Domain name check becomes very necessary and you need to check if the domain name has already been taken by somebody else. You can simply do this on the sites of registrars. When you find that the domain name is taken, you have the option of changing the name a bit and you can employ the use of hyphens to do this. If you wish to have a totally unique domain, you will have to start again. Eventually, you will come up with a name that you can take pride in. When you want to conduct a domain name check on the internet, you can use the whois tool and you will land on the information you want. You will get to learn who owns that particular domain you are searching and you will also get to have more information.

This information contains the contacts and other personal details of the domain name owner. This information is available to the public because the internet governing body requires it to be so. There are many reasons for this rule and the major one is to avert criminal activity and make it easy to crack down on illegal activities that might be going on in regard to the internet. Criminals may include human traffickers, people engaged in child pornography, racists and the list is endless. In a bid to do good, this information has also been the source of many misuse cases. Criminals have abused and harassed people and the concern is serious.

For this reason, many domain name registrars have introduced the private domain name registration to help deal with the problem. The information is barred from the public and the domain owner is notified of the people who may want the information. The owners can then choose who they want to communicate with. Domain name check is therefore very vital especially when you want to contact the domain owners for business reasons. What you need to remember is that you need to use the information in the right way so that you are not caught on the wrong side of the law. There are people who will disregard this advise and all they need to remember is that the law will catch up with them soon enough.

Peter Gitundu Creates Interesting And Thought Provoking Content on Search Engine Optimization. For More Information, Read More Of His Articles Here INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES. If You Enjoyed Reading This Article, Make Sure You SUBSCRIBE TO MY RSS FEED! To Receive My Most Recent Posts & Updates.

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1. To find out if a name is already taken, if you wish to buy it. You may have a great idea for a site, and need a particular name. (In this case, just type the domain name onto the address field of a browser. You will either get a message that the site can’t be found, which implies it is not registered yet; or you will be taken to a web site which uses the domain name already.)

2. To see which individual or company owns a specific domain.

3. To get the contact details for the owner of a domain, so that you could send an offer to buy it.

4. To use the lookup information to contact the domain owner or technical contact to complain about something offensive or inaccurate on the web site, or, for example, because the site has content or images which have been taken from a site you own yourself, breaking copyright. (In this case, the nameserver information may give a clue about the name of the hosting service used by the domain owner, whom you could also complain to.)

5. To contact the owners of a domain who have infringed on a trademark which you own or control.

So, how do you do a domain name lookup anyway? Simply go to whois.net and use their search boxes. This is free. (Apart from whois.net, there are many other domain name search tools too, of course.) Minimum registration data for existing domains which you will be able to see following a lookup includes the registrant’s name, who the domain is registered through, and the nameservers. Depending on the registrar’s policies and setup, you may also be able to get a contact email address, a physical address and a phone number for the registrant and for the technical contact.

In addition, you may be able to see the date when the registration of the domain expires. This does not mean, of course, that the domain would be available to buy after that. Most domain registration services now have automatic domain renewals when the expiry date arrives, to protect their customers.

In some cases, the owner of a domain will have made a private registration, so that no personal details are available through who is lookups: the registrar’s contact details will be available instead.

In addition, most of the good domain registration services will allow you to do a domain name lookup, then buy any available domain there and then.

If you wish to lookup and buy a domain now, see my domain name registration page for tips on exactly how to do it.

Dee Buteland writes about domain names, buying domains, and making money from domains.

Author: Dee Buteland
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Probability of Spam: When you buy an expired domain with a proven history of getting lot of spam, then you are more likely to inherit and own the same spam folder. As the new owner, you will receive any messages dispatched to every single user name in that particular domain. You may find it very difficult to stop these spam messages flowing into your mailbox, even with the most sophisticated spam guard filter. The ultimate pitfall of owning expired domains with an established history of spam is the consumption of lot of bandwidth.

Probability or occurrence of enhanced robot activity: One of the popular techniques used to jack up the amount of site traffic is to install a number of automated programs called “robots”. Those expired domains equipped with such an array of automatic robots are very difficult to manage and administer. You may need to stop using the domain for a number of months until such an occasion when the robot activities stops completely.

Probability of acquiring invisible enemies: The previous owner might have had a solid and compelling reason to part with that domain. The most probable reason could be that of a single or a group of people choosing the domain for some ulterior motives or malicious activities. Such activities could be spamming, e mail flooding, DOS, home page hacking or even bad advertisement about the domain. The dangerous aspect and scenarios of owning a web site involved with spamming and other spurious activities are fairly well known. If the site is found to be a miscreant, the registrars may even banish your web portal. However, you may never be able to identify and detect a spurious web site that comes with so many disadvantages.

Buying an expired domain name is an adventurous and brave act, and you will need to evaluate its quality and positive factors before landing that domain. Here are some more details about disadvantages of expired domains:

a) Contact the source from where you are intending to buy the domain and place an information inquiry to check the antecedent of the domain.

b) Never believe the reseller by the face value, as he or she may be trying to push a domain that is full of disadvantages.

c) You can also seek an evaluation and status report on the expired domain name that you are trying to buy. With this report, you will know about number of other sensitive details like traffic density, its link popularity and other similar details.

John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web site called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

Author: John Bj Khu
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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No matter how the domain name usage actually is discovered, trade or service mark owners have two basic options for resolving disputes over domain names. First, a person or company can take action under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Policy. The benefits of this process is that it is relatively fast and relative inexpensive. There are drawbacks that include the fact that this process is not available to all domain names, it is not appropriate for license disputes and damages and attorney fees cannot be recovered through this process.

The other alternative available to a person or company who believes it has been wronged or violated in terms of a domain name related issue is the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”). The ACPA was enacted in 1999 and was designed to prevent cybersquatting on the Internet.

Cybersquatting generally is considered the use of domain names that are confusingly similar to trademarks and service marks owned by other business enterprises or individuals.

The ACPA can impose liability on the registrant of such a domain name (or its licensee) if that person or entity has done the following:

(i) has a bad faith intent to profit from the mark; and,

(ii) registers, traffics in, or uses a domain name that is identical or confusingly similar to the mark and the mark (or dilutive if the mark is famous) was distinctive (or famous) at the time of the domain name registration.

The ACPA does establish a set of nine nonexclusive factors that a court may utilize in working to determining whether a person or entity has acted in bad faith, has a bad intent, in regard to a domain name registration. The ACPA states that “Bad faith intent . . . shall not be found in any case in which the court determines that the person believed and had reasonable grounds to believe that the use of the domain name was a fair use or otherwise lawful.”

For example, the actual trade or service mark owner must demonstrate that the challenged domain name is confusingly similar to its own trade or service mark. Only the challenged domain name and the trade or service mark will be compared under the ACPA. According to the ACPA, the proper inquiry is whether the defendant’s domain name is so similar to the plaintiff’s trade or service mark that the two could be confused by a third party.

If the mark owner is successful in the action, the court may order the forfeiture, cancellation or transfer of the domain name. Moreover, the mark owner may recover the defendant’s profits, any damages sustained by the owner of the trademark and its costs of the action.

Pursuant to the statute, the owner of the mark may elect to recover statutory damages, in lieu of actual damages and profits. The court can award statutory damages in an amount between $1,000 and $100,000 per domain name.

Claims that are made under the ACPA and UDRP are two options available to trade and service mark owners who are trying to protect their mark from being used by others in bad faith.

Robert Masud, Esq. is the principal of Masud & Company LLC, a law firm for the world of business, finance and the internet. Find out how our lawyers can help you at http://www.masudco.com.

Author: Robert Masud
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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This happens every day because of a perfectly legitimate process known as “drop catching,” where people quickly snag the domain names owners have let expire and try to resell them or use the links associated with the names, which could be extensive, to create Web sites loaded with advertisements. You can easily avoid becoming a victim of a drop catcher by better understanding how the domain registration system works to protect your domain name.

Your Web site, with all the content you have so painstakingly added, sits on a computer with a unique address called an IP address, which is simply a series of numbers. A domain name is an address forwarding service that directs visitors to the site using this IP address. Domain names are used instead of numbers because most people find it easier to remember a name rather than a bunch of numbers. It’s as if you could dial your friend’s name into the telephone instead of his phone number.

You can purchase a domain name by registering it with a provider of domain services such as GoDaddy.com , the largest on the Web, or any number of other registrars. The name can be registered for just one year, for about $10, or for as long as ten years, for around $80. Many register for only one year because it’s cheaper, or they only want the site for a limited time.

At the end of the year, the registrar usually sends an email renewal notice to the owner. If the owner doesn’t respond to the renewal notice, the domain name will eventually be made available for purchase by someone else. Roughly 20,000 domain names become available every day because the owners allowed them to expire, or the owners didn’t realize that their domain name was up for renewal

According to the rules established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers(ICANN), domain registrars have 45 days after the expiration date to notify the owner that their domain name is going to be dropped from the registry. If the name is dropped, the guidelines then call for a 30-day grace period during which the owner can still claim the name. After this grace period and then another five-day holding period, the name is dropped from the registry and anyone can claim it.

Since 2004, however, a number of domain service providers, starting with SnapName.com, have created an auction process for expired names which bypasses the original drop process and makes the names available in as little as thirty days. GoDaddy.com begins the auction process even before the names have officially expired, although it does warn the auction participants that the owner could still claim their name.

These providers of domain services each have tools on their sites to make it easier to grab expired names. They provide constantly updated lists of expired names, various auction services, search engines, and other free tools for anyone to quickly and easily find available domain names. Some sites also offer software for sale that further simplifies the search for expired and soon to be expired names.

With the surge in online advertising, drop catchers will continue to seek out domain names from sites with good traffic, anxious to exploit the established links. Protect your site and your business by checking the expiration date of your domain name. Relying on the registrar to send a renewal notice that could easily be sent to an old email address or get lost in the spam catcher, could cost you years of hard work.

Dave Starner is a former teacher and coach. Visit the Nets #1 infoproduct site at http://www.ebooksnet.com Instantly download great ebooks and sign up for free bonuses and money making information. Article reprints welcomed as long as all texts and hyperlinks remain unchanged.

Author: David Starner
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For example, if one registers a domain nike.net and then attempts to sell it back to Nike, it is cybersquatting. It will be in addition a violation of law if he/she puts up a website on nike.net describing Nike products and services in bad taste. On the other hand, if someone own a company trademark like Nike Foods and host a food website on nike.net, there is no cybersquatting or violation of law. So, it is the intention and not just the name which amounts to cybersquatting.

Cybersquatting was made illegal by the passage of a federal law in 1999 known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. The law became necessary because numerous large companies were forced to pay large sums to buy their domain names from third parties. These companies included such notables as Panasonic, Fry’s Electronics, Hertz and Avon.

Cybersquatting is quite common specially against the popular brands but most of the time, the victim company doesn’t know about it. How do you know if a company is a victim of cybersquatting? Type in a name that is a trademark or copyright like Sakshay preceded by “www” and following by “.com”, “.net” or “.org”. If you get a valid web site which looks like it is related in some way to the domain name, then there is no cybersquatting in effect (although this could be a simple trademark violation). However, if you get one of the following results, then this could be a cybersquatter.

- Can’t find server

- under construction

- page with no relationship to domain name

Of course there could be a reasonable explanation for each of these results, so they do not always mean there is cybersquatting occurring. It’s a good idea to contact the domain name owner before taking any legal action to find out what’s going on.

Since there can be many reasons both in favor and against cybersquatting in any specific case, how can one prove someone is cybersquatting?

- The domain name registrants intention was to profit from your domain name in bad faith

- Your trademark was in effect and widely known at the time the domain name was registered

- The domain name is identical to your trademark

- And you have actually registered the trademark

How do you know there is a bad faith intent? Well, there is probably no bad faith intent if one of the following is true:

- domain name is the same as the person’s name or nickname or company providing services or products in different domain.

- They are actually selling or intend on selling something on their web site
- They have registered the domain prior to your trademark registration and have been using the domain name for some purpose or other.

- Does the web site owner actually have a legitimate use of the domain name? This would be, for example, true for a company named “Nike Foods”. They would have a legitimate reason for owning the “Nike” domain name.

Some clues that cybersquatting is occurring include:

- The domain name owner has put up a web site which in some way harms your company. For example, if you had somehow purchased “TATA.ORG” and created a web site about how inferior are TATA products, you are cybersquatting.

- If the domain name owner never legitimately used the domain name and simply offered to sell it to you, he is cybersquatting. If a person buys up a lot of names and has sold them over and over, there is a pattern of cybersquatting.

- If the domain name is the same as a very famous trademark, then it has a greater likelihood of being considered cybersquatting.

What can happen if someone is found guilty of cybersquatting is they can be ordered to hand over the domain name. In addition, if the domain was purchased after 1999, they can be ordered to pay monetary damages.

Dr Ravi Chamria is the CEO, Sakshay Infosystems Pvt Ltd. He can be contacted at ravi@sakshay.net or you may visit http://www.articlesworld.com and dhandaulat.com

Author: Ravi Chamria
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Then do you know that you can do that with an expired domain?

Here is how you can get traffic from an expired domain name.

Everyday hundreds of domain names expire. This could be for any of these reasons: their owners forgot to renew them in time. They lost interest in them. Or they got other domain names for their new sites. And of course, this can happen also when the owner passed away and there was nobody to carry on his or her online business.

But all expired domains are not equal. For a domain name to be useful for getting traffic and ultimately making you money, it must already have been used for a site which was getting a lots of traffic. It could have a good number of backlinks, be listed in popular search engines and directories.

The more popular the website, the more valuable would be its domain name. Because even when there is no site going with such a domain name, it is found in search engines and gets hits. So if you get such a domain name and use it to re-direct it to your site or use it for your new site, you would be getting lots of valuable hits without doing anything. And with so much traffic you can make money by affiliate sales, adsense clicks or sales of your own products. The possibilities of making money with highly optimized domain names are endless.

But there is another side to expired domain names also. For one, such a domain may be worthless if it was getting no traffic to begin with. Then it would require you to develop it as you would do a new domain. But a domain name may be dangerous for your business also. If the domain name was used for a site that was tagged as a spam site by search engines it would do more harm than good to you. If you use it the search engines wouldn’t list it in their search results. Your AdSense account may also be affected by using it with such a spammy domain.

So you have to find a popular as well as clean domain name if you would like to make money from it.

Here it would be in order to know something about how you can register for a domain name that has expired.

When a domain name expires it doesn’t become available for re-registration on its expiry date. There is a wait period of 40 days during which the owner can renew it. And even after this time, there is a period of about 30 days in which the domain can be renewed by the original owner at some enhanced fee. It is only after this time has passed that a domain name would become available for new registration.

Savvy webmasters who are on the lookout for valuable expired domain names backorder them before the expiry time. So it is not certain that you would get a domain name just because it has expired even if you have backordered it but your order is not the first in the queue.

To put this strategy to work you need to find sites which let you make searches for expired or about to expire domain names. You may find some such sites which are free to use but for an in-depth analysis of domain names you may have to join a site which would charge a membership fee. But a single good domain name could pay back what you invest for finding it.

Frank writes articles on various subjects such as internet marketing, travel, online security and health. You may also look at his website on kidney stones cause which also features various kidney stones diet tips.

Author: Frank Grey
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Branding

Selecting your Domain is just as Important as selecting your Business name, and undoubtedly you will experience the same problems as selecting a business name.

The domain name has been taken and registered by someone else or parked(bought and not being used).

Should the selected domain name be parked then it will be possible to purchase the domain from the owner, depending on how valuable the domain is to both yourself and the owner then the price may be considerable and the best option would be to select a variant of the name. To determine the owner use a whois service.

Select an alternative Domain name

All is not lost, you can in most instances add a prefix to the domain name eg rather than register the bluewidgets domain, you can select the domain mybluewidget, rather than selecting housecleaning domain select the domain greenhousecleaning.

Domain Name Hyphenation

Do not be tempted to use hyphenation to separate out the words, as this firstly makes it difficult to explain to a potential customer your web address, next it is difficult to type in and lastly Google is able to separate out words even when they are concatenated together making it possible to identify keywords. Do not use underscore and never use spaces in web page names.

Keywords

Having a keyword rich domain name can definitely assist in your ranking efforts, this will help in the linking back of anchor text to your web site. Unfortunately most of the keyword rich domain names have been taken, so that means you need to find an alternative keyword rich domain name or find a way to use your keywords while still making it easy for people to find you.

A Keyword rich domain name can also help in getting multiple pages (the famous indent) in the search engine results; thereby helping push down the competition. This technique is a technique which should be considered…

Which Domain extension

Many web designers will recommend to a business to register a “.com” and a “.com.au”, however as search engines uses geo location then if your server is based in Australia then google will identify you as a person in Australia and looking for Australian results. When your website is on an Australian server then it does not matter if you use either “.com” or “.com.au”. It is misleading and false to tell businesses that you must register both domains.

‘IP property

In rare cases you may want to register multiple variants of the domain name to prevent other businesses from piggy backing your success and good will, however initially registering multiple variants would not make sense as there is no track record or success and should your business thrive then you can the register the other domain variants.

In part two I will look at sub-domains and using hyphenation in your domain name. When Building your Business, do not take chances, hoping the web designer knows about SEO, do not waste your time trying to learn SEO; contact the Local Internet Marketing experts and take the risk of building your business.

Author: Anthony Curran
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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UK domain names are handled by Nominet. Whilst you may have bought your domain name via 123-REG or other registrars it is Nominet who holds the official domain records on its registry. UK domain names need to be renewed every two years to keep them live, this is a simple and inexpensive process and is normally done via your current domain host or Registrar.

But what happens if you forget to renew a domain name?

Well, the owner will have received several reminders about the need to pay and renew the domain. Some people either do not receive these emails or forget that it needs to be done, others will have no further use for the name and rather than sell it, will simply let the domain name renewal lapse.

Whatever the circumstances, the process for UK domain names that are not renewed is the same. Once the domain reaches its renewal date Nominet changes the status of the domain to suspended. This information can be seen on a WHOIS search or just go to the Nominet website and type the domain name in to see the details. The name is normally suspended for 90 days, during this suspension period the current holder can renew the name and effectively claim it back.

Once the 90 day period has finished the domain name is put back in to the market for anyone to register as their own. It might seem simple then to simply put a note in your diary to go online after this 90 day period and register your chosen name. Unfortunately, in the world of domains things are not so simple.

If the domain name is of good quality and highly sort after there will be many people who would want it as their own. Some will want it so they can set up a new website, others to compliment an existing collection of domains but there are also domain brokers whose business is trading in domains. If a highly valuable name is coming back onto the market the competition will be high. Occasionally, the domain owner will renew the domain right at the last minute so then the opportunity is lost.

So what can be done to secure the name?

Registering popular names that have been suspended is a complex process if you intend on being successful and there will be many people aware that the name is being lapsed. You will need to employ the services of a domain expert who has the necessary systems in place to register the name as soon as it becomes available. Whilst there is no guarantee of success, you generally only pay if the domain is purchased for you. This is a fairly low cost exercise when you consider how much the domain could be worth to you.

You will need to contact the domain broker in good time with details of the name you require. Don’t leave it too late as there is a finite amount of capacity when registering domains this way. If successful, your careful planning and research will be rewarded with the name registered to you in just a few seconds.

Alder Domains are a domain broker offering domains for sale and SEO services to help promote your website.

Author: Sean R Horton
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Be aware that registrars provide the option to auto-renew your domain names. If you own a highly valuable domain, or if you do not wish to worry about your domain ever expiring, you can easily set your domain name to auto-renew via options that your registrar provides.

The domain name expiration process is defined by a set number of domain states. These states are concrete and are conformed to by every registrar, however the duration of each state might vary from one registrar to another.

Active status is the general status of a working / live domain name. Domains in the active status can be renewed or transferred at any time.

On-hold status is the status of a domain immediately after the expiration date. A domain in the on-hold status will cease functioning, and the site that uses this domain will appear to be down.

During the on-hold status, the domain can still be renewed at normal renewal rates by the owner. The on-hold status duration varies between registrars.

Redemption Period status is a recent addition by ICANN providing the original owner with a second chance at renewing their domain.

The redemption period lasts for 30 days at all registrars and renewal costs are larger then a general renewal rate. To renew a domain in the redemption period, the owner must pay fees extending up to and over $150, depending on the registrar.

Pending Delete status is the final status prior to release of a domain name. This status follows the redemption period and lasts up to 5 days.

There is no way for the original owner to renew their domain at this time, apart from waiting for the domain to be released and then attempting to re-register it.

It is important to note that nowadays almost no domains enter the pending delete period. If they are any good, they are placed into an auction by the registrar and only if there are no bids do they eventually drop. Almost all major registrars have an associated expiring domain auction. Godaddy have TDNAM, Enom/NetSol have NameJet etc.

John Motson runs a domain name forum, domain name blog and has authored the popular domain name book Domaining Manifesto.

Author: John Motson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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