain, but theft traditionally regards concrete goods such as jewelry and electronics, whereas domain name ownership is stored only in the digital state of the domain name registry, a network of computers. There are no specific laws regarding domain hijacking, nor any law that specifically holds the domain name registrar responsible for allowing the registrant information to be modified without the permission of the original registrant. In some cases there may be recourse under trademark law, but not all domain names are (or can be) registered as trademarks.

DNS hijacking

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

DNS hijacking is the practice of redirecting the resolution of Domain name system (DNS) names to IP addresses to rogue DNS servers, particularly for the practice of phishing, or the practice of some ISPs resolving otherwise non-existent domains to the ISPs own servers.

Technical Background

A DNS server is used to translate a domain name into an IP address (such as 208.80.152.2). The DNS can be used for all Internet traffic, not just Web sites. Computers and hardware use the network of servers that comprise the DNS to simplify description of Internet hosts, such as e-mail servers and Web sites, because a domain name is easier to remember and type than an IP address. The integrity of the DNS system is of greater concern with the transition to IPv6, as the IP address is significantly longer to remember and infeasible to use.

Rogue DNS server

A rogue DNS server translates legitimate domain names (of search engines, online banks, online brokers, etc.) into IP addresses of malicious websites. Most users depend on DNS servers automatically assigned by their ISPs. Zombie computers use DNS-changing trojans to invisibly switch the automatic DNS server assignment by the ISP to manual DNS server assignment from rogue DNS servers. When users then try to visit legitimate domain names, they are sent to another bogus website. This attack is termed pharming. If the site they are redirected to is a malicious website, masquerading as a legitimate website, in order to fraudulently obtain sensitive information, it is termed phishing.

Use by ISPs

Several consumer ISPs such as Cablevision's Optimum Online, Comcast,Time Warner, RCN, Rogers, Charter Communications, Verizon, Virgin Media, Frontier, and Bell Sympatico have also started the practice of DNS hijacking on non-existent domain names, for the purpose of making money by displaying advertisements. This practice violates the RFC standard for DNS (NXDOMAIN) responses and can potentially open users to cross-site scripting attacks.

Domain name speculation

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain name speculation is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring Internet domain names with the intent of selling them later for a profit.

The main targets of domain name speculation are generic words which can be valuable for type-in traffic and for the dominant position they would have in any field due to their descriptive nature. Hence generic words and phrases such as poker, insurance, travel, creditcards, sex and others are attractive targets of domain speculation in any top-level domain.

The speculative characteristics of domain names may be linked to news reports or current events. However, the effective period during which such opportunities exist, may be limited. Quick turnaround in the resale of domains is often called domain flipping.

Domain name speculation versus cybersquatting

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

One of the most common accusations against domain name speculation is that it is simply cybersquatting.

Cybersquatting is defined as registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The key element in this definition is that the intellectual property rights of another's trademark are infringed by the cybersquatter. For a UDRP action to succeed one of the things that the complainant has to establish is that the domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights.

Legitimate domain name speculation tends to steer clear of trademarks and concentrate on generic words and phrases as domains based on trademarks can be subject of UDRP actions by the trademark owners. As the number of registered domain names has increased, the number of UDRP cases has also increased.

Trademark and service mark owners now use brand protection services that monitor TLDs for newly registered domains that potentially infringe on their trademarks. This is due in part to typosquatting, a form of cybersquatting where variations of the spelling of a brand's domain will be registered in an attempt to profit from users mistyping the URL of the site they wish to visit.

Primary market speculation

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The primary market for domain name speculation covers newly registered domain names that have not been registered before. Such domain names are often linked to news and current events.

The launch of a new TLD encourages primary market speculation as domainers rush to register generic terms and also phrases that make a pun on the TLD name (Domain hack). Other more organized domainers or domain name speculators register trademarks in advance of the launch of new TLDs specifically in order to register these short, memorable and potentially high value domains in the Sunrise period of new gTLD launches.

The Sunrise period is when intellectual property rights owners (trademark owners etc) can register their trademark in the new gTLD in advance of the gTLD being opened for general registrations. In the last three years the main new TLDs launched were .eu ccTLD, .mobi TLD and .asia sTLD. All of these had landrush periods of varying success.

Secondary market speculation

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The secondary market for domain names covers previously registered domain names that have not been renewed by registrants or are available for resale. Sometimes these dropped domain names can be more valuable due to their having had high-profile websites associated with them. They will have links from other websites and could still have users searching for the websites because of these links. Others can be valuable because of the generic nature of the domain name or the length of the domain name, with two and three character names being the most sought after.

The business of registering the domain names as they are deleted by the registries is known as drop catching. It is a highly competitive business. The main operators in this business typically set up a number of front companies as registrars. VeriSign, in the case of TLDs COM and NET, allows each registrar a slice of the resources that may be used to register dropped domains. VeriSign drops domains in a random order, giving registrars only a vague idea of the particular drop time of a particular domain. Sometimes a group of drop registrars often work in confederation to increase their possibility of registering a dropped domain immediately after it is deleted by the registry. If the domain is caught by a confederation of registrars attempting to fulfill a domain backorder, then whichever domain registrar caught the domain will register it to the entity who backordered the domain. If the newly reregistered domain is captured by a company that has no customers who backordered it, the domain may be auctioned to the highest bidder by the registrar who captured it or an auction intermediary. The time between a drop and a capture is often measured in seconds or fractions thereof.

Some registrars do not allow domains to drop in the normal fashion, instead introducing an intermediary (e.g., Snapnames and Namejet) that auction the domain prior to their deletion. If nobody buys the domain at auction, it will pass through the normal deletion process.

Domain name speculation and the rise of Pay per click websites

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Cybersquatting has a clear legal definition. The problem is that the legal arguments of what constitutes cybersquatting tend to be lost when people land on a webpage with only Pay per click ('PPC') advertising and nothing else. It is often assumed that such a domain, especially when the person searching for the domain in order to register it, is "cybersquatted".

The ease with which PPC revenue could be derived from parked domains effectively created a situation where domains were being registered purely for their type-in traffic. Many of exact phrases that people were searching for in search engines were being registered for the sole purpose of serving PPC advertising. The COM TLD grew from 23,662,001 registered domains 01 January 2003 to 80,759,835 registered domains as of 01 January 2009. There was a near exponential growth of domain registrations over that period. While part of that increase in the number of registered domain names is due to the increase in ecommerce and business conducted online, some of the increase is due to the ease of generating revenue from PPC and type-in traffic. Domain tasting a practice by which millions of domains would be registered for a limited period (the five day Add Grace Period during which a domain could be deleted without the registrar effectively having to pay a registration fee to ICANN) and only those generating sufficient revenue from PPC advertising would be retained also served to increase the number of domains registered. This practice involved domain name registrars being created purely for the purpose of domain tasting. The situation became so bad in 2007 that ICANN was forced to take action.

In June 2008 ICANN added a provision to its Fiscal Year 2009 budget to limit the number of domains that a registrar could delete using the Add Grace Period before having to pay the ICANN fee. The effect of this was to massively curtail the number of domains deleted in .com and .net during the Add Grace Period. From June 2008 to April 2009, AGP deletions fell by 99.7%.

The March 2006 VeriSign Domain Brief stated that out of approximately 57.37 million COM and NET websites spidered, 26% were single page websites, 60% were multipage websites and 14% had no associated websites. The number of websites surveyed was 57,370,817. Numerically, the number of single page websites was approximately 14.91 million. The single page websites websites include under-construction, brochure-ware and parked pages in addition to online advertising revenue generating (PPC) parked pages.

The latest statistics for domain name usage quoted in the VeriSign Domain Brief for June 2009 states that of the 92 million COM and NET domain names, 24 % of these domains have one page websites, 64% have multipage websites and 12% have no associated websites. In purely numerical terms, those single page websites would account for approximately 22 million COM and NET websites. The survey quoted in the VeriSign Domain Brief does not explain the methodology or provide anything other than a summary of the results. However this is effectively a rise in single page websites of just over 7 million websites.

Domain Name System

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166.

The Domain Name System makes it possible to assign domain names to groups of Internet users in a meaningful way, independent of each user's physical location. Because of this, World-Wide Web (WWW) hyperlinks and Internet contact information can remain consistent and constant even if the current Internet routing arrangements change or the participant uses a mobile device. Internet domain names are easier to remember than IP addresses such as 208.77.188.166 (IPv4) or 2001:db8:1f70::999:de8:7648:6e8 (IPv6). People take advantage of this when they recite meaningful URLs and e-mail addresses without having to know how the machine will actually locate them.

The Domain Name System distributes the responsibility of assigning domain names and mapping those names to IP addresses by designating authoritative name servers for each domain. Authoritative name servers are assigned to be responsible for their particular domains, and in turn can assign other authoritative name servers for their sub-domains. This mechanism has made the DNS distributed, fault tolerant, and helped avoid the need for a single central register to be continually consulted and updated.

In general, the Domain Name System also stores other types of information, such as the list of mail servers that accept email for a given Internet domain. By providing a worldwide, distributed keyword-based redirection service, the Domain Name System is an essential component of the functionality of the Internet.

Other identifiers such as RFID tags, UPC codes, International characters in email addresses and host names, and a variety of other identifiers could all potentially utilize DNS.

The Domain Name System also defines the technical underpinnings of the functionality of this database service. For this purpose it defines the DNS protocol, a detailed specification of the data structures and communication exchanges used in DNS, as part of the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). The DNS protocol was developed and defined in the early 1980s and published by the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Domain name space

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The hierarchical domain name system, organized into zones, each served by a name server.The domain name space consists of a tree of domain names. Each node or leaf in the tree has zero or more resource records, which hold information associated with the domain name. The tree sub-divides into zones beginning at the root zone. A DNS zone consists of a collection of connected nodes authoritatively served by an authoritative nameserver. (Note that a single nameserver can host several zones.)

Administrative responsibility over any zone may be divided, thereby creating additional zones. Authority is said to be delegated for a portion of the old space, usually in form of sub-domains, to another nameserver and administrative entity. The old zone ceases to be authoritative for the new zone.

Parts of a domain name

A domain name usually consists of two or more parts (technically labels), which are conventionally written separated by dots, such as example.com. The rightmost label conveys the top-level domain (for example, the address www.example.com has the top-level domain com).

Each label to the left specifies a subdivision, or subdomain of the domain above it. Note: “subdomain” expresses relative dependence, not absolute dependence. For example: example.com is a subdomain of the com domain, and www.example.com is a subdomain of the domain example.com. In theory, this subdivision can go down 127 levels. Each label can contain up to 63 octets. The whole domain name may not exceed a total length of 253 octets. In practice, some domain registries may have shorter limits.

A hostname refers to a domain name that has one or more associated IP addresses (e.g., the 'www.example.com' and 'example.com' domains are both hostnames, whereas the 'com' domain is not).

DNS servers

The Domain Name System is maintained by a distributed database system, which uses the client-server model. The nodes of this database are the name servers. Each domain or subdomain has one or more authoritative DNS servers that publish information about that domain and the name servers of any domains subordinate to it. The top of the hierarchy is served by the root nameservers: the servers to query when looking up (resolving) a top-level domain name (TLD).

DNS resolvers

The client-side of the DNS is called a DNS resolver. It is responsible for initiating and sequencing the queries that ultimately lead to a full resolution (translation) of the resource sought, e.g., translation of a domain name into an IP address.

A DNS query may be either a non-recursive query or a recursive query:

A non-recursive query is one in which the DNS server provides a record for a domain for which it is authoritative itself, or it provides a partial result without querying other servers.

A recursive query is one for which the DNS server will fully answer the query (or give an error) by querying other name servers as needed. DNS servers are not required to support recursive queries. The resolver, or another DNS server acting recursively on behalf of the resolver, negotiates use of recursive service using bits in the query headers.

Resolving usually entails iterating through several name servers to find the needed information. However, some resolvers function simplistically and can communicate only with a single name server. These simple resolvers (called "stub resolvers") rely on a recursive name server to perform the work of finding information for them.

Domain name registration

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

The right to use a domain name is delegated by domain name registrars which are accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization charged with overseeing the name and number systems of the Internet. In addition to ICANN, each top-level domain (TLD) is maintained and serviced technically by an administrative organization, operating a registry. A registry is responsible for maintaining the database of names registered within the TLD it administers. The registry receives registration information from each domain name registrar authorized to assign names in the corresponding TLD and publishes the information using a special service, the who is protocol.

Registries and registrars usually charge an annual fee for the service of delegating a domain name to a user and providing a default set of name servers. Often this transaction is termed a sale or lease of the domain name, and the registrant may sometimes be called an "owner", but no such legal relationship is actually associated with the transaction, only the exclusive right to use the domain name. More correctly, authorized users are known as "registrants" or as "domain holders".

Information registrars use

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

In the process of registering a domain name and maintaining authority over the new name space created, registrars use several key pieces of information connected with a domain:

• Administrative contact- A registrant usually designates an administrative contact to manage the domain name. The administrative contact usually has the highest level of control over a domain. Management functions delegated to the administrative contacts may include management of all business information, such as name of record, postal address, and contact information of the official registrant of the domain and the obligation to conform to the requirements of the domain registry in order to retain the right to use a domain name. Furthermore the administrative contact installs additional contact information for technical and billing functions.

• Technical contact- The technical contact manages the name servers of a domain name. The functions of a technical contact include assuring conformance of the configurations of the domain name with the requirements of the domain registry, maintaining the domain zone records, and providing continuous functionality of the name servers (that leads to the accessibility of the domain name).

• Billing contact- The party responsible for receiving billing invoices from the domain name registrar and paying applicable fees.

• Name servers- Most registrars provide two or more name servers as part of the registration service. However, a registrant may specify its own authoritative name servers to host a domain's resource records. The registrar's policies govern the number of servers and the type of server information required. Some providers require a hostname and the corresponding IP address or just the hostname, which must be resolvable either in the new domain, or exist elsewhere. Based on traditional requirements (RFC 1034), typically a minimum of two servers is required.

Internationalized domain name

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label that is displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in a language-specific, non-Latin script or alphabet, such as Chinese, and is internally encoded in Unicode. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System as ASCII strings using Punycode transcription.

The Domain Name System, which performs a lookup service to translate user-friendly names into network addresses for locating Internet resources, is restricted to the use of ASCII characters, a technical limitation that initially set the standard for acceptable domain names. The internationalization of domain names is a technical solution to translate names written in language-native scripts into an ASCII text representation that is compatible with the Domain Name System. Internationalized domain names can only be used with applications that are specifically designed for such use, and they require no changes in the infrastructure of the Internet.

Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) is a mechanism defined in 2003 for handling internationalized domain names containing non-ASCII characters. While much of the Domain Name System can technically support non-ASCII characters, applications such as e-mail and web browsers restrict domain names to what can be used as a hostname. Rather than redesigning the existing DNS infrastructure, it was decided that non-ASCII domain names should be converted to a suitable ASCII-based form by web browsers and other user applications; IDNA specifies how this conversion is to be done.

IDNA was designed for maximum backward compatibility with the existing DNS system, which was designed for use with names using only a subset of the ASCII character set.

An IDNA-enabled application is able to convert between the restricted-ASCII and non-ASCII representations of a domain, using the ASCII form in cases in which it is needed (such as for DNS lookup), but being able to present the more readable non-ASCII form to users. Applications that do not support IDNA will not be able to handle domain names with non-ASCII characters, but will still be able to access such domains if given the (usually rather cryptic) ASCII equivalent.

ICANN issued guidelines for the use of IDNA in June 2003, and it was already possible to register .jp domains using this system in July 2003 and .info domains in March 2004. Several other top-level domain registries started accepting registrations in 2004 and 2005. IDN Guidelines were first created in June 2003, and have been updated to respond to phishing concerns in November 2005. An ICANN working group focused on country code domain names at the top level was formed in November 2007 and promoted jointly by the country code supporting organization and the Governmental Advisory Committee.

Mozilla 1.4, Netscape 7.1, Opera 7.11 were among the first applications to support IDNA. A browser plugin is available for Internet Explorer 6 to provide IDN support. Internet Explorer 7.0 and Windows Vista's URL APIs provide native support for IDN.

Domain name warehousing

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain name warehousing is the common practice of registrars obtaining control of domain names with the intent to hold or “warehouse” names for their use and/or profit. Also see domain name front running and domain tasting, related business practices employed by registrants.

Typically this practice occurs after a domain name has expired and the previous owner (registrant) has not exercised his/her right to renew that name within the allotted time frame (approximately 45 days following expiration). Domain's expiration date and time are easily calculated based on the expiration date in the whois and the redemption process.

According to GNSO Council Deletes Task Force Report (2003), a council organized under the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), three specific modes of warehousing were identified:

The registrant allows the domain name to lapse, but registrar fails to delete the domain name during the grace period, resulting in a paid renewal to the registry. The registrar subsequently assumes registration of the domain name. The registrant purchases the domain name through fraud and the registrar assumes registration of the name to resell in order to minimize losses.

The registrar registers the domain in its own name outright.

When the phrase "Domain Warehousing" was coined in the late 1990s, ICANN registrars were two dimensional entities that served registrants of domain names. The concern at that time was that a registrar would register available domain names and then offer to re-sell those registrations at a "higher than registration" price to potential registrants. By 2006 the name space had clearly matured and the line between registrars, media companies such as AOL.com (who operate ICANN accredited registrars to manage their name portfolios) and large scale commercial registrants (who operate ICANN accredited registrars as security measures) had blurred. It has been hypothesized that by 2010 many large corporations or commercial registrants of domain names will operate an ICANN accredited registrar as a security measure to protect and manage valuable name and trademark inventory.

The primary concern today when one speaks of Domain Warehousing is that a retail registrar, which has historically focused on serving its individual and small business registrants, will make the domain name renewal process difficult, convoluted, or price prohibitive in an effort to unseat exasperated registrants and usurp their registration rights for a profit greater than the potential renewal fee they could earn.

An additional concern is that companies pooling scores of drop registrars for additional registry connections will stand at the expiring domain spigot conducting domain tasting without paying, and then warehouse those which meet traffic criteria while denying the broader community a fair opportunity to compete for those expiring names.

As of this writing the governing body over domain name registration, ICANN, has yet to address those potential inequities. Registrars are in a unique position to impact domain name pricing by introducing competitive bidding or auctions for expired domain names. Circumstances are further impacted when registrars opt not to market the domains in the near term, thereby excluding the recycling of warehoused names indefinitely.

Dynamic DNS

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Dynamic DNS is a method, protocol, or network service that provides the capability for a networked device, such as a router or computer system using the Internet Protocol Suite, to notify a domain name server to change, in real time (ad-hoc) the active DNS configuration of its configured hostnames, addresses or other information stored in DNS.

A popular application of dynamic DNS is to provide a residential user's Internet gateway that has a variable, often changing, IP address with a well known hostname resolvable by network applications through standard DNS queries.

Function of dynamic DNS

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Dynamic DNS providers provide a software client program that automates the discovery and registration of client's public IP addresses. The client program is executed on a computer or device in the private network. It connects to the service provider's systems and causes those systems to link the discovered public IP address of the home network with a hostname in the domain name system. Depending on the provider, the hostname is registered within a domain owned by the provider or the customer's own domain name. These services can function by a number of mechanisms. Often they use an HTTP service request since even restrictive environments usually allow HTTP service. This group of services is commonly also referred to by the term Dynamic DNS, although it is not the standards-based DNS Update method. However, the latter might be involved in the providers systems.

Most home networking routers today have this feature already built into their firmware. One of the early routers to support Dynamic DNS was the UMAX UGate-3000 in 1999, which supported the TZO.COM dynamic DNS service. In Microsoft Windows networks, Dynamic DNS is an integral part of Active Directory, because domain controllers register their network service types in DNS so that other computers in the Domain (or Forest) can access them.

Increasing efforts to secure Internet communications today involve encryption of all dynamic updates via the public Internet, as these public dynamic DNS services have been abused increasingly to design security breaches. Standards-based methods within the DNSSEC protocol suite, such as TSIG, have been developed to secure DNS updates, but are not widely in use. Microsoft developed alternative technology (GSS-TSIG) based on Kerberos authentication.

Hyperlink

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

In computing, a hyperlink (or link) is a reference to a document that the reader can directly follow. The reference points to another document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks. Such text is usually viewed with a computer. A software system for viewing and creating hypertext is a hypertext system.

A hyperlink has an anchor, which is a location within a document from which the hyperlink can be followed; that document is known as its source document. The target of a hyperlink is the document, or location within a document, that the hyperlink leads to. The user can follow the link when its anchor is shown by activating it in some way (often, by touching it or clicking on it). Following has it the effect of displaying its target, often with its context.

The most common example of hypertext today is the World Wide Web: webpages contain hyperlinks to webpages. For example, in an online reference work, many words and terms in the text are hyperlinked to definitions of those terms. Hyperlinks are often used to implement reference mechanisms that predate the computer, such as tables of contents, footnotes, bibliographies,hyper links also have good connection indexes and glossaries.

In some hypertext systems, hyperlinks can be bidirectional: they can be followed in two directions, so both points act as anchors and as targets. More complex arrangements exist, such as many-to-many links.

The effect of following a hyperlink may vary with the hypertext system and sometimes on the link itself; for instance, on the World Wide Web, most hyperlinks cause the target document to replaces the document being displayed, but some are marked to cause the target document to open in a new window. Another possibility is transclusion, for which the link target is a document fragment that replaces the link anchor within the source document.

To hyperlink (or simply to link) is to create a hyperlink.

Types of links

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Embedded link: The first word of this sentence: ("Example") is a navigation link embedded in a text object – if the word is clicked, the browser will navigate to a different page.

Inline link: An inline link displays remote content without the need for embedding the content. The remote content may be accessed with or without the user selecting the link. Inline links may display specific parts of the content (e.g. thumbnail, low resolution preview, cropped sections, magnified sections, description text, etc.) and access other parts or the full content when needed, as is the case with print publishing software. This allows for smaller file sizes and quicker response to changes when the full linked content is not needed, as is the case when rearranging a page layout.

Hot area: A hot area (image map in HTML) is an invisible area of the screen that covers a text label or graphical images. A technical description of a hot area is a list of coordinates relating to a specific area on a screen created in order to hyperlink areas of the image to various destinations, disable linking via negative space around irregular shapes, or enable linking via invisible areas. For example, a political map of Africa may have each irregularly shaped country hyperlinked to further information about that country. A separate invisible hot area interface allows for swapping skins or labels within the linked hot areas without repetitive embedding of links in the various skin elements.

Random accessed: Random-accessed linking data are links retrieved from a database or variable containers in a program when the retrieval function is from user interaction (e.g. dynamic menu from an address book) or non-interactive (e.g. random, calculated) process.

Hardware accessed: A hardware-accessed link is a link that activates directly via an input device (e.g. keyboard, microphone, remote control) without the need or use of a graphical user interface.

Hyperlinks in various technologies

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Hyperlinks in HTML: Tim Berners-Lee saw the possibility of using hyperlinks to link any unit of information to any other unit of information over the Internet. Hyperlinks were therefore integral to the creation of the World Wide Web. Web pages are written in the hypertext mark-up language HTML.

Links are specified in HTML using the <a> (anchor) elements. To see the HTML used to create a page, most browsers offer a "view page source" option. Included in the HTML code will be an expression in the form symbol "<a" and the reference "href="URL">" which marks the start of an anchor, followed by the highlighted text and the "</a>" symbol indicating the end of the source anchor. The <a> element can also be used to indicate the target of a link.

XLink: Hyperlinks in XML

The W3C Recommendation called XLink describes hyperlinks that offer a far greater degree of functionality than those offered in HTML. These extended links can be multidirectional, linking from, within, and between XML documents. It also describes simple links, which are unidirectional and therefore offer no more functionality than hyperlinks in HTML.

Hyperlinks in other technologies

Hyperlinks are used in the Gopher protocol, e-mails, Text editors, PDF documents, word processing documents, spreadsheets, Apple's HyperCard and many other places.

How to Buy and Sell Domain Names for Profit

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

If you want to learn how to buy and sell domain names for profit then you have come to the right place. Just like real estate investing and “house flipping” domain name investing and “domain flipping” has great income potential if done the right way.

Of course, just like almost anything in life, hard work is still required but if you have the necessary know how and are willing to put some time and some sweat equity into it then you very well might make quite a nice sum of money buying and selling domain names.

Use our tools for finding great domain names, do your homework to learn how to choose a domain name, and then see if you can buy and sell domains for a profit!

Finding Valuable Domain Names: A domain name is only worth what someone will pay for it. These sounds very obvious but before you haphazardly start buying domain names left and right hoping to strike it rich it is absolutely crucial that you first understand what makes a domain name valuable.

Selling Domain Names: Once you have found a domain name then the goal is of course to either monetize the domain name and let it produce income for you or to sell it for a profit. Here are 3 things that you can do to sell your domain names:

Auction - Use a domain name auction like GoDaddy or Sedo to list your domain names for sale. These auctions have a huge audience of people actively looking to buy and sell domain names and if you price your domain competitively then you will likely sell it very quickly. Both auctions have a number of different ways to list your domain for sale including buy now, no reserve auction, reserve auction, buy now with a reserve auction, etc.
End User - Marketing to an end user directly means that you actively seek out people/companies that you think will be interested in purchasing your domain name and try to get them to buy the domain. An example of this would be if you used our geo domain tool to find a gegraphic domain name such as ChicagoRealEstate.com and then tried to find real estate professionals in Chicago interesting in buying the domain name. One benefit to selling a domain name to an end user is that usually you will be able to obtain a much higher price than if you were to sell it to a domain investor.
Private Listing - It is quite common to see domainers and professional domain name investors have a website showcasing their domain name portfolio and the price to buy each of them.

Get Started: Domain Superstar premium members receive full access to our domain name tools and our website development tutorial videos. These tools and information can easily pay for itself many times over with even just the sale of one or two great domain names a month.

How to Register a Domain Name

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Learning how to register a domain name properly is important. Many will rush the process and regret their decision. If you have ever wondered, “How do I register a domain name?” or maybe you already know how to get a domain name but are just unsure of what the best way to go about it is then this guide is for you. Take some time, do your homework, and read our comprehensive domain registration how to guide so that you can learn how to register a web domain name the right way.

1. Choosing a Good Domain Name: The first thing that you need to do is choose a domain name. This seems obvious but many people will just haphazardly throw different ideas around when choosing a domain name and just register a domain name that happens to catch their fancy without really thinking things through. Being creative when choosing a domain name is a great thing but it is important to first decide what you want to register the domain name for so that you can channel that creativity properly.

2. Checking the Availability of a Domain Name: Once you have gotten a couple of ideas for domain names that you would like to register then it is time to check the availability of your desired domain name(s). To instantly check the availability of a domain name then try out our instant domain search tool.

3. Choosing a Domain Registrar: Ok, so you have chosen a domain name, you have checked to make sure that the domain is available to register, and now the next step is to choose a domain registrar to register the domain with. Here are the most important things for you to keep in mind

• Quantity of Domains

• Privacy

• Price

4. Buying the Domain Name: All registrars will accept payment in the form of a credit card and most will accept payment via PayPal. Some registrars will allow you to register your domain name for longer than 1 year although you will be charged for the entire amount up front so many people choose to simply register a domain for the 1 year minimum time period. When it comes to renewing your domain name registration annually then if you tend to be forgetful about these types of things you should take advantage of the “auto renew” domain registration option that most registrars will offer so that you do not let your domain name registration lapse unintentionally.

5. After the Domain Name Registration: After the domain name registration process is complete then your next steps should be learning how to choose the best hosting plan for your domain(s). After you have chosen a hosting provider then you may also need to learn how to set up nameservers for your domain.

6. Use Our Tools to Register a Great Domain Name: Use our domain finder tools and our domain auction tools to get started finding and registering a great domain name now!

Choosing Domain Name for SEO

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Choosing Domain Name for SEO

How do we choose a domain name? What are the factors to consider in order to have an Search Engine Optimization friendly domain name? Does domain name plays a vital role in search engine rankings? These are just some of the questions many people have in mind. A domain name is like a brand name which will act as our trademark on the net. It is important that we properly select the best domain name as much as possible. Putting keywords on domain name has huge impact in search engine rankings. It has been proven for past years up to the present.

Today more than ever, all search engines do carry a lot of weight to the keywords that are present in your domain name. Ask any SEO professional that has been in this business for at least three or four years and they will tell you that the careful research and the final selection of the domain name you will use can have a tremendous positive impact in the search results pages from Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alta Vista and other search engines on the web.

The careful selection and key wording of your domain name is one of the most crucial part of the initial steps in setting up any website, old or new. It can have a drastic impact in the search engine results pages (SERPs). In some cases, and depending on the competitiveness of your business, it could almost mean the difference between success and failure of your site, as far as search engines visibility is concerned.

Once you have chosen the perfect domain name, both for your most important keywords and possibly your branding, what's left is the careful and continuous optimization of your site to ensure long term success.

Consider a business website like any other business asset. It is marketable property that can grow larger as time pass by and it should become an important tool to your business, while at the same time assist you achieve your long-term goals.

Domain Name Server (DNS) Basics

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Domain Name Server (DNS) Basics

Domain Names are a very technical sounding name for website addresses. For example www.buzzle.com is the domain name for this website. There are many parts of this address which make up the entire domain name. Let us see what these parts are:

The ‘.com’ part of the website address is called a First Level Domain or a Top Level Domain. Other such first level or top level domains are ‘.edu’ (which are used by educational institutions), ‘.gov’ (which are used by government organizations), ‘.mil’ (reserved for the United States Military), ‘.com’, ‘.net’ and ‘.org’ (which are available for most people and are to be used by commercial organizations, organizations related to the Internet, and non-profit organizations respectively), ‘.biz’ (reserved for businesses), ‘.info’ (for websites providing information) and so on. There are also other top level domains available by country codes such as ‘.uk’ (for the UK), ‘.us’ (for USA), ‘.au’ (for Australia) etc.

The Second Level Domain is directly below the first level domain name. In our example, ‘buzzle.com’ would form a second level domain.

The Third Level Domain is also known as the URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This is the entire website address, which in the case of our example would be ‘http://www.buzzle.com’.

There are also Sub-Domains on a website. For example, in the URL ‘http://www.personal.websitename.com’, the ‘.personal’ is a Sub-Domain. One can have many sub-domains on a website.

There are other basic terms which one needs to know in order to understand the concepts of Domain Name Servers or DNS. These are:

IP or Internet Protocol Addresses:

These are a numerical form of the domain names of the websites. It is the actual address that one computer uses to link to the website via the Internet. These numbers are regulated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or the ICANN.

Each computer on the Internet also has an IP Address. This can be either static or dynamic. The dynamic number is assigned every time a computer logs on to the Internet. Computers such as servers use a static IP Address.

This IP Address usually looks something like ‘12.345.678.91’. Ideally, one can reach the website by typing either the website address or the IP Address into the browser.

WHOIS Directory

This is a directory of website domain names and the people or organizations who own these website or domain names. It is a public directory and anyone who wants to know more about the owners of a particular domain name can find these relevant details in the WHOIS Directory. The IP Addresses of these domain names can also be obtained from this directory.

Therefore, anyone wanting to register a domain name needs to provide certain details while registering. These details include the name, address, contact telephone numbers in case of technical or other difficulties etc.

Domain Host

These are the places on the Internet which run the DNS for your domain. This includes your A Records (your host records), MX Records (mail exchange records) and CNAME Records (canonical name records or aliases for A Records).

Domain Registrars For Domain Name Registry

Domain Registrars are companies which sell you the domain name that you want. The process is known as Domain Name Registration. Most of these companies will often offer a hosting solution. Hosting is actually the specified amount of space on a server where you can store the data which may or may not appear on your website.

One can purchase hosting with another provider as well and have the IP Address of the Domain Name point to the IP Address of the server space of the hosting company.

ICANN maintains a list of Accredited Domain Registrars. A Domain Name can be usually registered for different periods of time, such as anywhere between a period of 1 Year to 10 Years. The Domain Name is thus renewable after this period is over. This Domain Name is owned by the buyer only for that specified period of time. If the Domain Name is not renewed in a timely fashion, anyone else may be able to purchase it.

As such there are no limits to the number of Domain Names which a person can own. A person can also buy and sell domain names.

But before you go and register Domain Names in your name, you need to be aware of Cyber Squatting Laws and Intellectual Property Law. Cyber Squatting involves registering a domain name with the aim of extorting a large amount of money from the person who ends up buying it from you. Also Intellectual Property Laws will come into force if you register domain names with names similar to the names of famous people, personalities and organizations as you may be penalized heavily if those people, personalities or organizations happen to sue you for this.

Why a Network Marketer Needs a Domain Name

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Why a Network Marketer Needs a Domain Name

Domain forwarding is one sure way of demonstrating how serious you are about your Network Marketing Business. Having your own Domain Name is similar to having a name for your traditional business. Once your prospect types in the name of your Internet Based Business in their browser and enter, they are at your store front. You are now telling them that you are the owner of your own Home Based Internet Business, not an affiliate for some company. After all you are a Home Based Internet Business Entrepreneur.

Choosing a Domain Name for your Home Based Business requires careful consideration as this helps to build the professionalism and branding of you the Network Marketers. Remember you are trying to create an impression on the person whom you are targeting, so you want to choose a name that speaks volume for your business.

There is also the advantage of using a redirect website when you own your domain name. Network Marketers, often use a replicated or affiliate link to market the products that are being offered. The replicated of affiliate link can be fairly long as they consist of the domain name of the company you are representing in addition to your affiliate ID or username. Your prospect will not remember the domain name in addition to the extension.

The affiliate link for a representative for a company with domain name www.xyz.com would look something like www.xyz.123.com. The 123 in the affiliate link represents the affiliate's identification and this is to ensure that the affiliate is rewarded for the sales generated using this link. Your affiliate link is not important to the prospect and once they realize that they can access the site using the primary domain they will most likely just go ahead and use it. Now you have just given away your referral or sale because your prospect did not remember to add your username or id with your affiliate link, if you had just forwarded the affiliate link to your domain, you would have earned yourself your commission.

The bottom line is once you give a customer a primary domain name with additional information attached, you stand the chance of having your prospect not remembering the extra information and you lose business this way.

When registering a domain name, there are certain guidelines you need to follow;

Choose a name that is easy to tell, spell and remember.

Register plural and hyphenated versions of your domain name. In case it is spelt incorrectly you will still not miss out on your credit. Also, as your business grow and become a household name others will try to capitalize on your effort if you leave possible leap hole.

Use top keywords in the domain itself as Search Engines give high relevance to domain with top keywords and .com over extensions like .net, .info, .biz or .org.

Avoid using numbers unless you are able to purchase both in numerical and alphabetical domain names.

It is advised to use a neutral name and not a name that is associated with a particular product or company. Remember, as a Network Marketer you are an independent contractor and your domain name belongs to you. In the event that you no longer represent your current company, you are able to use your domain name with your new company. That way you keep control of your prospects, they do not know what company you are representing until they are told or see the presentation.

This may not be necessary, but it is recommended that in addition to buying the plural and hyphenated version of your domain name you purchase the .com, .biz, .info and .net extensions.

You will find that as you begin the process of choosing a domain name, nine out ten of the names that you select would have already been taken. Think of a Company Name or "Doing Business As". Remember to choose a name that is generic and represents your business in the best way possible.

Common and New Types of Domain Extensions

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Common and New Types of Domain Extensions

A domain extensions, commonly known as a top level domain, can be defined as the group of letters that follow the last dot in a URL. It is the last part of an Internet domain name. Before delving into the concept of domain extensions, we must understand what domain names are. Domain names are strings of characters that are used by the Internet servers to identify network entities. They are managed by the domain name system, which provides an electronic mail routing information and a protocol that enables the interaction between clients and severs.

The top-level domain extensions have been classified as infrastructure top-level domains that are managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and country-code top-level domains that are specific to a country or territory. Sponsored top-level domains, sponsored by private agencies and generic top-level domains that are open for registration, throughout the world, are the other types of top-level domains.

The popularly known domain extensions are .com, .org, .edu and .gov. Let us look at each of them along with some other popular domain extensions.

.com: The .com domain extension that stands for ‘commercial’ was established in 1985 and is used by several commercial and non-commercial websites around the world. It is the most popular top-level domain.

.org: The .org domain extension stands for organization. It was established in January 1985, with the purpose of being given to organizations that do not fulfill the requirements of other generic top-level domains. Organizations all over the world can register for .org domain extension. It can also be used by individuals. However individuals can also use domain extensions such as .name and .info. There are no requirements for registration of the .org extension.

.edu: It stands for education and is widely used by the educational institutions across the United States. Not all websites using the .edu extension are educational institutions. Some of them are museums or research organizations linked with education.

.gov: It is a sponsored domain extension that is used by the government entities in the United States. Federal agencies in the United States use the .fed domain extension. The Department of Defense and its subordinate organizations use the .mil domain extension.

The .net domain extension is also one of the earliest top-level domains in use. Established in 1985, it is currently being managed by VeriSign. Similar to the .org domain, the .net domain also has no requirements for registration. It ranks third in the list of most popular top-level domains.

The .info and .name domain extensions meant for personal use and other domain extensions like .aero, .biz and .pro are some of the relatively new domains added to the list of generic top-level domains. They were developed and began to be used in the period between 2000 and 2002. The .aero domain stands for ‘aeroplane’ and is used by businesses associated with aviation. .biz is used by businesses. It was designed with the aim of providing businesses with an option to the .com domain. The .pro generic top-level domain can be used by qualified professionals.

.jobs, .mobi and .travel are some of the more recent domains developed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The company websites intended at seeking employees and dealing with issues related to the company employment use the .jobs domain extension. The .mobi domain extension is used by mobile devices gaining an access to the Internet. Supported by Google, Microsoft, the GSM Association and many prominent telecom industries, .mobi is one of the very important domain extensions. The .travel domain is meant to be used by travel agents and tourism agencies.

The .ae used by the United Arab Emirates, .au used by Australia, .asia used by organizations and individuals located in the Asia-Pacific region, .uk used by the United Kingdom, .in by India, .pk by Pakistan and .us used by the state and local governments in the United States are some examples of country-code domains.

To summarize, domain name extensions are those last few letters of an Internet domain name, which give it an identity. Thanks to the domain name extensions, millions of websites running on the Internet have a distinguished existence.

Why more than one domain name?

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Why more than one domain name?

One domain is all you need to set up a website. But with more domains directing to your site, you can have these additional benefits:

- Bring site visitors who type variations of your domain name

- Acquire traffic that might otherwise go to your competition

- Harness the marketing power of keyword domains

How to use more than one domain

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

How to use more than one domain

Set up your website with your primary domain, and use that domain on your correspondence and with your customers.

Point secondary domains to your site using URL forwarding (also called domain forwarding, domain redirect, or URL redirect). To have the secondary domain appear in the browser, use domain masking. You can set up these features when you log in to your account with your domain registrar (if your registrar offers these services).

With domains that are simply variations of your primary domain, you can expect additional traffic just from having set up these domains. With domains that contain keywords, you can get more from them by using them to list your site in online directories. When these domains appear in search results, searchers will see the keywords.

Benefits of Having Multiple Domain Names

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EDT

You are able to secure your identity on the Internet for only a small fee and you should also be aware that you can have more than one domain name for your business.

Some of the many advantages of having a your own unique domain name include:

You have your own unique identity on the web.
People find unique domain names easier to remember.
Once you have registered your domain name, no one else can use that name.
A well chosen domain name can enhancement of your professional image.
Your domain name provides you with a permanent web address.
You can have your own unique email addresses, for example, yourname@yourdomain.com.

However, if you only own one domain name (for example, www.yourdomain.com), you may miss out on some great business opportunities because not all potential clients will know your domain name. When people are looking for a company web site, some will use a search engine or type in the name of service in the address bar and add the local extension (.com).

It is a good idea for a business to consider having multiple domain names and redirect it to the main web site. This is a great strategy for catching more online business.

As an example, a wedding MC company the domain www.weddingmc.com and it is redirected to www.compere.com.

Domain Name Rules - General Extensions

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EDT

.COM, .NET and .ORG Domain Names

.COM - to be used for commercial and personal sites
.NET - recommended for companies involved in Internet infrastructure
.ORG - recommended for not-for-profit organizations
Use only letters, numbers, or hyphen ("-")
Cannot begin or end with a hyphen
Must have less than 63* characters, not including .COM, .NET and .ORG

* .com, .net and .org domain names exceeding a total of 26 characters are supported by most web browsers. However, certain web browsers, email programs and other Internet related applications may not support domain names over 26 characters.

.INFO Domain Names

.INFO - to be used for both commercial and personal sites
Use only letters, numbers, or hyphen ("-")
Cannot begin or end with a hyphen
Must have at least 3 characters and less than 63 characters, not including .INFO

.BIZ Domain Names

.BIZ - sites restricted to commercial and bona fide business purposes
Use only letters, numbers, or hyphen ("-")
Cannot begin or end with a hyphen
Cannot have two hyphens in a row
Must have at least 3 characters and less than 63 characters, not including .BIZ

Do I Need a Domain Name to Have a Web Site?

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Strictly speaking you do not necessarily need a domain name to have a web site. However, it is strongly recommended that you do. Regardless of whether you are creating a family web site or a web site for your business, having a domain name allows the site to be found much more easily. A domain name also makes it easier to remember the site, once people have located it. From a business perspective, it is much more professional when you are telling potential clients about your web site if you have your own domain name.

How Long is a Domain Name Valid?

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EDT

When you register your domain name, you have the option of registering your name for between 1-10 years. If you select 1 year, your domain name will be need to be renewed annually in order to remain valid. If you select multiple years, your domain name will remain valid until that period is up, after which time you can renew again.

After My Domain Name is Registered, Can Anyone Else Take It?

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EDT

When you register your domain name, it is registered in your name. As long as it has active DNS entries, all the required fees are paid and it is not in breach of any law, nobody else can either use it or take it without your consent.

I Don't Have a Web Site Yet, Should I Still Register a Domain Name?

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EDT

The registration of domain names is a huge business. Domain names are being registered at the rate of more than 200,000 a month. If you register your domain name now, you are ensuring ownership of the domain name. If you wait, then the domain name you want may not be available when you want it. Once registered, that domain name is yours, provided that the registration and renewal fees are paid each year. You can hold onto it, use it, sell it or lease it. Many web hosting companies will “park” your domain name until you are ready to use. The important point is to register you domain name quickly, before someone else grabs it!

Choose a Short Domain Name

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Choosing a short domain name is important for several reasons. Firstly, it fits easily into logos, business cards, advertising and business stationary. A short domain name is more easily recognisable and much easier to remember. It is also harder to misspell.

There are examples of companies having 50-character domain names spelling out their entire company name. That is not a good idea. Long domain names do not fit in forms, on billboards, or in Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertisements. For these reasons, it is strongly recommended to keep your domain name relatively short.

Domain Names

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Domain Names

Domain name - location of an entity on the Internet.

Long domain name - domain names longer than the original 26 characters, up to a theoretical limit of 67 characters (including the extension, such as .com).

Whois - a utility that returns ownership information about second-level domains.

Types of Domain Names

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Types of Domain Names

There are more domain names than just those with a .com suffix. There are many other suffixes that can be used, such as .net, .org, .biz, .info to name a few. Most of these have a general purpose, for example, .org was created for organizations, .info was created for information sites etc.

There are also country specific domains. For example, Australia uses .com.au, New Zealand uses .co.nz.

If the .com version of your chosen name is unavailable, another suffix could be available. These are seen as different domain names. For example,mycompany.com and mycompany.org are two different domain names - one company could register the .com and another could register the .org version. The same applies for company specific domain names. Some countries have further criteria that you need to satisfy before they will allow you to register a domain name with that country's suffix.

Choosing a Domain Name

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Choosing a Domain Name

You should choose a domain name that truly reflects what your website is all about. You should try and keep your domain name concise. If it consists of multiple words consider separating each word with a hypen. This will largely depend on how the domain name looks with and without a hypen. It will also depend on the availability of your preferred domain name.

If you find that your preferred domain name has already been registered under all applicable suffixes, you might need to get creative and think of another domain name. At this point, you may also need to consider the name of your website. If this isn't an option, you could try buying a domain name off the current owner.

Registering a Domain Name

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Registering a Domain Name

You don't actually buy a domain name, you register it. To do this, you need to register it with a domain name registrar. You can choose how long you'd like to register it for. Options typically include anywhere from 1 year to 10 years.

In a sense, you can buy a domain name. You can do this if someone else already has already registered the domain name. What you're really doing though is buying the right to register it. You still need to keep the domain name registered with a registrar, otherwise someone else will be able to register it once it expires.

Many web hosting providers include domain registration in their hosting packages. In this case, you don't need to register it through a separate domain name registrar.

You can register your domain name through Ajiboye.

Hosting a Domain Name

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Hosting a Domain Name

Once you've registered a domain name, your domain name registrar will probably point it to a webpage that they've configured. This page may have ads on it - that way they can make money from your domain name!

If you need it to point to your website (well, what else would you want to do with it?), you will need to update the authoritative DNS servers to be those of your website hosting provider. Your web hosting provider can provide you with these details. Once you've received them, you should be able to log in to a control panel via your domain name registrar's website. This control panel should have an option for you to update the authoritative DNS servers of your domain name.

Behind the Scenes

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Behind the Scenes

You may be wondering how on earth the domain name ends up pointing to your website.

When your hosting provider configures your website, they assign it an IP address. An IP address looks something like this: 202.45.22.13. Your IP address is unique - no other IP address on the Internet is the same as the one given to your website. Now, what this means is that anyone could access your website by typing in the IP address. Technically, you don't even need a domain name. Only problem with this is that IP addresses are hard to remember. It's much easier to remember a nice catchy domain name.

Anyway, after your hosting provider assigns an IP address to your website, you have the option of having a domain name resolve to that IP address. When you enter in the details of an authoritative DNS server, you are specifying which server should be used to resolve that domain name. The authoritative DNS server links your domain name with an IP address. You could have as many domain names as you like pointing to the same IP address. Therefore, you could have mycompany.com, mycompany.org and mycompanys-product.com all pointing to the same website.

How to Choose a Good Domain Name?

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

How to Choose a Good Domain Name?

In the E-World your domain name is your first assessment of what your site is about. It's not just your site name but it is the first criterion of your success on the Internet and when it comes to a point of success you must hold it tight. It can make your business stand out in the crowd, or just float aimlessly in space. Well many of us think that it merely plays any role but it's not the truth. Think if nobody remembers your site name or see no visual look of what your site is about.

The temptation of a good domain name is so powerful; that's why some companies even paid ridiculously high prices to get the name they want.

For better results, your domain name should be memorable and easy to remember. Remember the following tips when creating a domain name.

* The domain name should be short.

* The domain name should be simple.

* It should be suggestive of your business category.

* It should be unique.

* It should be easy to interpret and pronounce.

* It should be personalized.

* It should not be difficult to spell.

* It should not be difficult to remember.

Domain names can be registered through many different companies (known as "registrars"). You can register for 1 to 10 years - prices can vary anywhere from $10 to $20 per year. Most web hosting companies, will handle the registration process for you, but make sure that you are properly listed as the owner of the domain when it is registered.

If you have registered a domain name for a specific period, make sure you renew it in time. You can be surprised at the number of cases, where site owners have let a domain name slip by if they have not renewed in time.

How to use expired domains:

Did you know you can use expired domains to skyrocket your traffic? Let me tell you about expired domains first. Thousands of webmasters invest time, effort and money to promote their site and build up traffic. Many of them then lose interest and move on, leaving their site active. That means that although they still own the domain, they're not actively promoting it.

All the automatic marketing systems they've put in place are still bringing in traffic. The site runs itself. Now, at some point the ownership of those domains is going to expire. If you snap up those domains once they come back onto the market, you've got a pre-built stream of customers. You can either rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to your domain. You could set
up an affiliate program get paid for users someone else paid for.

Its that easy.

Website such as www.ajiboye.com is doing great job for expired domains. They actually do all the legwork and let you reap all the rewards. Even you can back-order a specific domain name also.

Do be careful when using other sites though. There are some swindlers out there that will sell you subscriptions, provide you with outdated lists, take your money and keep the good domains for themselves.

Is a Domain Name Important?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

If you run a business, a registered domain name is extremely important to your success. However, you do not need just any domain name, you need a relevant and meaningful domain name, which your target audience can relate to.

Having a well chosen domain name, shows your customers a level of professionalism. A good domain name also conveys an image of an established business, with a well defined pedigree, a business that they can trust.

A good domain name can be used on your business cards, brochures and advertisements. This is a great benefit to the promotion of your business, as customers can easily identify and find the services you are offering. A well chosen domain name will also be easy for customers to remember.

It is extremely important to register your domain name, so that your brand is protected, and competitors can not take an unfair advantage.

Need Help to Choose a Great Domain Name?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Do you need help to choose a great domain name? There are a few simple rules to consider when choosing your domain name:

1. A great domain name must be easy for your customers to remember.

2. Your domain name should be as short as possible.

3. The domain name should be easy to spell.

4. It is important that your domain name be a reflection of you or your business.

5. You may consider registering your products or services as domain names, e.g. xyztables.com

6. You may want to consider securing your domain names in global markets, e.g. xyztables.co.uk, xyztables.com.au, xyztables.eu

7. If your first choice of domain name is registered, then consider the use of an abbreviation, add hyphens, change the order of words, or add some local identifier like city, or state, to come up with something unique.

8. When you come up with your ideal domain name, register it quickly, before someone else does!

Helpful Tips for Domain Name Registration

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Here are some tips to help you with your domain name registration.

1. The only characters which are allowed are letters (a-z), digits (0-9) and a hyphen (-).

2. Domain names are not case sensitive, i.e. xyz.com is the same as XyZ.com

3. You are not permitted to use spaces.

4. The domain name should be between 3 and 63 characters in length.

5. The 'www.' (which stands for World Wide Web) is not part of the domain name.

6. You can purchase as many domain names as you want.

How Does Your Domain Name Sound?

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

When registering a domain name, it is important to consider how your domain name sounds when you say it over the telephone to a customer. You also must consider the mistakes people may make when they are typing your web site address.

It is not a great idea if you have to explain special characters, abbreviations or funny spelling. This is confusing and awkward and will not leave a good impression of your business.

It is a good idea to avoid terms or words which customers could easily misspell. The use of the plural form of a word instead of the singular, or vise versa, can be confusing.

If you think spelling mistakes are inevitable, you may consider making a list of possible mistakes and registering additional domain names which incorporate the mistakes.

Cybersquatting â�� Is It Good or Bad?

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Cybersquatting or domain squatting is one of the most disputable activity referring to the domain name registration. Some people, known as cyber-squatters, built multi-million companies simply by registering interesting and attractive domain names and then reselling them to companies, which might be interested in a particular domain name. For example, a domain name “kittenfood.com” may be of interest to the companies, producing cat foods.

Cybersquatters work by registering domains, which might be of interest for companies in terms of internet marketing. They look for attractive domain names, which have not been registered yet, buy them and later offer those domain names at significantly higher prices to other individuals or companies. Besides, domain squatters may look for attractive domain names among expiring or expired domains. Cybersquatters never buy domains for building websites on them. As a maximum, they can publish some relevant ads on such domains or publish the contact information. The primary purpose of domain squatting is getting financial revenues on further reselling of the domain.

From legal point of view, cybersquatting is still very disputable activity. Legal definitions and regulations of domain quatting vary from country to country and it is usually very difficult to define whether it is a bad practice or common business practice, having nothing to do with intellectual property crimes.

Domain Name Tasting: Boon or Bane?

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Domain Name Tasting: Boon or Bane?

Dont confuse this with wine tasting.Domain tasting has become quite a boon for the domainers because it gives domainers a risk-free way to option to test their domains before actually paying for them. This helps the domain industry because the influx of new domainers tasting the market has increase and this helps the industry grow.

The prupose of domain tasting is to 'test' if a domain name receives any type-in traffic. If it doesnt, that traffic can be quickly and easily monetized through PPC ads or better used to launch a product. If these ppc ads generate at least twice as much money over the course of a year than the domain registration fee of 7$, the domain is a winner and the domainer will certainly renew it for another year.

The practice of domain tasting is perfectly legal, and it lets registrars profit from the complex money trail of pay-per-click advertising. Exploiting a regulatory loophole, "tasters" grab up Internet domains for a 3 day grace period at no cost and park them on pages full of Pay Per Click (CPC) advertisements from popular search engines like Google and Yahoo!.

In the last few months there have been several people who have opposed this practice and icann has implented several new rules to deter domainers from tasting domains.

A proposal by the overseer of the Internet's addressing system could stop the practice of "domain tasting" and make it easier for people to register the domain names they want for their Web sites.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is planning to keep the annual fee it charges for a registered domain name, even if the domain name is deleted during the five-day Grace Period. ICANN currently charges 20 cents per domain per year.

How Can I Learn Who Has Registered a Particular Domain Name?

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

How Can I Learn Who Has Registered a Particular Domain Name?

You can learn who has registered a particular domain name by doing a WHOIS search at any domain name registry, including Network Solutions, Register.com, or GoDaddy.com. A WHOIS search is conducted online by entering the domain name, for instance EmergingBusiness.com, about which you wish to find information into a search box.

The WHOIS search will let you know whether a particular domain name has already been registered. If it has, the WHOIS search will provide you with the following information:

# the domain name,

# when it was created,

# when it was registered,

# when it expires,

# who administers the domain name,

# the address and phone number, and

# which company hosts the domain name, the address and phone number.

Domain Name Basics

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Domain Name Basics

A domain name is really just another way of listing an IP address — the unique numeric code that identifies a particular computer or other device connected to the Internet. When you type www.allbusiness.com into a Web browser, for example, a special domain name system (DNS) server looks up the name and matches it with the appropriate IP address (in this case 209.0.254.7). DNS servers periodically download updated lists of domain name/IP address matches from central databases located at key locations on the Internet.

Domain names make the Internet more usable, since they help people to remember Web sites by memorable names instead of obscure sets of numbers. Each name follows a standard format, including a suffix that indicates the top-level domain to which a name belongs. In addition to six generic top-level domains (.com, .org, .net, .gov, .edu, and .mil), most countries also administer their own top-level domains, such as .ca for Canada and .de for Germany.

Domain names ending in the familiar .com, .org and .net suffixes are getting scarce. In order to keep up with the demand, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) the nonprofit agency that regulates the domain name system has approved new top-level domains. ICANN will almost certainly approve additional top-level domain names in the future. The current list of domain extensions can be found on the ICANN Web site.

Top Level Domains for a Home Business

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Top Level Domains for a Home Business

When you register a new domain for your home business, you have several choices as far as top level domain. By "top level domain", I'm talking about the letters to the right of the rightmost "dot". For example in allbusiness.com .. the 'top level domain' is com.

Most people starting up a web-based business will try to choose the com top level domain. What you will find however, is that most of the good ones are taken. If the name you want is taken, you can try one of the alternate top level domains: biz or ws. biz is a top level domain for businesses and ws means WebSite.

So that would give you two potential alternate options for registering a domain if the name you want and all forms of it are taken in com.

The top level domains are all equal in the eyes of the search engines, so there is no apparent technical advantage to having a com top level domain. The primary advantage to having com in your domain is recognition. com has become the de facto standard for businesses on the web.

The following two domain names have the same name left of the top level domain, but are different because they have different top level domains:

coolpatiofurniture.com

coolpatiofurniture.biz

Because of the widespread usage and acceptance of com, customers of 'coolpatiofurniture.biz' may remember the site as 'coolpatiofurniture.com' and the latter may get a little free traffic from its competitor. That is one of the biggest drawbacks of alternate top level domains. If you can live with that however, you might check the biz and ws versions of the domain name you want if you're having trouble getting the com version.

Domain Name Security for Your Small Business

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Domain Name Security for Your Small Business

In recent years, many high-profile companies have been victims of domain name hijacking. Hijacking occurs when hackers illegally transfer a domain to a different account.

Domain name hijackers are not always crazed hackers. You may have a competitor who is employing shady tactics to steal your customers, or an irate former client who is trying to get even. In the world of e-business, you cannot be too careful and domain name hijacking is a considerable concern. Read up on Domain Name Basics.

In one case, an Internet service provider had its domain name taken in the middle of the night. More than 5,000 customers lost Web connectivity and lost access to their email accounts. Someone had transferred the domain without the company's knowledge, and the company in charge of the transfer did not go through the mandatory security checks before approving the transfer. The ISP eventually regained its name, but not before relationships with its customers had been severely damaged.

And that's a happy ending. Many hijacked companies never recover their domains.

Your domain name is your Internet identity, and it should be protected at all costs. Here are some steps you can take to help ensure that this does not happen to you.

1. Put a lock on transfers. Most domain registrars will allow you to put a "lock" on any transfers after you have purchased your domain. This means that you will not be able to transfer your domain to another registrar, but no one else will be allowed to either. If you do need to transfer your domain, you can temporarily unlock it until the process is complete. Although not foolproof, this is the single most effective tactic to ensure that you don't become a hijacking victim.

2. Suppress your contact information. When you register your domain, you will be asked to provide an administrative contact for the domain. By making this private, or by using a P.O. box as a mailing address, you can reduce the risk of hackers using this information to pull off a hijack.

3. Trademark your domain. If you do get hijacked and your domain name is trademarked, you will have a much easier time proving your case. Trademarking can cost anywhere from $300 to $3000. If you have an attorney handle the trademarking of your domain, the costs are higher than if you file the paperwork yourself. Learn more about Trademarking Your Domain.

4. Set up alternative communications. In the event of a hijacking, your email accounts will not function or may be compromised. If you use your email address for sensitive company information or for customer contact, establish a secondary email address that is not reliant on your domain name. This will ensure that you are not completely cut off during a hijacking.

No one likes to imagine this kind of problem attacking their business, and many companies mistakenly think they are too small to be a target of a domain name hijacker. However, it is much easier to take these steps to ensure that you are prepared, no matter what may happen.

To Dot COM or to Dot ORG? And other such dot stuff

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

In the world of domain names, the .COM is god (small g) or is it? If you are a business, it is always advantageous to get a .com. But don’t be quick to rule out all the other options available to you. It depends on many factors. One, what kind of website are you building? Commercial? Social? Education-related? Two, if you are a business, are you a business with a global, national, state, or just a county presence?

The case for .COM – if you are a company with a worldwide presence or one that aspires to have a multinational presence or a company that has an office in one country but has clients scattered across the globe, then by all means consider a .com. It will give you the best visibility and give your clients the impression that you are a competent company that knows what it’s doing, and not some fly-by-night company going with the extension .ord.jj.net.ll or some other weird sounding Top Level Domain.

If the .com is taken and you are not really a very high profile business, then the .net is your next best bet. The .net TLD has gained some traction in the past few years, and is nearly if not as prevalent as the .com.

The case for local + TLD – If you do not have a global presence nor the ambition to have one, then it is best for you to get country level domain such as .com.au or .com.jp (depending on your country’s domain designation). Not only will it be cheaper, you will have a lot more options to choose from, making finding a Domain name less of a chore. It’s is also convenient for customers. Australian customers will probably look for services in Australia, not for .com ones, but .com.au and so on and so forth.

Future-proof your Domain Name

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

It is always a good idea to plan for the future. This is true in life and in business, and you should not be surprised that you should also do this with your domain name. Yes, you read it right, you should look at future proofing your domain name.

Why should you as a business do this? Well, you as a businessman are surely looking to earn more and provide more services in the future for your customers. That being said, you should also look at expanding your portfolio of domain names alongside your business plans.

Say your business is about car painting. You already have x number of domains registered but you are thinking of expanding, such as creating one of personalized car body works to buyers. That new business idea may not be covered in your current domain, which could be, say, www.carpaintjobs.com. Also in the future you may want to register it as a separate business, so this early, you need to register a domain for it to prevent cyber squatters from getting it before you do.

Another good reason for looking to future proof your domain name is the chance that you may want to change the company name. If that plan is in the books, register the domain name immediately. You should also look into getting multiple domain names, such as all the other .net or .com.(country id here) as some of your competitors may register those and get your business instead. Owning these related web pages and web pages for future business spin-offs will surely pay off in the long run.

Register Your Domain NOW

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

When is the best time to register your domain name? Is it when you’ve completed the web site? When you’ve booked the web host? Or is it even when you are still in the design phase? The answer is no, no, and no.

The answer is right NOW, even when you’re still just toying with the idea of putting up a website for your business.

Domain names right now are being taken faster than you can blink. For all you know your domain name or what ever domain name you think is still there could be owned by a domain name squatter, or worse, your competitor. It does not really cost that much plus it’s an annual fee not a monthly fee. Registering your domain now will save you the hassle and disappointment of finding out later that the domain you really need is beyond your grasp. Take this stat for example: around 25 million ".com" names have been registered. Over 23 thousand more are purchased EVERY DAY. If that does not get you off your laurels…

Getting your domain name early gives you the luxury of not having to pay massive amounts for the one you should have gotten earlier. If you don’t, you may have to buy your preferred domain through an auction or to a squatter for serious cash.

Finding your perfect domain in expired or expiring domain names

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

All the good domain names have been taken – True or False? The answer to that is partly true, partly false. Millions and millions of domain names have been registered, and more than 20 thousand are registered everyday, however, there is one place that some people neglect to look when searching for a domain name – that’s the pool of recently expired domain names or close to expiring names.

What? Domain names expire? Well, no, but the lease on them do. For some reason some owners, whether because of lack of interest, forgetfulness or more likely going out of business, do not step in to prevent their domain name from expiring. When this happens, anyone can pick it up. Now just the same way you would in the available list, you have to be quick when it comes to recently expired domains or nearing expiration domain names.

Just do a quick search on Google and you will be able to find tools and websites to help you find expiring or nearly expired domains. You have to be fast because though not everybody is aware of this, many already are. You need to be ready to grab the domain name as soon as it becomes available.

Changing Domain Name registrars

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Like transferring to a different web host, transferring to a different domain name registrar can be hard or easy depending on how you approach it. To avoid any hassles in transferring to the new registrar, here are some simple tips that you need to remember.

Before you go get in touch with your old registrar's support number, write down specifically what you want. First thing is that 1. You want to take your domain name that's registered with them and move the domain name to another registrar. This has nothing to do with your current existing website, your email, not your DNS.

First, a transfer has to be initiated. This can be done only by the new registrar that will take over the domain name i.e. your new registrar. No one else will be able to do this for you no matter how much you press or whine, that is why you need to set up something with the new registrar first. Signing up for a new registrar will require your credit card and some details, go to their website and register and pay the fees, and then you will most likely find an option there for "transfer domains". Then you type in your domain name, the one you want to transfer, and then click Go or OK. Transfer all the domain names you want to transfer if you have more than one.

Transfer will now start. Now your new registrar will be sending an email to the admin contact in the WHOIS database. In that email is a link he or she needs to click to make the transfer valid. There is a time limit of 7 days for this to go through. Once you click on ‘OK’ in the transfer domains on your new registrar, call the old registrar and tell them that hey, check your mail, I’m doing a transfer. And that’s it! Simple as that. Don’t let 7 days pass by without verifying if your old registrar got the email, otherwise you’ll have to do it again.

Domaining as a Business. Good or Bad?

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Domaining has been here for a while, ever since the online boom in the nineties. A lot of people do it, a lot of people make money from it, but there is still a strong stigma against people who do it for a living. Essentially, domaining is buying up domain names that you think other people may want in the future. It’s a free world after all and you can always maintain that you want to use it for something in the future. Now when someone who wants that domain finds out you own it, they need to call you and arrange for you to sell it to them if they want it bad enough.

Domaining is basically investment. Buy one now that may be useful in the future. Some people look at it like collecting. You collect domain names, just like you would comics or sports memorabilia. Once someone wants it, you get a nice price for it. Others say its cybersquatting. Getting the domain name, parking yourself there and just asking for money to be shooed away. Just being totally honest, you can do domaining as there is nothing illegal about it but there has to be some boundaries. If you plan on doing it, don’t do it with established names. Don’t use real names especially names of famous people with the intention of selling it to them. If you register a name that you’ve thought of, it is your right, but just be a little more ethical about what you register as your own domain.

What is a domain name auction

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

What is a domain name auction? Well, it is precisely what it says it is, an auction of domain names - previously owned, of course. These auctions sell off expired domain names that somehow, for some reason or another (unpaid fees, business going under, domain name owner forgetting to pay, credit card auto debit expired) have become available to the general public. These ones are auctioned off because during one time or another, a lot of people have expressed interest in them, not just because they are expired.

A quick search on Google will net you dozens of good links to respectable domain name auctions. If you had the rottenest luck in terms of securing a domain name that you want, the domain name auction may be the best option you have. Consider the alternative: one, you may have to settle for a domain name that you don't really want; you may have to fork over a huge amount to get the one you want from someone who is cybersquatting on the domain name because you failed to register it first. Or, you can brave the waters on online domain name auctions and find a great one that is acceptable to you and not as exorbitant in terms of price as that cybersquatter is asking for.

Is your domain name giving you high page-ranking

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

In the world of real estate, location is everything. Location, location, location. That has an equivalent in the online world in terms of domain names. Domain names, for those who have been living under a rock for the past two decades, are the equivalent of addresses online, where customer can find you. In the world of domain names, page rank is everything. A domain name has an inherent page rank - the ranking that search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and now Bing assigns to a domain name based on a host of algorithms and factors.

For online businesses and entrepreneurs hungry for profit, page rank is king. Get a domain name with a high page rank and you are almost assured of great traffic coming in. People searching for products you sell will do searches and get your page near the top. Anyone who’s done a search on Google will know that the higher you are on the ranking, the better the chance of getting clicked.

So there is no doubt page rank is good, but should you shell out oodles and oodles of moolah for them? The answer is yes and no. Why no? Sometimes unscrupulous people have been known to fake PR. Also, page rank is a fickle muse. It’s calculated this way today, then suddenly, Google tweaks the formulae and it goes from top to not so top. If you have the money to burn go for it. If not, you may be better of growing the page rank organically.

Domain Name Generator

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Domain Name Generator

Having a usable easy to remember domain name is important to your website. In the past few years a number of approaches have been tried:

1 - Generic word domain name

Such as Ajiboye.com - name the product or service that you offer and name your site after it.

• Pros: Lots of visitors, easy to remember, short, catchy.

• Cons: These words are all registered.

• Options: make an offer to the existing owner, wait for them to expire, or find an alternative.

• Use the domain tester to find and check the registration of this type of domain name.

2 - Key phrase domain names

Such as ajiboye.com. Look at the phrases that people search for to find the product of service that you offer, combine the words and look for available domains.

• Pros: Perform well in search engines, your title domain and linking text will match perfectly with your product.

• Cons: Can be difficult to remember. The visitor left wondering if it was blueajiboye, blue-ajiboye or ajiboyeblue.com that he wants to recommend.

• Use the domain name combiner to generate and check the registration status of these domains

3 - Brandable created word domain names:

Such as google.com ™ - what was a google before it was the worlds largest search engine?

• Pros: great sounding names, un-trademarked, unused, with vast potential. Why limit your company to selling widgets when there is suddenly a huge demand for gizmos?

• Cons: Thinking of a word that is not already registered, trademarked and actually pronounceable. Was it google, googul, googol, guegal? Remembering your new word might be tricky. Try to register the variations as well, and make sure your site has great branding.

• Use the domain name generator - at the top and to the left of this text - to create new English sounding words, check their registration status and return 5 available domain names.

Why people think .com is the gold standard

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Although many people may disagree, there is still the prevalent thought that the top Level Domain .COM, the original tld that ushered in the internet boom, is the one and only gold standard when getting a domain name. That thought is easily seen in the fact that all commercials and all social reference to the internet will invariably, inevitably refer to .com. Just see how if people give you examples of websites, say I “you can just go to www.anythingyoulike.com.” Through advertisements and word of mouth and pop culture, .com is known to refer to the internet.

But should this be the case? Does that mean that the other domain names (.net, .biz, .org, and other coutry level domains) are undesirable? Not quite. First, consider that if you want a .com, more likely than not it has already been registered by someone or is currently in use already. With more than 50 million websites registered as .com three years ago (expect that number to be way higher now) chances of you getting the domain you want with a .com is already long gone.

That is no reason to fret though as people now, especially those who grew up along with the internet boom, are well aware of the other TLDs. .net and .biz, though not as well known as .com are recognized and that can only improve. In any case, it is better to have a great domain name with .net, than a crappy domain name with a .com tld.

Also, search engines do not distinguish between .com and other tld’s and as more and more people start surfing the net from search engine pages first, you getting a .net instead of a dot com may not be as detrimental to business as before.

How do I get my own domain name?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Domain name registration is a whole different thing from Webhosting, although good webhosting companies will also have the option of helping you out with registering a domain name. Why would it be different? Well, think about it this way, web hosting is like renting property. You take out rent on a specific number of megabytes for your page as well as the service levels you want like 24/7 availability, data redundancy, data backup and such. But to help people get to your property, you have to have a unique identity online so that people can get to your ‘virtual property’ which is your website. The Domain name is the www.yahoo.com and “www.google.com” s of the world. You need your own unique identifier like this so customers can find your site.

To register a domain name, you need to research the availability from any ICANN-registered domain registrar. ICANN is short for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and is the world recognized authority and arbiter of domain names. They are the ones who decide whether www.pepsi.com can or cannot be owned by say, Coca Cola.

It is also important to note that even if you change your webhosting company, you retain the domain name that you registered for.

Some tips to a great Domain Name

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

One of the best advices you can get when trying to build an online presence for your business is to pick the right domain name. Your domain name has a lot to do with the volume of traffic you as you will see here in this post. So without further ado, here are a few tips to getting a great domain name.

FIRST – Choose the right extension

Why is it important? Well, if you think of a web site, what do you think of? Think of another one. And another one. Chances are three out of three are .com sites or at least 2 out of the three. Whenever a person thinks website, it is most likely www.YOURDOMAINNAMEHERE.com. There is nothing wrong with a dot net, but if you tell someone your website, and it’s a .net, the person will probably type in .com when he or she comes home. If you can’t get a good .com domain, then explore the others.

Second – Do not mis-spell or hyphenate it

If you use your business name, do not misspell it. If it is more than two words, do not put a hyphen. Hyphens in non-hyphenated words make for many lost visits because if it does not have a hyphen in the first place, people wont put it in. People also usually do not misspell things on purpose, so don’t misspell your domain name. As much as possible use your business name.

Third - Use keywords or Phrases

Using keywords not only help you get into a good spot on search engines, it also can get you more traffic. For example your business is fixing printers, then a good phrase would be www.printerfix.com. If you do laundry in queens, try www.queenslaundry.com.

Additional tip on choosing your Domain Name

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

So you have a website and are really excited to get your business online. You’ve found a great developer, and found a great web host, and now all you need is a domain name. That should be easy enough, so just pull out your wallet and get the first available domain name you can get, right? Wrong! Before rushing out to get a domain name, you need to consider this additional point first.

Consider using your website name as your domain name

Part of the success of some of the best known websites out there is the fact that their website name is actually also their domain name. There’s amazon, yahoo, hotmail, etc. It’s really hard to remember a website name for a company if these two differ. If you can’t get the exact name, then something nearing the best approximation would do. If your domain name is the same as your website, and they just remember the website name when you talk to them or they hear about the site over the radio or from word of mouth, the first thing that they will do is enter that website name as the domain name. If you have a different domain name, poof, lost customer.

If you have the money, try buying the domain name for your website from the one who currently owns it. There are lots of people willing to let go of a domain for a price. You should only do this though if you know that your brand is already strong and that it will pay dividends in the long run. If you are relatively new, then this does not make sense, and it will make more sense to rename your site to mirror an available domain name.

Domain Name choice â�� My Brand or Generic?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

There is a certain school of though that says to get more traffic you need a generic easy to use domain name. if you have a dentistry practice, then dentist.com should be your target, or if you repair cars, you should get carrepair.com.

There is some merit to that, but if you don’t get a generic domain name it is not the end of the world. Now the question is, is a generic address right for you or is a branded domain name your best bet?

If you are a small to medium sized company specializing in a niche business, such as say customized car hoods, then you can explore the possibility of using that generic name – www.customizedcarhoods.com. This will give you great visibility and get you quite a lot of visits that may (or may not) translate to sales. Having a generic domain name will increase your brand’s recall and will help widen the horizons for your website.

However, if you already have an established brand with a loyal following, going generic will probably hurt your web identity rather than increase it. People naturally gravitate towards brands. Notice how some people immediately think Kodak or Canon for photos, Rolex for watches, Pepsi or Coke for soda. If you are confident that your brand is already a selling point for you, getting your domain name as your brand is the best move.

There is also the option of starting with a generic domain name, then when your brand has increased in popularity, you move to your brand’s domain name while retaining the generic one. You can have that old generic domain name point to the new website. It is already being done now, as more and more companies are buying up related or close matching domain names to make sure their traffic goes to the right place.

Domain Name Tip: Long Vs Short

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Thanks to ICANN, you have the luxury and the option of owning a domain name of up to 67 characters. That’s great right? But it’s like diving into a pool full of sharks – you can do it, but it does not mean it’s a great idea. Here are some reasons why you should keep your domain name as short as possible:

It’s hard to remember! – Say your name is James and you sell cars. The domain name www.jamescars.com may be a good fit. It’s better than www.jamessecondhandcarlot.com. The longer the website, the more you would probably forget what it is. Some will say the longer it is the easier it is to remember, but personally, I believe less is more.

It’s easy to spell it wrong – the longer it is, the harder it is to spell. Just ask anyone who’s joined a spelling bee. Why even well known websites can be misspelled. Notice how you sometimes spell google with one o, or yahoo with three o’s. Although it is a minor thing, it just sometimes makes it harder for customers and potential clients to find you, hence lost revenues.

It does not look good on your business card – business cards are small, and by their nature should contain just the right amount of info to be attractive, professional, and useful. Having your website and email address occupying 90% of your card will certainly not be aesthetically pleasing.

Domain Name Registration

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Why register a domain name? Just because you register a domain name doesn't mean you need a website - there are plenty of benefits...

* Reserve the name so no-one else can!

* Somewhere to put your website when you do get around to developing it. You can also shorten the "sandpit" period with the major search engines.

* Have unlimited, professional looking email addresses

* Everyone in your company / family can have their own individual email address.

* ISP independence - If you change your ISP you don't need to worry about telling everyone your new email address.

If you would like to find out if a particular domain name is currently available, please use our online free tool to check it's current status. Ajiboye understands the "ins and the outs" of Web hosting, emailing and domain names.

Register a Domain name

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

To make it crisper the points that must be considered before registration of domain name are as following:

1.Keep it short and simple.

2.Should be easy to spell.

3.Use simple and plain English.

4.Use search engine keywords for future promotions.

5.Only index one domain per website on search engines, if you wish to avoid diluting your search engine ranking.

6.Choose the best domain provider in Australia.

7.Register with best domain name for your market or country. For example .COM for International; .COM.USA for United States of America.

Once you have a domain name registered for your company based in USA, you will have many options; you can have multiple email address for your company and employees. This allows you to assign different email address name to different divisions, all of them pointing to your actual email address. Hence, for example, for questions related to the sales and services can have an id: - sales@ yourdomain.com.usa

What Is WHOIS services?

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

When you buy a domain name, your domain name registrar or the company, you want to register a domain name on your behalf, will ask you to provide some information. This information includes the following:

- the name of the chosen domain

- the date of domain name registration

- the domain’s owner and his address

- physical address, email and telephone of a domain name administrative, billing and technical contacts.

This information is then recorded and stored in special databases, commonly referred to as WHOIS. The central WHOIS database, which stores the information about all the domains in the world, is managed by Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC). However, there are also multiple local WHOIS service providers, offering information on the domains. Besides, companies, offering domain name registration services, may also provide WHOIS tools. Thus, the basic information on all the internet domains, their owners and contact details, are kept open and available to any Internet user.

Why WHOIS information is useful?

Well, as a matter of fact there are many ways the domain information, provided by WHOIS services, may be of help. For example, using WHOIS service you can find out:

- Who is the owner of a particular website and his contact information (this may be helpful, for example, if you want to buy his domain);

- Which company registered a particular domain;

- What are the administrative, billing and technical contacts for a particular domain;

- What is the status of a particular domain;

- What is the expiration date of a particular domain;

- What is the address of the web server, on which a particular domain is hosted.

Besides, WHOIS services are helpful for website owners as well. For example, one can check whether the information in WHOIS is the same that was provided to domain name registrar. Getting the information on a particular domain is easy and requires neither registration nor providing your personal data: just google “WHOIS” and you will get an extensive list of web sites offering WHOIS services. Then type in the domain name, you are interested in, and you will get the basic information on that domain.

Understanding the Domain Names

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Surfing the borderless space of the Internet, we visit hundreds of websites daily or even hourly, each having its unique name or domain name to be more exact. Each domain name consists of several parts separated with dots. Though each domain name is unique, there is a limited set of domain names endings, which repeat frequently in the internet. These are so called top level domains and here belong the endings, such as .com, .org., .gov, and others.

Each of these top level domains have its own meaning, and if you are considering domain name registration for yourself or for your business, it is important to understand the meaning of the top-level domains. So, here we go with a little dictionary:

.aero – websites related to air-transport industry

.arpa – this domains are reserved only to support operationally-critical infrastructural identifier spaces as advised by the Internet Architecture Board

.asia – websites from Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific territories

.biz – business websites

.cat – websites of Catalan linguistic and cultural community

.com – commercial websites

.coop – this is reserved for cooperative associations

.edu – websites of post-secondary educational institutions

.gov – this domain is reserved for U.S. Government only

.info – this is a generic top-level domain name

.int – only for websites of organizations established by international treaties between governments

.jobs – for websites, dealing with human resources

.mil – websites related to the USA Military

.mobi – websites related to mobile products and services

.museum – websites of museums

.name – this domain name is reserved for individuals

.net – generic top-level domain name

.org – generic top-level domain name

.pro – domains restricted to credentialed professionals and related entities

.tel – these domains are reserved for publishing contact data of individuals and businesses

.travel – websites dealing with travel business

These are the 21 top-level domain names, which are currently available. Well, to be more exact these are so called generic top-level domains (gTLD). There also exists another group of top-level domains, called country-code top-level domains (ccTLD). The latter group is very numerous, but it is pretty easy to understand their meaning: .de means websites from Germany, .uk means websites from the UK, .au is used for Australian websites, and so on and so far.

Hope this information will be of help for choosing the best domain name for you successful online business.

Domain Name Registration as the First Step towards Online Presence

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EDT

Before creating a website, one should choose a domain name for his web resource and register it in an appropriate manner, provided that the domain name has not been occupied by someone else earlier.

By definition, a domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS). To makes it easier to understand a domain name is often defined as an “address” of the particular computer or site in the Internet. Company names, personal names, or even some slogans can be used as a domain name. Virtually, you can choose any word or word combination to be a web address for your website.

All the domain names have particular suffixes or endings, such as .com, .org., and others. As a matter of fact, these are also domain names, but they are called top-level domains and they represent the highest level of domain name hierarchy. There are two types of such top-level domains: generic top-level domains (gTLD) and country-code top-level domains (ccTLD).

Currently there are 20 generic TLDs and 248 country-code TLD and still counting, since internet is constantly growing, requiring new domains to appear. The most popular top-level domains is .com, which is used for commercial websites. gTLDs .net and .org are also very popular over the internet. However, there are also some gTLD, which you will not be able to choose for your website. For example, .mil or .gov can be assigned only to military or government institutions.

Well, after you made up your mind with a domain name, you would like to possess, the first step is to check whether it has not been registered by someone else. Just type the address you are thinking about into your browser address bar and see what it will say. If you get the reply that such website does not exist – feel free to contact a local company, specialized in domain name registration, and ask for a domain name registration.

The domain name registration is a paid service, which is offered by many companies. In fact, this is a procedure when a specific domain name is assigned to a particular individual or company. Remember, that domain name will belong to you only for the particular amount of years you paid for. The maximum period of registration is 10 years. So you have to renew or prolong your domain name registration over time.

Another important fact to remember when choosing a domain name registrar is whether you are looking for a plain domain registration service or you also want to order hosting services to place your web site on… The second way is more logical, because it is easier to work with one company and get all the necessary for your website from them. Besides, some companies along with domain name registration and hosting services also offer website content management system to help their clients build a site in a more cost-effective and less time-consuming way. Thus you can get a full-featured solution for realization of your individual website ideas.