How valuable can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most important requirements for creating a successful web presence is the domain. It is what visitors will mark first when they chance upon your web page and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to remember, but should also be something that informs your site's visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name as a rule has 2 parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a couple of sets of Top-Level Domain Names that you should contemplate before you choose the domain name you want. Your selection should rest on the intention of your web site and on its target visitors. Let's analyze the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most typical Top-Level Domain Names meant to show a given function - .com (business enterprises), .net (networks), .biz (companies), .info (informative websites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (specific professions), etc. As you can see, these TLDs encompass most realms of life, so you should pick the one that would show the aim of your site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domains, but some of them involve additional steps to prove that you are eligible to keep such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Settling on such a domain name is good if your target group of visitors is from a certain country. Many individuals would like to purchase commodities or services from a local site, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, choosing a .ca domain name could boost the visits to your web site.

Domain Name Forwarding

You can register a bunch of domains, which can redirect your visitors to a particular web site like domain.com, for instance. This would increase the traffic and lower the risk of someone stealing your visitors by using the same Second-Level Domain Name with another Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each Top-Level Domain Name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) disclose where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the web hosting provider whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using at present. You can swap the name servers of your domain name at any moment. You can have your domain name registered with one company and get the web site hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain and discover good website hosting services somewhere else at a later time, you can point your domain to the present provider's name servers straight away.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a certain set of DNSs, all its name server records will point to the same hosting firm. Some web space hosting vendors, though, permit you to modify certain domain name server records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which exhibits on which web server your web site is located, while the MX records designate which hosting server handles the e-mail accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you engage a new site designer and he devises an .ASP web site that will be located on his private Windows web server, you may want to alter just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. In this way, www.domain.com will point to the Windows server, but your e-mailbox accounts or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web page hosting account. The .ASP environment is developed by Microsoft and requests a Windows hosting server, even though a Linux web hosting server would be far more reliable.

Inexpensive Top-Level Domain Names Brought by 'BEA Cloud'

Just a few web hosting distributors allow you to modify given domain name server records and very often this an additional paid service. With BEA Cloud , you get an immense variety of Top-Level Domain Names to select from and you can edit all domain name records or redirect the domain names through a forwarding tool at no added charge. Because of that, 'BEA Cloud' would be your finest choice when it comes to handling your domain name and to setting up a successful presence on the World Wide Web.