Domain names - what they are and where to get them

A domain name is almost like a postal address.
Your Internet "address" or domain must be unlike any other, and when you choose and register a domain it will be yours for as long as you continue to pay the yearly renewal fee.

Most people are familiar with the top level domain (TLD) "dot com" - like this: .com

There are a growing number of TLD's, in addition to .com there are .org , .net , .info , .biz . The .biz TLD is for business use only, the others can be used by all.
A fairly new one is .ws (website).

Most nation-states have their own TLD's, for instance .jp for Japan, .es for Spain and so on.

A very new TLD is .eu , (european union), reserved for companies and individuals living in one of the EU countries.
The .eu TLD will become active during the first half of 2006.

Your domain can be up to 64 characters long including the three or four letters after the dot ( . ) However, it is much better to have a short and meaningful domain; after all you want people to be able to remember it!

You can use a combination of digits, letters in upper or lower case (or a combination) and hyphens, but not spaces.
Thus, domains like "yourdomain.com" and "your-domain.com" are valid, while "your domain.com" is illegal (no space permitted).

When Internet surfers search for interesting sites they have to input either
http://www.thedomainname.com or simply www.thedomainname.com
These long strings are called the Uniform Resource Locator (URL for short), and many people think they are the same as the domain name.
To be quite clear: The domain name is everything after the www.

If the name of your choice is taken you simply have to try some variations of the name, maybe with a different spelling or a hyphen. Please remember that if the TLD .com is unavailable you may find that .net, .org or .info can be used.

Where to go?
In our opinion it's only one place to go for your domain names.

While many domain registrars will gladly charge US$15 up to 45 (or even more!) for one years registration we recommend Arizona-based GoDaddy.com where you will be able to purchase your .com-name for less than $10!

If you are interested in saving money you owe it to yourself to at least check them out!