How do you buy international domains without residing in that country?

14 years ago

I read this at one time that Germany actually holds its .de suffixes for residents of that country first and foremost, so that people don't actually come from all over and simply take them.

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Istvan Horvath

14 years ago

It's not only Germany - I think (almost) all countries keep their country domain extension for their residents. Canada does, for sure... and I also happen to know about Hungary, for example. Even if I speak Hungarian and used to live there for about ten years - I couldn't buy it. I asked a friend of mine to purchase one for me.

The "almost" above refers to special cases, like Tuvalu (.tv), Tokelau (.tk) - small island nations that actually make an income by selling their domain names internationally

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Mark R Holland

14 years ago

** edit - tried to be helpful... got Hungarianed... no problem, happy to go back to being quiet**

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1 reply

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mywebwork

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Mark R Holland

Try marcaria.com ... you can get most countries there no problem, there are many similar services out there if you'd like to compare prices etc. No personal connection except as a user!

Mark

Thanks for the heads up on marcaria - I just tried it and got a bit of a shock at the prices! Made me realize how cheap we get .coms at NameCheap and GoDaddy!

For two Australian domains (the same name, a .com.au and a .net.au) at marcaria I would be charged a total of 190.00 USD for two years! No option for one year registrations was presented.

However in checking other sources I found that these prices, while high, were not completely out of line. At austdomains.com.au the same two domains would go for 138.00 AUD, which is about 128 USD.

After reading a bunch of legalese on their sites and on the AUDA (Australian Domain Name Administrator) site I still can't figure out if it's legal for me (A Canadian who also is part-owner of a US corporation) to purchase one of these.

Does anyone have the definitive answer?

Thanks

Bill

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2 replies

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Rolliesworld

14 years ago

I am in Australia and I paid AU$ 22.00 for a domain registration for two years!

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1 reply

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mywebwork

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Rolliesworld

I am in Australia and I paid AU$ 22.00 for a domain registration for two years!

Wow - can you let me know where you got it? Is it a .id.au domain (for individuals) or another TLD?

Actually I answered my earlier question about owning an Australian domain - you need to be an Australian registered company or a business with a registered business number. So I guess the next step is to find out how that works!

Bill

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1 reply

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Rolliesworld

14 years ago

Originally Posted by mywebwork

Wow - can you let me know where you got it? Is it a .id.au domain (for individuals) or another TLD?

Actually I answered my earlier question about owning an Australian domain - you need to be an Australian registered company or a business with a registered business number. So I guess the next step is to find out how that works!

Bill

Hi Bill,

I bought / renewed a domain at Hostess.
Prices seem to have even come down further...$20.95 for two years!

Now, I should also tell you that domain registration is about the ONLY service I might still consider with them, as their customer service and technical support are pathetic! In March 2009, I cancelled a URL redirection (from an external URL) to one hosted by them, they call it "Email hosting". At the time, I did not know that it would have been smarter to have the redirection set up outside of the Hostess environment and they charged $33 p.a. for it. So I cancelled it, and they ended up cancelling my whole account and stuffed everything up.

They then restored the rest again, and just recently they sent me another reminder to pay for that "email hosting" service that was supposed to have been cancelled out (the domain it was set up from does not belong to me anymore).

I sent them 5 emails within 2 weeks to accounts@, support@ and feedback@ and forwarded them previous email communication where they confirmed that email hosting was cancelled and the rest restored. I also submitted a ticket 4 days ago after I had not one single response. The support response time is supposed to be betw 24-48hrs.

They do not have phone support. They suck these days!

Yes, you are correct I believe you need an Australian registered business. We used the domain (upliftyourlife.com.au) for my wife's fitness business and got a business name registered (Uplift Fitness) and a trademark in the same name. I think if you have some similarity to the desired domain name, you'll be fine.

Well, I am not sure how you would go about registering an Australian business name from outside of Australia. You'd have to have an Australian Tax file number and address.

I actually have a question myself on this whole topic:

Obviously, it would help with increased credibility to have a country domain for your website that is used to target that market.

Does it actually help with Search Engine ranking, i.e. would it get priority over let's say .com or .info domains?

Also: Does the geographical server location have any influence on rankings?

Thanks
1 reply

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Syndicator

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Rolliesworld

Yes, you are correct I believe you need an Australian registered business. We used the domain (upliftyourlife.com.au) for my wife's fitness business and got a business name registered (Uplift Fitness) and a trademark in the same name. I think if you have some similarity to the desired domain name, you'll be fine.

Well, I am not sure how you would go about registering an Australian business name from outside of Australia. You'd have to have an Australian Tax file number and address.

I actually have a question myself on this whole topic:

Obviously, it would help with increased credibility to have a country domain for your website that is used to target that market.

In Australia you must have a registered business number (ABN) or an Australian Company Number (ACN) otherwise you cannot register a domain name with a .au TLD.

Even though in Australia you can run a business under your own name without registering a business name, you still cannot register a domain name without that BN - So some conflict with the laws.

China for example has just this year made it mandatory that you have a company or reside in China to have a .cn TLD. Prior to this you could register no issue. They have notified all .cn holders and those without proof have had them removed.

Pretty easy to set-up a holding company in HK and then use that as the holder of the domains though. But this has just come into effect as of 2010 so some countries do some don't.

If I am doing business in Australia you NEED a .au or a .com (hosted in Australia)...Any other TLD WILL affect your success I believe.

Not sure how those in the US see .au? {Comments???} TLD's but if I'm targeting the US market I'd defintaley only get a .com and host it in the US too!

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Syndicator

14 years ago

Originally Posted by mywebwork

Thanks for the heads up on marcaria - I just tried it and got a bit of a shock at the prices! Made me realize how cheap we get .coms at NameCheap and GoDaddy!

For two Australian domains (the same name, a .com.au and a .net.au) at marcaria I would be charged a total of 190.00 USD for two years! No option for one year registrations was presented.

However in checking other sources I found that these prices, while high, were not completely out of line. At austdomains.com.au the same two domains would go for 138.00 AUD, which is about 128 USD.

After reading a bunch of legalese on their sites and on the AUDA (Australian Domain Name Administrator) site I still can't figure out if it's legal for me (A Canadian who also is part-owner of a US corporation) to purchase one of these.

Does anyone have the definitive answer?

Thanks

Bill

You need to be careful in Australia as the prices vary greatly.

NetRegistry has a good deal for 2 years only though BUT they do have excellent service and automated system and pdf invoicing and alike.

Melbourneit.com.au charges significantly more.

YOu must have that BN/ABN/ACN or else you are out of luck.

Ozzy company cost about $1K AUD to set-up PLUS annual tax lodgements are required!

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Istvan Horvath

14 years ago

Not really, Mark!

Quote:

Notice that there are some extensions that have additional requirements imposed by each Domain Registry of America; please check the symbol.

for those cases.

Then here is what the ? shows:

Only individuals and entities that are Canadian residents or nationals can register .ca domain names.

In case you don't meet the previous requirement, you still can register a .ca domain name if you own a Registered Trademark in Canada (the domain name must include the exact word component of that registered trade-mark. You can check the cost of this in our website in the section Trademarks > Canada).

I knew this without going to that site

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Paul_Kuhn

14 years ago

I am german, live in sunny Hamburg and I am proud to help you!

The rules of our german NIC (denic.de) allow foreign domain owners!
BUT you always need to have a german admin-C!

So there are some providers like inwx (inwx.de,my favourite registrar,
they also accept paypal) who offer you a german trustee, working as
admin-C. For this trustee service you have to pay around 4 bucks at
inwx. Compare this price, cause at other registrars you will sometime
pay much more for this service.

But please do not infringe any trademark! Here you will have to pay a
lot of money doing that. And I know, what I am writing :-(

Ahoi!

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Rolliesworld 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul_Kuhn

I am german, live in sunny Hamburg

Haha, sunny is very funny..!
The lack of sun made me leave.
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Alexa Smith

Banned 14 years ago

[DELETED]

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d101 14 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

I think with the exception that you can register one even if not US-resident, if you own a US corporation?

Since a corporation is a legal entity in the respective country, it has all the rights of such, including buying domain names. But companies cost money to maintain and can cause headaches ... lol

With the .us it is much simpler:

"... .US, the official country code Top-Level-Domain of the United States, was introduced primarily for american citizens, companies, organisations and government. Nonetheless also foreign entities can register .US Domains provided that they either have a business relationship or a subsidiary in the United States. ..."

the nice thing about .de domains is, they can be renewed on a monthly basis (with some registrars) ...

:-)
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How do you buy international domains without residing in that country?

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