There are a lot of people out there who have thought about registering a domain name, but haven’t actually taken the time to do it. They sit around with a great idea in their mind or the desire to build an awesome website, but they don’t do anything about it and then sometimes someone else registers the name and they never even get the chance. To help all the ladies out there who may be thinking of registering a domain name but haven’t yet, we’ve created this brief guide on how to register a domain name.
Brainstorming
The first step in preparing to register any type of domain name is brainstorming. You have to think of an idea, and then a name that is unique, not copyrighted, and available. There’s a great GoDaddy ad about the “next big idea” that humorously shows how important it is to register an idea once you get one, because you just never know who might have the same idea! You can see that ad here:
The point is that brainstorming is easy, but taking action is another thing and this is often something that people put off, so don’t do that!
Checking Availability
Checking availability of a domain name is pretty easy. You can do that by going to GoDaddy.com and typing your name in their search box. They’ll tell you right away if your domain name is available, and if it’s not, you’ll need to think of a different idea.
There is the option to approach the current owner of a domain name that is already taken and see if they’re willing to sell it, but this typically doesn’t work well as most people see this as an opportunity to cash in and try to ask a lot of money for their name and are usually unreasonable. This is a situation where it’s just easier to think of another domain name and go on from there.
Registering Your Name
Once you’ve come up with a great idea and made sure it’s available, your next step is to go ahead and register your domain name. This is an easy process and can also be done on GoDaddy or another domain name registrar. It’s usually a good idea to register for more than one year because it goes by pretty quickly, and sometimes you can get better pricing.
Because of their pricing increases after the first year, some people have published lists on the best alternatives to GoDaddy, in order to give people an idea of some of the other options out there. For example, Namecheap is frequently listed as one of the top alternatives to GoDaddy While GoDaddy isn’t a bad registrar, they certainly aren’t the only option and sometimes not even the best option.
Maintenance
After your domain is up and running, you just need to make sure that it renews each year, which can be done automatically. However, if you don’t set the domain to automatically renew, it’s possible that you could lose your domain, so make sure this is something that you do! And that’s it, the basics of how to register a domain name from start to finish!
Other resources:
https://www.icann.org/registrar-reports/accredited-list.html
https://instructify.com/godaddy-alternatives
https://webhostingbuddy.com/alternatives/godaddy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar