Domain Name Tips

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Domain Name Tips

A domain name is the unique name of a computer on the Internet that distinguishes it from the other systems on the network. They are sometimes colloquially (and incorrectly) referred to by marketers as "web addresses". Every website, email account, etc, on the Internet is hosted on at least one computer (server). Each server has a unique IP address which is nothing but a set of numbers, such as "202.71.129.54" . To access a particular internet service, one can specify its IP address in an appropriate application, such as an FTP client; however because it is difficult to remember numbers, an IP address can be associated with a fully qualified host name (a domain name), such as "www.tipsandtreats.com".

Domain names also provide a persistent address for some service when it is necessary to move to a different server, which would have a different IP address. Each set of letters and numbers between the dots is called a label in parlance of the domain name service (DNS).

Last Updated - 21st November 2005

Domain Name Rules -

There are some rules about the size and make up of labels.

Each must start with a letter or number, and then may be made up of letters, numbers, and hyphens, to a maximum of 63 characters.

These are the rules imposed by the way names are looked up ("resolved") by DNS.

Some top level domains (see below) impose more rules, like a minimum length, on some labels. Fully qualified names are sometimes written with a final dot.

Translating numeric addresses to alphabetical ones, domain names allow Internet users to localize and visit websites. Additionally since more than one IP address can be assigned to a domain name, and more than one domain name assigned to an IP address, one server can have multiple roles, and one role can be spread among multiple servers.

Examples - The following examples illustrates the difference between a URL and a domain name:URL:

http://www.example.com/

Server name: www.example.com

Domain name: example.com

Subdomain: www

Domain: example

Top level domain: com

As a general rule, the IP address and the server name are interchangeable. For most internet services, the server will not have any way to know which was used. The big exception to this is for web addresses. The explosion of interest in the web means that there are far more websites than servers. To accommodate this the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) specifies that the client tells the server which name is being used. This way one server, with one IP address, can provide different sites for different domain names.

Every domain name ends in a top-level domain (TLD) name, which is always either one of a small list of general names, or a ISO-3166 two character country code.Examples of (gTLD) extensions are:.com

.net

.org

.biz

.info

.name

.museum

.travel

.XXX

Examples of country code top-level domain (ccTLD) extensions are:.us
.uk(not an ISO-3166 code, but used anyway)

.fr

.es

.de

.it

.jp

.ie

.tv

.co.uk Official assignment

Generic domain names - problems arising out of unregulated name selection

Within a particular top-level domain, parties are generally free to select an unallocated domain name as their own. For generic or commonly used names, this may sometimes lead to the use of a domain name which is inaccurate or misleading. This problem can be seen with regard to the ownership or control of domain names for a generic product or service. By way of illustration, there has been tremendous growth in the number and size of literary festivals around the world in recent years. In this context, currently a generic domain name such as literary.org is available to the first literary festival organisation which is able to obtain registration, even if the festival in question is very young or obscure. Some critics would argue that there is greater amenity in reserving such domain names for the use of, for example, a regional or umbrella grouping of festivals. Related issues may also arise in relation to non-commercial domain names.

Commercial resale of domain names

An economic effect of the widespread usage of domain names has been the resale market of generic domain names that has sprung up in the last decade. Certain domains, especially those related to business, gambling, pornography, and other commercially lucrative fields have become very much in demand to corporations and entrepreneurs due to their intrinsic value in attracting clients.

For example, the domain name sex.com was stolen from its rightful owner by means of a forged transfer instruction. During the height of the dot-com era, the domain was earning millions of dollars per month in advertising revenue from the large influx of visitors that arrived daily. Two long-running US lawsuits resulted, one against the thief and one against the domain registrar VeriSign.One of the reasons for the value of domain names is that even without advertising or marketing, they attract clients seeking services and products. Furthermore, generic domain names such as Rent.com or Books.com are extremely easy for potential customers to remember, increasing the probability that they become repeat customers or regular clients.Although the current domain market is nowhere as strong as it was during the dot-com heyday, it remains quite strong. Annually tens of millions of dollars change hands due to the resale of domains.

What's in a Name?

The long or short of it is that your domain name doesn’t have to be short. A common misconception when deciding on an available domain name is that brevity is key. Guess what, that’s not always the case. Did you know that your domain name can be up to 67 characters long?
The best domain name is one that people can easily commit to memory. So, if your company name is Dynamite Wacky Widgets and Goofy Gadgets, instead of opting to name the domain something obscure like DWWGG.com why not go all out and name it DynamiteWackyWidgetsAndGoofyGadgets.com? The actual name is probably going to be a lot more memorable.

Many Names, One Person

Don’t play the name game or you could end up losing! Regardless of whether you are a large corporation or a small business owner, you should try to buy multiple domain names to protect the investment of your current site.
Most people will only purchase their domain name in a single extension (.com, .org, .net, etc.). Meanwhile, some unscrupulous folks may just snap up the remaining extensions of the website name and try to profit from someone else’s hard work. Do you really want someone else to gain usage of your well-thought out, easy-to-remember name? Of course not!

*Owning several iterations of your current website is the least you can do to protect your domain name.

Domain Name Change of Ownership

Don't cause an identity crisis! If you have sold or want to change domain name ownership, you'll have to contact your domain registrar. Letting them know who has new ownership of the domain name is critical to the transfer.
In order to hand over your domain name, you will need to fill out a domain contact modification request and replace all your information with that of the new owner (you'll most likely want to change out the domain name server information as well so the site no longer points to your web site).

*Once you receive an email confirmation, it takes about 3 days for the ownership transfer to be complete.

Domain Escrow Explained.

Three’s not always a crowd! Domain escrow is a third party agency that agrees to handle your domain name transaction. Confused about how it works? Here’s a brief break down.

Both parties agree to use a domain name escrow service

The seller files to sell the domain by filling out a transfer agreement

The buyer is notified that the transaction is pending their payment

When payment is made and cleared by the bank, the domain names are released to the purchaser

The buyer receives their funds (minus any applicable domain escrow fees)

Make Money While You Park.

It is actually very quick and easy to monetize parked domains, but don't expect grand riches. Some services will choose the genre that your domain name falls into and target their keyword-based search results to your site. In this type of traffic monetization, you show someone else's content and get paid on every click through.

*Unless you have a top-tier domain name you won't make tons—but don't let that stop you. It's better to make a little money than to have a dead domain that does nothing!

Without A Name Server, You're Literally Lost.

You need more than a name, silly! While your domain names may have be registered, the location of your website is still unknown until you assign a primary and secondary name server.
A name server is a directory that resolves your web site IP address to the domain name you call your website. If your domain is registered and the name server is not activated or not registered at all, you will receive a timeout or 'site not found' error any time you try to connect to the website.

*Premium registrars such as Moniker.com offer default name servers and parking so that your domain never goes to a "dead" page.

Unavailable, occupied, engaged…

If domain name availability for a domain you want is, well, unavailable, you will have no choice but to try other variants of the name.
Almost every domain name registration service offers name suggestions based on your keywords of your business. For example, while the name "GreatComputers.Com" might be unavailable, a domain name suggestion service might come back with awesomecomputers.com, great-computers.com and other similar domain names or the same domain is various extensions.

*Experiment with such tools until you find the domain name that fits you best (or try looking in the thesaurus).

Save Time with a Single Stop.

Don’t try to juggle, this isn’t the circus—or it doesn’t have to be, rather. For ease of use, it is recommended to find domain name services that consolidate your needs. If you choose one service to handle your domain parking and another to handle your email forwarding, you are doubling your level of work. Keeping track of a multitude of services, all being provided by different companies, is a lot of work that you don’t need to take on.

*Most domain registrar parking services will offer a consolidated administration interface.

Free Domain Names, With Purchase.

Don’t expect to get something for nothing! With web host services, it is fairly common for a hosting service to give away a free Domain Name if you agree to a service contract. But, like for most things, there’s always a cost.
At minimum, you can expect to sign up for a full year of service with the web hosting service to receive your free domain registration. Is this worth it to you? Is the company a good company or are you only interested in the deal? Be careful and do your homework before biting at a deal like this.

Domain Expirations

If you want to renew a domain name, follow these steps:

Decide for how long you want to renew a domain

Decide on a company to renew with

Once you find the right company, add in your new payment information and submit

In some cases, you'll receive a confirmation email (if you do, be *sure* to follow all instructions in that email). And, you’re done—maybe a total of one hour to a clean domain renewal.

*If you are looking at multi-year renewals, you can expect to pay less per year for your domain name renewal.

Disclaimer: The Domain Name Tips / Information presented and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Tips And Treats . com and/or its partners.

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