Domain Names Defined
One of the most essential preconditions for creating a successful online presence is the domain. It is what visitors will mark first when they come across your web page and what they will associate you with. The domain should be easy to remember, but should also be something that tells your web page's visitors what the site is about.
Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)
A domain usually consists of 2 constituents - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are several groups of Top-Level Domains that you should consider prior to choosing the domain you wish. Your choice should be based on the purpose of your web page and on its target viewers. Let's have a look at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most popular Top-Level Domain Names meant to show a particular purpose - .com (commercial organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (corporations), .info (informative web sites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (individuals or families), .pro (certain walks of life), and so on. As you can perceive, these TLDs cover most realms of life, so you should go for the one that would signify the objective of your web site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domains, but some of them contain extra steps to verify that you are eligible to keep such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).
Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)
The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a domain is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a particular country. Many persons would sooner buy goods or services from a local web page, and if your target is Canada, for instance, choosing a .ca domain could increase the visits to your web page.
Domain Redirects
You can register a bunch of Top-Level Domain Names, which can send your website's visitors to a particular site such as domain.com, for instance. This would boost the traffic and reduce the risk of someone pinching your site visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not using a trademark.
Name Servers (NSs)
Each domain name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) demonstrate where the domain is hosted, i.e. they point to the web hosting company whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using now. You can switch the NSs of your domain whenever you want. You can have your domain name registered with one provider and get the web hosting service itself from another. So, if you register your domain and come across decent website hosting packages someplace else later, you can point your domain to the current provider's NSs straight away.
Domain Server Records (DNS Records)
On the whole, as long as your domain uses a certain set of DNSs, all its domain name records will point to the same web hosting provider. Some web hosting firms, however, allow you to edit specific domain name server records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which details on which web hosting server your site is located, while the MX records indicate which web server handles the e-mail aliases associated with your domain name. For instance, if you take on a new site designer and he devises an .ASP web site that will be hosted on his private Windows hosting server, you may wish to change just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. In this way, www.domain.com will point to the Windows server, but your email box accounts or any sub-domain names like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux web hosting account. The .ASP environment is created by Microsoft and calls for a Windows hosting server, although a Linux hosting server would be far more secure.
Budget Top-Level Domain Names Distributed by 'Smart Purple Cloud'
Just a small number of web hosting distributors enable you to modify specific domain records and quite frequently this an additional paid service. With us, you have a huge array of TLDs to choose from and you can modify all domain name server records or forward the domains via a forwarding tool at no additional charge.