What is a domain name?
At it’s most simplest, a domain name is a signpost, pointing the way to a location on the internet where web sites, email servers, or other internet services are located.
It’s an address that’s human readable and hopefully memorable. I’d far prefer to remember ‘rebusiness.com.au’ than ‘202.125.46.16’. That long number is called an IP address, and it’s the actual address that computers use to contact each other – but it’s the domain name that we humans can cope with.
A domain name is also a legal entity. Think of it like the title to a piece of property – a block of land. In this way, a domain name is the right to build something on the web at a certain address. You can leave the block of land untouched, you could build a small house, or you could build a huge skyscraper on your block of land – whatever you build is up to you, but the domain name is the means to get a block of land that others can find!
Practically, a domain name is most often seen as a web address… All the bumper stickers and TV ads you’ve ever seen with a web address at the end are purchased domain names for some sort of commercial or promotional purpose.
A domain is also used for other services that you can use on the internet – email is the next most common example. If you see an email like info@mydomain.com.au, then the ‘info’ portion is the actual email addressee, the ‘@’ bit is literally the word ‘at’, the ‘mydomain’ is the bit that you actually buy, and the ‘.com.au’ are to designate the type of domain and the geographic region.
The upshot is, that if you ever see an email like me@mydomain.com.au, that’s not a generic Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail free email, you can go to www.mydomain.com.au in a web browser and be very sure that you’ll find that person’s web site.
What’s with the ‘http://’ and the ‘www’??
Ah – old school! Please ignore the ‘http://’ portion, and *please* don’t write it on any of your business stationery! It did have a purpose back in the early 90’s, but now, the confusion it creates – the mistyping! – and the time it takes to say ‘haitch tee tee pee colon slash slash…’ could be better spent making a customer *happy*, not confused!
Similarly, 97% of web sites do not need the ‘www’ on the front of them in any modern web browser. Go on – try your favourite sites without it! It’s just one less thing to have your customers try to remember – so just hit them with ‘mydomain.com.au’ on your bumper stickers or at the end of your TV ads.
What’s with the .com .net & .au endings?
.com stands for ‘commercial’, .net for ‘internet related’, and .org for ‘non profit organisation’. These are called ‘top level domains’ or TLDs. There’s another TLA for you!
.au is a country domain – there are many hundreds of them that you slowly get to know, and every country but the USA has one.
How do I find a good domain name?
No question, the best way is to use bustadomain.com. It gives you instant testing of the main .com .net and .org domain names PLUS it gives you a thesaurus for finding similar words AND a simple way of finding common combinations of your key words that might be available.
To check for .au domain names, try a more restrained search on netregistry.com.au
How do I buy one?
For Australians, my pick would be netregistry.com.au – their support is great, and they’re quite huge (so stable!), but the best reason is that their prices are fair. Generally $20 per year for a domain name, but they often have special promotions, so hop on their mailing list.
Melbourne IT was the leader for many years, but they still charge $75 per year for the same virtual piece of nothing as netregistry’s $20 per year. There are also even cheaper options… but you don’t want to have your domain name company go bust one day…
What happens if the one I want is taken?
OK – here’s where is gets tricky. Your first port of call is to choose a better one – a name that’s more marketable. Be inventive, but also try to be concise. The shorter and more readable the better. I’ve written a whole guide about how to choose a good business/domain name on rebusiness.com.au
But if you really must have a name that’s taken, then either consider the poor cousins of the corresponding .net or .biz domain name (but only consider them briefly!) OR find out if the .com or .com.au you want is for sale.
If the .com site looks like a placeholder site, full of ads, chances are it’s a domain that’s been parked and the owner is either waiting for an offer right now, or will consider an offer in the future. Look up the domain on aunic.net for .au names, or internic.net for all .coms and see if you can find any contact information. Or search for ‘domain names for sale’ on Google to find the hundreds of domains up for grabs at the right price – remember, a domain name is a legal entity, so it’s able to be sold at any market price.
And if your domain is taken by someone to simply make you unhappy, then your best bet is to start going down the legal path. If the owner is simply ‘cybersquatting’ to make you pay one day, then the courts can have their way and return the domain to you if you are the ‘most legal’ owner by way of trademark, copyright or other valid claim.
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Did I miss any tricky questions? Got some curly domain names quandries? The curlier, the better! Leave me a question in the comments on this article on theswag.org.au (anonymously if you like!) and I’ll respond within a day.
Happy hunting!
Andrew Ballard
