It's one of those frustrating things that can happen when we're setting up an online business. The business idea, the name, and the details for all the other steps fall into place. Except…the perfect dot com domain for our site is already taken. Generally speaking, .com domains are the most sought after. They're what people think of first when they type in a domain name. If we use a different domain extension, we risk losing traffic to the site with the .com extension. Of course when we want a country-specific domain extension, the extension for the country we have in mind has precedence over a .com one. Or we may have to settle for a domain other than the .com variation if nothing available in .com is what we want. And if our business serves or represents a specific community and we can have a domain extension that specifies that place, isn't that even better? Sometimes we don't get what we think we're getting.

Country code top-level domains (ccTLD)
Every country has its own top-level domain (domain extension). An important point to remember is that registry authorities in the country of each ccTLD have control over the registration of domains using their TLD. How does YourCompanyName.la sound? LA, or Los Angeles, is glamorous. The city of stars. Domains ending in .la would suit a variety of entertainment sites. Problem is, .la refers to Laos, not Los Angeles. Or what about .ws? Anything goes with "website." A lot of domain registrants are viewing it as an excellent alternative to already-taken .com domains. The .ws extension is for Samoa, however. For medical doctors, .md sounds impressive, even if the doctor isn't from Moldova. Another example illustrates the problem. A few years ago, domains with .uk.co extensions were marketed as an alternative to domains ending in .co.uk. They were just what a lot of people wanted when the .co.uk version of the name they wanted was already taken. They were also useful domains to have if you already had the .co.uk domain and wanted to catch traffic from those who accidentally reversed the two parts of this extension.

So, a lot of people registered these domains. About 8,000, in fact. One morning in February 2003, those 8,000 people woke up to find out that they'd lost their domains, their sites, and their email. At a Colombia website, they were able to learn the story. The registrar for .uk.co domains hadn't agreed to the terms of a new arrangement to provide temporary safeguarding of their domains, so .uk.co domains were no longer available. That was probably the first time that many people realized that the "co" in the domain stood for Colombia, not company. If Colombia can pull the plug on people from other countries using their ccTLD, so can other countries. A geographical domain that appears to represent something else may not be such a good idea after all. The terms for domain registration for some ccTLDs state that the registrant must live in or have other ties with the country.

People who register the domains without meeting the requirements risk losing their domains if it's found that they registered the domains without being eligible to do so. Those with .tv domains should fare better. In 2000, the tiny South Pacific nation of Tuvalu sold the use of its .tv ccTLD. The term TV is internationally known for television, so it can be suitable for websites in various countries.
Newer top-level domains
Beyond the generic .com, .net, and .org TLDs, newer ones provide more opportunities to choose that perfect domain for general and specific uses.

Domains for professional use
.aero is reserved for the aviation business, such as airports and airlines . .biz means business. It's restricted to business or commercial use. .coop is intended to promote co-operative identity. Credit unions and other business co-ops that use .coop contribute to funds only to help cooperatives with limited resources in various countries. .museum domains help people see that a website is run by a museum, a museum association, or museum professionals. The Museum Domain Management Association, or MuseDoma for short, manages .museum domain registrations. .pro, short for professional, is currently only for professionals in the accounting, engineering, legal, or medical fields. When professionals are certified that they are eligible for a .pro domain, they can register .acc.pro, .eng.pro, .law.pro, .med.pro, or a few other variations. They are also issued a digital certificate so that they can digitally sign and encrypt emails.

Domains for general use
.info is, of course, short for information — in many languages, which adds to its usefulness. There are no restrictions on who can use an .info domain. It's suitable for both individuals and companies. .name domains are for individual use. The names can be real, first and last name, first name last initial, pseudonyms, nicknames, or a fictional character that the registrant has rights to. They can be a combination of names and numbers, e.g., janedoe1972.name. But they must be personal names of some sort and not just words. .us can be used by US citizens, organizations, businesses, or government agencies. Its use is for the most part unrestricted. Naturally, the registrant must be a US citizen or permanent resident, or the organization must be incorporated in the US or have a presence in the US.

About the Author:
Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com with experience in the website hosting and ecommerce hosting industry.

Below are some common questions and answers about the process of registering your domain name. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the information.

Q: Why would I want a domain name?
A: Having your own domain name is a prestige thing. Having a custom website address is pretty cool, and exciting, though it is certainly not required. Remember your domain name is just an address, and most visitors to your website will never notice your address. If you plan on doing any advertising outside the Internet do drive traffic to your website, having a custom domain name that is easy to remember can often be quite helpful.

Q: Will a domain name make me more successful on the Internet?
A: Probably not. The Internet is a point and click environment. Most traffic from the Internet will come from the Search Engines or links from other marketing efforts. Your keyword phrases, title, description and web sites content are more important factors in marketing your site on the Internet. Most visitors to your site will never notice the address. Don't count on your domain bringing you any traffic at all. It is a prestige issue, not a marketing or promotion issue.

Q: What are the costs associated with a domain name?
A: The registration fee for a ".com" domain name varies from $9.00 to $35.00/ year. You can register a domain name with any one of the hundreds of registration services on the Internet. Just search for "domain registration" on any search engine and follow the links. We have an affiliate relationship with one of the Internet's largest registration companies. For most of our customers, registering a domain through this affiliate is very easy. To take advantage of this service, go to http://www.storesonline.com/site/1587739/page/750247 click on Getting Your own Domain and follow the instructions.

Q: Once registered, who owns my domain?
A: You paid for it, and you own it for as long as you continue to pay the small annual registration fee. Your domain is portable, meaning if you decide to host your website elsewhere, your domain can travel with you.

Q: Can another service provider host my domain name?
A: Yes, whoever hosts your domain name, takes responsibility for it, and issues associated with your domain hosting.

Q: How do I know if the domain name I want is available?
A: Before you buy a domain name you can check the availability of a domain names.

Q: After I register my domain, is there anything else I need to do?
A: Yes. You need to find a hosting company, this will be discuss in the next newsletter.
The best Marketing Information On The Web

The Domain Name System (DNS) enables people to navigate their way around the Internet. Every computer that is connected to the internet is identifiable by a string of numbers called an "IP address" (IP stands for "Internet Protocol"). As the internet developed so did the DNS, so that now a string of letters can correspond to a particular IP address. This means that instead of using a complicated sequence of numbers you can type www.adomianname.com, which is a lot easier to remember.

No matter what sort of site you are intending building, you should consider getting yourself a domain name. Your domain name is your personal web address and can reflect anything you desire, including your own name or the subject of your business.

There are several reasons why an internet business requires its own domain name including:
• A domain name makes your site more credible and reliable
• The URL of a domain name will never change even if you change you website hosting, so that customers are not needed to be informed should you change hosting.
• Choosing a good domain name will make your site more memorable to your clients, so that people will recall your company easily which spells more profits.
• Advertisers and sponsors are more likely to sponsor websites who have their own domain name.
• Your won domain name allows you to set up various email addresses for specific uses, e.g. support@yourdomain.com and sales@yourdomain.com

The organization that is responsible for maintaining and co-ordinating the entire domain name system is called ICAAN. TO register any domain name you need to use an ICAAN accredited domain name registrar.

There are numerous domain name registrars and fees for domain registration vary from $8.95 to $35+. Some web hosting companies now offer a free domain name registration as part of their hosting packages.

Registering your domain name is essentially a four step process as follows:

Step 1: Carefully consider what domain name you would like, try to make your domain name as concise as possible and specific to the site you have in mind. Construct a list of alternative domain names, in order of preference. This is because with the huge number of websites in the Internet, some of your ideas for the ideal domain name might have already been taken already so the more names you can think of, the better.

When deciding on your domain name also consider the top level domain TLD) extension you want. The TLD is the .com part of the domain name domainname.com. There are a variety of domain extensions, and the one you wish to use may well affect the price you will have to pay.
The range of TLDs includes .com, .net, .org, .info and .name (used with a personal name e.g. JezLacey.name). None of these TLDs have specific requirements. In addition to these universal TLDs there is also .biz, which is for commercial and business use only. Finally, there are also country specific TLDs, which can only be used by persons who are citizens and residents of that country and by businesses and organizations present in that country where domain extension is applicable, example include .us (USA), .co.uk (UK) and .fr (France).

Step 2: Obtain the IP address or domain nameserver from your hosting company. A nameserver is a special type of domain that is used to identify a particular server. After registration you will need this information in order to set up your domain for use.

Step 3: Prepare for payment. The usual method of payment with domain registrars is via a credit card.

Step 4: Apply for your domain name. You can use your web hosting company to do this, or one of numerous accredited domain registrars. Good examples include enom.com, the ever popular GoDaddy.com, Dotster.com and many others.

When registering your domain name, ensure that you are the registered domain owner. This important because a web host can set themselves as the domain owner, and if they do, then you have no say in what happens to the domain name. For example, if you decide to transfer your domain to another registrar. For this reason you should also ensure both the technical and administrative contracts should be you.

When transferring a domain the new registrar will try contacting the domain owner first, then if that fails the administrative and then the technical contact. There have been cases where the web host has registered itself as the administrative and technical contact for a client. They can then make it difficult for clients to move to other registrars by pending the move or by even refusing. So, stay in better control and avoid this kind of situation.
With these guidelines, you are now well equipped to register your own domain name. As good domain names are getting more and more difficult to find, if you already have an idea for a great domain name, register them now before it’s too late.

Jez Lacey is co-owner of 4-packs. Check out our latest release, the incredible Ultimate CMS power builder; it helps create websites in minutes and makes site management as simple as 1-2-3 Ultimate CMS Power Builder

What makes the perfect domain name?
Well, it has to be:
1. Relatively short 2. Simple to remember 3. Easy to spell
I was speaking to a customer recently who had a business called 'Otway Valley Trading Company'.
The domain name he wanted was: www.otwayvalleytradingcompany.com
Can you spot some of the problems with this domain name?
Here's a few:

1. It's too long:
Having to type a long domain name into your browser is annoying and also increases the chances of your customers making a spelling mistake.

2. Too many keywords:
Having 4 keywords (Otway Valley Trading Company) makes it hard for customers to remember the name of the site.
Try to stick to one or two keywords in your domain name.

3. Easy to misspell:
The word 'otway' can be easily confused for 'ottway'.

4. Makes the email address too long:
An email address for this domain name would look like this:
sales@otwayvalleytradingcompany.com
... that's a mouthful for anyone to remember.

Picking a Good Domain Name:

1) The shorter the better
Having a short and snappy domain name makes it easier for your customer to remember your website address, and easier to type into their Internet browser.

2) Go for something catchy
Keep in mind that your domain name doesn't have to be boring. In fact, if you can come up with something catchy - it's a great way to distinguish your business from the competition - just ask the people at Yahoo!.

3) Avoid using hyphens
We've found that hyphens in domain names tend to confuse people.
Sometimes you'll see websites that have a hyphen separating keywords (e.g. ace-accounting.com). This is almost always because the preferred name (aceaccounting.com) has already been registered by someone else.
If the domain you want is already being used by someone else, then you're better off coming up with an alternative name then using hyphens.

4) Avoid using numbers
If possible, try avoiding the use of numbers in your domain name, as this can also lead to confusion (e.g. was that 3phones.com or threephones.com ?).
But if you have to use a number, make sure you register both the written and numerical versions of your domain name (3phones.com and threephones.com).

5) Grab a thesaurus
If you're struggling for inspiration or finding it difficult to come up with a name that hasn't already been taken - grab a thesaurus (or visit Thesaurus.com)
Say you run an adventure tour company and you want to register excitingadventures.com - but somebody has already registered the domain name.

Lookup the word 'exciting' at Thesaurus.com and you can quickly find an alternative like 'breathtaking, sensational or fascinating'.
And don't be afraid to use a little imagination - companies like Google and Yahoo! have benefited a lot by having a unique web address.
Adrian Mullan is the author of 'The Internet Demystified' and founder of WebDummy.com - a popular Internet marketing resource for small business owners.

With domain name articles and tips floating around all over the Web, most people probably feel that they know a good deal about picking and protecting a domain name. However, some common domain name myths persist. Let’s debunk a few.
Myth: Once I register a domain, I can use it forever.

Fact: While it’s possible that you’ll keep your registered domain name forever, it’s not guaranteed. Several things can happen that would cause you to lose your domain name. First, you have to register your domain name each year (or register it for multiple years up front) in order to keep your access to it. If you forget to renew your registration, you could lose your domain name, or someone else can register it and charge you a huge fee to have it transferred back to your name. Second, you could lose your domain name in a trademark dispute.

Myth: My domain name is automatically trademarked, so no one else can ever use it or anything too similar to it (such as with other extensions).

Fact: A domain name cannot be trademarked in the US! It also isn’t protected by a copyright. However, if your business’ name is trademarked before anyone else is using it, then you could sue if someone registered a domain name using your business name (or a common misspelling) to sell products or services that are extremely similar to your own. For instance, if someone else ever tried to register something like Microsoft.net, or even microsort.net, for the purpose of selling computers and software, Microsoft could sue them to stop them from using the domain name. This is to stop scammers and competitors from trying to profit off of a trademarked name. In some countries, you can’t even register a domain with their country-specific extension unless you own the trademark there for that business name.

Myth: If I own the trademark for my company’s name, I automatically have the right to register my company’s name as a domain name.

Fact: You do not, in fact, have the right to register any domain name, even if you have a trademark on the corresponding company name. The reason for this is that a trademark on a business name doesn’t give you exclusive access to use that name. It only gives you exclusive access to use that name for the particular products and / or services that you offer. Going back to our above example, let’s say Microsoft forgot to renew their registration on Microsoft.net. While they could sue another computer manufacturer or software company for registering the domain name without question, let’s assume it’s registered by a small company making microfiber-covered sofas and other furniture. The name makes sense – ‘micro’ as an abbreviation for microfiber, and ‘soft’ because it’s a very soft fabric. That company has every right to use the company name Microsoft, and they would own the trademark for that company name as it applies to the products they sell. Because of that, Microsoft couldn’t do anything to get their .net domain name back except offering to buy it outright.

Myth: A domain is only worth registering if you can get the .com version.

Fact: Many web sites have been successful using .net, .org, and country-specific domain extensions. Don’t reject an otherwise good domain name just because the .com extension isn’t available. If you’re setting up a domain name based on keywords, a .net or .org shouldn’t make too much of a difference. If you’re selling products or services to only residents of your country, a country-specific domain extension could prove to be quite profitable for you, as it tells your target market that you’re specifically selling to them.

Myth: You should never use dashes in a domain name.

Fact: While including dashes in a domain name isn’t ideal, it also shouldn’t be forbidden. Dashes make it harder to market your domain name via word of mouth, but they can be very effective if you’re determined to use a keyword-rich domain name for a general content site, if the version without the dashes isn’t available.

Copyright 2006 Stephen Ashton
Learn more domain name tips at http://www.domainnamescenter.com and find cheap web hosting at http://www.abetterwebhost.com

When you first start an Internet business one of the first items on the list, after you've written your business model, is getting a domain name. In years past it wasn't as difficult to find a decent name for your site. Today however, it's not as easy to get your dot com name. The process of registering a name has improved substantially but the availability for descriptive names is far more difficult. Why is this a problem you may ask? It's more of a problem for small and home business sites than it is for larger companies. The reason is simple and I can sum it up in one word: money.

Larger companies, especially public companies have the funding to advertise their new sites, therefore they don't really need to have names that reflect the type of business they are in. I can site a perfect example, Go Daddy.com, has absolutely nothing to do with the type of business Go Daddy is in. But being the largest register of domain names, GoDaddy can advertise on all media levels to get business including buying advertising time on the Super Bowl! If you are starting a home based business on the Internet, I'll bet that you won't be buying time on television not to mention next year's Super Bowl.

Okay, where am I going with all of this? You are on a limited budget when you start your business and you must rely on free traffic to your site, because without traffic you have no business. This is what I described in my article on organic traffic a few weeks ago. In order to get substantial traffic to your site you'll need to have an optimized site. This all has to do with keywords and something called keyword density. You achieve this by having your most important keywords dispersed throughout your website and your domain name. (See I did come to the point of this article.)

Most SEO, search engine optimization, programs first look at the domain name and your major keywords. They look to see if your domain name and site title have any commonality. If they do your site receives extra points in the SEO algorithm, (a logical step-by-step procedure for solving a mathematical problem in a finite number of steps, often involving repetition of the same basic operation.) I hope that I haven't lost you here because all of this is very important, especially to home based Internet business owners.

Most SEO programs will constantly refer back to the domain name and those words which match the dominate keyword phrases that you have chosen. When your site is optimized, search engines will pick up your scent, so to speak, and you will have great placement and positioning on searches that have your keywords. All of this amounts to substantial traffic.
I'm not an expert on SEO and I don't pretend to be but I've spent my share of time in attempting to understand it and how it effects my site. I can recommend two areas of my site that I think are beneficial to you: Web Site Design and Search Engine Optimization. You can find them at: http://www.homebusinessresearch.com There are a lot of submission services as well.

Some of them are good and some of them are not so good. Try to optimize first.
Rick Carbone is the owner/webmaster of Home Business Research a web site devoted to starting and running a home based business. In addition to hundreds of articles and information on start up, management and business opportunities Home Business Research offers digital products for home businesses. Visit our site for tons of free information.
http://www.homebusinessresearch.com