Registering a domain name is one of the two tasks that you will have to undertake before even building your website. The other process is obtaining hosting for your site.

A domain name makes up part of the address of your site and can have many endings, such as .com, .net, .co.uk, .info, .org and many many more.

Choosing a Domain Name

Obviously the type of name you wish to register will depend largely upon the purpose of your site. For example if you are publishing a slideshow of photos for your relatives to view oversees then a domain name something like "yourname.com" or "yourname.co.uk" will work well for you.

On the other hand, if you are designing a site to attract anonymous visitors either as a hobby or because you a running a business then something more catchy and descriptive will be needed.

This is because your average surfer, viewing many hundreds of web pages, will only search you out and then remember you from your keywords (more on this later).

For example, dollshouse-tips.com would be a much better choice than janesdollshousehomepage.com. The first example is more memorable and may benefit from better traffic due to the keywords in the title. The hyphens between words also make the name far more readable.

When registering your domain name you have the option of using up to 63 characters. However just because you CAN do something does not mean you HAVE to. In most cases a shorter name will be more easily remembered by your visitors.

If your website is to be used for commercial activity and you are, or will be, generating a vast amount of traffic to your site then you will become greatly recognised - well done, but be aware that this may well generate copycats who will try and cash in on your traffic. These people will attempt to "steal" your customers by using domain names that are very similar to yours. For example you own we-are-millionaires.com and the copycats will take we-are-millionaires.net, .co.uk, .org, etc. Therefore, if you are making good money, I would suggest investing some of this in registering all the extensions that are available (.net, .org, etc) in order to protect your interests. You can then redirect these other domains to your main one so you do not need to upload your site to each.