What Is an IDN?

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What Is an IDN?

By Adam Dicker (The owner of DNforum.com)

When you have an IDN, an International Domain Name, you open up your site to the world. The internet had been used by the public for a few years before Martin Durst proposed, in 1996, that domain names have non-ASCII characters used in IDNs.

Domain names that use ASCII characters contain the letters A-Z, the numbers 0-9 and a hyphen where appropriate. Languages other than English use different alphabets and notations such as diacritics (glyphs), characters that the standard keyboard does not have. Likewise, non-Latin scripts such as Arabic can't be expressed in ASCII, which operates using a standard keyboard. Until IDNs were implemented non-English speakers had little choice but to learn to surf the internet in a strange language or not at all.

Now you can register a domain in more than 300 native languages. You can have a domain name in English, like [www] dot [goodcrackers] dot [com, and the same name in Hindi. Although you need to register each domain separately you still have ownership of both as long as you keep up with renewals.

IDNs let people navigate the internet and find what they want in their native language. Since IDNs came into world-wide use they have been good for businesses who want a global footprint. Both English and non-English merchants can reach more people, increase their profit margins and build their businesses by using IDNs.

Let's say you have an internet store that you use to sell recipe books and it's doing fairly well. However, your customers are confined to most of North America and some parts of Europe. You've lined up a publisher for printing the books in other languages and assembled e-Books in French, Chinese and other languages. But how do you reach those non-English speakers with your product?

First you'll find a registrar and see if the IDN you want is available. You have translated [www] dot [goodcrackers] dot [com] into several languages and even tweaked the name a bit to appeal to specific localities, including variations of local traditional recipes. The registrar will tell you if a name is available and if not, you can back order it or change the name to something similar. When you register your IDN it will be added to that registrar's database.

Now you can begin using your IDN for blogging, your business, a personal website, email and other internet activities. Spice up your site with content geared toward your target audience to keep them interested and returning to your site on a regular basis. Your IDN can be a business site with a blog or a personal site with links to a business site. Any way you do it, having an IDN is going to significantly increase your business volume and traffic.

An IDN is also an excellent tool to garner good will. Someone may have heard of your product but was unable to navigate your site well enough to order it. By offering your merchandise or blog in their native language or at least an IDN they can easily locate you've told them that they are important to you. An IDN is the perfect way to expand your global presence.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6099216