Key Practices in Getting a Premium Free Domain Name

In Today's online reality - having a killer domain name for your site is a must have. People remember your domain and associate it with your website and with time it becomes your own brand.
Domains give the visitors a first impression of your website and brand. It is the first thing they see on the search results and it is the first item of data shown by the browser when you visit a website (it shows on the top URL address bar before the site loads).

For this reason, we believe that having an easy and fun to remember domain is one of the most basic marketing steps you should make.
If you're on a low-budget or just starting out - you don't have to spend a lot of money on a new cool domain name. Today, many services offer free domain names which are just as good and powerful as full paid Domains.

These free domain services are usually giving out a sub domain of their main domain name. Google (and other search engines) treat subdomains as if they are a real stand-alone domain name. This means you can get a free sub domain, use it, and enjoy the benefits of having a real stand-alone domain without spending a dime on buying it.

So what are the key practices in getting your own free domain?
First - make sure you get the domain at a serious free domain name provider. There are many out there and making sure you use someone who is stable and reliable is important. How do you know that? Well - first check the main domain itself - if it is short (hence less than 3 letters long) it means the owning company spent a lot of money buying it, hence they must be serious about it. Also, see the site statistics, read about the site, ensure they have a proper terms of use and privacy policy in place and read through them to ensure a serious company stands behind the service.

Second - try to get the shortest possible domain name. As a rule of thumb - the shorter the better. Why? Because people find shorter names cooler and easier to remember. Some providers can give you a sub domain of two and even one letter main domain - that means that if you add your own subdomain to it you can end up with a very short and cool domain name.
Third - Some of the providers our there supply additional free services with their domain names. Some will give you free email, others will give out free hosted DNS (good for hosting your site on your own server or even making your own name servers). Try to find a free domain name provider which will give you as many services as possible (providing you need them of course).
Last - check and re-check the terms when you order. Most providers really do give out a free domain but some tend to make it free on a "trial" basis (forcing you to pay for it when it's over). Make sure the provider you choose really does give it for free with no strings attached.

To summarize: there are many good free site name providers out there. As you are starting a site and as you want it to be stable and grow - you should spend time researching the domain you choose and the provider you pick for providing it. Spending even 15 minutes of time on doing basic checks before you decide might save you a lot of issues and pain later down the road. We hope that the short thumb rules and key points we provided will help you decide and choose wisely.

Gilad Ariav is a well known online marketer and development expert. In writing this article Gilad utilized an interview with the creators of http://r.gd (a free domain name provider) and compare today's supplied free domain services in an effort to bring the best practices to his readers.