What in the World is a Domain?
Before you can get started, your business needs a name. Yah, your business already has a “name”, but you need to get your identity online with what we call a “domain name”.
The domain name is simply a unique name that identifies your website. It usually contains two parts: the first part being your “desired or company name” with that being separated by the general name or extension such as .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz or even .tv. Actually, there are quite a few you can choose from now, but my advice is to always try to get your desired name followed by a .com and I’ll explain why in a little bit.
The Domain Registrar
In order to get your own domain name, you must use a Domain Registrar to register it. Domain registrars are companies that have the authority to lease domain names to individuals or companies. The annual fees can range usually starting around $6.95 and up depending on the registrar themselves, your chosen extension and any additional features you may choose to include such as private registrations.
You can also choose to register your domain name for more than 1 year at a time. By doing this you’ll get discount or bulk pricing.
GoDaddy.com
Godaddy is the one I typically use. They offer great customer service and support as well as an easy backend account center.
Choosing Your Name
The key to choosing a domain name is to make it simple and as short as possible. You want it to be something that is easily remembered. Example, if your company name is XYZ Bottles Inc. You could try xyzbottlesinc.com or xyzbottles.com.
Your company name is your “Brand”, but sometimes it’s not an available domain name (someone else has already registered it) so you have a few options.
- You could hyphenate your name (xyz-bottles.com)
- You could try a different extension (xyzbottles.net, .org, etc)
- Or you could check the Whois database to see who owns the name currently and when it expires, then contact the owner to see if they are willing to sell that domain name. This can be a costly option as in-demand names can range into the thousands.
Remember, this is important to get right from the start because once you get your website up and start marketing, you don’t want to be worried about moving it to a new domain down the road.
Which Extension Should You Chose
As I said earlier, you want to try to get the .com extension if you can. The reason? Well, .com is the most popular and widely recognized extension there is. People searching for your site directly will tend to automatically add the .com mainly out of habit and could end up on someone else’s website (your competition perhaps!). So try every combination with the .com before moving on to another extension.
If you can afford to purchase more than one domain name, why not safeguard your domain by purchasing it in more than one such as xyzbottles.net, .org, .ca, etc then re-direct the other domains back to your primary website. This will mean that no matter what extension your customers type in, they will always end up on your website rather than someone else’s.
I’ll explain “How” to do this further on when we get into the hosting section, but it’s something to keep in mind when purchasing your domain name now.
Private Registrations
Private registrations will shield your personal information from prying eyes and cut down some of the spam you tend to receive. I personally will spend the extra to have this protection and have noticed a huge difference in my inbox since doing so.
When you purchase your domain name, you’ll be offered this service before the final payment is required.
What About Free Servers?
Many free servers or hosting services will offer you a domain name included with your hosting account. The name is usually a desired name under their own domain name such as http://desiredname.their_server.com or http://www.their_server.com/desiredname/. Not only will this hurt your credibility and professionalism in the eyes of potential customers, free hosting services also often impose a ton of pop-ups and advertisements which as you probably already know is an extreme annoyance.
Now-a-days you can find reliable hosting for a nominal monthly fee that will allow you not only the freedom to use your own domain name, but also the flexibility to add anything you like to your own server space. We’ll discuss hosting options shortly, but for now, you really should avoid these services if you can.
What Should You Do Now?
Head on over to GoDaddy.com and click on “Domains”.
You’ll see a box where you can enter your desired name and chose the extension, then click ok and it will tell you whether or not your domain name is available as well as offer other suggestions that may work for you.
Have fun and play around with the different names. But spend some serious time on this to make sure you get the domain name that best represents your company now and in the future.
Hopefully I’ve covered everything here, but if you still have questions, please ask away by replying to this post and I’ll do my best to help you out.
Toresa:)
