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Permanance
The
permanence of a domain name web address is extremely important.
Gradually, it helps your web site to develop a following that
only increases in most cases. Since you will probably keep the
domain name for life, fans of your web site will not get lost.
Flexibility
Even
though most domain names are permanent, you gain more flexibility
than you lose. For instance, all web sites require a server host,
the Internet service provider (ISP) whose hard drives will serve
your web pages to the world. When you have a virtual domain web
address such as "MyWebSite.com" (hypothetical), you
can move to a different area or change service providers without
changing your web address. Thus your audience will not lose track
of you.
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Impact
The
best purpose of a domain name is to make an impact from the moment
someone first sees it and every time they see it again. On today's
Internet, just about everyone has a domain name. Therefore, if
you expect to make an impression, you may need help in thinking
up a smart domain name that is not already taken. There is a
creative mental process required to think up a good domain name.
It helps to be good with words. It also helps to know how the
Internet works.
Visibility
Some
domain names, such as "ABCNews.com" become household
words in the public consciousness by virtue of their popularity
that existed before the domain was obtained. But in most cases,
the unknown or smaller concern relies on a domain name to give
their web site a boost in popularity.. This is not simply a matter
of people being attracted by catchy wording. Search engines also
pay attention to the words in your domain name. If your domain
name is "ColoradoArtWorks.com" then people searching
for art who punch the keyword "Colorado" or "Colorado
art" into a search engine might have a better chance of
finding your web site. There is also much clever competition
in choosing domain names. This competition decreases your chance
of being noticed or even found on a search engine. Therefore
it is all the more important to be smart about naming your domain
name. And always consult a pro who knows how these things work.
Competition
When
the Internet first began, simple one-word domain names like "Wine.com"
were registered for less than a hundred dollars just as they
are today. But there's hardly a one-word domain name left in
the universe. Therefore you have two choices. You can brainstorm
to come up with a new catchy domain name or your unique business
name. The second choice is to buy the domain name from whoever
holds the name you want. Names like "Wine.com" have
sold for vast sums of money. I'm talking seventy five million
dollars. You don't have that kind of cash. Buying a domain name
is just like buying real estate. There's a limited supply of
choice domain names and a frenzied demand. But you still have
the opportunity to register your unique domain name for less
than forty or fifty bucks. If you register a smart domain name,
its value may very well increase. But you will not want to sell
it unless you no longer need it.
Registering
a Domain Name
Getting
a domain name is a relatively simple matter. Typically it is
often done with the help of your Internet service provider. Ultimately,
either directly or indirectly, a "domain registrar"
is where domains are registered for a fee ranging from twenty
dollars to fifty dollars per year. The average web designer has
nothing to do with your registering a domain name and does not
offer this service. Nonetheless, you can expect valuable advice
from your web designer before you proceed.
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Domain
Name Availability -
Using a WHOIS Portal
The availability of the domain name you want can be checked using
any online "WHOIS" lookup portal. It does not cost
anything to use one of these portals. You can use them as often
as you like. But each WHOIS portal operates slightly differently.
Some portals will look through the entire WHOIS collection of
names. Others are unable to provide data regarding domains registered
through certain particular domain registrars, and they will usually
tell you so when you look up a domain name in that situation.
Also some WHOIS portals will tell you that a domain name is taken
or not taken but decline to reveal who has taken the domain.
And some WHOIS portals will come back with an answer that may
seem ambiguous such as "no data available, the domain you
entered may not exist" meaning that the domain name you
want is probably available. And finally, when you use a WHOIS
portal, you normally must be careful with punctuation and extensions.
Most WHOIS portals will do a lookup such as "FordMotors.com"
and tell you it is taken or "unavailable". But if you
enter "www.FordMotors.com" you will get an error message
because you are not supposed to type in anything but "FordMotors.com"
(without the www dot prefix). Also if you happen to accidentally
type in a comma instead of a period, you will get an error message.
Following
are a few good WHOIS portals. Use any one of these to see if
the domain name you want is available:
* VeriSign WhoIs - Tends to be comprehensive.
* Register.com -
* WhoIs.com -
* APlus.net -
Whatever
you do, don't assume a domain name is available without looking
it up on a WHOIS portal. Many people will just look for a web
site by typing the domain name on the URL line of their web browser.
If no web site comes up they may mistakenly assume it is available.
But in truth, many domain names are registered and not yet being
used. Or some speculator has registered them with no intent of
using them in order to sell them to the highest bidder.
Third
Party Domain Registration or Assistance
Some
web masters are willing to help you bypass the minor complexity
of domain name registration by either registering the domain
for you or guiding you through the process. The process varies.
But overall, you only need to deal with it once and then pay
the domain registration bill from the registrar once every year
or two.
Hosting
a Domain Name
Unless
you're a Unix nerd or well-off corporation with your own server
machines, chances are you will need an Internet Service Provider
(ISP). Once you have a registered domain name, you cannot use
it as a web address until it has what is called an "active
host". This simply means an ISP from whose hard drives your
web pages will be sent out to web surfers 24 hours a day, seven
days a week. Typically the web designer or "webmaster"
uploads pages to the ISP where they are made available online
to the world. If you have a registered domain name and it is
not actively hosted, it is said to be "parked". Most
domain registrars prefer you have an ISP before you register
a domain name although some registrars will forego this requirement.
Each
domain name has what is known as a domain name server (DNS).
The DNS is simply the server location on the Internet which is
expressed as a long number with a bunch of dots in it (not the
same as a web address). Each ISP has a unique DNS number. Each
domain name has a DNS number identifying the ISP hosting the
domain name either actively or simply parked. In most cases these
complexities can be handled by your web designer and your ISP.
So don't let the technical terminology and procedures intimidate
you. Once your domain name is registered and set up for active
hosting on an ISP server, it becomes the web address of your
web site. Then each time someone punches in your web address
on their browser, your web page is sent to them from the hard
drive of your Internet service provider.
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Multiple
Domain Names
In
many situations, someone may choose to have multiple domain names
for the same business or organization. This is usually not recommended
until you get rolling. But reasons vary. For instance, if you
have a really valuable trade name and you are afraid someone
may take it, you might want to register every variation you can
think of including "MyTradeName.com", "MyTradeName.net",
etc. But normally this is a waste of time unless the domain name
is hotter than molten gold. The dot com (".com") version
of any domain name is usually the best and good enough.
Multiple
domain names are sometimes useful when you may have divisions
of a business and each division is very different in its mission.
Typically you would not use a different domain name for each
department. That would be self defeating. But there are exceptions.
A large corporation may have a nonprofit foundation which will
usually be a different business entity and thus have a different
web address.
More
commonly, multiple domain names are used when a business or organization
has a long and short version of their name such as "InternationalBusinessMachines.com"
and "IBM.com". Anyone has a right to buy multiple domain
names for one purpose but the extra names may not be worth the
extra annual registration fees.
Directing
Domain Names
There
is great flexibility in the way a domain name can be directed
to a web address. Typically, your ISP is in charge of this. Your
domain name will direct to the home page of your web site, meaning
that anytime a web surfer punches in your domain name web address
(URL) in their web browser, your web home page will come up.
But you can also have multiple domain names directing to the
same home page if you wish. And your webmaster can make any web
page redirect to any other web page on Earth. For instance if
you own a summer camp and a winter retreat with two different
web sites, your webmaster could place a notice that the summer
camp is closed for the winter and the page will redirect in ten
seconds to your other web site for your winter retreat. Normally
these are simple matters and require no changes from your ISP
if it can be done in the web site itself.
Domain
Name Extensions
Dot
com domain names are the most common and thus the best ones in
most cases. There are also dot net, dot org, dot biz, dot info,
dot edu, etc. If I were looking for IBM online, I would try "IBM.com"
first because that's likely to be their web address. If that
failed, I'd try IBM.net or IBM.biz. Likewise, people who lose
your business card and think they remember your domain name will
assume its a dot com before they try dot net or something else.
Thus, in most cases you should register a domain name what ends
with a dot com extension. Also there is every chance that an
unrelated party may register essentially the same domain name
except for the extension. In that case the dot com web domain
will have an advantage over the nearly identical domain name
having the dot net or dot org extension. Extensions like dot
biz are good. But the dot coms will long remain the best because
they were most popular since the Internet became a major trend
in 1995.
Gentrifying
a Domain Name
In
most cases, time only improves your domain name. Your audience
knows where to find your web site. Eventually even the most reluctant
search engines will have your site totally indexed for all content,
thus making you more visible. Your domain name achieves "brand
identification" meaning it is like a familiar brand. Your
web site becomes an honored member of the online neighborhood
or the world. It represents the services or product you offer.
Anyone can see it even when you are sleeping at night or they
are too far away to call. Your domain name is "out there".
It is not a swift process to be seen. But once you have pegged
your domain name online for a length of time, your web site has
no way to go but up in popularity and audience interest. Having
a simple and intelligent domain name is in fact the first big
step in making your web site a household name.
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