How important can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most vital preconditions for building a successful web presence is the domain name. It is what people will discern first when they stumble upon your web site and what they will identify you with. The domain should be easy to remember, but should also be something that informs your site's visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain typically is composed of 2 parts - 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 Name and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are several categories of TLDs that you should contemplate prior to selecting the domain name you wish. Your decision should be built upon the intention of your website and on its target audience. Let's have a glance at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most typical TLDs aimed to signify a particular intention - .com (commercial enterprises), .net (networks), .biz (corporations), .info (informational sites), .org (organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (particular walks of life), etc. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domain Names cover most fields of life, so you should settle on the one that would portray 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 steps to demonstrate that you qualify to own such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Getting such a Top-Level Domain is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a given country. Many persons would like to buy goods or services from a local web page, and if your aim is Canada, for instance, opting for a .ca Top-Level Domain Name could increase the visits to your web site.

Domain Forwarding

You can register several TLDs, which can forward your website's visitors to a certain website like domain.com, for instance. This would boost the traffic and decrease the chance of someone pilfering your web page visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with a different Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) display where the domain is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting supplier whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using now. You can change the name servers of your domain at all times. You can have your domain registered with one provider and get the site hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain name and stumble upon good website hosting packages somewhere else later, you can point your domain name to the new provider's name servers immediately.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a certain pair of NSs, all its domain name server records will point to the same web page hosting vendor. Some web space hosting companies, however, enable you to modify given domain name records, like the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which specifies on which web hosting server your site is situated, while the MX records designate which web hosting server handles the e-mailbox accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you hire a new web designer and he develops an .ASP web page that will be situated on his personal Windows server, you may want to change just the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Hence, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows web hosting server, but your e-mail address accounts or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux site hosting account. The .ASP environment is developed by Microsoft and requires a Windows web server, even though a Linux server would be far more reliable.

Moderately Priced Top-Level Domain Names Supplied by 'Free Hostia'

Only a small number of web hosting companies allow you to edit certain domain name server records and quite often this an extra paid service. With Free Hostia , you have an extensive variety of Top-Level Domains to pick from and you can modify all DNS records or forward the domain names via a forwarding tool at no extra charge. For that reason, 'Free Hostia' would be your best pick when it comes to handling your domain name and to establishing a successful presence on the Internet.