Perhaps you already know that it is possible to get a freedomain name. However, have you ever wondered how a countrycan afford to give away its domain names for free Whywould a country just give away its domain names instead ofcharging for them
1. Free Domain Names from Dot TK
It is possible to get a free top-level domain name from Dot TK (www.dot.tk).
According to their website, Dot TK is a joint venture of the Government of Tokelau, its communication company Teletok and Taloha, Inc., a privately held company. The Government of Tokelau has appointed Taloha, Inc. as the exclusive registration entity.
Of course, for free .tk domains, ownership remains with Dot TK. This means that you cant sell it. As well, there are other restrictions and disadvantages of free .tk domains, including:
For serious business use, you might want to pay the nominal cost for a domain name.
2. Why Do They Offer Free Domain Names
Still, it is free. Why would they do this when theycould make money from the sale of domain names
According to their website: Why does Dot TK give away free domain names We believe that the Internet was supposed to be Free. Meaning no charges, payments or expected return favors.
3. How Can They Afford to Give Away Free Domain Names
This logically leads us to our next question: How can they afford to give away free domain names
Dot TK makes money from paid domain names, including some special and trademarked names.
To help support Dot TK, you can optionally have an ad displayed on your website. Thus, they do receive some advertising revenue from this. However, the big money would be in the sponsorship by large corporations.
4. Other Free Top-Level Domain Names
By the way, this is not the only ccTLD (country code Top-Level Domain) that gives away some domain names for free.
As just one example, cg is the ccTLD for the Republic of Congo. Each of its citizens and lawful residents are allowed one free .cg domain name.
5. Free Subdomain Names
Additionally, subdomain names are also available for free. For example, eu.org states on their websitethat their goal is to provide free subdomain registration to users or non-profit organizations who cannot afford the outrageous fees demanded by some NICs, especially in Europe.
As well, nr is the ccTLD name for the Republic of Nauru. You can receive a free subdomain name from co.nr. Thus, your domain name could be somethinglike yourcompany.co.nr.
Why do countries give away free domain names Theywant their citizens and others to be able to enjoythe benefits of domain name use without cost beingan issue. It can also be a promotional method designed to get the word out about their ccTLD.
How can these countries afford to give away freedomain names Advertising revenue and the sale ofpaid domains are two ways of funding free domainnames.
RESOURCE BOX:
J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years.
For profitable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit:
For more information about domain names, visit
What is a domain name at all A domain name is the text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer server and associated website on the Internet. When you decide to have your own website you also need to decide on a domain name where you can use your website and where people can find it. But how do you find a good domain name and what do you have to be aware of when choosing a domain name
Sometimes a good domain name for your website is to choose a domain name that matches the name of your website. As an example, a website uses the business name it represents as its name and the matching domain name is businessname.com. This helps identifying the business on the Internet. A very well known real life example is the website of Microsoft, which can be found at Microsoft.com.
The use of keywords in domain names can be important. Some search engines identify the keywords and deliver the matching website as a search results to people doing a search for this keyword. Using keywords in domain names can often have significant impact on how well a website is ranked in the search results. However - keyword stuffing in domain names is a bad thing to. People will have difficulties remembering those names and it just does not look as professional. If you are serious about your domain name avoid domain names like search-engine-success-guaranteed.com or something like that. You will get the idea. How long or short should a domain name be The shorter a domain name the easier it is to remember. A short domain name also looks more professional (some exceptions may apply though). The perfect domain name has 14 characters or less. However - it is not always possible to follow this rule. If you need to work with more than 14 characters, 22 characters should be your upper limit. Do not go with longer domain names to avoid problems.
Should a domain name include hyphens Hyphens in general are not a bad thing but you might loose visitors to the same domain name without hyphens. Using a hyphenated domain name makes verbal advertising more difficult as the speaker has to make sure that people understand the hyphen (dash) in the domain name. Still - it will be a significant disadvantage using a hyphenated domain name for advertising. For search engine optimization a hyphen does not really matter though and the domain name or better - website will show up at the same position as a non-hyphenated domain name.
The domain name extension or TLD (Top Level Domain) plays an important role, too. .com domain names will always be the best choice to go with. This does not mean that your website will not be successful if you decide to go with a different TLD like .us or .info.
About the Author
Christoph Puetz is a successful entrepreneur and international book author. Christoph Puetz lives in . One of the websites he maintains can be found at .