How important can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most important preconditions for establishing a successful Internet presence is the domain. It is what people will perceive first when they visit your web site and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that tells your web site's visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain typically has two constituents - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the SLD. There are a couple of categories of Top-Level Domain Names that you should examine prior to choosing the domain you wish. Your decision should rest on the purpose of your site and on its target viewers. Let's study the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most common Top-Level Domains intended to show a specific function - .com (commercial entities), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (corporations), .info (informational web sites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific region), .name (individuals or families), .pro (qualified professionals), and so on. As you can see, these Top-Level Domain Names encompass most fields of life, so you should go for the one that would designate the intention of your site best. There is no limitation as to who can register such Top-Level Domain Names, but some of them contain additional procedures to confirm that you are eligible to possess such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific domain names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a domain is good if your target group of website visitors is from a given country. Many individuals would prefer to buy commodities or services from a local website, and if your target is Canada, for instance, choosing a .ca domain could boost the visits to your website.

Domain Name Forwarding

You can register a bunch of TLDs, which can forward your web site's visitors to a certain site like domain.com, for instance. This would increase the traffic and decrease the risk of somebody stealing your web page visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with a different Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every Top-Level Domain Name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) exhibit where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting supplier whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using now. You can switch the NSs of your domain name whenever you wish. You can have your domain name registered with one company and get the webspace hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain name and find good website hosting services someplace else at a later time, you can point your domain to the new company's DNSs right away.

Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain utilizes a certain pair of NSs, all its records will lead to the same web page hosting firm. Some web space hosting firms, however, enable you to edit given domain name server records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which indicates on which hosting server your site is hosted, while the MX records reveal which web hosting server tackles the mailbox accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you take on a new website designer and he develops an .ASP web site that will be located on his personal Windows web server, you may desire to alter just the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web hosting server, but your email accounts or any sub-domain names such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux webspace hosting account. The .ASP environment is built by Microsoft and calls for a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux web hosting server would be way more dependable.

Cheap Top-Level Domain Names Courtesy of 'Electro-Host'

Only a number of web hosting distributors allow you to edit certain domain name records and very often this an additional paid service. With Electro-Host , you get an immense collection of Top-Level Domains to pick from and you can edit all name server records or forward the domain names through a forwarding tool at no added cost. Because of that, 'Electro-Host' would be your best choice when it comes to managing your domain and to establishing a successful presence on the web.