Registered Domain Name Guide
A Beginner's Guide to Domain Name Trading - Buying and Selling Registered Domain Names. The Basics - What you need to know about a domain name.
Whois Record: The registrar's current information record on a domain name that is available to and pulled up in full WHOIS searches. This includes Registrar information, your full name and address, telephone number and email contact. Expiry date for the domain and nameserver information are included also.
Registrars: ICANN accredits registrars for the major generic top level domains including .com, .net, .info and .org. You may see listings quoting 'enom', 'godaddy', '123-reg' or similar registration. This refers to the registrar and / or agent's interface.
Nameservers: Registered domain names need to have nameservers specified for them to function. In most instances these are by default set to those provided by the registrar or registration agent. Alternatively our dev. team use stijlhost.co.uk nameservers.
DNS Records: Entries need to be set to tell the nameservers the details of the server hosting your domain.
Forwarding: Can be set up for use with holding pages. Instead of a name being hosted with its own space it is merely forwarded on to another URL already in existence.
Inter Account Pushes: Names are often listed for sale with no additional fees for inter account pushes. If both parties possess accounts at the name's registrar or agent then names may often be transferred between the two, without the need for change of registrar, transfer out or renewal charges.
Cross Registrar Transfers: If you move names across registrars then the process usually involves an additional registration for one year minimum, which is added on to existing registration period by the receiving (or buyer's) registrar of choice. Some registrars may still make the process protracted and costly. Get to know current terms and allow for them in determining prices of cheaper names.
UK Nominet and non major generic processes: UK Nominet members hold an IPS TAG which needs to be set on any name that you are administering. The nameservers will need to be set through your TAG holders interface to ones that hold the record for your hosting or forwarding. Physical paerwork also needs to be filed for registration and transfer of UK names and charges apply. Other countries' specific TLDs may have charges, paperwork and restrictions too. Non standard generic names may not be as simple or cheap to transfer. If in doubt, check to make sure that even if it's not easy transfer is at least possible!
Financial Safety Considerations: How much is going to who and where? How will the name be transferred and what steps are needed to fulfil this task? With domains where a high value has been agreed an escrow service may be advisable. As with all financial transactions be wise to the latest scams and if you don't trust, don't trade.
Valuation: People will claim all kinds of crazy values for domain names, but the truth is that a name has to be quite special to worth any serious money. Remember world-cup-frenzy-online-fantastico-2006.com doesn't count as 'special' in our book. We mean single dictionary word, very short, highly searched combinations or potentially their niche leader names. You can guage parameters including search quantities, extension, anticipated use, potential for monetisation and keyword values, all variables that you learn to assess. One value that only the seller or buyer can know is its value within or the value it would bring to their own specific portfolio.
.