How To Register A Domain Name With Godaddy
With over 20 million customers, GoDaddy is both a domain registrar and web hosting powerhouse. It has a wide array of domain extensions ranging from .com and .org to newer selections like .fun or .law. The company plans to add even more TLDs to its collection in the future.
To buy a domain on GoDaddy, start with a domain name search on their homepage. The system will reveal whether the name is available for purchase using your desired extension.
If the .com version is taken, GoDaddy offers a domain broker service, where a representative will negotiate with the owner to purchase the name for you. You will pay $119.99 and a 20% commission to hire the agent in addition to the domain registration fee.
Click Add to Cart on a domain name and continue to checkout. On the next page, GoDaddy will offer several add-ons to bundle the order with.
GoDaddy has two privacy and protection options Full and Ultimate . The first protects the domain from hijacking, malicious transfer, and loss of ownership due to billing failures.
On the other hand, the second offers malware detection and search engine blacklist monitoring features to uphold your domain security and reputation.
Additionally, GoDaddy offers a custom business email plan with the domain. The pricing ranges between $1.99/month and $8.99/month.
The next step is to create a GoDaddy account and fill in the billing information. There are three payment methods available credit card, PayPal, and check.
How Can I Get A Free Domain For Com
You only need to register for any of the web hosting plans that offer a free domain name. However, make sure the value is enough for you to buy the .com TLD.For example, if you sign up for Hostingers Premium or Business shared hosting plans, you will get a free domain for one year with the value equivalent of a .com TLD.
Clear The Legal Field Before Registering
Youve registered your domain namebut lo and behold, a few weeks later you receive a cease and desist letter from the law offices of someone who makes five times as much money as you every thirty seconds.
Its not a pretty picture, but its not an uncommon one, either. Making sure your potential domain name isnt trademarked is an absolute must if you want to avoid getting caught in unwanted litigation.
Fortunately, its pretty easy to check. For websites that will operate in the US, you can check for trademark status by searching the United States Patent and Trademark Offices website.
That said, its a good idea to check a secondary source, as well. Navigating the USPTO system isnt as straightforward as alternative sources like Trademarks411 or WIPO.
And when it comes to legal bases, it never hurts to cover them twice, right? Especially when faith can be a deciding factor in domain name case law, as Bloomberg discovered.
Other things to keep in mind when considering trademarks is consumer confusion. If your domain name could reasonably be confused with another domain it competes with then you could have a losing arbitration on your hands.
What about a website all about WordPress? Here is what the WordPress team has to say about it:
Simply put, dont take the risk.
Additionally, if your website will operate outside of the US, now or in the future, youll want to get familiar and check trademarks in those respective countries, as well.
Read Also: Making Money Selling Domains
Select The Best Domain Name Based On Some Simple Criteria
At this point, youre ready to narrow down your shortlist and finish out the process of how to choose a domain name. Part of this process is subjective after all, its important to choose a domain name you like. However, there are also some simple criteria you can use to make the decision easier.
For best results, youll want to pick a domain name that is:
- Concise and clear. Long and confusing names are harder to remember and easier to mistype.
- Creative and memorable. The more unique you can make your domain name , the more memorable it will be.
- Easy to read and pronounce. Avoid numbers and special characters because theyre confusing when spoken aloud. Its also worth asking your friends to pronounce it as well, so you avoid accidentally ending up on this list.
Finally, its also important to carefully consider your domain names Top-Level Domain .
In simple terms, this is the part at the end .com, .org, .net, and so on. For many sites, .com is the best choice, since its what most visitors will expect and is easiest to remember. However, its getting harder and harder to find quality .com domain names, and users are becoming more accustomed to other extensions. So if you absolutely love a non-.com name, go ahead and buy it.
The only thing to be careful with is TLDs that apply to a specific region . to help goetarget websites, so only pick those extensions if you really do want Google to geotarget your site.
Avoid Numbers And Hyphens
Imagine asking your 10 friends to spell or pronounce a domain name filled with numbers and dashes. It wont work.
If you choose a domain name with these elements, youre likely going to lose traffic to people who cant remember your domain or effectively tell someone else how to find it. We probably wouldnt have Facebook today if you had to go to Face-Book.com to reach the site.
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Set Up An Email Address
Does any business run day-to-day without email anymore? There might be a few people holding out, but for the most part, using email is an integral aspect of running a website / company.
Not only is email the most common form of business communication, its also a hugely effective way to inform customers of new products and offers. Well get further into email marketing later on, but first, lets set up a professional email address for your domain.
For this, were going to already assume you have a hosting package that comes with email.
Receive mail and be as happy as Ralph
First, youll need to think about what your email address is going to be wed recommend keeping it personal, something like or something simple such as .
The shorter the better, as misspelling an address is a common reason for emails not reaching their intended recipient.
Getting an email address set up via your host should be the easy part. Here at LCN it couldnt be simpler: Just log in to your LCN account and look for the Email addresses icon on the my account page.
Wondering why you should get email working on your own domain instead of using a free service like Gmail or Hotmail? Having an address like plastered over a company van doesnt really scream professionalism.
What might your email address say about you? The Oatmeal
Considering it costs so little, there are few excuses for a modern business to be without a custom domain and email address.
Choose The Easiest To Remember Combination
Domain names came to be because humans have limits on their memory. While you can skip digging into the neuroscience, you should keep these limits in mind when choosing your domain name.
Specifically, the more stress you put on working memory, the more humans struggle to complete tasks. Theres a buffer limitation on the information the working-memory can retain.
And while this seems like a pretty common sense limit, its not as clear-cut as it sounds. How items fall in human memory depends on the items themselves and whether they associate with any other memory systems.
Which means that, although a website address like www.catsdogs.com is significantly longer than www.animalia.com, its probably going to be easier to remember for most people.
Why? Because cats and dogs make up two items, while animalia will require most people to remember three distinct items:
- The word animal.
- The letter i.
- The letter a.
Obviously, this example falls apart if someone has a background in biology, but it illustrates the point I mean to make.
Whats easy to remember isnt always about concision, as recognition can trump concision. The more recognizable the elements of your domain name are, the easier and therefore more usable your address becomes.
As a rule of thumb, try to keep the elements involved limited to no more than seven.
Especially for our next strategy.
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How Much Does A Domain Name Cost
When you buy a domain name through domain registrars, you register it for one year with the option of a multi-year registration. You will be able to renew your domain name registration when the initial period finishes, and will usually be alerted by the registrar to do so. Domain names are also sometimes included in your web hosting plan and if not, usually offered by your hosting company.
Domains purchased through Mailchimp are priced based on the TLD you choose, such as .com or .net.
A domain name with a common top-level domain, such as .com, can be had for as low as $12.99 per year, and promotions are often available. Internet domains purchased through Mailchimp also come with free WHOIS privacy protection and a Secure Sockets Layer certificate to provide your website with free verification and encryption.
You do need to have a web hosting plan to put your site online, but you dont need to have hosting to purchase a domain. Assuming you have a business or blog name in mind, its possible to reserve your brands name for the future by purchasing and registering your domain name now. Then youll have plenty of time to consider how to build your website.
Register Your New Domain Name
After settling on the right combination of keyword-based name and TLD, all you need to do is buy the domain name. The way you do this will often depend on the hosting provider you decide to use.
You can usually purchase a domain name during the process of signing up for a hosting plan. In addition, you can buy a domain separately through a dedicated registrar or hosting company. If youve chosen a name using Domain Wheel, you can even use the View Details button to go straight to a checkout page:
When youre ready to sign up for a web hosting account, make sure you use this Bluehost link. Going through it will result in two things: it is an affiliate link, which means that we receive a small commission if you buy through it, it will unlock a $2.75 vs $3.95 discounted price for you. You wont get this discount if you visit the Bluehost site in any other way.
Of course, you dont have to get your hosting and domain name from the same place. If you pick up a domain name elsewhere, you can still connect it to your new or existing site after the fact. How this works will depend on the web host youve chosen. You should check out your providers documentation or ask their support team for assistance when making the transfer.
Read Also: How Much Does It Cost For A Domain Name
To Conclude: How To Register A Domain Name
Congratulations! If you followed through with our step-by-step guide, you should now know how to register a domain name.
What you need is come up with a sound word combo, decide on your domain extension, pick some handful add-ons, and pay for your subscription. Afterward, the registrar will provide you with further quick instructions for connecting your domain name to your website, so that you can finally become visible on the web.
Have a question about how to register a domain name for your website that is not included here? Leave us a comment below.
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Price Your Domain Name
Now that you have an indicator of what your domain could potentially sell for its time to decide on the right pricing strategy. As we wrote here, most aftermarket domain names sell in the US$2,000 range, and the fast majority of the rest of domain names that are being purchased on the secondary market go for under $5,000. So unless you have your hands on a premium domain name that should sell for well into the five or perhaps even six-figures its highly recommended you market the domain name with a realistic, priced to sell, Buy-It-Now price. According to research from leading domain name marketplace Sedo, domains with a Buy Now price are three times more likely to sell than the standard make offer domains. Another reason to choose this strategy is that a Buy-It-Now pricing creates a sense of urgency for buyers if they dont buy now, someone else might and they may lose out on the opportunity to own the domain name forever.
If you own a highly sought-after domain name and enjoy the process of negotiating a deal, there are several reasons to go with the Make an Offer approach instead of a putting a fixed price on your domain. Receiving offers on your domain name will allow you to do some due diligence on the interested party and find out what their plans with the domain name are and how much they are potentially able and willing to pay to acquire your domain name.