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Get a Free Domain Name With Dot.tk

Kev Quirk August 15, 2013
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dot-tkOn my personal blog I recently wrote about how I am completely and utterly addicted to domain names, I’ll be honest my addiction isn’t going very well as I have registered another handful of domain names since writing that article. However, domains don’t need to cost you an arm and a leg, you can easily get a free domain name from dot.tk.

What’s the catch?

I hear you cry from across the internet. Well, there is no catch. You get a 100% free for life .tk domain name (as long as you remember to renew it), for example, I just registered quirk.tk for absolutely nothing. I did try to register kev.tk but unfortunately .tk domain names that are 3 letters or less are actually chargeable. Whilst I was there I also decided to register kevq.tk and kevquirk.tk…all for absolutely nothing.

my-tkObviously there are some limitations in that .tk domain names are lesser known than the likes of it’s .com, .net and .co.uk brethren. But nevertheless having a completely free domain name and therefore a custom email address like frank@mydomain.tk is a hell of a lot better than frank3395@gmail.com.

For me the .tk extension is actually quite relevant as my middle name is Thomas. So with quirk.tk I have my initials back-to-front. Not that anyone would know that of course. But still, I think it’s pretty cool and after all these are free domain names that we’re taking about here so beggars can’t really be choosers.

As I said, .tk domain names are not all that well known. But that can work in your favour as it means not many of the domain names are taken. So there is a very good chance that you will get .tk domain name that you desire whereas you would probably have to make a compromise with the likes of .com as they are few and far between nowadays. For example, I would have absolutely no chance of getting quirk.com, kevq.com and kevquirk.com in one foul swoop, although I do already own kevquirk.com. :-)

What do you guys think? Is a free domain name really worth it or would you rather pay the few bucks for a “premium” domain name like refugeeks.com? Feel free to give us your thoughts below…

Free domain name from dot.tk

Get a Free Domain Name With Dot.tk
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By Kev Quirk
Kev is the creator, owner, developer and editor of RefuGeeks. He is a self-confessed geek, blogger & open source advocate. You can find him on Google+, Twitter & his personal website

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  • Jason Harman

    Hey KQ. Here’s a question for you. Back in the day you extolled Google Apps for managing these sort of domains – which prompted me to establish two independent GA-controlled domains before Google backed out of the free model.

    My question is with no free GApps, what is the best method of managing such a domain on the cheap/free?

    • https://refu-archive.kevquirk.com/ Kev Quirk

      Hey Jason, nice to see a regular reader. :-)

      Personally I have a web server and an existing Google Apps free account that I can use. However, for those that don’t they could easily sign up for some cheap or even free hosting like 5quidhost:

      http://www.5quidhost.co.uk/hosting.php

      I’ve used 5quid host for a while now, and I still do for some websites. They’re brilliant. They offer a free hosting account that only has 50MB of space. Not much for an email account I agree. However, if you use POP and store your mail locally (or use Gmail’s POP collection service and set it to not keep the mail on the server) then you could use that indefinitely.

      Or you could use Microsoft’s version of Google Apps free edition which is called Live domains (link below):

      http://www.domains.live.com

      Either will work just fine and allow you to use your own domain name and email address for free. However, both will require fairly detailed knowledge of DNS.

      I hope this answers your question Jason. :-)

  • http://johnharperjr.blogspot.com/ John Harper Jr

    Buyer beware! There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Users of .tk domains have reported their domains being suspended for frivolous reasons once they had marketed the domain and gained it some popularity. It may be safe to plan on upgrading your domain if your site starts to gain traffic.

    • https://refu-archive.kevquirk.com/ Kev Quirk

      I’ve had a lot of feedback on this, and I’ve heard similar horror stories. So much so, that I’ve been considering doing a follow up post. I’ve also heard of people gaining traffic and not having any problems. However, I think for personal use, they are a good way to have a cheap domain – maybe for social vanity URL’s, or a nice email address – although the latter may not be such a good idea if the rug does get pulled.