Domain Name Registration

Once you've finally found your perfect domain name and made sure that it's still available, the next thing you have to do is to register it. This is both cheap and easy! In the early days of the Internet, domain name registration cost around $70/year but today you can register a .com, .org or .net address for well under $10/year. If you register many names you can get a further discount!

Some companies will provide both web hosting services and domain name registration, but there's no reason you have to use the same company for both. When you register a domain name with almost any service, you have the ability to easily set what is known as the nameserver information, which basically tells traffic where to go to get to your website.

You don't need to have a website setup to register the domain name, so if you have a great idea for name, but you don't have a website or even a plan for how to create a website, it's still not a bad idea to register the name. It will cost less than $10/year to get the registration, and that means nobody else can register your name while you're working on your site. If you later decide not to bother with a website, you can let the registration lapse and you've only lost your registration fee.

There are hundreds of companies and websites which will allow you to register a domain using your credit card. It takes only a minute to do. Various companies offer various levels of service and options. Some allow you to forward traffic and email sent to your domain to an existing website or email account. Check around and see what's on offer today. I've used TOS Domains and they seem OK, but check around and compare the features offered by a number of domain registration sites and pick the best.

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