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If you are planning to have your own personal address in the Internet, then you should consider yourself getting a domain name.
A domain name is usually named after an individual, your name for example, if you want to have your own domain address for your blog or personal interest site; or other selected words that reflect or give an indication of the business interests of the site. Examples of domain names include thecleaniningservice.com or beautyproducts.com.
There are many reasons why domain names are essential especially for businesses. Here are some of the following:
- Domain names make your business sound more credible and reliable.
- The URL of domain names never changes even if you change webhosts such that customers are not needed to be informed should you change webhosts.
- A good domain name will make your clients and people recall your company easily which spells more profits.
- Advertisers and sponsors are more attracted in sponsoring websites who have their own domain name.
As an overview for registering domain names, InterNIC is the organization responsible for domain name registration. Registration fees vary and they range from US$ 15 to 35. The fee allows you to use the domain name for a year and payments are done annually.
But, there are some commercial hosts who are willing to register and pay for your domain name for free while other hosts are willing to register the domain name for but you'll have to pay the InterNIC fees.
Here are the steps you need to follow to be able to register your domain name:
1. Brainstorm concise, unique and applicable domain names you would like to use and list them. With the huge number of websites in the Internet, some of your ideas might have already been taken already so the more names you can think of, the better.
Consider also the domain name extension want to use.
- .com : no requirements
- .net : no requirements
- .org : no requirements
- .biz : requirement - for commercial and business use only
- .info : no requirements
- .us and other domain extensions for each country (.uk, .au, .ph, etc) : requirements - for persons who are citizens and residents of that country and for businesses and organizations present in that country where domain extension is applicable.
2. Get your IP addresses from the web host you decided to use - if there is one already.
3. Prepare for payment. Credit cards are the way to go for online transactions
4. Apply for your domain name in the webhost you chose. If you still haven't decided on your webhost, there are many sites in the Internet that offer webhosting. These include Yahoo which offers a monthly fee of $9.95; the very popular GoDaddy.com, with a registration fee of $8.95; Dotster.com, and many others.
There are things you need to consider if you plan to work with commercial webhosts. This includes making sure that you are the registered owner of the domain name. This is very important because the webhost who registers you in InterNIC can identify himself as the domain name owner which may spell trouble for you in the future. He now "owns" your domain name and he can now control how he'll charge you for your use. In order to avoid this, better register yourself personally.
It is also important to place your name as the technical contact and at the same time, the administrative contact even if the web host presents itself to take care of both positions. This will give you an edge later should you decide to transfer to a new host.
The approval of the administrative contact is usually a requirement from your current webhost should you decide to transfer to a new one. If the administrative contact cannot be reached then the technical contact is the next one contacted. There have been cases where webhosts, acting as administrative and technical contacts for a client, make it difficult for their clients to move to other sites by pending the move or by even refusing. So, better be in control with this kind of situation.
With these in mind, you can now register your own domain name. It's been observed that good domain names are getting more and more difficult to find so if you already have some ideas, register now before other people beat you to it.
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