This entry is designed to walk you through the process of acquiring a unique domain name for your business using “GoDaddy.com”. As you follow these simple steps, you will be farther down the road to creating a viable web presence.
First of all, What is a Domain Name? A domain name is a type of web address that is associated with you and/or your business. It’s the name or phrase that people will type into the address bar of their browser to get to your website.
Think of a domain name as the address to your company headquarters (www.mycompany.com) and the information that get’s tacked onto the end of that address as a site map to the individual rooms in the building, such as www.mycompany.com/lobby or www.mycompany/boardroom.
NOTE: There are no spaces used in a web address. If you want to separate the words, you should use a hyphen (-) www.mycompany.com/south-living-room (this will prove to be important later). Also, it has become popular to capitalize certain letters in a web address for better readability — www.HowToPromoteYourselfOnline.com for example; however all the letters are generally recognized by web browsers as being in the lowercase.
Before you start searching for a domain name, you must first come up with a unique name for your business. When people hear your company name, they should immediately have a picture in their mind of what your company is about (i.e. Frazer Photography or Jenny’s Homemade Apple Pies). Your name should be clear and to the point.
For the purpose of this entry, we’re going to use the company name “Hobbart Towers Realty Company”. Now let’s get started.
Step1: Go to “GoDaddy.com” and look for the domain name search box near the center of the page. The default should already be set to search for available names in the .com domain. There are also many other domains available, such as .net, .org, .info and .biz to name a few, but we strongly recommend that you use a .com for your primary domain name.
Step2: Type your company name in the domain search box.
For the purpose of this entry, I entered: “Hobbart Towers Realty Company” into the search field and (to my surprise) the entire name was available. You might not be so lucky.
As you will soon see, the prices vary a great deal. This is because some names are more valuable than others. How’d you like to be the owner of a name like “pizza.com” or “money.com”? Those domain names are probably worth a small fortune.
If your domain name is available, it will be automatically placed on temporary hold. You will be given the opportunity to choose additional domains as well. Take advantage of this feature. Don’t just choose the first name that pops up unless you are absolutely sure that’s the one you want.
Check any name you think might work (we’ll narrow the choices later). When choosing a name, try using the “telephone test”; imagine how the name will sound over the phone. Will the person on the other end of the phone be able to understand your domain name the first time they hear it?
Step3: Type your alternate name in the “Add Another Domain” search box and click the search button.
Here’s where you need to be creative. Start by using amalgamations or variations of your desired name. In my scenario, I used these alternative names:
• Hobbart Realty
• Hobbart Towers Realty
• Hobbart-Towers Realty
I told you before that using the hyphen would be important. If the names you’re searching for have already been taken, try using a hyphen in the name. As far as the web is concerned, www.HobbartTowersRealty.com and www.Hobbart-TowersRealty.com are two different web addresses.
Be creative with different spellings and hyphens until you come up with a name that reflects your company’s unique personality and sounds good over the phone.
Note that all of your selections will be added to the
“My Selected Domain Names” section.
Step 4: Now that you have made all of your name choices, click the “Proceed to Checkout” button. DON’T get side-tracked with all of the offers and ad-ons that are available. You DO NOT need any of that stuff! You will be using GoDaddy to obtain a domain name only - nothing else. Just click “No thanks. Continue to checkout…”
Step5: Domain Registration Information
Here’s where you create a GoDaddy account for new customers. After filling out the personal information form, click “continue” then keep clicking “No Thanks. Proceed to checkout…”
Step 6: The Secure Checkout Page
It’s time to start eliminating the names that are clearly not the best choice until you end up with the name that works. Your final choice will be much easier to make once you’re able to compare all of the names together.
NOTE: The Secure Checkout Page will include all the names that were available, as well as the additional names that you chose as alternates. Keep in mind; it’s very difficult to change your website name after it has been released to the public, so choose wisely!
Step 7: Select Your Options
Once you have decided on your domain name, there are some options you need to be aware of.
Option 1: Not only can you reserve the .com domain, but you can reserve the .org and .net domains as well. I recommend choosing the .com only, unless you have a truly special domain name and want to reserve those other domains too. Some people prefer to reserve the other domains as a common practice, but it’s strictly up to you and your budget.
Option 2: Choose the number of years you want to reserve your name for — I always choose 1 year. Remember, we’re trying to get this done with as little money as possible.
Option 3: Set whether you want your name visible to the public or private. In most cases, you’ll want to set this to public.
Option 4: Before proceeding to checkout, do a Google search for “GoDaddy Promo Codes”. There are various discounts and coupon offers on the web. I generally use promo code “chill3″.
Enter the code that applies to your situation into the box provided and click the “Apply Code” button to recalculate your price. This could save you a substantial amount when registering multiple domain names.
You’re almost done. The next steps are pretty straight forward.
Step 8: Select method of payment
Step 9: Read and agree to the terms of Service agreement
Step 10: Check out Now
That’s it! You’ve just reserved a unique domain name to be used to point visitors to your website.
Caution: This is not your name to own - it belongs to GoDaddy. You are merely reserving the use of a particular name for yourself.
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