Domain and Subdomain Facts

Domain Names-Are They Important?

Domain Names-Are they important? Yes, very important. When you first begin online, you may just assume that any name that is relevant to the subject matter you are presenting will do. If this is your first thought, think again, please.

Let's begin by defining a domain name and proceed to the specifics of what you should consider when created that domain name.

Domain Name Purpose

A domain name's purpose is to provide a recognizable name to human eyes, versus the unique numerical Internet address (IP address) that your website will be recognized by, by the search engines.

Even though you know you are recognized by an IP address by the search engines, be aware that the domain name is what is recognized by the people who will frequent your site. So, what rules should you follow with your domain name?

Domain Name Tips

You are probably saying, as I did, a domain is a domain. (In this case, Ignorance in this area was a definite setback for me when I started). So why is a name so important? It's your calling card to come visit. So what do you need to remember when creating a domain name?

Your domain name should be short and concise as possible
No hyphens
Should be relevant to your site
A domain name should be easy to remember

Now that you have a name picked out, you'll need to decide the extension that you want to use. The cost of buying your domain name is tied to the extension that you choose.

Domain Name Extension

The domain name extension is your second consideration, after choosing your domain name, you will have to choose the extension.

To begin, if it is at all possible, choose a domain name with a ".com" extension. This is the most commonly used extension and easier for people to remember. In my case, I used the ".biz" mainly because the ".com" was taken. So when you are looking for an available domain name, be sure to look for the ".com" extension first for availability.

Here are the most common extensions used and how they are defined.

1. com = Commercial
2. net = Networks
3. org = Organizations
4. edu = Educational
5. gov = US government
6. int = International organizations
7. mil = US Dept of Defense
8. pro = Professionals
9. biz = Businesses
10. inf = Informational

Domain Drop Catching

Realize that your domain name is your business-it is Internet Real Estate that other people may want to take. And It is possible. It is called Drop Catching.

Drop catching is a legal process by which people will quickly grab a domain name once it has expired. They are looking for a domain name people will identify with quickly and that has earned a lot of traffic. And...

Since drop catching is not illegal you have to realize company's are creating auctions that allows others to bid on the domain name that is expiring. For those domains that are truly expiring great. But for the webmasters who slow in updating when they are suppose to, could mean:

Loss of Site Name
Loss of Income
Loss of traffic
Loss of creditability if it turns into an Adult site.-Imagine if you're a lawyer and you wake up the next morning and find your site taken over by an Adult site. Won't happen? Think again. (This means, don't wait til the last minute to renew your domain or web hosting service or let it a domain expire, and expect it to be there).

What Is A SubDomain

You may have come across some subdomains, and maybe not even realized it. One example of a website that uses subdomains is About.com. But what is a subdomain?

A subdomain is "a new domain" under an existing standard domain. Take a close look at the difference below.

standard domain: http://www.mystandarddomain.com
subdomain: http://subdomain.mystandardomain.com

Do you see the difference? There are two noticeable differences: 1) The subdomain does not have the "WWW" (World Wide Web) present; and 2) the subdomain name preceeds the domain name, with "period" separating the subdomain name from the domain.

SubDomain Pros and Cons
As with anything, there are always pros and cons, and it is no different with creating subdomains. In most cases, web hosting services do provide you with the opportunity to use subdomains, it is up to you to decide if it is appropriate for your needs. So what are the immediate pros and cons to subdomains?

Pros

Are there any pros to subdomains? Yes.

You can submit each subdomain to a directory

All links from a subdomain to the main page are seen as

1 way inbound links, rather than internal links.

You can organize your content -especially helpful if you have different types of information.

You take advantage of keywords with your domain.

Cons

A subdomain is just like a regular domain. So what does that mean precisely? It means:

subdomains need to be optimized like a standard domain
Each new subdomain will go through the same battles that you encountered with your main domain. Let's start with the Google Sandbox, getting inbound links, and increasing page popularity so that the page is crawled and crawled often.
Ranking will begin at the beginning for those web pages that you move to, or under the subdomain

Note: Your subdomain is a subset of your domain. So if one of your sub-domains is banned by Google, you will find your whole website is banned as well.

Buying a Domain Name

Buying a domain name in the usual sense is no big deal. The usual sense, is you register a domain for a website, construct your website and put it online. Sometimes, depending upon the hosting service, you may get a domain name for free for life, or for the first year-after that, you will have to pay a small fee for the domain registration. The domain registration can begin as low as $5.00 and go up from there. The price can depend on the name and the extension used.

Most times, the hosting service has a domain service where you can pick your name, and check for availability. If it's available, it's yours to use. But what about the actually buying and selling of domains as a business?

Buying and Selling Domain Names-The business

However, if are buying and selling domains in the hope of making a profit off said domains, that's a completely different creature altogether.

First, this is not a business that you can blindly go into and hope that you will learn as you go. Second, you do need some skill and knowledge in web design, marketing, etc., because it can involve many different scenarios. Such as: 1) improving a website; 2) gutting a website and creating a new website out of the existing website's content; or 3)buying the domain name alone to make money.

Here are some of the different scenarios that constitutes the business model of buying and selling domains:

1. You may buy a website for nothing more than the name. Why? You may see a coming trend, and that trend could mean a great payday.

2. Or you see the value of a website, buy it for little or nothing, tweak it, and sell it. Or keep it if the changes you made is making you money.

3. Or, copy the good stuff of a website, build your own website and sell it in the same niche.

If you're thinking about exploring this avenue for a business, be sure you have money upfront, and a strong set of web skills.

Now that you've have some knowledge about domains and website construction, it's time to see what some website hosting services can provide you, and what you the buyer should be aware of when choosing a web hosting service.

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