Picking a domain name should be easy, right? Why, I’ll just use my business name. Not so fast, Sparky. A good bit of thought should be given to selecting a domain name.

A Cautionary Note

Picking a domain name is like getting married. You are going to have to stick with it till the bitter end. People the use your site will come to know it by the domain name. Repeat visitors will often simply type in the domain name to get to the site, better known as “type in traffic”. As an example, do you search for “Amazon” when you want to buy a book or do simply type in amazon.com? If Amazon were to change its domain name to Desert, there would be a lot of confusion. The same goes with your domain. Once you pick something, stick with it.

Your Choices

Well, the obvious choice is your business name, but it may not be the best. There are four significant issues to consider.

First, is there something about your business name that makes using it as a domain an unwise choice? This situation typically arises if you have a long business name or have plural words. “Halstatt’s Rip’n Marketing Campaigns, Inc.” is going to be a horrible domain name. Clients are going to find it difficult to type in such a domain name.

Double letter problems are a second issue that is entirely unique to the Internet. What if Sams Salon wants to use its business name as a domain? The “s” at the end of first word and beginning of the second can cause confusion. Is the domain name Samssalon.com or Samsalon.com? Confusing your users is a bad way to run a site.

The third issue concerns the nature of your site and search engine optimization. If you are shooting for a particular keyword phrase, you may be better off using that keyword phrase in your domain name. Google, for instance, looks at the domain name when evaluating a site. If the words in your domain name are spaced with dashes, many believe it will help in the ranking process. This is why you see so many xxx-xxxx-xxx.com domain names on the net. If your business focuses on a very specific area, strong consideration should be given to using relevant keywords in your domain name.

Finally, your domain name should end in “.com” and I don’t want to hear any argument or see any rolling of the eyes. The simple fact is that when people think of sites, they always type in .com. Yes, there are other extensions and .us, .net, .biz, etc., may seem unique, but it kills your traffic. Pavlov and his dog experiments had it right. People have been mentally conditioned to type in .com, so don’t select any other ending. If you do, a smart competitor will register the .com version of your name to get some free traffic. If you are really lucky, a porn site will do it!

Halstatt Pires is with Marketing Titan- an Internet marketing and advertising company comprised of a search engine optimization specialist providing meta tag optimization services and Internet marketing consultant providing internet marketing solutions through integrated design and programming services.

If you are looking for a domain name for a website, or if you want to invest in domain names, it can be difficult to figure out what to register.

There are so many domain name extensions. What is a domain name extension? A domain extension, or tld (top level domain), is the final part of a domain name, the part that comes after the dot on the right. Examples of common domain name extensions are .com, .net, .org, .info, and .biz. These are also called gtlds (generic top level domains). So, for example, with the domain name somename.com, somename is the name and .com is the domain extension (tld).

There are also country code top level domain extensions (cctlds). Some examples of these are .us (USA), .cn (China), .in (India), .de (Germany), and .co.uk (UK). .TV (Tuvala) is also a country code extension but it is often sold as a general tld.

The most common and well known tld is .com. .Com was the first extension to be used extensively by businesses online. It is considered by many to be the king of all tlds because of how recognizable it is, the clout it’s use offers and because it is the extension most likely to be typed-in (people will actually type the .com domain name in their browsers to go directly to the site even if they are not familiar with an actual site that may be there – this is free traffic in a sense). This can occur because people may assume all sites end in .com or that .com somehow is part of any name or it can occur due to “bleed” from other tlds – people see a name with some extension and when they go to look for it or type it in, they put .com instead. For many, .com truly is the internet.

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Once available to only a small group, .IN domain names will soon be available to everyone who wants one. Companies, individuals, and organizations in India and abroad will be eligible. Show your pride by using a .IN domain name — the symbol of India’s future!

With India emerging as a global destination for IT outsourcing/off-shoring, Indian organisations should change the domain names of their websites and e-mail IDs to sport .in at the end, just like other countries.

Beginning in early 2005, anyone who wants to register a .IN domain name will be allowed to. Registration will also be open to parties inside and outside of India, without restriction. For the first time, domains will be available at the second level — easy-to-use and easy-to-remember domains such as “mydomain.in”. Registration at the third level will also be open. There will be a variety of popular extensions available, such as mydomain.co.in, myorganization.org.in, and more!

The new era for .IN began with a Sunrise Period. Owners of registered Indian trademarks or service marks who wish to protect their marks were given the opportunity to apply for .IN domain names before the general public. Sunrise applications taken from January 1 to January 21, 2005.Open registration for the general public was launched on February 16, 2005.

Unlimited registrations of indian domains is available in the following zones. Registration is available freely to all parties worldwide, and there are no nexus or other qualifications:

* .in
* co.in
* net.in
* org.in
* firm.in
* gen.in (general)
* ind.in (individuals)

The following zones are reserved for use by qualified organizations in India.

* ac.in (Academic)
* res.in (Indian research institutes)
* gov.in (Indian government)
* mil.in (Indian Military)

For more info visit : http://www.aalphanet.com/IN-domains.htm

The security of domain name registrations is an increasing concern for domain name registrants and registrars. However, there are steps you can take to increase the security of your domain name registrations.
Domain Name Security is often neglected by most organisations. Infact a large number of hacking attempts do not really need to happen at the Web Server level. Most hackers can fairly disrupt your business by simply hijacking your Domain Name.

Most Registrars assign paramount importance to Domain Security. Its important you chosoe the RIGHT Registrar and who has implemented several security measures and safety locks to prevent your Domain Name from getting Hijacked or taken over.

There are basically TWO basic options offered by Registrars :

Password based Security

All Domain Names have a password based security. All Domain Names belonging to a particular Customer can only be modified through the right Username and Password combination of that customer.

Domain LOCK

– this is a MUST have for all due to the recently announced TRANSFER Policy by ICANN (Visit : http://www.icann.org/transfers/policy-12jul04.htm)

Several TLD Registries have the ability to create what is known as a Domain LOCK. Most Registrars offers this feature to Customers whereby you may place a LOCK on your Domain Name. Once a Domain Name is locked NO modifications can be made to the Domain by ANYONE. The Domain Name may not even be transferred to another Registrar. The Domain will remain in a LOCKED status until you yourself choose to remove the LOCK. This feature is by far the most powerful feature to ensure that noone can make any changes to your Domain Name without your express approval.
Ok..what should you do now ?

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This is an important topic for anyone who currently has a website and domain name,
as well as for anyone interested in building an internet identity. I am sharing not only
from personal experience (I have five active websites online at this time) but from my
business, Connecticut Secretary, and the projects I have been involved with in creating
and building websites for my customers.

Oftentimes customers will approach me after they have already chosen a domain name.
What I investigate first is who actually owns that domain name. I no longer ask the
customer directly, because 99.9% of the time the response is always “I do!” when in fact
many of them unwittingly do not. Determining this is an easy step; you simply go to an
independent domain registrar such as Register.com, http://www.register.com, and type in
the domain name and choose whois when the results pop up. Feel free to go and type in
connecticutsecretary.com and choose whois.
You will see that I, Kate Smalley, am listed as the owner and administrative contact for
Connecticut Secretary. The technical contact is simply the hosting service I have chosen.

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