Registering a Domain Name
Overview
What's a domain name? It's www.whatever.com.
Now's the time
Now's the best time to see if there's a domain name that matches your business name. You don't want to register your business only to find there are no domain names that work for it.
Uses for a Web Site
You may not think you need a web site for your business, but there's another reason to have your own domain name. You can use if for email. For example, I own hammock.net. And my address is scott@hammock.net. I will never have to change my email address as long as I live. If you use an ISP (internet service provider) based email address, you will have to change your email address if you change your ISP. For example, in my area, Sprint used to be the local phone company. People used name@earthlink.com. But Sprint got bought out by Embarq, so everyone had to change their email address to name@embarqmail.com. Then Embarq got bought by CenturyLink, and now people have to change their email yet another time. This is devastating for a business.
You could use Yahoo mail or Gmail, but for a business, that lacks professionalism. And at $19/year or so, it's a small price to pay to have your own domain name.
Once you register a domain name, you can have a professioal looking email address that you keep for life, even when you retire in Tahiti.
Dashed and Dashless
Seriously consider registering the dashed and dashless version of your domain name. For example,
www.stepstostartingyourbusiness.com
www.steps-to-starting-your-business.com
both point to the same thing. The dashed version is much easier to read, isn't it? But the dashless version is much easier to say. Imagine telling someone over the phone that your domain name is steps [dash] to [dash] starting [dash] your [dash] business.com Very awkward.
Common Misspellings
If there's a common misspelling for your domain name, you might want to grab that, too. For example,
even though "kidz" is spelled with a "z," many people still will spell it with an "s." So this business registered both.
Search Engine Keywords
All else, it's better to have the keywords people will search for in your domain name. For example, if your company name is ACME Corporation and you sell Widgets, having the domain name www.widgets.com will help you with the search engines. People will be searching for widgets, not ACME Corporation. And the search engines to look for keywords in the domain name. Try doing a Google search and see how many of the results have your keywords in the domain name. Probably some of them will.
Action Item
Visit a domain name registrar and click on "Register a Domain Name." You can register a domain name through J. Hammock & Associates. www.hammock-registration.com Our prices are middle-of-the-road at $19/year to register a domain name. Prices range from $8 to $35. Feel free to use another registrar if you prefer, I won't be offended.
One advantage of going through www.hammock-registration.com is that I can help you out with it. And if you ever lose your username/password, I can help you out. With other registrars, it can be a bit challenging if you're new at it. But if you're familiar with one of the big discount registrars such as GoDaddy, that's fine.
What to Expect Next
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Questions
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