It seems that everyone has their own web site these days, but not everyone bothers to register a unique domain name to identify it. For example, my friend Mary has a web site dedicated to cat allergies, but instead of buying a domain name to identify it like "catallergyspecialist dot com," instead her site resides at a more mundane "blogspot dot com slash blah blah blah." Having your own custom domain name and pointing it directly to an existing web site is actually a really easy thing to do, and it may surprise you just how inexpensive it can be.
How To Register Your Own Internet Domain Name
All Internet addresses are ruled over by a group known as ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
This company farms out the process of registering domain names to individual companies all over the world. There are literally thousands of places that you can purchase a domain name, but some of the more popular registrars are companies such as GoDaddy and Network Solutions
In most cases you can also purchase email services at the same time (for many companies email service comes complimentary with any domain registration). This allows you to create your own unique email addresses such as your name@yourdomain.com.
Before going to a registrar you have to make sure the domain you want to use is available. Most registrars have tools available to check and see if a domain name is in use or not, but another simple way to do it is to just type it into the address bar of the browser. If you receive an error message saying that the site cannot be found or that it does not exist then you can probably hop over to the registrar and buy it for around $10 or so. Beware of companies asking much more than this for domain registrations unless they are also offering hosting or other special features as a part of the cost.
Assigning Your New Domain Name To Your Web Site
Depending on where you host your web site you may also be able to purchase a domain name through them instead of a third party. If they do offer domain registrations this is often the easiest and least stressful way to set things up as most of the technical settings are adjusted by the company itself rather than you having to go in and set things up by hand. If you purchase your domain from a different company then you will have to go into your domain's settings and tell the system to forward all traffic for your domain name to your old web site address. Once the changes take effect (usually 3-12 hours), your web site will suddenly reside at your new domain name rather than the old, boring URL that was provided by your hosting or blog company.
