Up until recently, there have been a very limited set of domain names that could be registered by the general public, specifically domain names ending in .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, and a couple of others.  Australians could also register domains ending in .com.au, .net.au and .org.au, and a couple of others.

This has now changed, quite dramatically.  There are now literally hundreds of gTLDs (global top-level domains) available to the general public, and more are being released every month.

For example, there's a new .photography domain name extension, enabling people to register domain names like fredsmith.photography, or wedding.photography.  Note that there is NO ".com" (or anything else) on the end of the domain name - that's the whole point of these new domain names!  This enables you to have a website with an address like www.fredsmith.photography, or even fredsmith.photography.  Your emails could be something like fred@wedding.photography.

As these new types of domain names become more and more accepted and widespread over the next few years, it will become less and less important for your business to have that elusive ".com" domain name, and increasingly important - and easy - to have a domain name extension that more closely fits with the industry you're in.

Here is the list of new domain name extensions, as it stands at December 2014:

.academy
.accountants
.actor
.agency
.archi
.army
.associates
.attorney
.audio
.bar
.bargains
.bayern
.beer
.best
.bid
.bike
.bio
.black
.blackfriday
.blue
.boutique
.build
.builders
.buzz
.cab
.camera
.camp
.capetown
.capital
.cards
.care
.career
.careers
.cash
.catering
.center
.ceo
.cheap
.christmas
.church
.city
.claims
.cleaning
.click
.clinic
.clothing
.club
.codes
.coffee
.cologne
.community
.company
.computer
.condos
.construction
.consulting
.contractors
.cooking
.cool
.country
.credit
.creditcard
.cruises
.dance
.dating
.deals
.democrat
.dental
.desi
.diamonds
.diet
.digital
.direct
.directory
.discount
.domains
.durban
.education
.email
.engineer
.engineering
.enterprises
.equipment
.estate
.events
.exchange
.expert
.exposed
.fail
.farm
.finance
.financial
.fish
.fishing
.fitness
.flights
.florist
.foundation
.fund
.furniture
.futbol
.gallery
.gent
.gift
.gifts
.glass
.global
.graphics
.gratis
.gripe
.guide
.guru
.haus
.healthcare
.help
.hiphop
.hiv
.holdings
.holiday
.horse
.host
.hosting
.house
.immobilien
.industries
.ink
.institute
.insure
.international
.investments
.jetzt
.joburg
.juegos
.kaufen
.kim
.kitchen
.kiwi
.koeln
.land
.lawyer
.lease
.life
.lighting
.limited
.limo
.link
.loans
.london
.luxury
.maison
.management
.market
.marketing
.media
.melbourne
.menu
.moda
.mortgage
.nagoya
.ninja
.nyc
.okinawa
.onl
.ooo
.organic
.partners
.parts
.photo
.photography
.photos
.pics
.pictures
.pink
.place
.plumbing
.press
.productions
.properties
.property
.pub
.qpon
.quebec
.recipes
.red
.reise
.reisen
.rentals
.repair
.report
.republican
.rest
.restaurant
.reviews
.rich
.rocks
.rodeo
.ruhr
.saarland
.sarl
.schule
.scot
.services
.sexy
.shiksha
.shoes
.singles
.social
.solar
.solutions
.soy
.supplies
.supply
.support
.surf
.surgery
.systems
.tattoo
.tax
.technology
.tienda
.tips
.today
.tokyo
.tools
.top
.town
.toys
.trade
.training
.university
.uno
.vacations
.vegas
.ventures
.versicherung
.vet
.viajes
.villas
.vision
.vodka
.voting
.voyage
.wang
.watch
.webcam
.website
.wien
.wiki
.works
.wtf
.xyz
.yokohama
.zone

Also, .sydney will become available for registration in the next couple of days.

These domains cost a little more than the regular .com, .net, .com.au, etc, but these prices will most likely come down over the next few years.

If you would like to register one of these new domain names and attach it to your website, or create email addresses, then please contact me.  Please also contact me if you don't understand what this means and you'd like me to explain it to you.

But hurry - these domain names are getting snapped up surprisingly quickly!