Domain names can make or break a successful online presence, so finding the right ones is important. On the Internet every day, hundreds of thousands of domain names expire while even more are produced. If you’re looking to get that perfect domain for your website the opportunity to get it can come and go without you even realizing it. This is why monitoring is so important to any domain management program. You also need to monitor your current domains so that you don’t let any of them expire and slip away from your control without you knowing it. Here are 8 applications and tools that you can use for domain monitoring and management.
- Bust A Name: an online Web resource that is useful for finding available domains that match your requirements and to monitor domain names for status changes. To help you find domains that you can use, BustaName will enhance searches by prepending and appending letters and even alternate spellings (such as omitting vowels). You can create a custom tracking table filled with potential domain candidates that you can rank by quality and potential as part of your monitoring program.
- Domain Punch: an application that installs on your Windows computer to track business assets such as domain names on the Internet. With special solutions geared toward large and small business customers, you can get a program with the features you need to track your domains and to find new ones as well.
- DNZoom: helps you manage your registrar accounts, parked domains, and domain security. Using DNZoom, users can secure domains with “Bank-Level” security, giving you the peace of mind knowing that your domain names won’t be taken away from you right under your nose. With DNZoom, you can reclaim hours of productive time that you’ve been spending on domain monitoring. It even has the capability of tracking the earnings you are generating from parked domains. DNZoom is an essential tool for effective domain monetization.
- Domainer: a Mac OS X app that gives you lookups for domain data such as page ranking information, back links, Diggs, and more. This powerful research helps you identify what domains are worth buying and at what price. Domainer will sync with iCal to keep track of domain expirations. You can also use Domainer to export and import Smart Groups and lists.
- iWantMyName: a Web-based application that will help you manage and register international domain names. The service also facilitates connecting your domain with other online services and apps.
- Domain Portfolio Manager: a PHP/MySQL browser based application that is designed to give you powerful but easy to use domain tracking and management. This package allows you to categorize domains, sort domain lists, find SEO safe URLs, automatically obtain domain creation and expiration dates, and conveniently update WhoIs data.
- DomainTyper: a search engine styled application that will search domains based on your input. The system will report back to you whether or not you can implement your idea. This website also has a dynamic random domain creator that can help give you new and creative ideas for naming your domain.
- DNScoop: a website that attempts to value online property. It bases its calculations on the number of links headed for a domain, how long the domain has been established. DNScoop also looks at historic traffic data, overall popularity, and page rank when determining how much a domain is worth.
By taking advantage of the powerful Web-based and computer-based tools on the internet, you can transform domain monitoring and domain management from laborious time-intensive tasks to informative and exciting simple tasks. The apps listed here are a good starting point for automating your domain tasks.
Tom Walker is a writer and designer who works with an online ecommerce store based in the UK who specialise in printer ink. He is an editor and contributor to their design blog where he posts about vintage advertising, modern art and print media.
