How To Become A Blogger Step 2: How To Register Your Own Domain Name

Estimated cost: $10 ~ $15

Register your domain name at – www.GoDaddy.com

What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is an address for your blog

It usually starts with “http://” which means ” hypertext transfer protocol“.

followed by www.YourDomainName.com

Why you need your own domain name?

1. A unique domain name gives people quick easy access to your website.

2. You own the rights to sell or transfer the domain name later if you choose to.

3. It’s shorter and much more professional looking than free options like those at

www.wordpress.YourDomainName.com

How to research possible domain names?

Use a keyword search tool

www.wordtracker.com – on this page you can enter a keyword and it will return a list of related keywords to help you choose in your domain name.

Research the competition.

Use Google to see what kind of competition you may be up against and to know what other people are doing. This will help you make a better informed decision before you decide which name is best.

Brainstorm all possible names in the niche and put them into a list.

How to choose the perfect domain name?

Now once you have a sizeable list of possible domains then you need to choose the best name.

1. Remember that the shorter a domain name is the more valuable it is.

2. Make sure its easy to remember.

3. Make sure its written as one phrase with no hyphens or random characters

4. Also if keywords for your niche are inside the domain name it will be easier to rank in the search engines later.

I.E. if your niche is “small dogs” a good domain name could be “SmallDogZone.com” instead of “SmaDoZone.com” or “theSDzone.com”

How to register your domain name?

The easiest and most popular domain registry website is www.GoDaddy.com

Signing up for an account is free, first create your account.

Next check the availability of the domain name.

Enter your chosen domain in the search field.

If its available then you are ready to purchase it. If not then it will list a series of possible alternatives.

Which is better .com vs .org. vs .net vs. info?

Its important to remember that if you are planning on making money on the website then a .com (commercial) should be used. .net is a good second choice. But others like .info or .me should only be used small or personal websites. For a club or organization you should use .org.

Also a .com will have a higher resale value than a website with the same name as a .info

Fill out the required details and continue the checkout process.

Hit confirm, and you now own your first domain name.

It should be noted that many domain registry will try to sell you various extras at the final checkout, most of the features are not necessary. You will learn how to do everything you need on your own in the next few parts of this series.

Next you will learn how to get hosting for your website.

20% off Hosting at GoDaddy.com – World’s largest Web host!