Domain names
Domain name choice is very important. Finding a unique name that is catchy and easy to use is important, as is what keywords are in your domain name. If you are creating a site for a dentist office, it may be prudent to include words like Atlanta, dentist, or teeth into your domain name.
You can do a domain search here, or you can contact us for assistance with choosing and purchasing a domain name. We also offer domain name privacy options, where we can register the domain name for you and expedite the process of setting name servers.
New to the web?
Here are some things to consider, as many people are not aware of everything that goes into getting a domain name and setting up a web site.
Some clients here the hype about buying a cheap domain and the associated excitement of getting a getting their own web site for as little as $2, well here is the reality of getting a web site online and running, consider this.
When you purchase a domain name there are a lot of issues to consider, first and foremost make sure the place you buy the domain name from is ICANN accredited. Most places are, and if you are considering a big name like godaddy or yahoo to buy a domain name from, then consider these other issues next.
When you buy a domain name from a place, there are many things can happen on the way to purchasing, and after the purchase of a domain name. Some shopping sites that offer good prices give you a whole lot of ads in between the initial search to the actual purchase / lease ownership. If you can never find the right buttons to click in order to complete your purchase, or if you select options by default that you never intended to include, then your cheap shopping experience may become less than optimal.
The more expensive places to acquire your domain name generally make things easier to purchase, companies like register.com offer excellent customer service and easy shopping. If you are comfortable surfing through a lot of ads and don’t require a lot of technical hand holding when it comes to setting up your dns and domain transfers, then a discount domain name service like godaddy is a great choice.
So what to expect when buying a domain name.
A typical domain name purchase asks you to search for name, make sure it is available, add it to your online shopping cart, consider other options like buying the .net or .us extensions, how long of a term to buy, other add on services, then checking out using a credit or atm card to purchase the name,
When you buy a domain name you will have to choose which email address to use for receipt, and create a username and password to manage the domain name. These are very important. If you need to change, renew or otherwise change information about your domain name you will need access to this information. If someone else can access the email address you used for sign up, or your username / password, they may be able to hijack (steal) your domain name.
Now the parts that most people miss.
Now that you have the domain name you are ready for you web site to be up and running, but there are many more things involved in getting something to show up on your domain name. If you sign up for AC Merchandsing’s insta-blog or insta-site options then we take care of these steps for you when you purchase your domain through our proxy service, if you are interested in doing the following steps yourself feel free.
Your domain name will have what is called a DNS associated with it. The DNS tells the internet where your web site is located on the global computer network. Whatever files, text, pictures, etc you have on your site need to reside on a computer that is on 24/7 and ready to serve up the files when people type in your site’s URL address. Where your web site is actually located is called your host.
There are a few people in the world that “host” their own web sites on a home computer, there are many issues to doing this, and it is not a reliable way to have a web site accessible 24/7. There are many places that will host your web site that are affordable. Professional hosting companies generally offer 24 hour battery backup, emergency power generators and fast connections to the internet that allow for thousands of computers to access thousands of sites all at the same time. A professional web host can cost between $10 / month (sometimes a little less) and thousands of dollars per month.
If your web site is going to host a lot of videos and lots of people view your site, then your web hosting rental fees will go through the roof. However the average small business web site runs fine with the amount of bandwidth that is included in the smaller $15 / per month hosting plans. Once you have chosen and paid for your web hosting, you will get access to the nameserver information of your host. Often times this is something like DNS1.myhost.com. At this point you take your name server information, log into the place where you bought your domain name and enter the DNS information in the proper fields there.
Learn more about web site and blog hosting options.
Generally things happen pretty fast these days, but it could take up to 48 hours for the new DNS information to get around the internet. So even if you have your web site already created, your hosting already set up, the web site uploaded to your web host, and everything is ready, when you change the DNS on your new domain name, your friends in Asia will not be able to access the web site immediately. Once the new DNS information is “propagated throughout the internet, when people type “yourdomain.com” into their web browser, their computer will be looking to the computer that your DNS points to see what to display.
If you do not care to deal with all the technical aspects of owning a domain name and setting up a web site, we can handle all of this for you. Consider our express complete blog+domain and hosting package.
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