Everything You Wanted To Know About Domain Names But Were Afraid To Ask
Your domain name (or URL) is the address that you type into a web browser to visit a website. For example, www.amazon.com. That's a domain name. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then I don't even know how you got here.
In order for you to get your own domain name, you need to do four things:
- Come up with your domain name
- Discover that your domain name has already been taken
- Repeat Step 1 until Step 2 is not an issue
- Register your domain name
Coming up with your domain name
The standard make-up of a domain name is letters, numbers or hyphens, but they cannot begin or end with a hyphen. For example, www.i-luv-2-eat-tacos.com is an acceptable, albeit strange, domain name. Case-sensitivity is not an issue so, www.google.com is the same thing as www.GoOgLe.com.
As a general rule, you want to choose a domain name that is as susinct and easy to remember as possible. If, for example, your business sells seashells by the seashore, www.seashells.com is preferable to www.i-sell-seashells-by-the-seashore.net.
Discover that your domain name has already been taken
Of course, www.seashells.com was taken by somebody else a decade ago. And so was just about every one-word domain name in the English language. So some creativity and patience is necessary when coming up with a domain name. Just… please don't resort to something like www.seashells4u.com or www.kellysseashells1968.com.
Register.com and DomainsBot are two sites out of many that will help you determine whether or not a domain name has already been registered.
Repeat Step 1 until Step 2 is not an issue
This is unavoidable.
Register your domain name
Once you've discovered a combination of words, letters, numbers and hyphens that hasn't yet been registered, you may register it youself. Then you may do with it as you please.
You've no doubt heard of GoDaddy.com. They're probably the most famous, most salacious domain registery available. Register.com and NetworkSolutions are alternate solutions. A quick Google search will provide you with and endless supply of possible domain registrars.
Prices vary, but as of this writing you're going to shell out between ten and twenty dollars per year per domain.
Now do something
Having a snappy new domain name is a great thing. You'll feel very proud and you'll find yourself bragging about how clever it is. This is a phase, and it will pass. Don't worry.
But a domain name alone doesn't do anything but sound good and cost you money. In order to put that domain name to work, you need to hook it up to a server. Stay tuned for our next installment about that very topic!