Choosing a domain name for your business can be hard. There are a lot of guidelines, and many of them are contradictory. I'm going to describe how to decide if your domain name is good or not, how to find out if your domain name is available, and how to buy it.
While pulling together the information for the next few posts in this series, I came to a realization. I'm going to be referring you readers to a lot of different online services, and I'm going to recommend books and other purchases. Many of these companies are eager and willing to have me sign up for affiliate plans, cutting me in on a few percentage points of the action.
First and foremost, it is important for me to establish that I'm only interested in giving good advice; I'm only interested in recommending companies that have impeccable reputations and quality products. On the other hand, I'm in the middle of a startup myself, so I'm not going to leave free money on the table. So here is my pledge to you, my readers.There are many steps you should take before you get a domain name for your business. On the other hand, buying a domain name you're happy with can be a heady experience for a lot of people. In order to maximize your sense that you have a real business as early as possible, we're going to walk through the steps of buying a domain name. In order to understand whats going on, we're going to start with an overview of DNS, the system that turns the server names you type into your browser's address bar into the information your computer needs to actually connect up to that server.
A direct result of my nerdiness is that a lot of people ask me advice on how to build a small online business. One gentleman I've been talking to is looking at selling corporate gifts; another has an interesting niche fashion idea.
I've done enough research and thinking about building an online business that I feel pretty competent in laying out how to get started. I'm going to making some assumptions about my audience, as well as doing business online, that I want to state up front, explicitly.