- Your domain name is your Internet address
- What are the Top Level Domains?
- Generic vs. Personalized
- What are the two most common types of Internet addresses?
- Why Should I Own One?
Important: The purpose of
this faq is to give the reader a general idea on the content
covered. John Klor, johnklor.com is not responsible
for the accuracy nor for the functionality of links provided.
1. Your domain dame
is your Internet address
Your domain name is your address on the Internet.
Just like people use your phone number to call you on the phone,
your Domain Name allows people to access your site on the Web.
Clever, simple, or easy to remember Domain Names are most desirable
as they can play a large part in attracting visitors to your
site. Most Domain Names end with ".com" (such as johnklor.com),
but other extensions such as ".net" and ".org" as well as many
others are also available. In addition Domains can be
used with your e-mail accounts allowing you to send and receive
e-mail with addresses such as "sales@yourcompany.com"
A domain name is your own cyber-estate. This estate,
just like its physical counterpart, has its value depending
on its address (name) and its content. You can charge your visitors
or give them a free tour, or run a side business as part of
the estate.
Every domain name contains two or more components
separated by a period, called the famous "dot".
In johnklor.com
the last part of my address "com",
is called the "top level domain"
or "TLD". To the left
of the dot is my name, "johnklor",
or what is called the "2nd-level
domain".
NOTE: It is
also possible to have a "sub-domain"
or "3rd-level-domain" to
the left of the 2nd-level
domain such as "anything.johnklor.com".
TOP
2. What are the
Top Level Domains?
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.com
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For commercial entities,
which anyone, anywhere in the world, can register.
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.net
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Originally designated
for organizations directly involved in Internet operations.
It is increasingly being used by businesses when the desired
name under "com" is already registered by another organization.
Today anyone can register a name in the Net domain.
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.org
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For miscellaneous organizations,
including non-profits.
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.edu
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For four-year accredited
institutions of higher learning.
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.gov
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For US Federal Government
entities
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.mil
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For US military
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Country
Codes
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For individual countries
based on the International Standards Organization.
For example, .ca
for Canada,
.jp
for Japan, and .us
for USA etc.
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| New Addresses |
ICANN approved (.biz, . info, .name
... etc.) |
TOP
3. Generic vs. Personalized
Your Internet address (domain name) can either
be generic or personalized.
Generic
This type of address is typically associated with
a free service such as hotmail.com, Yahoo.com, or your Internet
Service Provider (ISP) such as AOL.com
A generic address would be of the following
form:
When personalized, it will have the form:
As long as "YourName.com" is still available.
Click here to check
if a domain name is still available. If available, you should
register or reserve it immediately.
TOP
4. What are the two most common types of Internet addresses?
1) Domain Name
2) Email Address
Almost all email addresses look like "username@Domain_Name.
Besides the above two types of emails (generic and customized)
you can choose a vanity email.
With vanity email, you get to select both the username
and a Domain_Name from a list provided by specialty vendors
like VanityMail.
One serious drawback of these names is that you
don't own the address and thus you cannot use the domain name
as your company's storefront.
TOP
5. Why Should I Own One?
A. Investment
Competitive Advantage. If you own your company,
you should carefully select your domain name, as it represents
both your storefront and your online address. It should be a
name that your customers can remember and use to identify your
brand.
I don't need to tell you the importance of commerce
on the Internet. In this environment, you need to enhance and
protect the value of your company's name. Your competition might
be cannibalizing your business because its domain name acts
as a magnet to surfers while you're waiting for them.
You are probably like the vast majority of people
who constantly need to give out their business telephone number,
fax number, and Internet addresses (work, educational, or personal).
Unfortunately, there is nothing in common between them. Thus,
you might consider making your telephone number as your email
address (e.g., 800-FLOWERS). You can do that by acquiring or
trading part of these business addresses to make sure that your
business is more visible and more memorable in the minds of
your customers.
Gold Rush Is On. Investing in domain-names
has been dubbed the gold rush of the '90's. You surely don't
want to miss it!
$ and Fun! Why not make money while having
fun? You can double your fun and become your friends' envy by
having a matching vanity license plate number with a domain-name.
And the fun goes on and on and ...
B. Protection Against Profit Dilution
Although not all intellectual property violations
are a result of malice, a number of organizations have discovered
that domain-name violations can be a lucrative business. Without
your knowledge others are intentionally or otherwise diluting
the value of your domain-name as well as siphoning profit and
traffic away from your business.
For instance, if your primary domain-name is tennisarchive.com,
someone can register a domain-name that is very similar to yours,
say tenisarchive.com and use the site to sell sports-related
or other products. So now visitors intending to go to your site,
who unconsciously type in tenisarchive.com (i.e., with only
one "n") would end up somewhere else. Thus, you would lose precious
sales as well as have the intrinsic value of your domain-name
diluted.
The most common violations are misspelled words and adding a
"www" prefix to your domain-name. So they would register "wwwtennisarchive.com",
i.e., a domain with no "dot" separating the "www" and your domain-name.
Other serious games include registering permutations of your
name. In the case of "CheckDomain.com", for instance, someone
registered "DomainCheck.com" and started running it as an adult
site.
Since these games and tactics siphon profits that
otherwise belong to you, we recommend that you also register
names "similar" to your primary domain. You should also consider
registering your domain-name in other countries.
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