Many people mistakenly think they have a domain name, when they don't. If you have a home page tied to an Internet service provider or shopping mall such as www.veryfastlink.net/bobsbetterburgers -- the person who owns the domain (in this example veryfastlink) controls the domain.

For a commercial organization, not having your own domain name is a major disadvantage. If you become unhappy with the company that is providing your Internet address and you want to move your site to another computer, or worse yet the company goes out of business, you lose your identity. Unless you have set some kind of agreement for forwarding your address, you could be in big trouble!

Imagine if you had your Internet address on stationary, business cards, and addresses, and you had to change everything overnight. With your own domain name, you can simply change your Internet service provider and your customers won't even know the difference.

Why you should get your domain name now...

Acting now to reserve your domain name is important! In January, 1996, there were 170,892 commercial domain names registered. By July, 1996, there were 419,360 commercial Web domain names recorded. In mid July, 2000, the count was at 9,482,427 addresses with a .com extension. In addition, there are over 2 million .net and over 1 million .org addresses registered.

Even though a domain site has been registered, it doesn't mean there is a corresponding Web site on the Internet. Many businesses have reserved a domain name without immediate plans to put up a Web site. If you think there is even a remote possibility your company will need a Web presence, you should reserve your name today. Investing a few dollars in the initial domain registration now may yield a greater return in the future.

.Com, .Net and .Org

The most common Internet name ends in .com -- which stands for commercial use. In the mid 90's, you could only register under .com if you were commercial. The .net was reserved for Internet companies (such as Internet service providers) and the .org for non-profit groups

As the Internet became more commercial, a contract to administer and register domain names was given to a for-profit company and the lines began to blur between .com, .net and .org. Anyone was allowed to register in any of the three extensions. In my opinion, this did a lot of harm to the naming process. It requires companies to secure registration in all three of these extensions in order to fully protect themselves.

Other common extensions include .gov for government office and .edu for educational facilities. Fortunately, you must still prove you qualify to register one of these domain name extensions.

The .com is still the "default," and most people automatically think of .com as the only Internet address. In fact, most browsers automatically think you want a .com if you don't enter something else. To see for yourself, open your browser and type: Bagwell -- don't enter www. -- or .com. You will automatically go to www.bagwell.com. There is also a www.bagwell.org and a www.bagwell.net --which are registered to other people. But the browser picks up .com before .org or .net. As mentioned earlier, when we registered bagwell.com, .Net and .org were not available. When they became available, someone took them before we could register them!

This Internet default order of .com, .net and .org has caused some major problems for people with a .org extension. Many nonprofit organizations have found themselves "hijacked" either intentionally or unintentionally by a company or individual that registered the same name with a .com extension. The problem arises because most Internet users think of .com first . Thus, when someone sends an e-mail, instead of sending to julie@nonprofit.org, they enter Julie@nonprofit.com. The e-mail is either lost in cyberspace or winds up on someone else's computer. If you have a nonprofit organization, you should know if someone else has your domain with a .com extension.

I've produced a special report on this situation. If you work for or have interest in a nonprofit organization ---churches, trade associations, political groups etc. -- that has a .org Web site, you should read my report - Domain Names For Nonprofit Organizations. Just go back to the main report page you used to access this report.

The bottom line: We recommend that you register your trade name, company name, trademark, and d/b/a names in all three areas - .com, Net, and .org. It is not as important to register keyword domain names in all three areas, although you may wish to do so to keep them out of the hands of your competition.

To register a domain name click on http://www.bagwellinternet.com/domain-registration.html.

Aren't all the good domain names already taken?

No! While, the list of "great" domain names may be down to only a few, there are still many good names available. In the past few months I have registered over 20 domain names for businesses I own and operate as well as for other businesses. And while in many cases I would have preferred something better, the names are still very useful and will work.

Naturally, most generic names have been taken --- office.com, boats.com, books.com and so on have all been spoken for many years ago. There are some obscure words from the dictionary that are still available -- particularly in the Net and .org areas and a number of specialty words such as medical terms, Latin words, and words in languages other than English.

For more help see the section "Tips for creating great domain names" below.

You can have multiple domain names.

While you may choose to have multiple domains, all operating as individual Internet Web sites, you can also point a domain to another name. For example, if you operated www.CornerstoneWedding.com, you might purchase www.CornerstoneWeddings.com and point that Web site to your main Web site. That way if someone makes a mistake when they type in your domain, they will still arrive at your web site. You can also look for other common misspellings. If you do "point" your Web site to another domain, be sure to use a hard or permanent redirect (301 redirect) instead of a temporary redirect (302 redirect). There are some indications that many of the search engines will penalize you for a temporary redirect This could cause you to loose rankings in the search engines. If you are not sure of the redirect, check with your hosting company. They should be able to help you.

You might also build a page at a specific domain. An example is www.oklahoma-advertising.com. That page has information that is unique to that page. At the bottom there are links back to www.bagwell.com. Be careful that you are not copying a page from your current Web site. If the page is not unique, the search engines could also penalize you.

See "Managing all your domain names" below for additional information.

Advantages of multiple domain names:

Why would you want to have more than one domain name? There are many reasons.

• To protect your name. If you don't register your name -- as well as common versions of your name --your competition might. You should register your trade name, corporate name, or d/b/a name to protect yourself. If you don't, your competition might register it and have it point to their Internet site. Even worse, a "cybersquatter" might register your business name and then offer to sell it to you for a large amount of money. If you refuse, he or she may then try to sell it to your competition
  (see "Trademarks are protected" below).

• To stay ahead of your competition. You may want to register names that are close to your competition or names that you think your competition will want to register.

• Generic names can also drive business to your site. For example, the Bagwell Agency owns www.texas-advertising.com which points to our www.bagwell.com site. Because advertising agency is a part of our domain, if someone enters "advertising agency" in a search engine, we are more likely to be picked up. It is not a guarantee -- but it helps!

• To keep from paying large sums of money later. Many good generic names such as business.com are selling for millions of dollars. If you can find a good name that describes your business, you should register it now -- before someone else does!

Who actually "registers" and maintains the domain system?

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (www.icann.org) was selected by the Department of Commerce to administer the domain name system in 1998. Network Solutions originally had an exclusive right to sell domain names, but now many companies can register domain names. In fact, there are over 130 organizations that have been accredited by ICANN to register domains. In addition, many of these companies have affiliates that assist in registration. Bagwell Internet Marketing maintains a number of affiliate relationships in order to help our clients register domains. While you can register through a variety of sources, we list several of these in the Internet Resources Page of our Web site (www.bagwell.com/internet-resources.html )

Trademarks are protected.

While Internet law is new and still being tested in the courts, if you register a trademark, you will probably have to relinquish control to the owner of the trademark. And, if someone has registered your trademark, you can force them to give the domain name back to you. Currently, Network Solutions, the company that controls the domain name process, only puts a disputed domain name "on hold." Their philosophy is to let the courts decide who owns the name in a dispute. Generally, you can expect to have legal fees and court costs that could run into the thousands of dollars if you are involved in a domain dispute.

I do not claim to offer legal advice (see the disclaimer at the end of this report); however, you should use careful consideration before trying to register a trademark name. Recently, the United States Congress passed a bill that provides for some stiff penalties if you register a domain name that is trademarked and try to sell it back to the trademark owner.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) handles domain name disputes (http://www.icann.org/) . Over 1,000 cases have been filed with ICANN since December, 1999. Over 80 percent of those disputes have been settled in favor of the trademark holders.

Recently, Yahoo! -- the Internet Directory -- went to arbitration to obtain campyahoo.com. They were successful for a number of reasons. The site had been registered by DomainCollection, which is a company (or individual) that has registered a number of domain names in the hopes of making a profit. In addition, they were not actually using the domain to conduct business since they had not developed a Web page.

For more information on trademarks check out the Trademark Resource page at www.bagwell.com/trademark-search.html.

It does appear that if you register a domain name prior to another firm or individual actually completing the trademark process, you may have at least some right to that domain name. If you become involved in a trademark issue and need legal assistance, we can provide you the name of the law firm we use.

The bottom line: If you own a trademark, you should register it as a domain immediately!

Capitalization and punctuation in domain names...

The Internet, for the most part, is not case sensitive. Enter OfficeDepot.com, officedepot.com or OFFICEDEPOT.COM in your browser and you will arrive at the same Web site. It's all one domain name, and you pay only one registration fee.

Most Internet users do not use capitals, but often in advertising a capitalization is used for two or more word domains to make it easier for the user to enter the name --- such as OfficeDepot.com. However, punctuation poses a different problem. The only punctuation mark allowed is the dash. However, when a dash is used it creates a whole new domain. For example, office-depot.com is a different domain than officedepot.com. This means that if you have a multiple word domain name, you should consider registering it with a dash and without a dash. In addition to all the reasons included in "Advantages of multiple domain names" (above) -- there is a key advantage to using the dash. Search engines recognize the dash as a separator of words. A search engine is more likely to find texas-bank and recognize it as two words than texasbank.

There is a disadvantage to using the hyphen. That is, most Internet users aren't used to using the dash or don't like it.

Our recommendation is that you register domain addresses that contain two or more words with both a hyphen and without. Use the domain without the hyphen in your advertising and promotions and "point" (see "Parking and pointing your domain" below) the hyphenated domain address to your normal Web site.

Managing all of your domain names...

Be sure you keep a list of all your domains. This should include the date you register the domain, the domain registration company (where the domain is actually hosted) and the status. When you register a domain, you will receive an e-mail confirming the charges to your credit card along with information on how to transfer the domain to a server. KEEP THIS E-MAIL. You will need it later to give to your Web development firm or hosting service.

IMPORTANT: When you register a domain, you must give an e-mail address. This is necessary for the registration firm to contact you later when the domain comes up for renewal. If you find you need to change your e-mail address, or if you should move, you should notify the registration firm promptly.

It gets a little tricky to change an e-mail address. In fact, you'll need both e-mail addresses active in order to successfully change your e-mail at the registration firm. First, send them an e-mail from your old address listing the new address. They will send you back an auto response e-mail that you must verify and send back to them. This form must be sent to the e-mail address currently listed on your registration, and must be sent back from that address. Once you have made the changes on all your domain names, you can cancel the e-mail account.

It sounds like a hassle, but it is really a security issue. This keeps someone from sending in changes to your domain name without you knowing about it.

If you have already lost the e-mail account that is on your registration, you can still make changes. It becomes a lot more difficult, however. Contact the domain registration firm for details.

Some of the domain name registration companies offer a password or other security in addition to the e-mail verification.

Checking to see who "owns" a domain...

It is always a good idea to periodically check the registration of your domain to make sure all the information is correct. You should always make sure that your domain is registered in your name -- not a service provider or someone else. When you register on-line through http://www.claim-your-domain-name.com/ , you'll know it is registered in your name because you are filling out the form yourself.

You can confirm ownership several ways. The best way is to use a "Whois" service. We recommend OneWhois at http://www.onewhois.com/. Enter a name and you can verify ownership and other critical information.

Parking and pointing your domain name...

As mentioned under the heading: "You can have multiple domain names", you have a number of options as to what you may want to do with your domains. First, you can simply, "park" the domain. That means you own the domain name, but for all practical purposes it doesn't do anything. Some domain registration services will direct the name to a page that indicates the domain name was registered through their services, or a page that displays "under construction." In some cases, the message "no D.N.S. entry" will appear. Some registration services charge a fee for "parking" a domain. Most hosting companies also charge a fee if you "park" a domain on their server. When you register a domain through http://www.claim-your-domain-name.com/ , you are not charged a fee to "park" your domain.

The second option is to "point" your domain to another domain you already have. By "pointing" your domain to another domain, you get the benefit of both domain names. Most hosting companies and domain name registration firms will charge to handle this project. Usually it is under $50 per year. If you find that your hosting company charges more than $50 a year, contact us and we can put you in contact with a company that can handle this for you at a reasonable rate. Remember, you can point your domain to your home page or any pages within your current Web site.

A third option is to have your new domain name go to a new Web site - or at least a new page.

Cybersquatting - good or bad?

Cybersquatting occurs when someone purchases a domain name for the express purpose of reselling it. Your view of cybersquatting may be good or bad, depending on if you are selling or buying a domain name.

A lot of people have purchased domain names, typically generic names like advertising.com and business.com, and sold them for many millions of dollars. Others have not been as fortunate. The price a domain name can bring depends a lot on the market. You can have a great name, but if there is no one that will give you the price you want for it, it isn't of much value. Many people have approached cybersquatting much like real estate -- buy and hold until you can get your price.

I could do a whole report on this subject -- and perhaps someday I will. For now,here are a few tips from both sides of the fence.

Buying domain names for profit...

If you are going to speculate in domain names, you should have a clear direction. Realize that you could spend thousands of dollars before you know it and not have any money coming back in.

I know of individuals that read the business section of the local newspaper looking for possible names to register such as new apartment complexes, new office buildings, new companies or products. Remember that speculating in trademark names is not recommended. See "Trademarks are protected" above.

Other speculators follow local colleges, high schools and elementary school athletic programs. When they find a "rising star", they register that person's name. Imagine if you owned TroyAikman.com. Be aware that the courts have recently ruled that celebrities have certain rights to their names. Julia Roberts, the actress, recently was granted control of an Internet domain name that included her name. See the Wall Street Journal on-line edition at http://www.wsj.com for more information.

Once you have reserved your domains, you can sell them on any of the auction sites such as ebay.com. There are also a number of domain name brokers that will market your domains for a fee or percentage of the sale.

You may want to contact specific companies directly. I received an e-mail about a year ago concerning a domain name containing the word "advertising." The bidding was starting at $500,000 - so I quickly passed! I think it did ultimately sell for several million dollars.

Try to deal in the .com extension. You'll probably make a larger profit if you sell the .net and .org extensions as a package.

By the way, I am not personally much of a speculator. I have purchased a few domain names on the outside possibility that I might sell them, but I'll probably develop Web sites for those specific domain names.

Be aware that many governmental agencies, as well as individuals, are cracking down on cybersquatting. In July, 2000, the World Intellectual Property Organization met in Geneva, Switzerland, and launched a new offensive against people who try to hijack Internet addresses. Most of their work is aimed at the misuse of trademarks, however they will also review intellectual property rights such as trade and personal names and geographic regions. For more information see the story at http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2600799,00.html.

If you are buying a domain name from a cybersquatter...

I have clients that will not consider purchasing a domain name from a broker. "I'll never pay those scalpers a dime," one said.

Personally, I think they are wrong. If someone has a domain name you are interested in, you should at least make a contact. Sometimes you can pick up a name at a reasonable price. Do you really want to spend $100,000 renaming your business (or starting a business) with a name that is not as good as it could be --- when you could have had that great domain name for $5,000 or less?

Remember, you can negotiate. Just because someone wants a million dollars for their domain name doesn't mean that will be the price for which they will finally sell. As with any negotiation, don't appear too willing to buy. You'll probably pay more if you do.

If you are purchasing a domain name from a broker, you should try to purchase the .com, .net and .org extension at the same time. If you have a commercial business, I would not purchase the Net or .org extension until you have secured the .com extension. You will only be sending business to another person's Web site.

I also recommend that you involve an attorney. There are too many things that can go wrong at the last minute. Seeking sound legal advice can assure that your domain name is transferred properly. If you are using an auction service like e-bay, be sure to use an escrow service to assure that the domain is transferred properly before payment is made.

There are also forms available from several sources. See the Internet Law Resources Page at www.bagwell.com/marketing-law.html

Leasing a domain name...

Now here's something that is really ridiculous! Some of the cybersquatters have come up with an ingenious plan whereby you can lease a domain name instead of buying it. I can't think of a worse idea for a business owner than leasing a domain name -- especially short term. Once you have spent money on advertising and you are registered in the search engines, you could be left high and dry when you return the domain name to the owners. And, all of your hard work will continue to direct traffic to the site long after you no longer have access.

Avoid leasing a domain name; the only person that comes out ahead on this one is the cybersquatter.

Tips for creating great domain names:

Several months ago it became possible to reserve domain names up to 67 characters (this includes the usual three-letter extension. So if you are registering a .com address, the actual characters before the .com can only be 64 in length). Previously you could register only 23 characters.

Generally, it is believed that the shorter the name is, the easier it is to remember, and the more valuable of an asset it becomes. For example, here, in order, would be a list of preferable domain names:

As mentioned earlier, if you are targeting search engines where people can bookmark your site, shorter names may not be as big of a concern. However, if you are advertising your site -- particularly on radio, you'll need a short name.

Also, radio requires that you have a name that is easily spelled or deciphered. For example, if some hear "visit www for a car dot com" they may not know if it is actually www.4aCar.com or www.ForACar.com. If you have to go into great explanations to clarify your Web address, it is probably much too complicated.

Before you select a domain name, ask yourself, "How can someone confuse my domain name with another company or organization?" Remember, you don't want to spend thousands or millions of dollars to direct someone to your competitors' sites.

In the example above, if you owned www.ForACar.com and failed to purchase www.4aCar.com, you could direct traffic to another site. This happens all the time -- to big companies as well as small companies.

You might want to register domains that contain a misspelling -- particularly if you have a company name that is easily misspelled. Imagine if you were the gift catalog company Hammacher Schlemmer. Several years ago, I heard they registered over 10 different spellings. They probably could have registered a hundred! If you don't think the name of your company or organization is misspelled -- just ask your secretary or the mail room personnel to look closely at every piece of mail that comes across their desk. Have them set aside any misspelling. You will be amazed! I used to keep a drawer full of correspondence of ways people misspelled the name Bagwell. I had Bugwell, Bagwhell, Bagweller -- and more. Keep in mind that people don't misspell your name on purpose, they are just in a hurry and most search engines don't have a spell check. Think of how easy it is to quickly type in Barnes and Nobel instead of Barnes and Noble. I would guess someone could sell a lot of books from the misspellings of a fairly simple name such as Barnes and Noble. If someone else has registered the misspelling of your company name, they could be hijacking your traffic.

Many companies and organizations have also registered what might be considered "derogatory" names. For example, the new phone company, Verizon registered verizon-sucks.com in order to head off anyone using that site to post negative comments about the company. They didn't think far enough ahead, because someone soon registered verizonreallysucks.com!

Obviously, it will be impossible to register every "derogatory" name -- as many politicians have found out. One of the most famous recent political parody sites is nothillary.com, which mocks the Hillary Clinton's Senate bid for New York State. George W. Bush registered over 20 domain names just before he announced his campaign for President. Almost half of them contained negative words or elements!

Most profanity and other "off color" words are easily registered as part of domain names. From a public relations standpoint, it is wise to at least consider a domain name strategy for your organization that includes at least some negative words or elements.

See the section "Advantages of multiple domain names" for more information on this subject.

For companies, try adding a prefix or suffix to the name. You might consider: Great, Fast, New, More, Max, Your, My, Free, or Best. Try using a color such as Red or Blue. Other ideas include cyber, zone or mall. Check a good thesaurus. I also recommend the book "Words That Sell." You'll find it listed on the "Resources" page at http://www.bagwell.com/resources. Click on Advertising Books.

For more help in selecting a domain name, be sure to see the section above titled "Capitalization and punctuation in domain names". You may want to first check to see if your domain name infringes on any trademark laws. See the section "Trademarks are protected" above for more information.

Other marketing resources...

Bagwell Internet Marketing is a part of the Bagwell Group of Marketing Companies. For general resources and assistance on advertising, public relations and marketing --- including television, radio, newspaper, public relations, market research and traditional marketing solutions, visit the Web site of the Bagwell Advertising Agency at http://www.bagwell.com.

For advertising specialty items, such as key chains, coffee cups, calendars and other items imprinted with your company logo, please log on to Bagwell Promotions at http://www.bagwellpromotions.com.

Disclaimers and other legal stuff...

The Web sites listed in this document are included purely for educational purposes. Neither John Bagwell personally nor any staff members of Bagwell Internet Marketing Agency purport to be attorneys or to offer legal advice in this report. For specific questions on legal issues, you will want to consult with your own attorney. The Bagwell Agency does maintain a list of copyright, trademark, and Internet attorneys that we have used for our company or our clients. Names will be provided upon request.

For more information contact:

Bagwell Internet Marketing

For more ideas and resources on Internet Marketing visit our resources page.

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