Domain Names
Years ago, you could visit my website at http://64.21.153.92,
or you can just use the domain name www.jamesglewis.com
which is a little easier to remember.
Websites have number addresses just like houses have street
addresses. The street address for a website is called the IP
(Internet Protocol) address. The IP address is not very user
friendly, so we use domain names instead. When a user types your
domain name into his browser, the Internet's Domain Name System
(DNS) translates your domain name into an IP address.
The first step toward having a website is not reserving your
domain name, but deciding where to host
your site. As a convenience, most hosts will also reserve the
domain name for you. It costs at most $35 per year.
How to choose a name
So how do you choose a domain name? Well, go to one of the
registrars listed in the sidebar to the right. Then start trying
different names.
There are no restrictions on using .com, .org, or .net. They
are called generic top level domains.
- .com - Originally intended for commercial entities.
This is the most widely recognized extension.
- .net - Was originally intended for networks, ISP's,
and the like. Now just about everybody uses them.
- .org - Usually used for non-profit organizations
Some webmasters will reserve both the .com and .net of a name
to keep another site from using the same name. They then use a
domain name pointer to make the .net name point to the .com
site. A domain name pointer is just an extra DNS entry that
makes the second name point to the IP address of the first
domain name.
Personal or company names
I own three life insurance companies. I used the company
names for their sites:
- Central Security Life Insurance
Company - For our flagship company, I reserved www.centralsecuritylife.com.
I thought this would be pretty cumbersome for email
addresses, so I also reserved www.cslic.com.
- Western American Life Insurance
Company - For Western American, I reserved www.westernamericanlife.com.
I likewise reserved www.walic.com
for email addresses.
- Champions Life Insurance Company
- You guessed it: www.championslife.com.
We don't write any new business in Champions, so the fact
that www.clic.com was already taken was not such a problem.
Since I wanted email addresses for both cslic.com and
walic.com, I set up separate hosting accounts for both of them.
My current host,
HostingMatters,
gives you 60 email address for each account. That gave us plenty
of email accounts for our employees that need it.
Currently, I publish exactly the same website to both domain
names. I use domain name pointers to make
centralsecuritylife.com and championslife.com point to cslic.com,
and westernamericanlife.com points to walic.com.
Generic names
Generic domain names are another safe bet. For example,
Yahoo.com, Monster.com, SmartAviator.com, and theStandard.com.
Yahoo and Monster are the funniest to me. They have
absolutely nothing to do with their core business, but they are
two of the best known sites.
Create a new name
Verizon.com, ICQ.com, Odigo.com, Snaz.com, Interliant.com,
and esurance.com. You won't find them in the dictionary, and you
won't have to worry about trademarks or existing companies
coming along to sue you. That is why some of the biggest
companies use made-up words for the names of their new internet
businesses.
Trademarks
Don't use a trademark in your name unless it is your own. You
will almost certainly be sued for doing so. And don't try a name
that sounds too much like another site. For instance, the Open
Directory Project was originally called NewHoo. Guess hoo
objected? That's right, Yahoo! threatened a suit.
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