We’re going to get into this early because in most cases if you don’t have a website you don’t have a business. This isn’t always the case but you’re going to want to get one pretty quickly.

A domain is the thing you type into your browser window. For instance the domain name here is OrangeIsTheNewBlog.com. Others include  google.com, amazon.com and so on. The most common top level domains in the US are com, org, net and gov which used to stand for commercial, non-profit organizations, network infrastructure and government.  Without getting too specific your domain is your address on the Internet. A domain can affect people the same way a physical address affects how people feel about you and your business. For instance, it’s a well known fact that people are more likely to buy mail order from 123 Main St, Suite 27 than they are from PO Box 27. In the same way people are more likely to buy from a website with an address like www.amazon.com than they are something like www.obviously-a-webhost.com/stores/ mybusiness/ The first is easier to remember and more professional looking.

The great thing about the Internet is that addresses are all the same price… totally unlike 5th Avenue versus South Bronx. If you go to www.godaddy.com they’ll register any available dot com domain for about nine bucks a year. You can spend a lot more but you’ll get exactly the same thing regardless of the registrar (that’s the official title of companies engaged in registering domains) you go to. Godaddy offers other services like email and web hosting but I’ve never used any of those. I do use them exclusively for registrations though.

Regardless of who you use, it’s generally a pretty painless process. On most registrar’s home pages you’ll find a place right near the middle of the page for you to type in the domain name you want. It may take several tries to find one that’s available so it’s a good idea to have a selection of domain names already picked out.