Choosing your Domain Name
When choosing a domain name you might be restricted to your company name if you already have a company. If however you are choosing your domain name for your new company, keep future marketing in mind.
Domain names will influence some search engines. For example if you have "" in the domain like "cheap_.com", there is a better chance you'll get noticed on the internet if someone searches for "domains" or a phrase with "domain" in it.
We usually recommend our customers get .com .net .org .biz and .info registrations, or as many extensions as possible. The main reason is so others don't buy them after their business becomes successful.
Try to keep your domain name in tune with your business branding. Keep it short, and don't use dashes in it unless you have to.
Keep in mind your domain name will be used in your email address. Different domain extensions are more suited to different businesses. Try to choose the domain extension most suited to your business, for example .com is most closely associated with a company .org would be .biz would be .co.nz would be a and so on.
You can park your other domains on top of your primary domain with most hosting companies for a small charge (we charge $15 each unless you get our Platinum hosting plan).
From a branding perspective, your domain name is your online identity.
The internet is made up of IP addresses. Each website/ server has it's own unique batch of IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, somewhere that domain name has to be translated into the IP address. The process is undertaken by the Domain Name Server (DNS), which is a network all on it's own.
Have a look at the "Webopedia dictionary" overview. Click here.
To purchase the name you want, a search must take place to see if it is available. Every company who sells domains, has the search area. Ours is here. Once you have found your name, you will go through an online checkout process. A credit card is required. When checking out your new name:
- Make sure you have a secure connection before giving anyone your CC details. Look for an "S" after the http, for example https://
- Make sure you have your DNS available to direct the name to your server. (If you buy from us the server DNS is automatically inputted for our server/s, and you have an option to change that any time).
- Make sure you will be the legal owner of the domain name, and that you will have an interactive control panel to update or review any settings, when ever you want.
In today's competitive market you don't need to pay more than $10.00 for a domain. In effect all major companies offer the same thing. We sell .com domains for $8.75, and sometimes have specials where they will be lower than $8.00. We sometimes sell as low as $4.95.
Customer service and support should be available, so make sure ahead of time you'll have someone to call or email if you need help.
Beware of hosting companies that offer you a free domain name. That usually means they will be the legal owner of your domain, and if you try to leave the company you might not be able to transfer your domain name.
The bottom line is some companies charge way too much each year for your domain name. If your "Registrar" is charging too much its best to transfer to a cheaper "Registrar" like ours.
To do a domain name transfer, before you start:
- Make sure you have a valid working email address setup with your existing Registrar.
- Make sure you have "un-locked" your domain name in your existing Registrar. This locking is a means of your existing Registrar trying to prevent the transfer.
Initiate your transfer with your new Registrar. You will receive emails from your old Registrar telling you how they really are sorry you are leaving. You must confirm you want to leave. You should receive some kind of update email from your new Registrar.
The whole process can take a week depending on how fast your old Registrar releases the name and the speed of domain name propagation.
If you want a domain name that is about to expire, you can back order it. Back ordering will put you in line to have a better shot art purchasing the domain name you want.
Even if you back order a domain, there is a release time after domain expiry, which varies from company to company. Sometimes as long as 3 months.
Because there are so many different Registrars there is no way to know how many back orders have been issued, so even though you have paid good money don't be assured you will get that name. It will still be on a first come first serve basis, but to the people who have back ordered, which means you get a better chance amongst that group.
Unless you purchase a domain name by proxy your information will be viewable by the general public.
To view who owns a domain name you can do a "Whois" search. Here are a few links to "Whois" search engines:
http://www.whois.net/
http://www.internic.net/whois.html
Simply type in the domain name at the "Whois" search and your info should come up.
When you purchase the domain name your contact info will be accumulated. It is probably a good idea not to put your exact details or your main email address there. Spam harvesters can get your email address. It is however important to have a valid email address associated with your domain name if you wish to transfer.
Without getting into details, you can hide all of your contact info from everyone. It is called buying your domain by proxy. We offer this service and it can be added to an existing name.
Domain Name Parking might be offered by your hosting company. To park a domain name means the DNS for the domain name you want to park must be directed to the server you use, for example http://www.corporatepages.com resolves to ns5.corporatepages.com or ns6.corporatepages.com.
We charge $15.00 to park a domain name unless you get our Platinum hosting plan, when you can have 5 domains parked for f-r-e-e.
Domain Name forwarding is normally provided at the registrar where the name was purchased. You can usually go into your control panel, and forward one domain to another.
When you first purchase or move a domain name, the name must be pointed to the server you are running your website, and email on. To point your domain name to a server requires only 2 lines of info, for example:
ns5.corporatepages.com, ns6.corporatepages.com
After you add the DNS info into the control panel where you purchased your domain name, it can take 24 - 48 hours for the domain name to start working. This time is called 'propagation'.
These questions are best summed up at the ICANN website. Click here for review.
In short and in their words:
