Idn - International Domain Names by Adam Dicker
What is an IDN?
IDN stands for Internationalized Domain Name, also known as multilingual domain
names. It allows you the possibility to use more characters in domains names,
besides letters and numbers. It uses characters available in other alphabets,
like accents.
Example of IDN domains:
Chinese IDN - 毒瘤.com which means cancer If you go to
毒瘤.com you will see the domain is targeted towards cancer but in
English.
Romanian IDN - divorţ.com you will see the domain is targeted towards
divorce but in English.
Polish IDN - pieniądz.com you will see the domain is targeted towards
money/currency but in English.
Greek IDN - βίβλοσ.com you will see the domain is
targeted bible/books but in English.
.cn with Chinese results: 例子.cn you will see the domain is
samples but in Chinese.
Al these are targeted through
http://parkingsite.com
and take 5 days to target once a keyword is given.
What browsers support IDN names today?
Only the latest version of Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 support IDN Names
directly entered into the browser.
IE6 and earlier versions will not support IDN's.
What TLD's or ccTLD's support IDN?
First of all what I am saying with that question is what extensions can be
registered like and IDN. Can I register毒瘤.com?
毒瘤.net? 毒瘤.org? 毒瘤.cn?
毒瘤.jp? and what others can I register.
Here is a list of the ones that I have registered:
.com .net .tv .cc .jp = Japan .cn = China .de = Germany .gr = Greece .tw =
Taiwan
Do all Registrars support IDN registrations?
No, as of writing this Enom does and so does Domainsite. There are others that
do but mot d not. Please check with your registrar BEFORE you register any or
you will get stuck with a long name that has no value whosoever.
What IDN's should you register?
You should use the same principles that you have learnt while registering
English domain names. Go after the higher paying ppc terms first. Make sure if
there are more than one way to say a word in any language that you get them all
as you never know which ones will have the most traffic. I have registered
quite a few dual meaning words and it's never the one I think that has the most
traffic.
女孩儿 ; 姑娘 ; 女孩子 all mean
girl with slight variations in Chinese. In this case and such a major term,
unless you speak the language, grab them all.
Google results for all of them: 女孩儿 - 1,870,000 results in
Google 姑娘 - 4,460,000 results in Google 女孩子
- 2,840,000 results in Google
Most IDN's with Google over 1 million will have some traffic unless you get
ridiculous generic terms like 'the' which have no value whatsoever.
Also, as with English domains, dig a bit deeper. If loans is taken in the
language you want go for things like home loans, car loans, boat loans and so
on.
How to find and register IDN's?
There are many ways to find and register IDN domain names. The best way is
obviously if you speak the language but even then you must be careful. Just
like in English some common words will not actually be used and a short form
may be used. In English most people know the word automobile but rarely would
use it. Most would use the word car.
This can be illustrated by the two overture scores:
1572 http://automobile.com
18016 http://car.com
Now this does not mean automobile is not a good IDN to register, it just means
go after the one that is more likely to be typed in a browser.
Now if you don't know anyone that speaks a language you are going after, your
only choice is to use a good translator software, I suggest you use logos.it
When you enter a word it gives you results in multiple languages at one time
and makes it really easy to get a keyword in multiple languages.
For example when you search for the word insurance you get:
English insurance
Italian assicurazione
Spanish seguro ; aseguracin
French assurance
German Versicherung
Russian cтрахование
Arabic تأمين ; ضمان ;
كفالة
Albanian sigurim
Asturian seguru
Basque aseguru
Bolognese asicurazin
Brazilian Portuguese seguro
Breton asuras
Catalan assegurana
Danish forsikring
Dutch verzekering
Esperanto certigo
Finnish vakuutus
Flemish verzekering
Furlan sigurance
Galician seguro
Gujarati વીમો
Hebrew ביטוח
Hindi बीमा
Hungarian biztosts
Indonesian asuransi
Irish rachas
Japanese 保険
Marathi विमा
Norwegian forsikring
Piemontese assicurassion
Polish ubezpieczenie
Portuguese seguro
Punjabi ਬੀਮਾ Romagnolo assicuraziun
Romanian asigurare
Sanskrit क्षेमकरणं
Serbian осигурање
Slovak poistenie
Swedish frskring
Turkish sigorta ; sigortalama
Ukrainian
страхування
Valencian segur
Venetian assicurassion
Welsh yswiriant
I have found that just like domains, the one I think will get the most traffic,
surprisingly won't, but the languages I have never heard of get some traffic.
Now let's see how you go about registering IDN names:
Let's go to logos.it and look up the Russian word for weasel as an example which
is ласка, so now I go download the IDN Domain
Conversion Tool then open it up and paste ласка
into the space unde the heading IDN Domains and hit the ok button. You will get
a code called a PUNY code which is: xn--80aa3ac5a , then take that and add a
.com on it and you will end up with this http://xn--80aa3ac5a.com.
Now check a whois or try to register http://xn--80aa3ac5a.com
and see if you get it. To keep it organized and try to keep my domains in one
place I register most of my IDN's at Enom. There are other choices if you like.
You can take the actual ID code and go to and type in the IDN and it will tell
you if it's available without doing the PUNY conversion but you should know how
to do it anyways.
When I check now ласка.com is available. In case
you are wondering you cannot register ласка.ru
yet as the Russian ccTLD does not support public IDN registrations yet.
If I find an IDN like ਬਿੰਗੋ (xn--f9b5b1c6b7k)
should I register .com or .cn or both?
This really depends on how strong the term is, if it's a great term and you
have the $, by all mans register them both. If you don't my suggestion is get
the .com. You will need to do some research here as every country operates
differently. Some countries are big on their ccTLD's while others go for the
.com first and only if that's taken will grab their ccTLD after that.
Personally, I have been registering the .com's and if it's a great term I get
the ccTLD for that country if its available.
To learn more about IDN Names visit the Domain Name Forum where all the domain
experts hang out and chat.
Are all the good IDN names taken?
Absolutely not, take your time and do some mining and you will find gold in
them mountains.
Remember don't expect miracles from IDN domains now, the miracles will come
once most of the world has a browser that can support it.
Should you expect to make $ from your IDN's now?
No, if you are lucky you will have a few that make something., I have
registered thousands of these and at least half have traffic so that's good
enough for me to know the future will be great for these. Be patient they will
be worth it in the long run.
Is there anything else I should know about IDN's?
Yes, there is lots more, please take the time to learn about Domain Names and
feel free to ask and post your questions as thre are many IDN experts there and
they will usually answer you within a few minutes.
I hope this helps some of you get started in what should be an interesting area
of domains
About the Author
Adam Dicker has extensive experience and domaining expertise. A well-known
figure in the industry, Dicker founded High Impact Sites, Inc., a company that
owns thousands of high-profile domains and operates the largest
Domain Name Forum on the Internet.
|
