What is a domain name?

When you subscribe to any web hosting, there is usually a domain name comes free with the hosting plan. If it’s not free, then you will need to pay $10 – $20 for it. Choosing a domain name while subscribing the hosting plan has become unavoidable.

What is a domain name and why do I need one?

Domain name is the name of a web site, or the address of a website. Let’s illustrate that you are buying a house, you will need an address so that visitors can manage to locate your house. Same thing to your website, when you host your website, you will need an address (domain name) so that it is reachable by visitors.

But why is it necessary to get a domain name while I just want to buy a web hosting?

Logical thinking, whoever is buying a web hosting wants to host a website, and every website needs a domain name. So sooner or later, you will need a domain name. Therefore, web hosting providers have gone 1 step further to provide extra service to you, by helping you to register the domain name. And because of every domain name is unique, web hosting providers use domain name to organize their customer database.

This explains why you need to have a domain name when you are subscribing a web hosting plan, be it a new, or a transferred domain.

How do I choose a domain name?

The next question is how to choose a good domain name? What are the differences among .org, .com, .biz, .us or .net domains? Which is the best?

As mentioned above, domain name is the name of your website and it is the very first name presented to public. Thus a good one is very important. Generally, a good domain name should give people a clear vision on what your website is all about yet it is easy to remember. It is a 2-3 words phrase which explains everything, like webhostingdeals.org. You know that this website is about web hosting by its look at the domain, don’t you? But if you are building a super brand, then you need to think of something special, short yet powerful, like digg.com.

.org or .com? It is absolutely up to you. There are no restrictions at all on what you can do on a .com, .org, .net, .info or .biz domain. Just pick one that you feel right of it. Of cause, there are people out there are expecting a particular type of site for a given extensions, like .com is for commercial; .net is for internet, hosting, designing related; .org is for organization; .biz is for business and .info is for, well what do you expect?

Bottom line, choose a domain name that explains best about your website and pick an extension that you feel right on it, and you are done.