How to Buy a Domain Name

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Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions remain my own.

WHERE DO YOU BEGIN?

Begin by asking yourself a question.

Do you want to start a website?

If so, you might want to get your own domain name first. That means your own little piece of paradise on the internet that only you control.

Let’s take a look at what that really means.

WHAT IS A HOSTING ACCOUNT?

I don’t want to get too technical, so I’ll just keep things basic. I’m sure as a new writer or business owner, you can appreciate not getting overwhelmed.

With any business, becoming overwhelmed is a threat to what you’re doing.

When I first considered starting a website, I actually found a course to guide me through it step-by-step. It only cost me $17 and gave me all the information I needed.

There are many free and paid courses that you can take that will guide you through as well.

THESE ARE MY TOP THREE PICKS

THE BLOG MILLIONAIRE – Brandon Gaille

I haven’t taken Brandon’s course yet, but I listen to his podcasts regularly and learn by what he teaches people for free. By far, he succeeds his competitors with his stats and data analysis on everything pertaining to how to start a blog.

I am impressed with Brandon’s expertise and experience, and although he gives most of the information away for free through his podcasts and Youtube channel, I’m sure his course would be extraordinary because he is.

He is not only a successful blogger, but he has a moving story behind his success.

He was diagnosed with a brain tumor and almost died. Then, while battling the desease, mustered up the strength to support his pregnant wife who was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer.

Having a mother who had a brain tumor, I know some of what he must have gone through. I can’t imagine the combination of pain, dealing with poor health at the same time as your pregnant wife, and then adding to the chaos with a baby on the way. It gives me chills just thinking about it.

I don’t want to spoil the surprise ending so I’ll let you check out his About Me link below, but anyone who goes through that has to be a man of faith. I found out later that he became a Christian through all of this, which made my heart sing because I am also a Christian.

My faith in Jesus Christ has also brought me through many hard times in my life.

I don’t know about you, but I think that is extraordinary. Anyone that can do that, and become a successful blogger, going on to teach others, is #1 in my book.

His course is costly, and I hope to be able to afford it one day. Until then, I will continue to listen to his free podcasts as often as I can.

In the mean time, check out his amazing story here.

INCOME SCHOOL – Jim Harmer & Ricky Kessler

These guys are two of my favorite people. Though I’ve never met them in person, they are in my livingroom on a regular basis.

I watch their Youtube channel faithfully and learn so much about blogging. They are reputable, genuine, and help a lot of people, mostly for free.

They have a blogging course called Project 24. I have never taken the course because it’s a bit too costly for me right now, but I’d love to be a Project 24 member one day in the near future.

The premise behind Project 24 is to help you make a full-time blogging income in 24 months. They help you from beginning to end.

I value their expertise, time, and energy, they put into helping others achieve their blogging goals, and highly recommend Income School to you.

Check them out on Youtube here.

THE DEADBEAT SUPER AFFILIATE – Dan Brock

I actually took this course and LOVED it!

Dan is not everyone’s piece of cake because some don’t know if he’s legit. I’m hear to tell you that he is. He’s not just legit, but he is very professional even though he sports a checkered housecoat in all his videos.

I love Dan. He helped me get started. I bought his course for only $17, even though I was apprehensive.

I wanted to start a website, and his simple course helped me to do that. If you want something affordable that just gives you the basics, I’d highly recommend Dan Brock.

He’s taken the brunt of people’s jokes over the years for his laid-back way of blogging, but he is definitely a competitor and deserves the same respect as every other guru out there.

If it hadn’t been for Dan Brock, I never would have had the courage to start my very first website, Crunchy Menopause.

He made me believe I could do it. Sometimes, when you’re starting out, rather than investing a ton of money when you don’t know if blogging is your thing yet, you might want to buy a cheap course. Or take one for free.

The Deadbeat Super Affiliate has many other courses you can take so check his Youtube channel out here.

I just wanted to point out that all the Youtube gurus basically say the same thing about blogging. I don’t just like to listen to one person. I like to check them all out and then cross reference what they say.

I suggest you do the same.

LEARNING FROM THE COURSE

Dan Brock’s course taught me that in order to start a website you must first get a domain name. In order to get at domain name, you must sign up for a hosting company.

I did not know this, and it kind of turned me off. I wondered why I had to spend a monthly fee just to start a website when I could it for free on Wix.com.

But what I didn’t understand was that even though I had a free website on Wix, I did not have my own domain name. That domain name tells Google that you are trustworthy and have authoritative content.

If Google doesn’t trust your website, they will not send traffic to you. Google is the biggest search engine in the world, and you want them on your side so that people can find your business, or the books that you write.

We talk about writing topics here on storytellerkat.com, so I thought it was only fitting to incorporate that into my experience buying a domain name and starting a website that represents my work.

I wanted to start an author blog or website that represented my work. I also wanted to write about author related issues, and sell my own books.

So, I chose to purchase a hosting account. Yes, I had to buy a monthly subscription, and go to the domain section to buy one first. We will go over the different hosting companies later on in this article.

But first, I just wanted to go over general information about what a hosting company is.

A hosting company is a service provider that helps your website get on the Internet.

They help your website go on a special computer called servers and store your information there. They require you to have a specific address on the web in order to do this. That’s called your domain name.

So, in layman’s terms, it’s like having a house on the block. If you want your house on a specific block in your neighbourhood, you need to have an address.

You can’t just say, “It’s that blue one over there.” You have to be specific if you want to be considered part of the city. Of course, you have to pay for your house, so naturally you would file for a building permit and be given an address.

Houses within a city are like computers within the Internet. They are all connected to each other just like in a neighbourhood, and if you want to be part of the neighbourhood, you’d better be professional enough to have a real dwelling, and not just a makeshift tent.

And within that house you have belongings just like a website does. Within that website you have content. That content takes up space within the house (your domain). Because you own your own address, you can keep whatever you want there.

That’s all we’re talking about here. It isn’t really that complicated if you think of it that way.

So, who are these hosting companies and how do we find them?

WHAT COMPANIES SELL DOMAINS?

In order to buy a domain name, you must first sign-up to a web hosting service. There are many to choose from and they’re all pretty close to the same.

Some people say one particular hosting service is better than another, but don’t believe that. Most of those people are just trying to get commissions for selling through their affiliate programs.

I know many who are signed up to Bluehost’s affiliate program and only endorse their product. They will tell you Bluehost is better than other companies because it’s cheaper and has better customer service.

But all they are really after is the commission they get from selling the product.

It’s good to get an unbiased opinion, but bear in mind you can be an affiliate for any web hosting company. That’s why I say they’re all the same. Pick one and just go with it.

The course that I took directed me to HostGator.com. I didn’t even know any other web hosting company existed at the time. That’s how naïve I was.

But it just so happened that HostGator actually was a reputable web hosting service. I have always had good customer service with this company and I will continue to stick with them in the future.

I find them to be very professional and easy to use.

In fact, later on down the road I found out that both Bluehost and HostGator are owned by Endurance International Group. The same company. So, what the heck!

I really wish people would stop comparing hosting services. There is not one that is more superior than another. Get over it!

I am very pleased with HostGator, and others are very pleased with Bluehost. Some People I know are pleased with GoDaddy, another web hosting service.

There are so many web hosting services, and they all virtually do the same thing. They will allow you to buy a domain name through them, set up websites through WordPress, and manage things like SSL certificates, bandwidth, security, and dedicated servers if that’s what you want to pay for.

As I said before, all you have to do is pick one. It’s quite easy.

Below is a list of the different web hosting companies out there that you can choose from. The leading contenders are HostGator (a veteran), and Bluehost, its baby brother.

Really, HostGator is just one month older than Bluehost anyway, so age is irrelevant. But don’t be fooled, even the lesser-known younger web hosting services are just as good.

I’ve managed to find about 30 reputable hosting services on the internet, and they all vary in cost.

WEB HOSTING PROVIDERS

Some of these web hosting companies have star ratings, but I don’t hold any credibility to that. Make your own assumptions, and do your own research.

Choose the hosting company that is right for you. What your needs are may be totally different from mine. That certainly doesn’t warrant a poor review.

For example, I can’t say NameCheap is not as good as HostGator simply because I don’t know much about them. Or simply because they are cheaper than most.

We are all different and our website needs are different as well, so choose a hosting service that is right for you, and respect all the others who work just as well as their competitors.

Remember, the difference between hosting services comes down to competition anyway. They are all just trying to compete against each other like any other business. So, choose what you want because YOU want it.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

The cost varies anywhere from $.99 to seven dollars a month. It just depends what you’re looking for, and your business needs.

As an example, I will tell you what I started out paying with HostGator.

When I was first introduced to HostGator, I realized I had to choose from three specific plans: The hatchling plan, baby plan, and the business plan.

HATCHLING PLAN

The hatchling plan is for those people only want one domain name and that’s it. I wanted more than one.

At the time I started my website you could buy this plan for $2.75 a month.

BABY PLAN

The baby plan is for those people who want unlimited domains. That means unlimited websites too, and that was me.

At the time of writing this, I currently have four websites through the baby plan.

When I started my first website the cost for a bigger plan started at $3.95 a month.

BUSINESS PLAN

The business plan comes with unlimited domains as well. That means unlimited websites too.

However, at the time that I started my first website the cost was much higher than the other two plans, starting at $5.95 a month.

Naturally, I was trying to keep my costs low, but as my website business grows, and I get more traffic, I will probably change to the business plan and get a designated server.

As you can see, hosting plans don’t have to cost a lot of money. Just pick what you’re looking for, and that’s it.

You will have to buy a domain name which is separate from your hosting plan. When I started my first website, my domain name costed under $20, and that included privacy protection. That’s a yearly registration fee.

Every domain name you purchase will have a yearly registration fee.

So, to sum it up, you must pay your monthly hosting fee for the package you were on, as well as your registration fee for each domain name you buy.

BUYING VS CREATING YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME

The difference between buying and creating your own domain name depends on what you want to do with it.

Purchase old domain name people have discarded for a fee. The purpose of buying those particular domain names is to get a boost in website traffic.

Instead of starting something from scratch, you will have an aged domain name associated with the website that already has traffic.

Aged websites are more valuable and can Bring larger amounts of traffic than baby website that are just starting out with a new domain name.

The premise behind it is that an aged domain will have backlinks already. Backlinks give authority to your website and won’t take as much time to get traffic.

That’s important if you want to monetize your website and make a living from it right away. If you can buy a domain that is five years old for example, with plenty of backlinks already, all you have to do is write your content and you will make money.

Of course, you will have to monetize it somehow. You can use adds or affiliate programs, info products, or sell your own books.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, starting your own website is the must if you are a published author or a business owner.

You will have to buy a domain name, in particular, a dot com. It’s best to stick with a dot com website so that you can target the largest market in the world with whatever you’re selling. That’s the United States.

However, if you are running an aromatherapy business from Canada, for example, and it’s a physical location, you will want a .ca website.

When choosing the exact domain name, you will want to choose a specific keyword that has high search volume so that people can find you, and as I said before, a dot com gives you the best visibility.

No matter which hosting service you use, they will require you to buy a domain name. Make sure it is one that is memorable and applicable to your business.

It will allow you to search the web before purchasing the domain name to see if it is available. If it is available, you’re free to purchase it.

Just like I did.

I am a writer. I tell stories. I searched my domain name and no one else had it, so I grabbed StorytellerKat that very second.

It has now been migrated to my main site, Crunchy Menopause, but I still own it. I’m glad I purchased it.

And I never looked back.

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