I received an email from a subscriber requesting me to write articles about Domain, how to register domain, how to manage domains, and how to earn money from domains.

At first, I was planning to answer this request after discussing the details on how to SEO a website or blog. But since the domain is one of the things I mentioned on my previous article (How to On-Site SEO?) that should be considered in SEOing a website, so I decided to write first this article for them to have ideas on how to register domain.

What is Domain Name?

The Domain name is most often referred to as “Domains” or “Domain”. It is a web address that is easy to remember or memorize in place of the numerical address in the internet.

The domain name of this blog, for example, is “selaplana.com”. It’s easy to memorize, right? So, if you want to visit my blog, what you need to do is just point your browser to “selaplana.com”.

But, FYI, the real address of a website is written like this: 123.456.789.123. It’s quite hard to memorize addresses like that especially if you want to visit many websites. So, to make things easier, domain name is invented.

A domain might have 2 or 3 parts. For the domain of this blog, “selaplana.com”, “com” is the first part which is called “TLD” or top level domain. “selaplana” is the second part which is called “SLD” or second level domain.

Now, let’s consider the domain used by my Naruto Shippuuden blog which is “www.narutoshippuudenfan.com/”. From that, you’ll notice that “narutoshippuuden” was added to the “selaplana.com”. Well, that part is called the third level domain and is often called “Sub Domain”.

There are lots of TLD that websites are using. But few of them are:

1. com – commercial
2. net – network
3. info – information
4. biz – business
5. tv – television

For more thoughts about Domain, just read the Wikipedia entry of it.

Domain Registration?

Domain registration is the process of acquiring domain names. Once you registered a domain, then you are the rightful owner of that particular domain in certain period of time according to the contract.

For example, the domain “selaplana.com” was registered since year 2006 and the contract was valid for  only 1 year. However, before the expiration of the contract, I renewed it immediately so that my right as the owner of that domain will be extended.

And how can you register a domain?

Registering a domain is like registering a business name. If you want to register your business’ name, you just need to go to the office of the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) and register the name that you want to use for your business.

On the other hand, in registering domain, you also need to visit the domain registrar and register the domain that you want to use for your website.

Domain Registrars are companies accredited by ICANN or by ccTLD authority to register domains.

ICANN stands for “Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers” and has the authority over TLD’s like com, net, org, etc.

ccTLD stands for “Country Code Top Level Domain“. ccTLD Authority on the other hand is the agency responsible on managing ccTLD like com.ph which is the ccTLD used in the Philippines.

Now in registering domains, you have 2 options in doing that:

1.) Let other register domain for you.

Most of the webhosting companies that exist today, offer a domain registration servises to their clients. What you need to do is just pay them for the price per domain that they offer and they will be the one to register the domain for you.

For example, the Ploghost Webhosting company register the domain of this blog “selaplana.com” for me. This company is actually the one hosting this blog.

This is actually the best way for you to register a domain especially if you don’t have credit cards that can be used to pay for the domain registration fees.

2.) Register the domain by yourself.

However, if you want to have full control of the domains that you would register, then you need to register them by your own through the domain registrars like godaddy.com and others.

I am not really familiar of other whole sale and retailer registrars because I haven’t tried them.

Currently, I have accounts with GoDaddy.com and I found this registrar better especially in managing many domains. This registrar have control panel or domain registration system where you can register domains by your own and the registration fee will be automatically credited to your credit cards or to your Paypal account.

More info regarding Domains

Fow now, let’s just end this article here. But if you have something to clarify or if you have questions, just don’t hesitate to ask me by replying this email. You can also post your questions at the comment section of the live version of this aticle or visit “Registering Domain Names“.

There are still lots of things to talk about Domains but I will be talking about them on my future articles.

My next article will be talking on how to optimize domains and URL.

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