Archive for Domain Names
Top Domain Registration Services
Posted by: | CommentsTypically, whether they know it or not, when someone talks about founding a website, they’re usually discussing two different elements. Sure, there’s the actual design of the site, as well as the choice of a web host and web hosting medium. But before all of that can even get out of dry dock, the website must first have a professionally registered domain name. That is, unless, they’re willing to saddle their hard work and livelihood with a third-party URL, like a .tumblr account, or some other derivative thereof. But how does one actually go about registering a domain name? Where does one go to do such a thing? And hang it all, what does it even mean to register a domain name? Before you lose your shirt, we’d like to offer a little bit of reassurance. Below, you’ll find our complete guide to not only registering a domain name, but also finding the right registrar for your business. We aren’t big on introductions, so without any further hubbub, here’s your all inclusive guide to registering a domain, as well as our top picks for actually doing so!
What is a Domain Registrar?
Before we dive into the companies that we actually suggest you take your business to, we feel we should first explain why registering your domain name is important. To begin with, not registering the domain of your choosing simply isn’t an option. Do you ever wonder how sites like Yahoo! manage to acquire each and every Yahoo! subdirectory, including the main yahoo.com domain name? To put things simply, Yahoo registered each of these points with a certified registrar, solidifying their claim to them.
The idea is relatively simple: When a child is born, the parents saddle the youngster with a name, a name that identifies the individual and also makes it easier for the government to track the little bundle of joy. Perhaps the latter is a bit of paranoia, but it’s much the same idea with the birth of a website. When creating a new website, you must assign a name to it that your viewers can access. And just as new parents submit a name to the State, so will you submit your site’s name to a certified registrar. These are bodies that legally bind and legitimize your claim to that domain name, preventing any other user from obtaining it without your permission—and typically a hefty check! You see, unlike babies, websites cannot have the same name. Otherwise, there’d be no way to access the content your after. This requires places like domain registrars to keep a running tab on all the Web’s domain names, recording who owns what, and what has already been taken.
If you’re still somewhat confused, think about a domain name in terms of real estate. When constructing a new home, you typically must first purchase the land the house will sit on. A domain name is the same concept as that land underneath your foundation. Without putting your name to it, others will have on idea where to go to find your content—or, in this metaphor, your house.
The 5 largest domain name registrars in the world, according to WebHosting.Info, are GoDaddy, Enom, Tucows, Network Solutions, and Schlund+Partner. Check out their numbers below.
All ICANN-Accredited Domain Registrars can be found at http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html. But lets have a closer look at some of the most popular domain name registrars in the United States.
GoDaddy
http://www.godaddy.com/domains/search.aspx.
GoDaddy is a web host and domain registrar that has been around for almost literally ages. If you haven’t heard of them, or seen their expensively scandalous Super Bowl averts, we’d very much like to know what rock you’ve been hiding under. Essentially, if you’re looking for the most trusted and secure way to register a domain, GoDaddy is your best ticket. The site has suffered some recent controversy concerning the authorship of SOPA, but on the whole, GoDaddy benefits from a superb track record, as well as an expanse of services designed to benefit you and your site. If you’d also like to host with the provider, you’ll be granted discounts as far as domain registration. No to mention the company comes loaded with a heap of additional tools and services that help you in the creation and modification of a new website. All in all, GoDaddy is trusted, large, and budget-oriented.
Enom
http://www.enom.com/domainsearch/default.aspx.
We hesitate to mention Enom, but then again, we just didn’t feel right leaving it out. All in all, this domain registrar handles something like 10 million unique domain names, which is staggering to think about. However, they can only claim about 8 per-cent of the total market share. This is likely because of their slightly cheaper rates (about $35 a month). That being said, if you choose to register your domain name with Enom, you’re guaranteed one of the most secure and impressively solid performances in the business. In essence, you’ll get what you pay for and then some, though the payments will certainly be forthcoming.
Register.com
http://www.register.com/register-domain-names.rcmx.
All together, this registrar has handled something like 2.3 million domains and counting. Their market share is somewhat limited (only about 2 per-cent) but what gets our goat about Register.com is their simply stellar support network. If you have any complications or questions, you can rest assured the provider will work with you to find a solution. The price is on-par with Enom, but if you’re looking for an unbeatably secure and steadfast way to register your choice domain name, there’s no better option.
Moniker
http://www.moniker.com/domainname.jsp.
Have you picked the perfect domain name, only to find the listing taken by some lowly name squatter? If so, you may choose to invest in Moniker. The company is not only a domain registrar, but also a domain broker. This means they’ll work with whomever has your domain name to procure the listing, guaranteeing you the market and Web presence you’ve been looking for. Obviously, their rates will be higher for such services, but if you have to have that one domain name, there’s no better solution.
Domain Name Search
Finding a great domain name is an important part of every web project and the process of registering such domain name is getting harder and harder as many of them are already taken.
Luckily there are dozens of domain search tools that will save your time during this process. One of them is pcnames.com, an online domain search tool that helps finding a domain name in a more organized way. The search results displayed as-you-type, showing the availability of the most popular domain extensions. With the instant domain search feature, pcnames.com makes searching for domain names a breeze. There is no more waiting time on the next page to load to display your results.
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Top 10 Domain Registrars
Posted by: | CommentsDomain registrars are necessary for building a website. If you want your website to have a professional domain, you will need to sign up with a specific domain hosting website. The domain is important because most Internet users prefer a domain that is short and sweet and ends with .com. The only way you can have your website end with .com is to essentially lease one by signing up with a domain registrar and purchasing the rights of use.
There are lots of domain hosting websites to choose from which makes it difficult to decide which one you will use for your personal website. However, there are quite a few domain registrars that take the lead over all the other domain registrars on the Internet. These domain websites also accept a variety of payments including PayPal, which is definitely convenient and safe.
Below is a list of some of the top domain registrars on the Internet today:
GoDaddy
This Company has been around for such a long time and own just about 30 percent of the market share. This website is reputable and trusted; it is a company that you know will do the right job and never scam you. During the first year of services, you will be charged around $11 a month. This amount seems quite affordable when you think of all that the domain registrars will do for you. They have handled over 34 million domain names in the past and present and will continue to handle more domain names in the future as more and more people build their own websites. GoDaddy offers so much more than just a domain name to the customers that they provide service to. GoDaddy also offers email accounts, web hosting, online security products and website builders. All of these important tools have been helping people do better in business which also enables them to have more success with their website and, in return, make more money with it as well.
Enom
Enom is a good website for domain hosting but it has a long way to go to catch up to GoDaddy in the market share. Enom only owns about 8 percent of the market share. Customers who use Enom will typically have to pay around $35 a month which is just too much to some people. This is the main reason why many people prefer other domain registrars that are much more affordable. That is not to say that Enom does not provide excellent service, because it surely does. Enom has handled only a little after 10 million domain names.
TuCows
The only way to get domain names from TuCows is by going to their affiliate sites. They only own about 6 percent of the market share. TuCows has handled close to 8 million domain names which is still a long way to go to even come close to catching up with GoDaddy. TuCows charges $15 a month for the first year of service. The cost of service is definitely cheaper than Enom but is still more expensive than GoDaddy. TuCows also sell other types of internet services on their website.
NetworkSolutions
NetworkSolutions offer domain service solutions like no other. They only have 5 percent of the market share and have handled over 6 million domain names. Much like Enom, they charge about $35 per month for the first year of service.
Schlund+Partner
Schlund are the leader of the most Europe domain registrar names. They currently own over 5 million of the Europe domain names. Their domain services are only for people with 1&1 internet which is why they only own about 4 percent of the market share. For the first year of services, you will be charged about $16 per month.
MelbourneIt
This site offers domain names in various spaces which includes com, org, biz, info and edu. As of right now, their market share is 3.5 percent. They’ve handled over 4 million domain names and charge $35 for service.
Wildwestdomains
Wildwestdomains only owns about 3 percent of the market share. They have handled over 3 million domain names. The website also offers wholesales during their first year to new customers who want to use their services.
Resellerclub
This website has some competitive prices which is why they are slowly gaining popularity. As of right now, they own 2.1 percent of the market. They have handled over 2.4 million domain names and offer wholesale prices for customers who are interested in signing up for several domain names with them.
Register
This website offers a support system that is quite amazing and is the best thing that they seem to have going for them. They only have 2 percent of the market share. They have handled 2.3 million domain names and charge nearly $35 for the first year of service.
Moniker
This website can help you choose the right name for your own website, even if it was already registered before. They also provide auctions on domains and a domain brokerage. They currently have 2.4 percent of the market share. They have handled almost 3 million domain names and charge $8 for the first year of service.
Conclusion
Bellow are the market share stats of the top domain registrars by Webhosting.info:
It can be hard choosing a domain registrar due to the expansive providers. However, these are just some of the domain hosts that are currently on the market. Amongst these ten different domain hosts, there are a bunch of other domain registrars as well.
Most people would probably advise you to go with GoDaddy because it has been around for such a long time and is also cheaper than all of the other websites. Affordability and dependability are two things that many people look for when they are putting their website in the hands of someone else. It is ultimately your decision as to which domain registrar you will go with. Just make sure that you make the right decision and choose one that will have a lot to offer you.
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NameCheap Vs. GoDaddy
Posted by: | CommentsNameCheap and GoDaddy are two separate domain websites. If you want o own a website that ends in .com without any of that extra advertisement for free sites in the URL, you will need to pick out a domain, which will cost you. However, while it is not free and you will need to buy a domain, you can get great deals on your domain with both of these websites. NameCheap and GoDaddy are constantly on the top five and top ten list for websites that offer domains. While these websites both have something in common, offering domain names at a decent price, there are several differences between the two which can help you decide which website you will use for your domain. When you are building a website, having a domain is a necessity which is why it is so important for you to do the research to find out which will be the best.
The Cost of Using NameCheap
The cost of a domain name at NameCheap is less than $10. Believe it or not, the actual cost is $9.98 and you will receive a free subscription to WhoIs Protection for an entire year. Below you can see the pricing for popular domain extentions:
WhoIs is important because it protects your website and private information. You can also find coupon codes that you can use to make the cost of $9.98 even cheaper than before. For the month of December alone, there are three separate coupons available for NameCheap. One coupon will take of .88 cents for the purchase and the other two codes will help you save 10% during your first month of usage. Not only is NameCheap absolutely cheap, it is also a reliable and dependable website. There are hundreds of thousands of users who can vouch for the website in its dependability in providing and protecting all of its users who trust in the website for their domain wants and needs.
Importance of WhoIs Protection
There are plenty of people who have never heard of WhoIs Protection. Each website owner has their own WhoIs record. On the record, private information is provided which will include your personal address, e-mail, house phone number, cell phone number and possibly even more. This may not seem like a bad thing but this is the way that spammers will work to harass you with junk mail and spam e-mail that you don’t need. You should always want to keep your private information PRIVATE and WhoIs helps with that task. When you sign up for domain with NameCheap, you will receive a free one year subscription to WhoIs Protection. After the first full year free, you can continue your subscription for the low price of $2.88 each year. Honestly, you cannot beat that, especially since your first year with NameCheap will offer this great protection for free.
The Cost of Using GoDaddy
The cost GoDaddy, while still cheaper than some, will cost you a bit more than name cheap. The price for .com extension domain with GoDaddy will cost you $11.99. Here is the pricing for the popular extensions:
You will sometimes be able to find coupon codes to help you reduce the cost of this price but NameCheap happens to offer many more coupons for your convenience. If you want WhoIs Protection with your GoDaddy domain, and you should since it is a means of protecting you and your personal information, you will need to pay $8.99 a month. GoDaddy does not offer free WhoIs protection for your first year of usage and the cost of protection is more expensive than it would cost if you were to have domain with NameCheap instead. While the cost is more expensive than NameCheap, there are still some people who swear by this particular domain website.
GoDaddy has been around for more than a decade and has been offering its services to people from all over the world who are interested in creating and developing their own domain. GoDaddy is reliable. It just costs a lot more than NameCheap when you add up the price each month along with the cost of WhoIs protection each month and the fact that there are not nearly as many coupons for GoDaddy as there are for NameCheap. Another problem with GoDaddy is, sometimes they offer coupon codes but there is usually a catch to that. In most cases, the coupon codes are only offered to people who are buying tons of domain names at once. If you only need one domain name, there is no purpose for buying tons of other domain names which means the coupon code would do nothing for you. GoDaddy will also try to encourage you to buy web hosting with them in order to receive special discount codes for your domain.
When you attempt to buy GoDaddy, you will notice there are other items in your cart that you did not even want to buy. Of course, you do not have to buy these items but GoDaddy definitely tries to push it to the point where you feel forced to buy these different items. All you need is a domain name and you should not have to feel that way when trying to get your domain. NameCheap understands this and never tries to push other items into your shopping cart. They are a reliable and honest business that cares about customers where it seems as though GoDaddy does not care nearly as much as they should.
Conclusion
While both of these domain websites have a good reputation on the Internet, when compared, it is obvious that NameCheap is the better choice. Not only will save money, you will have an abundance of coupons to choose from and you will not feel forced to buy anything else except for what you need which is a domain. Both of these websites have received positive reviews from hundreds and thousands of users. It is ultimately your decision as to which website you will use for your domain but if you are interested in reliability and honestly along with cheap prices, NameCheap is obviously the best choice to make.
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Picking up Expired Domains – Not Always Fun, but There’s a Way
Posted by: | CommentsThe number of domain names that are available is, if not technically infinite, effectively so. This is one of the many reasons why few people go through the irritating process of trying to re-register expired domains. Even if you were the person who originally owned the domain and you have a significant amount of branding on it, changing domain names is common. You can usually get something close enough to your original name.
Nonetheless there will always be someone that will really want to try to pick up that expired domain. Maybe it’s their family name. Maybe it’s the company name that goes back 100 years. Whatever the reason, these customers will always be there. If you’re one of them, then as long as you’re going to do this, you might as well know how to do it right.
“Expired” doesn’t exactly mean Expired
The first thing that you need to know is that there is a grace period that goes along with a domain name’s expiration date. How long this grace period lasts is determined by the domain’s registrar, and can even be different for different top-level domains. You will want to inquire with them specifically. During this grace period the original owner of the domain name, and only the original owner, can re-register it at normal rates.
Once this period ends then there is usually a “redemption period”. This amounts to about the same thing, except that the original owner must now pay a higher fee. Again, though, no one else can touch it during this phase.
Even then there’s more
If the redemption period lapses, then one of two things happen. First, the registrar can immediately open the domain name up for re-registration by anyone. It is best if this does not happen. Why?
Because the world wide web is packed with digital vultures ready to pounce on an available domain seconds after it re-enters the marketplace. You will have virtually no chance of keeping up with these outfits. Once they register them, then you’ll be looking at some exorbitant fee to make it yours.
This isn’t to say that if your domain goes on auction that you’ll be able to get it automatically, however, you will have a fighting chance. Domain name harvesters are looking for profit, and profit is all but guaranteed if they can snatch up a domain name for a few bucks. The higher the price goes, the less it’s worth, from an investment perspective, for them. They’re making a bet, after all. They don’t know for certain that anyone will want it.
Is it all worth it?
If you’re ready to deal with this hassle, then simply keep an eye on the registrar. Find out from them whether or not the domain is going to go up for auction. Then do like any good auction attendee: show up, and play it smart. Remember what we said: there are nearly an infinite number of many domains. Before shelling out a few hundred, or even thousands of dollars for your dream name, ask yourself whether you can get by with an alternative. Quite a lot of web sites have discovered that they can.
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Avoiding Domain Name Scams and Dead Ends
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the first thing that any new web master thinks of for their potential web site is its domain name. The domain name is among your companies main forms of branding, and hence, focusing on the domain name is understandable. What we have to remember is that along with it comes the people willing to milk these new users out of their cash with the lure of something “new” that will give them an edge. You can check the domain name availability on pcnames.com.
As of December 2009 more than 84 million .com domain names alone existed, meaning that those new to the game are finding all of the best words and phrases long since squeezed out. The desire to find an work around this problem may seem tempting. Here’s why, for the most part, you don’t want to fall for such tactics.
Beware of new formats
Now and then you’ll get some exciting piece of spam mail or other advertisement talking about the new top level domains that exist and how you need to register. “Register www.oh.yes right now before someone else does!” The businessman in you may want to beat other people to the punch, but hold your horses. This is almost always a mirage.
If the exciting solicitation is over a new top-level domain, know that the adoption of these is a slow, agonizing process that often takes years to extend over the web. Even if the new top-level domain does exist, often its zones are not picked up by everyone, meaning that not everyone will see your site even if the domain is otherwise operational.
Even worse sometimes only alphanumerics and dashes (“-”) are allowed. The reason this is worse than the top-level domain problem is that in addition to your domain not necessarily propagating, server software may not be setup to handle this new syntax, and with the potential security problems inherent to it no host would change this setting just for you.
Stay away from the reselling racket
You might instead get an offer to purchase a domain name. These aren’t scams: they are domains which are valid, correctly registered, which work and which can be safely transferred to your name for operation. That doesn’t, though, mean that it’s worth the price. It’s now commonplace for domain names to be simple combinations of words and numbers that are easy and catchy to remember but which aren’t yet taken (example: westernsaturn.com). Domains are cheap enough now that paying more for someone’s leftovers usually just isn’t worth it.
Don’t even think at this point about trying to get into this market, either. As stated, most good names are taken, and there are tons of people fighting for the expired ones.
If it becomes obvious that some top-level domain is well supported, such as .CO, and is being used by the business world in a serious capacity, only then should you consider jumping in. If not, there’s no reason not to stick with what works for everyone else, and just go with modernmachomanlyman.com (indeed, that’s available too).
If you have number of domains think of choosing multiple domain hosting and host unlimited domains on one account.
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Multiple domains – When Will This Benefit Your Endeavors?
Posted by: | CommentsFrom the dawn of web hosting, one of the most commonly offered features for a user’s account was the ability to host multiple domains under a single account. This was a welcomed feature for those reselling accounts or performing website design work for a number of different clients. It was also a good thing for individuals whose projects became so sprawling that it made more sense to host them under multiple domains than to try to keep them all under one URL roof.
This naturally costs money, though, so it’s not as if setting up this kind of arrangement is the right idea by default. Furthermore, multiple domain names can potentially create more confusion than clarity. On top of that, there are different types of domains that you can use to spread your site out. Thus, which of these options is the best idea for you?
How diverse is your site?
The main question you want to ask as your site is expanding is whether or not some part of it is so unique that you want its URL to help solidify its individual branding. Let’s consider a hypothetical example.
Let’s say that your web site is for a car rental service. You have many different types of cars that you rent. Let’s now also say that there is a new type of car that is so different from the rest that it creates its own unique buzz and, as a result, you have a special type of rental arrangement setup for: call it “LightningCar.” This car may warrant its own coverage and thus, you will want people to be able to look up and focus on the vehicle independently. For a case like this you would want to create, perhaps, lightningcarrental.com. This would be easier to remember than http://www.companynamerental.com/lightningcar/, and shorter to put into advertisements.
Also remember sub domains
An important and underused option to remember is that of the subdomain. If many people know your main domain name and you would prefer not to switch from it, then remember that most hosts allow you the option of subdomain.companyname.com. Besides, leaving your main name in tact, it also means that you avoid new domain registrar fees.
Advantages of all domains
Remember that, if you choose either of these options, you aren’t just giving users a new web site address. If you have employees, then they will be able to put bob@lightningcarrental.com on their business cards. This will also look better and cleaner in advertisements: though the tech world accepts the realities of hosting, you don’t want a driver looking at your ad on a billboard and trying to remember a URL with three or four unique words in it.
When you approach this question what you want to ask yourself is whether your secondary or subordinate web site really is enough of its own venture to warrant the new name. Typically the answer is “no.” But if you really are pursuing a new direction that has its own fingerprint, then this is a valid and commonly used option.