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Newbie
Webmaster Starter Kit
Domains
- Is The Name Really Important?
A
domain name is your site's basic address on the Internet; without a domain
name you will not have a presence on the Internet unless you are using
free hosting.
Many
new webmasters stress for long periods of time over what domain name they
should choose and in some instances choosing the right domain name can
be important. However, for a newbie buying their first domain the choice
of name is not nearly as important as the way they should structure the
directories that reside under that domain name.
Domain
names are purchased from Domain Name Registrars for an annual fee. This
fee varies from Registrar to Registrar and, as with all things on the
Internet, some Registar's are not as good as others. Two Registrars that
seem to be popular with adult webmasters are Directnic
and
Godaddy.
When
you purchase a domain name you retain ownership of that domain for as
long as you continue to pay the annual fee. You don't have to do anything
with the domain name and most Registrars give you the option of leaving
it 'parked' with them until you do want to put it into use. When you are
ready to use the domain name your host will give you the details that
you will need to pass on to the Registrar so that the domain name will
actually point to your site on the server at your host.
The
Registrar that you choose to use will have a system in place to let you
know which domain names are available. Most Registrars require you to
use a credit card to purchase a domain name and as soon as your card has
been approved by their billing software the domain becomes yours. Registering
a domain name does require you to provide personal details and these details
become available to the public. Falsifying your details can lead to you
losing the hosting for that domain name and even losing ownership of the
domain name.
Some
hosts offer hosting deals that include domain names. Make sure you understand
clearly who actually owns the domain names in cases like this. Some hosts
will register domain names in their name so the webmaster loses control
of that domain name if they move to a different host. It can be heart-breaking
to spend several years building up traffic to your domain only to see
it all go for nothing when you decide to move hosts and find that you
never owned the domain name and the host is not prepared to transfer it
into your control.
Some
new webmasters seem to think that they need a new domain name for every
site that they build. This is far from the truth, most webmasters use
sub-directories to include many sites under the one domain name so that
a one of their URLs might look like this:
http://www.mydomainname.com/freesite1/
It
is also wise to have nothing in your root directory except a full page
ad for your sponsor. Later, as the number of sites you have built increases
you can do other things with your root directory such as building a dummy
link list that only contains your sites. You then submit your root directory
to the search engines and you have established your own traffic source.
Webmasters
find that buying domain names can become addictive so until you build
up your business try to restrict your purchases to just those that you
will be able to use immediately. If you don't you might find yourself
facing a large bill when your domain names come up for renewal.
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