I am going to skip all the technical details and just tell you that a domain name is a part of the address or Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a website. In the address bing.com/news.html bing.com is the domain name. Only one website can have a particular domain name, which is one of the reasons you have to register your domain name with a domain registrar. By registering your domain name with a domain registrar you are licensing that domain name for a specific period of time. Before your license expires you have to renew your domain name registration. Failure to renew your domain name before it expires could cause you to loose your domain name. So you may choose to register your domain for a period of several years instead of just one.
When choosing a Domain name you have three choices – a branded domain name, a generic keyword rich domain name, or a personal domain name.
A branded domain name is good if you are trying to build brand recognition. A branded domain name would be your company name. Whenever possible get your company name as your domain name.
A keyword rich domain name is great for if you are not able to get a variation of your company name or you are going to be doing affiliate marketing. A keyword rich domain name is great for search engine rankings. It also makes it easy for people to determine what your site is about and can make it easy to remember. Just don’t put a lot of key words together that don’t make since.
A personal domain name is good for building your personal brand and showing your expertise. So I guess what I am saying is that a personal domain name should be used for a portfolio or blogging to build “BRAND YOU”.
Try to get a .com domain name. Remember to have at least three possible domain name ranked from most first choice to third place. If your domain name is not available as a .com you may want to consider a different suffix such as, a .net or .biz.
I recommend that you obtain a domain name that closely resembles what you or your business is about because it will help to shape your identity and brand on the internet. A short domain name is easier to remember. Before you register your domain name write it down forwards and backwards to make sure it does not spell out anything that is negative or offensive.
There are a number of Domain Registrars to choose from. Some domain registrars only register domains while some also provide hosting. You should keep your hosting company and your domain registrar separate to give you a little freedom to move your site, without having to be concerned about losing your domain name. I recommend name.com or GoDaddy.com. I have about 15 domain names registered with name.com and have been completely happy with their prices and customer service. I recommend GoDaddy.com because I have clients that use GoDaddy for their domain registration and I have never had a problem with their domain registration services. GoDaddy.com is the #1 domain registrar with 30% of the market share.
Resources
http://www.webhosting.info/registrars/top-registrars/global/
http://www.dotsauce.com/2010/08/12/top-100-domain-tools-resources-websites/
[...] your website or blog with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. In the post I wrote about how to get your domain name I wrote about how you should have more than one possible domain names so that if your first domain [...]