What is a Domain Name?

How do you register domain names for your website? No problem. You can register domain names and have your website set up in three easy steps:

1. The first and hardest part when you want to register domain names is to find a good domain name that is still available. (This can take days.)
2. The second step is to find a good registrar who is able to register domain names on your behalf.
3. The third and easiest step is to point the domain name to your actual website.

Step 1. Coming up with Good Domain Names to Register.

Today, it is nearly impossible to find a good one word (i.e. www.money.com) or even two word (www.makemoney.com) .com domain name that is still available. Many of the straight forward .org, .net, .info, .us, .ca, .co.uk domains are also gone. Even the hyphenated names like www.make-money.com are also taken.

The good website names are gone because people registered the domain name and are

1. using them for their websites,
2. going to use them for their websites,
3. parking them and (trying) to make money off of the domain name
4. holding on to them like virtual real-estate and hoping to sell it at a high price. (The asking price for some of these domain names can be thousands of dollars.)

Unless you are a business or corporate enterprise branding itself on the web, chances are it’s not worth the price to register domain names that are being sold at a premium.

How do you find good names to register? A little creativity, a little luck, and a lot of patience! There are several good tools out there to help you. Most of the good web hosting companies will suggest alternative names if the domain names you want to register are already taken. (You can use any web hosting company to come up with domain names for free. You don’t have to register domain names with them.)

Here are three online tools that we used.

• We started with GoDaddy to find our website names. They suggest alternate names, as well as identify premium domain names that people are selling (see #4 above.)
• Eventually, we found www.makewords.com. MakeWords.com is good because it will generate long lists of alternate website names by adding popular words before or after your domain name search. You also have the option of entering in a custom list of words that you want to try before or after the domain names you try.The bad thing about Makewords.com is that it does make mistakes! We got excited when we found out some of our domain names were available, but when we actually when to a web hosting company to register the name, those domain names were already taken.
• We liked Yahoo the best for finding domain names. It had a great thesaurus because it suggested some really good alternate names (instead of just adding a word before or after)

Step 2. Selecting a Good and Affordable Web Company to Register Domain Names for you.

IMPORTANT: You don’t have to host your website with the company that registers your domain names. Shop around. You might find one company has a great price to register domain names and another company has a great price to host your website.

There are lots of good trusted companies that will register domain names for you. They range in price, but the typical .com registration costs around $10 per year.

Having said that, many web hosting companies will offer you absolutely free domain names (or at least, one absolutely free domain name) if you sign up your webhosting business with them as well (roughly $5 or $6 per month)

Be careful. Different companies have different special offers, but always read the fine print. For example, Go Daddy Bulk Domain Registration allows you to register domain names (as many as you want with no quantity limit) for $1.99 per year, however if you read the fine print:

One 1 yr $1.99* .com, .us, .mobi**, .biz, .info, .name, .net, or .org domain per each qualifying product; new, transfer or renewal.

In other words, you still need to sign up for a web hosting plan.

How to Register Domain Names in Canada

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority publishes a list of accredited registrars that are allowed to sell .ca domain names. Make sure you shop around. Prices vary significantly. (Some places charge over $30 per year for a Canadian domain name.)

The cheapest registrar we found to register domain names in Canada was 10dollar.ca which charges $10.45 (CDN) per year. (They charge $13.06 / year for .com and other domains so check the strength of the Canadian dollar before you buy.)

A few more things that you might want to know when you register domain names:

• When you register .com domain names, it takes a few moments before your website is live on the internet.
• When you register Canadian Domain Names, it’ll take 24-48 hours to become live on the internet after you have confirmed your information with the CIRA by email.
• By default, the information you use to sign up for a domain name is publicly listed in the whois database, unless you get a privacy package included from your webhost. (BlueHost offers free Privacy with their web hosting package).
  

Step 3. Point your Domain Names to your website.

If the company that you pay to host your website also registers your domain names, you don’t have to worry about pointing your domain names to the right spot. They’ll do it automatically.

If you register domain names with a different company than where your website is hosted, then you’ll have to point your domain name to your website. Let’s say that you registered your domain names with GoDaddy, but your website is hosted on BlueHost. No problem.

1. Go to your webhost’s help page or help chat and ask them what the Domain Name Servers (DNS) are. For example, we searched BlueHost’s help center for “DNS” and got the following answer: The Name Servers for Bluehost are:

ns1.bluehost.com 74.220.195.31
ns2.bluehost.com 69.89.16.4

You need to contact your Registrar (the company you bought your domain name from). And let them know you need to change your name servers to the ones listed above. Most registrars allow you to make the changes yourself online. If you know your login and username to their site make the changes yourself and 24 to 48 hours later the domain name will be pointing to your Bluehost.com account. You may have an email from your registrar from when you first bought the domain name. This usually contains the information needed to change the name servers, or just give them a call.

2. Go to the company that you got to register domain names for you. There should be a place where you can enter the DNS servers and point them to where your website is. For example, we searched GoDaddy’s help center for “DNS” and got the following instructions: Pointing Your Domain Name to a Third-Party Host Company’s Servers:To Modify the Name Servers for Your Domain

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Manage Domains.
3. Click the domain name you want to modify.
4. Click Nameservers.
5. On the Custom Name Servers tab, enter the name servers (at least two) for your hosting account.
6. Click OK.

Allow 4-8 hours for .COM and .NET domains and about 24-48 hours for all other domain extensions for the changes to take effect.

Bottom Line

You can get any company to register domain names for you and any company to host your website. They don’t have to be the same company. (If you want life to be simple, then it’s better to go to the same place. If you’re only want to register one domain name, just find a good webhost that includes an absolutely free domain name.)

Shop around for the best deals. It’s a buyer’s market! But remember… you can’t get a refund when you register domain names so make sure you check out the fine print. Here are some things you should look for when you buy a domain name.