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As soon as you find the right domain name for your Web site, try to get it registered as quickly as you can. Think of registering a domain name like reserving a rental car: To reserve the car, you must provide the car agency with your name and contact info, credit card, car preference, and rental dates. To actually use the car, you must go to the rental car agency, sign a contract to rent the car for a predetermined period of time, and provide payment information before the agency gives you the car keys. Likewise, registering the domain is a means of placing the name on reserve for later use. To register your domain name, you can go about it in one of two ways; Register your site with a domain registrar or sign up for a hosting plan and have the host provider register the domain for you as part of your hosting package. Both options have unique benefits and drawbacks. Using a domain registrar When registering a domain name through a domain registration service, you get the benefit of quick and affordable registration without having to worry about hosting until you are ready to publish your site. In most cases, you should be able to choose a time frame for the rights to use your chosen domain name. Typical terms for domain registration are for one, two, three, five, and ten years. Rates for the registration range from as low as $1.67 to over $35 per year. Many services include e-mail accounts and other services for this fee; however, some do not, so be careful to understand exactly what you are paying for. Most domain registration rates fall somewhere in the $10–20 per year range, and the rate often drops significantly when you increase the term of the registration to two years or more. The .com domains are usually the most sought-after domains and tend to cost more, whereas the less trendy .info and .mobi extension domain names can now be grabbed up for as little as $.99 per year. Choosing the right domain registrar if you want to use one instead of doing it through your host provider depends on your time frame, budget, and needs. The most popular domain registrars tend to be the ones that charge the least amount of money. Keep in mind, though, that while more affordable, the less expensive services may not necessarily provide the best customer care, which depending on your level of knowledge, might be an important factor to you and your client. Therefore, shop wisely and do your research before you procure a domain for yourself or a Web client. Alternatively, you could pass on this part of the process and recommend that your client registers on his own through a particular registrar or host provider. In addition to domain registration, most registrars these days provide additional Web-related services, including domain verification, domain name generators, domain transfers, hosting, and Internet access. If you just need to register the domain name for a time before the site is ready to publish, but aren’t interested in e-mail or hosting until right before the site gets launched, it would probably be fine for you to use one of the cheaper domain registrar services. However, if you know you will be needing other services such as Web hosting and e-mail, obtaining an SSL certificate, and setting up an e-commerce shopping cart, go with one of the companies that also provides those services, such as NetworkSolutions.com, Enom.com, Tucows.com, DomainDirect.com, LunarPages.com, DirectNic.com, GoDaddy.com, and Register.com, or any of the myriad hosting services that might have been personally recommended to you by friends and business associates. Before you do that, however, consider your long-term needs: Your site is ready or will have a short turnaround time (say, 30 days or less): You may want to speed the domain registration process by registering the domain through the host provider that will be hosting the site. Your site will not be ready for publishing for quite some time: You can save some money by registering the domain and not worrying about hosting until you’re ready to publish the site. If this is the route you decide to take, just make sure that you understand that if you register the domain with one company and use another company for hosting, you will need to do the DNS transfer when the hosting plan has been secured. To avoid having to do the DNS transfer, simply register the domain name while you sign up for a hosting plan with your preferred host provider. Using a host provider When registering a domain name through a host provider, all you need to do is tell the provider your chosen URL when you sign up for your hosting account. It registers the domain for you as part of the hosting plan, often without any additional fees. To find out more about hosting, see the later section “Finding the Best Hosting Plan.” Activating your domain To use the registered domain name and allow visitors to access an actual Web site through that name, you must secure a hosting plan and activate the domain name. When you register a domain with one company and host with another (which a lot of people do to try to save a few bucks), the site can be activated for hosting only through a DNS transfer. By contrast, when you register your domain and host with the same company, the site becomes active almost immediately after payment. The DNS (Domain Name Server or Domain Name System) helps create a permanent address for every domain name. Every computer and server that connects to the Internet has its own IP (Internet Protocol) address, typically written in four sets of numbers separated by dots, as in 123.45.67.890. By parking a domain name on a server and creating an alias for the IP to match the domain name, you let visitors begin to use the domain name to find a site. To get the IP address of your computer, go to http://whatismyip address.com. A DNS transfer, therefore, means that the host provider’s servers are pointing to the domain name as an alias for the server’s IP address. For the host provider to create that alias, the domain must be transferred from the registrar to the host provider. This ensures that the domain name points to the server that hosts the site so that the site can be properly accessed by everyone on the Web. |
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