The prices for .COM and .NET have got that yearly increase yesterday, this year, the base price from Verisign for the .COM has jumped from $7.34 to $7.85 and for the .NET it has jumped from $4.65 to $5.11, so this is the bottom line, Last year, prices jumped as well, here is a table of the prices for the three years
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | |
| COM | $6.86 | $7.34 | $7.85 |
| NET | $4.23 | $4.65 | $5.11 |
There seems to be a buzz around a new website builder, WIX.COM is a site builder that gives you websites with flash and javascript, it is also features drag and drop building, and best of all, the ability to use your own domain name with the builder service.
All you need to do is get a domain name for $8.49 (the .COM price), and use this tutorial to point it to WIX
Click here for a tutorial on how to make your own domain name work with WIX.COM
Happy free site building.
Every time i checkout a domain name, during the checkout process, the registrar always asks if i want to buy the .NET, .ORG, .INFO, .ME etc…. They say it is to protect my brand name, or the name i want to work on advertising
Should i buy the .NET or other TLDs or is the .COM enough ?
The short answer is, if you are on a somewhat tight budget, get the .COM, and nothing but the .COM. In my opinion, buying a .NET when the .COM is not yours is not a good idea either
Let us assume you own sunsparks.COM and someone else owns sunsparks.NET, the only advantage that sunsparks.net has is that it contains the keyword sunsparks in it’s name, something that is also available in the name Esunsparks.com and Csunsparks.com, and from an SEO respective, So does sunspark.com (Without the S)
Now let us assume you owned the sunsparks.NET and the other guy owned the sunsparks.COM, in that case, it is much more than likely that i will simply type sunsparks in my browser and as most people do hit (CTRL + Enter), And i am noticing how popular this shortcut is becoming.
So to make a long story short, in most cases, buying other TLDs with your domain name is NOT important at all. in some cases, or if you like Domain shopping and don’t mind paying a measly $40, then go ahead and buy them, then point them all to 1 domain.
Verisign has added a 7% to .COM domain prices, and a 10% to .NET.
Although i have no idea why, the change has instantly shown on all low cost registrars.
Sureley, the registrars that charge you $35 for a .COM bundled with the prestige of being there customer didn’t have to increase there prices.
Prices direct from Verisign have changed as follows
Verisign used to provide .COM to registrars at $6.86, now it is provided at $7.34, the .NET used to cost $4.23 and is not at $4.65
or if you like, this one is direct from Verisign “VeriSign announced that as of July 1, 2010, the registry fee for .com domain names will increase from $6.86 to $7.34 and that the registry fee for .net domain names will increase, from $4.23 to $4.65. ”
But low cost domain providers DID increase there prices, here are a couple of examples.
GoDaddy.com .com domains from $9.99 to $10.69 (7%)
GoDaddy.com .NET domains from $7.49 to $8.99 (20%)
vcheapdomains.com .COM domains from $7.99 to $8.49 (6.25%)
vcheapdomains.com .NET domains from $6.49 to $7.49 (15.4%)
Verisign increased there prices on October 1st 2008
A yearly increase in .COM and .NET prices is not surprising, as in 2008 the ICANN and Verisign revised agreement allows for Verisign to raise rates by 7% every year of their new contract and grants them a presumptive renewal of that contract.
So basically, in 2 years, Verisign can raise there prices by 14%, and no one can stop them.
Not long ago there were plans to take the .NET tld from verisign, but in court, big companies like IBM, Microsoft, and others testified that VeriSign is one of the most capable companies, and that the ICANN should renew the .NET contract, and so they did.
In any case, there is plenty of news about the new TLD system, and we will have to wait and see if any of the new TLDs will be of any real competition to the .COM and .NET
I have been doing some work on Stats Infinity, and now i myself can feel the benefits of using the website to find good domain names
In a few hours, the search script and search box will be ready so that you will be able to search for expired domain names by keyword, Something that sounds trivial but in reality it is not.
The problem is the search algorithm when you do not know the position of the keyword (s) in the word.
For example, you can see Domains containing the word SMART (You can restrict this to expired domains if you like ), but you can not see those that have the word SMRT (With the A omitted) simply because the matching on this system works for words in a list of 1 million words from English, Italian, Spanish and German. Words not on the word list will not work.
I am now looking for missing words and adding them to the list of words, but more of this activity is expected to come later, once i get more of the website done
Mixing keywords while searching for expired domains works as well, In the search box you should be able to enter any combination of words and our system will try to show you expiring domains by relevance.
Some of the good features of the website such as finding out what domain names are re-branded nameservers and which ones are actual unique nameservers are not very obvious, I intend to write human edited clarifications such as the one about GoDaddy’s Domain Control and for example.
Other features such as (Real Nameservers) are very simple to use but the designer needs to get creative in making things clearer on the website, when you check for a nameserver, a list of alternative hostnames (rebranded nameservers) appears on the left, You can also reach such a list by entering the nameserver’s hostname or IP address in the box provided (Same box you would enter keywords into).
In any case, i will be keeping everyone posted on the progress of the project, and wishing everyone the best of luck in finding there new domains 
So the system that classifies Domain names by Nameserver, and nameservers by either IP address (Real Nameservers) or Parent Nameserver is done
Although this will remain important Data, it will probably not be the website’s main navigation, the data will always be available, but since nameservers change, and spanned pages change along with them, you can not keep a bookmark for this kind of data.
The new data will be by word, For example, StatsInfinity.COM will probably be listed under both Stats and Infinity , And very soon, there will be an option to display all existing domains containing both words (Anding).
The new classification by contained words guarentees a constant – Consistant page location for every domain name, so a domain that is on the fifth page of a certain word should stay there forever, even after it expieres (Will clearly mark it as expiered for visitors)
The data analysis of domain names compared to dictionary words has not been completed yet, But the only thing we know for sure is that 100,000,000 Domain names compared to 1,000,000 words is a 100,000,000,000,000 (14 Zeros or a one hundred trillion word-domain comparisons), and even with the smartest of algorithims, it is not as easy as one may wish, and it will probably take many days to complete.
In any case, Once Dictionary processing is done, the front page should display the 20 words used most in domain names, i will keep you informed here as soon as we get to the next level.
So, as you might already know, those who can afford a gTLD are going to be able to get it soon.
I can already find people who are opening up for preorders on gTLDs like
Business
.deal, .movie, .food, .free, .music, .golf, .news
Cities
.berlin, .london, .miami, .dallas
Other
.family, .arab, .gal
So, will this slow down the .COM ? in my oppinion, nothing can slow down the .COM, i always advise people to always get the .COM even if they want there main website to be .net.
The reason is, when people want to visit you directly, they will either google your business name, or enter it followed by a .COM, if you get the .NET and no .COM to forward to it you will probably be loosing visitors to the competitor who has the .COM.
Othe gTLDs did not result in the revolution everyone expected, Always a Gold Rush, then 1 year after, people would not even bother renew the domain, if it is not a .COM, it is hard to make it work for you.
I do think the ICANN’s idea of approving any gTLD for anyone is a good idea, for example you will probably be able to download your drivers from www.drivers.hp but i don’t think HP would ever drop the HP.COM website or let’s say depreciate it.
Even if some gTLDs do pick up, i don’t expect anything revolutionary, nothing capable of stopping the .COM growth, but i do think they will have there place, some place at least.
Ever since i started buying domain names many many years ago, they have always advised me to get the .COM, .NET, and .ORG, where the truth of the matter is, i should not have got them, they simply wanted to sell more .NET’s and .ORG’s and i believed them about all the benefits of having them all
Now that i know better, i only buy .COM’s and will not buy anything else anytime soon, And to help all the people who really have a hard time deciding on a domain name, this guide is for you.
There i explain a few things on how to buy domain names, How to chose a Top level domain (in short, go for the .com nothing else and nothing less), How to chose a second level domain (YourSite.COM), and a brief intro on how to use them right away with the free tools that come with them, I have also explained what a domain registration is So enjoy
So, for some reason i had to write a functional script that talks (PHP Via SOAP) to Wild West Domains API for domain registration and other services (For fully branded website), And i was wondering if there is enough interest so that i improve it and sell it.
Things that come to my mind
1- This could hurt Domain Reseller Direct, where people get a Turnkey Domain reseller account in addition to PHP tools to customize there websites (we add free scripts for them, and they can install them on there website or we install the scripts for them) i am not sure it is legal to tell you the details ! (I never thought i would ever have to say that), but that’s the system, what can (or should i say Can’t) i say.
2- If i was to charge for the script, i think it would end up being sold for $500 a copy, that won’t make me much money, but when i put effort into scripts, i like to maximize there use, either to make money or to give away, but again it is a loosing deal and i know it in advance.
3- To allow people to use the script, i have to create extra modules for paypal, 2CO, and other credit card gateways, this is an easy but tedious task, Do i have the time for this ?
4- I know many people want such a script, but Wild West Domains / GoDaddy API is not a complete API, it does require some pages to run off there servers, and basically that puts us back to the solution we are offering at Domain Reseller Direct, but at a much higher cost.
I really want to hear your thoughts on this, and if you are going to comment, please tell me if you would be interested in such a script so i can have that data to process with my “Handy capped business logic”
Awaiting your response
Today, a friend asked me how to setup his server so that he can give away Sub Domain names under his domain to people who want to use his PHP application, he was asking all sort of stuff like how does he rewrite apache config files and all this stuff, i can see how he is imagining the system but this is not the smart way to do it really.
All you need is a dedicated IP address, a hosting account that is accessible by its IP address, and you are good, why take the long route.
It is the simpler more flexible way, and it is the only sensible way i think, So i made a little tutorial to show him how here, now all i need to do is call him up and tell him to visit my blog for the answer
Let me pick a fancy name for this
Dynamic Sub Domain Allocation, what u waiting for, click it