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| Choose and Secure: Easy Steps to Your Domain Name
What's in a Name? Striking Out Brainstorm Solutions Trademarking Your Domain Activating Your Domain: Hanging That Virtual Shingle Two Crucial Tips After Purchasing Your Domain ................................................................................................................................................................ What's in a Name? By the time you read this, the name you want will most likely have been snagged by someone else -or perhaps not. Domain selection is all about timing, creativity, and protecting your investment. You'll want to register your business ultimately as a .com, however, suffixes like .org, .net, .biz, and even .us are widely available. If even those are taken, you can register your name in one of the more than 100 non-U.S. top level domains (TLDs) like .cc and .nu. Money is the pure motivator when it comes to purchasing your name from the original registrant. The drawback is that these don't have the recognition of .com -so your prospects will automatically append a .com if your domain name hasn't imprinted itself on their grey matter. The results can be hilarious. If you're older than 18, check out whitehouse.com and imagine a customer stumbling upon that site instead of yours. Striking Out So you think you've struck out because you feel you're still without a domain at this point? Get creative. Many business owners can get a reasonable facsimile of their name by adding prefixes and suffixes like "e," "i," "cyber," "online," and "the" or using hyphens. When Robin Barton of Raleigh, NC found that BartonEstates.com was already registered, she registered BartonEstate.com for her real estate business. As you can see, Robin choose to remove the "s" at the end to create her own identity. Second Chance Pet Adoptions took a similiar route. They choose secondchanceNC.org to fulfill their identity. Whereas, secondchance.com takes you to a body armour business, one can definitely see the identities vastly differ. Brainstorm Solutions Network Solutions is the originator of domain registration and will provide alternative suggestions to each strike out you incur. Try a name on their brainstorming tools on their Domain Name page: Enter keywords and you'll get possibilities that are available for registration. Find a name that suits you, and the charge is currently $25 a year when you register the name for two to three years. Additionally, you'll want to purchase other suffixes as well and point them to your main page. Should a prospect not remember what suffix you're under, she'll arbitrarily type .com within the address bar. If you have purchased .net, .biz, .us, your Web designer can create a redirect page that lands your prospect on yourbiz.com. Second Chance Pet Adoptions did just this with their domain: secondchanceNC.org and secondchanceNC.com. Because Second Chance Pet Adoptions is a non-profit organization, .org are reserved for such businesses. Moreover, while they announce to their following that .org is the choice of suffix, even the absentminded can locate your page -call it a happy accident. Trademarking Your Domain Do you really need to trademark your domain or is this just another way to suck money from your liquid assets? While you've successfully secured your domain, you'll want to be sure to protect it; a domain name by itself is considered merely an address. Having trademark rights allows you to protect your domain name against others who might allege that it infringes on their trademark and try to have it legally taken from you, and also allows you to enforce your trademark rights against others who use domain names similar to yours to try to divert your customers. What is a trademark? A trademark is a word or symbol used to identify the source of goods or services to consumers. Trademarks are complex and rights arise upon use in commerce--with or without national registration--of the name of the good or service. Make sure you read more about them or consult an attorney for your particular situation. You can learn more at www.uspto.gov. Activating Your Domain: Hanging That Virtual Shingle No matter what hosting solution you select, the process of activating your TLD is the same. The host will assign your domain name an IP (Internet Protocol) address, which consists of four numbers separated by full stops, log the IP number onto the host's primary and secondary DNS (domain name services) servers and broadcast to the Internet. The DNS servers will have hostnames and their own IP addresses. This information is required to modify your domain name profile kept by your registrar. Your profile can be modified by either you or your host. The name servers specified in your domain name profile will be the primary destination routers on the Internet used to resolve requests for your domain name or unique IP address. Once you have a host, most of this maintenance will be done for you. You can provide permission for your host to update your domain name profile, and their technicians will take care of updating the DNS servers so your domain name can be resolved through its unique IP address. Please remember two (2) crucial tips after purchasing your domain:
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