| If the thought of going through the process to | | | | 2. Choose a domain name registrar. Do not |
| purchase a domain is mind boggling to you, worry no | | | | necessarily look for the cheapest domain name |
| more - I've simplified the process to register a | | | | registry you can find, because as they saying goes |
| domain name down to three simple steps. | | | | 'you get what you pay for', this holds true for |
| 1. Choose your domain name. Now this would seem | | | | domain name registration as well. In my personal |
| obvious and easy, but in fact, this is the most crucial | | | | experience I have found GoDaddy to be reasonably |
| part of the whole process and you need to do quite | | | | priced and their service to be good (I only |
| a bit of research in this phase of the things. If you | | | | recommend them for domain name registration - |
| already have an established business or brand, then | | | | nothing else); but another highly recommended |
| you will, of course, try to obtain that domain name in | | | | domain registrar is Name Cheap. So there's two that |
| the .com version if at all possible. If you are starting a | | | | are both reasonably priced with good customer |
| new business, or perhaps setting up a site for a niche | | | | service records to help you on your way to choosing |
| affiliate mini-site, then I suggest choosing a name | | | | a registrar. I'm sure there are many others, but you |
| based around a specific targeted keyword phrase. | | | | should expect to pay about $10 per year to register |
| Do some keyword research* and find a long-tail | | | | a domain name. You can often find coupon codes to |
| keyword phrase (3 or more words long is considered | | | | save a little, but $10 per year is about average cost |
| long-tail) and find a phrase that gets a decent | | | | for a .com or .net domain name. |
| amount of searches per day* and would lend itself | | | | Once you've selected your registrar, register an |
| well into a domain name for your new business and | | | | account with them. This is usually a very simple, |
| or niche affiliate web site. Once you have selected a | | | | straight forward process of filing in the blanks on a |
| domain name, you're ready to move on to step two. | | | | web form with your name, address and so on. |
| *How do you do keyword research? I recommend | | | | 3. Register your chosen domain name. Every domain |
| using these two free keyword tools: 'Google | | | | registrar is slightly different, but somewhere on their |
| AdWords Keyword Tool' and 'Keyword Tracker | | | | home page should be a place for you to enter in |
| Keyword Suggestion Tool'. Put those two phrases in | | | | your desired domain to check its availability, the |
| Google to find them. | | | | resulting page will let you know if it is indeed available |
| *What's a decent number of searches per day? You | | | | to register - if so, add it to the cart and complete |
| want enough to get some decent traffic, so at least | | | | the process to register the domain. Again, this is |
| 100-200 searches for that phrase per day or more, | | | | usually a matter of filling out your name and personal |
| but if it's a keyword that's getting 1,000 or more - it | | | | information. |
| could also have a lot of competition and be tough to | | | | The only extra features I might recommend during a |
| rank well for. So check that phrase in Google and see | | | | domain name registration is Privacy. This allows for |
| what sites come up. Competition isn't necessarily bad | | | | your personal information like your name, address |
| - but the bigger and tougher the competition for that | | | | and such to be kept private to keep spammers from |
| phrase, the longer it could take you to rank for the | | | | gaining access to this information. This feature does |
| phrase. | | | | cost extra, but I do feel it's worth the extra free. |