This weekend, I finally decided to jump on the bandwagon (if you can even call it that) and snag an emoji domain. Lol.
How to Register an Emoji Domain
First things first, you need to choose what you want. Chances are you’ll need to have at least two emojis in your new URL since it’s likely that single emoji domains are already registered. To search emojis on your computer, you can go to Edit > Emojis & Symbols on your Desktop,
but I much prefer going to emojipedia.org and searching emojis there. Once you’ve found your set of emojis, copy & paste them into a Punycode translator with a .ws extension: https://www.charset.org/punycode.
In my case, I’m moving to Spain in few months so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for my domain- a round pushpin and a Spanish flag. When ready, click Normal text to Punycode.
The string of text should start with “xn”. Congrats- this is now the actual domain that you’ll be registering! You can register the domain at United Domains.
Domain Setup
I found that the registration process took a little longer than a normal domain might take. My order was “processing” for about a day. Once receiving an email that the domain had successfully registered, I went to my United Domains profile to edit the DNS settings for my emoji domain.
From there I added Reclaim’s nameservers: ns1.www.reclaimhosting.com & ns2.www.reclaimhosting.com. Note that it can take up to 24-48 hrs for this change to take effect globally.
After the new domain is pointed successfully at Reclaim, you can log into your account and add the domain in your cPanel as an Add-On domain.
Once it’s added to your account you’ll be able to use it like normal. 🙂 I added a simple Site Publisher template to my domain that you can view by:
1.) copying/pasting this into your browser-
.ws
2.) or by going here.
All in all, I’m glad I have the domain but I’ve learned that its a bit tedious to link up to. I also wish that Chrome would show the actual emojis, not the text associated with them. Safari shows the emojis though which is cool!!
