The Softnik Blog

Domain Punch Professional: Quickly Access Registrar Management Interface

Many users of Domain Punch Professional are not aware that they can access the registrar's management interface with a single click from the software. Even I had forgotten about this and remembered it only because recently a customer asked a question about it!

This option is available under the "Edit > Domain Management Settings" menu. Remember to first highlight a domain in the list by clicking on it before choosing the menu option.

Some settings are required for this. But you need to do this only once (for each registrar).

• Registrar's account login URL
• Your login/user name
• The account password (stored in the local registry in an encrypted format)
• If the account page uses POST method
• The various POST variables used in the registrar's HTML account login form. You can find this by looking at the HTML source of the login page.

You can also specify your own data using the following variables. The software will automatically fill in the required information.

• {login}
• {password}
• {domain}

Here is an example settings for Tucows (opensrs)

URL

https://manage.opensrs.net/index

POST

Yes

Post Data

reg_domain={domain}
reg_username={login}
reg_password={password}
action=login

Domain Name Strategy - Finding the right names

It may appear as if all good domain names are taken. However, it is still possible to find and register reasonably good domain names.  Here are some good techniques for finding good domain names...

Domain Names By Combining Multiple Words

Create a collection of good "wordlets" that can be used to create domains. Examples include words like zone, pad, bay, and so on. Pad these to existing regular words to create new names. You can use a number of free or paid software products to create such domain names and automatically check if they are available. Please see converting keywords in a text file to domain names. You can use a software like Domain Name Analyzer to manage such wordlets and create domain names.

Domain Names From Current Trends, Magazine Headlines

You can get a lot of domain name ideas from reading newspapers and magazines. See some of the creative headlines and check if you can create domain names out of them. Make sure that these are not trademarked terms.

Domain Names From Coined terms

You can create good domain names by inventing new words. This is probably a good idea if you are planning to use it for a new product or as a business name. Again, make sure that the term is not a trademark.

What To Avoid While Registering Domain Names

Avoid domain names that are too long and have repeated alphabets, hyphens or numbers. Some people recommend domain names with multiple keywords in them because of search engine optimization reasons. However, a better long term strategy is to use good, pronounceable and brand-able domain names.

Internet Business Strategy - The brand and domain names

As you create and grow your Internet business you will often need to register new domain names.

You should ensure that you own the ".com" version of your brand name. Try and get the same name in other relevant TLDs like net, org, biz, info, etc and also in your local country code (.uk, .us, etc).

You should also keep a watch on emerging technologies and new domain extensions made available by ICANN (example? the Mobi TLD). ICANN does approve new domain extensions now and then. Keep a watch for this and do a defensive registration to ensure that you own the brand under the new domain extensions. Of course, you may not need to register your domain names in every ccTLD and TLD, just do what you think is best!

If you have different products, try and register the ".com" versions for the product names. You should also register domain names for products you plan to develop. It is always a good idea to registrar the domain name even if your plans are far into the future.

A Warning About Domain Name Availability Checks

Avoid searching for domain name availability at the registrar websites. There have been reports of certain registrars and websites monitoring searches and then blocking the domain name. It is safer to use a software like Domain Name Analyzer because it has an option to check for availability with minimum number of lookups and also use the registry whois servers. Since the software is run directly from your own computer, nothing is monitored or logged.

Go to the registrar website after you have decided the name to register and do the registration immediately. It is better to keep a credit balance in your domain name registrar account. This will ensure that your domain name registration is successful on the first try.

Domain Name Portfolio Management

Registering domain names is only the first part, you should make sure that you renew these domains on time. As already mentioned in the previous post, you could end up losing a good part your business if you forget to pay the $10 domain renewal fee!

Domain name portfolio management is a very important part of your Internet business. There have been posts on this subject before. So I will just link to them!

• Eleven Steps To Safeguard Your Domain Names
• Ever lost a domain name because you forgot to renew it?
• Our software products for domain name management

Domain Name Software Products - New Releases Coming Soon!

We are getting ready to release newer versions of our domain name products. These include Domain Punch Professional, Watch My Domains ISP and Professional and Domain Name Analyzer. These will be released in a phased manner during May, 2008.

The code-base for all the products have been fully re-written. Here is a screen shot of the new Domain Punch Professional v2.

Updates for Existing Customers

The new versions will be free for customers who purchased after 2007 January 1. Some more customers will be eligible for free upgrades based on some of the special deals we had offered in the past. Details will be announced after the products are released. Other customers can obtain upgrades at special prices.

Price Revision Coming Soon

We will be increasing the prices slightly (15-20%) after the new versions are released. So it might be a good idea to purchase the current versions now (at the current prices) and then get a free upgrade to the new versions.

New Features

We are not yet ready to announce all the new features. But it will include the ability to handle many more domains (even in the non-database versions). We have been able to use the new version of Domain Punch Professional with about 50,000 domains!

Some of the other new features include...

• Ability to add, rename and delete domain categories.
• Vastly improved interface.
• Ability to manually edit the data.
• Ability to check and monitor domain MX records.
• Create PDF reports from within the software.
• Easier whois setup and configuration.
• Data exportable to MySQL.
• and more...

New Software

We are also releasing a new software called Domain Strategy Studio. This will be integrated into the upcoming Internet Strategy Studio. More details will be announced soon.

How To Manage Redirections For Multiple Domains

Are you an affiliate marketer? You may have registered a large number of domain names and made them point to your affiliate URLs.

Do you sell your own products and services?  You may be redirecting many of your registered and unused domains to other web pages.

Do you remember all your domain names and where they point to? Are they all pointing to the right places? Are all the affiliate products you promote still alive?

In reality, it is very difficult to keep track of all these!

A previous blog post explained how you can easily redirect your domains to different web pages using a simple PHP script.  That script will allow you to quickly change any URL for any domain by simply editing a text file.

Once you setup multi-domain redirects you will need to monitor the domains at regular intervals. You can do this using Domain Punch professional or Watch My Domains ISP. These domain name management software products will allow you to add / import your domain names and then monitor various information including expiry dates, DNS (for the corresponding IP address), HTTP page status, PING status, etc.

The details are displayed in a  neat table (see screen shot below)

For each domain you can see the HTTP page status and the destination URL (if the domain is being redirected). There are other screens that show the registrar data, expiry dates, last modified dates, etc. These also support email alerts when the registrar status changes or if the website corresponding to a domain fails a ping test.

Recent Posts Related To Domain Name Management

• Support for the new .ASIA Domains
• Ever lost a domain name because you forgot to renew it?
• Eleven Steps To Safeguard Your Domain Names
• A simple PHP script to redirect multiple domains
• Filtering Large Domain Name Lists

Support for the new .ASIA Domains

The new ".ASIA" domains will go live very soon!

All our domain name software products available at DomainPunch.Com can be easily configured to support these new domains.

Here is the procedure...

1. Select the Edit > Top level Domain List from the menu.

2. Locate "ASIA" in the list of TLDs and click on it. If you are unable to locate "ASIA", you can add it to the list using the "Add" button after typing ASIA into the appropriate box.

3. Click Settings button

4. Specify the following settings

Whois Server: whois.nic.asia
Query Prefix:
Port: 43
Search Token: NOT FOUND

(The query prefix entry should be blank)

5. Now click "Whois Server Settings...", then "Advanced Setup...". In the drop down box select "Creation Date Tokens". Then type in the following into the box below.

Domain Create Date:

Press OK.

6. Now click "Whois Server Settings..." > "Advanced Setup..." > "Date Format". Select DD-MM as the format. Press OK.

The above is applicable to the following products,,,

• Domain Name Analyzer Pro v4
• Watch My Domains Pro v2
• Domain Punch Pro v1.0
• Watch My Domains ISP v2
• Domain Name Analyzer v4 (freeware)

Ever lost a domain name because you forgot to renew it?

Large numbers of domain names get deleted from various domain registries every day. Unfortunately a great many of them get deleted without actual registrants being aware of it! 

In many cases losing an active domain name is disastrous. All the work you have done so far in branding and promoting your website is lost. Links from other websites no longer work and all your search engine rankings are wasted.

If a domain name is deleted, it is very often snapped up immediately by domain name speculators using special software tools and services. Some of these domain names will then get pointed to other sites (including pornographic or hate sites) that can cause further damage to your brand.

If you are lucky you might be able to get your domain name back with minimal extra expenses. But in many cases this is not very easy. The difficulty in getting the domain name back from the new registrant is even more if your original site was popular. You will also end up wasting a lot of your time and resources negotiating safe return of your domain name.

It is indeed very easy to ensure that your domain names are renewed on time. Domain name portfolio management is very simple if you take a few precautions.

List all your domains

The first step in effective management of all your domain names is to make a list of all your important domain name assets.

Use a spreadsheet or even a simple text editor and just type in all your domain names, one per line. You can also use a software like Domain Punch Professional or Watch My Domains and enter the domain names directly into the software.

Every domain name has an associated domain name record that lists the person responsible for administering the domain name, the expiry dates, billing records, etc. All domain name registrars provide a web based management interface for managing the records associated with the domain. Below is the screen shot of a typical domain name management interface.

Make sure that you have access to the domain management interface for each of your domain names. This will be same if you always use the same registrar for all your domain names. However if your domain names are registered at different registrars you will have different administrative interfaces, login names and passwords.

You or some one else within your company must have access to the domain management interface at the registrar. This is because whoever has access to the management interface can easily modify the domain records. 

Tabulate the Domain Record Data

Now that you have a list of domain names and the corresponding domain records, tabulate the following data in the format below.

Domain Name, Admin Contact, Expiry Date, Registrar

It is better to use a spreadsheet for this. If you are using Domain Punch Professional or Watch My Domains, the software will do this automatically if you add all your domain names to the software and then issue a ‘lookup all’ command.

Check Admin Contact Emails

The administrative id is the most important contact information for any domain name. You need to ensure that you or some one responsible in your company has access to the administrative contact’s email address. The administrative contact has to approve any ownership or registrar changes for a domain. So if some one else controls this email address he or she can easily hijack your domain name.
So often administrative contact emails are not updated after the employee handling the domain name records leaves a company.  One simple solution is to use a role account email id like

dnsadmin@company.com instead of employee@company.com

Even if a third party (for example, your web hosting provider) manages your domain records, some one within your company should be the administrative contact. Otherwise it could turn out to be a big headache if you change the service provider.

Also check the billing contact email addresses. This will ensure that you receive all the domain renewal notices.

Renew domains on time

Make sure that all your domain names are renewed at least 30-60 days before the expiry dates. This should be easy once you have the spreadsheet data.

For extremely important domains consider renewing them for 5 or 10 years.  Setup the auto-renew option if your registrar supports it.

Eleven Steps To Safeguard Your Domain Names

• Make sure that you really have control over your domain names. You can use any Whois service to do this (use the network tool in IM Toolpad or any other software). Your name (or your organization name) and address should be listed as the domain name registrant. You also should have access to the administrative email contact for the domain. Some times the web hosting company will register the domain name for you but keep the administrative contact pointing to some one within their company. This should be avoided at any cost!

• Renew your domains on time. Make sure that all your domain names are renewed at least 30-60 days before the expiry dates. For extremely important domains consider a 5 or 10 year renewal. Some registrars allow you to specify an auto-renew option for domain names, take it if possible! You can use a software like Domain Punch Professional or Watch My Domains ISP (see screen shot below) to keep track of your domain name renewal dates.

• Lock Your Domain Names from being transferred and / or modified. You can do this from the domain name management interface of your domain registrar.

• Monitor the administrative emails for any messages that indicate some one is trying to modify or transfer domain names.

• Monitor the websites corresponding to your domain names to check if the domain names are being illegally redirected to other sites. Again you can use the Webpage Monitor tool in IM Toolpad to do this. It even allows you to take full length snap shots of your web pages.

• Keep all your passwords safe and difficult to guess. Remember that even your email passwords should be strong. Some one can gain access to your administrative contact email and then use it to obtain access to your domain name management interface.

• Make sure that all your domain contact information is accurate. ICANN agreement with domain registrars empowers them to take your domain name away if the contact information is inaccurate. It is very important that you respond to registrar’s inquiries regarding any inaccurate information in your domain records.

• Practice safe computing habits. You should never click on any links contained with emails that appear to come from your registrar. Actually it is not a good idea to click on any links contained within any unanticipated email because it is easy to create fake links that appear to point to the correct URL but point to another site. This is called phishing. Also, use a good anti-virus and spy-ware monitoring tool.

• Be careful about Spam Filters! Make sure that you receive all the emails from your domain registrar. Add their domain names to any Spam filter white lists.

• Avoid using any free email address (that could get suspended if you don’t use it often) as domain administrative contact. For example, Yahoo will suspend your email address if you don’t login for a specified period of time.

• Keep your email domain safe. If all your domain names use an administrative contact email on a specific domain (say, admin@mydomain.com) and you lose that domain you will be in very serious trouble. In such a case renew that domain for 10 years so that the chances of that domain expiring is remote.

A simple PHP script to redirect multiple domains

This post came about because of a recent customer query about redirecting domains to different URLs.

Here is the scenario...

You have a number of domain names all pointing to the same web hosting account. You need to redirect some of these domains to other web pages.

... and here is a very simple PHP based solution!

First create a text file containing the domain names and the URL you want each of these domains to redirect to. Here is an example...

-----------------------------------
keywordtools.com;http://www.goodkeywords.com/
domaincalendar.com;http://www.domainpunch.com/
clubsoftnik.com;http://www.softnik.com/club/
-----------------------------------

As you can see, each line contains a domain name and a URL separated by a ";".

Save it as redirect.txt (text file) and keep it in the web-root directory of your hosting account. Now Upload the following as index.php to the web-root directory.

-----------------------------------
<?php
$servername = $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"];
// Change the URL below to whatever you want!
$url = "http://www.softnik.info/parked.php";
$handle = fopen ("redirect.txt","r");
while ($data = fgetcsv ($handle, 1000, ";"))
{
        $num = count ($data);
        if($num == 2)
        {
                if(strstr($servername, $data[0]))
                {
                        $url = $data[1];
                        break;
                }
        }
}
fclose ($handle);
header("Location: " . $url);
?>
-----------------------------------

The above code simply opens the redirect.txt file and does the redirection based on the content. If the domain name is not listed in redirect.txt it redirects to the default URL. In the above code, the default URL is set to

http://www.softnik.info/parked.php

(you should change it to whatever you want).

Adding new domains into the mix is very easy. Just add a new line to redirect.txt!

If you want you can use an ".htaccess" entry to prevent the contents of redirect.txt from being viewed over the net. You can also rename it to some other name (remember to edit the php file).

Filtering Large Domain Name Lists

Did you know that you can use the built-in domain name filter in some of our domain name management software products (Domain Punch Professional and Watch My Domains ISP) to pick and choose exactly the domains you want?

The built-in domain name filter is available under the Domain List > Add Names After Filtering a List menu option.

Your domain name list should be available in a text file (comma, tab or newline separated).

To filter a domain list...

• Use the Add button to import your domain names from the text file.
• Use the various filters to select the names you don’t want. For example, if you don’t want names that start with a digit type in 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 into the box meant for filtering based on words at start and click the corresponding Go button. This will select all names that start with a digit. Now click the Delete Selected button to remove those names.
• The Group Selected button will group all the highlighted names at the top of the list.
• Strip TLDs button will remove all the TLDs from the domain names. Use this with caution. It is mainly meant for extracting only the domain names (without the TLDs).
• You can use the Invert button to invert the selection. This is useful when you use a filter to select names that you actually want to keep.
• Once you are happy with the final list of domains, use the Transfer All Names to Main List button to move the names to the main domain list.
• Click Close