| The first step towards getting your business or | | | | Namecheap who's prices average at about 8.88 per |
| personal site running is getting your own space on | | | | year which is less than three quarters a month. If |
| the web, which starts with getting your own domain | | | | your interested Namecheap also recently started |
| name. If you want your own personal domain you | | | | offering web hosting as well but this is not their |
| have to pay a yearly fee but it doesn't have to cost | | | | specialty. I have used Namecheap personally for over |
| much, and there are even free alternatives that are | | | | a dozen different domain names and have never had |
| almost as good. | | | | any problems with their customer service. |
| A domain name or site name is a unique text URL | | | | The real question is what can you get for free? Well |
| that references your site and only your site. and are | | | | depending on what your looking for it turns out you |
| examples of domain names. The authority that | | | | might be able to get everything you need for no |
| domains must be registered with is the "Internet | | | | cost at all. There are a number of sites online such as |
| Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers | | | | CO.CC that offer a free sub domain of their site. |
| Authority"or the ICANN which is the agency that | | | | What this means is that your domain is actually a |
| oversees the allocation of domains on the web. | | | | part of their domain and the URL will reflect that. |
| A regular person cannot directly register a domain | | | | A sub domain does give the overall domain a little |
| name with the ICANN because that would be to | | | | control over your domain name, you are dependent |
| easy. To get your site online you need to go through | | | | on their existence and continued service online. They |
| a licensed domain registrar. These registrar sites | | | | do not force any advertisements on your site. They |
| charge a yearly rate which can run between five to | | | | do somewhat limit the overall amount of bandwidth |
| twenty dollars per year. | | | | traffic, and disc space you can have. The most |
| Some licensed domain registers also offer web | | | | important sacrifice is that your domain name itself |
| hosting. Web hosting services offer the online | | | | has to be a subset of theirs. In other words you |
| storage space you need for your files. Your domain | | | | cannot have but rather if you register with the site |
| doesn't need to be registered with the same | | | | CO.CC your site would have to be named |
| company that provides your web hosting; in fact, | | | | mydomainname.co.cc but if replacing the or.net |
| web hosting companies usually gouge you on the | | | | extension with the extension of .CO.CC doesn't |
| price for the added convenience of using one | | | | bother you, then one of these free alternatives |
| company. | | | | might be just what you need. |
| One of the cheapest domain registrars online is | | | | |