How to Register a Domain

Registering a domain name is very easy . . . find an available domain name is the hardest part. If you need help finding a domain name, see my article, Find a Domain Name. It will give some great ideas for finding a domain name with high search engine value.

Registering a domain name is this easy:

1. Go to a domain name registrar.
2. Find an available domain name.
3. Pay the man, Shirley!

Wow, is that easy or what?

Where to Search for a Domain Name

You can search for available domain names at any domain name registrar. Personally, I like Dynadot the best, but NameCheap. Both offer very reasonable prices.

There are many, many other registrars, just make sure the one you use is ICANN accredited. All four of the registrars I use are accredited. Here is the official list of accredited registrars.

ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is a not-for-profit, public-benefit corporation dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on Internet domain names.

There are some registrars that are difficult to use, and some that make it very difficult to transfer to another registrar if you are unhappy with them. If you don't use the registrars I do, make sure you do your homework so you don't get stuck with a poor registrar.

How to Get a Free Domain Name!

• Arvixe Web Hosting : Free domain for life
• AvaHost : Free domain for life
• eBoundHost : Free domain for 1 year
• BlueHost : Free domain for life

Domain Registration Tips

• Searching for available domain names is part skill and part luck, so be prepared to spend some time at it, it may take some time.
• If you find a domain name you really like, grab it right away. If you don't, it could be gone when you try to get it later.
• If your site becomes popular, sometimes other people will register alternate domain extensions of your domain. For example, if you register MyDomain.com and your site becomes popular, someone may register MyDomain.net, MyDomain.org, MyDomain.info, etc. They do this for many reasons:
  • To try to capitalize on your site's popularity
  • To try to sell you the alternate names at a higher price
  • To try to leech traffic from people typing the wrong extension into their address bar—this is common if you don't own the .com version.
• If your domain name can be easily misspelled, chances are that it will be by some folks typing it into their browser's address bar. If you register common misspellings of your domain name and point those domains to your real site, you'll catch any misdirected traffic.

I mention it though, because you may want to consider registering various top level domain extensions of your primary domain. You can have any traffic an alternate domain gets forwarded to your primary domain.

There you go . . . registering a domain name really is pretty easy. Good luck with your new site!