Search For Your Domain Name’s Availability
Once you have found the right domain registrar for you, you’ll need to search for your domain name using the registrar’s search bar. There are millions of domain names out there, with thousands more added daily.
If you have your heart set on a domain name before doing a search, you might be disappointed to find it is already taken. Keep an open mind and incorporate important keywords into your domain when appropriate.
Remove Your Old Pop3/imap Account
With all your data transferred and Outlook.com automatically collecting your new emails, you can remove your old POP3 or IMAP account from Outlook and set the Outlook.com mailbox as the main mailbox if it isnt already.
Set your Outlook.com mailbox as the default data file and optionally remove your pst-file.
What Is A Custom Domain
A custom domain is a unique branded label that’s connected to the IP address of a website. To visit a particular site, you can type its custom domain name into the address bar of your browser. HubSpots custom domain, for example, is hubspot.com.
Domain name registration is required for proprietary reasons it gives you ownership over your website’s address so that no one else can claim it, and it simplifies how internet users find your site.
But purchasing and registering a custom domain name has additional benefits, including:
- Brand identity: A custom domain name is essential for a consistent online brand identity. Visitors will expect your domain name to match or resemble your company name.
- Credibility: A domain name that aligns with your company name establishes credibility, and makes your website appear legitimate to users.
- Memorability: If your domain is easy to remember, visitors can easily enter it into their search bars, resulting in more direct traffic to your site.
- Differentiation from competitors: A clean, catchy custom domain sets you apart from competing sites with clunkier domains.
- Search authority: In addition to strengthening your brand, custom domain names can also help you establish search authority. As a rule of thumb, the older a domain is, the more authority it has in search. Thats because its had time to accumulate quality content, internal links, and backlinks.
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Two Methods For Buying A Domain Name
Fortunately, it doesnt really matter where you buy your domain. At the end of the day, a domain is a domain, and you wont find any variations in quality based on where you buy one.
The biggest difference from one domain registrar to the next is the pricesome offer domains for just a few dollars a year and others can go as high as $20 per year or more. There are two ways to get a domain name, one of which is free for the first year and the other is not.
How Much Does A Website Cost
The cost of running a website can be broken into 3 main elements: the domain, hosting, and the way to make the website.
A domain is the unique web address that visitors can type into the browser to find your website, e.g. www.website.com.A domain name is typically a yearly cost, ranging from around $15/year and up.
Website hosting allows your website files to be stored and seen on the internet. This is typically a monthly ongoing cost, usuallyaround $14.99/month and up.
The website platform used to create a website is another factor to consider. The cost of making a website may vary depending on whetheryou choose a DIY approach, or hire a web designer or developer. Hiring a web expert can be a significant expense that generally requiresan initial design cost and an ongoing maintenance fee.
With Website.com premium plans, everything is included to create your website, including a professional domain name, web hosting, and a websitebuilder with easy tools to create your site. Premium plans range from $3/month ,which is an extremely cost effective way to own a professional website.
With a free Website.com plan, you can get a free website name and get online entirely for free. Keep in mind that Website.com premium plansinclude a professional domain name, more website pages and advanced features to lend more professionalism to your site.
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Select Your Term Of Registration
Once youve added your custom domain, desired alternatives, and domain privacy and protection to your cart, select how long you want to register your domain. You might set it for one year to pay the least amount upfront. You can always renew for a longer term later.
Or, you might set it up for multiple years to avoid worrying about the renewal process for a while. Some registrars offer a discount for multi-year terms as well, making this option more appealing to those with tighter budgets.
Heres How You Can Start A Blog With Your Own Domain Name
Regardless of your industry or niche, its good to have an already established website where you can publish content youre passionate about. With that said, we also know how good it feels to have your own personalized domain. While new bloggers can get away with using a free address, getting yourself your own domain name helps you look more professional and trustworthy.
So yes, if youre looking for a go signal to get your own, this article is what youre looking for. Today, were going to tell you about the advantages and disadvantages of owning your own domain. We also have tips and tricks on how to come up with one. Lets start!
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Where To Go From Here
You can take advantage of your new email account by integrating it with an email marketing software to start your own email campaign for your readers.
You can set up autoresponders and start sending out newsletters to help build your email list over time.
Since a lot of readers who visit your site will not come back, having a way to capture their email so that they can continue receiving content and promotion updates is a great way to gain customers and grow your audience.
To get started, take a look at my guide to integrating email marketing with your website.
For more resources, check out these:
Choose A Domain Name Suffix Such As Com Or Net
After settling on the domain name, consider the suffix. The most popular suffix is .com, although .net and .org are also popular. These are considered to be top-level domains, or the highest-level domain suffixes in the domain naming system.
There are also other varieties to consider, such as country code top-level domains. These domain names end in a suffix that is particular to a specific country. A website in Germany might end in .de, for example.
Finally, there is another class of domain name suffixes called “sponsored, top-level domains,” which are sponsored by a specific community related to the domain name. For example, .gov is for the U.S. government and .edu is for education organizations.
For most websites, .com is the best suffix for its ease of use, but if you have a specialized website, you might consider a country code or sponsored top-level domain.
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How Can I Create My Own Email Domain For Free
To get started, just log onto Bluehost and go to your user panel. If you havent started a website with Bluehost yet, take a look at my free guide on how to start your own blog or website.
Not sure if its the best hosting solution for you? Check out my review of Bluehost. You can get a free domain for a year when you sign up with BlueHost. This domain can then be used to create your own domain email for free.
When you get to the dashboard, go to the sidebar and click on the Advanced tab.
Then scroll down a bit until you get the email section. Youll want to click on Email Accounts.
Now youre in the email manager window. To get started with your free domain email, click Create to set up a custom name and password.
So just go ahead and set up your information. You can also adjust the storage space from the default 100 MB if you just want to create one primary account. You can create up to 5 emails under your account plan.
Your new email should be created at this point. From here, you can manage or check your mail by clicking on the links next to your new account.
If you would, you can choose a pre-installed default email application, or you can try to manually connect with some of the other applications Bluehost integrates with. I went with horde as my default application.
The highlighted start in the upper right corner of your email indicates your default client. You can switch whenever youd like based on what kind of dashboard looks the best to you.
Through A Domain Registrar
If youre buying more than one domain name or want to manage your domain and hosting services separately, you can use a domain registrar like domain.com or NameCheap.
This route makes sense if youre launching a business website and want to buy all the possible variations of your business name to prevent others from doing so. Many domain registrars offer bulk discounts but you wont be able to get your domain for free.
Check out our top domain registrar recommendations, here.
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Allow Gmail To Send Emails Using Smtp
At this point, new emails to your custom domain should show up in your Gmail account. However, you wont be able to reply to them from your custom email domain yet.
To fix that, you need to configure your Gmail account to send through your custom emails SMTP server. Typically, youll find your emails SMTP server information at the same spot where you found the POP3 information:
Once you have your SMTP information:
This will open another popup window that has multiple steps.
On the first screen:
- Enter the custom email address that youre using.
- Check the box for Treat as an alias.
Next, enter the SMTP information from your email host:
- SMTP Server and Port from your email host.
- Username normally, this is your full email address, but sometimes its only the part that comes before @.
- Password the password that you set when creating your custom email address.
- Choose whichever Secured connection method that Gmail recommends.
- Click Add Account.
Gmail will then send a confirmation code to your custom email address. You need to click the link in that email and click Confirm to finish the process.
Since you already configured Gmail to receive emails from your custom domain name, you should be able to receive this email from your Gmail account. It might take a few minutes for Gmail to fetch the email from your server.
Got Any Tips On Finding A Good Domain Name
You bet. While it’s really easy to register a domain, having a good domain strategy helps you register the best domain name possible. Here are some hints:Make it easy to remember. This is why many businesses get domains with their business names in them. Some people even choose their business name only after they have a domain they like.Don’t register one that’s trademarked, copyrighted, or being used by another company. This can lead to losing the domain and legal problems.Shorter is usually better because they’re easier for customers to remember. It’s also easier to get matching usernames for Facebook, Twitter and any other social media accounts you have.Got a local business? Include your neighborhood, city or country in your domain so local customers can quickly see where you are. Check the list of geographic domain extensions .berlin .nyc to see if there’s one for your area.Avoid numbers or hyphens. Anyone who hears your web address won’t know if you’re using a numeral 5 or “five”. If your business name has a number in it, register both versions with the number and with the number spelled out .Get more than one. As traffic to your website increases, you may attract then attention of copycats who’ll snatch up similar domain names in hopes of drawing traffic away from you. Register similar or misspelled domains early so this won’t be an issue later.
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Consider Previously Registered Domains
Keep your eyes open for domain names that have previously been registered. Millions of domains have been registered over the years and a fair chunk of them are up for sale once again. If your dream domain has been registered by someone else, check to see if it’s available on a domain marketplace or Aftermarket. This is a great way to purchase your own domain.
If youre buying and selling domain names on the Marketplace, you may be able to find a great price on a domain youve always wanted. If you use our domain lookup tool, you can discover information about a site owner, and make an offer which they may accept.
Domains are re-released and available to the public after a grace period of around 75 days. One of the advantages of snapping one of these up is snapping up some of their traffic. Registering it can work to your advantage but dont be tempted to buy a domain based on existing traffic alone. Youre on to a good thing if a relevant domain name that was receiving traffic has recently expired.
Using An External Domain
If youve purchased a domain from a third-party provider, unrelated to your web hosting site, then connecting the domain may require you a couple of steps. Depending on the website building tool you use, you can usually find this in your settings.
Now its just a matter of communicating with your provider regarding the additional steps to take, so you can make sure that youve connected your new domain successfully. This typically involves one more step, and the amount of your participation for this will rely on the companys system and how they choose to do things.
- To ensure that your new domain can be used with your blog, you have to go into that domains external registrar, and change the old IP address to that of your blogs.
If you need help figuring this out, you can always seek your providers assistance, so they can help you set it up. Once youve hit save and re-published your site, you can expect to use your newly connected domain after 72 hours.
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