One of the most domain hack-friendly ccTLDs – .IT, can now be offered for free with a web hosting plan.

.IT is one of the country-code TLDs that gained popularity because of their lexical and phonetic coincidence with English words.

Now you can take full advantage of the vast market potential of the Italian ccTLD and start offering .IT domain registrations/transfers for free with a web hosting plan.

.IT domains – some facts and details

.IT is the official country-code Top-Level Domain for Italy. At first, it was only available to native applicants who had to meet a host of local presence requirements.

In 2008, the ccTLD was officially introduced to the European public. The extension was instantly recognized as an attractive namespace by the IT industry.

Also, it is excellent for constructing catchy domain hacks like SCOOP.IT, LEARN.IT, SNEEZE.IT, etc.

The generic feel of the Italian ccTLD got lots of attention and led to an increase in .IT domain name registrations.

Over the last few years, there has been a steady flow of .IT domain registrations (around 500k per year):

Currently, there are more than 3 million active .IT-driven sites on the web.

Why register an .IT domain?

There are many reasons to offer .IT domains on your store.

Registering an .IT domain is a must for companies that are doing business in Italy and are looking to promote their brands on the local market.

Italians are very sensitive about their unique culture and language, which is why they show a clear preference for .IT-adorned sites over those ending in .COM or .NET, for example.

With an .IT-powered online presence, companies are guaranteed more visibility and greater customer outreach from the very start.

Apart from the local Italian online market, the .IT extension represents an excellent means of targeting the global IT industry as well.

Also, the Italian ccTLD offers many domain-hacking opportunities – one can think of a really cool combination consisting of an imperative verb and the .IT domain extension and ‘nail’ IT.

Catchy domains like CREATE.IT or TRAP.IT have already done wonders for their owners.

.IT domain registration details and requirements

.IT domains are suitable for individuals, companies and organizations from the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, the Republic of San Marino, the Vatican City and Switzerland.

An .IT domain can be registered for a 1-year period, can be locked and shielded using an ID protection service.

.IT domain names can be transferred over to us. Once the transfer has been finalized, the domain name’s expiration date is extended for a 1-year period starting from the date of the end of transfer.

Domain names must be at least 3 characters long; can be up to 63 characters long; can contain letters (A to Z), numbers (0 to 9) and hyphens (except at the beginning or end of the given domain).

How to register an .IT domain?

Upon registration, applicants will be asked to:

• Specify whether they are an individual or a company using the Legal form drop-down menu on the domain search form;
• Supply their ID/passport number (if foreigners) or their tax code (if Italians) (for individuals);
• Supply their VAT number (if from the EU) or Registration number (if from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, the Republic of San Marino, the Vatican City or Switzerland) (for companies);

How to enable .IT and ‘set IT free’ with a hosting plan?

If you are not offering .IT domains on your store, you should consider doing it. 

You can enable .IT with a click from your Reseller Control Panel (section “My Domains”):

The .IT TLD can now be offered for free with all web hosting packages that support this option as well.

If you have already enabled the free-domain option for any of your hosting plans, it will be in force for the .IT domain as well.

If you have not taken advantage of this option yet, you can do so from the Shared Hosting Offers section of the Reseller Control Panel.