Domains - Boom or Bust?

A brief history of domains

Domain name registration started in earnest in the early days of the Internet, when people started to cotton onto the fact that domain names could be used for something other than novelty or specialized technical duties.

There were heady growth levels as new domain name registrations expanded like wildfire through the available and common domain suffixes (.com, .net and local country domains such as .com.au and .net.au for Australia). Every man and their dog starting a business, registering a business or trying to capitalize on a new business concept was using everything from common names and brands, to locations, nouns, adjectives, fantasies and business concepts. If you multiply this by the number of people dallying in the Internet then one can start to appreciate the volume of new domain registrations that were occurring on a daily basis - the stuff of which Dot Com dreams were made.

Dot Com Crash

Everything that goes up must come down, as the saying goes... It started one morning in May in 2000, with colossal losses in listed stocks on Nasdaq, closely followed by each of the relevant local markets around the world.

One of the flow-on effects was one of massively reduced new domain name registrations, followed by a delayed but equally colossal fall in the number of domain renewals around the world.

According to sources within the domain name registration and renewal industry, this severly affected domain name registrations, domain renewals and domain redelegation to the point where domain companies were required to scale back their operations considerably, planning for survival rather than growth.

Domains Resurrection

When all the dust settled, people and business alike finally started to work out that the very same properties that had lead to the impressive growth in domains still held true, and slowly colour started to return to the cheeks of domain registration companies worldwide.

Domain name registration growth has reflected this overall mood and returned to healthy levels as users around the world both register and renew domains that are used for many different purposes.

Domains Dos and Don'ts

Many people have since realized that domain names can be used sensibly, practically, cleverly and creatively to deliver a clear and accurate branding message and facilitate business or even personal communications. Just in case people have missed all the fun until now, below is a list of some simple Dos and Don'ts that should enable an individual, whether it they are starting a new business, registering a business or business concept, or just improving the branding of an existing company to select an appropriate domain name.

Do:

Keep your domain name as short as possible
Try to avoid initials in your domain name (they mean nothing to people or search engines)
Keep your domain as close to your company name as possible
Look at your competitors' domains to get a feel for how they have chosen them
Make a list (you may find that your choices have already been taken)
Bounce your domain name off friends and/or service providers you trust
Keep your expectations realistic (one domain does not a fat bank account make)

Don't

Go for the record of the longest domain name unless that's exactly what you intend to achieve
Rush! No one is going to leap in and get that domain name that will make you a million overnight (and it won't anyway - don't blame me...)
Give up. Online success takes perseverance and patience but the time and effort you put in should pay off

Copyright Notice This article is free for reproduction but must be reproduced in its entirety, including live links & this copyright statement must be included.

Blog StartUp: Choosing a Domain
This weekend I will be creating a new blog! Its another topic that I like to talk about and all next week I will be talking about how I started my new blog and how I get traffic flowing right away to the blog. So this mini series will be called Blog StartUp and today is all about domain choosing....
Starting A Home Based Internet Business - All You Should Know About Domain
When you first think of starting a home based internet business, the first you might think off is internet and then immediately after would be the name of the new business you are about to launch.
About Web Hosting and Yahoo Domains
You will find here many information about the web hosting and how it can help you and about Yahoo domains. All the information you find here is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to find out more about these topics, you have to dig deeper.
Finding Old Domains to Get Indexed Faster
The first step in the process is to find an old domain. There is a more complicated explanation for this but all you really need to know is that the search engines favour domains that are established and have a longer history because they perceive that they are an older and hence more credible sourc...
Making Money from Parked Domains
Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect domain names was describing a few that he had acquired. While he has a wide range of domains in various categories, these particular domains were all related to web hosting.
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hos...
How To Buy Domains That Are Parked
Buying parked domains is a bit of a black art. Its often also a test of your detective skills. Plus you will need a dose of patience and some good negotiation skills. When you are buying a parked domain name, luck also plays its part.
Rewarding Expired Domains
Reap the rewards from other peoples hard work. Often a difficult goal, but this is exactly what you can achieve with expired domains.
Benefits of Free Paid Domain Parking
Want to get paid to park your spare domains? Fancy knowing in real-time how many visitors these names receive?
If you have answered yes to either of these questions, you should consider setting up your names with a domain parking service. Here are some of the benefits of a typical paid parking s...
A-Z Domain Name Info - What you Don't Know Could Hurt!
This very informative article provides an excellent tutorial all about domains and multiple domain hosting. The pros and cons of all available situations are presented conscisely, making your decisions much easier.
Does Having Dashes In Your Domain Rank Higher?
This question is debated hotly in many SEO (Search Engine Optimization) forums. The answer, like so many others can be easily obtained by performing a statistica...