Domain name means a name who recognize a site but the there are approximately 68 million .COM domains registered. That’s a lot of domain names out on the Internet that are either already taken or just parked in some obsolete spot gathering dust and all kinds of age.

There are 900 possible combinations for two letter sequences. If you’re looking for ET then you just won’t find it. Even allowing for digits, again every single web address is taken. Of course, that’s ignoring the fact that .COM registrars now mandate a 3-character minimum length, so it wouldn’t be an option.

Many of the three-letter sequences are taken. Adding digits to a domain name creates a number of garbage domain entries. If you’re dying to acquire great domains and unique domain names, they’ll free up sometimes only to be auctioned off through unique domain name sales.

Domain registration is a main act for a hosting business so operating some type of functional web site for your business helps your customers find you, can present additional marketing opportunities through e-commerce, and offers advertising opportunities that you can not get elsewhere. Companies that do not have a web site lose business to companies that do all the time.

If you don’t register your desired domain name right away, someone else could take it. The fact is that internet domain registration can turn into a sneaky competitive game. In many cases business owners have gone to register a domain name and found that it had been registered years before they every started the company by some group that is in the business of registering domains and then turning around and selling them for exorbitant rates.

The key to avoiding these sorts of problems lies in early registration of your desired domain name. If you find the one that you want register it immediately. Even if you’re not prepared to set up a web site yet or won’t be for several years, register the domain right away anyway.

Registering a domain name before being ready to set up its web site will require the domain name being transferred to the servers of your desired host when you are ready to establish the site. Transferring the domain name once you have selected a web host is a very simple process, but does require you to establish the change with both the registration company and the new host.
Through this process you can register a name.

On TV, in newspapers, and in magazines you keep hearing about having an identity on the Internet, having an Internet presence and other IT propaganda. Simply having a website is not enough. The key to succeeding is your domain name.

But since Network solutions lost its monopoly of domain name registrations, a new industry has erupted with a loud bang. New, simpler registrars like Dotster.com and DirectNic.com have appeared on the scene, easily stealing millions of clients from Network Solutions. Remember the days you had to FAX in a confirmation of your identity in order to change any of your registrant information? Do you remember having to deal with confusing verification e-mails that Network Solutions bombarded you with, when all you needed to do is change the phone number of your Administrative contact? Those days are long gone. Now, all you have to do is log into your Dotster account, modify the form with your domain’s information and submit it. Within hours, you are updated hassle-free.

In addition to sticking with its outdated verification system, Network Solutions has kept their pricing at a level much higher than the industry standard has lowered to. Fifteen bucks is all it takes to buy a domain for a year! Granted, their accessibility, reliability and support have improved. You can actually get into a support chat one-on-one with a tech who will answer all of your questions.

But how long can they possibly keep this up?

The domain name game is a tricky one, but if you play it right you can make the web-site big-leagues. Think of your domain name as your Internet Identity. Think of it as your web sites passport to fame, to glamour, to popularity, to everything that you, as a webmaster, dream of. Picking the domain is vital.

The domain name game is a hard one to play. Every single day tens of thousands of domain names are snatched up, making it almost impossible to find a dictionary word domain. If you are one of the few lucky ones to own a simple dictionary word domain, you can make thousands selling it. If you are not, you have to be more creative in finding one for your site. You can either choose a longer, less brand-able non-dictionary word domain, a combination domain name with letters, numbers and maybe a dash or two, or you can try one of the new TLD (Top Level Domains) available.

Recently the governing bodies that control Internet TLD’s decided that the current standard .COM, .NET and .ORG domains were no longer able to fill the demand, and approved several new TLD’s, including .INFO and .NAME. In addition to those new TLD’s, we have country codes such as .TV and .CX, and New.Net domains such as .CHAT and .CHURCH.

When you have a website you pay for a domain name once a year and you pay for hosting each month. This happens with every website unless you go with a free website. The bad thing about a free website is all the ads the owner puts on your site so they still make money.

With people wanting websites for their business and personal needs selling domain names and web hosting is a great business to be in. There is a lot of money to be made in this business.

The first thing you do when you are creating your website is to purchase your domain name and then you need hosting. This is a must in order to have a website. This is the prime reason why selling domain names and hosting is a great business.

Domain resellers make money by selling domain names to others. Sites that have reseller options usually have two or more options to choose from. It depends on how many domain names you want to sell as to which option you choose. These sites will have an option for someone that wants to sell just a few and then an option for those that want to sell on a regular basis.

Domain sites have a Frequently Asked Questions section to help you in making your decision. A Frequently Asked Questions page has questions that people have asked on a regular basis or ones that would come up regularly. These sites will also show you how to contact them should your questions not be answered. You need to make sure you have a complete understanding of all the requirements and what is expected of you before you decide to do this as a business. You also need to make sure you feel comfortable with the business you go with.

Now, the other important thing in an online business is hosting. When you sell hosting you have two options. You can have your own hosting business or you can be an affiliate for a hosting company. When you consider both of these options you will be able to make the right decision.

When you offer your own hosting you have to approve all sites that come through. You also have to deal with outages and updates. The good thing about it is you don’t have to share your income with others unless you offer an affiliate program, you still make more money.

Being an affiliate is also a great option. You don’t have to worry about approving sites when they come in, you don’t have to worry about down time, and you don’t have to worry about answering questions. Basically all you do is advertise and they take care of the rest. The one and only downside to being an affiliate is that you receive only a percentage of the total amount paid. The advantage is that you get that money on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis depending on the pay option the purchaser chooses.

So as you can see, domains and hosting are the two ways to start a website. So selling domains and hosting is a great online business to get into.

Once you have a website up and running, you may want to launch other websites. The default way to do it is to register new domain names and open new hosting accounts. However, opening new hosting accounts can be expensive, especially if you still have plenty of free space and bandwidth available in your original account. Fortunately, it is possible to share the web space and bandwidth of your original account among different sites.

You can basically do so through: Add-On Domains Parked Domains, and Sub-Domains

What is an Add-On Domain?

An add-on domain is a new domain name that points to a subdirectory within your existing domain hosting account, where the website for the new domain will reside. Add-on domains must be registered domain names that you own, and that are configured to point to your web host’s servers. A hosting account can be expensive, especially if you have
From a web user perspective, an add-on domain functions just like any other domain.

The advantage of add-on domains is that the browser’s address bar will show ‘http://www.add-on-domain.com’ (there will be no reference to the original domain), so the process will be totally transparent to your users. If your users navigate to another page, their browser will accordingly show ‘http://www.add-on-domain.com/anotherpage.html’, just like it should.

Apart from sharing web space and bandwidth with your main domain, add-on domains also get their own cgi-bin and statistics.

Many web hosts now offer to set-up add-on domains for free. This is only fair, since you are not getting any more web space or bandwidth. Others, however, will charge you a modest one time fee, which is not bad, especially when the cost of registering the new domain is included. Finally, some web hosts will charge you a montly fee for each add-on domain you set up. In some cases, that fee can be very close to the monthly cost of your web hosting account, to the point that it is better to just open a new hosting account for the new domain. If you plan to set up add-on domains in the future, you’re better off avoiding this kind of account.

What is a Parked Domain?
A parked domain is a domain that doesn’t have a hosting account associated to it, and that is usually enabled with URL forwarding capabilities, so that it points to an existing website. You may at one given point want to register a separate domain name for your newsletter, so that it is more memorable, but may not want to move its pages to a new server, open a new hosting account, or pay to establish an add-on domain.

The difference between a parked domain and an add-on domain from a web user’s perspective is that with a parked domain the URL in the address bar will change to the physical location of the page as the page loads. From a webmaster’s perspective, the difference is that the parked domain won’t have its own separate statistics reported through the control panel of your hosting account.

Parked domains are also a good alternative for webmasters whose site is hosted by a free hosting service, since by using a memorable parked domain users won’t need to remember the cumbersome web addresses usually associated with free hosting accounts.

They are also widely used by members of affiliate programs, who forward the parked domain to the merchant pages, so that they don’t have to use an affiliate URL that includes their affiliate id.

What is a Sub-Domain?

A sub domain, also known as a ‘third-level’ domain, is a great way to create memorable web addresses for various sub-sites of your site Large businesses use sub domains to establish branding and focus on separate products or services, because a sub domain creates a separate URL and web presence, all within your same main hosting account. It is also possible to redirect (forward) traffic from a particular sub domain to another location, either within the main site or to a different website altogether.

You should be able to set up and manage add-on domains, parked domains and subdirectories from your hosting account or domain registrar control panel. However, as we usually suggest, always consult with your web host before proceeding if you have any doubts.

There are very simple 3 step processes to find out the perfect domain name using some free online tools

Step 1: Decide on a Theme.
It is very important that you decide on a Theme for your web page. Once you decide on a theme you should pick a Name that works well with your Theme. If your theme is about Pets you wouldn\’t want your Domain Name to be All-About-Plants.

Step 2: Find a Domain Name
If you do not have a Domain Name yet and if you are at a Loss at what name to use don\’t despair their are a few free online tools you can use. If your web site theme is Debt Reduction and Bill consolidation then you would probably want a Domain Name with one or more of those words in it.

Step 3: Register Your Domain
Before you can register your Domain name you need to make sure it is still available. Once you have found that Perfect Domain Name and verified it is indeed available Internic has a List of approved Internet Registrars You will notice that the List of Registrars is Long and confusing.

Host Your Domain
Now all that is left is to host your Domain. There are hundreds of Web Hosts available some good and some not so good. It is really hard to know which ones to use. Now anytime you want a New Home on the Web Just follow this simple 3 Step System.

.com Vs .net

When seeking domain names most people get confused over whether to settle for a dot com address or a dot net one.

There are a few important facts that one needs to realize before they opt for a dot net address. Quite often when people need to commit the address of a website to memory, they will not remember the dot net and the first place they will check is the given address with a dot com ending. Many times when they do not find it there, they will hardly ever think of using dot net to repeat the search. That is a lost visitor and maybe even potential client.

What is even more worrying is that there is increasing evidence to suggest that an increasing number of people end up at a website after hearing about it either from a friend or acquaintance, or by seeing an advertisement on Television or hearing about it on radio or reading something about the site. When committing the website address to memory very few will distinctly remembers the dot net address if that is the domain name that you have chosen.

Exhaustive efforts should be made to try and secure a dot com domain before you give up and move to dot net. For example you can try and search for abandoned domain names. In fact by making an effort to be really creative and not hurrying the process, it is quite possible to secure a reasonably good dot com domain. You can be sure that it will be well worth the extra effort and time you put into it which will result in better success when you begin to seek traffic. Of course if you just cannot get a dot com domain, a dot net one is a good second choice.

When you register your first domain name, you get your introduction to one of them. There\’s a lot of information they want. Your name, your email address, your physical address, your phone number. For each of 4 separate categories, and the Registrant, Admin and Technical categories are publicly available

Email addresses, phone number and physical addresses must be valid. Once again the right to privacy of law-abiding individuals is being abridged supposedly to help catch lawbreakers. Since this information would be provided under a court order making it publicly available just invites abuse.

Spammers, scammers, stalkers and the idle whacko can easily get this information. The result is an increase in the amount of spam. So, there are two ways to protect your privacy if you are a private individual without access to a legal entity:

First a proxy registration is one alternative. You make binding legal agreement with a company which will register the domain name as if they owned it and then provide their own information to meet the requirement. For each domain, they will set-up a special email which they will monitor and forward to you, usually after spam filtering, if you want them to.

They retain your data and will also monitor physical mail. You will be notified of first class mail which appears to or could be legal documents or if registered or couriered mail arrives.

The other alternative is called \”private registration\”. Here your name would still appear as registrant. You would provide the names of the admin and technical contacts. But the address, email and phone number would be provided and monitored by the organization handling the private registration in essentially the same manner as a proxy registration. Thus with this alternative you remain in full legal control of your domain name since it is registered in your name rather than the name of a proxy.

If you decide to pursue a proxy or private registration, make very sure that you are working with a legitimate company with a track record. A domain name can be a very valuable possession. Both your registrar and, if it\’s a separate organization, the entity that does the proxy or private registration must be quality, legitimate outfits. Registrars offering extremely low prices which are way out of line with the going rates – unless it\’s a special – just might be after your credit card and identity.

Now days internet business grows and the value of your domain name increases. The issue of a domain name trademark should move to the top of your list. You need to guard against unscrupulous competitors that may try to incorporate your domain name in their meta tags to obtain search engine rankings under your name. If you are having domain name trademark you can go after these individuals and compel the search engine to remove their listings.

What Is A Trademark?
A trademark is a distinctive item that is used to identify a logo, product, device, package or service. The trademark identifies the item as being provided by a particular firm. To protect these items you can obtain a mark from the patent and trademark office that prohibits others from trying to gain economic advantage from your mark.

Locators Cannot Be Registered :
A domain name is a locator for file pages. When you type in your domain name, a server locates and displays files. If a domain is used solely for this purpose, it will not be granted a mark. Instead, the domain name must be incorporated into the site.

Generic and Descriptive Terms :
Domain names that are generic or descriptive in nature cannot be registered because they fail to designate a distinctive product or service.

Trademarks are an important factor in protecting your Internet business. Armed with a trademark, you can keep competitors from pulling traffic off the search engines when people search for your site.