Thank you for visiting WebMasterKnowHow.com - If you can suggest things that should be added to the site I would like to hear about them. Anything regarding hosting, HTML, attracting traffic, problems and mistakes. I intend to make this site as useful as I can, and with that in mind I'm trying to add at least one new topic every week.
Your website - What to call it and how to register the name
My recommendation is to use a .com name if you can get one you like. That's what people will expect, so if they are typing in your URL they will be more likely to be able to find your site
If you are planning to do off-line advertising, such as radio or TV or print ads, you should be extra sure to make your name easy to remember and easy to spell.
However, since most of your visitors will probably come from links on other websites, or from search engine listings, they won't have to type it in, or remember it.
Registering the name you select is easy. The place you use to find out if your name is available will be happy to register it for you. I have this domain (webmasterknowhow.com) registered at
Dotster.com
. They charge $14.95 a year to register the name, and they make it very easy to change the hosting company, or your personal information, or even sell or give your domain to someone else. There are some companies that will register your domain for a few dollars a year less, but I haven't tried any of them, since I'm so satisfied withDotster.com .
The first thing you need to decide is Why you want this website. Of course your ideas will change as time passes, but you should at least have a general idea.
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If it is to be a personal, just for fun website, using your own name would be fine. JOHNSMITH.COM or if that's taken, JOHNHSMITH.COM, or JOHNHENRYSMITH.COM. If you don't want to use your name, a nickname will do. You can easily find out which of the names are available by going to Dotster.com .
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If it is to be a business site, and you already have a business, and it already has a name, the answer is easy. The full name of the business, followed by .com: JOESHOBBYSHOP.COM If someone already has that name, you may be able to buy it from them. Dotster.com will show you who owns the name and how to contact them (use the "whois"link). If they won't sell it, or you can't afford it, you can try getting the .net, .org, .biz version of the name.
If you can't get a domain name the same as your existing business name, your second choice should be a name related to your product or service. You will have to use your imagination here, as the most obvious ones are probably taken. You can go to NameWinner
or Unclaimed Domains 
to see what domains have been recently abandoned, and if there's one you like you can probably get it.
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If it is to be a free information site, you can pretty much call it whatever you want. It is best for search engines if the primary word or words can be included in the name. The only punctuation allowed in a domain name is the "-" so if you want to have a website about making donuts, and MAKINGDONUTS.COM is taken, another option would be MAKING-DONUTS.COM - or any combination using .net, .org, .biz, .info.
Why would you want to make a website about making donuts? Good question. If you have information to share, people will come. And if they come for something as specific as making donuts, they are what we call targeted traffic. You can sell them something. Or you can send them to someone who will sell them something and give you a percentage. There's more about that at Sponsors for your website
This site - WEBMASTERKNOWHOW.COM -is a free information site, and very few people come to it by typing in the name WEBMASTERKNOWHOW.COM - but a few do. Most people find this site by going to a search engine and requesting information about making a website. Many others come from links on other websites.
