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Domain Name Registration
To
Register or Renew your Domain Name Click Here!
A Domain Name
is the core of your online identity. It is the address used to make
you accessible on the web. Once registered, a
Domain Name
is yours and yours alone. It may not be used by anyone else on the
Internet.
Domain Names
always have two or more parts, separated by periods. The part on
the left (the secondary
domain) is the name you choose such as “mydomain”. The right component is
what is known as a top-level domain name (such as
.com, .net or .biz).
Computers on the
Internet use IP (Internet Protocol) numbers (e.g., 123.452.06.31)
to locate other computers. Internet users would have a difficult time remembering these long strings
of numbers to find sites, so Domain Names were developed to translate IP numbers into easy-to-remember domain
names.
The entity, organization, or individual who is the owner/lease holder
of a particular
Domain Name
is known as the Registrant. When
Registering
a Domain Name for a Company or Organization be sure that the
Company or Organizations name is listed as the Registrant if you wish
for the Company to have complete control over ownership/lease hold.
Steal A
Domain Name (a Division of Piraino Enterprises) is an ICANN accredited entity which acts
on the behalf of a Registrant regarding Domain
Name Registrations or modifications.
Registrars require Primary and Secondary Name Servers and IP Numbers
for every domain registered (DNS). Every domain name has to be linked
to this information for it to be valid (i.e., each Domain Name
needs to have an address attached to it). At the time of registration
some people do not yet have Name Server information (which is
provided by Piraino Enterprises), therefore
Piraino Enterprises offers
'Domain Parking' (free of charge)
on our servers. It is a convenient way to hold or 'Park'
Domain
Name(s) for
an extended amount of time if you are not ready to use them.
Registration
for Domain Names needs to be renewed based on a scheduled yearly
interval. This gives the Registrant (you) and the Registry an
opportunity to update contact information and settle on the payment of
the registration fee(s).
8 Tips On Choosing A Domain Name
The importance of having your own domain name cannot
be over-emphasized. If you are running an online business and don't
yet have a domain name, you are probably losing thousands of dollars
worth of business because of this. Why? Simply because, unless you
have a domain name your customers will simply not feel comfortable
buying from you. In order to sell on the web, you need to build up
your credibility. Having your own domain name is the first step in
that process.
So, now that you are convinced that you need your own domain, how
should you name your domain? Here are a few do's and don'ts regarding
this. While the availability of domains which follow all of these
rules may have become limited, try to follow as many of these rules as
possible.
1) Consider naming your company and registering a domain name
starting with the digit 1. Better still, choose a name starting with
"1st". Why? When people create directories of web sites, they have to
decide how they are going to classify those web sites. One way to
classify web sites is to list them on the basis of how "good" they
are. Another way is to simply list them in chronological order (and
sometimes in reverse chronological order) based on the dates the sites
were submitted.
The other, and far more popular classification system is alphabetic.
Now, the first character in the ASCII chart which can be used as the
first character in a domain name is the digit 0. The next character is
the digit 1. Normally, you wouldn't want to start a domain name with
the digit 0 since it might send all the wrong signals to your
customers. For instance, if we had named our domain
0computerrepair.com, it would be telling our customers that we cannot
give them any computer repair at all! Hence, unless you really have a
good reason for doing so, you should avoid using domain names starting
with the digit 0.
Instead name your domains starting with the digit 1. More
specifically, name your domains starting with "1st". This will ensure
that you get a high alphabetical placement in those directories which
classify sites alphabetically. Furthermore, depending on the industry
in which your company operates, it may also send the right message
across to your customers - it indicates that you are the first company
to consider in your industry.
And guess what - the mother of all directories - Yahoo! - lists web
sites alphabetically based on the Title that had been submitted.
Yahoo! wants the Title to be the same as the official name of the
site. This implies that sites which start with the digit 1 will be
placed at or near the top of a category. Assuming that you can get
your site listed in Yahoo!, just look at what a top ranking in one of
the categories in Yahoo!'s directory can do for the popularity of your
site!
However, this strategy of creating domain names starting with the
digit 1 will not work with The Open Directory (www.pirainoenterprises.com).
The Open Directory will only consider the portion of your domain that
is really meaningful. This implies that it will ignore the "1" or the
"1st" in your domain and will consider the portion of your domain
after the "1" or the "1st". For instance, a site named 1stXYZ.com
would be listed with the sites starting with X, and not 1. Of course,
in order to 'take care' of both Yahoo! and The Open Directory, you
could have your domain start with "1st" and then have a proper English
word starting with A after that.
Furthermore, a small caveat here. If you are going to name a domain
starting with "1st", also register the domain which starts with "ist".
Then, have the domain containing the vowel "i" redirect visitors to
the domain containing the digit 1. This is because people will often
type in 'ist' when they mean '1st' and vice-versa. Also, for
every email alias that you create for the domain containing "1st "
(like sales@1stcompany.com), you should create the corresponding email
alias for the domain containing "ist" (like
sales@istcompany.com).
Also, this strategy of registering domains starting with '1st' is
mainly applicable if yours is a somewhat new company. If you own a
well established business with a well known name you simply cannot
change your company name and your domain name because you will
confuse your existing customers.
2) Don't want to start your domain name with "1st"? Consider
starting it with "A", "B" or "C". Although domains starting with A, B
or C will be listed after those starting with the 10 digits, you can
still get a pretty high alphabetical placement with A, B or C. Also,
since The Open Directory considers only the meaningful part of a
domain, domains starting with A will be the ones which are listed
first in The Open Directory. However, please don't name your domain in
the form of AAASomeCompany.com - it'll make your company seem like a
fly by night operator. (And you won't get a high alphabetical
placement in The Open Directory either - it ignores the "AAA" bit when
it decides the alphabetical placement of sites).
3) Try to register a domain which contains a popular keyword
applicable for your industry. This will help your customers remember
your domain name better. Furthermore, for searches conducted in
Yahoo!, a higher ranking will be given to those web sites which
contain the keyword in the title. And according to Yahoo!'s
instructions, the Title should always be the official name of the
site. Thus, if the domain name contains a keyword, you will be able to
include the keyword in the Title which will improve your ranking in
Yahoo!. As a minor side-benefit, this can also help to marginally
increase the ranking of your web site in some search engines.
4) Don't register a domain containing the digit 0 in it, unless
it is going to be part of a recognizable word (like 1000 or 2000).
This is because the digit 0 is often confused with the vowel O. If you
feel that you must register a domain with the digit 0, make sure that
you also register the corresponding domain containing the vowel O.
5) Try to avoid using domains that contain '2' for "To', '4'
for 'For', 'u' for 'You' and so on even if they seem to make your
domain sound 'cool'. Your customers will easily get confused if you do
so. However, if you must register such a domain, register the expanded
form of the domain as well, i.e. if you are registering
greatthings2do.com, also register greatthingstodo.com.
6) Should you or should you not use hyphens in your domain?
Well, the jury is out on the question. While some Internet marketers
will tell you that domains containing hyphens are difficult to
remember, spell and pronounce, others will state that domains
containing hyphens are, in fact, easy to remember, spell and
pronounce. Go figure. Personally, I would feel that whether or not
hyphens are helpful has to be determined on a case by case basis.
However, if you register a domain containing hyphens, make sure that
you also register the corresponding domain without the hyphens. Once
you do that, you can simply redirect visitors from the domain without
the hyphens to the domain with the hyphens.
7) Don't make your primary domain too long. Even though 67
character domains are a reality, exactly how many of your users will
want to type a domain name like
thisisanexampleofaverylargedomainname.com?
8) Always use ".com". If yours is a serious business site,
avoid using domains ending in "nu" or "to". Your business will have
little credibility if you do so. You can consider registering a ".net"
domain, but since most people are familiar with ".com", it is better
to stick to convention.
While it is unlikely that you will be able to register a domain which
satisfies all the rules that I outlined above, try to follow as many
of the above rules as you can.
To
Register or Renew your Domain Name Click Here!
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