How valuable can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most essential prerequisites for building a successful Internet presence is the domain name. It is what people will perceive first when they stumble upon your web page and what they will relate you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name typically contains 2 constituents - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a couple of categories of TLDs that you should consider before you pick the domain you want. Your decision should be built upon the aim of your web site and on its target visitors. Let's review the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most typical Top-Level Domains intended to signify a specific purpose - .com (commercial enterprises), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (companies), .info (informational web pages), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (certain walks of life), and so on. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domains cover most realms of life, so you should choose the one that would show the purpose of your site best. There is no limitation as to who can register such Top-Level Domain Names, but some of them include extra procedures to ascertain that you are eligible to register such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a TLD is good if your target group of visitors is from a particular country. Many persons would rather buy commodities or services from a local web page, and if your aim is Canada, for instance, registering a .ca Top-Level Domain Name could boost the visits to your web page.

Domain Redirects

You can register a bunch of domains, which can forward your web page's visitors to a specific web site such as domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and lower the possibility of somebody snatching your web site visitors by registering the same SLD with another Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each Top-Level Domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) specify where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the web hosting provider whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can alter the DNSs of your domain whenever you want. You can have your domain name registered with one provider and get the web hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain name and stumble upon decent website hosting plans somewhere else later, 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 given set of DNSs, all its domain records will direct to the same webspace hosting vendor. Some web space hosting firms, though, allow you to modify given records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which indicates on which hosting server your website is situated, while the MX records disclose which server handles the e-mail accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you hire a new site designer and he build an .ASP web page that will be hosted on his personal Windows web hosting server, you may wish to modify only the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows hosting server, but your email box accounts or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux web site hosting account. The .ASP environment is designed by Microsoft and requests a Windows web server, although a Linux web hosting server would be far more stable.

Moderately Priced Domains Courtesy of 'iStudio Cloud Hosting'

Only a small number of web hosting distributors enable you to modify given name server records and quite frequently this an extra paid service. With iStudio Cloud Hosting , you have an extensive selection of Top-Level Domain Names to select from and you can modify all NS records or redirect the domain names via a forwarding tool at no added charge. For that reason, 'iStudio Cloud Hosting' would be your finest choice when it comes to managing your domain name and to creating a successful presence on the Internet.