This short introduction explains the basics of trading Forex online, a brief explanation of the markets and the major benefits of trading Forex online. There are also two scenarios describing the implications of trading in a bear as well as a bull market to better acquaint you with some of the risks and opportunities of the largest and most liquid market in the world.
As an additional aid for those who are new to Forex, there is also a glossary at the bottom of this text which explains some of the terms used in connection with currency trading.
Overview
Foreign exchange, Forex or just are all terms used to describe the trading of the world's many currencies. The is the largest market in the world, with trades amounting to more than USD 3 trillion every day. Most Forex trading is with only a low percentage of market activity representing governments' and companies' fundamental currency conversion needs.
Unlike trading on the stock market, the Forex market is not conducted by a central exchange, but on the which is thought of as an market. Trading takes place directly between the two counterparts necessary to make a trade, whether over the telephone or on electronic networks all over the world. The main centres for trading are Sydney, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt and New York. This worldwide distribution of trading centres means that the Forex market is a 24-hour market.
Trading Forex
A currency trade is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another one. The currency combination used in the trade is called a cross (for example, the euro/US dollar, or the GB pound/Japanese yen.). The most commonly traded currencies are the so-called “majors” – EURUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF and GBPUSD.
The most important Forex market is the spot market as it has the largest volume. The market is called the spot market because trades are settled immediately, or “on the spot”. In practice this means two banking days.
Forward Outrights
For forward outrights, settlement on the value date selected in the trade means that even though the trade itself is carried out immediately, there is a small interest rate calculation left. The interest rate differential doesn't usually affect trade considerations unless you plan on holding a position with a large differential for a long period of time. The interest rate differential varies according to the cross you are trading. On the USDCHF, for example, the interest rate differential is quite small, whereas the differential on NOKJPY is large. This is because if you trade e.g. NOKJPY, you get almost 7% (annual) interest in Norway and close to 0% in Japan. So, if you borrow money in Japan, to finance the trade and buying NOK, you have a positive interest rate differential. This differential has to be calculated and added to your account. You can have both a positive and a negative interest rate differential, so it may work for or against you when you make a trade.
Trading on Margin
Trading on margin means that you can buy and sell assets that represent more value than the capital in your account. Forex trading is usually conducted with relatively small margin deposits. This is useful since it permits investors to exploit currency exchange rate fluctuations which tend to be very small. A margin of 1.0% means you can trade up to USD 1,000,000 even though you only have USD 10,000 in your account. A margin of 1% corresponds to a 100:1 leverage (or “gearing”). (Because USD 10,000 is 1% of USD 1,000,000.) Using this much leverage enables you to make profits very quickly, but there is also a greater risk of incurring large losses and even being completely wiped out. Therefore, it is inadvisable to maximise your leveraging as the risks can be very high. For more information on the trading conditions of Saxo Bank, go to the Account Summary on your SaxoTrader and open the section entitled “Trading Conditions” found in the top right-hand corner of the Account Summary.
Why Trade Forex?
• 24 hour trading
One of the major advantages of trading Forex is the opportunity to trade 24 hours a day from Sunday evening (20:00 GMT) to Friday evening (22:00 GMT). This gives you a unique opportunity to react instantly to breaking news that is affecting the markets.
• Superior liquidity
The Forex market is so liquid that there are always buyers and sellers to trade with. The liquidity of this market, especially that of the major currencies, helps ensure price stability and narrow spreads. The liquidity comes mainly from banks that provide liquidity to investors, companies, institutions and other currency market players.
• No commissions
The fact that Forex is often traded without commissions makes it very attractive as an investment opportunity for investors who want to deal on a frequent basis.
Trading the “majors” is also cheaper than trading other cross because of the high level of liquidity. For more information on the trading conditions of Saxo Bank, go to the Account Summary on your SaxoTrader and open the section entitled “Trading Conditions” found in the top right-hand corner of the Account Summary.
• 100:1 Leverage
Leverage (gearing) enables you to hold a position worth up to 100 times more than your margin deposit. For example, a USD 10,000 deposit can command positions of up to USD 1,000,000 through leverage. You can leverage the first USD 25,000 of your investment up to 100 times and additional collateral up to 50 times.
• Profit potential in falling markets
Since the market is constantly moving, there are always trading opportunities, whether a currency is strengthening or weakening in relation to another currency. When you trade currencies, they literally work against each other. If the EURUSD declines, for example, it is because the US dollar gets stronger against the euro and vice versa. So, if you think the EURUSD will decline (that is, that the euro will weaken versus the dollar), you would sell EUR now and then later you buy euro back at a lower price. In case that the EURUSD indeed declines, then you can take your profit. The opposite trading scenario would occur if the EURUSD appreciates.
Important Forex Trading Terms
• Spread
The spread is the difference between the price that you can sell currency at (Bid) and the price you can buy currency at (Ask). The spread on majors is usually 3 pips under normal market conditions. For more information on the trading conditions at Saxo Bank, go to the Account Summary on your Client Station and open the section entitled “Trading Conditions” found in the top right-hand corner of the Account Summary.
• Pips
A pip is the smallest unit by which a cross price quote changes. When trading Forex you will often hear that there is a 3-pip spread when you trade the majors. This spread is revealed when you compare the bid and the ask price, for example EURUSD is quoted at a bid price of 0.9875 and an ask price of 0.9878. The difference is USD 0.0003, which is equal to 3 “pips”.
On a contract or position, the value of a pip can easily be calculated. You know that the EURUSD is quoted with four decimals, so all you have to do is cancel out the four zeros on the amount you trade and you will have the value of one pip. Thus, on a EURUSD 100,000 contract, one pip is USD 10. On a USDJPY 100,000 contract, one pip is equal to 1000 yen, because USDJPY is quoted with only two decimals.
In today's world, it seems that almost any topic is open for debate. While I was gathering facts for this article, I was quite surprised to find some of the issues I thought were settled are actually still being openly discussed.
AdSense is a wonderful advertising concept that was conceived by Google some time back. Though new advertising concepts keep coming up all the time, this one is something that is altogether different.
Now that we've covered those aspects of adsense, let's turn to some of the other factors that need to be considered.
AdSense (Google's advertising program) presents an earning opportunity to the website owners by allowing Google to post advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are either text advertisements or image based advertisements. Of course, the website owners need to enroll to the AdSense program through Google's website
Google AdSense program requires you (the website owner) to include a piece of code (a programming script) on your website. You can add this piece of code anywhere in the html code of your website i.e. depending on where you want to position the advertisements (however, there are certain rules that you must follow while pasting this scripting code).
This piece of code is what determines the structure of advertisements and their content (and this is what helps Google in floating the advertisements on your website). When people visit your website they are able to see these advertisements. Your earnings are based on how many Google Ads are displayed on your website and also based on how many times visitors to your website actually click on one of those Ads. The Google AdSense system calculates your revenue on per-click (CPC) and per-thousand-Ads-displayed (CPM) basis. The latter is also known as impressions.
For people who want to advertise their products and services through the Google AdSense system, it's just a matter of signing up through Google Adwords program and letting Google know how much they want to spend towards advertising through Google AdSense. These businesses can specify the limit and Google AdSense system will accordingly serve their Ads so as to ensure that the specified limit is not crossed. Google AdSense increases the visibility of their business/ services and also increases traffic to their website; hence fulfilling their purpose of advertising.
Sometimes it's tough to sort out all the details related to this subject, but I'm positive you'll have no trouble making sense of the information presented above.
google adsense
How to Add Google Advertisements (Google AdSense) to Your Blog or Website
by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com
On occasion, a visitor will write to me at thesitewizard.com asking how they can get Google advertisements to their website. While this may seem very obvious to those who have read my article on How to Make Money From Your Website or visited the list of free advertisers for web publishers on thefreecountry.com's Affiliate Programs: Free Sponsors and Advertisers page, I decided that an article explaining briefly the steps involved will probably be useful for a number of people.
What is Google AdSense?
Adsense is Google's advertising network that places those sponsored ads you see on many websites. Google automatically checks the web page it places the ads on and displays advertisements that are relevant to the page. This produces highly targeted adverts for the page, allowing, hopefully, higher returns for the advertiser, the advertising network (Google) and the publisher (you).
Before You Start
You must have an existing website before you apply to the Google AdSense program. If you don't already have one, read the The Beginner's A-Z Guide to Making Your Own Website to get started with your site first. The Google AdSense team reviews your site before accepting new applications, so you must first put up a working website and not just some "under construction" page. For example, if you are starting a personal blog, post a few articles about yourself or your experiences first.
Steps to Getting Google AdSense Ads on Your Site
1.Apply to Google
When your site is fully functional, apply to Google AdSense. You can find AdSense listed among other advertisers in thefreecountry.com's Affiliate Programs: Free Sponsors and Advertisers page.
Google will then send you an email to verify your email address. Follow the instructions in that message (which is basically to click a link). Once you do that, your application will be sent to the Google AdSense team, one of whom will pop by your website to review it. Don't hold your breadth though, it may take a couple of days before they get around to your site. During this time, if your site is a blog, continue to post to it as per normal.
2.Configure Your Ads
Once your account is approved, you can log into your account to get the necessary HTML code to paste into your blog or web page. The code can be found in the "AdSense Setup" tab. There are a number of options, but the code for the context-sensitive advertisements can be located under the "AdSense for Content" link. You'll be able to customize the appearance of the advertisements, choose between text advertisements, image ads or a mixture of both. Once you have finished configuring, you will be given some HTML code which you can cut and paste into your site.
There are other types of adverts beside the context-sensitve ads. "AdSense for Search" provides you with a Google search box that you can place on your site. When your visitors search through that box, and click an advertisement, it will be as though they had clicked an ad on your site. "Referrals" provide you with ads for specific products.
3.Pasting the Google AdSense Code onto Your Blog or Web Page
Make sure that when you insert the code into your site, you insert it as HTML. Instructions for doing this in different WYSIWYG web editors can be found here:
◦How to Insert Raw HTML Code in Dreamweaver
◦How to Insert Raw HTML Code in Nvu
◦How to Insert Raw HTML Code in KompoZer
If you run a blog, you may want to paste the code into your blog's template instead of individually stuffing it into every post you make. For blogs hosted on Blogger, one of the free blogging services listed on the Free Blog Hosts page, you can use my tutorial on How to Insert Google AdSense Advertisements in a Blogger Blog to help you insert your advert.
4.Entering Your PIN into the Google Site
When your earnings reach a certain amount (it was US $10 the last time I checked) for the first time, Google will send you a card by snail mail (ordinary paper mail) with a series of characters printed on it. You will need to log into your AdSense account and enter this series of characters, the PIN, before they will send you any payments. It takes a while before this card is sent (a few weeks after you reach the threshold amount they define, depending on where you live), so just wait for it. You will only have to do this once in the life of the account.
Cautionary Notes: Things to Look Out For
1.Never Click Your Own Google Ads
One of the things you must always remember is never click your own Google ads, even if it is to find out whether the site linked to is acceptable for your website's audience. Since (at this time) Google pays AdSense for Content ads according to the number of clicks, clicking your own ads is regarded as fraud, and will, at the very least, get you kicked out of the AdSense program.
Although Google doesn't say this, if you are showing off your blog or website to your family members, make sure they do not click any of your advertisements either. This is the case even if they are genuinely interested in the products advertised. They can always look for it by name in a search engine later if they wish, but for anyone living in your own household, any Google advert on your site is strictly off limits. The reason for this is that clicks from your household will look exactly like clicks from you.
2.Don't Expect a Fortune Unless You Have Traffic
Those who have read my article on How to Increase Your Website Revenue from Affiliate Programs will probably know that if you are just starting out with your site, you probably won't be able to make a fortune from your ads unless you have enough people visiting your website. This only comes after you have done some serious website promotion or advertising.
Be realistic: remember that even if someone clicks your ads, you may just get a cent or two from that click, assuming that Google doesn't discount that click for some reason. In addition, only a very miniscule percentage of your visitors will actually click ads. Put those factors together and you can roughly guess how much you are going to make if you only have a few visitors per day.
3.Don't Put Ads if You're Selling Something
If you can, try not to put Google AdSense ads or, in fact, any advertisements at all, if you are trying to sell a product or service on your website. There are a couple of reasons for this:
1.You may be inadvertantly advertising for your competitors. You cannot predict what sort of ads are going to pop up in the AdSense code for your site. What you see when you load your site may not necessarily be what your visitors see. If a competitor places an ad that Google finds relevant for your page (and it surely will, if Google's context-sensitive engine works correctly), then their ad will appear on your page. You may thus lose sales to that competitor as a result of the ads.
2.Ads distract your visitors from the real focus of your site. You want your users to read your sales copy, and not be clicking on links to go to some other site even if those links do not lead to your competitors.
Getting Started
If you already have a blog or a website, you can immediately apply to AdSense. If not, start your website now. These things take time to get into full swing, and you should not wait till you're desperately in need of money before starting.
What is Forex (Foreign Exchange)?
Foreign Exchange (FOREX) is the arena where a
nation's currency is exchanged for that of another. The foreign exchange market is the largest financial market in the world, with the equivalent of over $1.9 trillion changing hands daily; more than three times the aggregate amount of the US Equity and Treasury markets combined. Unlike other financial markets, the Forex market has no physical location and no central exchange (off-exchange). It operates through a global network of banks, corporations and individuals trading one currency for another. The lack of a physical exchange enables the Forex market to operate on a 24-hour basis, spanning from one zone to another in all the major financial centers.
Traditionally, retail investors' only means of gaining access to the foreign exchange market was through banks that transacted large amounts of currencies for commercial and investment purposes. Trading volume has increased rapidly over time, especially after exchange rates were allowed to float freely in 1971. Today, importers and exporters, international portfolio managers, multinational corporations, speculators, day traders, long-term holders and hedge funds all use the FOREX market to pay for goods and services, transact in financial assets or to reduce the risk of currency movements by hedging their exposure in other markets.
MG Financial, now operating in over 100 countries, serves all manner of clients, comprising speculators and strategic traders. Whether it’s day-traders looking for short-term gains, or fund managers wanting to hedge their non-US assets, MG's DealStation™ allows them to participate in FOREX trading by providing a combination of live quotes, Real-Time charts, and news and analysis that attracts traders with an orientation towards fundamental and/or technical analysis.
How to Get Started
People are introduced to the exciting world of foreign exchange in many ways: friends, current events, newspapers, television, and many others. For those of you who are new to forex, the following guidelines cover the basics of currency trading.
Step 1: "Practice makes perfect"
Demo trade. The demo account was designed to help traders gain familiarity with the speed and movements of the market. When you are demo trading, you should learn how to: 1) place market orders to enter a trade, 2) place stop-loss orders to protect your positions, and limit orders to take profits, 3) place OCO orders and If Done Orders to execute more advanced strategies
Step 2: "Study, Study, Study".
Forex traders use fundamental analysis, technical analysis, quantitative analysis and sometimes a combination of all three to make their trading decisions. Fundamental analysis involves the use of economic, financial and political news to determine trading decisions. Technical analysis involves the study of Charts to predict future price movements based on past price patterns and trends. Quantitative analysis consists of the use of preset statistical models and properties in quantifying price formations such as averages, retracements as well as identifying oversold and undersold situations.
In order to help novice and experienced traders alike, MG has developed www.forexnews.com, a leading site on foreign exchange analysis, news and education. Comprehensive previews and summaries updated 4 times per day, insightful editorials covering the latest market developments and an open forum for discussing trading tips and ideas, are just some of the many features of Forexnews.com and MG's commitment to educating and informing Forex participants.
Step 3: Manage your money wisely.
You should always be aware of the amount of money in your account before placing a trade. If you think a long-term trend is developing, then you should consider whether you have enough funds to maintain your margin and withstand any movements against your position(s) that may occur. We encourage everyone who opens an account with us to ask themselves the following questions prior to entering each trade:
1) How much am I willing to risk?
2) What is my upside and downside potential?
3) What are the market conditions? (Is the market volatile or calm?)
4) What is the logic behind entering this trade?
5) When can I conclude if the assumptions/logic behind the trade are/is correct or wrong?
Before entering an order, you should consider both your entry and exit points. One of the mistakes most commonly made by traders, especially new traders, is letting emotions get in the way of their strategy.
Step 4: Stay Connected:
It is impossible to follow the forex market 24 hours day, 7 days a week. For better management of your account, we encourage you to use our Wireless Service and alert!FX™.
Step 5: Open a Live Account.
If you feel ready to trade this market, fill out our application forms and submit them today. Since the emotional factor may be higher than it was when you were demo-trading (as you are now committing real money), it is essential that you develop an effective strategy while demo-trading and plan to abide by it when trading your live account.
We hope you enjoyFundamental Analysis
trading with us and wish you the best of luck!
The two primary approaches of analyzing currency markets are fundamental analysis and technical analysis. Fundamentals focus on financial and economic theories, as well as political developments to determine forces of supply and demand. Technicals look at price and volume data to determine if they are expected to continue into the future. Technical analysis can be further divided into 2 major forms: Quantitative Analysis: uses various statistical properties to help assess the extent of an overbought/oversold currency, Chartism: which uses lines and figures to identify recognizable trends and patterns in the formation of currency rates. One clear point of distinction between fundamentals and technicals is that fundamental analysis studies the causes of market movements, while technical analysis studies the effects of market movements.
Fundamental analysis comprises the examination of macroeconomic indicators, asset markets and political considerations when evaluating a nation’s currency in terms of another. Macroeconomic indicators include figures such as growth rates; as measured by Gross Domestic Product, interest rates, inflation, unemployment, money supply, foreign exchange reserves and productivity. Asset markets comprise stocks, bonds and real estate. Political considerations impact the level of confidence in a nation’s government, the climate of stability and level of certainty.
For basic Fundamental Analysis theories, as well as in-depth analysis of some of the recent forex market developments, please see "Foreign Exchange Markets: A Practical Guide", an innovative approach to covering FX fundamental and technical analysis.
These articles are designed to help traders understand the unique benefits of trading with DealStation. Articles contain hypothetical examples that have been created for illustration purposes only.
The opinion of the writer does not necessarily represent the view of MG and must be considered as an opinion and not fact.
Domain Name Basics: What, Why, and How
What's in a domain name? A lot more than you might think. Your domain name can be your first impression, your face to the outside world, and your new marketing plan. Learn more about what domain names are, why you should take the time to choose a good one for yourself, and how to go about it.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is an address for the Internet. It helps people find your web site. Just as homes and businesses have street addresses, all web sites have domain names. The Yahoo! domain name is yahoo.com.
A domain name is made up of two parts, typically preceded by www. Let's use yahoo.com as an example:
The first part, yahoo, is a unique name that represents the web site.
The second part, com, is the extension, and stands for "commercial." There are many extensions available, though .com, .net, .biz, .info, and .us are the most popular extensions in the United States.
Why is a good domain name important?
A good domain name helps you in numerous ways.
For Businesses
Add your domain name to your business card, email signature, and other advertisements.
Build credibility: Show your customers that you have an established business.
Improve your marketing: Provide customers an easy way to remember and contact you.
Protect your brand: Secure the domain name that best represents your business name — and keep it out of the hands of your competitors.
For Consumers
Describe your site as best you can with your domain name. For example, a pair of amateur magicians might use their stage names, some combination of words including magic, or the name of their most famous trick.
How do I choose a domain name?
Keep these tips in mind as you select your domain name.
Your domain name should reflect your business name or the topic your site will cover.
It should be a unique and concise name that is easy to say, remember, and spell.
You can use only letters, numbers, and hyphens in your domain name. Spaces or other symbols are not allowed.
If your first choice isn't available, try rearranging the word order, adding hyphens, or using abbreviations or locations to come up with a unique alternative.
Once you have a domain name, you need a web site! Luckily, you came to the right place. It's easy to add Yahoo! services that help you build a full web site or open an online store. Learn more...
How to Register my Domain Name
For more resources on domain names visit: http://www.thednforum.com If you have a web site, you should seriously consider registering your own domain name. A domain name is a name like "thednforum.com” which you can use to refer to your website. Note that you do not have to be a company or organisation to register a domain name. Any individual can do it too.
Importance of a Domain Name
There are a number of good reasons for having a domain name:
•
If you ever change your web host, your domain name goes with you. Your regular visitors or customers who knew your site name as www.thednforum.com (for example) would not have to be informed about a change of URL. They would simply type your domain name and they'd be brought to your new site. If you are a business, a domain name gives you credibility. Few people would be willing to do business with a company with a dubious URL like http://www.geocities.com/whatever/12345. If you get a domain name that describes your company's business or name, people can remember the name easily and can return to your site without having to consult their documents. In fact, if you get a good name that describes your product or service, you might even get people who were trying their luck by typing "www.yourproductname.com" in their browser. If you want good sponsors (advertisers) for your website, a domain name is usually helpful. It tends to give your website an aura of respectability.
•
•
•
Registration Overview
Getting a domain name involves registering the name you want with an organization called InterNIC through a domain name registrar. For example, if you choose a name like "mycompanyname.com", you will have to go to a registrar, pay a registration fee that ranges between US$10 to US$35 for that name. That will give you the right to the name for a year, and you will have to renew it annually for (usually) the same amount per annum. Some web hosts will register it and pay for the name for free (usually only the commercial web hosts), while others will do it for you but you'll have to foot the InterNIC fees. My personal preference is to register the name myself, so that I can be sure that I am registered as the owner, the administrative and technical contacts. Being the owner is vital - if someone else places himself as the owner (such as your web host), he can always decide to charge you for the use of the name later, and there is little you can do. The various contacts are less vital, but still play important roles. For example, the administrative contact's approval is required before a domain name is transferred out of a web host. If he/she cannot be contacted, the technical contact is used. Although many web hosts suggest that you put them as the technical contact, you may prefer to keep yourself as one, so that when you want to transfer your name to a new web host, you don't have to wait for your old host to approve the transfer (apparently some have been known to take some time to do this, while unscrupulous ones have actually refused to do it). Domain names disappear extremely fast. Many people claim that all the good domain names are gone. I doubt that - but it is probably true that most good domain names that are descriptive of products and services have been taken. If you want a domain name for your
site, I suggest you act now, or face the anguish of having lost that name later. After all, US$10 (more or less) for a year's ownership of the name is pretty cheap when you realize that you're cornering a good name for your website.
Step By Step Instructions
If you want to register a domain name, here's what you need to do. Please read it all before acting.
•
Think of a few good domain names that you'd like to use. It won't do to think of only one - it might already be taken (it probably is!). You can find some tips on choosing a good domain name at the article tips how to choose a good domain name. There's more to it than meets the eye. Obtain from your web host the DNS IP addresses and names of their primary and secondary nameservers. Don't worry if you don't understand what these things mean. Just save the information somewhere. The information can usually be obtained from their FAQs or other documentation on their site, usually under a category like "domain name" or "DNS" or "domain name transfer" and the like. If you can't find it, email their webmaster. If you don't have a web host yet, all is not lost. Read on. You will need either a credit card or a PayPal account to pay for the domain. This is a requirement of most if not all registrars. It will allow you to claim and get the domain name immediately on application. This is not an option (unfortunately). If you already have a web host, you can just go to one of the registrars listed below and apply for the domain name. Be sure you have the information mentioned earlier. If you do not have a web host, you can always use one of the registrars listed below that allow you to park your domain name at a temporary website specially set up for you. This way you can quickly secure your domain name before it's too late and still take your time to set up the other aspects of your site. Some of those registrars also provide you with a free email address at your own domain name, like postmaster@yourdomain.com.
•
•
• •
List of Domain Name Registrars
There are numerous domain name registrars. Listed below are just a few, along with my comments, if I know anything about them.
•
World's Largest Registrar - GoDaddy.com - This extremely popular registrar offers .com domain names for $9.99 (plus 20 cents) per year ($6.99 plus 20 cents if you transfer from another registrar). They have a web interface to manage your domains, free web redirection (where people who visit your domain will get transferred to another URL of your choice), free starter web page, free parked page or free "for sale" page, and an optional private domain registration where your domain is registered in the name of a proxy company. They offer .com, .us, .biz, .info, .net, .org, .ws, .name, .tv, .co.uk, .me.uk and .org.uk. Note that (as with all registrars) the exact price varies depending on which domain you are registering (for example some domain extensions are more expensive than others). Both credit card and PayPal payments are accepted. Dotster.com - This fairly popular registrar provides fairly cheap domain prices (US$15.25 plus 20 cents per domain), a convenient web interface to manage your domains, an optional privacy facility where your domain name is registered in the name of a proxy company, etc. They offer .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us, .ca, .tv, .name, .cc, .de, .sr, .md, .co.uk, .us.com domains, etc. If you're transferring a domain
•
here from other registrars, the price is even cheaper ($8.95). Both credit card and PayPal payments are accepted here.
•
Register.com - This domain name registrar has been in business for a very long time: they were one of the biggest around when I started my first websites. They are currently running an offer (only via the above link) where they charge $9.99 per year for a domain name with a free business email account. Although the offer will expire eventually, you can apparently continue to use the $9.99 price for the life of the domain as long as you stay with them. Domains qualifying for this offer include .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us and .info. If you need country-specific domains, which have different prices, you will have to go to their regular domain registration page instead. Moniker- This domain name registrar allows domain name registrations for a plethora of top level domains (TLD), including .com, .org, .net, .info, .mobi, .biz, .us, .co.uk, and so on (the full list is too long to include here). Prices for domain names differ, depending on the extension. For example, they charge $10.49 for .com, $6.04 for .net, $10.95 for .org, $5.49 for .info, etc. Their web interface allows you to manage matters pertaining to your domain, such as DNS, web forwarding (where you forward visitors to your domain to another URL of your choice), etc. You also have the option to add "Whois privacy", where your domain is registered in the name of a proxy company. Both credit card and PayPal payments are accepted by this registrar, although PayPal payments have a surcharge. 1&1 Internet - This is primarily a large web host that also provides domain name registrations. For .com, .org, .net, .info, .biz, .name domains, you are charged $6.99. They also offer .us domains for $2.99. The fee includes private domain registration, which means that your particulars are hidden from public view (done by registering the domain in the name of a proxy company). You also get a free email account, DNS management, domain forwarding and masking, and a starter website with each domain. Both credit card and PayPal payments are accepted by this registrar.
•
•
In addition, as mentioned earlier, a number of commercial web hosts will give you a free domain name if you are hosting with them.
Conclusion
Once you've decided, you should not procrastinate. I've lost more than one domain name by procrastinating (I lost the latest one by only one day). After all, at the price you're paying, it works out to be less than $1 a month. For more resources on domain names visit: http://www.thednforum.com