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Short URLs

What's in a name? A lot. A real domain name is great. A good domain name is short, easy to fit in ads and other publicity, and easy to remember. You can search for availability of domains at HostingShop.com.au

Unfortunately, due to widespread "squatting" on all the possible cool, short domain names, it's pretty hard these days to get a good name. Perhaps it's worth looking through some of the names squatters have for sale at one of the sites such as buydomains.com or afternic.com. Personally, I think that the most important thing is to have a SHORT domain name. If you buy a proper domain name, you also need hosting for it as most free or ISP-related 'personal homepage' space won't let you assign a proper domain to your hosting. I'd therefore recommend the commercial cPanel hosting packages if you want a proper domain name.

If you're using free hosting, that doesn't mean you have to use the ridiculously long URL that your site's located at. You can use a free redirection service so that people only have to type in a shorter address. Examples of these are dot.tk and tinyurl.com.

Such services are supported by advertising and spyware, you'll notice that if you use the short url it's usually embedded a hidden frame so it can be sneakily collecting data from your visitors when they visit your site. Ah well, the only solution to that is to buy proper hosting :)