"Should my domain name contain my company name?"
Not necessarily. Always remember that small is beautiful when it comes to domain names. For example the business "Floral Tributes & Bouquets" might be tempted to register a website address like www.floraltributesandbouquets.com.au However an address like this is going to cause its owner heaps of grief. Here's why.

Most users of the internet are poor typists. If they make a single error typing that difficult address they'll end up with an error page and figure the site no longer exists. Next consider the difficulties of inserting that website address into your business cards, letterheads, Yellow Pages listing and media advertisements. Finally think about the problems of giving someone your website address by word of mouth on the phone or in a face to face situation. Most people are terrible spellers. Imagine spelling it out for them and then checking it off again letter by letter over the phone! How many times per week would you like to do that??

Ok, here's what we recommend. You need a name which is both short and relevant. Your web address is not supposed to be a sales story any more than is the case of your business phone number. Keep in mind, "short is beautiful".

So for the business mentioned in the first paragraph we would suggest a domain name such as
www.floral.com.au  or  www.bouquets.biz  or  www.flora.net  or perhaps  www.flowers.info  if any of these happened to be available (unlikely in this case). We offer this merely an example of the general principles which should guide your choice of domain name. Short is best in the vast majority of situations.

"What does it cost to register a domain name?"
Registration of a typical domain name will cost you approx $40 to $60 Australian dollars per year plus GST if applicable. And that includes our management of DNS and ongoing renewals as well.   Some domain names are renewable each year whilst others have a two year renewal cycle. However the costs are very similar in annual terms. We take care of the registration and all the other technical matters on your behalf. Just give us a call.

"Is it best to go for dot com name or something else?"
Well our view is that names with extensions of  .com or .net or .biz or .info have the advantage of being shorter than many other alternatives. That is a good and helpful thing. Small addresses are definitely good addresses. Many of our clients prefer .com.au addresses to emphasise Australian origins. Regardless of which you choose, Nambucca Graphics are Authorised Resellers for the registration of these domain names on your behalf.

"Can I have multiple domain names for a single website?"
Yes you can. Say your main website address is www.electrix.com.au  and to prevent anyone else using a similar address you also registered www.electrix.com as well as www.electrix.biz. We can help you use those extra names to good advantage by "pointing" them all at your main website. This means that if someone tried to reach www.electrix.com they would automatically arrive at www.electrix.com . This is also useful in those cases where people can remember the main part of your address but are not sure of the correct ending suffix.

This same facility can sometimes be used to save significant expense by having two separate businesses with separate addresses sharing the same web space and website hosting costs.

Note that it is not possible to "point" extra domain names at your portion of a website if the main name is owned by someone else. You must be the legal registrant of both the pointer name and the target name. Give us a call if you require clarification so we can relate all this to your own  specific needs.

"Can I have a website address without paying for a domain name?"
Yes you can. We have many clients who get free use of addresses we can provide. For many small organisations this may be a perfectly satisfactory solution. Let's use the same Florist business mentioned earlier on this page as an example. We could have given them a free website address from our own resources. The address could have been www.ozpal.com/floral if satisfactory to our client. It's a little less perfect but still quite short and practical. These "sub addresses" are often ideal solutions for very tiny businesses or non profit organisations.

"What's the procedure if I want to cancel a domain name?"
For various safety and technical reasons we automatically renew our clients' domain name registrations some weeks before their anniversary. For that reason it is important for you to notify us of a cancellation at least 6 weeks before the anniversary to avoid the renewal fee.