Zone .tk is the national domain of the Tokelau Islands, which, in order to increase the prestige and recognition of this territory, has been made free for registration. It is not one of a kind - for “thank you” you can also register domains in .gf, .ga, .gq, .ml zones.
Paid registration
Not every address here can be obtained for free. If the name consists of four or fewer characters, you will have to pay for it. There are also long addresses, which are also paid - according to information on the registrar’s website, these are the so-called special domains whose commercial value is higher (therefore, their cost may exceed the price of “ordinary” paid addresses).
.tk domain can be registered on a paid basis for a period of 2 to 5 years. It provides several serious advantages:
- legal domain ownership and rights to it;
- the ability to use your DNS;
- It is owned with the right to extend up to 9 years;
- no restrictions on the number of visitors;
- displayed by WHOIS.
The paid domain remains in the possession of the owner, regardless of whether the site is connected to it or not. 60 days before the registration end date, the company sends a reminder and provides an opportunity to extend the domain ownership longer, for a period of 3 to 9 years.
Free way
You can get a free .tk domain if the name is longer than four characters and no one else is busy. However, this does not make the recipient of such an address its owner. The company remains the owner.
However, the advantages are obvious:
- is free;
- can be registered for any period from 3 months to a year;
- the use of an abbreviated address is available when TiKilinks is connected (it also allows you to connect the site to other Dot TK domains and, as the company promises, increase traffic due to this);
- You can extend the registration for a period of 3 months to a year, also free of charge (the company will send a warning 15 days before the deadline).
At the same time, there are serious limitations:
- .tk domain cannot be registered for future use if it is free. There must be a website, personal page, web profile, blog or portfolio. After some time, the company’s specialists will verify this and if there is nothing at the specified address, the registration will be canceled and the domain will be freed.
- Within three months, a minimum of 25 visitors should visit the site. Otherwise, the domain will be taken away and it will again be available to everyone.
- WHOIS for the free address is not shown.
- According to reviews of some webmasters, a company can withdraw a free name without clearly defined reasons.
- Search engines are wary of this domain zone and can (not proven, but likely) pessimize such resources, even if they have completely unique content.
Who Should Buy Tokelau Address
The free .tk domain can be used by those who want to try their hand at web mastering, but are not ready to invest money in it. It is also a good choice for various experiments (although the result may be affected by the particular attitude of search engines to this domain zone). Many also use this name as a temporary name before the full launch of a new project.
Paid names in the .tk zone should be bought for those who provide freight transportation services (.tk - "truck"), or those whose business is associated with the islands of Tokelau.
How to register .tk domain for free
You can get a .tk domain from the registrar www.dot.tk. By typing this address, the person will be automatically redirected to the main page with a large field to enter the desired address. The site name is entered without an extension, that is, if in the end you need to have dzedze.tk, in the field you need to enter only dzedze and click "Go".
Depending on whether the desired address is free and free, the second step occurs. If everything is ok, a captcha page will appear. Here you can choose one of three options for the domain you are receiving: forwarding and its landing page, choosing DNS entry or choosing the hosting offered by the service.
After entering the captcha, the registration option will be available, as well as the rejection of it (the domain is delegated to the customer, regardless of whether this person is registered or not). It is very desirable, however, to register - only in this case the new owner will be able to conduct operations with the domain address and extend the registration time.
When you select the “Sign In” option and correctly entered captcha, a window will open where the system will offer you to choose one of the most widespread networks from your account.
In the window that appears, you must confirm the dot.tk access right to the information on the page on the network. After which the procedure will end - .tk domain will finally find a new owner.
A few words about the registrar
The Dot TK Registrar is a joint project of the Tokelau Islands Government, privately held BV Dot TK and Teletok. BV Dot TK is a company designated by the Government of the Islands as the exclusive registration object, it is engaged in commercial activities like the Dot TK Registry, which, in turn, is based on private capital and has its own servers in all corners of the world. Registration of the .tk domain on a paid and free basis allows supporting the economy of Tokelau and increasing the country's prestige and recognition among the inhabitants of the planet.