Here’s another post in my series of articles on the .PH domain namespace. Those of you who are aware that I used to work for the .PH registry (nice people, btw) might be wondering why the heck I’m writing about .PH, and whether I’ll be sharing some juicy insider information on the issues the ccTLD had been, and is still currently, involved in. Well, I’m still not sure about the extent of my knowledge of the .PH issues, but from what I know, things are not likely to take a drastic turn in the near future. I mean this with reference to how .PH is run and managed in light of the Philippine government’s attempts to wrest control from the private sector.

Of course, criticisms on both sides range from the very personal to the very rational. But that I will not discuss here at this time.

A lot of people ask me regarding domains and the difference between a generic one, say .COM, .NET or .ORG, and a ccTLD like .PH. My response would usually be that gTLDs tend to be cheaper. But in terms of value, one cannot really compare between getting a CNO and a .PH domain without taking things in the proper context.

For instance, from the perspective of copyright and trademark considerations, a company or individual would be better off acquiring both ccTLDs and gTLDs for his desired names. In this way, he is more or less assured no one else would be using his ccTLD equivalent name for potentially competitive endeavors.

From the perspective of search engine optimization, it’s a widely accepted rule that search engines favor local TLDs in conducting geo-specific searches. So .PH domains would be prioritized in the search engine results pages for queries either done in the Philippines, or specifying the Philippines as the target location being searched.

From the perspective of maintaining individual websites or blogs, however, it is more difficult to justify having a .PH domain for the reason that it is really more expensive than a CNO (com, net, org) domain. You can get a .com domain for as low as US$ 5 per year these days, or even lower (I got my racoma.net for PhP 500 or about $10 for the first year). In contrast, .PH domains cost US$ 35 per year, and the minimum is two years, so you’d have to shell out US$ 70—hardly affordable for just any individual who has his or her two cents’ worth to share online. And then, of course, there are the hosting and maintenance fees.

So the run-of-the-mill blogger would usually opt for a generic TLD, if at all, and that’s because there are a myriad of free services available, and that includes those that run on generic TLDs (Blogger.com, WordPress.com, and the like), and also those on the .PH namespace (i.PH, free.net.ph, etc.).

So this leaves the use of their own .PH domains by bloggers to the more patriotic of writers, and this would include our friend Manolo Quezon, blogging politics and what-have-you at quezon.ph. Or maybe we are under the wrong premise, because I do know a handful of patriotic bloggers (such as DJB) who would rather use Blogger.com because of convenience and cost (free).

Heck, even I am using a .net domain.

So what can encourage Filipino bloggers to using the .PH or even the com.PH namespace? Somehow, there is a need to jumpstart the com.PH market—and not to line the pockets of the .PH registry (as some would prefer to conclude), but to promote that hey, we’re Filipinos, and we’re proud of our namespace!

What if I told you I can give you a free com.PH domain and hosting for a year (and probably succeeding years after that)? And this would include free assistance in transferring your existing content, and even with search engine optimization?

No catches. No ads. No cost to you.

Would you take on the offer?

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