Domain Registration - How to register a Domain Name

If you wish to get your presence on the internet seriously then purchasing a domain name is very important. With your own domain name people will take your information and sales pitch seriously. It’s the first thing you should think of before setting up a blog or even going ahead creating business on the internet.

Before you purchase domain name there are some things which are important to consider like name and availability.

Name – You need to think about your brand or personal name that you want to stick with your online activity around your blog or business. There are chances that the name you want to pick is either copyrighted or purchased by someone else. In that case you can make modification to name or buy the alternate domain extension. Making little modification can be easy sometimes and that way you can get domain name easily. Few terms you need to understand before purchasing domains names are:

TLD: Top level domain names e.g. .com, .net and .org
Regional Domains: .in, .us, .ca or .jp
Other commercial domain names: .info, .tv, .mobi

There are many options to choose from when it comes to domain name extensions. If you unable to get TLD then you can always check if there are other extensions available.

Availability – There are some folks who steal brand names of small business/individuals and sell their domains for price higher than regular sales price. This is like real estate agents who take over property and sell it to the price higher than actual price. But as it’s not illegal (unless they buy trademark domains) for most small business brand names and hence such sellers keep bid on sites like sedo or sitepoint market place.

Step by Step Instructions : How to register a domain name.

Step 1: Go to domain registrar web site which offers lower price for the domain registration.
Step 2: Register for free account and then attach Paypal or credit card with your profile.
Step 3: Search and register your domain name.

What to look for in prospective domain registrar?

• Your domain registrar must allow you to keep your personal information safe and locked so that it’s not accessible in whois. (This is for identity protection against fraud/scammers)
• Your registrar must allow domain forwarding, redirection and nameserver features for free. (Almost every registrar offer these services for free, so if you’re paying for these services then it’s time to change your registrar).
• Make sure your domain registrar offers notification when your domain is going to expire after 30/60 days.
• Make sure you don’t pay more than the price at which you registered your domain name for the first time.

Cheap Domain Registrars

As of April 2012, domain registration cost is 9.95$+taxes and if someone is charging you more than that under some other sales pitch then they’re ripping you off. So buy domain name from only the registrars which are offering it for price 9.95$ or lower than that.

Namecheap- This domain registrar offer cheap registrations for TLD and other extensions.

Arvixe – They offer cheap domain registrations with coupon code periodically so if you see any coupon code then act immediately and buy domains. Arvixe is also leading hosting provider and if you're serious about hosting then consider this hosting and domain provider.

Hostwinds - They offer cheap domain registrations and also offer free 50mb webspace with domain name. You’ll get all the domain features you want with this domain registrar and it’s cheap too.

Cheap Domain Registration with Hosting

You can also get cheap domain registration with these web hosting services.

Dreamhost- They offer excellent hosting service at reasonable price. You can also register domain name at low cost when you sign up for hosting service.

Fatcow – Fatcow offers unlimited space and bandwidth at less than 5$/month. You’ll also get low cost domain registration from this service.