Free domains like .tk, .co.nr, .co.cc etc are present all over the internet, also they look attractive for most webmasters. But are they legit or a scam and really worth?
So finally you have gota blog. You have enough data to share. But you don't like ame.blogspot.com or a me.wordpress.com address. It hurts your ego muchbecause you feel that you are under someone. No one likes dominatedright? So then, you want to throw your sub-domain and get a domain.But you are either too poor or too miser to spend. So you open thebest tool on the internet, and type two golden words : free domains.And lo! You are amazed by the plenty of free things on the internet.Relax. You haven't got that far yet.
Speaking of freedomains, I have personal experience with two of them. One is .co.ccand another is .tk. Of the above list, a .tk domain looks the best,because it doesn't has a .co tag attached with it. People will haveto type less to reach your site. Also it looks good for technologyblogs, because it sounds something like tech. But before plunginginto getting one, just have a look at my story below.
I got a .tk domain quitea few months ago, when my blog was new and I had chosen customhosting because of the limitations wordpress.com gave. Now getting agood free host is another story, which I will discuss later. For thattime, truly speaking, I was more than happy, so much that I evenjoined their ambassador program as a return for their gratitude. Thesite says that they give free domains to support poor people ofTokeleu islands. If you join their referall program and urge peopleto join their site, you will get a virtual currency called fish. Withmore fishes you accumulate, you can exchange them from gifts such asMP3 players, mouse etc. Good enough right?
One thing that alwaysirritated me is that though you have full control over the domain,including CNAME records, nameservers etc, you don't get fullownership of the domain, unless you pay them If you have a .tkdomain, you can check the whois to confirm this yourself.
There is no free lunchin the world. When they give you a free domain, its natural that theyexpect something back from you. But that something was too unnaturalto believe. Just 25 hits per month. That's what my website used toget in a few hours, so I used to not worry much about that. Whatworried me more is this blog post which says that .tk was adomain parking scam. For non-IT people, what does that mean?
Well, in layman's words,when you start a website, its natural that you will publicize it muchover the web because everyone loves more and more visitors. This ismainly done by writing good articles, and giving the link overwherever you can. More you link pages of your site, more it improvessearch engine position because Google ranks sites according toalgorithm that is much dependent on backlinks. Lower is your searchposition, its likely that more visitors you will get.
By parking scam I meanis that .tk people give you a free domain for using and publicizing.When your site is getting enough visitors and has got enough links,they sell it to someone who is hungry for free traffic. And sadly,you can do nothing about it. Because legally you are not the owner ofthe domain.
At first, I didn'tbelieve it, as I am a normal human being who doesn't believe thingsuntil that happens to himself. But over searching keywords like .tkscam I got more and more worried because of increasing number ofcomplaints they have got. Also, I was a member of their Facebook group and after every few days, a guy used to come andcomplain for his rejected domain.
I became cautious andnumber of links of my .tk site was increasing. What if they snatchedmy domain someday? My all hard work and visitors will go in vain.Finally one good day, I decided to switch to a standard .blogsopt.comaddress. Not cool enough but definitely more reliable.
Time passed, I had madethe domain to redirect to my blogspot sub-domain. Nothing unnaturalhappened. Finally one fine day I got to realize that I have taken theright decision. I got an email from them, screenshot below:
I bet you have a look inmy sight once, you wont find any adult/copyrighted material. Even forimages I have taken from somewhere, I always provide a backlink tothe original site in the courtesy section.
Now whenever I open my .tk site, I land up in a site which has got only adds and nothing else.
So its quite proved that.tk is almost a scam, unless you pay them. Frankly speaking, I willbetter get a more popular domain that paying $6 an year for a .tkaddress.
Next comes more freedomains in the list such as .co.cc and .co.cz. Now both of them arebanned by Google, because its believed that most of their sites hostmalware, so you cant expect search traffic (which comprises a goodnumber of visitors) from them. For me, except for the banned fact,.co.cc domains are quite reliable. I have been using them for anemail domain for over an year now (using Google Apps), and haven'texperienced much problem from them.
The best of all domainsaccording to me is a .co.nr address. But as far as I know, they justdo URL forwards, so they cannot be termed as a real domain. Also,apart from this popular ones, you can have a search for more freedomains on the net.
But the real question is: are they really worth it? First of all for them, your site doesn'tlook professional, and if you are getting quite a number of visitorsper day, it never hurts to pay just Rs. 99 and get a .in domain. Somy advice for you is : post good articles, gain a regularly number ofvisitors per day, and then buy a domain. It will definately help youin the long run.
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