How to Create a Domain Name

I was in one of my favourite restaurants in New York the other week, and got to talking to the waiter, a young chap called Jim, about his decision to start a new business. He was planning a private catering company and was keen to tell me his master plan - albeit in the time it took to pay the bill.

So, I asked Jim, if he had bought a domain name?

Jim looked puzzled. Why did he need a domain name - he wasn't planning a website? He'd cross that path when he had to, but for now he couldn't see the need.

Big mistake Jim, I told him. A domain name is as important as his company name and carves out a place for his business in cyberspace. His company name gives him a formal identity in the real world, but he won't exist in the virtual world of the Internet without first registering a domain name!

And a domain name takes only a few minutes to search and register with one of the many service providers and costs only a few bucks. Leave the registration process too long and there's the possibility that the name you want to register may get taken by someone else, or worse a competitor.

One of the first domain names you need to register should be based on your business name. So, 'Joes Plumbing' might translate into 'joesplumbing.com' or 'joes-plumbing.com'. The .com part is called the top level domain (TLD) and use to denote a commercial usage; the term 'joesplumbing' or 'joes-plumbing' is technically called the second-level domain and usually refers to the organization.

Things have moved on since this convention was first proposed and there are many more top level and country code level domains such as the one most business users in the UK use: joes-plumbing.co.uk as an example.

Now, as soon as your domain name is registered, you can start to make use of it as part of your e-mail address. Most domain name service providers have a facility to associate your registered name with an email address. You don't need a website and you don't necessarily have to have an email account with the domain name provider.