Only UK domain names can be detagged. A domain name that has been DETAGGED is no longer hosted o­n valid name servers.

by: Clare Lawrence

What is a DETAGGED domain name? We get asked this question regularly.

What happens if there are no longer valid nameservers showing against a domain name?

If no valid name servers are showing this means that any services such e-mail or a web site will no longer work.

Who can DETAG a domain name?

Only a domain registration service or agent can DETAG a domain name. This happens if the relationship between domain name owner and agent expires, for example if the registration fee or renewal fee is not paid.

When are domain names detagged?

Domain names can be detagged at any point after registration. Detagging signifies the end of the relationship between the registration agent and the registrant.

It is not necessarily an indication of whether a domain name is paid for or not.

How can I tell if a domain name is DETAGGED?

You will probably notice that the email or web site associated with the domain name has stopped working.

You can check the status of any registration by doing a WHOIS look-up that will indicate that the domain name is DETAGGED.

How can DETAGGED domain name be retagged?

To restore a DETAGGED domain name, the registrant will need to pay a tag change fee of £15+VAT as of January 2004 to nominet via a registration service. Nominet charge a higher fee to deal direct with the owner.

Can I register a DETAGGED domain name?

A DETAGGED domain name is still registered to the original registrant, and it remains as such until it is either renewed by the current registrant, or it is cancelled. o­nce cancelled, it immediately becomes available for registration o­n a first-come, first-served basis.

How long does it take for a DETAGGED domain name to become available for registration?

Nominet contact the owner of each domain that is detagged and confirms if they wish to renew or allow each name to lapse.

If the domain is allowed to lapse then the domain name will be suspended after 21 days and then cancelled between 6-8 weeks after that.

For further information please visit Nominet http://www.nominet.org.uk

By Clare Lawrence 29th September 2003

Clare is the CEO of Discount Domains Ltd a leading UK Domain name registration service.

ICANN accredited registrar Secura announces today,that the company is accepting the registration of za-domains.

The co.za-domains are the domains of South Africa. The co.za-domains belong to the popular domains in Africa.

You cannot register at .za. If your name is not available at co.za, you can also register at org.za.

The com-domain is best for websites that target international markets, while .co.za-domains are best for South African webpages or those with a strong South African reference. This is so because surfer are used to, and you may lose a part of your target group if you deviate from the expected Top Level Domain.

Even if you should own a .com domain, it is advisable to register also a .co.za-domain as well. The za-domains are available o­n a first-come-first-serve basis.

There are no specific requirements for registering za-domains. A local presence or registered company in South Africa is not a requirement for a co.za name.

ICANN accredited registrar Secura can register a za-domain at o­nce, if the domain name is free.

We do not always realize, that figures are just quantity and can deceive about quality.

The net-domain – the backbone of the web

In spite of the fact, that the net-domain is o­nly the No. 4 in terms of the number of domain names registered, it works as a backbone of the web.The net-domains build the largest Top Level Domain by number of hosts, or machines connected to the Internet. More than 44 percent of name servers use net-domains. We presume, that programmers and other technical experts have a more narrow emotional relationship to .net than to .com.

Their sympathy for .net is just greater than for .com. Historically .net was o­nce reserved for providers. This might have still an influence to the technical use of .net and the importance of this use. Every programmer and hostmaster has an idea of .net, but not every programmer and hostmaster has an idea of .com. In some way .net stands for the web.

Other facts:

– 31 percent of all page views are dependent o­n a net-domain for resolution

– 32 percent of all B2C e-Commerce in 2004 is dependent o­n a net-domain for resolution.

Hans-Peter Oswald

ICANN Registrar Secura announces today, that the company is now accepting the registration of jp-domains from companies and individuals outside of Japan.

The jp-domains are the domains of Japan. The jp-domains belong to the popular domains in Asia.

You need a local contact to register these domain. ICANN accredited registrar Secura provides automatically this local contact in the registration process, if you have not a registered business in Japan.

There are domains at .jp and at .co.jp. You have to pay for the more attractive domains at .jp 300 US-Dollars per year.

It is paradox: But you have to invest 4000 US-Dollar in the first year, if you want a co.jp-domain, as you need for a co.jp- domain a Japanese business licence. In this price of 4000 US-Dollars is not o­nly the co.jp-domain, but the business licence, the contacts with japanese authorities, the translation and everything else included.

ICANN accredited registrar Secura has access to the registration system of jp-domains. Secura can register a jp-domain at o­nce, if the domain name is available.

Hans-Peter Oswald

https://www.domainregistry.de/jp-domain.html

Domain names are relatively straightforward! Or at least that’s the theory!!

by: Clare Lawrence

The domain name is also, but technically not quiet correct, known as the website address.

Using an ISP’s domain name can look amateurish in an e-mail addresses, it is much more so with websites, giving the impression of hanging o­n another’s coat tails. The o­nly exception being when a firm wants to re-inforce a local or professional affiliation by appearing as part of an existing site dedicated to a region or association. Even in such cases autonomy and continuity are better assured by having o­ne’s own domain and merely using a page o­n the third party’s site to point users toward it.

Domains are classified according to their endings or “suffixes”. As a commercial organisation a company will almost certainly want a domain ending in .com or .co.uk. Other endings such as .biz and .ltd.uk are at least to date, insufficiently familiar to users, meaning the name can be too readily misremembered. Of the two desirable suffixes, .com is preferable for business with international activities, and arguably gives the impression of a bigger organisation, whilst .co.uk helps reassure users o­n the largely American-dominated web that they are indeed dealing with a UK firm.

The part of the domain name before the suffix will usually by the firms trading name, provided of course that the domain name has not already been registered, (which is increasingly likely these days). If the name is very long an abbreviation may be considered. Domain names are not case sensitive.

The actual registration of a domain name is a straightforward process that can be done o­nline, either through your ISP or better still through a dedicated registration service company such as Discount Domains Ltd (http://www.discountdomainsuk.com). Renewal fees must be paid, typically every two years.

Checking if a domain name is freely available is very straightforward as most domain registration services provide a WHOIS service, as the name suggest, this checks the ownership details of a domain, note however that such services normally run 48 hours behind actual registrations.

Moving ISP’s can save money, however it may take time and incur extra charges. Pricing in the domain name registration industry have fallen considerably over recent years and a domain name typically now costs from $15 for two years registration.

Once your domain name is registered, you can either leave the domain name “parked” awaiting future use, or point it at a website, this is usually achieved by changing the Domain Name Server, or DNS settings o­n the domain to point at hosting company where your website is located. Almost all registration services offer a free user control panel to change these settings.

Web hosting is the provision of space o­n a web server to publish a web site. There are numerous hosting companies in the market, and most domain registration services also offer a hosting solution. Prices vary but $100 per annum should be sufficient for most business needs.

If you provide great content o­nline users will make sure that they can find your website. You can create a domain with hyphens, longer phrases and words. You don’t want to use the 67 character maximum allowed for domain names, but 15 plus characters is totally acceptable.

To make your domain name memorable, it should be a short phrase that describes your website, your products or your particular area of expertise. If you provide reliable, accurate information, web users can use bookmarks or type the phrase directly into a search engine to get back to your site. This means that you will have to really focus o­n getting your domain name listed o­n as many search engines and directories as possible.

The other advantage to creating a domain name for an informational site is that most surfers search by typing in phrases and entire sentences into the search engines. A domain name that uses all of the words of a small phrase or sentence will easily filter to the top of the listing and keep your customers coming back.

Hot tip: If you don’t trust the engines to help your customers find you o­n a regular basis, make it easy for anyone to bookmark your site with a reminder button o­n your home page.

I am in the process of registering more and more domain names so it seems natural to look for the best pricing deal.

Does GoDaddy really suck?

Registering multiple domain names can add up quickly, especially if you register both the NoDashVersion.com and Dashed-Version.com names.

Each domain name represents a new site concept which will in most cases involve the selection of a web hosting plan.

It also makes sense to pay a little less for web hosting right? After all, all these new projects add up.

How much do you really save?

The answer to this question depends o­n how much value we place o­n our time, and our ability to determine what other software tools are required to run the type of website we have in mind.

In other words, if we think that our time is valuable, we will not mind investing an extra $50-$400 per project per year, especially if there is a lot of value added services and software tools included in the price.

What’s the point in saving 50 bucks a year o­n some bare-bones web hosting if our time gets wasted with support issues or we need to buy additional products and services in order to run our site effectively?

Example of Web Hosting Hell:

http://www.godaddysux.com/web_hosting_hell.html

I do not know about you, but after I read o­ne of these bad web hosting reviews, I start to become very cautious about that company. In this case, it is GoDaddy.

Research your new Web Host or Domain Name registrar

I remembered that GoDaddy has been mentioned a number of times in some of the Internet Marketing courses and SEO books that I own, so I decided to check GoDaddy out. By check them out, I do not mean just visit their web site, swallow their sales pitch and click through to the checkout patting myself o­n the back for a job well done.

I did a search at Google.com for the term godaddy review, and discovered some interesting results.

After reading a few of the results, I decided to search for the term “do not use godaddy” (this string was searched enclosed with “inverted commas”), and discovered even more negative feedback not o­nly about their web hosting services but also their domain name registration and associated services.

Is it all about Price?

No way. Do we *really* save? o­n o­ne hand it looks like a saving but o­n the other hand the saving can be offset by extra costs elsewhere.

As a result of this little study, I have no desire at this time to change my domain name registrar or my two web hosting companies that I use just to save a few bucks.

At the moment, I enjoy the following benefits from my web hosts and domain name registrar:

Everything works to my satisfaction 99.99% of the time
Very little support needed in the first place
Support queries attended to quickly
Support queries always solved to my satisfaction
I never suffer from emotional disturbance as a result of dealing with rude support staff
I am never accused of being the problem
Example of excellent support

I created a new directory and installed a PHP script o­n o­ne of my sites. All the file permissions were set correctly and the files were uploaded in the correct format.

So I edited the HTML user interfaces and tried to upload them to this new directory. For some reason I was denied access to this new directory. Permission Denied!

I emailed my web host with a description of the problem and within a few hours my web host sent me an email saying that the problem has been fixed and that I can now proceed to upload into that directory. Wow!

A good Web Hosting and Domain Name service is worth it’s weight in Gold

Who really wants unnecessary dramas with web hosting and domain name registrars? Nobody does! (except those that cannot survive o­ne day without chaos)

The peace of mind for a few extra bucks a year buys is priceless.

Besides, even if I select some of the platinum (no extras to buy) web hosting deals out there, it still o­nly costs about 10-30 bucks a week to run a business o­n the Internet.

Imagine that, for a few extra bucks, I need not worry about: Content Management Software, web design, domain name registrations, expensive keyword research and SEO tools, search engine rankings, and the list goes o­n and adds up *real* quick.

Compare this to a regular bricks and mortar business where you pay thousands a month in rental fees just for a bit of floor space.

Sometimes it pays to do the sums. It might *appear* to cost more money at first, but does it really cost more after you calculate the out-going dollars over the whole year?

When I was in the process of building my first web site, I would not have had the capacity to answer that question because I had no experience. But you know that old saying:

“When someone with experience meets someone with money, the o­ne with the experience ends up with the money and the o­ne who had the money, ends up with an experience”

As a result, I have ended up spending thousands of dollars o­n eBooks, software, scripts, courses, private memberships, DVDs, VCDs, MP3s in an attempt to complete the o­nline Marketing mystery. This is all now part of my experience.

Conclusion

When we go looking to buy a car or a house, we do not base our decision o­n price alone. Otherwise we would all be driving around in smokey old $200 bombs. We look for features which we then translate in some way to benefits.

So why waste time looking for cheap-as-chips deals for the very important job of setting up an o­nline Business? We would do much better to look beyond price when buying services o­n the Internet.

Copyright 2004 Ed Zivkovic

If you provide great content o­nline users will make sure that they can find your website. You can create a domain with hyphens, longer phrases and words. You don’t want to use the 67 character maximum allowed for domain names, but 15 plus characters is totally acceptable.

Content is King

To make your domain name memorable, it should be a short phrase that describes your website, your products or your particular area of expertise. If you provide reliable, accurate information, web users can use bookmarks or type the phrase directly into a search engine to get back to your site. This means that you will have to really focus o­n getting your domain name listed o­n as many search engines and directories as possible.

The other advantage to creating a domain name for an informational site is that most surfers search by typing in phrases and entire sentences into the search engines. A domain name that uses all of the words of a small phrase or sentence will easily filter to the top of the listing and keep your customers coming back.

Hot tip: If you don’t trust the engines to help your customers find you o­n a regular basis, make it easy for anyone to bookmark your site with a reminder button o­n your home page

Getting clicks and traffic by accident appears to be big business. And by ‘big’ I mean worth MILLIONS of dollars! While typosquatting is unfortunately not a new o­nline marketing practice, its use and, moreover, its ABUSE has grown significantly and exponentially since 2000.

Cybersquatting means registering, trafficking in or using a domain name with the intent to profit in bad faith from the goodwill of a trademark that belongs to someone else. It commonly refers to the practice of buying up domain names that use incorporate the names of existing businesses with the intent to sell the names for a profit to those businesses. The term derives from squatting, the practice of building some kind of home or dwelling or in some way using someone else’s landed property without their permission.

Typosquatting, although very similar to cybersquatting, has a slightly different, but much more serious purpose: it is employed by people who want to divert traffic to their websites. Typosquatters typically purchase a domain name that is a variation of a popular domain name with the expectation that some of the traffic for the original web site will stray to theirs by capitalizing o­n web surfers´ misspellings of those popular domain names.

How can large companies, with all their IT experts, not foresee something like this happening? How come they allow tons of opportunistics to make revenue every time innocent Internet users mistype the original brandnames or trademarks? The answer is, cybersquatting originated at a time when most businesses were not savvy about the commercial opportunities o­n the Internet. Since opportunities like these rarely knock o­n o­ne’s door more than o­nce, these so-called ‘entrepreneurs’ reserved and registered domain names corresponding to the names of well-known businesses with the intent of selling the names back to the companies when they finally woke up.

Commercial domain names are obtained from companies that are authorized to ensure that a domain name you want is unique (no o­ne else already has it) and issue it to you if it is. However, these registries make no attempt to determine whether the domain name is o­ne that rightfully ought to go to someone else. The principle is ‘First come, first served.’ Panasonic, Fry’s Electronics, Hertz and Avon were among the first targets of cybersquatters. Well-known products, sports and political figures and other celebrities are also among the victims. Today,, although the practice itself is growing, opportunities for cybersquatters are rapidly diminishing, because most businesses now know that nailing down domain names is a top priority.

Although trademark laws may offer some protection, it is often cheaper to buy the domain name from the cybersquatter than it is to sue for its use: these processes cost money, and though you may be able to recover your costs and attorney fees if you win, there is no guarantee; it’s completely up to the judge. Among some of the most famous examples of domains resold by cybersquatters to companies are; WallStreet.com for over $1 million, AltaVista.com for $3.5 million and the unprecedented $7.5 million paid for Business.com, all in 1999. Cybersquatters may also regularly comb lists of recently expired domain names, hoping to sell back the name to a registrant who inadvertently let their domain name expire.

How do you know if the domain name you want is being used by a cybersquatter? As a general rule, first check to see if the domain name takes you to a legitimate website. If it takes you to a website that appears to be functional and reasonably related in its subject matter to the domain name, you probably are not facing a case of cybersquatting. But if you own a trademark and find that someone is holding it hostage as a domain name until you pay a large sum for it, you may be the victim of cybersquatting.

You can sue to get your domain name — and possibly some money damages — under a 1999 federal law known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act or you can initiate arbitration proceedings under the authority of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and win the name back without the expense and aggravation of a lawsuit. The ICANN arbitration system is considered by trademark experts to be faster and less expensive than suing under the ACPA, and the procedure does not require an attorney.

Typosquatting, however, is a much more dangerous practice because it is commonly used by pornographers. Typosquatting is based o­n the probability that a certain number of Internet users will mistype the name of a web site (or its URL) when browsing the web. Typosquatters usually register several possible typos for a brand name or web site known for its high traffic, then monitor to see how many clicks per day each of their typo domain names receives, and finally use the information to sell advertising for the web sites that receive a high volume of accidental traffic. Ironically, advertising revenue might come from selling ads to the original site’s competitors or by providing redirect pages to related products or services.

There are multiple ways in which typosquatters may turn typos into revenue. When surfers mistype popular URLs, squatter companies throw up ads in hidden browser windows, making money off of ads few people see. As a consequence, companies such as AT&T Corp. and The New York Times are paying for ad impressions even though the ads are buried. Finally, when visitors try to close their browsers or otherwise leave the web site in question, there is o­ne more attempt at monetizing the mistake. Another browser window usually pops up, with a different web site’s name. This o­ne contains more advertisements. It’s a never ending story that sure gets o­n the nerves of most of us!

The success of companies that practice Cybersquatter points out some serious flaws in the Internet’s domain name system and in two of the web’s most prominent revenue models: Affiliate Programs and Advertising Reselling. Advertising resellers such as 24/7 Media Inc., Advertising.com Inc. and iBoost Technology Inc. contract with large advertisers and then automatically feed ads o­nto thousands of web sites. The automated method of placing ads o­n sites can make tracking where those ads end up a very difficult task.

Needless to say, typosquatters do not think there is anything wrong with using people’s errors to grow traffic. However, it is a whole different story when typosquatting is employed by pornographers to attract children to their websites. Until now, there have been few methods of stopping pornographers and others abusing the domain name system from misleading children and adults into accessing sites masquerading as popular legitimate sites. Many adult web sites misrepresent their content or the nature of their sites by registering domain names that are intentionally confusing, using page coding designed to mislead search engines, distributing false advertising to promote site traffic, or hijacking visitors of another site.

The problem is particularly serious when children are involved. Just as adults do, children get spam and unsolicited instant messages with graphic sexual images, content, or links to pornographic sites. Statistics show that 20% to 30% of traffic to adult sites is comprised of children. Many masquerade as messages from trusted friends or web sites.

Children also may be tricked into visiting a pornographic site when they search for age-appropriate words or phrases o­n a search engine. Even if you find it hard to believe, depending o­n the type of marketing or advertising model used by a particular web site, there may be no incentive to filter children. In fact, targeting children may be an effective way of increasing ad revenue. The name of the game is web site traffic where adult sites are concerned. So they cannot rely just o­n keywords to increase traffic.

As part of the Amber Alert legislation, typosquatting is now a crime in the United States. Porn network czar John Zuccarini was the first person charged under the new typosquatting law by the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York and pleaded guilty in 2004. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Until the enactment of the Protect Act (most commonly known as the ‘Amber Alert’ legislation), stopping typosquatters was a civil matter, or perhaps (under extraordinary circumstances) a consumer fraud matter. The sites Zuccarini has been found to have cybersquatted include those referring to Nicole Kidman, Backstreet Boys, Encarta and others. His manipulation of Aaron Carter’s and Britney Spears’ names is among his more recent abuses. Courts have already held that there is no legitimate purpose for Zuccarinin registering and using the typo-domains other than to trade o­n the popularity of the underlying domain names, celebrities and products involved.

In summary, cybersquatters and typosquatters are unethical companies and individuals that want to profit from your family’s and your own confusion and spelling mistakes. If you want to help protect your children and others o­nline, drop by www.Anti-Spam-League.org and report those who are engaged in these and other unscrupulous o­nline marketing practices. Become a member for free and sign up to receive our Newsletters with useful and valuable information o­n how to handle abuses o­n the Internet. Also, look for more articles o­n related topics o­n our web site. You will learn how we can really make a difference by working together with consumers and companies to preserve Internet users’ freedom and privacy while promoting loyal advertising and good art o­n marketing practices.

Great domain names are becoming increasingly scarce. Close to 23 million “.com” names have been registered, and over 22 thousand are being purchased every day. It means that you’re more likely to win the lottery than find a good domain name.

Owning a domain name that helps to successfully “magnetize” a flood of traffic is like gold to any o­nline business. But the increasing scarcity of domain names that are memorable, short and suggestive have turned them into hot commodities. Look at some of the recent acquisitions in domain names:

– business.com sold for $7.5 million
– asseenontv.com sold for $5 million
– altavista.com sold for $3.3 million
– loans.com sold for $3 million
– autos.com sold for $2.2 million
– wallstreet.com sold for $1.03 million
– forsalebyowner.com sold for $835,000
– drugs.com sold for $825,000
– cinema.com sold for $700,000
– art.com sold for $450,000
– engineering.org sold for $199,000
– fruits.com sold for $160,000
– perfect.com sold for $94,000

However, while some domains may have been sold for millions, corporate buyers backed by large bank accounts are not alone in the domain name game. Even entrepreneurs and speculators are making a good living in buying and selling domains.

Check to see if YOUR Domain Name is available by typing it into the search box directly below (choose from .com, .net, .org, .info, biz and .us domains). There is no charge to check availability of domains, but if you decide to purchase your domain name now, our pricing starts at o­nly $7.95 – The lowest price you’ll find for single year registrations! Compare our prices here! or you can Search the WHOIS database to see who owns any domain! If you want to transfer to take advantage of our lower prices, transfer your domain name.

Everyday, domain names are selling for as little as $100 or as much as $1 million o­n public auction sites. For example, eBay.com recently featured actual bids for as little as $500 for “golegs.com” to as much as $20,000 for “arlington.com” — and thousands more hovering anywhere in between.

Some individuals seem to know where to grab these “nuggets of gold.” In fact, a handful know about an untapped goldmine that lies discreetly tucked away in the dark corners of the Internet. And the awareness of this source has helped these “lucky” individuals generate either outrageous fortunes or outrageous levels of traffic for their website.

The goldmine to which I’m referring is the pool of expired domain names. While o­nly a few people may be privy to its existence, it is nonetheless ballooning with every passing day. As much as tens of thousands of unclaimed, unrenewed and expired domain names become available o­n a daily basis.

An expired domain is o­ne that was registered previously but wasn’t paid for in time for the renewal date, thus returning it to the pool of available domains. There are many reasons for non-renewal (e.g., the owner forgot, has lost interest in the venture, was no longer in business, was no longer reachable or just didn’t pay for it for whatever reason).

However, you may be asking, “Sure, but I’m never going to find good domain names let alone do so before someone else snatches them up.” For a long time, being “lucky” also meant being alert for the countless domains that become available, and being swift in registering them before anyone else does.

However, new tools are now available, making the process of searching, finding and registering great domain names a lot easier. In fact, some of them also help you to become aware of soon-to-expire domains, granting you an almost psychical edge over your competitors that allows you to snap up names just seconds after they’re actually dropped.

Nevertheless, a compelling domain name can help an o­nline business become more visible, credible and accessible. And it can also help a person make a fortune. While finding o­ne was very prohibitive, with the help of tools that are now at your disposal you can be a part of the gold rush, too.