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The value of a domain name is something that many individual or corporate domain owners puzzles over and over again. Many forums are full of the question “What is my domain worth?” and the most astounding appraisals in answer thereof.

Basically, a domain is just as much worth as a potential buyer is willing to pay for it for one reason or another. Yet there are certain points of reference based on general experience and a number of other factors that can apply in a domain name appraisal. Therefore Hosting Direct 24 offers domain name appraisals as a service for its customers. You can either get a quick assessment or a certified appraisal based on an in-depth review of critical industry standards, including the history of your domain, market trends, demand for your domain and additional qualitative factors that may affect your domain market value.

While a quick appraisal gives you a good idea about the value of your domain stock a certified appraisal is an essential point of reference in the domain sale process for both buyer and seller and will certainly underpin the asking price for a given domain. Furthermore, sellers are protected from fake potential buyers requiring an appraisal prior to the deal at a company of their choice with excessive pricing.

Verisign has just released a report about the development of the domain name industry. Here is what they write:

Domain names continue to show growth across the Internet, according to the second quarter 2009 Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.

The second quarter of 2009 ended with a total base of 184 million domain name registrations across all of the Top Level Domains (TLDs). This represents a one percent increase over the first quarter of 2009 and growth of nine percent over the same quarter of last year.

During the second quarter, Country Code TLDs (ccTLDs) rose by 14 percent year over year to 74.4 million domain names — a total that represents a one percent rise from the first quarter of 2009. The base of ccTLDs domain names was impacted by a loss in base for .cn and .eu. In terms of total registrations, .com remains the most popular TLD category, followed by .cn (China), .de (Germany) and .net. This mix remains unchanged from last quarter.

The overall base of .com and .net domain names grew to 93.5 million domain names during the second quarter of 2009. This represents a one percent increase over the first quarter of 2009, a seven percent increase over the same quarter of the previous year, and a 28 percent increase over the second quarter of 2007.

VeriSign’s average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load during the second quarter increased from 38 billion to 49 billion per day, resulting in hundreds of millions of Internet users accessing Web sites or sending email. This is a 29 percent increase from the 38 billion daily queries average in first quarter 2009. Managing the increasing traffic on the Internet reflects VeriSign’s continued investments in its DNS infrastructure, which have enabled the company to maintain a record 100 percent uptime of its network over the past 11 years. That track record has earned VeriSign the reputation of being one of the most reliable and trusted networks in the world.

VeriSign publishes the Domain Name Industry Brief to provide Internet users throughout the world with significant statistical and analytical research and data on the domain name industry and the Internet as a whole. Copies of the 2009 second quarter Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained at www.verisign.com/domainbrief.

Do you think you have a good Domain name in mind for your site?

WAIT!
Before you rush out register it there are a several things you need to consider.

• How many people are searching for your main keywords?
• What other words describe your site?
• How competitive is your market?
• Does the domain name describe your sites contents?
• How easy is the url to remember?

Existing Businesses

If you have an existing business you already have brand name recognition so its important to include your business name.

i.e. www.shopname.com

If that domain is taken then consider how people will search for your site. Most people will google something like (shop name) + (city) so  why not name it www.shopnamecity.com or www.shopname-city.com these domain names will almost certainly be available.

Online Businesses

Very Important – Do people want what you’re selling?

Before you rush ahead & spend hours developing a site with no value think of 6 or more words that best describe your idea.

Go to Wordtracker (it’s free) & see how many people are searching those exact words. List the words according to the # of searches.

Now you now know 2 things:

1. Is this an idea worth pursuing?
2. What words generated the most searches.

Obviously, if  very few people are searching for your main keywords then this idea is not worth pursuing as an e-commerce business. Save your money & register for a free blog at www.blogger.com if you are really dedicated to the idea.

If your keywords have significant Google search volume you can move on. Don’t worry about competition at this stage, it is more important that there are a lot of searches.

Armed with your keywords you are now ready to find the perfect domain name for your new business.

Write down some options using the most popular keyword or a mixture of your keywords. It helps if your domain name is descriptive of the site’s content.

A person searching the internet for  E-Commerce will click www.E-CommerceNewbie.com before  www.mywebsite.com.

TIP – Hyphens as in E-Commerce are not generally a good idea however using Wordtracker you will find that more people search for E-Commerce than eCommerce.

The Public Interest Registry is the first open Top-Level Domain (TLD) to be signed with domain name security extensions

.ORG, the Public Interest Registry, the company behind the .ORG domain name, is the first open generic Top-Level Domain to successfully sign the .ORG zone file with Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC).  To date, the .ORG zone is the largest domain registry to implement the security measure.

“We feel that implementing DNSSEC is a fundamental step in the upgrade of Internet security and stability,” says Alexa Raad, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry.  “With continuing growth of the Internet and the increasing number of applications depending on the DNS, this is a critical step in the evolution of the Internet.    Pioneering technologies which are in the public interest, such as DNSSEC, are core to .ORG’s mission.”

In June 2008, the PIR proposal to implement DNSSEC within the .ORG zone was unanimously approved by the board of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) after a thorough review by ICANN’s Security and Stability Committee. As the first open generic Top Level Domain authorized to implement DNSSEC, .ORG launched the DNSSEC Industry Coalition in August 2008 to execute an industry wide education and adoption plan within the Internet infrastructure community.

“This is a major step forward in improving security for Internet users and we congratulate PIR on this enormous accomplishment,” said Ram Mohan Executive VP and CTO for Afilias, PIR’s technology provider. “While Afilias’ registry and DNS technology will ensure that the .ORG zone is properly signed with DNSSEC, the additional collaboration with testing partners during the quiet period will provide intelligence for live use scenarios to ensure for the best possible end user experience when .ORG owners add this technology to their domains.”

Signing the .ORG zone is an important step to realizing full DNSSEC implementation across the Chain of Trust.  PIR will initially take a phased approach to full production readiness with DNSSEC for end users.  The registry will be in a DNSSEC quiet period to manually test the signed zone to mitigate any risks to the larger .ORG community.

“While DNSSEC will not solve all the problems associated with DNS, it is an important step towards increased authentication of DNS responses. I hope other Top-Level Domains will follow PIR’s lead,” says Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google.

Businesses now able to submit proposals or bid at auction to secure unique web addresses, says registry operator NeuStar.

NeuStar, Inc., a provider of services that enable trusted communication across networks, applications, and enterprises around the world, today announced that it has received an approval from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to make one- and two-character .BIZ domain names (such as www.i.biz, www.my.biz and www.3.biz) available to the public.

In a phased rollout, the company claims that it will now make these domain names available to the global business community through a Request for Proposal (RFP) process, followed by an offering at auction of those domains not allocated to RFP respondents. It avers that it will begin accepting RFP responses for the 36 one character letters and numbers on June 1, 2009, with a response deadline of July 30, 2009. Once the one-character RFP round is concluded, it claims that it will proceed to an auction phase for those names and will begin accepting RFP responses for the two-character domains. Proceeds from the auction of the remaining one- and two-character domains will be used to further promote the .BIZ brand for the benefit of all .BIZ domain users, it says.

“The decision by ICANN to approve NeuStar’s one- and two-character marketing effort within the .BIZ domain represents an important opportunity for the .BIZ registry to generate greater brand recognition in today’s TLD marketplace, particularly among the global business community,” said Tim Switzer, NeuStar’s vice president of Registry Services. “Through the initial RFP round, we will identify the candidates who present plans that best exemplify innovation, creativity, brand recognition and financial commitment.”

“The hyper-competitive domain name sector is far from commoditized, with some bits of DNS real estate having far greater values than others,” said Daniel Golding, vice president and research director at Tier1 Research. “It isn’t very often that precious one and two-letter domain names become available. Tier1 anticipates heavy demand among content providers, software-as-a-service vendors, entertainment and social networking companies, retailers, and numerous others.”

Podgorica, Montenegro – The .ME Registry announced its popular ccTLD extension has hit 250,000 domains registered. Montenegro’s .ME Registry has seen significant growth since it launched the domain extension worldwide just over one year ago. In fact, .ME, which is currently for sale at Hosting Direct 24, is the fastest growing new ccTLD.

Many in the online marketing community believe .ME’s popularity directly correlates to the domain’s branding power. “Dot-ME is extremely suitable for consumer brands,” notes Mark Kychma of Brands-and-Jingles, a marketing firm based in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Ukraine. His company owns hundreds of .ME domains. “Try to forget brands like Hotels4.Me, Pizza4.Me and Tickets4.Me… there is a 99 percent chance you will not,” adds Kychma. “Tell your friends about Love.Me, Fancy.Me, Unlock.Me and they will remember them for ages.”

The power of the right domain name combined with a .ME extension is astounding. YouAnd.Me, an explosively popular online dating service, launched just three months ago. According to the site’s founder, Steve Sikes, YouAnd.Me already has close to 50,000 members and is currently ranked among the top 90,000 Web sites in the world. Sikes is a big proponent of .ME domains. “Dot-ME domain extensions just seem to mesh with the direction of the Web,” stated Sikes recently. “They are more personalized and provide more user-generated content.”

“This is the kind of reaction we always knew we would elicit with dot-ME,” states Predrag Lesic, executive director of the .ME Registry. “Dot-ME has become an Internet phenomenon.”

A recent report released by the Anti-Phishing Work Group (APWG) found that the .INFO domain has the lowest exposure to phishing attacks among all generic top-level Internet domains (gTLDs). Afilias, a provider of registry services, made it public that a new Global Phishing Survey conducted during the second half of 2008 revealed that .INFO had the lowest phishing rates and the lowest average attack duration among the gTLDs measured.

“The .INFO registry is at the forefront of protecting Internet users from online identity theft across the world,” said Greg Aaron, Director of Key Account Management and Domain Security at Afilias, and a co-author of the study. “In January 2008, Afilias implemented a vigorous anti-phishing program working closely with .INFO registrars. We are pleased that the hard work of the .INFO anti-phishing team and dedicated registrars have propelled .INFO to the top spot for safety from phishing.”

Afilias says that the Global Phishing Survey analyzes the APWG phishing attack repository and other data sources comprising a comprehensive archive of phishing activity. It reports 56,959 phishing attacks worldwide in the second half of 2008, hosted on 30,454 unique domain names. Phishing took place on domain names in 170 top-level domains (TLDs). The company further states that according to the report, a phishing rate is a standard measure of the number of detected phishing web sites for every 10,000 domains registered, and indicates the prevalence of phishing in a top-level domain. It adds that attack duration measures the amount of time a phishing web site remains online – the longer one stays online, the more unsuspecting users may fall victim to the criminals.

“Identity theft and fraud are important issues for anyone who goes online, and criminals are using vulnerable top-level domains and registrars to steal identities and money,” said Ram Mohan, Executive Vice President and CTO of Afilias. “The new data demonstrates the effectiveness of active, self-regulated domain name anti-abuse programs in improving the safety of Internet users against those who steal from them.”

Ever since its start last year the .ME domain had a special appeal to individuals and businesses alike. Originally the TLD of the tiny state of Montenegro it has seen a surge of interest worldwide.

“Being widely used as a call-to-action business domain and for personal fun as well, dot-ME has established itself as one of the leading ccTLDs available around the world,” says Predrag Lesic, chief executive officer of the .ME Registry.

The .ME domain also has great appeal to domain traders with many keyword-rich names still available. So anyone who is interested in either a highly personal online appearance or a promising investment should look for our limited-time sale of .ME domains for only $12.99. Included are all the free features that Hosting Direct 24 is famed for.