As with any other post, I did a little research first and registered some free domains with both of these services. There didn’t seem to be much of a case for using either of these services - until now.
Looking at my Google analytics statistics a week or so later, I noticed a small number of visitors coming from one of my newly registered dotTK domain. One thing that I knew for sure was that I hadn’t shared my new domain with anybody, and it couldn’t have had any promotion from anywhere else. The new domain was Music-Whiz.tk, which redirected to one of my works in progress, Music-Whiz.com. I have been trying to find out where this free traffic is coming from… but it appears to come from absolutely nowhere.
So I tried to replicate the results by registering dotTK domains for this site and a couple of other sites I run. As yet, I haven’t been able to produce the same results.
So I haven’t been able to find out where this traffic is coming from… but I thought it was worth mentioning. Wherever these visitors came from one thing is clear, if you have just started a new website, it seems perfectly reasonable that registering a few free dotTK domain names could in fact benefit your site.
Have you had a similar experience? Please let me know by posting a comment.
Strictly speaking, this post isn’t directly related to domaining, but for those of you who are genuinely looking to find a free domain name for your site, I thought that I would spend this post explaining why it is worth it for you to get a real domain name.
There are several web sites out there claiming to provide you with a free domain name in exchange for advertising of some sort on your site, or a link back to them. Type in ‘free domains’ in any search engine and you will no doubt very quickly come across the infamous ‘.co.nr’ or ‘dot tk’ free domain sites.
These services are quite attractive to someone who is struggling to build their first web site but come with some severe limitations.
I’ll start with ‘.co.nr’ free domains. While these domains do look quite similar to ‘.co.uk’ or ‘.co.nz’ ccTLD ’s, what you actually get is a sub-domain, not a real domain name. Co.nr is a domain name and all ‘.co.nr’ free domains are sub-domains of co.nr.
On first thoughts you might think, that’s not too bad, it looks ok and so what if it’s a sub-domain, but there are several problems with the way that ‘.co.nr’ domains are implemented. You have two options when you set-up your ‘.co.nr’ sub-domain, you can redirect your ‘co.nr’ sub-domain to your server (which means that visitors to your web site will see your terrible looking server address) or you can have your ‘co.nr’ sub-domain ‘mask’ your server address (this way your visitors will only ever see your ‘co.nr’ sub-domain and will never see your actual server address). The way that ‘co.nr’ masks your server address is by opening up a hidden frames page and having your site open in a frame.
Even still this might not seem like a major problem, but here’s where it gets tricky. One of the most important resources for a webmaster is their site’s statistics. Site statistics provide valuable information such as page views, unique visitors, and more importantly, referrers. Without knowing where your site’s traffic is coming from, it’s impossible to measure the effectiveness of any link exchanges, advertising campaigns, or SEO changes.
The only advertising that ‘.co.nr’ ask you to place on your site is a link back to them.
Now, onto ‘.tk’ free domains. I first looked into ‘.tk’ about a year ago and backed right away for two reasons. Number 1, they were loaded with advertising which you couldn’t control, and number 2, they seem to be very slow.
While researching for this post I visited a few ‘.tk’ websites to see if my original thoughts were still valid. I still found them to be quite slow to load up. There is still some forced advertising at the top of your pages, but I did notice that they do now provide you with site statistics through their homepage. It’s a step in the right direction, but being ad-supported is the biggest problem with ‘.tk’ domains.
It’s absolutely critical for your website that you have complete control over how, what and when advertisements are placed on your site. Advertising space is the most valuable part of your site’s design and to waste space on advertisements which don’t work for you.
No matter which one of these free ‘domain’ programs you chose, there are some problems that they all share.
Firstly, most search engines and directories are aware that these domains are free (and as a result easily abused and usually not very useful). Your site could be different, but unfortunately you will automatically be grouped in the same basket as all the other people who have these domains. There are many directories which won’t allow these free domains to be submitted. Those that do but require a reciprocal link usually won’t be able to verify that their link exists on your site, and then won’t allow you to add your site. Many search engines will not index free domains either. Those search engines that do index them may not index them properly simply because the pages contain frames.
Secondly, these free domains still look strange to the average internet surfer. Internet surfer’s like to have confidence in the sites that they are visiting. With these free domains, it’s nearly impossible to get your web site visitors to trust you. If they don’t trust you, they won’t come back, and they almost certainly won’t spend any money on your site.
Thirdly, if you do decide to use one of these domains, you will not be able to make as much money off selling link spaces as you would otherwise have been able to make. When you sell link spaces to other websites, those websites like to see your site as one that will deliver them traffic, or help build their sites PR , or both. Unfortunately, because your site and your free domain are perceived by search engines to be two completely unrelated sites, it’s difficult to build your site’s PR while still using your free domain.
In conclusion, there are a lot of problems with using these free ‘domain’ services, and I recommend you move straight to getting a real domain. If you must use a free ‘domain’, don’t waste your time on link building or building your PR. If your site is going to last you will want to purchase a real domain anyway and all your work before you get that domain will be waste.
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