“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” - Lao Tzu

When starting an online presence, the first and most important step you will have to take is to register your own domain name. In the online world, your domain name serves two purposes - name and address. Your domain name can serve as your site name. It will also direct your visitors to the contents of your site or someone else’s. Hence, it is very important that you choose one properly.

If you are planning to launch a personal web site or one for your business, choosing a domain name like yourname.com or yourbusiness.com would be the logical step. However, there will be instances when the domain of your choice isn’t available and you will have to pick another one. In doing so, please take note of the simple guidelines below.

If you already have a theme for your site, it would help if the domain name contains words that are related to the site’s content. This makes it easier for you to market your site. Potential visitors will know what they’re getting into when clicking a link to your site.

You may also choose domain names that are short and easy to remember. A domain that is short and can be told in a few syllables will be easy to remember. It also helps if the name has a twist or if it sounds rather funny. Good examples of short domain names include one-word internet giants like Google, Amazon and Ebay.

You may also choose simple, ordinary words like business, computers or laptops. Although a number of these domains have already been registered, be on the lookout as they could easily bring in instant traffic for any site. This will be very useful if you are going to use any of those PPC programs for parked pages or even selling the domain name in the future. As an example, business.com was sold a few years ago for millions of dollars!

Remember that these days getting your own domain name no longer costs an arm and a leg. Gone are the days when companies would charge you 30 dollars or more. You now have a choice of sites that can register your domain names for less than ten dollars and still provide you with lots of free stuff. Some companies are even offering domain names at peanut prices if coupled by other purchases like web hosting. Of course, this is great news for anyone considering building a web site or purchasing a domain name as an investment.

Darwin Catalan is an entrepreneur and the founder of BlueRegistrar. Learn more about domain names, web hosting and other site management tools.

http://www.blueregistrar.com

Are there internet domain registration issues of which I need to be aware? The answer, actually, is yes. Internet domain registration is big business with competition for the best names that can be picked up by the top search engines. Like in any competitive field, there are always those out looking to take advantage of you. We both know that your domain name is important to you and so is your money, so it is important that you be aware of and concerned with certain scenarios where you can be taken advantage of in the internet domain registration game.

The most common “trick” you may encounter comes by way of internet domain registration renewal. The internet domain registration companies will use the credit card number you gave them to begin with and automatically renew your domain name several months in advance of when you need it done. This is a way of getting your money in advance of when you need it and thus cutting your paid for time down. It is a not a new scam that the internet domain registration companies invented; magazines sometimes will use the same method with regard to subscription renewals.

There is a way to stop this from happening, or at least reducing the risk. Never give the internet domain registration company permission to user your credit card to automatically renew your domain name. They may try to scare you by telling you that giving them permission in advance will ensure that you do not lose your domain name. The truth is, you can keep track of the time as easily as they can.

If you do not allow the internet domain registration companies to automatically renew, trust me, they will remind you when your time is approaching via email. This, however, is another time when scammers are out in full force. Be sure the emails you receive are from the internet domain registration company you are working with. Sometimes domain renewal is a way of hiding phishing scams. Just stay on top of things and be aware of who the sender is on any email you receive.

The truth is that if you use a legitimate internet domain registration company, they will send you email notices reminding you that you need to renew. They will send such notices well in advance, but will let you know when you actually need to renew. As ridiculous as it may seem to many people, you do have to renew your domain registration every time your registration runs out. The best way, though, to avoid the many scams and cons out there is to simply keep track of your domain timing and the companies with which you are working. Your best defense is being knowledgeable about your own situation.

One of the most important actions you will perform in the building of your presence on the web is internet domain registration. Keeping the name you want is valuable, but does cost you money. With such high demand for domains, there are obviously going to be those who want to take advantage of the situation. Your best defense against such people is to keep track of your domain, your registration time, and which internet domain registration company you are using.

If you would like the latest information on domain hosting, or find more of my personal articles like the one you just read, visit my computing blog.