The first step to establish your web presence is to register your domain name. Registering a domain is easy and straightforward. You can do it online in minutes, and it should cost you no more than $10 a year.

How do I register a domain name?

You have to go to the website of a domain registrar (a company authorized to sell domain names). You will then use their domain search feature to check if your domain name is available. If you want to check now if your domain is available type it here and click search:

I register all my domains with GoDaddy.com. It is an extremely reputable registrar with great customer service, a user-friendly interface and excellent prices.

Do I need to put up a website to register my domain?

No, you don't need to have a website to register a domain. In fact, you shouldn't wait until you have a website to register your domain. The common misunderstanding that you need a website to register a domain stems from the fact that most hosting companies offer domain registration included in their hosting packages.

Personally, I do not recommend letting your hosting company register your domain, because if one day you need to change web hosts they will make you jump through hoops before they agree to release your domain.

You should register your domain through an independent domain registrar (as explained above) and simply point it to the servers of your hosting company (don't worry too much about how to do this now; your hosting company will give you detailed instructions). If one day you decide to change hosts, you will just need point your domain to the servers of the new hosting company. You are in complete control of your domain.

How can I get a branded email address like myname@mycompany.com?

Once you register your domain name, it is very easy to create an email forwarding address. Email forwarding is usually a free feature that comes with your domain registration.

The way it works is this:

First, log into your domain registrar account (the one you created when you registered your domain) and go to the email forwarding section. You will then create an email forwarding address, let's say: yourname@yourdomain.com, and forward it to your regular email address (for example yourname@aol.com). That's it. You are now ready to start promoting your new address yourname@yourdomain.com in all your marketing pieces (business cards, stationary, brochures, etc.).

Using your own branded email address will give you more credibility than using the email address of your internet service provider. Again, you don’t need a website to begin using email forwarding.

What kind of domain name should I choose?

This is a simple question with no easy answer. A domain name can fall into one of these four categories:

• Keyword domains
• Company name
• Company name mixed with keywords
• Branded domains

Keyword domains:

A keyword domain is a domain such as: we-buy-houses-cash.com or sellhousefast.com . It includes keywords you would use on a search engine query to find something you are interested in (in this case, somebody who can buy a house fast, or a way you can sell your house fast). Keyword domains became popular when search engines gave websites a boost in rankings for selected keywords if those keywords were included in the domain. Nowadays, search engines have become more sophisticated and they no longer rely on domain name keywords to assign rankings (they rely instead on the quality and the amount of links pointing to the page).

One-word or two-word keyword domains are easy to remember and very sought after (they are almost all taken, though). Three-word or more keyword domains are harder to remember and look awkward. If you find a good two-word keyword domain that is available take it!

Company name:

You should definitely try to register your company name. If your company name is a noun (for example "Atlantic") most likely that domain (atlantic.com) is already taken. You may need to use a second word to increase your chances of finding an available domain (for example: atlanticconstruction.com).

Company name mixed with keywords:

In the previous example, the second word we chose was a keyword (a generic term related to your field: "construction", assuming that you own a construction company). This is a good domain choice since it mentions both your company name and the nature of your business

Branded domains:

To use this type of domain effectively, you will need a huge marketing budget. Well known branded domains usually say nothing about the company they represent until so much money is spent on marketing them that they become household names. Of course we're talking about the likes of Yahoo!, Google, Amazon, eBay, etc. If you are a real estate investor, you have better things to do with your money than spending it trying to convert a meaningless word into a house hold name. Needless to say, I do not recommend a branded domain for your real estate investment business.

In summary, I recommend that you register your company name (both with and without a keyword), and if you find a good two-keyword domain, register it too. To continue with our example, I would then try to register:

atlantic.com
atlanticconstruction.com, and maybe something like
residentialconstruction.com (in the unlikely event that it is still available).

You can choose one of them as the main domain under which you will host your web pages, and then point the other two to your main domain through a feature called "domain redirection" (also offered for free when you register your domains).  That way, it doesn't matter which of the three domains you type on the address bar, you will always be transported to your site.

If you are about to establish your own corporation, by all means choose your domain name before you choose your company name. It would be a big setback if you incorporate your company and afterwards notice that the domain name you wanted to use is already taken.

Should I register a .com, .net, .org or .biz domain?

Definitely .com. When somebody is trying to remember your domain name, they will almost always assume that it ends in .com. If you register a popular domain name with a .net or .org extension because the .com variant is already taken, you run the risk of people assuming that your domain ends in .com, so you will end up sending your prospects to your competition. It is better to think hard and more creatively, and try to come up with a .com domain.

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