Web Business Freedom

Note: This is part of an ongoing series of articles that chronicles the steps taken to create WebBusinessFreedom.com.

Task: Register domain name(s) at GoDaddy.com

Cost: $52.32 (for two domains, one year each with private registration: www.WebBusinessFreedom.com and www.WeBusinessfreedom.com)

Like a lot of people who start a business, I sort of went at it bass-ackwards. Rather than wait to come up with a formal plan, then incorporate, etc. I started simply: by registering the domain name.

What’s in a name? Well, I wanted a name for the site and my business that was descriptive. The phrase “web business freedom” popped in my head, after I’d been doing a lot of research and soul-searching on how to convey my ideas online. I especially liked that the phrase “web business” was available in the URL; that can help in some cases with search engine optimization, especially as I start getting more inbound links from other sites. When people use this phrase in their link text, it can increase my chances of getting indexed by the fine folks at Google (and others). And it fits nicely with the overall concept of “web business freedom,” which refers to using the web to your advantage to be more free to pursue your passions!

Registering The Domain

I’ve used a lot of registrars over the years, but I recommend GoDaddy.com for domain registrations. I use it a lot when brainstorming, to check whether a particular name is available or not. (You can’t just type an address in a browser window; that may not give you a true picture of whether a name is actually registered or not.)

GoDaddy.com is not necessarily the easiest to use, the cheapest or the prettiest—but it gets the job done. I’ve found their customer service to be very responsive, which is a plus. I’m technically-savvy enough to know my way around their site, but for those who aren’t, it pays to be able to get someone by email or phone who can walk you through the process. Plus, I find comfort in their size and reputation. Buying domains is like buying little pieces of real estate, so why use a cheap, potentially flight-by-night provider? I’ve tried that before, to save a few bucks, and got frustrated when their site went down and no one picked up the phone when I called.

I don’t use GoDaddy.com for hosting, just strictly the registration of the name. Their registration process throws a bunch of “extras” at you, so pay attention. The only extra item I like to agree to is the private registration option. This protects the domain from getting hijacked and seems to also reduce spam. Without it, anyone can do a WHOIS lookup and see who you are. So if you’re like me and put your real name when registering domains, you’ll want to do this. It doesn’t add a lot to the final price.

One thing I did was register two different versions, one for WebBusinessFreedom.com (two B’s) and one for WeBusinessfreedom.com (one B). Mainly it was to catch the occasional typo, but also just to protect the name itself so someone else couldn’t register that slight variation and possibly leach traffic from my site. And note that I’m just using the capital letters for marketing purposes.

I’m a big fan of registering the .com name, if at all possible. Call me old school, but it’s like having an 800 number, vs. 866, 877, 888, etc. Everyone knows .com. The rest of the extensions are just not as strong, in my opinion.

The caveat is, if you find a good name, you’re paranoid, you have cash to burn and the name is available in .com, .net, .info and other extensions, you might want to register those as well. Big corporations register every variation of their name possible.

But for little folks like me, one or two domain variations is sufficient for now (I’m on a shoestring budget, after all). As the site grows and has proven traffic, I might be worth going back and registering more versions of the name. I’ve read that sometimes, especially with longer domain names, it can be good to also register names with dashes (example: www.Web-Business-Freedom.com). While that might make a long name easier to read, I wouldn’t personally use a primary domain with a dash, though it might be a good secondary domain for search engine purposes.

The other thing I’ve found is, I’ve registered a lot of domains over the years that I never did anything with. I only sold one that was worth anything, years ago, and the rest either just sit there collecting dust, or eventually I let them expire. The point is, until you actually put the domain to use, why waste money on a bunch of optional extensions?

So that was step one for me, in the journey to establish “web business freedom.” It started simply with an idea, a name, a couple of web addresses and $50!

Links:

GoDaddy.com

About.com Article on Registering A Domain Name

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/orinrobertjohn