How valuable can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most essential requirements for establishing a successful web presence is the domain name. It is what people will see first when they visit your web site and what they will link you with. The domain should be easy to remember, but should also be something that informs your site's visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain traditionally contains two constituents - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are several sets of TLDs that you should consider prior to picking the domain you want. Your choice should be based on the intention of your website and on its target spectators. Let's check the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most common TLDs aimed to signify a particular function - .com (business entities), .net (networks), .biz (businesses), .info (informational web pages), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (persons or families), .pro (qualified professionals), and so on. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domain Names cover most fields of life, so you should pick the one that would depict the objective of your web page best. There is no restriction as to who can register such TLDs, but some of them involve extra requirements to verify that you qualify to possess such a domain name (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Getting such a TLD is good if your target group of site visitors is from a specific country. Many guys would like to purchase commodities or services from a local website, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, choosing a .ca Top-Level Domain Name could increase the visits to your web page.

Domain Redirection

You can register a bunch of domains, which can redirect your website's visitors to a specific website such as domain.com, for instance. This would raise the traffic and lower the chance of somebody pinching your site visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain with a different Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every TLD has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) indicate where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting firm whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is utilizing now. You can substitute the name servers of your domain whenever you wish. You can have your domain registered with one provider and get the web page hosting service itself from another. Therefore, if you register your domain name and discover decent website hosting services somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain to the current provider's name servers instantaneously.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain uses a specific pair of name servers, all its domain name server records will direct to the same webspace hosting company. Some site hosting companies, though, allow you to edit certain name server records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which indicates on which web server your web site is located, whereas the MX records designate which server tackles the mailbox accounts related to your domain name. For instance, if you engage a new web site designer and he develops an .ASP website that will be accommodated on his own Windows hosting server, you may desire to modify solely the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. So, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows server, but your email mailboxes or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux webspace hosting account. The .ASP environment is designed by Microsoft and requests a Windows hosting server, even though a Linux hosting server would be way more secure.

Moderately Priced Top-Level Domain Names Courtesy of 'NTC Hosting'

Only a number of web hosting companies allow you to modify given NS records and quite often this an extra paid service. With NTC Hosting , you get a wide selection of TLDs to pick from and you can edit all records or forward the domain names through a forwarding tool at no additional charge. Therefore, 'NTC Hosting' would be your finest choice when it comes to administering your domain name and to building a successful presence on the Internet.