Although it was feared that there would be a major upheaval of the policies to make them more open to foreign investment, the recommendations seem to support keeping the majority of the existing rules in place but to simply clarify a number of areas.

Below is a summary of their recommendations:

1. It will remain that only Australians can register AU domains, however clarification will be provided on the org.au and asn.au criteria requirements ensuring that there is no confusion on their use
2. auDA will release details of it’s audits to illustrate to the industry how it performs it’s audits
3. The panel recommends that the licence term should be flexible – instead of only 2 years, registrants will be able to select 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 year
4. No changes will be made to explicity discuss leasing of domains, however it will be clarified. Essentially the registrant will remain responsible for the domain in auDA’s eyes
5. The panel suggests releasing single letter domains for registration
6. The id.au space will be relaxed to allow domain names referring to personal hobbies and interests, as opposed to only allowed if referring to the person’s name
7. Direct registrations under AU not to be permitted at this time
8. The reserved name list and mispelling policies will be retained
9. The “Domain Monetisation Policy” will be abolished, instead the existing close and substantial rule will cover domain monetisation

The AU domain policies can be seen as overly strict compared to a .com however this can be a good thing for webmasters and owners of sites within the AU space. Within Australia the general public know and trust that a AU domain means it’s Australian, therefore providing that extra level of trust in dealing with the site.

Domainers investing in AU domains would have probably liked to see the rules relaxed and therefore providing them with a bigger market to trade their domains. However based on this review, auDA doesn’t appear to be allowing the AU domain space to go in that direction.

There is a fear in the Australian webmaster community that auDA will take your domain from you. The findings of the panel appear to of recognised this fear and it’s good to see that they will be clarifying some of these policies, especially the “Domain Monetisation Policy”.

The current “Domain Monetisation Policy” reads as though it only supports the use a domain parking style pages where you use Google Adsense style sdvertising to generate money from it, and not any other content. auDA most certainly needs to clarify this to reassure Australian webmasters that they are developing sites within the auDA policies.

The public have the opportunity to comment on the recommendations until Friday, 10 June 2011. You can comment either in writing or via an online survey.

For more information and to respond, visit http://www.auda.org.au/2010npp/2010npp-index/.

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Google looks at three things to determine your relevance to specific countries:

• IP address of your web server
• domain extension (eg. .com.au)
• your settings within Google Webmaster Tools

Each of these three things provide Google with information about your geographic market. You will be still included in the results for other countries however you will be given preference within your local results.

The following video by Matt Cutts discusses this in more detail.

Although the message from the video is to “experiment” that’s about as definate as anything you will get from Google about how to rank better.

So although it’s not essential, having your server based on an Australian based IP address could definitely assist in your Google.com.AU rankings.

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Getting the right domain name for your site is extrememly important, but it’s also very time consuming to find one that’s still available. Here are a collection of web sites that will help you come up with that perfect name.

Note: most of these do not support AU domain names, only gTLDs such as .com, .net, etc.

Name Boy

At NameBoy you simply enter a few keywords to find, and NameBoy will generate domain names based on the keywords you enter. Supports .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .tv

Make Words

MakeWords.com is a domain search workstation that offers a variety of name suggestion methods that helps you find available domains. With just a few clicks users can easily generate hundreds of random phonetic names, enter their own keywords and combine them with preset wordlists containing categorized suffixes and prefixes.

Domain Name Soup

Domain Name Soup is a free domain name generator to help you find available domain names. Whether you are looking to create a domain portfolio or are just looking for a cool domain for your blog or business, the tools at domainnamesoup.com should be able to help.

Bust A Name

Bust A Name allows you to enter a variety of keywords and it will find all combinations of those words that are available to register. Make sure you check out the video tutorial to get the most from this site.

123 Finder

123 Finder provides a range of tools/lists including keyword search, dictionary words, 4 to 10 character length domain lists and more.

Domain.nr

Domai.nr makes finding pithy URLs easy by querying 280 top-level domains and another 2,014 second-level ones for domain hacks, turning real English words into unique and memorable Web addresses.

Picky Domains

Picky Domains is more of a service. Pay them a $50 deposit along with your brief and they will come up with some domain names suggestions. If you see one you like, you register it. If they can’t come up with one you like then you get your money back.

Domain Exposer

Domain Exposer allows you to combine your keyword with other common themed words to help you find the perfect domain name for your site.

Dot-o-mator

Like domainexposer.com, Dot-o-mator combines your keyword with a list of themed words, it then allows you to check that list to see which ones are still available to register.

Domain Fellow

DomainFellow is another site that combines your keyword with a list of themed words, in this case you can specify the order (keyword first or keyword second).

SnapItNow!

SnapItNow! is also a site that combines your keyword with a list of themed words, but in addition to specifying the order, also allows you to test with hyphens between the keywords. Can specify to check for .com and/or .net and/or .org.

DomainTyper

DomainTyper is a simple search tool for checking domain name availability but also provide a domain name generator for cool web 2.0 domain names.

Domain Pigeon

Domain Pigeon generates a list of domain names AND Twitter names. The lists are colour coded to show how many people have clicked on them. If Twitter is important to you, this site will check for availability with both.

Name This

Like pickydomains, NameThis allows you to describe a project or product and receive name suggestions by the Namethis community. The service costs $99.

Well that’s it. I hope you found some great new tools to help you find your next domain name!

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We do ask that you do not redistribute this list. We have spent a great deal of time finding and visiting all these sites, should you wish to share this list, please provide them with it’s URL here at Webmaster Blog.

Enjoy!

Note: Click on the column headings to sort.

Name	PR	Restrictions/Niche	Lowest Cost	Signup
searchZone	6	Australian and New Zealand web sites only	Free	Submit
Come On Aussie	6	For sites about Australia and run by businesses with an Australian contact address. Must subscribe to an email list to remain listed.	Free	Submit
Only Melbourne	6	Complimentary listings for businesses based in Melbourne	Free	Submit
Australian Agriculture Directory	5	Australian-based or provide services in Australia and be relevant to farmers, rural communities or agribusiness	Contact for pricing	Submit
Hot Frog	5	Australian businesses	Free	Submit
Black Stump	5	Non-commercial	Not mentioned - appears to require reciprocal	Submit
Streets of Perth	5		$220/yr	Submit
Enterprise Search	5	Australian businesses	Free	Submit
iti	5	Australian businesses	Free, $199.95+GST for rapid	Submit
ANZ Directory	5	Australian & New Zealand Websites	Free	Submit
AdventurePro Australia & New Zealand	5	Outdoors and adventure in Australia and New Zealand	Free	Submit
WebWombat Business Directory	5		$137.50/yr	Submit
Manly Australia	5	Businesses based in Manly (Sydney)	$99/yr	Submit
Ozebiz Index	5		$10/yr or $18/2yrs	Submit
Ezilon	5		$69/yr or $199 once only	Submit
Possum Pages	4	-	Free(?)	Submit
Streets of Sydney	4		$220/yr	Submit
Aussie Now	4		$249.95/yr +GST	Submit
Aus Everything	4		Free (3m delay), reciprocal (14d delay), $39 once off (72hrs)	Submit
Directory Australia	4		Free	Submit
A to Z pages	4		Free	Submit
Web Directory Australia	4	General web directory for Australian sites	Free for non-commercial, otherwise $29.50 one time fee	Submit
Laton Australian Business Directory	4	Australian businesses	Free	Submit
Site Review	4	Must be Australian based	Free	Submit
Aistralia Online Advertising	4		Free	Submit
Surf Pacific	4		Free (no link), US$365/yr with link	Submit
AusDirectory	4		Free (with reciprocal)	Submit
Australian Dating Guide	4	Australian owned sites related to dating, relationships or personals	Free	Submit
Brisby	4	Australian businesses, also has section for Brisbane area	Free (with reciprocal), $60 (without reciprocal)	Submit
Cooee	3		Free (with reciprocal), $19.95 (no reciprocal)	Submit
IT services directory	3	Specialises in IT services including Internet Marketing, Web Design/Hosting/Directories, ISPs, IT Support, etc.	Free	Submit
Find A Site	3		Free	Submit
Sydney Business Directory	3	Businesses located in Sydney or service Sydney directly.	Free (with reciprocal)	Submit
Company Directory	3		Free (with reciprocal), $3.95 (no reciprocal)	Submit
Lend It To Me	3	Australian financial services sites	Free (with reciprocal	Submit
List-Directory	3		$19.95 once off, free for Not-for-profit	Submit
DW infoServer	3		Free	Submit
Sydney Info Link	3		Free (6m listing)	Submit
Streets of Brisbane	3		$220/yr	Submit
AusPage	3		Free (with reciprocal), $19.95/yr (without reciprocal)	Submit
Australian Music Directory	3	Music related sites	Free	Submit
Streets of Melbourne	3		$220/yr	Submit
Byron Bay Directory	3		Free (no link), $99/yr (with link)	Submit
Streets of Hobart	3		$220/yr	Submit
Streets of Darwin	3		$220/yr	Submit
Streets of Adelaide	3		$220/yr	Submit
Streets of Brisbane	3		$220/yr	Submit
Aussie Directory	2	Only Australian websites (i.e. com.au, net.au, etc), websites with Australian related content	Free (with reciprocal), $7.99/yr (without reciprocal)	Submit
WebDirectory.net.au	2		Free (with reciprocal), $4.95 (without reciprocal)	Submit
WebSiteLink	2		Free	Submit
Again Directory	2	Sites that are either Australian owned or will be of interest to Australians.	Free (with reciprocal), $2 (without reciprocal)	Submit
Directory.com.au	2		Free	Submit
Australian Businesses Directory	2		$9.95 (once only)	Submit
DeeStress Directory Australia	2	Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth Directory	Free (with reciprocal)	Submit
My Local Guide	2	Hills, Parramatta & Blacktown Area	$99/yr	Submit
Absolutely Australia	2	Travel and Business Directory. Ownership must be within Australia, and content pertaining to Australia	$5	Submit
Choxy	2	Perth business directory	Free (with reciprocal), $5 (without reciprocal)	Submit
Smartlocal	1		Free (no link), $400-660/yr with link	Submit
AustraliaDirectory.net	1		Free (with reciprocal/NOFOLLOW), $10 (without reciprocal)	Submit
I Need to...	1		Free (no link), $25 with link	Submit
MyHealthReporter	0	Health, medical & lifestyle related websites providing products and services to Australians.	$19.95	Submit
Oz Adverts	0		Free (ask for reciprocal)	Submit
Aussie B2B	0		Free (reciprocal optional)	Submit
Jadoo	0		Free	Submit
My Local Signmaker	0	Signwriters	Free (no link), $90-180/yr	Submit
OzFind	0	Only Australian web sites are allowed - .com.au,.net.au etc	Free (with reciprocal), $9.95 (without reciprocal)	Submit
Guide Australia	0		Free (with reciprocal), $19.95/yr (without reciprocal)	Submit
Down Under Index	0	Only Australian owned and themed websites will be listed.	Free (reciprocal optional)	Submit
Australia5com	0		Free (with reciprocal), $19.95/yr (without reciprocal)	Submit
Furniture Webs	-		Free (with reciprocal)	Submit
Property & Business Directory	-	Real estate and home owners industry	Free	Submit
Australian Bed & Breakfast Booking	-	Bed and breakfasts, guesthouses and farmstays in Australia	Free (with reciprocal)	Submit
GoNzOz	-	Australia & NZ directory	Free (with reciprocal)	Submit
The Gift Avenue	-	Gift sites	Free (with reciprocal)	Submit
FreeWebLinks	-		Free (reciprocal optional)	Submit
Ozebiz Index	-		$10/yr or $18/2yrs	Submit
Australian Biz Directory	-		Free (no link), $60/3m, $99/6m, $155/yr	Submit

Should you find any errors with any of the above information, please contact us show we may update the list.

Have we missed one?

Please let us know by completing the following form.

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