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Article by Sam Martin, PE, CVS, President of OfficeOnWeb, Technologies. 7/30/2001

Have you noticed that the big businesses and successful business have several domain names and a very advertised and active web site. That is no accident. If you are in business and don't have a telephone number for the business, you won't go far. The same for your web site and web site addresses. Only the naive get a business phone and won't publish it, likewise the web site. But what are the rules? Here are some of the most important ones.

1. Domain names can be between 2 and 67 characters long (including the extension and dot or period). Domains greater than 32 characters will not be resolved by older browsers. Getting a domain name that is memorable and less than five characters is almost unheard of at this late date. A domain can contain the characters a-z, numbers 0-9, and '-' (hyphen). Special characters are not allowed and the name cannot start or end with '-' (hyphen).

2. Choose a prime domain name (one that is placed in print or other similar media) that tells something about your company or what you do. Avoid anything but .com for your prime domain name. Keep the prime domain name as short and simple as you can. The shorter the prime domain name; the easier it is to remember and write down, the less chance of potential clients noting or remembering it incorrectly, and the less change of them mis-typing it.

3. Chose secondary names that fit key words of what you do. Don't be afraid to buy several domain names and have them parked to your prime site. A long domain name containing a list of relevant words for your web site can help you achieve a higher ranking in some search engines. Use these for registration requests only. If people often misspell the domain name, get the misspelling too and park it as well. This goes for the plural forms of the domain as well.

4. Domain names are NOT case sensitive. The names of files on a server are case sensitive and using capitalization in them is strongly discouraged. But domain names can be capitalized to help your potential clients and others remember it. If appropriate, use both forms as both will go to the same location without any additional cost. For example, the company PrintPage.Com uses the capitalization to help people remember the name of the company and the web site. The name printpage.com is equivalent. Check the links to see if you would like. We do this with OfficeOnWeb too. By using words that can be visualized you make use of one of the strongest of human senses.

5. Plan for the future. If you are planning on releasing other products or services or launching another business, by the domain relating to it now. It is best to park it to a site so you won't lose it if a squatter protest if filed by someone else wanting to use the domain. For best results, all products or services listed on the web site for all these domains should be related. If this is not the case, consider opening up a second hosted site.

6. Unless you know what you are doing, avoid the cheap registration services. We have had a lot of clients not able to use their domain name because they cannot get the service they registered it with to point it to the correct location. OfficeOnWeb has a registration service that avoids this problem and we are usually cheaper than the other registry services that have the same level of services as we do. I avoid the third party domain name search program that offer to generate domain names. I have found that some appear to be monitored and you can lose the domain if you don't buy it immediately.

7. If you do business in a specific country, register the domain name in that country level domain too. While .com is the most common entry, people in that country often like to be assured that you service is really local. A local domain gives you that appeal. Note that many country domains have different restrictions on what domain names can be registered.

8. Be careful to avoid infringing on an existing trademark. Just because it is available does not give anyone the right to use a trademark name or other registered name. Further, you could run into legal or just lose your marketed name down the road to the trademark group. Then your momentum has to be regained.

9. If someone else already has a domain name that are very similar to the one you want, consider that you may lose clients to them due to their errors in typing the name.

10. Consider that some names also turn into other names. You may want to avoid names that could cause an embarrassment.

11. Unlike when you get an ISP e-mail address, a domain names e-mail address can follow you all over the world, and be yours permanently. You can change Internet service providers and even change the company that hosts your web site, and still keep the same domain name. This long term value is one of the strongest reasons for purchasing a domain name and getting e-mail attached to it. We offer this service to a lot of people that are not needing a web site, just permanent e-mail names. Plus, why not advertise your firm and NOT the ISP every time you send an e-mail. We appreciate it, and even will give your credit for such referrals, but your business grows when you use your own domain address for e-mail.

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Did you know that in 1998 more than 95% of OfficeOnWeb's new customers made a profit from their web site within their first year of operation? Sad, but it is true. This compares to less than 20% industry wide ever even breaking even. Why? Professional and directed expertise. This industry average for people leaving their current web service provider is 4% per month! That's nearly 50% over a year! Ours is less than 1% per year. That is because we endeavor to make our clients money and don't just offer a "pat solution" that we know has a low probability of ever making our client a profit. Some of the features that make up the level of success that our clients enjoy are:

 Five redundant backbone connections

 99.999% up time on UNIX servers

 Redundant OC-3 connect to all five backbones

 Full data center services

RAID 5 system with weekly backup of critical systems

 True Web Developer Services

 Large support site for clients and visitors

 Four level or higherencryption on all e-commerce solutions designed by Office On Web (this is the government standard required if Government people are to use a site)

 We NEVER host a commercial site on an access server (that is really bad, but common in dial up providers)

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