How valuable can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most essential preconditions for creating a successful Internet presence is the domain. It is what people will note first when they visit your web page and what they will link you with. The domain name should be easy to remember, but should also be something that tells your site's visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain typically has 2 constituents - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are several sets of Top-Level Domains that you should examine prior to selecting the domain you wish. Your decision should depend on the goal of your site and on its target spectators. Let's have a glimpse at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most typical Top-Level Domain Names meant to denote a particular intention - .com (commercial organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (corporations), .info (informational sites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (given professions), etc. As you can perceive, these TLDs encompass most spheres of life, so you should go for the one that would designate the aim of your website best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them include extra steps to ascertain that you qualify to possess such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific Top-Level Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Picking such a Top-Level Domain is good if your target group of site visitors is from a given country. Many individuals would rather purchase goods or services from a local web page, and if your target is Canada, for example, choosing a .ca domain name could boost the visits to your web site.

URL Redirects

You can register several domains, which can send your web page's visitors to a given website such as domain.com, for example. This would boost the traffic and decrease the likelihood of somebody pinching your visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with another Top-Level Domain - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each Top-Level Domain Name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) show where the domain is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting supplier whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can substitute the name servers of your domain whenever you want. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the webspace hosting service itself from another. Hence, if you register your domain and find decent website hosting packages someplace else afterwards, you can point your domain to the current provider's NSs straight away.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain uses a certain pair of DNSs, all its domain name server records will direct to the same site hosting distributor. Some website hosting vendors, however, permit you to modify specific NS records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which displays on which server your site is located, whereas the MX records exhibit which hosting server tackles the mail address accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you hire a new website designer and he designs an .ASP web site that will be accommodated on his own Windows hosting server, you may want to change only the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. In this way, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows web server, but your e-mail address accounts or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux hosting account. The .ASP platform is created by Microsoft and requests a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux hosting server would be far more reliable.

Low-cost TLDs Brought by 'Free Hostia'

Just a few web hosting distributors permit you to edit specific DNS records and very often this an additional paid service. With Free Hostia , you get an enormous variety of TLDs to pick from and you can edit all domain name server records or redirect the domain names via a forwarding tool at no added charge. Because of that, 'Free Hostia' would be your best choice when it comes to administering your domain name and to setting up a successful presence on the World Wide Web.