Article

Securing Your Domain

By Cinnamon Roberts, President
ArizonaCommunity.com

Many local internet services providers are more than willing to offer non-profit organizations server space for a web site. You should not take this option and purchase your own domain name even if you have to utilize another web site server.

Some Facts:

• Many directories are reluctant to include sub-directory domains that are unrelated to the domain. For example, if your organization is going to have a web site listed with a local newspaper, your url may be something like: http://nameofpaper.com/nameoforg. Several search engines will not list your web site since they are programmed to categorize sub-domains as "start-up" web sites which will probably be off the web in a short period of time.
• Domain names for web sites are available for as little as $15.00 per year enabling the smallest non-profit organizations to own their own domain.
• There are many servers offering free web site space to be used with or without your own domain name. We highly recommend Virtual Avenue.

Selecting Your Domain Name

Before you make your selection, take a moment to think what you want your domain to say about your organization. The most obvious choice in domain name selection is the official name of your organization. In some cases, this is not advised since many organizations have long names that could be easily misspelled and just using the acronym might not say anything about your mission. So what do you do? An easy question to answer is "What would you like visitors to think about when they find your site on a search engine, link, or sent by a friend?" Think of some keywords that define your organization. You can add your location if services are regional.

Another option is to cooperatively buy a domain. For instance, if you are involved within a network of organizations assisting the homeless, you could ban together with something like homelesscharities.org, and set up sub-domains or directories for each organization.

There are many web sites geared to assist in the selection of domain names. Some of our recommendations are:

• LinkBoy.com
• NameU.com

Before You Purchase Your Domain...

If you are a grassroots effort and/or are an organization without a copyright to your name, ensure that your domain name does not infringe upon an existing copyright.

Assistive Links...

Domain Name Registration:
Electronic Communications Unlimited: Domain names are currently $15.00 per year and $10.00 per year for annual registration. They provide an easy web interface for managing your domain, have good customer support, and assist charitable causes.

Free Web Site Hosting:
We recommend Virtual Avenue. Hosting is free for up to 25 megabytes of space and Perl is supplied for cgi scripts. Their customer service is incredible as is their online documentation. Furthermore, they will allow you to set up unlimited mail through everyone.net!