Domaining Glossary

Address Bar The text box used to enter a website’s address in a web browser. The address bar allows Internet users to manually type in and specify the web sites they wish to visit on the Internet.

ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain) Each country has a unique two-character abbreviation which is appended at the end of the domain name (e.g. .us for US, .de for Germany, .uk for United Kingdom, .cm for Cameroon, etc). Some countries have sold the rights to their ccTLDs (e.g. Tuvalu and .tv). Here is an extensive list of all ccTLDs.

Click The action of an Internet user in selecting (“clicking on”) displayed Internet advertising.

CPA (Cost Per Action) An advertising campaign pricing model based on paying for direct results, as opposed to paying for a given number of impressions (CPM) or for a given number of visitors (CPC). Affiliate and referral programs are examples of CPA programs. When referring to banner ads, CPA is the cost the advertiser pays to site publisher each time a specific, visitor-initiated action occurs (e.g. the completion of a sale).

CPC (Cost Per Click) The cost to an advertiser for the number of times a particular link is clicked during a campaign, whether it is from PPC adverts or organic listings from SEO. When referring to banner ads, CPC is the cost (reward) advertiser pays to the site publisher each time a visitor clicks on the advertiser’s ad that leads to their web site. Also known as PPC or paid listings.

CPM (Cost Per Impression or Cost Per Thousand) Used in marketing as a benchmark to calculate the relative cost of an advertising campaign or an ad message in a given medium. Rather than an absolute cost, CPM estimates the cost per 1000 views of the ad. This technique is applied with web banners, text links, e-mails spam, and opt-in e-mail advertising, although opt-in e-mail advertising is more commonly charged on a Cost Per Action (CPA) basis. CPM and/or Flat rate advertising deals are sometimes preferred by the Publisher/Webmaster because they get paid every time an ad is shown.

CTR (Click-Through-Rate) The ratio of the number of clicks a particular advertisement receives on a website to the total number of viewers of that website.

Click-Through-Revenue Revenue generated by the clicks on “pay-per-click/cost-per-click” (PPC/CPC) advertisements.

Cybersquatting A term used to describe the practice of registering and reserving an Internet domain name for the purpose of future reselling to the rightful owner at an inflated price. Registering a trademark with this intent was made illegal in 1999.

Direct Navigation/Type-in Traffic A form of visitor’s intent-driven search that involves internet user navigating to a website directly through the website address bar, bypassing online search engines and navigating directly to the domain through organic search. Some industry reports reveal that direct navigation traffic converts into sales for advertisers at a rate twice that of search engines.

Domainer A term used to describe someone who buys and sells domain name registrations, often generating income through domain parking and/or website development, with the main purpose of generating revenue from advertising click through. Income is also generated through sales, advertising and affiliate commissions. Domainers are sometimes referred to as publishers, domain investors and commercial registrants.

Domaining The business of buying, selling, and developing domain names. It is also used to describe the practice of monetizing domain name registrations (e.g. through pay per click (PPC) or parking pages).

Domain Kiting A practice in which a registrant returns a name just before the five-day period expires and re-registers it again as soon as it becomes available.

Domain Monetization The business of purchasing domains and running advertising on a landing page to earn ad revenue from traffic. The traffic to these domains comes from a variety of sources: old bookmarks, people typing in the domain i.e. “direct navigation,” residual traffic from the previous web site or search engine results.

Domain Name A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. A domain name is made up of two components: a top level domain (TLD) and a secondary level domain. The top level domain is the suffix of the domain name such as .com, .net, .org. The secondary level domain is the portion preceding the top level doman. For example, the domain name oversee.net is made up of the TLD “.net” and the secondary level domain “oversee.”

DNS (Domain Name System) The system used to translate alphanumeric domain names into Internet Protocol numbers.

Domain Parking An advertising practice used primarily by domain name registrars and internet advertising publishers to monetize type-in traffic visiting an under-developed domain name. The domain name will usually resolve to a page containing relevant advertising listings and links that are targeted to the predicted interests of the visitor. Some major domain monetization and parking companies are DomainSponsor and Sedo.

Domain Registration The act of registering a domain name. A domain name can only be registered by one entity and domain names are registered on a first-come first-served basis.

Domain Tasting Is a practice of registrants using the free five-day “grace period” at the beginning of a domain registration for ICANN-regulated generic top-level domains to test the marketability of a domain name.

Drop-catching The process of using automated systems to register expired domains within a fraction of a second of their being cancelled by the registry.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Headquartered in Marina Del Rey, California, ICANN is a non-profit corporation that was created on September 18, 1998 in order to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly on behalf of the U.S. Government by other organizations, notably IANA. The tasks of ICANN include managing the assignment of domain names and IP addresses.

IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) An Internet domain name that uses recently adopted standards by the ICANN that modify the existing DNS protocols and standards to support multiple languages and scripts (the so called non-ASCII characters).

Landers The pages where parked domains are redirected to. Landers are populated with relevant advertising listings and links that are targeted to the predicted interests of the visitor.

Masked Redirection/Framed Forwarding/Stealth When an Internet user attempts to access a website by typing the domain name into a Web browser, the user will be redirected to a different Web address without authorization or permission and the URL in a Web browser’s address bar remains the one that was typed in when the visitor is being redirected. That way, the actual destination address is concealed from the user who only sees the domain name the user typed in.

Non-content advertising An Internet webpage consisting solely of Internet advertising links and lacking any substantive content.

PPC (Pay Per Click; also known as CPC) An advertising technique used on websites, especially search engines. PPC advertisements are usually text ads placed near search results; when a site visitor clicks on the advertisement, the advertiser is charged a small amount. Variants include pay for placement and pay for ranking. The highest ranking goes to the highest bidder.

Primary Market (Registrars) Refers to the market for unregistered domains. The primary market includes ICANN-accredited registrars.

Publisher The owner of a domain name. See also domainer.

Registrant A person or business that registers a domain name via a Registrar.

Registrar The company that has a direct relationship with the domain name registries and is authorized to sell domain names to Registrants. Registrars become accredited via an ICANN process in which they meet both business and technical requirements.

Secondary Market/Aftermarket Refers to the market for already registered domains, which are available for sale by the current registrant. The registrant may use a third party site such as SnapNames (division of Oversee.net) or Afternic (acquired by NameMedia) to list and broker the sale by means of an auction or list price.

TLD (Top Level Domain) The last part of an Internet domain name (such as .com, .net, .us, etc.) that appears furthest to the right. There are three types of TLDs: country code top-level domains (ccTLD), generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) and infrastructure Top Level Domains (iTLD) giving a range of suffixes. A full list of currently existing TLDs can be found here.

Typosquatting A practice that relies on mistakes such as typographical errors made by Internet users when inputting a website address into a web browser.

Semantic Technology Analyzes text input by a user to assess the probable intent of the user.

SLDs (Second Level Domains) The portion of the Uniform Resource Locator that identifies the specific and unique administrative owner associated with an Internet Protocol number. For example, in www.domainsponsor.com, “domainsponsor” is the second level domain.

Web/Internet Traffic The flow of data and users around the Internet and web.

WHOIS Listing (Domain Name “White Pages”) A TCP-based query/response protocol which is widely used for querying a database in order to determine the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the Internet.

WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) Headquartered in Geneva, WIPO currently has 184 member states and administers 23 international treaties. It was created in 1967 with the stated purpose “to encourage creative activity, [and] to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world”. Since 1999, WIPO oversees major part of domain name disputes.