How To Get A Domain Name For Your Website
The first step in starting the online presence: Get a domain name from a domain register company and find domain parking until your domain registration is complete and you find a website hosting company to hold your website.
The domain name you choose is what the world at large will know you by. The standard rule of credibility is in the name. Your name is the equivilant of the importance of location in real estate. If you want to be taken seriously, you need to be a dot something.
These are the most common of the dots:
.com- for commercial businesses
.gov - for governments
.org - for organizations
.net - for networks
The latter two usually imply nonprofit, but that is not always the case. Anyone could purchanse a .com, .org, or a .net, but unless you are actually a branch of government, you cannot get a .gov.
By far, the .com is the standard and preferred domain name ending to get. Other endings are acceptable such as .tv, .us, .info, but they tend to be brushed off by a serious audience and sometimes are not considered at all by search engines.
The problem with .com domain names is most of the good ones are already taken or being held captive by a domain name squatter. It is not impossible to get a good .com domain, but you may have to be a little more creative when coming up with a name.
International domain names could be purchased by anyone in the world. I happen to have a .co.uk domain name and live in the US. However, the content on that site is aimed at a UK audience. It is kind of pointless to have an international domain name unless your content is geared for that particular audience.
eNom is one of my personal preferences. It costs a bit more, but it is more practical if you want easy access to point your domain to another location should you decide to change your web hosting company without involving a middle man who can muck things up for days.
If you have a vision of the purpose of your website and you know the theme, work on coming up with a domain name that includes keywords to describe your site. Or if you have an official name for your web site, use it if available.
Once you figure out your purpose for the site, think of a name. Make it short and punchy or descriptive or based on your offline business name. For instance, if you are Nick's Pie Shop and your business is a local venture, you could still be nickspies.com and market to your niche audience people in your town who want fresh pies delivered.
The reason you want a memorable dot com domain name is one of the most effective form of advertising is word of mouth. Dot com domain names are far easier for people to remember than any other domain name suffix. It is hard to make your name branded when people can't remember it. If you advertise in the mainstream medium forms, people aren't always in front of their computers at the time they see your ad, so will they remember it a few hours from now when they log on?
When you think of a good domain name (think of several possibilities) you need to register your name in order to be allowed the right to have the name point to the numerical location of your site. Your computer or host computer are identified by numerical digits. If you are hosting your own site, the numerical digits are your IP address. If someone else is hosting your site, it would be their IP address. When you register your name, you can then have the number correspond to your name. Face it, how many people would remember to visit your site if it was 209.54.2354?
If you want to sell toys, it would be hard to get toys.com. If your toys are for children, you could try alternatives such as toys4kids, kiddie-toys, child-playthings, or something similar. By using keywords in your domain name, you also rank a bit higher in search engine results by people who enter those terms.
If the .com version of the domain name you really want is not available, consider the other domain ending options.
Once you find the name, buy it for a period of 2 or more years to make sure you don't lose it too soon. You will usually get a 30 day warning that your domain name is up for renewal and a short period after expiration to renew it. If you don't, it is up for grabs and a domain squatter or someone else who is eyeing it may want to take it. If you worked hard for your site and developed a large audience, it would be a shame to risk losing them to someone else who takes over your domain.
Buying the domain alone will not give you access to put up a site. The domain name is what ICANN [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers] uses to keep track of what web site is where and who owns the right to use it. In order for anyone to find your site, you must inform ICANN where the site can be found.
ICANN is an internationally organized, non-profit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol [IP] address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic [gTLD] and country code [ccTLD] Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions.
These services were originally performed under U.S. Government contract by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority [IANA] and other entities. ICANN now performs the IANA function.
The Domain Name System [DNS] helps users find their way around the Internet. Every computer on the Internet has a unique address called its IP address [Internet Protocol address]. Because IP addresses [strings of numbers which identify your location] are hard to remember, the DNS allows a familiar string of letters, AKA the domain name, to be used instead.
ICANN is responsible for coordinating the management of the technical elements of the DNS to ensure universal resolvability so that all users of the Internet can find all valid addresses.
When you purchase a domain name, that is all you get. It does not point anywhere. If you buy a domain through your hosting company, chances are they bought it through a wholesale or re-seller package which will make it harder for you to access or change the DNS information when you need it. Web hosting companies have a vested interest in doing it that way. If you don't know how to access it, you are pretty much forced to stay with that company to host your site.
When you go directly through a site that sells domain names, such as eNom, it gives you more freedom to pack up your site and go to another hosting company. It also gives you the responsibility to make sure you can contact ICANN to let them know where the domain name points. eNom has an easy access panel to change that information when you need it.
When you sign up with a webhosting service, you will be given two sets of DNS numbers or letters. Keep that information handy as you will need it if you have to point it yourself. With eNom, you just go to the control panel, find the domain name that needs to be pointed, and enter those 2 sets of numbers and submit it. It is automatic and takes 24 hours or less to activate.
When you buy a domain name from a hosting company, they take care of that step for you. Sometimes, it is much better to buy your domain name separate from your web hosting package so you can be master of your own domain:-)
Remember! Get a domain name from a domain register company and find domain parking until your domain registration is complete and you find a website hosting company.
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