| Register and choosing a domain name |
|
The first step to creating your web site is to register a domain name.
The domain name is the name that people will type into the address bar to find your site,
e.g my domain name is www.retokrebs.com
|
Register your Domain Name
If you want a .ch-address, switch.ch is the place to register. Cheap .com-addresses you can
get at gandi.net, but many others have competitive prices and offer essentially the same services.
You'll want to look at several different companies in order to get the best value for your money.
|
- If you expect to have your website for a while, you can usually save money by registering
for multiple years at once
- In general, your name, email and mailing address will be made available to people who ask for it.
Many services will sell you private registration (where only they have your name and address) for an extra fee.
I recommend either doing this or setting up a P.O. box to receive any junk mail related to your site.
- Support: you want to know that the company you've registered with will be available 24 hours a day,
7 days a week if you run into a problem
- Domain forwarding. If you are registering the .net, .org or other domains, domain forwarding
lets you automatically forward those addresses to your site
- Account management tools: you don't need anything fancy here, but it should be easy to move your
domain to another host if needed
|
Choosing a domin name
Start by thinking of the name you'd like for your website. It should be catchy and easy to remember.
There are three different options for naming your site
|
- If it is a personal site, you can use your own name. e.g. www.retokrebs.com
- If you are setting up a website for your existing business, you can try to get your business
name or the business name followed by the city name. e.g. www.novartis.com
- You can choose a name that uses the words people would type in Google to find your site.
|
|
Note: there are a variety of three letter extensions you can choose from, including .com, .net, .org, .info,
.us, .biz, .tv and more. I recommend registering with a .com name to avoid confusion and to make your site
name easy to remember.
|
|
What if your domain name is not available?
|
- Browse to to the website and look for a contact us page or an email address.
Contact the owner and see whether they are willing to sell you the name. Some people have
site names reserved just so that they can sell them - prices vary.
- Try one of the suggestions provided by the domain registration service
- Try adding a prefix (e.g. MyHomepage instead of Homepage) or using a thesaurus to find alternate words
|
