I first heard about this money saving news from a press release that wound
up in my inbox. I havent heard it posted anywhere else so I decided to do a
little digging on my own, and do what I can to spread the good news.
Effective January 15, 2000, the restriction of registering domain names for
two years at a time has been lifted. You can now register domain names from
one to ten years, in one year increments, up to a maximum of ten years. The
following text is taken directly from the ICANN NSI-Registrar License and
Agreement, located at:
http://www.icann.org/nsi/nsi-rla-04nov99.htm
2.3. New Architectural Features. NSI will use its best commercial efforts to
develop and implement two additional modifications to the Licensed Product
by January 15, 2000 as follows:
2.3.1. NSI will issue an upgrade to the Licensed Product that will enable a
Registrar to accept initial domain name registrations or renewals of a
minimum of one year in length, or in multiples of one year increments.
2.3.2. NSI will issue an upgrade to the Licensed Product that will enable
registrars to accept the addition of one additional year to a registrants
"current" registration period when a registrant changes from one registrar
to another.
In no event shall the total unexpired term of a registration exceed ten (10)
years.
So there you have it folks, right from ICANN themselves. If you have a lot
of domain names - like me - you may want to keep them reserved one a year at
a time, to keep your costs down. Or, if you have a company name not likely
to be sold in the future, you can register it for 10 years at a big savings
off of the regular price.
After digging and digging around, at several ICANN accredited registrars, I
was hard pressed to find even one that allowed anything but the old two year
registrations. I did finally find one Canadian company that does one to ten
year registrations (partnered with Melbourne IT an ICANN accredited
registrar). The fact that they have a shopping cart to allow multiple
registrations and a real time database is just the icing on the cake.
https://secure.kudosnet.com/domain/k2/r.dmc/
With 21 domain names to register, Im happy to say that I saved over $600 US
by being able to register them for a single year, instead of two, and I
submitted them all with a single mouse click.
Michael Campbell
Author, Nothing But Net
http://www.longdomainnamesforsale.com
Stop Me Before I Domain AgainDonna Schwartz MillsThey appear to be average American women. They meet in parenting chat rooms and discussion lists to exchange photos of their kids, cheer on each others pregnancies and ccasionally complain about their husbands snoring. They swap recipes and advice on schools and diets. They seem normal in every way.
But these women share an obsession - a dark secret that their offline friends may not understand.
Stop me before I domain again, jokes Nita Jackson of OrganizeTips.com < http://www.organizetips.com >.
These all-American women are also webmasters; entrepreneurs who feel a rose by any other name should get registered before someone else snaps it up.
Every word or name that you hear, you wonder if it is taken as a dot.com or dot.net, says Wendy Shepherd of ComputerMommy.com < http://www.computermommy.com >. I dream about new domains at night, and am always looking at something and wondering if it is a domain name yet.
According to NetNames, there are over 22 million dot-com names registered around the world with ICANN estimating that 21,000 new domains (of all kinds) registered weekly. If youve ever had a problem getting the name of your choice, this is a factor.
Our company owns about 150 domains right now, says Nancy Price of Myria Media < http://myriamedia.com >. To one degree or another, about 30 are in use right now. The others are saved for future development, to protect our trademarks and/or intellectual property (such as, variations of the names of our main sites) and also some generic terms.
Like Price, most of the women buy names for their business use. Surprisingly few of them collect domains with the idea of selling them later.
The second I bought my first domain, I fell in love. Ever since, I change projects about twice a year, says Amy Fleeman of ColumbusMoms.com < http://www.columbusmoms.com >. Amy has made a little bit of money selling domains she owns, but is picky about who she sells to. I tend to sell cheaper than I should because I want them to go to good homes, (ie other webmasters I know do good work vs some stranger on eBay).
I get ideas, buy the domains, and actually put them together from start to finish. I design the pages, the graphics, install the CGI, advertise, get content... Then once everything is in place, I get the fever to do a new one. So I sell the old one and go at it again! I usually have several projects going on at once. So, I guess Im not as addicted to registering the names as I am building the actual community from ground up.
If domain buying is ever officially classified as an addiction, Shelley Pietras would qualify for treatment. As owner of YourDomainForFree.com < http://www.yourdomainforfree.com >, Pietras can feed her habit with ease. In the course of one month, Pietras has tripled the number of names in her collection to an even 90. She says Four are in use right now, and the rest - Well, we do plan to use them, sell them, give them away as gifts.
Each domain that was registered came from an actual business idea. When the idea hit, the domain was registered. Whether or not all these ideas will ever be put into action remains to be seen, but at least weve got the first step out of the way!
Nita Jackson also feeds her habit by being a registrar < http://www.PCMindToday.com >. Like Price, she started buying names that were related to her site, OrganizeTips.com, because she did not want competitors getting them first. She spends about $500 each year on a total of 16 domains (two of which are actually operating as websites).
I plan to develop the rest and work my fingers to the bone, she says.
With so many names already registered, finding a good one these days is hard. Price offers this advice:
"Take your time coming up with a good name. You should probably check to see that its not a trademarked term. Then, when you go to register the domain, also buy the common variations (hyphenated, pluralized, etc.). Finally, dont talk to anyone about your plans until you have the domain name on record!"
Donna Schwartz Mills is editor of NOBOSS Online, the weekly newsletter for home-based entrepreneurs working the web. Subscribe by sending a blank email to subscribe-online@noboss.com. Visit today for tools tips and advice you need to help grow your home based business while raising a family - http://www.parentpreneurclub.com