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Sunday, October 30, 2005

How-To: Shop for a Domin

If you are looking to setup an online presence for yourself or your business, then getting a domain name should be the first step to take. But if this is your first time, then you would do better if you do some homework before taking that first step. A good first step is a positive sign of success!!

A domain name is similar to an address in physical world. You don’t want people to get you wrong & its a matter of prestige & respect as well. Think what opinion would someone make about you if you have an office or residence in a shady part of the town, say some red-light area? The same is with a domain name, you want people to make positive opinion about you. Then there’s the fact that you’d want your domain to be catchy, so that it strikes with people. Then it should be easy to remember, so that people don’t always have to refer to your business card or that little piece of paper on which you wrote your domain name, to visit you online!!

So lets sum up the points that we should keep in mind when deciding on a domain name:

  1. Should reflect yourself or your business name(as applicable), meaning that it shouldn’t feel out of place, like if you make breads, then a domain reflecting a milk trade wouldn’t feel right
  2. Should not resemble anything vulgar, especially if its a business domain, unless you specifically mean it to be so
  3. Should be catchy, so that it strikes with people, draws attention in other words, make people feel compelled to visit the domain
  4. Should be easy to remember, so that people remember it once they’ve heard about it
  5. Should be short, though not necessary, since in some cases, a bit longer domain names are easy to remember than some shorter equivalents
  6. Shouldn’t be stuffed with keywords. I know that many people might refute, but from the terms of user accessibilty, I believe that you don’t make websites for search engines, but for people.

There now, a nice point by point list of how to decide on a domain name. Now once you’ve decided on a domain name that you want(I advise that you think up of atleast 4-5 domains since good domains are hard to come by these days), the next step is to decide on the extension or TLD(Top Level Domain) you want, like .COM or .NET or .ORG or .INFO or .BIZ etc. There are different significance for each TLDs about which I’ll give a quick explanation.

.COM ~~ This TLD is generic & most popular, usually meant for commercial companies etc. Its the oldest & most saturated TLD at the moment, if you are able to get a good domain in this TLD, hold it to yourself as a treasure!!

.NET ~~ This TLD is one of the original two(other being .COM) & was meant for companies providing internet related services.

.ORG ~~ This is one of the oldest TLDs & was meant for Non-Profit Organisations

.INFO ~~ This TLD is quite a popular TLD, created with the purpose for websites that provided some sort of information

.BIZ ~~ This TLD was created for the Business websites

Other TLDs that you might some across are .GOV(for US Government use), .MIL(for military use). Now, these are not all the TLDs available, there are country specific TLDs available as well, like .IN for India, .US for USA, .IT for Italy, .DE for Germany, .CH for Switzerland, etc.

But if you’ve been browsing the internet for sometime then you’ll realise that the purposes for which the TLDs were created hardly matter, we have lots of personal & commercial websites using .ORG & lots of Non-Profit entities using .COM domains. So it can get a bit confusing if you don’t know which one to choose from these & over a hundred other TLDs!! What I’d advise is to go for the .COM first, since its the most popular & people are more likely to remember it than anything else. Then the next choice should be .NET but can be anything else as well. But remember, .COM/.NET/.ORG are still the three most popular TLDs, others maybe popular but not on same scale as these three.

Now, how would you go about checking whether a domain is available or not? You can visit any domain registrar’s website to check for a domain. Like eNom.com or any other. If you are able to get a .COM, then check if the .NET and/or .ORG is available or not, if it is, then better secure those domains as well, especially if you are a business entity!! It would be better if you can get your country specific domain as well.

Now that you’ve checked that the domain that you want is available, you’ve to decide where you get it registered from!! In comes a new term, “domain registrar”. A “domain registrar” is a company accredited by internet’s ruling body, ICANN(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), to register domain names for particular TLDs. Like some registrar might be accredited for .COM & .NET registration only while some maybe accredited for .COM & .NET & .ORG registrations!! You should choose a registrar based on the trust that it commands, the level of service it provides & importantly, the fees it charges for domain registration.

As per the Webhosting.info stats, here are the top 10 domain registrars, based on the number of domain registrations:

  1. Go Daddy Software Inc.
  2. Network Solutions
  3. eNom Inc.
  4. Tucows Inc.
  5. Melbourne IT Ltd.
  6. Register.com
  7. Schlund + Partner
  8. Wild West Domains, Inc.
  9. BulkRegister LLC.
  10. DirectNIC

The report on fastest growing registrars however put these at top 10:

  1. Go Daddy Software Inc.
  2. eNom Inc.
  3. Melbourne IT Ltd.
  4. Fabulous.COM
  5. DotRegistrar.COM
  6. Moniker Online Services, LLC
  7. Wild West Domains, Inc.
  8. CapitolDomains LLC.
  9. BelgiumDomains
  10. Schlund + Partner

Some of these registrars don’t retail domains & register them via resellers only & some have retail rates so high that you are likely to find lower rates with resellers!! Out of these, I’d recommend only GoDaddy & eNom to you. NetworkSolutions is good as well, but they have pretty high rates which in my opinion are not worthy enough!! Speaking from personal experience, I’d advise you to stay away from the NIC registrars like DirectNIC, OnlineNIC etc.

GoDaddy has most of its sales through retail & its rates are quite affordable & service is good as well, and their business is booming as well as they are the #1 domain registrar at the moment & some of you might’ve been fortunate enough to see their ads during Super Bowl etc. which are quite a topic of discussion in themselves!! eNom is of the old line of registrars that’s holding its front. I prefer eNom for my domain registrations(except .IN domains) but I don’t go in for their retail rates. I register domains with them via a reseller of theirs, www.EconomicalHost.com

Here are some things that you should consider before choosing a registrar:

  1. Is the registrar trustworthy?
  2. Does it have a good track-record in customer service? What do people, ex-customers & current customers say about it?
  3. Are the rates reasonable(you should compare with other registrars)?
  4. Do they provide following features in their domain control panel:
    • free & unlimited DNS/NameServer changes
    • free & unlimited registrant/administrative/billing info changes
    • free URL forwarding
    • free email forwarding

    If they don’t provide any of the first two, then I’d look for another registrar & if they provide the first three, then they are really worth it!!

  5. Do they register the domain in your name?

After having said all that, you should look at how you can pay the registrar for the domain(s) that you want to register. Almost all registrars can accept payments online via Credit Cards, but some might not, so better be clear about it. And then, some registrars have terms that you’ve to register a domain for some particular period of time(atleast 1 year is what everyone requires) like two years. So you must be clear about that as well, see if the registrar can provide you some discount if you register for more than 1 years, if yes, then go for the maximum you can or want. Another thing to watch out for is that some registrars suck & have lower registration rates(to attract customers) & higher renewal rates!! So I’d advise you to stay clear from them. Also check if they charge any transfer fees, incase you need to have your domain transferred to some other registrar in future. Usually registrars charge for domains transferred to them instead of domains transferred from them to others!!

After reading this somewhat long article, I hope that you’ll benefit from this & have easier time in making a better judgement!!

All opinions in this article are based on my personal experience & comments from some others whose judgements I hold in high regard!!


Die Dulci Fruere

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