Your Domain Name - Domain Name Selection

This is one of the primary marketing tools.
Your domain name should accurately reflect your business.
WebMaster Tip: If you can incorporate one or more of your primary keywords in your domain name your search engine listings will be better.

Domain names are a hot commodity on the Internet. They are like the company sign in cyberspace. Many people do not complete understand what it means to own a domain name. They cost money to purchase and maintain and, like any marketing tool, need to be carefully selected to be used effectively. So where do you learn about these strange commodities that only exist on business cards and Internet software? Well, you want to begin by first understanding the structure of a domain name.

Your Domain Name

The domain name is used for both your Internet address and your email routing. In your email address it is located as the final two fields of your e-mail address. For instance, webmaster@DotCom-Productions.com has a domain name of Dotcom-Productions.com.
The purpose of your domain name is to make the Internet easier to use.

Without domain names we would have to type in ugly things called IP addresses into our web pages and e-mail addresses. For example, without a domain name your e-mail address at DotCom-Productions would be username@24.67.152.226 Yuck! On top of that, whenever we upgraded or moved computers, that number would change so you could lose e-mail!

With a domain name, whenever an IP address is changed, we change it in some records on our end. So people on the Internet always know where you are. Imagine if the US Postal Service automatically forwarded all your postal mail the rest of your life, no matter where you lived. That is what domain names help do. In addition, domain names are also used for FTP access, web page access, and more.

WebMaster Tip: Register multiple domains. If you are going to register a .com domain, consider also registering .org and .net to protect your investment.

Changing Domain Names

Many people want their own domain names. Having your own personalized domain name can be a valuable marketing tool for a business. Having one for a personal web site or organization can make it easier to maintain the site.

Right now, most domain names in the United States are organized through the Internic. The Internic is an organization created as a clearinghouse of many Internet issues. Their primary service is maintenance of Internet name space, basically a list of domain names in use.

Domain names, also known simply as domains, used to be free. But now they cost (up to) $35.00 (US) per year. The money is paid directly to the registrar.

After your name is approved and hosted by an ISP. You can begin advertising your web page as http://www.yourdomain.com/ and your e-mail address as username@yourdomain.com. You can also feel free to print business cards and other marketing media, since no matter whom you use as your ISP, the domain name will remain the same!

Choosing A Name

You want to choose a domain name that is closely related to the purpose of the site. If you want to peddle the Acme Gizmo Company you may want a domain name of acme.com. Or possibly acmegizmo.com or even acme-gizmo.com. If you want a domain name for your family try the last name such as smith.org . If that is taken try a different form such as thesmithfamily.org

The point here is to be creative, but not deceptive.

The first thing you want to do is see if the domain has been taken. You can do this at the page at networksolutions
Whois is a client program on the Internet that searches for a domain name you provide. Just type in the domain name you want to use and press enter. The gateway will tell you if it is taken or not.
Go ahead and try it, type in Dotcom-Productions.com and you will get the info on our company!

As you may have noticed, most domain names end in a three-character extension. You must choose one that fits the purpose of your site.
Here is a list of the extensions you may choose from:
.COM is for commercial, for-profit organizations.
.NET is for network infrastructure machines and organizations.
.EDU is for 4-year, degree granting colleges/universities.
(schools, libraries, museums register under country domains)
.GOV is for United States federal government agencies.
(state and local governments register under country domains)
.ORG is for miscellaneous, usually non-profit, organizations.
(orgs/individuals that do not clearly fit in any of the above)
.ca or .bc.ca are "Country Specific" extensions

What's the difference between a .CA and a .COM domain?
In function, there isn't any. Contrary to common myths, the .ca name is fully accessible by users worldwide (not just in Canada), just like a .com name. The only difference is that you must be a Canadian Corporation or resident to register for a .ca name.
The only valid characters for a domain name are letters, numbers and a hyphen "-". Other special characters like the underscore "_" or an exclamation mark "!" are NOT permitted. A domain name can be up to 22 characters long not including the extension.

Finally, Obtaining That Domain Name

To get your domain name is fairly simple.
Once you have your name chosen and are sure it is available, you may go to one of the discount domain name registration websites
(http://registrar.godaddy.com/default.asp?isc=ZDNded1) or to the main website at Internic (http://www.networksolutions.com) for .com domains.
For .ca domains see (http://www.canreg.com/index.html) or (http://hosting.searchbc.com/domainname/registerandrenew.html)
WebMaster Tip: SHOP AROUND. Since the domain registrars deregulation many websites offer discounted registration fees.
Domains usually only take a week or so to process but Internic has been known to take as long as a month before processing, so do this far in advance of the time you may actually need the domain name in service.

WebMaster Tip: Most registration services offer free domain "Parking".
This service can be used until you have a virtual server setup.