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Registering Your Domain Name
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Registering a
domain name is perhaps the most important thing
you can do for your internet presence.
There are
many things you should be aware of that can effect
the success and future use of your domain name.
We
have provided the following tips to help you make
a more informed decision when choosing and
registering your domain name. |
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How
to Choose a Domain Name
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Cost
Issues When Buying a Domain |
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Do I Want a
“.com” Name
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Uses of Email
Addresses |
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Contacts
that Go With Your Name
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What
is the WHOIS Lookup |
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| 1) Choosing a Name – It’s always very hard to decide what name to choose. Most of the time we recommend that you look for either your company name or something that describes your services. A great example of this is our domain names. Our company name is
Flagstaff Central.com, Inc. and thus our city guide represents that name at
www.flagstaffcentral.com. On the other hand, for our services we looked for something that describes what we do. Our slogan is
"Reliable Web Designs and Internet Marketing" and thus we chose
www.reliablewebdesigns.com for our services website.
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2) Do I Want a
".com" Name - There are lots of different extensions that you can get for you domain name. The most commonly known extension is “.com”. This was the first, and is what everyone knows when they think of the internet. If your business is based on someone typing in your web address directly (like off of a business card), then we “highly” recommend you find a “.com” for your name. But, if you are strictly an internet business then it really doesn’t matter because most people will simply click on your name in a search engine and will never type it in.
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3) Contact
Information That Goes With Your Name – One of the most important things you can do with your domain name is have the correct contacts and information listed with it. When you purchase the name, you must be very careful that this is done correctly. If it is not, you could literally lose the name or have absolutely no control over it later. Probably the most important piece of information that goes with a domain name is an email address. If your email address is wrong or changes, then you should immediately contact your domain company to have it updated.
Beyond that, there are three contacts that go with a domain: Billing/Owner, Administrative, and Technical. The Billing/Owner Contact is always going to be you. The Administrative Contact is the most important one because this is the one that has control and is contacted if there are any issues with the domain. Usually we make the Administrative Contact either your web designer or the owner.
Be very careful to have someone you trust as the Administrative Contact.
And finally, the Technical Contact is usually your server so that they can help you if needed.
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4) What
Should It Cost – We currently charge $20 per year for most domain names. There are literally hundreds of places to register a domain name. Your best bet is to register it with a company that will give you good customer service. Most of the “big guys” are especially good at giving you the complete run-around when any changes need to be made, and often charge a lot more for their services. The cost is really not the issue since it’s such a small amount. The service is everything! |
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5) Uses of Email Addresses – One of the most commonly missed things you can do with your domain name is to use it for your email addresses (like
info@flagstaffcentral.com
/ newsletter@flagstaffcentral.com). When you buy a domain, you own that extension. If you use it for your email, then it will never change. Most people use their ISP service email address, but then decide to change that every couple of years (or sometimes every couple of months). Each time you change ISP service, you have to tell everyone that your email has changed again and again. But, if you use your own domain name as the email extension you never will
have to change your email address. |
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6) What is the WHOIS Lookup – If you ever want to know who owns a domain name or check on your own, then we recommend you go to
www.internic.org and click on
WHOIS. Then, do a simple search for the name you have questions about. This will give you the basic contact information for the owner or tell you that it is available to purchase. |
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