NFIB

Getting Your Domain Name
10/ 01/ 2002

by Michael J. Martinez

One of the first things you should do when you start your business is to pay for the rights to your name on the Internet. As some companies and individuals have found out the hard way, there are plenty of so-called cybersquatters who will buy up preferred and popular names, like plumber.com or weddingplanner.com, and then sell them to others at highly inflated prices.

It's also good to link your Web pages to that URL as soon as possible. The alternative to having your own URL--a Web address at Geocities or Angelfire.com--just appears less professional than having your very own name. In addition, a name that closely mirrors that of your business is far easier to remember than a Geocities name full of subdirectories and backslashes.

When it comes to getting your own Web address, however, be prepared for disappointment--odds are, you won't get your first choice. Unless you're in a unique business or have a unique business name, you'll find that getting the URL you want is going to be a tedious process. Be flexible and creative, and keep in mind that the name should be intuitive and easy to remember--and to spell!

Registering the name itself is easy. You simply go online to one of the many authorized registrars that handle new Web addresses for the Internet. Some of the more popular registrars are Network Solutions/Verisign (www.nsi.com), America Online and Registrar.com. A Web search will turn up a number of these services, and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit group that oversees the electronic address system, maintains a list--at www.internic.net --of all the registrars it has accredited.

On average, you can expect to pay $35 to $70 a year for the rights to your Web address. These prices may include various offers for page holders and redirect services--basic pages that give you a place to promote your business while you build the rest of your site, or that redirect Internet users to the rest of your Web site, which may or may not be within the same domain as your URL. For example, you could register mikesbarandgrill.com, but have that site redirect customers to your old Geocities site, or link to pages on the previous site while you work on the new one.

There are a number of available Web address extensions--the three letters that follow the actual name and the "dot." The most popular is the .com extension; the others are .org, .net, .gov, .mil, and .biz. The .org extension is generally accepted as a nonprofit extension, while the .net extension is more widely accepted as one for businesses. The .gov and .mil extensions are for U.S. government and military Web sites, and thus are off limits--you can't even register for one of these names. The .biz extension was introduced in 2001, and could well be an interesting alternative to .com. However, .com is the best-known extension in the world, and people trying to find your Web site are likely to simply type your business's name, followed by .com.

You should be very wary about buying a certain Web address if the .com version of it is already taken. Even if you buy .biz, .org or .net, you'll still find that many people will look for you at .com. It's better to change your initial URL idea than to end up sending prospective customers to another business across the country--or worse, across town.

Your best bet is to find a unique name, and then, at the very least, register the .com version of it. If you can afford it, you should also register the .net, .org and .biz versions as well. That will not only protect your URL from cybersquatters, but will also alleviate any confusion in the marketplace. You can set up redirects from the other URLs to your .com address.

Michael J. Martinez is an associate editor for Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, covering technology issues and reviews. Previously, Martinez was a business and technology writer for The Associated Press and ABCNews.com in Seattle, covering such high-tech luminaries as Microsoft and Amazon.com. His book Practical Tech is available in bookstores for $17.95.