An Introduction To Domain Names

Getting your first website online can be quite confusing. Unless you’re outsourcing all web hosting and development tasks, there are a lot of stuff you’ll have to learn about. On another hand, learning the ropes of web hosting can be really interesting. At least I really do like this stuff.

Today I’ve decided to teach you a little about domain names and DNS.

What Is A Domain Name?

One of the first step to getting your website online is to get a domain name. The domain name is the address your visitors will use to access your website. For example, the domain name for this very website is thewebhostinghero.com.

Finding an available domain name is not an easy task. Lots of obvious domain names are already taken. Hell, even some people make a living at registering those and reselling them!

There are many extensions available: .com, .net, .org, .info, .tv, .mobi, etc. While you can pretty much register a domain name with any extension, some of them require you to have a business within a particular country. This is the case for .us, .ca. and .co.uk extensions for example.

These extensions are also known as Top Level Domains or TLD. Depending on the chosen TLD, you may spend between $4.00 to $30.00 a year for your domain name. You can find a list of all TLD on Wikipedia.

Choosing Your Domain Name Wisely

When choosing your domain, you may want to choose the right TLD. While dot-com domains are easier to remember for a lot of people, there are a lot harder to find.

Once you’ve determined the right TLD, try to find a simple domain name (good luck!) that

1. is easy to remember;
2. does not contain any dash;
3. contain keywords related to your website (unless you got a well-known trademarked name).

Try telling people your domain and see if they can get an idea of your product or service and if they must have you repeat ten times before they get it.

Where Can You Register A Domain Name?

Here are a few registrar where you can search and register domain names:

	.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info for $15.25 / year .name, .mobi for $14.25 / year
	.com, .net, .biz, .ws, .name for $9.99 / year .org for $9.99 / year .mobi, .us for $7.99 / year .org for $6.99 / year

There are also many web hosting plans that include a domain name. You may want to look up our shared hosting directory.

Once you’ve registered your domain name, what’s next? Well stay tuned as I’ll post more on getting your website online.

Subscribe to my RSS feed to be notified of updates on the subject!

Bookmark It