Choosing a Domain Name

One of the first things you will need to do in order to get started is to register a Domain Name (a dot com, dot net etc.). Securing a domain name is very easy to do. Choose a name that is directly related to what you are selling or related to the theme of your website.The past year, however, has seen the introduction of so many new Registrars that choosing one can be baffling. By no means are these registrars interchangeable. Shopping around to get the best service, the best deals, and the best contract pays off. The variations are enormous, and what you're getting for your money isn't always clear. The purpose of this article is not to recommend one registrar over another but to highlight the differences among a limited number of registrars in order to help you learn what to look for. Anyone can buy a domain name. To do so, you visit the Web site of a domain name registrar, tell the registrar the name you want to buy, and pay a fee.

You shouldn't buy just any domain name, of course—only one that isn't already registered and that bears a valid domain suffix. The suffix identifies the name as belonging to a specific top-level domain (TLD).There are quite a few new TLD's available for general purchase: Most commonly used are .com, .org, and .net. The most popular of these by far is .com, which is supposed to indicate commercial sites but in reality has come to include almost everything. The .org TLD stands for organization and denotes a nonprofit group, while .net stands for network and is supposed to include organizations that are concerned primarily with Internet networking itself. But in practice, .net is often used when the desired .com name isn't available. Your main concern when shopping for a Domain Name should only relevancy. Surfers should be able to look at your domain name and have a pretty good idea of what type of website it is.