Written by Last week I talked about what a domain is, domaining and its beginnings. This week I discuss where YOU can register a domain and some of the benefits of doing so. I personally own around 50 domain names through ShowTimeDomains.com. And as you will read, I recommend that everyone register their own “name”.com.
Domains can be registered in many different ways. As I just mentioned, individuals that own domains already can sell their domains to end-users. There are auction sites, such as, ebay.com, auctions.godaddy.com, sedo.com, and many others that offer an interface to buy and sell domains. Forums, blogs and domain conferences are also viable options to purchase domains however they generally do not offer the same security as an auction site. For example, when purchasing a domain via sedo.com, the buyer will pay sedo.com for the domain after negotiations between the buyer and seller are settled on a price. Sedo then acts as an escrow service and holds the funds until the seller moves the domain to the buyer’s control. This is very secure and the buyer does not need to worry about paying and not receiving the domain. Purchasing domains from forum members is less secure. The buyer will generally pay the seller via Paypal. Then the buyer will work with the seller to gain control of the domain. Although Paypal has its own security features to protect buyers, it is not the same as an escrow service.
Another way to purchase domains is to buy them as new registrations through a domain registrar. The largest domain registrar is GoDaddy.com. GoDaddy.com was formed in 1997 and has over 40 million domains under management (Registrarstats.com). GoDaddy.com is larger than its next 6 competitors which includes Enom.com. Enom.com is the 2nd largest registrar with a little over 10 million domains under management. Some of the other larger registrars are NetworkSolutions.com, Tucows.com and Register.com. All of the above companies allow people to register new domain names and the main differences are price, customer support and management interfaces. ShowtimeDomains.com allows you to register domains as well.
Domains are registered in one year increments. When they expire, if the owner does not renew them, they drop to expired auctions. Expired domains can be listed through a number of different auction sites. Many registrars operate auction sites for their own expiring names. When a user wants a domain that is already taken, these expired auctions are a great way to find those domains. A downfall to registering expired domains is that the auction company generally requires that you keep the domain with them for a period of time. If a domain is not purchased at an expired auction it will be completely dropped and made available as a new registration. The technique used to register these dropping domains as quickly as possible is called drop catching. I’ll talk more about this technique later in this paper. For those people that do not have the time or resources needed to be efficient at drop catching, they can backorder domains. Backordering domains is essentially paying a registrar to monitor the domain for you. When the domain is available for registration the registrar will attempt to get the domain. If successful, the domain will be registered for the backorder holder.
Registering domains can have many benefits. One of the biggest benefits is personalization (Evolutioninc.info). Owning a domain allows you to have a personalized email address. In the business world this is crucial. Sending emails from a yahoo.com or aol.com email address doesn’t have the same effect as sending it from sales@showtimedomains.com for example. A website can also be created for the domain name to allow the owner to showcase their products, express their thoughts, or simply for fun.
Businesses can benefit from owning their own domain as well. An online presence is more important than ever in today’s business world. Customers can purchase products online without ever having to leave their house. Shopping online has become huge business and if a company does not have a website they are cutting their revenues down considerably. Many consumers search online for a product they want to buy prior to going out to retail stores. Without a domain and website a company may never get their product in front of the consumer’s eyes.
That’s it for this week. Next week, I will start getting into the different ways to monetize domain names. That means to make money with your domains to my newer readers. I hope everyone has a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend.
