Once you have your domain name - Go through the process of Domain Registration.

Many website hosts offer domain registration service. These domain names are the familiar web addresses such as mywebsite.com that most browsers use to find a particular website. Domain names, in fact, are pointers to a particular IP address and we use them because they are easier to remember than a series of numbers.

All websites have a computer IP address in the form 123.456.78.9. The domain registration system translates these numbers into names such as mywebsite.com. All domain registered names are in a central registry maintained by InterNIC, a subsidiary of ICANN -- the organization which certifies domain name registrars.

Domain registered names are filtered through Domain Name Servers (DNS) which link IP addresses with domain names. Each web site usually has a primary and a secondary DNS – duplicates that increase reliability.

The domain registered name can be almost anything you want, but to be most effective it should reflect the nature of your website. If you are selling watches, for example, it helps to have a domain registered name that has some reference to watches – A1-Watches.com for example.

The rules for domain registration of names are simple – only letters, numbers or hyphens are allowed. Other than that, domain registration is limited to a name 70 characters in length, but you are advised to keep it as short as possible.

Names can be upper or lower case in domain registration process – case is ignored by DNS but you can use a combination to make the name more recognizable. MyWebSite.com is easier to read than mywebsite.com, but both are identical to the DNS.

There are several extensions available. The most common is .com -- it has even entered common vocabulary as a way to express Internet activity – (I own a dot com business).

Other extensions include .biz (for commercial sites), .org (for non-commercial organizations), .net (for organizations involved in Internet infrastructure) and .name (for personal names). There are also extensions with more specialized uses such as .museum, .aero, and .coop and are used exclusively by members of certain organizations.

In addition to these common extensions, there can also be a country code extension such as .us (United States) or .de (Germany). The rules for using country extensions vary, so you need to check with your domain registrar to see if they are available to you.

All domain registrations must be done with a domain registrar that has been certified by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). There are hundreds of domain registrars and their prices vary considerably.

The full list of domain registrars is available at the InterNIC website (http://www.internic.net/regist.html). Although domain registrars are closely regulated, they are permitted to offer their services through third parties, so many offer domain name web page hosting service even if they are not a registrar.

The price of domain registration with a DNS web hosting company will usually be higher when dealing with these third-party services.

Domain registration is usually good for a minimum of one year, although you are permitted to buy up to a 10-year domain registration contract. Usually the longer the registration contract, the lower the price, so if you are sure you will be on the web for a considerable length of time you can benefit from a longer domain registration period.

Most registrars also offer a discount on bulk purchases. If you own a number of domain names you can save money with domain registration by transferring them all to the same registrar.

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