Domain Names

Deciding on a Name, and Seeing if it's Available ...

The single most important thing is to own and control your own domain name (also called your URL) Ideally, your domain name would be the exact name of your business. The owner of Jack's Painting would like to have "www.jackspainting.com," If you were Glendale Florists, "www.glendaleflorists.com" would be ideal. However, unless you have a very unique name in mind, you may find it taken. THIS IS CRITICAL .. you MUST register the name yourself, and know how to renew your registration!

If you are doing this for a business or organization that is commonly known by its acronym, that might be a great domain name ... and shorter to type or remember than your full name. The world knows that VW stands for Volkswagen ... and they use that two-letter acronym as their domain name. If you are Valerie's Waffles or Vic's Wallpaper, you're out of luck for using that acronym. You may have to spell it out, or you might have to have to get creative. Some folks have registered a domain name first, and then set up their business name to match. Our friend Jack the painter could include his city in his domain name. If located in Kiel, he might become "www.jackspaintingkiel.com."

One of my favorite Sheboygan business names is Central Bark, a doggie daycare. But that domain name had been taken by a business in Denver, so their domain name is "www.centralbarkusa.com," handy if they decide to franchise!

We're going to give you the opportunity in class to find out if the name you want is taken ... and to keep trying alternate names until you find one you like. We'll also show you how to find out who owns a particular domain name. It is possible to register a name privately, so others can't see who owns it. You will have some time in class to do some lookups.

Traditionally, but NOT legally, .com is for businesses, .org is for non-profits, .gov is government. Other domains, such as .net, .biz, .us, or .tv are available. If the "dot com" version of your name is not available, you might look at one of these others, but be cautioned that out of habit, most people will think "dot com" even if yours uses one of these other domain "extensions." However, if "www.jackspainting.net" is available, he could choose that and not include Kiel. These are the kinds of decisions you must weigh. There's nothing to stop you from registering multiple variations of your name to "protect" them, and it's cheap to keep them all active ... you can even direct them ALL to your site!

Registering Your Domain Name ...

Once you've found a name you want, you must register it, which is quick, inexpensive, and makes YOU the legal owner of that name worldwide. You will be able to register your domain name during class if you wish. We'll devote a few minutes to guide those who want to register immediately, and others can watch the process. You'll need to choose (or may be assigned) a userID and a password for your registration account, and I can't urge enough that you MUST record these somewhere because NO registrar will allow you back into the account without proper identification!!! When you register, you'll have to pay immediately. No registrar will "reserve" a domain name ... it must be paid for in order to take effect.

What You Must NEVER Forget!

We will hammer home the single most important thing about owning a domain name, and that is ... if your contact information changes, you MUST update your registration record!. Notices are sent out when your registration is about to expire, and if you've changed your e-mail address, you won't get the notices. And you won't know it's time to renew. And if you fail to do that, you'll lose your name. Time for a horror story!

Of course, as mentioned above, never lose your account ID and password ... because without them, you won't be able to get in to update your contact info or renew your registration!!!

If you've invested time and money in getting that name known, and allow it to expire, you will be out of luck. There are companies that watch for expirations, pounce on the domain names and re-register 'em, then try to sell 'em back to you at a premium price. Sometimes it may be a competitor watching for you to slip up. And it's completely legal. You snooze, you lose.

Resources For Registration:

I'm personally familiar with these three, but have no vested interest in any of them. There are many more!

www.123CheapDomains.com - registration only, plus "whois" search to find out who owns a name,

Very simple management system for multiple domain names.

www.Hostsite.com - sister company to 123, does both registrations and hosting, good variety of

services including e-mail, a basic site builder, some commerce options, traffic statistics, and more.

www.GoDaddy.com - registration plus hosting, e-mail, huge range of services, cost escalates with

complexity ... capable of handling large commerce sites, huge array of integrated options.