How vital can an affordable domain be?

One of the most essential requirements for establishing a successful online presence is the domain. It is what people will note first when they stumble upon your website and what they will relate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain usually consists of two fragments - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a couple of groups of Top-Level Domain Names that you should examine prior to choosing the domain you desire. Your selection should be built upon the aim of your website and on its target visitors. Let's take a look at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most popular Top-Level Domain Names meant to denote a particular function - .com (commercial enterprises), .net (networks), .biz (firms), .info (informative sites), .org (organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (certain walks of life), and so on. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domains cover most spheres of life, so you should select the one that would denote the purpose of your site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such Top-Level Domains, but some of them include extra requirements to show that you are eligible to keep such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Opting for such a Top-Level Domain Name is good if your target group of website visitors is from a certain country. Many visitors would sooner buy goods or services from a local web page, and if your target is Canada, for instance, opting for a .ca TLD could boost the visits to your website.

Domain Redirection

You can register a number of Top-Level Domains, which can redirect your web page's visitors to a certain web page such as domain.com, for example. This would boost the traffic and decrease the chance of someone snatching your website visitors by registering the same name with a different Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every Top-Level Domain Name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) disclose where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the web hosting company whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using now. You can change the DNSs of your domain name at any moment. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the web page hosting service itself from another. Hence, if you register your domain and stumble upon decent website hosting plans somewhere else later, you can point your domain name to the current company's NSs straight away.

Name Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain uses a given pair of NSs, all its name server records will point to the same website hosting vendor. Some webspace hosting providers, though, allow you to edit given domain name server records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which reveals on which hosting server your web page is hosted, whereas the MX records exhibit which web hosting server handles the email mailbox accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you hire a new website designer and he sets up an .ASP web site that will be situated on his personal Windows web server, you may want to edit solely the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Hence, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your e-mail box accounts or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web site hosting account. The .ASP environment is created by Microsoft and requires a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux web server would be far more stable.

Cut-Rate Top-Level Domain Names Supplied by 'Free Hostia'

Only a number of web hosting providers allow you to edit particular NS records and very often this an additional paid service. With Free Hostia , you have a huge assortment of TLDs to pick from and you can edit all domain name records or forward the domains using a redirection tool at no extra cost. For that reason, 'Free Hostia' would be your best choice when it comes to administering your domain name and to building a successful presence on the web.