Domain Forwarding

A Very Cool Technique for Your Website

What is Domain Forwarding?

Domain forwarding has got to be one of the coolest things you can do for your website. It is basically the process by which one Uniform Resource Locator ("URL" - the www address of your website) is redirected to another.

I like it because the simple strategy can be used to serve many different purposes. And the best part is that you don’t need a special software. Everything is a very simple and painless one-time manual process.

Multiple Domain Names Pointing to One

If you have an eCommerce website that sells multiple products, you may have multiple domain names customized for each product and have it pointed to one main website. So say you might be selling toys and clothes for kids on your website.

You may decide to purchase the following domain names: "www.toys-for-kids-on-my-site.com" and "www.clothes-for-kids-on-my-site.com". Then you might forward both domain names to your main site "www.on-my-site.com".

Or let’s say you simply want more domains for the single product you sell online. You can arrange it such way that every domain name sends the visitor to you main website.

For example, if you own "www.your-website.com", you may also consider "www.your-website.net", "www.your-website.org", "www.your-website.us", "www.your-website.eu" and the list goes on.

Forwarding allows a visitor to land on your main webpage regardless of what extension they type.

Own Your Own Professional URL & eMail Address

If you currently only have a free provider’s email address (Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, etc.), owning a domain name will allow you to register email addresses with your domain name as an extension. So for example you own the domain name "www.your-website.com", you may set up an email address that reads "you@your-website.com".

A lot of times your domain registrar (who you go through to register your domain) will provide the email service free if you were to subscribe to their hosting plan. GoDaddy provides these services.

Domain forwarding is also very useful for those of you that have existing websites that are hosted with free service providers and you’d rather have a URL address that is more customized and professional looking for your purposes. My favorite use of domain forwarding is making a long-winded domain name short.

I am sure you must have a Facebook account? Or a Friendster or MySpace account? Have you ever noticed how long and ugly the URL is to your webpage? Take a minute and log on real quick and notice the address on your browser. Do you think anyone can remember to type that to get to your webpage?

By choosing your own domain name and having it forward the visitor to your personal webpage on say MySpace, your visitors will be able to find you easier and faster. You are in control of how long or short you want to make your domain name, or how catchy you want to make it for others to remember.

In fact, you can heavily market and advertise your own domain name and turn it into its own popular entity. You will still have to deal with the nonsense that free hosting providers throw at you such as unwanted banner ads and pop ups.

The only way to avoid that is by avoiding a free host. However, by having your own domain name forwarded to your website you will maintain a more prestigious presence that your counterparts who’s websites are on the same free host provider.

Click here for a quick article on how to make money from your social networking accounts like MySpace.

You Have Moved

You may consider putting your current website on hold and jumping into a new venture online, or for whatever reason leave your current website for a newer one. Consider forwarding your existing domain to your new domain immediately.

By doing so you will move all your existing traffic to your new website. All that hard work you put in establishing a loyal traffic should not go to waste. If they liked your initial website, chances are they will at least consider your latest one.

Free Domain Name Forwarding

How much does it cost to forward a domain name? Absolutely nothing! Domain forwarding used to cost around 20 bucks per year but is offered for free quite commonly today.

In fact if you register with GoDaddy your forwarding options will be provided free of charge. You may keep forwarding active for as long as you own your domain name. Even if you already have a domain name but your provider charges you for forwarding, consider transfering your name to GoDaddy.

All you have to do afterwards is sign-up for domain forwarding . The process is absolutely painless and can be summarized as follows:

1. Register your domain name.
2. If you already have a domain, transfer it to GoDaddy.
3. Forward your Domain.
4. If you already have a Domain with GoDaddy, forward it now.

Regardless of your reasons to forward domain names, I recommend that you mask your domain name. Masking is a free option and simply means that your selected domain name is the main URL that appears on the visitor’s web browser.

For example, you have a Friendster page whose URL reads "www.friendster.com/you/@somehostoutthere/234.4343.html", and you register the domain name "www.your-website.com", a visitor that types in "www.your-website.com" will see only this address in their web browser despite your actual Friendster page having a long and complicated URL address.

Can you see how this can be extremely helpful if you are advertising for a business? Your domain name is not only shorter, but it is easier to remember and you are building your own brand the more your page is exposed.

The goal of this discussion is to explain domain forwarding and its various usages and benefits. I hope you are comfortable with the information provided here and use it to your advantage. eMail Me your thoughts and feedback regarding this discussion and let me know if I can include more information pertaining to this topic.