You need your own domain if you want to secure your personal or business web presence for the future. Think of it as a piece of Internet Real Estate. There can only ever be one "BillSmith.com" or "SuperCoolLady.net." If you host a web page (or website) at your domain to allow it to get internet visitors, your domain will be worth more in the future. The longer it is registered and the more traffic it receives over time, the more it could potentially be worth. Owning different versions of the same domain name is also a smart move. If you are going to register "billsmith.com" you may want to get the .net or .info version also. Keywords in your domain are something else to consider. If your business website is "jennyscafe.com", other domains to consider might be ones like "freshpiesindover.com" or "bestlunchindover.com". Contact Us to discuss possible domain names for your business or Internet idea. There is a huge market in the re-selling of domains and we can show you how to navigate this market.

To get a domain you must register it with a domain registrar. You must pay the registrar for your domain. You own it for as long as you pay for it. This is a very simple process that takes about five minutes. There are many companies on the Internet that do this. You may choose to own more than one domain in the future and will want to keep them all in one place. You can also buy existing domains from current owners, resellers or at auction. Domains are not websites but merely addresses for websites.
Many companies that offer cheap web hosting will also offer a free domain. This is great but can possibly lead to problems down the road. If you are are registering a domain for your business we don't recommend free domains.

A .com (dot com) is always best. If you can afford it you may also want to get the .net and .info of the same domain. If you own different versions of the same name you can redirect YourName.net and YourName.info to YourName.com.

It is best not to get your primary domain name for "free" or "included with" a hosting package or something. This may make transferring or even selling it at a later date difficult.

It is best to buy your domain from a reputable company with a free and easy transfer policy (so you can transfer your domain to a new registrar if you ever want to).

You can "park" your domain (if you aren't going to put a web page on it) and possibly earn a few bucks from advertising.

Registering a domain and hosting a web page are two different and separate things. Many companies do both - don't confuse the two. You can register your domain with any company and host any web pages for it with a different company if you so choose.

The terms "domain", "domain name" and "URL" are almost synonymous. A domain or domain name is just the actual part you chose -- yourname.com -- and URL is the exact web address for a web browser to find your web page -- http://www.yourname.com --.

You can write your domain name with a mixture of upper and lower case letters but your URL will always be all lower case. On your business cards or any printed material you may want to use caps - ie. YourName.com instead of yourname.com. The three letters 'www' prefix is no longer really relevant. You can decide whether or not to use it.

Try to get a domain that has letters and numbers only. Domain names are easier to say verbally the shorter they are and when they don't contain special characters like "-" or "_". If the exact domain you want is taken, you can usually get a variation of it by adding a dash or two.

We use Moniker and would recommend them to anyone. You can register your domain with many different companies and we've used dozens over the years. Once you've registered your domain with one company you can transfer it to another in the future but keep in mind this is a tedious process. Free domains are often offered with web hosting packages. If you don't need to host any web pages and are just buying a domain name to have for the future or to park it, you certainly don't want to buy a hosting package you don't need.