Everyone likes a bargain. It's even wise to keep one's costs down. On the other hand, you can be so cheap that you cut your own throat.
Here are two ways to register a domain name for free and some reasons why you might not want to.
1. You Must Have Your Own Top Level Domain (TLD) Name
Your business website should definitely have its own top level domain (TLD) name. This means a name like yourcompany.com. It doesn't mean a subdomain of someone else's domain name, such as yourcompany.someisp.net.
Sometimes persons hesitate to register a proper domain name because of cost, lack of knowledge, or indecision. However, paying the nominal fee charged by the domain registrar for your own domain name can reap rich dividends.
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or Internet address like (ignoring the http part) someisp.net/hosting-accounts/yourco/, or yourcompany.someisp.net, just doesn't look as professional as yourcompany.com. It might be free (as in included with your web space) but it just doesn't cut it.
Consider: If you put your URL on your letterheads, business cards, signs, et cetera, which Internet address looks more professional?
If you mention your URL on your radio advertising or to a customer over the phone, which one will be easier to remember?
As well, what if your web host goes out of business or you decide that you want to change to another provider. Now, you need to notify everyone that you have now changed to yourcompany.someotherisp.net. You will also need to change all your stationery, signs, and advertising to reflect the change.
On the other hand, the domain name yourcompany.com, could be transferred from one web host to another simply by informing your domain name registrar of the change.
So, to avoid losing business and incurring unnecessary additional costs, be sure you have your own top level domain name.
2. Should You Get a Free Top Level Domain?
It is possible to get a free top level domain from Dot TK (@www.dot.tk). (You may also get paid dot tk (.tk) domains from them.) However, there can be disadvantages to using a free top level domain name.
Here are some of the restrictions noted on the Dot TK website.
You may register no more than three free domain names.
The ownership of the free domain remains with Dot TK. This means that you can't sell it. (Of course, if you pay for the domain you do own it and can transfer it to a new owner.)
Also, if you don't have 25 visitors come to your home page within a ninety day period, your free domain name registration is cancelled.
You need to have existing web content somewhere so that your dot tk name can be forwarded to it.
There may well be other disadvantages.
Apparently, Dot TK uses frames to show your website. This being the case, you may have issues with navigation (bookmarking or finding specific pages) and search engine friendliness.
Therefore, for serious business use, consider carefully the true cost of free domain names.
How to really profit from domain names
Have you heard about domain names that sold for over a million dollars? Inspired by this, you imagine registering a great domain name, hanging onto it for a while, and then selling it off to become the next multi-millionaire. It could happen, but don`t count on it!
First of all, many of the truly great domain names are already taken. Second, the dot com bust took some of the wind out of inflated domain name prices. (If you sell your domain name for millions of dollars worth of stock in a publicly traded dot com flop, what is the name really worth?)
The cybersquatter buys domain names totally on speculation. Sometimes he will register names of famous brands, companies, or individuals. Time and again, these domain name speculators learn the hard way that they must respect intellectual property rights. They hope that some large corporation will pay big bucks to them for the use of the company`s own (already trademarked) name. Instead, they end up with threatening letters from a law firm for their attempts at extortion.
However, you can still make money from domain names if you are sensible in your approach. Here are some suggestions on ways to profit.
1. Affiliate Programs: Use your domain name to promote an appropriate affiliate program. Either redirect to the affiliate site or write a review that links to them.
2. Informational Sites: Create content and then profit from it by earning advertising revenue through Google AdSense or a similar program.
3. Redirect to Your Own Site: Some reasons you might want to do this include preventing competitors from using a particular domain name and benefiting from searches some users perform by domain name. (For example, if they wanted to order flowers, they might just type "flowers.com" in their web browser. You could get some traffic and sales this way.)
4. Product Sites: Create your own or sell someone else`s product appropriate to your domain name.
5. Park Your Domain Names: You might feel that your name has real potential for resale value. There are companies that will allow you to park your domain on their servers, advertise that your name is for sale, and split advertising revenue with you.
The trick is to generate traffic for your domain name. That traffic in turn will create revenue. Then, when you go to sell your domain name, you will have a few things going for you.
First, you will have a fully developed website. A fully constructed building on a piece of land increases the value of the real estate property. Similarly, the value of your domain name is enhanced by a complete and operating website.
Second, you have traffic. Just as a shopping mall with no traffic results in no sales, so a website must have traffic to generate income.
Third, you have income. An income property, such as an apartment building, can be appraised on the basis of its income (as well as other factors). Similarly, the gross income, net profits and cashflow of a website have value. For example, if someone offered you $1,000 for your domain name and website when it was generating $10,000 per day in profits, you would likely laugh at him.
You really can profit from your domain name investments by adding value and properly developing your web properties.
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Choosing a Domain Name
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In this article you will learn how to choose an effective and
memorable domain name and learn how you can actually
increase traffic by using an old, expired domain name.
Times wasting so lets get started…
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In the physical world, you can distinguish a business
because of its structure, window displays, or signs. You can
tell that a bank is a bank, or a clothing store is indeed a
clothing store.
In the Internet, however, it is an entirely different story
altogether. Your domain name is the only clue to your online
business. You do not have visual clues: no location, no
look, and no store design. Instead, users have to type in a
word or a set of words to reach your site. Your prospective
visitor has no way of knowing what your site is all about
until he/she finds it and reads its contents. Who can ever
tell that Amazon.com sells books? Or that Excite is a search
engine?
Your domain name can spell your success on the Internet. A
good domain name is the best asset you can ever have. It can
make your business stand out in the crowd, or just float
aimlessly in space.
The need to provide immediate clues to an online business
led to the prevalence of generic domain names. Generic names
instantly provide the user with an idea of what a business
is all about, what to expect and look for in a site. For
instance, Etoys.com is a toy store.
The temptation of the generic name has been so powerful;
that some companies even paid ridiculously high prices to
get the name they want. The domains Loans.com and Wines.com
were both bought for $3 million each. Telephone.com was
acquired for $1.75 million, while Bingo.com sold for $1.1
million.
However, generic names do not necessarily create the “buzz”
that you'd like surrounding your website. Branding has
always been about proper names: McDonald's did not name
their store Hamburger. Hertz is not called Car Rental. FedEx
is not Mail Carrier. Kodak is not Photographs. Microsoft is
not Computer Software.
For better branding results, your domain name should be
memorable and easy to remember. Remember the following tips
when creating a domain name.
* The domain name should be short
* The domain name should be simple
* It should be suggestive of your business category
* It should be unique
* It should be easy to interpret and pronounce
* It should be personalized
* It should not be difficult to spell
* It should not be difficult to remember
Domain names can be registered through many different
companies (known as 'registrars') - a listing of these
companies is available at ICANN: http://www.icann.org. You
can register for 1 to 10 years - prices can vary anywhere
from $10 to $20 per year.
Most web hosting companies, as explained later,
will handle the registration process for you, but make sure
that you are properly listed as the owner of the domain when
it is registered. If you have registered a domain name for a
specific period, make sure you renew it in time.
You can be surprised at the number of cases, where
site owners have let a domain name slip by if they have not
renewed in time.
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Using expired domains to skyrocket your traffic
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At some point while you're building your website, you're
going to have to buy a domain name. This is the address that
users type into their browsers to reach your site. That
takes about five seconds, and depending on the name you want
and whether anyone else owns it, it won't cost you more than
a few bucks.
But domain names are also a golden opportunity to make some
easy money.
I'm not talking about Internet real estate, where you buy up
good names and sell them on for a profit—if you haven't got
into that now, forget it. The bottom's fallen out of the
market and the best domains are long gone.
I'm talking about expiring domains.
Thousands of webmasters invest time, effort and money to
promote their site and build up traffic. Many of them then
lose interest and move on, leaving their site active. That
means that although they still own the domain, they're not
actively promoting it. But they don't need to. All the
automatic marketing systems they've put in place are still
bringing in traffic. The site runs itself.
Now, at some point the ownership of those domains is going
to expire. If you snap up those domains once they come back
onto the market, you've got a pre-built stream of customers.
You can either rebuild the site, or redirect the traffic to
your domain. You could set up an affiliate program get paid
for users someone else paid for.
It's that easy.
There are tons of options, and lots of easy ways to make
lots of money with very little effort. Opportunities like
these are everywhere.
