Registering an Internet domain: things to know before you start

When you decide to register an Internet domain and have to choose its name, firstly bear in mind the website’s purpose and the practices you must avoid by law. Let’s break down the do’s and don’ts of web domains.

Why register an Internet domain?

There are two big reasons why people decide to buy and register Internet domains. The first is to promote their business, whether a company or a freelance business. In this case, you can only consider keeping the domain in the long term or leave open the possibility of one day reselling it in the most profitable way possible.

The second reason may instead be to resell it or profit from it somehow.

Let’s, therefore, consider the possibilities before choosing a domain name to register.

1. The Top Level Domain (TLD)

The issuance of new top-level domains (TLDs) occurs periodically and continues to this day: whatever the purpose of your domain, you should look out for it to seize the best opportunities.

Today, there are more than 1500 TLDs, and when choosing one, you need to consider both its meaning and the availability of domain names for each.

For example, it would be unfortunate and unprofitable to dedicate the domain ‘travel.pizza’ to an Asian travel agency. On the other hand, the issuance of the .pizza TLD in 2013 allowed some people to obtain very convenient and coveted domain names in their sector.

If the choice of name is geared towards profiting from the domain itself, there is also the possibility of entering the NFT domain market and attempting to make money by creating your own original TLD. In contrast to the traditional system, the Web3 system is not dependent on ICANN and also allows greater freedom in managing top-level domains. This is particularly the case with Freename, an NFT domain service with which it is also possible to receive royalties from one’s registered TLD.

2. Dropcatching and warehousing

Ownership of Internet domains is subject to payment of a subscription, which lapses if not renewed. On expiry, anyone could register the domain as their own, a practice called domain sniping or drop catching. This is a risk for those who want to retain ownership of the site and continue their business, so the subscription must be carefully managed, perhaps through an automated renewal functionality.

On the other hand, it can be an opportunity for those looking for an unavailable name. In this case, drop-catching can be done independently by monitoring the market for drops. Alternatively, there are back-ordering services—you can get on their waiting lists to buy a domain when it drops back on the market.

Registrars, however, often do not return expired domains to the public: they take ownership of them, turning them into ‘premium domains‘. They may keep them for their own purposes or organise auctions for resale. This activity, called domain warehousing, is not considered illegal by ICANN, but the public may consider it unfair as it restricts access to domain names.

3. Domain parking

This strategy consists of profiting from an unused site by placing advertisements on it and thus earning money through clicks on the ads. 

If, for instance, you want to register an Internet domain in advance to seize an opportunity, but you already know that your website will be empty for a while, you can consider optimising the name for domain parking as well. 

Creating consistency between the site’s name, ads, and future content could be advantageous in this respect. The major registrars’ services also usually facilitate this.

4. Domain flipping or tasting

Domain flipping is the practice of registering Internet domains cheaply and then reselling them at much higher prices. One technique to test profitability in this respect is to take advantage of the 5-day grace period granted by ICANN. After this time, if the domain does not acquire an attractive price or is not purchased, a full refund of the registration can be obtained. This is called domain tasting.

The search volumes for some very common words, such as ‘business’, ‘sport’, and ‘weather’, make such names particularly in demand and, therefore, expensive. Being words that are highly sought after by Internet users, they guarantee many visits and thus profit from both domain parking and the use of the site for the marketing of a product or service.

These practices are usually of interest to those who make domain buying and selling their full-time job since the market is very competitive today. However, it is useful for everyone to know that their domain may be the object of interest for these web traders and that they may use both licit and illicit means to exploit its potential. This is precisely what we discuss in the next section.

Registering an Internet domain safely

Even before the dotcom bubble, speculation on web domains spread unbridled, given the absence of regulation. Registration was open to all without a check on trademarks or homonymy, and competition was scarce. However, the first measure against fraudulent practices soon came: ICANN issued the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) in 1999 to limit precisely the counterfeiting of domains, which at the time was the rule rather than the exception.

Since then, these practices became prosecutable: it is illegal to register a name that is the same as a registered trade mark, or that can be confused with it, in order to profit from its popularity. In other words, there is a ban on cybersquatting.

There are several cybersquatting techniques: the first is typosquatting, i.e. registering an Internet domain by replacing or reversing the order of a name’s letters. Typos on the Internet, in fact, are frequent and could be exploited to perpetrate online scams (more on this in the article on Social Engineering).

For example, registering the name wiikpedia.com would be typosquatting because it is intentionally similar to Wikipedia and generated by inverting the letters i and k.

Name hijacking, on the other hand, occurs when a fraudulent actor takes control of a domain’s management and changes its registration to their own name. This is why it is essential to choose and comply with registrars with stringent security regulations.

The practice of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking or RDNH is even more devious: it is a kind of identity theft aimed at pretending to be the real owners of a trade mark and attempting to ‘claim’ a domain as their own in bad faith.

How can you protect yourself against these cybersquatting attempts? Some companies buy up all possible typos of their domains to prevent malicious attackers from doing so, however, the variables can be very numerous and require a substantial investment, as well as new typos unpredictably returning to the market. This is also a possibility that can be taken into account by companies’ cybersecurity systems, which can also implement machine learning to anticipate typosquatting or name hijacking attempts.

Let’s summarise. Before choosing an Internet domain, it is good to check these aspects:

If, after this analysis, you find that registering an Internet domain does not interest or suit you, consider the alternative of NFT domains, which offer a whole new market.