What can you do if you've caught the online marketing bug? Explore a URL.

Once upon a time, an online marketing bug was crawling beside a university campus.  A graduate student stumbled upon it and caught the online marketing bug.  She has been figuring out what to do with it ever since.

The online marketing bug can transform better than a caterpillar.

The student thought she'd bring the bug home, but to her dismay the bug refused to go home with her until she could tell the bug her home address...Or in other words, what the bug really wanted was a URL.

What is a URL?

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and is used to specify an address on the world wide web.  A URL can be made up of 4 parts:
1. Protocol identifier - an identifier for a type of protocol, for example, HTTP
2. Subdomain - a subset of a domain
3. Domain
4. Top Level Domain

What is a top level domain name?

It's a name that can be used by humans instead of using an IP address. There are 3 types of top level domains:
1. Infrastructure
2. Country Code
3. Generic

Can someone have the same URL as me?

No. URL's are governed by domain name registrars. You must choose one that has not already been chosen or has been chosen in the past, but is now available for use.

 

Does the domain name I choose have to be in English?

No. Domain names are no longer as easy as 'ABC'. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has made domain names in other languages and scripts available for selection and registration.

ICANN, which profits from domain registrations, opened up the registrations to include complex scripts in 2009. Since then, 47 country code top-level domains have been approved. That means that instead of “.com” or “.org,” newer websites can end with a label that is specific to a country and that uses non-Latin letters.

If the online world is global, how can I make sure that I'm not picking a domain name that may be offensive or misrepresent my intentions in another language?

You can try entering in the name you wish to select on the site http://wordsafety.com/ to see if there are any adverse foreign meanings.  This method is not guaranteed, but it's worth trying and may be better than trying to use Google Translate in a hit and miss approach.

Any last tips on picking a URL?

Use common sense. Write out your URL and read it aloud to see if you still like it or if you discover you need to make some adjustments so you don't end up with a similar URL fate as the companies in the video below.