Domain name growth 1992 – 2003 March 2003, updated December 2003 By Clare Lawrence CEO Discount Domains Ltd

Domain name growth is starting to recover, but we are a long way from rapid growth we saw in 1998 –2000.

I am confident that market for domain names will move back into a growth phase in next two or three years time, its true that dot com boom was a “bubble”, but we are now seeing a maturing in market with more businesses recognising value of web as an additional sales channel.

Domain names sales have been weighted towards North American and European markets, but I predict that sales of domains outside this market will be driver in longer term, particularly as Eastern Europe and far eastern markets recover. India and China are certain to grow strongly in not too distant future.

The introduction of new .eu domain name for European Union will also be very interesting, as this is likely to give European domain market a boost.

Domain name registration services such as our own, offering both good value and helpful service will benefit most. Customers don’t want to over pay for their domain name , they are however prepared to pay for support and recognise that a reasonable fee means registrar is likely to be around in 5 years time.

Selling domain names and web hosting is rewarding, particularly when your helping smaller business customer who are often less familiar with process.

If your looking for help and advice - get in touch. We would be delighted to help you add your domain to following table!

The following shows number of .com registered growth against time

Date .com

By Clare Lawrence 3rd November 2003 Clare is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd a leading UK Domain name registration service.

Before buying your domain name, give some thought to followng:-

1) If possible use your sites name as basis of your domain name e.g www.discountdomainsuk.com for Discount Domains UK. This might seem common sense but not every site follows convention. If you use your name in your URL it will be much easier for your customers to find you.

2) Generic names – if you can register a generic domain such as toys.com that’s great, but most of these have already gone. Also getting ranked in search engines is likely to be harder. Selected a domain closer to your market segment will cut down competition. E.g toyplanes.com

3) Hyphenated Names – Its easy to forget hyphen! Which is problem, particularly if your customer remembers your name but not your URL. Though on a positive note hyphenated names are less likely to be registered already.