How to Register a Domain Name

There are a number of companies out there that allow you to register domain names for anywhere from less than $10/year to upwards of $35/year. Whichever company you pick, I highly recommend that you stick with one company to make it easier to manage all your domain names.

Personally, I have almost 90 domain names, all hosted through GoDaddy.com*. I like GoDaddy.com because they are extremely reliable, have an easy to use interface, and have incredibly cheap domains – at around $9/year.

Here’s how you can register a domain with GoDaddy.com*.

1) Go to http://www.GoDaddy.com*.

2) In the “Domain Search” box, type in the domain you’d like to buy and click the “Go” button to see if it’s available. I highly suggest you only buy either “.com” or “.net” domains – preferably “.com” domains, because that’s what your prospects will think to type first.

If the domain name has already been registered, you’ll see a screen like the one below.

In that case, use the “search for another domain” search and try again. It may help to vary your domain name slightly – instead of www.1234MainStreet.com, choose www.1234MainSt.com.

Sure enough, that slight domain modification worked. Otherwise, you might try tacking on your city, county, township, or state as other variation options.

GoDaddy.com* also provides you with a number of suggestions for similar domain names.

3) When you’re happy with your domain name selection, click the orange “continue” button at the bottom.

4) On the next few pages, GoDaddy.com* will attempt to upsell you a variety of services. I generally don’t purchase any of them. You can if you’d like but they aren’t necessary and I’m not going to purchase them in my example.

On this screen, you are asked if you’d like to buy the “.net”, “.biz” and “.info” domains as well as the “.com”. Click the “No thanks. Continue to checkout…” link at the bottom.

5) Next, you’ll be asked to either log into your account or create an account. If you’ve never purchased a domain name from GoDaddy.com* before, you’ll have to create an account. Fill out your name, address and phone number. Then click “continue”.

6) One the next screen, confirm your information by clicking “continue”.

7) On the next screen, you’ll see your shopping cart with your domains included and a bunch of options you can buy along with your domain. I generally don’t buy any of them, and won’t in this example. Scroll to the bottom, click “Quick Checkout” and then “Continue”.

Finally, you’re taken to your shopping cart where you can see all the domains you’re about to purchase. Here’s where you can choose to buy a domain for anywhere from 1-10 years. For home listings, you probably only want to register it for a year or two at most.

Select your payment type. Credit card is the easiest.

Click to agree with the Agreement and Terms of Service checkboxes at the bottom of the page.

Click “Checkout Now”.

9) On the next screen, confirm or modify your information. You can also choose a username and password to remember your account settings. Finally, make sure to set your contact preferences for their many newsletters. When you’ve finished that, click the “continue with checkout” button.

10) Finally, you’ve reached the checkout page. Confirm your contact information, enter your credit card information, and click the “checkout now” button.

11) There’s one last verification before the domain is yours. Enter the access code and click the “verify code” button. Once you’ve done that, you’re finished! Check your email for confirmation.

Congratulations. You’ve registered a domain name!

* links to GoDaddy.com are affiliate links.

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