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How to register a domain name

Domain names are registered with an organization called ICANN which keeps references of all website name registrations. If you are interested in registering a new domain name you would actually register it through a registrar company.

Domain Name Registration is a business like any other, so there are many domain name registrar companies you can choose from. Some of them have been around for a long time and have established a name for themselves. There are many domain name registrars out there but they all provide the same services and usually allow you to buy an Internet name for your website using a simple control panel.

Register Domain at GoDaddy - A Web Host Known for its Reliability

Domain names consist of a name part and an extension part. You can say that domain names come in different flavors. The name part is obvious, it is what you would like to name your website. You have a few options when it comes to choosing the extension. For most purposes you should probably get a domain name with an extension "com". Which stands for company. The extension "org" stands for organization and "net" stands for network.

The domain name extension usually consists of 2 to 4 characters. The extensions .com, .net, .org and .info are the most-widely used ones. You can also get: .us, .biz, .ws, .name, .tv, uk, etc.

Many domain name registrars allow you to register your domain name for as little as $10 to $30 per year. But different companies have different plans and costs. I have listed a few links pointing to a few popular domain name registrars below. You can use PayPal or your credit card to buy any of the domain names. If you are ready to buy a domain name, simply choose one of them and follow instructions on the next page. It is safe to get a domain name from any of the following registrars:

1. World's Most Popular Registrar - GoDaddy my godaddy review
2. Dotster.com paypal my dotster review
3. Register.com paypal my register review
4. Moniker paypal my moniker review
5. 1 & 1 Internet paypal my 1 & 1 Internet review

Registering a domain name (also known as URL) by yourself is a straightforward process. But some people who have never registered a domain name before may want to learn more about how this process works and what it means. Before you register your own domain name I highly recommend that you pay attention to a few things you should consider thinking about to avoid making common mistakes that can also appear not very obvious if you've never done this before.

If you don't take a few minutes to consider a few simple bullet points below your mistakes are likely to become clear, but only later when your website is already online and it's too late to make changes to your website name. A situation you should avoid being in.

1. Choose a niche and then brainstorm for a domain name. Don't register your domain name before you have chosen a niche subject for your website. For example, before I registered the domain name www.WebsiteHomework.com I already knew what my website was going to be about: I wanted to build a valuable resource for people who would like to learn how to create websites. I knew that I wanted to write website-related articles for people of any skill level, but especially for the beginners. So I chose the word homework, which makes perfect sense in the case of my website's content. Before you make any critical decisions in choosing a name for your new website, be sure to read my article that explains How to choose a name for your website and keep in mind that there is much more to this process than it seems at first. Because most domain names using obvious words are already taken you really have to be creative during this process. Moreover, you must look to create a name that has identity and easy to remember so people can easily pull it from the backs of their mind when they think about your website. Make it easy to remember. Any time people want to access your site by simply typing your domain name into Google or the browser's address bar there shouldn't be a reason for not being able to recall it. Keep it simple. Keep it memorable. Use bold words that express purpose and flourish with identity.

2. Check if your domain name is available. Now that you have an idea of what you want your domain name to be, it's time to check if it's actually available for the taking. And that someone else hasn't already registered it before you. If you want to check for availability of a name right now, then proceed to How to check if a domain name is available website by following this link. And just to be complete, I created a page where you can learn more about the different websites that allow you to do just that. Head over the other article I have written showing a List of all domain availability services. This article lists a number of websites that offer you this service. They all pretty much do the same thing: electronically look up the status of a domain name registration from the domain registrations database managed by ICANN. Then these services return a response to let you know whether the name you have chosen is available or not.

3. How to register a domain name that's already been taken? Is it possible? In some cases you can actually obtain the rights for ownership of a domain that has already been taken by someone else. Backordering is the process where you notify a company to put a watch on a domain name and register the domain name in question soon as it expires. This can be an expensive service. Don't forget that you can actually look up the email address of the person who registered the domain name you are interested in by using a website that offers something called WHOIS Services - How to look up domain name owner. Once you identify the domain name owner's email address, you can contact that person regarding the purchase of their domain name and possibly negotiate a price. However, take a piece of my advice about this. Neat domain names are nice. But with a little creativity and perhaps help from Thesaurus, you can get creative and invent interesting and memorable domain names for your website that have not yet been registered. Yes, short and neat domains are good-to-have, but don't make them become a fancy possession you can tell your friends about. The purpose of any website should be to provide value to the visitors. Going after a domain name that is already registered can be time consuming, especially when we know that while nice names are important, domain names do not define the value of your website - the content does.

You registered your domain name. What's next?

You can't make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without either one of the ingredients missing. To make a PBJ sandwich you must have both: peanut butter and jelly. To start a new website on the Internet you must register a domain name and also you must get web hosting. Without web hosting your website cannot be accessed on the Internet, because without a web hosting server, you would not have a place to actually store files containing your website's code. The domain name is only a name :)

Here is a list of web hosting companies I recommend using. If you would like to see the full list of web hosting company reviews Web Hosting Company Reviews may be the article for you. There I explain how to choose a web hosting company for your website and what to look for. Although it's a pretty straightforward process.

If you've never registered a domain name before you probably don't know that simply getting your name from a registrar company is not enough to start running a website. After you get a domain name for your website, you will need to "link" or associate it with a hosting company of your choice.

Most web hosting companies also provide the services of a domain name registrar company. They offer both services (domain name registrations and web hosting) to make the process less complicated. These web hosting companies make your experience seems transparent and less troublesome by eliminating the need to link your domain name to your hosting server. A process commonly referred to as setting up your DNS using the Domain Name System. It makes sense for a company to do it this way. They make money on both: your domain name registration and hosting, instead of just one and also eliminate a complex process. However, this can also sometimes result in the web hosting company actually owning your domain name! Because of this, I highly recommend registering a domain name with a separate company than the one that does your web hosting. For example, I can get the domain name WebsiteHomework.com from Register.com, which I really like for their uncluttered, easy-to-use control panel. I can then go ahead and host my website with GoDaddy another favorite of mine. This way I gain absolute control over my domain name and I can always move to any web hosting company later on when, for example, I need to upgrade to a faster web server to handle more web traffic. Sure, I will have to set up DNS manually, but this is a process that takes about 5 minutes.

If you have made the decision to keep your domain name and web hosting separate, which is what I highly recommend, you will need to set up your DNS server manually. I will explain how to link your domain name with your web hosting company in another article. You can find it in the paragraph above this one, it's called Setting up your DNS using the Domain Name System.

In conclusion

The Internet domain name system (DNS) consists of a hierarchically-organized directory of all the domain names and the computers that correspond to them. These computers are owned by companies or people using the Internet. When you register a domain name, it will be associated with the computer on the Internet you designate during the period the registration is in effect. From that computer, you can create a website which will be accessible to Internet users around the world.