WordPress.com

WordPress.com allows you to create a blog for free that is hosted by wordpress. There are free templates and basic customizations available to make your blog more personalized. However, the blog address is a subdomain of wordpress.com (i.e. yourblogname.wordpress.com) rather than your own domain (yourblogname.com).

WordPress.org

WordPress.org is a much more robust blogging solution with huge advantages over a standard wordpres.com blog. Wordpress.org allows you to download the actual WordPress application – the same one that powers all the WordPress.com blogs. You can then easily install it (using their famous 5 minute installation) on your own hosting with your own domain to make the blog fully personal.

Outside of the affordable cost of hosting and a domain name, everything else you need is free! The WordPress application is free, and there are thousands of themes, plugins, and extensions available to make the blog fully customized for your needs. If you’re knowledgeable enough, you can create your own theme or edit a theme that someone else created. The functionality of WordPress is greatly extended with the addition of plugins (which wordpress.com blogs cannot use). Plugins do everything from speeding up your blog to optimizing it for search engines or even creating polls for use in blog posts.

With all the added benefits of wordpress.org and a self-hosted WordPress blog, there’s little reason to settle for a wordpress.com blog. If you go with a free blog on wordpress.com, you’ll likely find yourself outgrowing it’s functionality in short order. As a basic blogging platform it’s a good start, but it’s worth it to install your own WordPress. If you currently have a wordpress.com blog and want to move to self-hosting your blog, you’re in luck – wordpress.com has an easy export feature that allows you to create a file to import into your own blog for quick transfer of posts, pages, comments, and more.

Check out Dotster’s blog hosting plan and get started with a WordPress blog on your own domain today!

In Apple’s case, this certainly isn’t the end of the world as they have ample funding to buy all those domain names from their current owners for however many hundreds of thousands or even million dollars they might cost. However, for your average new company, small company with a new product launch, or individual with a great idea, paying large sums of money for a domain name is out of the question. This is why it can be critically important to include domain name availability searches as a part of any product or business name brainstorming.

When naming, try to find a .com that’s available, though for more common names you may have to think about settling for a .net or other alternative if you’re set on that particular name. When you include domain searching as a part of the early-brainstorming for a name, you can include that in your decision-making to come up with a great name that also has a domain available to register. If you wait until later to check the domain name, you may find yourself torn between a name you’ve become attached to and finding out the domain is unavailable.

Once you’ve got the perfect name in mind, make sure you register the domain before someone else has the chance. Dotster makes it affordable at only $15.95 per year for a .com and $8.99 for a .net!

Find out more about Dotster and how we can help improve your search presence with Domains, Web Hosting, and more.

The American Red Cross

Hope for Haiti

Text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 to Haiti relief funds through the US State Department and mGive and have it added automatically to your wireless bill

World Vision

Mercy Corps

So you already have a website up at your domain, but now you want to add a blog. Where should it go? You’ve got a number of options:

1) Replace your current website with a multi-functional blog that includes pages

2) Create the blog on a new domain

3) Put the blog on a subdomain (http://blog.yourdomain.com)

4) Put the blog in a directory (http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/)

There are benefits and downsides to each of these options, so read on to find the best solution for your needs.

Replace Your Current Website with a Multi-functional Blog

If your website is outdated, in need of a revamping, or simply not that useful to you at this point, consider replacing it with a blog or content management system. Popular content management and blogging solutions such as WordPress are a great solution.  This allows you to include a standard blog plus static pages that you can use to replace the content currently on your website.

Using a blog as your primary website  is a good solution for a smaller website and for people who want an easily customizable look and feel without the need for creating a site from scratch.  However, if you have an online business, company page, or other website that you don’t want to replace, this probably isn’t the option for you.

Create a New Domain for Your Blog

If you want to start a blog but keep it separate from your current website, creating a new domain is probably the best way to go.  Many web hosting plans (our Deluxe and Ultra Plans included) allow you to host multiple domains with only one hosting account, so the only additional cost is adding a domain name.

If you don’t want to replace your website with a blog or start out on a new domain, you’re left with two very basic options:

Put Your Blog on a Subdomain

This is the go-to choice for those who want to keep a blog separate from their primary website while still hosting it on the same domain.  Putting a blog at blog.yourdomain.com is fairly easy as long as your web hosting supports subdomains, and is a good way to categorize and brand your website. However, if you want your blog to be an integral part of your website, putting it on a separate subdomain may not be the best option.  You probably won’t receive the boost to page rank and search engine rankings that you might if you:

Put Your Blog in a Directory

This has become the most popular and generally most successful option for many people who want a blog as part of their website.  Google and other popular search engines give more weight to content that is in directories rather than on different subdomains, so consider using yourdomain.com/blog/ and a similar yourdomain.com/category/ structure for other sections on your website if you’re concerned about improving your rankings in search engines.  This structure is also very simple to put into place.  In most cases, all it takes is creating a new folder on your web server.

It’s tough to come to a conclusion about which option is superior to the others – it completely depends on your plans for the blog.  However, putting a blog in a directory is generally the safest bet if none of the other options stand out as a better choice.

Thoughts?  Please feel free to leave a comment.

On the other hand, potential new gTLD registry operators don’t want these delays, because the costs for going through the process of creating their gTLD continues to rise as various expenses add up.  The latest guesses have put the application period for gTLDs in the late 2010 range, with the actual release of those gTLDs in 2011.

Latin-Only Domains No More

Meanwhile, an even bigger change that hasn’t gotten the same level of attention the gTLDs have looks like it may be coming soon.  At ICANN’s most recent conference in Seoul, the decision was made to allow international domain names.  Since 2003, ICANN has supported international characters as part of a domain, but not as part of a TLD.  This change, which is potentially an even bigger deal that new gTLDs for the long-term future of the internet, means that non-Latin character domains will become a bigger part of internet structure.  With a good portion of the world using non-Latin based character sets (particularly in Asian regions), this change has significant implications.  For example, to this point, China’s country-specific TLD is .CN, rather than a TLD based in Chinese characters.

This is an interesting development in domains and it’s a little difficult to tell what unforeseen consequences might result, but overall this should be a good change to promote the availability of the internet to more users globally.  A major concern that has been brought up is application compatibility (not to mention keyboard compatibility with Western languages), but for the most part, international domain names should allow for a greater degree of localization of the internet for non-Western language countries.

We’re curious to see how the changes come about as the initial application period opens this month.

Shorter is Better

A domain can contain up to 67 characters, but that doesn’t mean it should be your goal to use all 67.  Instead, shorter is better when it comes to domains.  The less characters someone has to type in and remember, the better.

Example:

NO: purcellville-loudoun-real-estate-and-homes.com

YES: realestate.com

Keep it Simple

A short domain name certainly falls within this category, but also think about other aspects of simplicity.  A domain that uses common words rather than acronyms is preferable.  Also, while it may be tempting to include numbers or dashes between words, it’s generally a good idea to avoid doing so.

Example:

NO: hwy-914-autos.com

YES: beltlinecars.com

Is it Memorable?

You’re off to a good start if you’ve got a short, simple domain name, but is it memorable?  A key aspect to branding and getting good traffic to your website is the memorability of your domain name.  This is somewhat a two-way street; good branding will make your domain name memorable, but a memorable domain name will make your branding efforts much easier.  Think of Internet giants like Google and Twitter.  They started as unknowns, but both have simple, catchy domain names that are memorable.

Example:

NO: emblismological.com

YES: zappos.com

Can you Spell it?

If your domain name is spoken audibly, could someone easily know what to type in to get to your site? Make sure there aren’t confusing elements of your domain that could be difficult to communicate to others.

Example:

NO: doubleyou.com

YES: boston.com

Match your Names

While not an absolute requirement, it’s always helpful to have your business name and your website name match your domain name. There are exceptions to this when it comes to generic domains (as covered below), but in general, if your business name is Cute Fluffy Puppies, Inc. you’ll want to grab cutefluffypuppies.com or a similar variation.

Example:

NO:  business name is Pacific House Cleaners, domain name is  brightcleaning.com

YES: business name is Dotster, domain name is www.dotster.com

Find a Domain Early

This one is most applicable to a new business or start-up and follows along the lines of the importance of matching names.  Choose a domain name while in the process of naming your business if at all possible.  If you’re an established business, you may find that your ideal domain name has already been taken by someone else.  Don’t be surprised when you start a company called Amazon Tours only to find that someone else has snagged amazontours.com ahead of you.

Generic or Branded?

In general, at the very least you’ll want to come up with a non-generic business name and matching domain name. Online companies such as Facebook have built a business around their domain name, but you may not want to call your business Onion Sales just because onionsales.com is available.  That said, generic domains do have value to supplement your primary domain name.  For instance, Dotster customer Bike Tires Direct (biketiresdirect.com) also owns bicycletires.com and a variety of other domains that receive visitors from both typed in and organic (search engine) traffic.

Pick a strong TLD

You’ve probably heard that .COM is king.  This is generally good advice, mostly because the history of domain popularity has turned .COM into the go-to domain extension (TLD).  However, there are numerous quality TLDs available, with plans for many more in the works. The TLD you should pick is very much based upon what you intend to do with your website.

• If you’re starting a business, use .COM, .BIZ, or .NET, or alternately use a country-based TLD such as .US (United States) or .CA (Canada)
• For organizations and non-profits, .ORG is a well-known and highly recognized TLD that most internet users approach with trust.
• If you’re starting a personal site or a portfolio, .ME is a fairly new TLD that is a great option.
• Other more specific types of sites have TLDs that may be a good fit.  For instance, .TV or .FM TLD may be a good choice for a media-focused website.

Consider your Options

It can be really tempting to settle with a mediocre domain name if you have a business name you like, but often it’s not worth doing so.  If you’re Jerry and you’re starting a pizza parlor, but jerryspizza.com is not available, all is not lost:

Good Alternatives:

jerrypizza.com (short, memorable)

pizzajerry.com (Jerry is all about pizza)

pizzajerrys.com (Jerry’s is the place to go for pizza)

jerryspizzaparlor.com (not too long, and descriptive)

jerryspizza.biz (alternative TLD)

Not-so-Great Alternatives:

jerrys-pizza.com (avoid the dashes!)

jerrysfamousdeepdishpizza.com (getting a little long)

Cover Your Bases

Once you’ve found the perfect domain for you site, consider purchasing the same domain name for different TLDs if it’s available.  If you want to limit any potential confusion with your domain name (say, animalpostcards.com), purchase animalpostcards.net and other variations as well.  From there, it’s as simple as redirecting those other domains to the .COM domain to make sure you’re capturing all the traffic that’s out there trying to find your site.

If you’ve got ideas for a great domain name, use our domain search to see if it’s available.

Posts: Part 1: ICANN, Part 2: Registries, Part 3: Registrars , Part 4: The Domain Aftermarket , Part 5: Customers & End Users

The first four parts of this series have focused on different entities in the domain industry and the roles they play.  If you haven’t read the other posts in this series, I’d encourage you to use the links above and do so.  If you’re new to the domain industry and owning a domain name, it can be rather confusing.  Hopefully these posts have helped shed at least a little light on the subject.

So what is your role in the industry as a customer and domain owner? Several things:

First, I’d suggest following some industry news to stay on top of what industry organizations such as ICANN are up to, including interesting topics such as the creation of new top-level domains expected to begin taking place in the near future.  Most notably in current news, the joint project agreement between ICANN and the US Government is about to expire, giving ICANN more independent control of its actions than it has ever had before.  ICANN has policies that focus on encouraging public comment and feedback, so if you have strong feelings about ICANN’s actions and the way IP addresses and domain names are managed, share them.

Next, make sure you renew your domain names in a timely manner to avoid having to potentially go through the process of redemption or losing your domain entirely.  As we’ve mentioned, the domain aftermarket for expiring domains can be a tricky place to wade into, and you’re best of renewing domains with time to spare to avoid any potential hassles of trying to get an expired domain back.

Finally, understand how to effectively use your domains.  Learn about DNS management and other domain tools to help you get the most out of your domain.  If you are already an experienced domain owner, be sure to help friends who might be less experienced than you are online.  You’d be surprised how many people think that buying a domain name is all you need to do to create a website, even after we work to make our messaging clear that websites require some sort of hosting.

If you’ve got other questions about the industry you think we could answer, be sure to leave them in the comments.  We’ll respond, and perhaps even write up a new blog post if the subject is big enough to warrant.

Posts: Part 1: ICANN, Part 2: Registries, Part 3: Registrars , Part 4: The Domain Aftermarket , Part 5: Customers & End Users

The Domain Aftermarket: The Basics

You may have had people tell you that all the good .COMs are taken.  While this isn’t completely true (there are still some good domain names out there if you get a little creative), many of the possible one-word and two-word combination .COM domain names have been registered.  This doesn’t leave people seeking a good .COM domain name in a great situation, but that’s where the domain aftermarket can play a role.

Most people don’t consider the fact that for all the new domains being registered worldwide each day, there are also domains that are expiring whose owners don’t renew them for various reasons.  These domains go through a fairly complex expiration process.  The basic expiration process involves a two-part period that allows the expired domain owner to reclaim their domain (grace period followed by a redemption period), during which many domains are listed on auction sites for bidding in the event that the domain owner chooses to let the expiration renewal period pass.

When a registrar deletes a domain name with the registry, the domain name has “dropped”.  The domain backorder/auction services that have sprung up work by repeatedly accessing a registry’s servers to catch the domain name as soon as the name is cleared from the registries records.  In the past, was a fight between domain auction services to see who could re-register the domain name the fastest, making it frustrating for people trying to grab a domain name to have any guarantee they’d actually have a shot at it.  As a result, many of the larger domain registrars have partnered with one auction company that gets first rights to the dropped name.  At auction, if there has been bidding or a backorder on an expiring domain, the winning bidder will have ownership of the deleted domain transferred to them.  If the domain name had no bids, the name is deleted at the registry and becomes available to be registered via the standard method with a domain registrar.

That’s probably about as simple a description as is possible of a very complex market for expired domains.  You’ve probably heard the term “domainer” – a term that has a negative connotation attached to it for some people.  While some domain purchasers may be cybersquatters, your average domainer is definitely not.  Domainers practice domain name speculation – that is, purchasing promising domains with the intent of selling them for a profit in the future.  Domainers often rely on auction services and find expiring generic domain names with good traffic potential to purchase.  They then develop sites to increase traffic before selling, “park” the domain with ads to generate revenue, or simply act as a broker to sell the domain name to someone who sees high potential value for it.

Where the Aftermarket Fits in the Industry

While Registries, Registrars, and so on are well defined groups within the industry, the aftermarket is a much broader segment.  It includes domain auction services, drop catching services, domainers, and others in most cases looking to create value with domains above and beyond their original registration value.  For instance, while h5j456j6452he.com is still available to be registered on Dotster for $15.95 and has likely never been registered before, candy.com recently changed hands for a cool $3 million.

How the Domain Aftermarket Affects You

The good news?  If you’re looking for a good domain for your business or personal site, you can definitely find one.  The bad news? If the one you want is taken, it may cost you more than your standard registration.  Many domains have been purchased but are sitting idle and don’t actually resolve to a website.  If you’re interested in purchasing one of these domain names that’s been taken and isn’t expiring, you can always use a Whois Search to see contact information for that domain.  However, if the current owners sees extra value in that domain, you may have to make a sizable offer to have them consider selling it to you.

The domain aftermarket is also a good reminder of why you want to keep your domain from expiring.  If your domain expires and passes the redemption period, not only can it be registered by someone else, but it also shows up in listings of expired domains for auction.  This means if you have a good domain name and lose it by not re-registering it, it may cost you a great deal to get it back from a new owner.  We provide a variety of measures to make sure you remember to renew your domain, including an option to auto-renew and regular email reminders.

Finally, if you’re not doing anything with your domain and thinking about just letting it expire, consider trying to sell it if you think it has any potential value as a generic domain.

So, what is domain hijacking and what does it have to do with you? As the term implies, domain hijacking is when a domain is moved to another registrar without the permission of its owner. Imagine trying to load your small business website, only to find that your domain is now resolving to someone else’s property. Not only would you lose out on online revenues, it could damage to your brand as hijackers can take over that domain’s email or build an identical website to phish private information from your customers including logins and passwords. Reclaiming a hijacked website can cost thousands of dollars in legal fees that many small business owners may be unable to justify, and in some cases recovery may not be possible.

How Hijacking is Done

The most common tactic used by hijackers is to steal personal information about the actual domain owner so they can login as the owner and modify registration information or transfer the domain to another registrar. Once this has been done, the hijacker has full control of the domain and can use it or sell it to a third party.

How to Prevent Domain Hijacking

In an article for CircleID, domain attorney Brett Lewis lists seven simple rules for prevention including selecting a reputable registrar, maintaining accurate contact information with them and keeping your usernames and passwords secure.

At Dotster we provide several services, some free, others low-cost that can help protect you from domain hijacking:

1)       Automatic renewal: unless you specify otherwise, all new registrations are set for automatic renewal to prevent your domain name from accidentally expiring.

2)       Whois Privacy: for a small annual fee, Dotster’s contact information can be listed in the Whois database rather than yours, masking your identity to would-be hijackers and spammers. And unlike other private registration services, you retain complete ownership and management of your domain.

3)       Ownership Transfer is a free service that ensures you always have the correct domain owner listed in the Dotster Account Management area.

4)       TransferLock is a free service that prevents unauthorized transfers of your domain names to other registrars unless you login to your account and unlock your domains. Sign up by logging into your Dotster account.

5)       NameSafe offers the ultimate in domain name security, preventing account ownership updates, name server updates, contact updates, moving domains between accounts and registrar transfers without authorization from the account owner through email. Domains using NameSafe will be under locked status with the registry. Sign up for this product through the domain registration process or by logging into your Dotster account.

Together, these tips and services are meant to safeguard your domain investment and online business. However, as nothing in technology is 100% hack-proof, we also have helped customers with transfer disputes in the past.

Do you have thoughts on domain hijacking? Please share them in the comments section.