The Secret to Getting a Free .COM Domain Name

How to get a free .COM domain? I often get this question in Indonesian blogger forums on Facebook. On average, those who ask this question are still students trying their luck to make money by publishing content on a blog or professionals such as freelancers whose are have limited funds.

I was also initially a free domain name hunter. Whatever the extension as long as I don't have to spend my money, I will try my luck.

And yes my current website address is a free domain name even though it is not the one I won.

Now I've had enough with the current domain. Why am I not using the free .COM domain name? You will find the reason in this article, so read you guys read my article to the end.

Having your own domain or website address has several advantages. Firstly, of course, a platform that uses its domain will look more professional than users of the same platform but use a derivative address provided by the provider. For example, if we use the website address tokobajukandra.blogspot.com it will look less professional than tokobajukandra.com.

Secondly, we will have our brand. The value of a brand can be more expensive if someone is interested in owning the domain address that we own. If a domain doesn't have a valuation that can be sold, there probably won't be a domain buying and selling market like Sedo.

Thirdly, we are not fixated on one service provider. This is my own experience. The domain name that I have owned for the past few years can allow me to move my blog content from one web hosting service provider to another without having to start from empty traffic. For example, I have moved this article about how to get a free.COM domain several times to more or less the same address with different hosting service providers. This blog started from blogger.com services to self-hosting a self-hosted WordPress then moving to GitHub then back to blogger.

One thing I have noted in my experience of being a free domain hunter so far is that we need a lot of patience and also creativity.

Business owners, in this case, domain registration service providers or registrars, have certainly spent quite a bit of capital to become service providers.

For example, to provide a .ID domain which is the identity of a website in Indonesia, an entity must provide a large deposit. This entity must have at least deposit capital so that the end users can have rights to the registered website address.

Because there is capital involved and resources such as domain name servers that must be maintained by salaried employees, of course, domain name registration business owners want a return on this gift. And it is the company's business goals that we must help.

And it is the company's business goals that we must help.

Even though in my opinion owning a domain still costs less to manage than renting cheap hosting, there are still many people looking for information on getting a free .com domain.

Although it is common knowledge that renting an affordable hosting service in Indonesia will include the desired .com domain name (or other top-level domain).

From my experience so far, there are two ways to get a free domain from one of the web hosting service providers in Indonesia.

I will reveal my secret, especially for you visitors to the kandra.id blog.

Before moving on. Why Should You Use .COM?

Yes. Why should you use the .COM domain compared to other top level domains?

One reason may be because the .COM domain extension is the most commonly used domain by various websites in the world.

According to the Verisign website, a .COM domain name registration site, .com domain registrations have reached 120 million since they were first introduced to the public in 1985.

Because the .COM domain is so popular, that it is unlikely we will get the site address that we want. So at least prepare several alternative domain names that are suitable for the website you are going to develop.

If you ever read tips for choosing a domain name, you will come across suggestions such as using characters consisting of 2-4 syllables because humans find it easier to remember 2-4 syllables.

This is not completely wrong.

According to research conducted by Professor Richard Harris from Kansas State University (quoted by Science Daily in 2012), humans tend to remember nicknames or short names of known individuals, especially if they consist of 2 to 4 syllables that can be spelled.

Likewise with a website address.

If we use a newly registered web address, it will take at least three months for web visitors to remember it. Moreover, the web addresses that we register have standards that have been scientifically tested by Professor Richard Haris above.

Let's take a look at websites that big now. The average web address they use consists of 2 to 4 syllables. For example: /de-tik/, /kom-pas/, /su-geng/, /kan-dra/ and so on.

Here is the challenge.

Since the .com domain was released in 1985 to the public, 25 million domains have been registered, so, likely, the domain name we want is already owned by someone else. My current web address, Kandra, can no longer be used with the .COM extension because that address was registered by a theater and film artist from the United States dozens of years ago. To get the kandra.com address I have to wait for the address to expire or the current owner forgot to extend the domain name.

I finally got the Kandra domain address after receiving news of the presence of PANDI (Pengelola Nama Domain Internet Indonesia) and the 1 million free domains program in collaboration with Republic Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information.

How to Get a 1 Year Free .COM Domain?

One thing you should pay attention to is the free .COM domain name provided by the following registrar companies are limited in duration.

We can't always use a website address for free for a lifetime. The average duration of use of the free .COM domain provided is 1 year.

In the second year, if you still want to use the address, you have to make a payment to the registrar.

OK, without further ado, here's how to get a free .com domain these are what you have to do to get a free .COM domain name.

• Collect all legal hosting companies in Indonesia. Remember what is legal so that in the future our domain will not be taken by the hosting owner unilaterally.
• Register as a member on each company's website. As far as I know, it's free to register and you don't have to buy a domain or hosting package.
• Look for all the social media accounts owned by the web hosting company and follow their social media accounts with your social media account.
• Wait for the quiz/contest/promo that will be announced via social media accounts or the company website take part in the quiz/contest and pay attention to the conditions for getting a free .COM domain.

How to Get a Free .COM Domain from Home Web, Share an Interesting Story

In 2019 I took part in quizzes and contests held by Rumah Web and successfully got two free .COM domains and 1 free hosting.

Information on the first quiz that I took from Rumah Web Indonesia came from the official Rumahweb page on the social media site Facebook.

The quiz theme was blood donation, as part of a promotion commemorating National Blood Donor Day.

Rumahweb Indonesia asked their members to write about their first blood donation experience.

I wrote about my personal experience of donating blood while studying in Padang.

It's just that the way to write the status for the quiz is different.

I used a copywriting technique that I had read in one of copywriting book.

I wrote a Facebook status with story-telling. There was a flow of problems, conflicts, and solutions.

I had never used this method before when I created my statuses on facebook.

The premise was simple. I was afraid of needles but someone needed a blood donation to have surgery. I told my inner struggle of my phobia of needles and the obligation to donate blood. This status got good engagement. Many of Rumah Web Indonesia fan page members give the thumbs up. I also did promote to my friends and families.

I don't remember exactly when, not long after writing about my experience, the RWI Facebook page admin declared me the winner by sending an inbox message to my Facebook account.

The condition for getting a free 1-year .com domain provided by Rumah Web Indonesia is to register on their site and then confirm the registration with the appointed staff.

I registered a domain name annisablog.com. (Maybe now the address is inactive).

Another thing that is quite crucial when registering on the Rumahweb.com site is an email address.

Make sure that the email address used to register with the web hosting company is the email address that is frequently used and that the spelling of the email is correct.

When we register a domain name with a web hosting company, we MUST confirm the web address registration request via email.

If the email address given to the hosting company is not the address we usually use, we are worried that the registered .com domain will not be able to be used because IANA cannot confirm the ownership data provided by the web host company (in this context Rumah Web).

This happened to one of my friends, a member of the Adsense blogger and publisher community.

So he once shared his experience that he bought a new domain for a new blog project that he was going to develop, only to have him register when he registered, he gave an incorrect email address to confirm ownership of the new domain address.

The mistake my friend made was trivial, it seems he made a typo when entering the email address he usually uses.

As a result, the new domain address cannot be used because the email address sent by IANA went to the wrong email address and the domain purchase money cannot be refunded.

Can you imagine how much loss it would be if you didn't use the email you usually use for correspondence?

Instead of getting a free .com domain for 1 year, you have to go back to looking for free domain quizzes or contests which are rare these days.

CONCLUSION

So to get a free .COM domain we have to wait for the hosting companies to do expansive marketing.

Usually, the cheapest and most expansive way of marketing according to my observations so far is by creating a contest or quiz on their official social media page.

Write an interesting story using the problem, conflict, and solution methods or other copywriting methods that can be learned and used.

When you have been announced as the winner entitled to be given a free .COM domain, don't let typos fill in your ownership email address.

Last but not least, do not focus solely to a .COM domain name, if government had free domain names program you must enter it despite the domain name will not have a .COM extension.