What is Domain Name Registration?
Domain Names are basically website names. Every year you must register your domain. The price varies from as low as $2 to as high as $35. When someone types in your website, servers, called Domain Name Servers will look up your web site IP address. This system is in place so every website can always be found.
How do I Choose a Good Domain Name?
There are two ways to think when choosing a good domain name. You can try to brand your product using a phonetically easy to spell made up word: sony, lexmark, panasonic, IBM, microsoft, yahoo, etc. or you can use niche marketing and come up with a popular term that your customers will likely type. A good example consists of a phrase, not a single word. "radio-controlled-cars.com" is a perfect example for someone that sells radio controlled cars. http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ will help you determine what is a popular term. Start by typing in a single word, and then pick the best phrase that you find.
Here are a few tips to remember when choosing your domain name:
- Do not use Cute Spellings - because toys.com is not available, do not buy toyz.com Very few people will ever type your name in, it won't be easy to brand, and search engines will ignore you.
- Do not use very very long names - too hard to spell, remember and type
- Try to use as short as possible - short names are easier to remember
- Purchase both the hyphened version and the version without spaces ( my-gifts.com and mygifts.com ). Search engines like the hyphened version, but you can advertise the non hyphened version on your brochures, radio, etc. and still get customers.
- Buy a .com name - the best search engine results come from dot coms. And most people assume you are a dot com website if you tell them.
Where do I go to Purchase a Domain Name?
There are cheaper places, but I enjoy the customer service from wsmdomains.com. It is extremely easy to use their support systems and if there are problems one of their customer service people are right there to help you. We've had nightmares trying to transfer domains using other registrars. If you are a customer of DigitalCrunch, we will require you to purchase your domain name from wsmdomains.com. The meager 3 or 4 dollars you try to save with another registrar will cost you hours and hours of your time if need to change, update or move your website.
But Domains Are Cheaper at Another Place
Read, and reread the block above, we do not recommend any other registrar besides wsmdomains.com, period.
I am Having Problems With my Domain
You should of bought your domain name from wsmdomains.com they would of helped you and likely solved the problem for you. Yes, we have that much favoritism for them, and no, we do not get a comission or a kickback in anyway from them!
If you cannot transfer your domain for some reason besides it already being purchased by someone else, call wsmdomains and see if they can help you transfer to them. They have excellent customer service. If you call us, we'll direct you to call them! If you plan on hosting with us, we prefer that you call us with your desired name so we can advise if it is a good one, and we'll make the purchase for you too!