Q&A › Domain names
How addresses on the internet work, what they cost, and the single most important thing to get right.
A domain is cheap and replaceable right up until it is the name every customer knows you by. Then it is the most valuable thing you own online.
A rented pointer. You do not buy a domain, you register it for a period and renew it. While the registration is current, it points at whatever server you tell it to. Let it lapse and anyone may take it, including people who know it has traffic.
A common .com is usually in the region of ten to twenty dollars a year. If you are paying substantially more as a recurring line item, check whether you are paying for the registration or for someone to manage it. Both are legitimate; they should be itemised separately.
Less than it used to, but .com is still what people type and guess by default. A different ending is fine if the name is strong, and the risk is that a customer who half-remembers you lands on whoever owns the .com instead.
The internet's address book. It turns your domain into the numeric address of the server that answers for it. When someone says "point the DNS", they mean editing that record. Changes can take a few hours to spread, which is why a move is never instant.
Entries in that address book. A points the domain at a server's address. CNAME points one name at another name. MX says where email for this domain should be delivered. Website and email are separate records, which is why one can work while the other does not.
Unlock it at the current registrar, get the authorisation code, start the transfer at the new one and approve the confirmation email. It usually takes a few days. Domains are also locked for sixty days after registration or a previous transfer, so plan around that.
Occasionally worth it to stop an obvious impersonation or to catch a common misspelling, pointed at your real site. Buying dozens is a cost with no return. Nobody will find you through a domain you own but never advertise.
It replaces your name, address and phone number in the public registration record with the registrar's details. Without it, those details are published and harvested by cold callers within days. Most registrars now include it; check that yours does.
Yes, and it is nearly always an expired card or an unmonitored email address. Renewal notices go to the registration email, so if that is an old staff member's inbox you will not see them. Set it to auto-renew, point it at an address somebody reads, and check it once a year.
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