How To Start A Business - How Do I Register a Web Address?

You may want to buy a web address simply as an investment for the future, or. Or to use my own personal name for a new website, to protect an idea I have had, this is a question many people will suddenly need to answer - how do I register a web address to protect my business name?

' What you should be asking is 'How do I buy a domain name? 'How do I register a web address' is not the right question though.

All you need is your credit card or a Paypal account. You will have to actually register and buy the web address name from a domain registration service, or put up a web site immediately, it doesn't matter if you simply want to 'reserve' a web address for later use. Registering or buying your domain name of choice is what you have to do.

You will pay this whether you intend to put up a web site or not. And no-one else can put up a web site with that URL, you will have to pay about $9-$20 a year to have a domain registered in your name - which means that you own it, but whatever service you choose, we will recommend the best and easiest services to this at the bottom of this article.

You can now go to a domain registration service and buy it. And you are in luck, this usually means the name has not been taken. You get a message that your browser can't find the server, or. In which case you are too late - someone else already has the name, two things might happen - the browser will open a web page. iwantthisaddressrightnow.com (use the actual name you want to own), simply type the address you want into the address bar at the top of your web browser - for example, to check if it is already taken. The first thing to find out is whether the name you want is available or not.

All the domain name services we will tell you about will also allow you to check the availability of domain names directly, of course.

Many people have lost their precious domain names this way. It is difficult or impossible to retrieve the domain name and register it directly yourself, several notorious recent cases have shown that if the hosting company collapses. Many hosts offer a 'free' domain name of your choice when you sign up for a year's hosting with them. What you should never do is to allow a web hosting service to control your domain name.

And switch the name servers when you are ready (this is all explained by your new web host), you can then sign up for a hosting service. You can usually 'park' the domain with your registration service, having bought the name. From the start, since you will own the name outright, if you register with a reputable domain name service you won't have this problem.

You can get a private registration of your domain by paying a little extra if you wish. Which will be publicly available to anyone who wants to check ownership of your address, default registration includes a record of your name and address. Simply proceed through their online order form, having checked that the name is not taken. How do you register a web address at one of the online services, so?

That's all there is to it!