Domain Registration

Although I strongly recommend that for your first home internet business venture, you purchase a web hosting package that registers your domain for you, like that at iPowerWeb, you can also register a domain name separately and tranfer that domain name to any web host at a later time.

If you decide to do this, your best bet is to register your domain name at GoDaddy.com. Domain name registration is only $8.95/year and Go Daddy gives you the most free options of things you can do with that domain name until you're ready to actually use it. You can 'park' your new domain name at Godaddy until you are ready to create your web site. When that time comes, you can choose to host it using one of GoDaddy's hosting plans or transfer it to another web host. Take a look at GoDaddy's features here.

So, what exactly is a domain name? A domain name is a unique name of a computer or server on the internet that distinguishes it from other computers on the network. The domain name is actually associated with a specific IP Address or Internet Protocol Address. Every server or computer on a network must have a unique IP Address, which is a set of four numbers separated by a period, each number set consisting of up to 3 numbers. Examples of IP Addresses would be 10.0.0.1 or 256.255.194.56.

Since trying to remember a website based on an IP Address would be too difficult, a domain name is associated with a specific IP Address to make it easier to remember. When you type the domain name 'google.com' into your browser window, your ISP performs a domain name resolution in its DNS (Domain Name Server or Domain Name System) database and locates the actual IP Address used by google.com.

A domain name can be a string of alpha-numeric characters, including 'underscores' and 'hyphens', up to 63 characters long. Domain names are not case-sensitive (ie GOOGLE.COM, google.com, and GooGLe.CoM will resolve the same).

A domain name is often mistakenly referred to as a web address or a URL. The following examples show the breakdown of domain name components and the difference between a URL and a domain name:

URL - http://www.google.com/
Server Name - www.google.com
Domain Name - google.com
Top Level Domain - com
Domain - google
Subdomain - www (default)

When you register your domain name, you must choose a name for the domain and the top level domain you wish to be associated with (ie 'com', 'net', 'org', etc.). Since each domain name must be a unique string of characters, you must first make sure that the domain name you have chosen is not already being used. Whether you register your domain name on your own or have it registered for you by a hosting service as part of the purchase of a hosting package, you will be required to perform a domain name lookup first to make sure that it is not already taken.

Even though some other top level domains may be becoming more popular, my advice would be to do your best to register your domain as a .com. Internet users seem to associate more easily with the .com extension. If you choose a .net top level domain and then choose a domain that is already being used by a .com, then you may have customers mistakenly visiting the .com site rather than yours.

For example, let's say there is already a domain name registered as 'thisismydomain.com' and you register your domain name as 'thisismydomain.net'. If a user comes to your site and really enjoys it but forgets to bookmark it, when they remember your site name later but not the top level domain, guess who's page they're going to accidentally visit? And since the domain is identical, chances are good that the .com site has similar content and may even be a direct competitor.

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