There are 3 main points when choosing a domain name:
1. Matching your brand name. If you have a company or a product already, try to get a domain name that is same with your product. For example, Play Station 2 – Ace Combat 4 > http://www.acecombat4.com. The Long Tail > http:www.thelongtail.com If you dedicated to become a famous blogger, use your own name. For example, Kenny Sia > http://www.kennysia.com
2. You can also use another approach which is targeting on Google SEO strategy, use the hot keywords that most people using for or name that matching your product proposes. For example: www.money-making.com www.earn-money-in-10minutes.com…
3. Match the .XXX with your targeting market. For global market, try use .com; if you’re targeting a country, use .com.my, .my etc and Google will give extra weight on specific country’s SERP (Search Engine Result Page).
The normal price for a .com domain should be USD 9.99. Don’t forget to bypass reseller and get directly from main dealer like godaddy.com. Oh! Don’t forget to Google some discount coupon and you will get at least 15% Discount on it. If you subscribe for hosting plan, don’t forget to ask for Free Domain if they do not provide any. (Most of them will give you if you negotiate.). For example….I just get a domain for Figo with only USD 5.7…
One most thing, make sure that is a fresh domain and has not been blacklisted before. If not, you will suffer from getting index and pagerank for a long long time.
Now the technical part:
1. A domain is a "cover" for the Internet Protocol (IP Address) so that you no need to remember the IP…the number like this 192.168.1.1 etc. In other words, you do not need to remember your home GPS codes, just remember your address and Google Map can locate your home already (Sorry! Malaysian Google Map still not that accurate)
2. In order for others to find you faster, a (Domain Name System) DNS is created. Yes, the domain name mentioned above is part of DNS. Ok, this DNS basically store your IP in the network route. Imagine that when you are traveling, there are road signs every few miles to lead you the the right destination…
3. So, if you move your house without changing the road signs or you just moved in to a new house and the road signs are not there yet, people will takes time to find you or even going to the old location. The process to updating the road sign is called "Propaganda" and it takes 12-24 hours for old domain or 1-3 hours for new domain.
4. Once you’ve bought a nice domain, you will given a control panel to login where you can manage your domain. For Malaysian domain, you manage your domain in www.mynic.com. And the system is sucks.
5. You need 2 things to get your domain name covered the IP address. First, is your server IP address of course…Second, the Name Server. The name server is the Name of the Server, very literal right? Basically, most of the domain issuers already set the Server’s IP with the Hosting Providers Name Server. All you need to do is get the Name Server from you hosting provider and get it ‘covered’ by your Domain Name. (haha confuse yet?)
6. Finish. Extra:
Addon Domain = Add on an extra domain in a single hosting account. i.e. one hosting account with 2 websites hosted.
Domain Alias = Have another domain name point into the same website. i.e. type both www.goeatout.my will redirect to www.goeatout.com.my
Domain Cloaking = Use a domain name to cover up the actual domain name. i.e. you will only see www.goeatout.com.my even the actual url is www.goeatout.com.my/restaurants/promotions.aspx.
Domain Parking = When you just bought an domain, it is parked in the control panel but shown nothing when people visit the link. However, due to many people buy domain just to invest, domain seller normally will provide you a "Parking Page" with a lot of ads and related links, so that you can park for free or even earn some discount from the seller.
7. Advance only.
Setting up domain in your IIS.
Setting up Different Domains into different websites with just one server.
Setting domain alias on your IIS…
Setting Portal Alias in DotNetNuke in a Shared Hosting Account.
Hosting Multiple DotNetNuke account with just Domain Alias service provided.
….Erm….this topic….I’ll need to talk in the part II…due to too much bs in this topic ahaha….