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Author:
Clare Lawrence

An Alternative to the .COM Domain?

By Clare Lawrence CEO Discount Domains Ltd, March 2003

Small countries such as Tonga, Turkmenistan and Niue are offering an alternative to customers that have been squeezed out of the Internet as .com domain names have been registered.

It is sometimes the unhappy task of a Domain registrar company, such as Discount Domains to tell clients that their preferred names in the .com domain are already registered or must be purchased from a cyber-squatter for a large amount of money.

With the anticipated opening of new domains, such as .eu, the solution is often a longer, harder to remember name and less search engine friendly domain name.

The above countries allow users to register in their domain space. Web hosting companies can suggest that their clients register their sites in the .to (Tonga), .tm (Turkmenistan) or .nu (Niue) domains, enabling them to get the shorter, catchier name that was taken in the .com domain.

The obvious drawback is many companies prefer the more familiar .com designation.

A possible further consideration is the political stability of smaller countries, only recently part of the Soviet Union. Niue meanwhile has been the most successful of the countries. The tiny island nation is registering Internet Web sites under the .nu address for US $25.

By January 2001, after only 18 months as an active TLD, .nu domain usage has swelled, making .nu the sixteenth most popular domain name in the world. The company that maintains the registry, .NU Domain Ltd [http://www.nunames.nu], has registered 30,000 .nu domain names, as of January 2001 on the Internet, with registrations of .nu domain names more than doubling since then.

As .nu gains recognition, domain name registrars will have an effective way to provide clients the personal, distinct domain names they desire.

And what are the benefits for Niue? The island nation is getting 25 per cent of the gross after payment of commissions. The money is being used by the Niue Internet Users' Society to provide residents and the government with free Internet connections.

About the Author
Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd – A leading UK provider of Domain name registration and Web Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Domain Names... How To Get A Good Domain Name Do you want to get a domain name? If so, you should first know some of the recommended tips for you to get a domain name that is really good. So here they are. One of the common queries with regards to the process of getting a domain name is “How do I get a domain name?” So to answer such query, it is important that you know the steps on how you decide on a domain name. Keep the Domain Name as Short as Possible For that matter, you should remember that a good domain name is short. This means that the maximum allowed size for you to get a domain name is 63 characters. However, it is advisable that you keep the name as short as possible. Why? This is for the main reason that short domain names are easier to type and remember than the kilometric one. Avoid Using Special Characters For you to get a domain name that is good, you should also know that domain names with special characters such as hyphens and underbars are harder to describe to the customers over the phone. It is perhaps for the reason that most of the visitors are not used to them either and there are instances that you may accidentally send customers to your competitors of they have the same names without special characters. Avoid Initials Aside from such consideration, here comes another consideration which holds that when you get a domain name, you should use your company name or a description of your product rather than your company initials. For example, one would instantly what a site named “NeverPayIncomeTaxAgain” is about than using the acronym “NPITA”. Understand the Possibilities for Errors In cases when you get a domain name and entered it into the browser but got an error message, you should remember that there are some possibilities for such error message....