How essential can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most crucial prerequisites for establishing a successful Internet presence is the domain name. It is what people will see first when they come across your web site and what they will identify you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name as a rule consists of two fragments - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are several sets of Top-Level Domain Names that you should consider before you pick the domain name you want. Your selection should depend on the purpose of your site and on its target spectators. Let's take a glimpse at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most common Top-Level Domains intended to express a specific intention - .com (business establishments), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (companies), .info (informative web sites), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (particular professions), etc. As you can see, these Top-Level Domain Names encompass most spheres of life, so you should pick the one that would portray the intention of your site best. There is no limitation as to who can register such TLDs, but some of them contain extra requirements to show that you are eligible to have such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific Top-Level Domain Names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Opting for such a domain is good if your target group of site visitors is from a specific country. Many visitors would elect to buy goods or services from a local website, and if your aim is Canada, for instance, registering a .ca domain name could boost the visits to your web page.

Domain Name Forwarding

You can register different domains, which can redirect your site's visitors to a given website like domain.com, for instance. This would boost the traffic and reduce the probability of somebody stealing your website visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) specify where the domain is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting vendor whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using now. You can alter the NSs of your domain at any time. You can have your domain registered with one company and get the website hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain and detect good website hosting plans someplace else at a later time, you can point your domain name to the new company's DNSs instantly.

Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name uses a certain pair of NSs, all its domain records will direct to the same hosting vendor. Some website hosting firms, though, permit you to modify specific records, like the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which specifies on which server your website is hosted, while the MX records exhibit which server handles the mail accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you engage a new site designer and he build an .ASP website that will be located on his private Windows hosting server, you may desire to modify solely the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. In this way, www.domain.com will point to the Windows 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 present Linux web space hosting account. The .ASP environment is devised by Microsoft and requires a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux web server would be far more secure.

Budget Domain Names Courtesy of 'aBitHosting'

Only a few web hosting suppliers allow you to edit particular DNS records and quite frequently this an extra paid service. With aBitHosting , you get a big array of Top-Level Domain Names to pick from and you can edit all DNS records or redirect the domains via a forwarding tool at no additional charge. Therefore, 'aBitHosting' would be your finest pick when it comes to managing your domain name and to creating a successful presence on the Internet.