Free .tk and co.nr domains?

[jmsben12]

What are your opinions on the free .tk and co.nr domain names?

In most cases it would be easier to post your .com domain in signatures and advertising, but for people that are new to the internet or don't want to set up hosting .tk and co.nr is a valid FREE and easy way for simply cloaking a blog or forum. It can also be a better alternative for shortening links instead of using tinyurl or bit.ly. Thoughts?

[Nathan]

Why would you want to cloak your blog or forum? I've never thought of doing it but would appreciate any thoughts you had on it.

[jmsben12]

Cloaking could have multiple uses, even more so if you get creative with it:

 

-You could use a script to track different marketing campaigns when promoting your .tk domain instead of your .com. bit.ly does track visitors, but sometimes that bit.ly link isn't as attractive and some scripts are better.

-Shortening a url. For example, if you had the domain websitedesignblog.com, you may shorten it to WDBlog.tk or WDB.tk

-I see a lot of people registering every version of their domain. (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .tk) I'm no SEO expert, but after consistently seeing this over the years I believe they use a related method to boost their rankings on Google through keywords, ect.

-Blackhat methods.

[Zacko]

-You could use a script to track different marketing campaigns when promoting your .tk domain instead of your .com. bit.ly does track visitors, but sometimes that bit.ly link isn't as attractive and some scripts are better.

That's a great idea, I would have never thought of that. Next time I shell out some money promoting my site, I'll be sure to try this out as it's hard to trust the information given to you by the promoters.

[BlackHatClass]

Free domains = used by spammers = less trusted by users = less trusted by search engines = too naive to own