[Liveit]

I see. Thanks for all the effort Blacknight I am currently in the process of registering a business name! If I knew you were this helpful I would have hosted with you. I'm still young so it will be the next one instead

[fl4pj4ck]

You need to get a registered business name from the CRO if you are trading as anything other than your given name ie. if your name is John Doe and you want to trade as Irish Widgets you would need it
The VAT registration limits are unrelated

no you don't always need a business name. last month I registered an address for the festival I'm kinda helping organizing, and there was no single question about any documentation. I just explained my entitlement on the webform and that was it, nobody even gave me a call

seems to me it's up to the company you're dealing with, in this case it was LetsHost

[Get Cracking]

does anyone know anything about .co?
its new i heard and its suppose to be bigger than .com when it gets going.
more numbers using it,
so it might be one to think about.

[Blacknight]

Originally Posted by fl4pj4ck

no you don't always need a business name. last month I registered an address for the festival I'm kinda helping organizing, and there was no single question about any documentation. I just explained my entitlement on the webform and that was it, nobody even gave me a call

A festival wouldn't fall into the same category as a normal business. You should have had to provide a signed letter however, so if the IEDR allowed the registration without any supporting documentation then there's something odd going on.

Originally Posted by fl4pj4ck

seems to me it's up to the company you're dealing with, in this case it was LetsHost

No. It's down to the rules which are the same for everyone

[Blacknight]

Originally Posted by Get Cracking

does anyone know anything about .co?
its new i heard and its suppose to be bigger than .com when it gets going.
more numbers using it,
so it might be one to think about.

.co relaunched about 12 months ago with an "open" registration policy.
So far a few high profile companies have opted for it with Overstock, for example, switching to o.co

It's far too early to say whether it will grow to be bigger than .com or not.. At the moment there are still less than a million .co domains registered

[shoutman]

These threads are popping up so frequently, I've decided it would be a good idea to keep this one stickied.

[jmcc]

Originally Posted by Get Cracking

does anyone know anything about .co?

Yes.

its new i heard and its suppose to be bigger than .com when it gets going.

No it will not be bigger than .com for a very long time as .com has over 94 million domains registered. The .co ccTLD has less than one million domains registered and many of those will drop in the next few months.

so it might be one to think about.

Well in the web surveys I run each month, I've identified 642 .co domains on Irish hosters so there is a bit of interest in it. But it is very much a minority TLD in the Irish market. The bulk of the Irish market is centred on the IE/COM axis.

The .co is a heavily speculated TLD and really only in its first year of operation as an open TLD where anyone can register domains. While there is development, I would estimate that around 50% of .co domains are parked with Pay Per Click advertising.

So if you want to reach an Irish audience, register a .ie domain. For a UK audience, register a .co.uk. For an EU audience a .eu. But for a global audience, nothing beats .com in terms of recognition.

Regards...jmcc

[stephenpalmer]

Great idea with the sticky mod. You could argue about any TLD becoming popular You could say oh the .ME is going to be huge but you never know. So by investing in a few I couldn't see you really losing out. Especially if you were thinking of starting a particular niche could be come pretty successful imwonderful.me etc

In regards to the .Co about the 50% of domains that are parked. I would say that .com had a similar figure 5 years ago, i would imagine this would over time as the extension develops.

My advice if you are getting contemplating a .IE over a .Com, I would pick the .COM if its available that is. However if it was something that was going to be local like 123.ie you would have better luck with the dot IE. Then again as long as you get a good name I wouldn't worry to much about the extension. Good Luck

[Blacknight]

Originally Posted by stephenpalmer

Great idea with the sticky mod. You could argue about any TLD becoming popular You could say oh the .ME is going to be huge but you never know. So by investing in a few I couldn't see you really losing out. Especially if you were thinking of starting a particular niche could be come pretty successful imwonderful.me etc

In regards to the .Co about the 50% of domains that are parked. I would say that .com had a similar figure 5 years ago, i would imagine this would over time as the extension develops.

My advice if you are getting contemplating a .IE over a .Com, I would pick the .COM if its available that is. However if it was something that was going to be local like 123.ie you would have better luck with the dot IE. Then again as long as you get a good name I wouldn't worry to much about the extension. Good Luck

The key thing with any domain extension (apart from having a memorable name) is usage.

What both .me and .co have been working very hard on is getting as much quality content usage on the names as possible.
If people associate an extension with "quality" (which is really subjective) then the renewal rates will be better

[stephenpalmer]

Originally Posted by Blacknight

The key thing with any domain extension (apart from having a memorable name) is usage.

What both .me and .co have been working very hard on is getting as much quality content usage on the names as possible.
If people associate an extension with "quality" (which is really subjective) then the renewal rates will be better

Good point. Still though personally I would only pick these extensions if it was either a great name or fitted my business perfectly.

[Derekf1]

Very easily done, register with www.cro.ie and then download and print the signature page, bring it in to the companies registry office on Parnell street along with €20, and in a couple of days you will receive your certificate of registration which has your RBN up in the top left corner, you just need to ring the domain hosting site where you bought it (eg register365.com) and you're up and running. You don't need to register for VAT unless you have a annual turnover exceeding €35,000 (product) or €75,000 (service)
Hope this helps

[Blacknight]

Originally Posted by Derekf1

Very easily done, register with www.cro.ie and then download and print the signature page, bring it in to the companies registry office on Parnell street along with €20, and in a couple of days you will receive your certificate of registration which has your RBN up in the top left corner, you just need to ring the domain hosting site where you bought it (eg register365.com) and you're up and running. You don't need to register for VAT unless you have a annual turnover exceeding €35,000 (product) or €75,000 (service)
Hope this helps

First off - that assumes that people want to register a business name in order to register a domain. In our experience a LOT of people and companies don't. And it's understandable.
It can lead to complications and headaches further down the road.

[theshamu]

I want to set up a blog about a hobby of mine and would like a .ie I won't be using my name more like myhobbyirl.ie do I need to register a company name for this purpose? Thanks..

[Blacknight]

Originally Posted by theshamu

I want to set up a blog about a hobby of mine and would like a .ie I won't be using my name more like myhobbyirl.ie do I need to register a company name for this purpose? Thanks..

You would probably need to register a business name with the CRO.
It's the fastest and the easiest way of getting a domain

[liamo1991]

Originally Posted by Blacknight

You would probably need to register a business name with the CRO.
It's the fastest and the easiest way of getting a domain

This may sound stupid, If I was to register a company say Blog Interior Design, is there anything stopping me from registering a domain interiordesign.ie if it is available or does it have to relate to the company name exactly etc.