I have a domain name and hosting account on a remote server. What the heck is that? This first part will cover the domain name part. Let’s begin.
You buy a domain name from an domain reseller. I used Moniker for buying my domain name for this website.
The domain is a com. Com and other ending domain names are what are called the Top Level Domain or TLD. So my website address or URL is my chosen domain name plus the TLD:
floodhammermedia.com
On your browser (once the site is up and running) you will see it as http://www.learnlocalhistory.com/
Don’t worry about the http://www part. You can type in floodhammermedia.com to your web browser and it will find this website, so the rest of the address, while important, is a side story for now.
I have used Moniker for purchasing my domain name because they are a good company that does not try to sell you a bunch of extra junk that you do not need. Moniker also has very good registration prices.
If you buy a domain at someplace like GoDaddy they try to get you to add on a bunch of products that have no purpose and will not help you. They will also try to sell you hosting.
I don’t recommend people buy hosting services from their registrar. Registrars and domain hosting services should stick to one or the other of these tasks. There are good registrars and good web hosting services. Most people will tell you, me included, that there are few companies that do both of these well. Another reason for separating these services is if you become unhappy with the way you are being treated by a company. You can move your registration to another registrar. You can also move your website to another hosting company. Moving your registration and hosting from a single company, well lets say that most companies that bundle these services are reluctant to lose your business and may not make it easy for you to smoothly transition away from them.
You can register a domain name (a string of letters and numbers with an ending TLD) that is not in use for a small annual fee. Once you have your domain name no one else can use it, provided you keep your registration current, in other words you pay your annual fee. This makes your registration fee seem like a rental payment. It is sort of like that. The domain register is maintains a record of the domain name, who owns it, and where to direct someone that requests each name in their database. This is what you are paying for when you pay your domain registration fee.
You can pay for a year or many years of domain ownership when you first register your domain. It does not matter how long you sign up for just that you make sure you renew it before your registration period runs out. The company I use, Moniker, sends me an email telling you when this time is approaching. It is not anything I need to track or write on my calendar.
It can be tricky to find a name you like. Many good names – short, descriptive words, or two or three names strung together- are already owned. You should strive to get a name that is easy to tell someone, is relevant to your website’s topic, and is easy to remember. You can go to Moniker and check out some possibilities. Just fill in a name in the search box there that says Find Your Domains. It will do a quick search and tell you if a name is already owned or if it is unregistered.
Disclaimer: This is clearly a simplistic explanation about how domain registration works. You can probably find more technically correct and elegant explanations somewhere else. My aim is to explain this to someone like my Dad who has no idea about how the internet works.
Any Questions?