Need a Web Address? There's three things you need to know

When it comes to building a business in the online world, branding questions will arise and the main method to branding online is through domain name registration. This provides you with a brandable name online that people can remember to get to your web site. The most famous one that everyone probably knows is google.com. As you look to buy your domain name, you should inform yourself about three things within the process.

Domain Name Spelling

Making sure your domain name is spelled correctly avoids frustration of paying for something you did not want. Many times people do it quickly and forget this simple fact of double checking. Then their web designer will go to set up the domain for the hosting and the web person realizes that the domain they think they own is not actually theirs. A short window does normally exist where you can actually return the domain name if this happens, so noticing this early is crucial.

Multiple TLD Registration

With domain names, there are multiple top level domains (TLD for short). The .com domain name extensions is the most common extension every average person knows about and this is what they are after. The .net or .org domains are hardly registered as well as country code specific domains such as .ca and .us. Company branding and branding all variations of your domain name is the reason you want to register multiple top level domains. If anyone forgets your website and by mistake puts a different domain name extension, it will still redirect to your site (provided you make the correct setup). Doing this will also prevent cybersquatters using your name for their gain.

Ensuring correct Contact Information

For domain name regulation, ICANN requires you to enter in valid information when you buy a domain name. If you do not, you are at risk of losing your domain name. No one wants to risk losing the domain name that identifies their company online, and their really is no reason to put invalid information here.

Follow these simple ideas when you go ahead with buying cheap domains and your start to branding your business online will have a great start.

Three Mistakes Newbie Domainers Make When Buying Domains For Investment

When becoming a domain flipper, especially when starting out, there are a few things you need to know about domain names. That way when you do flip the domain to make money you do not run into any problems. Here are three mistakes some newbie domainers make when deciding to try the domain flipping game.

1. Not knowing the 60 day transfer period

When buying domain names, the rules for most Top Level Domains (TLD's) are that you must keep it initially for 60 days with the registrar you purchase it with. Until that sixty days is done you are not allowed to transfer it to another person. So you should keep it for two months before trying to flip it. Also, many do offer a free push into a new account, but you must tell the person buying the domain that you will be doing a free push into the registrar it is currently registered with. Also, if you do the free push, when they receive the domain they will also need to wait sixty days if they decide to switch to their registrar of choice.

2. Purchasing really long domain names

One thing you must not do when flipping domains is buy really long domains like HeyThisIsMyNewBlogAboutDogTrainingComeReadIt.com. This will not make you money if your trying to flip domains. Short domains are the best domains to flip. If you check out any 3 or 4 letter domains for sale you will see they demand high prices, even the ones that are a strange combination of letters. Also, catchy short memorable domains sell well. You might be able to sell three word domains, but they will need to normally have some kind of site content on it. In terms of just flipping straight domains with out a built on top site, you should remember "short and sweet".

3. Buying Domain Names with Hyphens

Hyphenated domain names may allow you to get the keywords you are after to be contained within the domain name, but they will sell for much less when trying to sell the domain or site being built on top of it. Everyone when they tell someone a URL for their domain will say the words to the domain. If you have to say "domain hyphen second hyphen word" just so they remember the domain, you will likely get people not finding the site or they will try out "domainsecondword.com" which may lead to a competitor site. Memory and ease of use in typing in the domain name are the main reason you should not use hyphens if you are looking into investing in a domain name.

These are three mistakes many newbies make when buying domain names. There are times when point two and three above can be financially rewarding when buying as an investment, but for anyone starting out they may find out they are putting in a lot of money without a return on investment.

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Domain Name Registration Canada

Domain name registration over a decade ago was a more specialized business with very few offering you the ability to purchase and register your own domain name. Since then, the domain name industry has blossomed and currently their is in existence of hundreds to thousands of service providers offering the chance to pick up and register your own domain name. The most popular Top Level Domain (TLD) extension is the .com extension, and almost everyone will pick that extension up if available.

Do TLD domain name extensions exist that are specific for different countries? Yes they exist and you can purchase everything from .co.uk for United Kingdom (UK) based companies, to even .us domain names for United States companies. For those living in Canada, you also have available your own domain name extension which is the .ca domain. The .ca domain extensions is simply for all who want to register their site for a canadian domain name.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the main controlling company overviewing canadian domain names (.ca). They control and monitor all activity with .ca domain names and when you choose to register a domain canada, an email will be sent to the administrative contact email indicating the registration process has been completed and you own the domain name.

Do you need to register the domain name through a company that is specifically located in Canada or will any cheap domain name registrar work? The answer to this is that any registrar will work provided that you find on their website that they actually offer ca domain names. Most are offering the capability to register canadian domain names, but their still are companies who do not. Before making the purchase of your domain name, just double check that the price showing on the website is in Canadian Dollars instead of US Dollars. Since the Canadian dollar at the time of this writing, is lower than the US dollar you will be paying more than the posted cost if they are showing it in US dollars.

Beginner Guide to Web Hosting

Web hosting is an idea that is very foreign for new web site owners, especially when they are venturing into developing a web site. They will hear of terms like web domains, web site hosting, web design and graphic design. Shared web site hosting when you understand the concept is pretty easy to understand. To summarize, shared web site hosting is a storage container to hold your ASP files and images.

Those looking to purchase an affordable web hosting service will want to learn the different offerings included with shared web hosting, such as hosting disk space, bandwidth, number of databases provided and types of languages you can use.

Disk Space

Hosting disk space is exactly as the title states, and is similar to the disk space you have on your own PC. This feature indicates the size in GB available to the webmaster to host your JSP files and images you have for your website. Multimedia, such as images will use more of your hosting space, while your text based coded files will take up less disk space. The amount of disk space you are wise to look into purchasing depends ultimately on the file types you will be hosting, and the overall file size of your web site.

Hosting Bandwidth

Transfer amount for web hosting is much like the bandwidth you use for your internet. Each time a file is downloaded from your site, it is added to your total for bandwidth used for your site. Bandwidth will be different depending on the plan, and you will need to select the bandwidth amount you will use based on how much traffic your site receives and the total disk space your site uses.. You will normally find lower offerings of bandwidth all the way up to web hosting service providers giving unlimited hosting plans.

Types of Hosting Servers

The last topic to cover here is the different hosting servers available. The server type will limit the file types, like ASP, that you will be able to host. All hosting servers will run HTML, CSS and JavaScript, since they are handled by web browsers, like Internet Explorer. The main thing to note is Linux hosting is usually cheaper and Linux server hosting with Apache supports the PHP programming language. Windows server hosting runs with IIS and is generally used for Active Server Pages (ASP) files. open source CMS like Drupal run off PHP~Windows is on average more pricier due to the cost associated with purchasing the windows license for the server}.

For your next or first web hosting purchase, ensure to look at all these factors to make a decision.

Newbie Web Site Checklist

Starting out a website involves a few main ingredients that you need, as well as many optional pieces. In this article, we will discuss the essentials you need to at least be viewable on the internet. This includes your domain name, a place to host your web site files, the actual making of your web files and optionally to secure your content if need be. Let's get further into each.

Registering a Domain Name

To help people browsing the web to remember how to get back to your site, you need a domain name. A memorable domain name is something like google.com, which everyone knows. When starting out, you may want to look into some companies offering you to purchase cheap domain names to start your web business. Their features are quite similar to the bigger companies, if not the same, and are a great cost effective solution.

Web Hosting

Your web site files need to be stored online for people to get them. If you have an image, a PDF file or flash presentation, for others to see it, there has to be a location always ready to show those files. This is where you can look for a cheap domain hosting provider to help you. For a relatively inexpensive price of less than five to ten dollars a month you can get your web files hosted for others to see.

Web site contents

Your web site will be designed with a variety of HTML files, Images, Videos, Flash and PDF files. This has to be created by either a web designer or yourself. The site will look better if a person with the better skills is creating it. You can use tools like Dreamweaver or other web hosting sitebuilders to create your site. Again, the tools used will be directly related to quality.

Secured Hosting Service (Optional)

Many sites use a brochure style setup with static data, so the need for optional secured hosting is not a requirement. For those sites, that are collecting more precious information, especially credit card data, will want to buy ssl certificateto protect their users data. With collecting any credit card info or sensitive data, you must use a web certificate to make your site change from http to https. The https is what makes the data encrypted when sent over the internet so people cannot abuse the information being transmitted. For these sites, you definately need it, but not for regular information web sites or blogs.

Those are four basics you need to start any web site and will get you started. You then need to decide what additional components you may need to also include in your web site package.

Dedicated Server Hosting: Should I Choose a Managed Server?

Virtual Private Server hosting in simple terms is the process of a computer designed to operate as a server that hosts your web site files. The server loads up the files and images to all visitors accessing your web name, if set up as a web file server. Different hosting plans exist, and they range from shared hosting servers to semi-dedicated and dedicated servers. Dedicated servers come in two flavors: managed servers and unmanaged servers.

Managed Dedicated Servers

These servers come assisted by the service providing the server. As with all servers, you are given admin control, however a managed dedicated server has the added benefit of the Operating system security patches being applied onto your server. This makes sure all patches are installed on time. The managed services will also control initial web server setup, virus scans, and emergency services. If you are not familiar with linux servers and how to apply patches and troubleshoot problems like disk space problems, then this option is an optimal solution for you. When researching these servers, they may also also be named an assisted service plan.

Unmanaged Dedicated Servers

Unlike the servers where everything is managed for you, these are completely controlled by you. If you have an issue with your server, you will have to troubleshoot problems. Many dedicated server services do still offer support with self managed dedicated hosting. Support is required for computer failures and other network problems within the data centre. After all, you can access the server, but you do not have physical access to the server, so you cannot troubleshoot hardware problems.

The purchaser's knowledge of server configuration will help pick if a managed or unmanaged server solution is the best choice. Many dedicated server hosting plans exist with different price points, but knowing if its managed dedicated server hosting or an unmanaged dedicated server will help you determine if the price warrants the service being provided to you. When making any server purchase, a higher price is indicative of a managed dedicated hosting solution.

Host more than one site using one hosting account

As long as the hosting business has existed, they started with the ability to have only one site hosted per account. As technology has improved as well as structures, there has been a shift in almost all hosts that allow you to buy web hosting. The ability to include a certain number of addon domains in their packages has been added, while some do not restrict how many add on domains you can have. It is still not advised to host to many domains within one account, however anyone looking to host a small network of sites can save big money doing it this way.

In simple terms, the name implies what it does in that it allows you to add on a domain to your existing hosting account. You will always host a primary domain name for your account, and your addon domain will be normally hosted within a subfolder on that account. So when you connect via ftp the first folder you see will be for maindomain.com files. You will then create a subfolder or the hosting will create the subfolder for you (normally something to do with the domain), such as addondomain.com folder, will have your second domain names files. Now if you type maindomain.com, you will see it as its own site, and the same for addondomain.com. A website visitor will not be able to distinguish that the sites are hosted on the same hosting account, and will feel like its own site.

Almost all web hosts now promote affordable low cost web hosting solutions, and typically their medium based packages will offer the add on domain in the package. Every provider is different and make sure to double check their features listed. Once you find the provider you want to go with, you then rinse and repeat with as many domains as the provider will allow you to add on. You do have to remember not to delete these subfolders or your site will stop working, and it may get messy with too many subfolders for addon domains.

Now that you are able to host multiple domains within one account, enjoy your savings.