When news of Michael Jackson’s death broke last week, it sent shockwaves around the world. Celebrities don’t come much bigger and that meant from London to Lima, New York to New Delhi, everyone was talking about it.
Canny domainers (those people who buy and sell domain names at a profit) don’t usually miss a trick. And even while the news wires were red hot with the latest developments, it turns out many of them had spotted an opportunity and were busy buying up all sorts of Jacko-related domain names.
Check these out:
- michaeljacksonisdead.co.uk and jacksontribute.com were registered on 25 June. That’s the day Jackson died - presumably while the rest of us were asking our friends whether the story was an elaborate hoax.
- jackolives.co.uk was also registered on 25 June, perhaps by a domainer convinced the story was untrue. This one’s my favourite actually, because initially I misread it as Jack Olives. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments
Love them or hate them, talent shows can provide massive exposure for their hopeful contestants. Sure, 15 minutes of fame can quickly descend into abject humiliation, and the majority of wannabes just pass through the public psyche without even stirring so much as a cup of tea. But for every wave of deluded divas and misguided maestros we, the lucky public, inadvertently discover a hidden gem.
While watching TV talent shows most viewers simply zone out in a haze of light entertainment. However, some web-savvy entrepreneurial types take the views of ol’ high-trousers and his cronies very seriously indeed. What if one of the contestants really makes it big? The vast majority of talent show entrants are complete amateurs, whose shrill voices won’t have previously troubled anyone other than their budgerigar. This does mean, however, that should a contestant receive the Cinderella treatment – and become an overnight success – you can bet your lunch that they won’t have registered their domain name in preparation.
Enter the Cybersquatters! Cybersquatters prey upon rising stars that haven’t as yet realised their glowing potential. No sooner has the budding starlet endured the hoary glare of Mr Cowell’s toothy grin, and their unregistered domain names will have become the property of opportunist buyers. So when the time to launch a promotional website arrives, the latest singing sensation will have to buy their domain names at the seller’s price.
The latest victim of this predatory practise is Scottish singer Susan Boyle. The unlikely star with an amazing voice clearly didn’t anticipate her rapid ascent into the showbiz elite. Unfortunately, her lack of foresight, endearingly earnest as it may be, has resulted Ms Boyle losing out on a whole host of potential web addresses, including www.susanboyle.co.uk. Ironically, the domain name www.susanboyle.com isn’t owned by a cybersquatter, instead artist Susan K. Boyle must be delighted with the sudden rush of traffic that her site is no doubt experiencing.
The lesson here is simple. If you think that you have even the faintest glimmer of talent, or a profitable idea, make sure you register your potential domain names – before the cybersquatters clean you out! 123-reg offers a huge variety of domain names at some of the cheapest prices on the web.
Buy some domain names now
Comments
DNS (Domain Name System) always seems to be popping up when you want to create or modify a website. But if you’re not familiar with the concept, DNS can be a complicated issue to deal with. This article will explain the role of DNS on the web.
Imagine you posted a letter with the address ‘To Daniel’ written on the envelope. You would have an extremely small chance of that letter actually reaching the person named ‘Daniel’. Obviously this is because the post office would not have a unique address associated with the name ‘Daniel’.
The purpose of DNS is to associate a named address with a website address. We are used to seeing website addresses that we understand, like www.mydomain.com. But underneath the friendly human language lies a series of unfathomable numbers.
These numbers represent an IP address (IP refers to ‘Internet Protocol’). Every computer or device that is connected to the internet has a unique IP address. An IP address is made up of 4 sets of numbers separated with full stops between them, e.g. 194.154.164.90. IP addresses are used by network routers on the internet to send information between computers.
Essentially, a website address masks the IP address with a language that we can understand. So where does DNS come into all of this? The three components of a website address are separated by dots. The components are as follows:
- Hostname (www)
- Domain Name (mydomain)
- Top Level Domain (com)
When you register a domain name it is added to a root database. There is a root database for each Top Level Domain (TLD). When a name is added to this database it is associated with DNS servers that will hold the domain’s detailed information. This information tells computers where to send email and where to locate the websites. To resolve a domain name into a web address, a web browser must locate the domain’s DNS servers by querying the root database.
So if you change your domain information (‘Manage DNS’ on your 123-reg control panel) you are actually updating a database record. This record is called upon whenever someone types your domain name into their browser. The browser will ask the database for the IP address of where your domain lives, and then visit the server where your website resides. This allows the visitor to view a website or send an email.
DNS is a big subject, and can get quite complicated. There are many issues we could talk about. But for the meantime, I hope this post provides an effective overview of DNS and its purpose on the internet.
Comments
As Formula 1 followers will know, Honda have pulled out of the sport. Last week there was a management buy out of their former F1 team, now known as Brawn GP. We’re delighted to see that when setting up their new official website Brawn GP chose 123-reg.
It was only December when Honda announced they were quitting Formula 1, which didn’t leave much time for Ross Brawn — the strategy mastermind behind Michael Schumacher’s famous championships for Ferrari — to get his new team up and running.
And given it was costs, especially during the credit crunch, that forced Honda out, Brawn GP needed to get set up on the cheap; they even got Jenson Button for half price.
So it makes sense that they turned to 123-reg to register their domains, with our great value domain names and simple order process they could quickly buy the domains they needed while spending their money wisely.
Good luck to Ross and the team for their debut season! Not sure about the lime green though - perhaps it’ll look good under the lights of the Singapore night race …
PS: Before anybody worries that we’re divulging private information from our customer database: we’re not. Who a domain is registered with is one of the pieces of information available in public whois records, and that’s how we discovered who brawngp.com is registered with.
Comments
We might be in the midst of a deep financial crisis, but clearly there are still a few companies out there with deep pockets.
The evidence? At the end of last week, Toys R Us triumphed in a furious bidding war for toys.com, eventually agreeing to pay an enormous $5.1m for the domain name.
(I don’t actually have much evidence that it was a furious bidding war, but given the amount of cash involved, I like to picture the final two bidders involved in a tense standoff, waiting to see who cracks first.)
Is it worth it?
Clearly, toys.com is a prime domain name for Toys R Us to own. It fits perfectly with their brand, and I’m sure they’ll receive a ton of visitors, both from people typing it straight into their browser, and from search engines. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments
At the UK Supreme Court some are apparently unhappy with its designated domain name. Apologies for being slightly behind with this story — but then the Sunday Telegraph society gossip page isn’t our usual source for domain-related news.
A reader points out that the judiciary are separate from the government and parliament, and as a law-degree drop-out I can recall just enough of Prof Walker’s lectures to agree that the separation of powers is a critical part of the UK constitution, and it’s misleading to consider a court as being part of the government.
But perhaps Lord Hope’s suggestion of supremecourt.uk isn’t ideal either. This led thinking about the organization of .uk domains in general — which groups should have their own second-level domain?
Read the rest of this entry »
Comments
Two domain extensions dominate the UK market. These are .co.uk and .com. And you probably know why: it’s because those two domain extensions are the ones people in the UK type in first when they’re looking for something.
However, there are loads of other domain extensions available too. And with ICANN’s forthcoming liberalisation of the domain market, we can expect to see a whole load more appearing in the next couple of years.
If you’ve never thought about registering other domain extensions before, it’s worth investigating. Sure, you might conclude that your website doesn’t need them. But equally, you might be able to use them to capture more traffic, or target specific markets.
So here are a few reasons you should consider other domain names:
It shows international customers that you’re serious
If you’re running an online shop which allows international customers to purchase from you, consider registering local versions of your domain name. For instance, if you expect the products you sell to be popular in Italy, you could consider registering yourdomain.it.
If you don’t want to register loads of country-specific domains, but do plan to offer your goods internationally, you could consider a .eu extension instead. This extension for the European Union could help identify your business as one which is happy to do business across Europe. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments
Good branding can really help your business. But explaining what branding is and why it’s important can be tricky. For many people, a brand starts and stops with the company logo - yet actually it reaches much further than that.
I’ve stumbled on an article which works as an excellent introduction to branding. It’s on Fritinancy, a blog run by Nancy Friedman. Nancy has reviewed the branding efforts of Changing the Present, a US organisation. Read the article here.
Even though it’s about a US business, the piece is worth reading because it’s an excellent introduction to branding and the elements which make up a good brand. And it uses a real world example, so it’s really easy to follow.
Domain names are important
One of the things Nancy highlights is how your choice of domain name affects your brand:
“Let’s say you’re impressed, as I was, by the CTP commercial but remember the organization’s name as Change the Present instead of Changing the Present. Do you get a 404 error message when you type “ChangeThePresent.org” into your browser? You do not. You get a variation of the Changing the Present home page, with videos of the two TV commercials. I can’t overempahsize how smart it is of Changing the Present to anticipate this mistake and turn it into an opportunity; too few website owners do it.”
We’ve talked about this exact same issue before. If people remember your domain name incorrectly, you risk losing them as visitors - unless you register some alternative domain names too. Go here for our advice on how to decide which ones you need.
Further information
Comments
Over the festive period, Fast Company published an interesting piece wondering what will happen if ICANN releases a bunch of new domain name extensions later this year. (For the backstory, see our summary of the proposals.)
Calling it “the end of the dot-com world”, the somewhat controversial piece basically says that the creation of new TLDs (top level domains - like .com) is going to cause a headache for, well, everyone really.
It will, the article claims, lead to a “rebirth of cyber squatting” - the practice of buying up domains which are close to well-known trademarks and making money from them, either by flogging the domains to the trademark holder, or by running advertising on the site found at the domain. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments
Our recent piece about domaining attracted quite a bit of interest, so we thought we’d try to demystify a couple of related areas too.
We’ve decided to start with domain parking. This is, basically, a way to make money from domain names.
If you’ve spent much time registering domains, or reading about the industries that have sprung up around them, you’ve probably come across the concept at some point.
So how does it work?
A parked domain is one which has been bought and then used to display a single page. At its simplest, a parked domain could point to an ‘under construction’ page. You could even fit it out with an early-90s throwback roadworks sign for that retro feel.
A domain is usually parked in this way when the owner is planning to use it for something, but just hasn’t got round to it yet. Domain parking is also sometimes used to protect a brand name - usually the owner of the brand will redirect the parked domain to their main website (so yourbrand.co.uk might redirect to yourbrand.com). Read the rest of this entry »
Comments
