How To Register A Domain Name

Written on November 7, 2009 – 11:35 am | by Chris Norman

Registering a domain name is seen by many newcomers to the web as a truly complicated, highly technical task that the average person cannot do.

Nothing might be further from the truth.

You only need to bits of information on hand when you buy your domain name:

- What you are going to call this domain

- and your web hosting DNS informations, these are given to you by your hosting company and look something like:
NS1.WEBSITEWELCOM.COM and
NS2.WEBSITEWELCOME.COM

They are almost each time provided to you in duo.

So first go to a reputable domain name registrar.
I propose using both www.Better-Domain-Names.com or www.Godaddy.com

These may not be the most inexpensive registrars currently on the web but their service, and reliability are incredible. I normally work on the principle “You get what you pay for”, and certainly not a more accurate thing can be said about domain name registrars.

OK, lets walk through the process of buying a domain name:

Using your web browser, visit a domain registrar. Usually on the front page there is a search option to check if the domain name you want is available.

Lets say for example, that you are seeking to register a domain name for your Dog Training website.

So you type in dogtraining.com push enter, and it comes back that that domain is already take.
Now, I would suggest that you enter prefix and or suffix words to the domain name you are after.
So you possibly will try:

betterdogtraining.com
bestdogtraining.com
dogtrainingnewsletter.com
dogtraininganswers.com

You could also try placing dashes “-” in your domain names to separate words.
Admittedly, there are a some of search engine optimization persons who currently think that the search engines are now beginning to penalize domains with ‘dashes” in them.
Another issue, sites that do not contain dashes and do not have any numbers in them, usually supposed to be sold for a higher value.
So if you think you might sell your domain sometime in the time to come, then it may be advisable to keep away using both dashes and numbers.

Lets say, that you find dogtraininganswers.com is aquirable.
So you move to the next page. Generally this asks you for the details of the person that is going to be the owner of this domain. Generally this will be your name, address, phone number etc.

Next the system will ask you for how long you want to purchase your domain for, the minimum time period is 1 year and the highest I have seen is 10 years. Most folks go for the 1 year period, only because it bills the slightest.
On the Better-Domain-names.com screen and the Godaddy.com page, you will see a link that says:
“If hosting your site somewhere else, please click here to set name servers”

Please set your name servers now (opting for the name server informations given to you by your hosting company), otherwise if you have to come back and change the default name servers at a posterior date. The trouble is that it usually takes a long time for the name servers to broadcast around the net and you may perhaps wait several days for this to happen. But if you set them now, they should propagate within a few minutes, possibly half an hour at the most.

Once you have keyed in *both* name servers values, you then move onto the payment screen where you key in your credit card details.

Here you may see an option named “Auto Renew”. Check this box!
This allows you to renew the domain recurringly when its term expires. Any good domain name registrar should send you an multiple emails before the domain is set to expire, and if you take no action on these emails, then the domain will get repeatedly renewed.
If you don’t set this “Auto pay” option, then system will let the domain gap and it becomes aquirable for some else to buy.

Once you click the “submit” key, it will take just a few moments for that new domain name to be yours.

Want to find out more about Domain Name Registration, then visit Chris Norman’s site on how to choose the best Domain Name Registration for your needs and many other useful informations.

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