What is Private Domain Registration?
A Private Domain Registration is a service provided for a fee(or free) by most of the domain registrars. Anyone can view the details of a domain’s owner as it is required for registrars to maintain those details according to ICANN rules. One place to view such details is whois.sc. When private domain registration is used, the details like name, address, phone, email etc of the domain’s owner are hidden from public access. Rather than showing the domain’s owner details, the registrar will provide their own contact details for which the registrars may charge a fee. Godaddy provides free private domain registration.
Is Private Domain Registration required?
It really depends on individual basis. The advantage of going for it is that, since your details are hidden, you can avoid spams, unwanted mails, scammers etc.
Can i use Private Domain Registration for all kinds of domains?
It is applicable to the major tlds like .com, .net, .org etc. For some cctlds like .us, .ca, in etc, private domain registration cannot be used as they normally require the owner to satisfy some criteria to own such domains, for which ICANN wants the owner details to be publicly available.
Assuming you are going to take only one of the two domains, consider the following factors.
1. Availability
Is .com available for registration. If not then what is it going to cost you for acquiring .com. It won’t make business sense to acquire a .com version of the name if it costs, say more than your total project estimation.
2. Target audience
If you are targetting a particular country, then what is more popular in that particular country, .com or .net. If .net is what is popular, then its better to go with .net. I would also consider the cctld(.co.uk for uk, .us for us etc) before making a decision.
3. Readability
Some cool hacks are possible with .net domains. Eg: FindJobsOn.Net makes more sense than FindJobsOn.Com. Again this applies to each specific case as such.
4. Source of traffic
What source of traffic are you targetting? Type-ins, Search engines, Backlinks etc. If your major traffic source is type-in, better to get .com as people(especially in US) tend to type-in the .com name. If your major traffic source is from Search engines or Backlinks, depending on other factors you can choose either .com or .net.
Having said all, i want to look into some of my fellow domainers views
a. Majority of the traffic will go for .com if .net is developed site
Well this again depends on source of traffic. In most of the cases, “majority” of the traffic is not going to leak but only some part of the traffic. This is not that big a factor, if you are targeting traffic from Search engines and Backlinks.
b. If my .net becomes a hit, i will have to shell lot of money to get hold of .com
First of all, there is no need for you to go for .com name if your .net is already an established site. More people are getting smarter these days and making use of search engines to find the site compared with pure type-ins. Also if you are a die hard domainer who wants the .com version as well, you can think the other way. Lets say your .net has become a hit and if your name is a TM, then you have a better chance of getting hold of .com provided your TM is violated. Also in this case, .com owner can only dream of getting the big money from you as an enduser. So you might be in a good position to get the .com with the luxury of playing the wait game. Not many people would be willing to buy the .com which has a TM.
Ass.us is at Sedo auction with reserve met, meaning the top bidder will take the name. Make sure you satisfy the requirements to own .US domains
There are many reasons why i feel Ass.us is one hell of a deal
- Super premium one word adult name. Adult names are the least hit even in this worst times.
- 45.5 Million searches in Google in the month of April 2009. Imagine the potential of developing this name.
- “Ass” also stands for “Assets” which is another super premium financial name.
- .US is no ordinary country code tld. It is for US, the top country code tld you can hope for.
- You don’t get to see deals like this very often.
This is one of the best time to buy and Ass.us is probably one of the best domain to buy atm.
The following points needs to be considered while choosing a registrar to register domain name
1. Reliability of the Registrar
This is one of the most important point to consider while registering a domain name. Big boys like Godaddy, Moniker, Dynadot, Enom etc are the preferred choice. Many small registrars have gone broke after few months/years of existence.
2. Price for registering a domain name
It is one factor which makes a lot of business sense. But don’t get carried away by cheap price alone. Reliability of the registrar should be considered along with the renewal charges as well.
3. Easy Maintenance
Another important point to consider if you are a reseller. Pushing or transferring domains is next to impossible with some registrars. Don’t want to name them but just do your research before you make a choice. Also make sure changing dns, contact details etc are free of charge for atleast the top tlds like .com, .net & .org.
4. Bulk Pricing
Some registrars like Dynadot offer some cheap bulk pricing. If you are going to register tons of names you might have to consider this factor as well.
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