Dedicated Hosting

Updates from November, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• 

  admin 2:19 pm on November 7, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Buy a Domain Name 

  

  A lot of domain owners have their names parked on pay per click advertising pages that will often display a clear notice whether or not the domain is for sale. You can enter names you are interested in your browser to see what the domain is currently being used for. If you land on one of those For Sale/PPC pages you can click on the For Sale link and make an offer for the domain. The owner will usually make a counter offer and the negotiations will continue from there.

  You will also find a lot of names for sale in the various domain name forums on the Internet (see our Free Resources section for links to the largest ones). A lot of domains have changed hands for very good prices in forum sales and if you spend some time in them you will also get to know a lot of the sellers making it easier to buy from a trusted source.

  Another option you have when you have a specific domain name in mind that you would like to have is to look up who owns the domain in the public WhoIs record. This record will show the current owner’s name and email address (unless they are using a WhoIs privacy service).

  You can then drop the owner an email inquiring whether or not they would be interested in selling the domain. This may not have a high success rate because many of these names will not be available for sale. Still, it never hurts to ask and once in awhile you might land a bargain.

  Before you make an offer on any domain name you should spend some time studying the market so you will have an idea of how much to bid. You don’t want to overpay but you will also be wasting your time (and the seller’s time) by making unrealistically low offers that are far below current market values. In most cases, you won’t even get a reply when you make such offers.

  On the other side of the coin, other types of names or particular extensions may be conspicuous by their absence. If the kind of name you have in mind rarely shows up with a high price tag attached, a motivated seller might consider a couple of hundred dollars for it. Unfortunately, when it comes to getting a real handle on domain values there is no substitute for study and experience.

  
   

  Reply Cancel reply

  Required fields are marked *

  Name *

  Email *

  Website

  

• 

  admin 2:02 pm on November 7, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Sell a Domain Name 

  Selling a domain is much more involved then just sending back a price. You need to do research. You need to think. You need to think well into the future. You need to find someone with a BIG idea. THAT is part of the sale. The domain is only as valuable as their idea. Again, blow away the 98% asap and stop wasting your time.

  The simplest way to market the domain name requires no extra effort after the domain name is bought. Just do nothing, and wait for a potential buyer to look up your domain name, see that it is already taken, and send you an offer to purchase it from you. As you can no doubt guess, the chances of success from such a passive method are fairly slim, unless you have somehow managed to reserve a truly fantastic name that everyone else missed.

  The next step up is to create a very simple page connected to that domain, with a short message such as “The following domain names are for sale. Please contact <e-mailaddress@domain.com> for more details.” followed by a list of the domain names for sale. The benefits of this sales method is that it requires very little time and effort, yet it allows potential buyers to at least visit your site on the web, even if there is nothing there.

  If you are prepared to devote a great deal of time and effort to marketing the domain name, there is only one possible line of attack: create a fully-fledged web site, attract visitors to the site and place a notice prominently somewhere on the site to indicate that the domain name is for sale. The decision to create an active site should not be made lightly; in order to attract sizeable numbers of visitors and increase the chances of selling your domain name, the site should provide interesting, useful information.

  The benefits of an active site are two-fold. Firstly, a site which attracts many visitors will have a greatly increased chance of catching a buyer’s eye in the fickle world of cyberspace. Secondly, if the site is popular enough, it could be put on the market as a going concern: the buyer purchases not only the rights to the domain name, but also the information [and readership] of the site. This is similar to the goodwill factor for shops: purchasing a successful bakery will cost more than purchasing a vacant shop and turning it into a bakery, as the daily flow of customers has been factored into the sales price. Equally, a successful, popular web page is worth more than an empty site.
   
• 

  admin 1:36 pm on November 7, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Domain Name Registration 

  The right to use a domain name is delegated by domain name registrars that are accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization charged with overseeing the name and number systems of the Internet. In addition to ICANN, each top-level domain (TLD) is maintained and serviced technically by an administrative organization operating a registry. A registry is responsible for maintaining the database of names registered within the TLD it administers. The registry receives registration information from each domain name registrar authorized to assign names in the corresponding TLD and publishes the information using a special service, the whois protocol.

  In the process of registering a domain name and maintaining authority over the new name space created, registrars use several key pieces of information connected with a domain:

  1. Administrative contact. A registrant usually designates an administrative contact to manage the domain name. The administrative contact usually has the highest level of control over a domain. Management functions delegated to the administrative contacts may include management of all business information, such as name of record, postal address, and contact information of the official registrant of the domain and the obligation to conform to the requirements of the domain registry in order to retain the right to use a domain name. Furthermore the administrative contact installs additional contact information for technical and billing functions.
  2. Technical contact. The technical contact manages the name servers of a domain name. The functions of a technical contact include assuring conformance of the configurations of the domain name with the requirements of the domain registry, maintaining the domain zone records, and providing continuous functionality of the name servers (that leads to the accessibility of the domain name).
  3. Billing contact. The party responsible for receiving billing invoices from the domain name registrar and paying applicable fees.
  4. Name servers. Most registrars provide two or more name servers as part of the registration service. However, a registrant may specify its own authoritative name servers to host a domain’s resource records. The registrar’s policies govern the number of servers and the type of server information required. Some providers require a hostname and the corresponding IP address or just the hostname, which must be resolvable either in the new domain, or exist elsewhere. Based on traditional requirements (RFC 1034), typically a minimum of two servers is required.
   
• 

  admin 1:25 pm on November 7, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Domain Names and Websites 

  New website owners often seem confused about how and when domain names come into play. The questions usually boil down to: "Does a website come with a domain name?" and "If not, how do I get a domain name?"

  Web hosting and domain name registration are usually separate services. Although your hosting company may give or sell you a domain name with your website, most hosting companies are not domain registrars, and chances are they’re procuring it from a third party. (Domain registrars often give you a website, but they’re usually not "full featured" websites, and another issue.)

  The fundamentals of domain management begin with two basic methods of directing domain names to your website. That is, the process that gets a surfer from the browser to your website involves a mechanism that takes the surfer (unbeknownst to him) to your domain name registrar and then to your website. The journey from your registrar to your website can be accomplished by one of two methods — "pointing" or "forwarding." It’s your choice as to which method to use.

  Although the menus for setting up these features vary from registrar to registrar, the concepts are the same. "Pointing" involves assigning a DNS (Domain Name Server) address, obtained from your hosting company, to your domain name painting.com. This is done at your registrar account.

  Then, you must inform your hosting company to "set up" painting.com on their end, if they have not yet done so. And this is where domain name setup and monthly fees at your hosting company come in.

  Let’s say you wanted to set up paintingheaven.com for your website. Instead of using the DNS method described above, you would simply "forward" it to painting.com, which would already be pointing to your website. In addition to being a little simpler, it’s likely you’ve just saved yourself some money.

  When a surfer enters paintingheaven.com, they simply get forwarded to your other name, painting.com, which is already pointing to your website. It’s almost as if the surfer entered painting.com directly. And you don’t need any additional setups at your hosting company when you use this method, no matter how many additional parked domain names you have.

  Be aware that some registrars charge extra for features such as "forwarding." But there’s no need to pay extra even for this.
   
• 

  admin 1:24 pm on November 7, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  How to Choose a Good Domain Name 

  Choosing a domain name can be as important to your company as choosing the company name. In fact, in several cases, companies have changed their name to their website domain because people recognized it more readily than the company name. So finding a domain name can be very important. When you’re choosing a domain name it should be something that you could live with if it were your company name. In fact, the best domains are your company name. Your current customers know your company name and they’re comfortable with it. Some of your customers may have already typed in your name with .com at the end to see if that’s your website. So if you can get a domain name that is your company name, you might have the perfect domain.

  It depends upon your domain name registrar, but in general domain names can be anywhere from 26 to 67 characters long. But just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should have a domain name that is over 30 or 40 characters long. Your customers need to type your domain in. Even if they’re clicking a link, that link needs to be typed in by someone. Longer domains are often harder to remember. I recommend sticking with domain names that are no longer than 20 characters or so.

  Camel case is when you see two words that are typically separated written as one word with the inner word capitalized. Camel case is very popular for domains because even though the domain is registered in all lowercase, you can write it in camel case to differentiate the words. But you can also use hyphens or underscores to separate the words. Dashes are considered preferable to camel case if you want search engines to recognize separate words in your domain name. However, search engines are getting better and better at reading the domains with or without dashes. The problem is that dashes are not as user friendly to customers. People are more likely to write your domain name without dashes, and then possibly even end up on your competitor’s site. So if you can avoid dashes in the domain name, that’s better.

  Don’t use words that are tough to spell. Similarly, don’t use words that are spelled differently in some countries.