Domain Name Registration Process - Basic Guide

Domain Name Registration Process - Basic Guide

If you are hesitating to read this article, you may surely miss some important information about domain name registration.
Several articles on this subject could be found on the net but the advantage of this write-up is that it's simple and easy to understand. This article provides you with great info on domain name registration.

What is a domain name anyway?

Domain names are the familiar web addresses (i.e. somename.com) that web browsers use to locate a particular website. Domain names, in fact, are pointers to a particular IP (Internet Protocol) address (it is an address servers use to locate each other) and we use them for a simple reason. They are more descriptive and easier to remember than an IP addresses which are presented in just a bunch of numbers (i.e. 125.416.28.7)

The Registration process

If you want to purchase a domain name, first you need to find a registrar who will process the domain name registration.
Currently there are hundreds of registrars you can use. To see the full list of accredited domain name registrars visit the InterNIC website (www.internic.com/regist.html). When you go to a website of the registrar you selected you can use their domain name search tool to verify that the domain name you plan on buying has not been taken yet. If it is available you can proceed with the registration.

Now as you go ahead with the registration you have about 3 more steps to complete the purchase. The domain name registration process may slightly differ from registrar to registrar but the next 3 steps should be pretty much the same for most of them.

1. Decide how many years you want to register your domain name for?
2. Choose Public or Private registration?
3. Enter domain name contact information

Now let me go through the steps listed above in more detail.

1. When you are registering your domain name you can choose the time period of the ownership which is usually from 1 year to up to 10 years (of course you can extend it just before the domain is about to expire so you don't loose it). Some registrars may even require minimum of 2 or more years for selected domain names.
So how many years should you register the domain name for? Well, it depends on what you are going to use the domain for. If it is for your business and you intend to be in business for at least the next five years, I would register it for five or more years. If you are not sure about the future of your website 1 or 2 years should be fine and then you can just extend the registration if your website is doing fine. Nowadays many registrars give you the option of having your domain name renewed automatically so you don't have to worry about it. Using this option will allow you to avoid loosing your domain name just because you forgot to renew it.

2. Choosing public or private registration is another step you will go through, however, some domain registrars may not offer this option. Public registration is the one where you use your personal information in the domain name contact. This type of registering is more convenient but also less secure than the private one simply because your detailed contact is widely and easily accessible including your address, phone numbers and email address which would make you an easy target for email spammers and fraud.
Private registration is on the other hand giving you the security but at the same time it could cost you some extra money over some period of time. The way it works is basically that your registrar is registering your domain name on your behalf. So you are not directly the owner but you have the right to use it. In this case the domain name has the contact information of your registrar rather then yours. Any mail received to the address listed under your domain will be forwarded to you and here is where the extra expense comes in since most of the registrars will charge you extra for this service. If you are choosing private registration I would definitely recommend to closely read the service agreement before you proceed with the registration. You may save yourself some headaches.

3. The last step is fairly simple. If you have chosen private domain name registration you don't have to worry about this step. In case of public registration all you need to do is to enter your detailed contact information. The ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) records 4 types of contacts for each domain name. 1.Owner's contact 2.Administrator's contact 3.Tech person's contact 4.Billing person's contact. You can just have the same contact information for all four unless you have other people managing different aspects of your domain name.

That's all. Now you can just complete the checkout process. It may take up to 48 hours for the domain name registration to be finalized. Once the registration is complete you've got yourself a domain name. Of course there's more than just a domain name registration you need to do in order to get your website online using the domain name you've just purchased. You need to build your site, find a web host, and publish your site to your web host's servers but those topics are beyond the scope of this article.

Now that you have read this article, we hope that all your doubts regarding domain name registration must have been resolved.

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Source: http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Domains/Domain-Name-Registration-Process-_45_-Basic-Guide

How to Pick the Perfect Domain Name

How to Pick the Perfect Domain Name


What makes the perfect domain name?

Well, it has to be:

1. Relatively short
2. Simple to remember
3. Easy to spell

I was speaking to a customer recently who had a business called 'Otway Valley Trading Company'.

The domain name he wanted was:
www.otwayvalleytradingcompany.com

Can you spot some of the problems with this domain name?

Here's a few:

1. It's too long:

Having to type a long domain name into your browser is annoying and also increases the chances of your customers making a spelling mistake.

2. Too many keywords:

Having 4 keywords (Otway Valley Trading Company) makes it hard for customers to remember the name of the site.

Try to stick to one or two keywords in your domain name.

3. Easy to misspell:

The word 'otway' can be easily confused for 'ottway'.

4. Makes the email address too long:

An email address for this domain name would look like this:

sales@otwayvalleytradingcompany.com

... that's a mouthful for anyone to remember.

Picking a Good Domain Name:

1) The shorter the better

Having a short and snappy domain name makes it easier for your customer to remember your website address, and easier to type into their Internet browser.

2) Go for something catchy

Keep in mind that your domain name doesn't have to be boring. In fact, if you can come up with something catchy - it's a great way to distinguish your business from the competition - just ask the people at Yahoo!

3) Avoid using hyphens

We've found that hyphens in domain names tend to confuse people.

Sometimes you'll see websites that have a hyphen separating keywords (e.g. ace-accounting.com). This is almost always because the preferred name (aceaccounting.com) has already been registered by someone else.

If the domain you want is already being used by someone else, then you're better off coming up with an alternative name then using hyphens.

4) Avoid using numbers

If possible, try avoiding the use of numbers in your domain name, as this can also lead to confusion (e.g. was that 3phones.com or threephones.com ?).

But if you have to use a number, make sure you register both the written and numerical versions of your domain name (3phones.com and threephones.com).

5) Grab a thesaurus

If you're struggling for inspiration or finding it difficult to come up with a name that hasn't already been taken - grab a thesaurus (or visit Thesaurus.com)

Say you run an adventure tour company and you want to register excitingadventures.com - but somebody has already registered the domain name.

Lookup the word 'exciting' at Thesaurus.com and you can quickly find an alternative like 'breathtaking, sensational or fascinating'.

And don't be afraid to use a little imagination - companies like Google and Yahoo! have benefited a lot by having a unique web address.


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http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Domains/How-to-Pick-the-Perfect-Domain-Name

What A Newbie Webmaster Should Know About Domain Registration

What A Newbie Webmaster Should Know About Domain Registration

Source: http://readbud.com/Articles/Domains/What-A-Newbie-Webmaster-Should-Know-About-Domain-Registration

Domain Name Registration

Affordable domain name registration was extremely difficult to be found in the past. In fact, all domain name registrars used to charge a flat fee of $70 which was to register your domain name for two years.

Now there has been an explosion of companies that offer affordable domain name registration. Some will register your domain name for less than $15 a year, especially if you are registering multiple sites for a number of years at the same time. Be aware that you may have to have a number of variations of your ideal site name as you often find that the more popular terms have already been registered or reserved for future use.

If you are serious about your online presence then it is essential to consider a bulk domain name registration. The most obvious benefit of having a bulk domain name registration is that your site will appear higher on the search engines. That may be incentive enough but registering as a .net, .biz, http://.co.uk, .la or other domain names too has a far greater benefit which many people do not think about.

A major benefit of having a bulk domain name registration for your site is to prevent the more unscrupulous cyber sitters from piggybacking on the success of your website. Imagine if you could register as a google.au and benefit from the millions of people who use a Google site every day? You see how this could work to someone's advantage if Google hadn't performed a bulk domain name registration to prevent this. The extra cost to have a bulk domain name registration can be minimal and there are a number of web domain registrars who offer bulk discounts to their customers.

Wholesale domain name registration is an increasingly popular way for webmasters to register multiple domain names at the same time at a fraction of their individual costs combined. A new marketing technique has been sweeping the World Wide Web recently where webmasters create hundreds of websites with only a small amount of text to attract visitors by keyword searches and wholesale domain name registration has led to this process being simplified.

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