.ws which was introduced in 1995 belongs to Western Samoa, however recently .ws domains have been promoted as “dot WebSite” and can be purchased by anyone without any country restrictions.

.com is the king, followed by Queens and Knights in the form of .net and .org  But getting your most wanted domain name in those extensions are not that easy and cost much more than the same phase in .ws

.ws is the only “generic” TLD that has just two-characters, think of others such as .com , .net , .org, .info all got 3 or 4 characters. this make .ws ultra brandable

lets take “central” as your preferred name to be registered, getting that in .com is not possible without 6 figures even from a domain auction.  Software and domainers appraise domains in different ways, but someone should test the waters by running an actual auction. So I thought of putting central.ws for sale on eBay and watch how the market determine the value.

Estibot gives a valuation of $590 for central.ws

Lets predict how much this is going to fetch in the ebay auction. Enter your prediction as a comment in this thread and the closest prediction gets a GoDaddy voucher to the amount equal to 20% of the price which the domain sells. Guess everyone is hoping that this domain will fetch the maximum as the share 20% share gets bigger and bigger 

Have a look at Ebay listing of Central.ws for latest updates on the auction and you might be able to grab a bargain

We all try to get the best, but how do you define best. It does vary from one to another. A start up business who wants to put the first step in to the global arena by having a website might think of getting the best freely available domain name. But on the other hand established companies might want to expand their e-commerce market share by getting the best out of what Internet can offer.

Not thinking of going into much of a explanation, But I will just highlight few important things which should be considered when choosing a domain name for your business.

Let the domain name speak for what you do
Go for the domains which contains the name of the business as part of the domain name. For example if you are selling flowers, flowers.com seems the ideal choice but those are not domains which a start up can afford. So try to add a word before flowers to make it nice.

Make it Short and Sweet
Does a long name fit into billboards, or will you remember it easily, or do your kid ever wonder how to spell it. Try to make it short. Short pronounceable domains are the best.

But If your company name is three words long try to stick the domain to the initials of it. Unless you got around five digits to spend on the domain name getting your most looked after three letter .com won’t be a easy task. They were registered by speculative investors more than a decade back and they are piling up profits on them.
The good news is some of good short pronounceable .com domains are freely available to register. So you are not too late.

Try to get a .com if your business is of commercial nature
.com, .net, .org,  .ws, .info, and many more!! Loads of extensions to choose from!! But if you are running a business it’s always better to go for a .com which is the first domain extension as well. Or you could use your country domain extension. But in that case I just recommend registering the .com as well if it is available and redirect to your website. Don’t think you would be comfortable if a competitor’s site got ads on the .com site, if you are on the .country extension.

A lot of your online success depends on the first action you do to get your website up and running, which is registering the domain name. Its your brand ambassador in the Internet. Its the hardest working sales rep working for you 24×7 though out the year, including Christmas!!

Is their any use of buying a cheap piece of land in a rural village to setup a mega store, or what is the business strategy behind spending lump of money to buy a land to setup a betel shop in the posh suburbs of London.

There are loads of other factors to consider when choosing the right domain name for your business. You can try out few domain name suggestion tools to come up with creative names, but its always better to get a second opinion.
Are you looking for the right domain name for your business? then please feel free to contact me for a free consultation.
Normally Free comes with a hitch, but not at DNfer.com !!

Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why?
Finding the answers to these means you got the answer. Its the same case with any question even if the question is who to marry!!

If you are a seasoned domainer by now you might be having a preferred place to register domains. If you are a big shot then you might be having your own registrar. But unless your portfolio values in millions then that is just a dream due to high costs involved in having your own ICANN registrar.

Most of the newbie’s to the trade just look at the cheap aspect when registering domains. Though every one likes to get things cheap, most of the time a hitch comes free with being too cheap. If any company is giving away .com registrations at a price tag of below $5.50 then most probably you get some hitch free of charge, such as you have to host the domain there at a high price or they own the domain you just lease it. (unless you read the agreement carefully you wont find these hitches)

Rule of Thumb No 1
Check whether the domain registration company is ICANN accredited.
There are loads of domain resellers who just pop up like mushrooms but you will hardly get much support and in these places.

Rule of Thumb No 2
Go for a famous domain registrar which was there for a while
when you are selling a domain the buyers would prefer if it is with a major registrar.

mmm…. no good me just explaining rules of thumbs on and on, So will give details of the places which I recommend and which is famous amongst domainers.

GoDaddy.com

Ever heard of Super Bowl. Then you should know GoDaddy. They do spend a lot on advertisements and sponsorships, so in a way some complain that they do spend a lot on their glamour models and they don’t care much about their existing customers. But for me GoDaddy is so far so good. And most agree with me. This is my prefered place after all.
If you are using GoDaddy remember to use coupons, otherwise its not a cheap place.

Use Zine3 as the promo code and you get .com registrations for $6.95 which is a 30% discount over the standard pricing of $9.99. This works for renewals and transfers as well.
if you are buying domains from tdnam (GoDaddy expired domain auction) then use gdbb776 to get .com for $7.55

Few more coupons at GoDaddy, but these do have a expiry date
gdp0902a - 25% off on .com, .net, .org, .biz, .name, .us and .ws registrations, renewals and transfers
gdp0828a - private registrations $3.99
gds0124a - save 25% on $75 or over
cjchea30 - $5 off the order of $30 or more
gdp0916a - .Tv $15.99
gdp0915a - .mobi renewals $9.99

Moniker.com
One of the most trusted places amongst Domainers. Offers .com at $7.29 until September 30th.

NameCheap.com
Nice and easy to use interface if you are managing a big domain portfolio. use coupon code GLOWINGSKY to get .com domains at $8.41 (standard price $9.29). Offers free whois guard.

Name.com
Accepts unverified paypal accounts. Offers .com registrations at $7.99. Allows to register one .net at $5.99

DynaDot.com
Accepts MoneyBookers. Most are extremely pleased with their customer service. Offers .com at $8.99 At the moment DynaDot offers IDN .com registrations at $6.50   

There are few more which is recommended but these are the best and big places to get a .com in terms of pricing, security, and customer service.

Fly.com is on auction at the famous domain auction house Sedo.com, currently with a bid of $125,000 and the bidding continues.  With more than 3 days to go and with a reserve price in the range of $2M - $2.5M, its a hard to guess whether this domain enter the list of Top 10 most expensive domains ever sold. But as of any other auction serious bidders will only place their bids in the last moment.

Currently below domains heads the record book of most expensive domains

1. sex.com: $14.5 Million in 2006
2. fund.com: $10 Million in 2008
3. porn.com: $9.5 Million in 2007
4. business.com: $7.5M in 1999
5. beer.com: $7M in 2000
6. diamond.com $7.5M in 2006
7. casino.com: $5.5M in 2003
8. asseenontv.com: $5M in 2005
9. korea.com: $5M in 2000
10. shop.com: $3.5M in 2000

While there are stories about poker.com exchanging hands in 2007 for $27 Million that is not confirmed. And also Business.com was resold for $345 Million but that is including the business.
The current owner purchased fly.com in 1999 for $1.5M, and as the rumour goes it was sort of equivalent to about 10 years of advertising revenue. Now with the domain market having a good boom in the last decade the domain is guaranteed to fetch more.

Airlines, Travel companies, Airline ticket comparison sites such as Expedia and many more having an eager eye on this domain the possibilities are endless. Even billionaire businessmen Richard Branson might be bidding for this domain as this is the best suited domain for his newly formed company which allows people to fly into space.

What do you think? How much fly.com will fetch in the auction? the one whose prediction is the closest to the auction closing price will get a $10 GoDaddy gift card. To join the contest just comment your prediction and subscribe to the RSS feed. Contest ends on 24th September midnight. And winner will be rewarded the next day when the auction is over.

If you find it interesting add it to your favourite bookmarks!! Bonus awaits the winner if this is bookmarked

Grand Prizes!!! yep we all love them though few get it. So I’m giving away a $2 godaddy gift card (which is sufficient to register a .info) to all of you who blog about this site.

What about grand prizes… you might wonder. At the end of each quarter the entries will be drawn for many prizes ranging from DNfer T-Shirts to mmmm….Holiday in a private island!!! not as such but I will be putting out some nice prizes which are worth trying hard for it.
Few of the winners will be drawn at random but the big prizes awaits for the blog which send the highest number of referrers to this blog. Also prices awaits for the most creative blog post. And Many More!!

To join this contest simply write about DNfer.com with a link to this blog. You might also consider having this blog on blogroll or somewhere down the line as well as it will increase the number of referrals from your site thus increasing the chances of winning the prize for highest number of referrals.

No terms and conditions as such, but your blog should be a proper blog. What I mean is it should not be something just started on the blue or something which is of spammy nature. I don’t mind any, but if I do consider everything as a valid entry to the contest its not fair with other participants. If you are not sure wheather your blog qualifies for this contest just contact me for approval before you proceed with writing.

BEST of Luck!! Join the contest today. After all no effort go wasted, as you are guaranteed a free domain just for participating as well.  

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