The Domain Blog | A Domain Name Weblog & Home of The Original Free Domain Name Giveaway

Name Drop Alert! More Domain Names I'm Dropping

Another small name drop alert today. I'm too busy with development these days, so I'll be dropping plenty of names in the near future.

Here are some names that I've recently dropped:

DVDRELEASE.US

MOVIERELEASES.US

CHER.TV

BUSINESSOWNER.TV

WASHING.TV

SHAVING.TV

IVYLEAGUE.CC

CUSTOMERCARE.CC

GENERALCONTRACTOR.CC

RESIDENTIALGENERALCONTRACTOR.NET

GENERALCONTRACTOR.WS

RESIDENTIALGENERALCONTRACTOR.INFO

RESIDENTIALGENERALCONTRACTOR.US

RESIDENTIALGENERALCONTRACTOR.BIZ

More of my drop lists can be found here and here.

UK Based Web Hosting Company Offers Free Domain Name & Free Web Space, And The Offer Isn't Ad-Supported

Sounds too good to be true? Maybe. But according to a press release I have just come across, Facternet.com is offering free web space (100 MB) and a free domain name, and you don't have to have any Facternet.com ads on your site in order to enjoy these free services. Right now, you're probably asking yourself, "Well, then how can they make money?" I'm not sure, but Facternet.com does have contextual ads on just about every page in their website, so I guess their business model is all about those ads.

According to the Facternet.com website, you can get your free .COM domain name once you've had a site up with them for at least 3 months, and your site must pass "review and assessment." Your site must always be hosted with Facternet.com in order to keep your free domain name.

If you decide to take advantage of this offer, post a comment here and let us know if the offer is all that it claims to be. Thanks.

Here's a snippet from today's press release:

"Free Web Hosting has been tarnished with a bad name, full of advertising, limits and unusable services. That is until now, with the launch of the latest service from Facternet which offers ample space, no end-user advertisements and a free domain name.

Internet Solutions Provider, Facternet.com, has today fully launched its Facternet FreeSpace service to the public. The service that offers 100MB of free web storage space for websites and file storage is already proving to be a huge hit, especially since users that choose to host a website on the service don’t have to contend with any advertising on their sites, and also have the option to get a free .com domain name.

Unlike existing free web space providers, Facternet allows users to upload practically any file, allows hot linking of files and even lets you send your uploaded files to friends and family, however Facternet warn that users that abuse the heavily monitored service will have their accounts terminated.

Users of the FreeSpace service can choose whether to upload a website, or use the space to store their files, or even both. Facternet claim that their FreeSpace service is one of the most flexible free hosting services around, and even encourages users to use their FreeSpace to enhance sites that may be hosted elsewhere, a practice that is frowned upon by traditional free hosting providers.

Anthony Robinson, the owner of Facternet.com, said, 'I am delighted to launch the new Facternet FreeSpace service. Using free hosting providers in the past myself, I understand the frustration of forced advertising on end user sites, the restrictions placed on file types, and not forgetting the long unfriendly website addresses. That’s why FreeSpace doesn’t have any advertising on end user sites, supports almost every file type and even offers users a free .com domain name.'

The service also announced today that their paid hosting service, Facternet Domains, was to undergo a major upgrade within the next few days along with new hosting packages that will offer FreeSpace users the chance to step-up from their current service.

The FreeSpace service can be accessed at http://freespace.facternet.com/ or from Facternet’s Portal at www.facternet.com."

GoDaddy Now Offering Free Blog with Every New Domain Name Registration, Domain Name Renewal or Domain Transfer

GoDaddy is now offer a free Quick Blog weblog with any domain name registration, domain name renewal or domain name transfer. The free blog associated with this offer is ad-supported, but the company promises nothing too obtrusive, and no pop-ups.

If you decide to give Quick Blog a try, post a comment and let us know what you think of it. Thanks!

Here's a clip from today's press release:

"More than 100 million individuals and businesses have entered the world of blogging, according to the Blog Herald. A blog, short for weblog, lets its writer/blogger post information in a personal journal style directly to the Web. Readers are then able to add commentary to the blog entries.
Now, GoDaddy.com®, the No. 1 registrar of domain names worldwide, both in terms of new daily registrations and domains under management, is making it easy for customers to create and maintain their own blogs. Quick Blog is included FREE with every new domain registration, transfer or renewal.
'I started my blog, http://www.bobparsons.com, last year to communicate to the world about our Super Bowl commercial," said Bob Parsons, Go Daddy(R) founder
and president. "Readers asked about the application I used, so we decided to offer it to every single customer who registers, renews or transfers a domain.'

Quick Blog is an easy-to-use application packed with powerful features, including:

* Customizable templates for different designs and layouts

* Image and audio upload capabilities for sharing favorite photos and more

* Ability to block unwanted visitors from accessing the blogger's site using IP Banning

* Instant automatic updates for blog subscribers on new postings through RSS Feeds
* Mailing list notification to help the blogger keep in touch with visitors
* Surveys to get visitor opinions
* Site Statistics to track visitor activity

'As the popularity of blogging explodes, we want to give our customers an easy way to try it for themselves without spending a lot of money,' said Parsons.

The ad-supported blogs contain relevant online advertising on a small portion of the site, but DO NOT include obtrusive pop-up ads. Quick Blog is supported by a world-class data center and backed by a 99.9% uptime guarantee. In addition, Quick Blog plans are supported by best-of-breed router, firewall and server equipment; full network redundancy; enterprise-class backup and restore technology (daily incremental and weekly full backups); and 24 x7 monitoring and security.

For more information on Quick Blog, visit http://www.GoDaddy.com."

An Excellent DNS Utility: I Had To Share

One of my web hosting partners recently introduced me to a DNS site that has all the most useful DNS utilities in one conveninet spot. The site is www.DNSStuff.com.

Unlike other DNS utility sites, DNSStuff doesn't require you to login in order to use their excellent services. And they're fast! Faster than any other DNS site I've ever used.

Tools include:

WHOIS Lookup (including many ccTLD's)
Traceroute
Ping
IPWHOIS Lookup
City From IP
Abuse Lookup
Free E-mail Lookup
Reverse DNS lookup
Spam database lookup
E-mail Test

and much more. Enjoy!

Free Privacy Deal @ GoDaddy

Americans love their privacy. Americans fight hard to maintain their privacy rights, which I believe is a good and natural thing: it's human nature to desire a certain level of privacy in life.

So it's no wonder that many folks who register domain names here in the States often enter phony or false information when asked for their name, address, email and phone number when registering a new domain name. It's illegal to enter false contact information when you register a domain name, and, judging by the articles I've been reading lately, it looks like the government is getting fed up with folks who are entering "XXXXX" as their telephone number and "123 Main Street" for their snail mail address. I'm sensing a government crackdown coming soon.

One way to legally get around the contact information requirement is to purchase private domain name registration services (a.k.a. WHOIS privacy) from your preferred domain name registrar. Domain registration privacy keeps your personal details private; it also adds another layer of protection against spam and phishing attacks. However, "private registration" services are invariably too pricey for the typical domain name buyer to purchase.

I have over 350 domain names in my portfolio, and I have never purchased "privacy" for any domain name I own. My solution? I have my own business name and a post office box. Simple, eh? Yeah, it is pretty simple, really. The PO box costs me $20 per year, and the registration of my business name with my local county clerk cost me a one-time fee of $100. Money very well spent, for a lot of reasons.

For those of you who don't want to bother with a post office box, etc., you may be in interested in an offer that I just received from the good folks @ GoDaddy: register (or transfer) 3 domain names and they'll give you privacy for each name for free. This is a pretty good offer as it can save you over $25 in "privacy" fees. Just remember to use the coupon code gdg1211 when you checkout @ GoDaddy. Enjoy!

A Great GoDaddy Coupon Code Has Been Resurrected!

I am happy to report that a GoDaddy coupon code that hasn't work for some time is now working again. I used the code goox3004at to register a .COM name last night, and got $2.00 off! Yippie!

In other GoDaddy coupon code news, the code USA6 no longer gets you $1.00 off your order, but you can still use it to get $5.00 off any order that is $30 or higher. Personally, I like the new USA6 code, as I have been using it to save on some .TV domain names I purchased recently.

Remember, these are not new codes, so they can may get deactivated at any time, so if you're going to use them, don't procrastinate! Enjoy.

Click here for more GoDaddy coupon codes.

GoDaddy Now Offering Free (Ad Supported) Web Hosting with Any New Domain Name Registration

As long as you don't mind having GoDaddy's ads on your pages, this new offer may have some appeal for you.

Here's a snippet from an email I received today:

"Ad-Supported Hosting is now FREE with every new domain name registration, transfer or renewal! That's right; every time you register, transfer or renew a domain name, you'll receive a Hosting Plan with 5-page Web site builder, 50MB of disk space and professionally designed templates — all included with your purchase!

Of course, each domain name still comes with our rich collection of additional FREE extras including: Complete Email ($9.95/yr value), domain forwarding and masking, complete DNS control and much more!

So start enjoying even more — for our everyday low prices! Domains are $8.95/yr* and lower! And .com transfers are just $6.95 and include a FREE 1-year extension!"

You'll need to enter the "gdg1128" offer code to get the free hosting with your new domain name registration.

I'm interested in knowing if you can place you own AdSense or Yahoo! Publisher Network ads on your pages with this offer. If you have any insight, please post a comment and share. Thanks!

The Longest Legit Domain Name I've Ever Come Across

One of the most universally accepted tenets of domain names is "shorter is better". Short domain names are very user friendly, are easy to remember and are often very brandable.

Typically, when I come across a very long domain name, it's usually a novelty name that is long for the sake of being long. I've never come across a serious domain name that has more than 30 characters. Until today.

I received a large envelope in the mail today. The sender is "In Re Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation". The next line in the sender address reads "Claims Administrator". Looked like some serious legal stuff, so I opened the letter immediately.

Turns out that I am a member of a Class that has settled with MasterCard and Visa in a Class Action suit. I'm a member of this Class because my small business meets the following criteria:

"All businesses and organizations in the United States that accepted Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards for payment at any time during the period October 25, 1992 to June 21, 2003."

I can claim a cash payment by filling out the form included in the envelope, or I can go to the following web address to file electronically:

www.inrevisacheckmastermoneyantitrustlitigation.com

43 characters! Oh, man! I get tired just looking at that domain name.

It's actually the right name for the job. The name isn't going to get any type-in traffic, but it is very search engine friendly; type the search term "In Re Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation" into MSN or Google and a link to the website can be found within the top 5 organic search results.

Maybe they should have thrown in some dashes to make the name even more search engine friendly, and to make it easier for human eyes to read. Heh.

As far as making a claim, I won't be filing for this one. The last time I filed a claim as a member of a Class in a case against Toshiba, I (eventually) received a check that was large enough to take care of my phone, cable and Internet bill for that month, and I still had plenty of cash left over for food shopping. According to the documents with the details about this Visa/MasterCard deal, I am entitled to receive a cash payment that is estimated to be $2.00! Ha! It probably cost more than $2 for the postage and the paper that was used to send me the class action notification letter. Oh well.

HPWeb.com: Cybersquatting?

A guy in Korea has been ordered to hand over the HPWeb.com domain name to Hewlett-Packard.

Cybersquatting? No, not really. If you ask me, the HPWeb.com domain name is fair game. So why would he be forced to give it up?

Well, it's all about how you use a name. To be accused of cybersquatting with the domain name HPWeb.com is a stretch, but the guy who was holding the name was using it for an email service, so anyone who received emails from e.g. webmaster@hpweb.com would most likely think that they were in fact receiving correspondence from someone under the employ of Hewlett-Packard. Not good.

Now if the Korean gentleman who was holding the HPWeb.com domain name instead used it for e.g. a website about his (hypothetical) web hosting service that uses nothing but the latest and greatest servers made by Hewlett-Packard, I doubt that Hewlett-Packard would have gone after him, especially if he placed the following disclaimer (or something similar) at the bottom of every page:

This HPWeb.com website is not owned by or affiliated with
The Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Good idea to use a disclaimer like the above as an email signature as well, just to be on the safe side. Of course, the above situation assumes that the Korean gentleman was not using "HPWeb" or "HPWeb.com" as his company name.

As long as the above hypothetical web hosting company was running an honest operation, I highly doubt that Hewlett-Packard would have had a problem with it.

So all you domainers and developers out there with similar domain names: be careful how you use them. If you develop a website, blog or any other type of service, be sure to make it clear that you are not trying to pretend to represent some other company, especially a company with deep pockets!

A Recent, System-Related Improvement @ GoDaddy.com Is Very, Very Welcome

I'm a bit obsessed with efficiency. I have to be. Managing hundreds of Internet domain names is no simple matter, and anything that slows down the day-to-day handling of multiple domain names can drive even the most patient person mad with frustration. As you can imagine, I appreciate anything that can help to streamline or simplify the management of my every expanding list of domain names.

So I was very pleased to read about the latest improvement over @ GoDaddy.com, the domain name registrar that I use most often.

Before today, if I needed to change e.g. the nameservers (or is it "name servers"?) for a block of names, I would have to first unlock the names in question, then I would have to wait for the system to update, then I would change the nameserver settings, wait again for the system to update, then I would have to lock up these reconfigured domain names in order to safeguard them against domain hijacking. Mama mia!

As of today, I can change the nameservers for my GoDaddy registered names without having to unlock them, then re-lock them when I'm done; the GoDaddy system is now sophisticated enough to handle the nameserver change request while keeping the names in question locked. Hallelujah! This improvement will actually save me a lot of time, believe it or not, as I do need to change the nameservers for my names often.

It's about time really: I've never had to do the unlock/lock dance over @ eNom, and I'm sure that most large registrars handle simple nameserver requests without any hassles.

With improvements like this, I may be able to avoid the pain and misery of carpal tunnel syndrome after all!