Today’s blogging tip is: get a domain name. You might be thinking,”That sounds expensive”, or “that sounds too technical” or “a what?!” So let me answer some of your questions.
A domain name is, of course, your address on the web. Here it’s Missionary-Blogs.com, or www.Missionary-Blogs.com. There are other domains besides “dot-coms”, there’s also .org, .biz, .info, .net, .jobs, and many more, including country specific domains such as .uk, .ca and .us.
A domain name is actually a user-friendly translation of a string of numbers. Those numbers represent the computer where your website is hosted. When you register a domain name, that name becomes associated with that number.
Why get a domain name?
Because it can always be yours. If you change your site, or move, or if your hosting company goes under, it doesn’t matter. The domain can stay the same. This also means you can have the same email address for life. It’s also easier to build traffic to a site if it’s always in the same place.
You can choose an easy domain that your friends and family can remember.
It looks more professional. People often come to associate free sites with low-quality. Does your address sound “free”?
It’s better for the search engines. This is a more complex issue, but suffice it to say that your own domain is better.
It better matches your site – you can pick words that relate.
This doesn’t mean that you have to redo your site this week, or ever. Here’s how you can start – simply register a domain, and have it forwarded to your existing site. If you want to build on it later, great.
Is it expensive? It doesn’t need to be. It varies depending on who you register with. I have used GoDaddy.com in the past. For a .com domain, the cost is less than US$9 per year – yes, per year. Less if you register for more years at once (as you should).
My top 10 tips for choosing a domain name:
Do it now, before you lose the domain that you would have liked. They’re going fast!
Make it long-term. sam-in-bolivia.com is great, but what if God calls you to Mexico? What if you have to leave for some reason?
Make it easy to remember. People may lose your brochures and prayer cards, but will they remember your domain name?
Make it easy to spell. How easy is it to make a type in Koinonia-in-Kazakstan.com? And remember, the longer it is, the more likely it will be typed wrong.
Use a “dot-com” instead of other extensions. It looks the most professional, and is the easiest to remember. If you’re really set on a word or phrase, and .com isn’t available, .org or .net are your next best bet.
Make it clear. If using more than one word, decide on whether you want a dash or not (or just register both variations).
Try to make it uniquely “you”.
Think it through carefully. This could be yours for life. Brainstorm. Try making a list of possibilities. Run it by family and friends, see what they think. Get suggestions. Try slight variations (plural, dashes, word order, more or less words).
Will this look good as an email address? You know, bob@ima-missionary.com?
Make sure you’re registering with a reputable company. Be sure the domain is owned by you, in your name. Ask first about ability to forward and other features you’re interested in. Be sure you can host your site anywhere you want. For more details, visit the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for managing domain names.
Now, go to a domain registry, register for 5 years right away if you can, and then get the domain forwarded to your current website. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now instead of telling people your blog is at spaces.msn.com/members/thefinklesteinsaremissionaries or finklesteinsinuganda.blogspot.com, you can just say “Our website is at finklestein-family.com. It doesn’t have to change next year, always the same, even if you ditch Blogger. Isn’t that a breath of fresh air?
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