Last Updated: October 23, 2020
Domain, Domain, Domain. How many domains do you want?
Well, I have personally bought several domains but used only a few. Most of the domains that I bought just expired and I did not use them in any way. So I would suggest you to not go on a rampage of buying each and every domain you think is going to be a huge success.
Buying domain name is a very simple process. Just go to any of the domain name registrars, put the name you want and the extension that you want. If it is available, you can buy the domain name.
The most popular domain name extension is “dot com”. But there are other extensions that are becoming quite popular. For example “dot co”, “dot io” etc., are being used by many companies with the latest products and services.
Even the companies that provide hosting services can be used to register domain names but the negative point about them is that they will charge more when you are going to renew your domain name. So if you want to keep cost low then you can choose a domain registrar which keeps the cost low even when you are renewing.
Without further ado, here is a list of domain registration providers
- Namecheap
- Godaddy
- Domain.com
- Dynadot
- Google Domains
- Hover
- Register.com
- Name.com
There are many domain registrars which provide hosting solutions also which means if you buy hosting from them then your domain can be easily connected to the hosting solution which can reduce the hassle of pointing nameservers to the hosting account.
The reverse is also true. If you buy domain from hosting provider then it is directly connected to your domain name and you will not have to worry about the teeny technical thing related to domain and hosting.
Do you know that GoDaddy is the biggest domain registrar in the world. It has the responsibility of maintaining 75 million domain names which is just staggering.
Namecheap has some of the cheapest prices for buying and renewing domain names. It is also a very popular domain name registrar which has very good features.
One question that people often ask is whether you can get a free domain name. And the short answer to that is NO. You have to buy a domain name and use it. There may be circumstances which will allow you to get a free domain name for the first year. For example, many hosting providers will give you a free domain name for the first time you buy hosting from them but when the year ends you will need to pay for the domain name.
What should be the name of your domain? Well, it can be anything you want as long as it is not taken by someone else. Do choose some gibberish name or a big phrase for your domain name. People are not going to like it. Keep it as short as possible and you should be able to pronounce it easily which makes it easier to remember. There are some people who try to come up with the perfect domain name but it really does not matter that much. What matters is what you do with the domain name.
When I first started to buy domain names, I did something really stupid. It was like giving a child a bunch of money and taking them to a toy store or a candy store and telling them to spend it as you want. I did the same thing when buying domains for the first time. I started to just write various domain names and once it showed that the domain is available, I added it to the cart. Then I searched for another and added another one to the cart. And on and on it went. I made a payment of around 500 dollars at the checkout. I felt so good after buying all those domains. But guess how many I ended up using. It was only a couple of domains I used and the rest all got expired after one year without me doing anything with them.
So keep that in mind and buy one or two domains at most because you are probably not ready to use multiple domains unless you really have ideas which you can implement right away.