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It’s time to buy a domain online. You have a name for your business and want to distribute it’s products or services over the web. These tips are for those who have little or no experience buying websites. Your address, or URL, is the way that people are going to get to your online bisness. It is important to have an address that identifies your business but it is easy to remember. This can be a burden for many.

The first step is to choose the name of the page. It can be your business’s name or a name for your virtual identity. Note that you can use a different name for your web business.

1.Avoid complicated names - Your business can have a very creative name or use the names of Greek gods. For your web audience, use names that are easy to learn and remember. Example: Your business is about sleep disorders studies and is called Morpheus (god of sleep). Your page could be called Morpheus, but the public can find it a bit difficult. You could call it Dreams or Sleep page or something along these lines. This would be your URL but in the design, highlight the name of his real business: MORPHEUS.

2. Use abbreviations when you can - If your company name is very long, eg. Morpheus Institute of sleep and relaxation, Inc; consider MISD.

3. Once you’ve chosen the perfect name, check its availability. Go online and type the name you want with the extension you want. Ex. Morpheus.com, Morpheus.org, Morpheus.tv, etc.

You already have the domain you want, and you’re ready to buy it. There are many websites that provide this service. But all give similar options. When shopping keep in mind:

1. Avoid unfamiliar extensions - In the web, the best known extension is .com. There are others like .org,. net,. co.mx, etc. There is also .tv, .fm, and more. Try to get a .com. Why? The extensions allow people to have the same name. So if your business is Morpheus.net and is an institute that studies dreams, your competition, which sells mattresses may buy Morpheus.com. Your audience might go to the mattresses site first because .com is more popular than .net.

2. Avoid regionalism - From experience, people in Puerto Rico (generally people who don’t know much about the web) love to write pr at the end of their name. Ex. Mopheuspr.com. This is not recommended because if there is a Morpheus.com available, you give the chance for another to take this URL. Use this only if the name is already taken and do not want to change the name you have chosen. But my recommendation is to avoid this at all costs.

What happens if the name that took you so long to create is not available? Well, you can do one of two things, 1. Create a new name and see if it is taken or 2. See if you can get the name that you want. To do that, you should check the condition of the website.

1. Already established business - most likely the name is not for sale. If so, it can cost you a lot of money.

2. Under Construction - The address or URL is in plans of being used. Contact the owner to see if they would sell the name.

3. Investor page - These are pages that have information about hosting services or links to Web sites with names close to what you just typed. These pages are used for traffic studies on which these words generate. Usually, these URLs are for sale.

4. Dead pages - These are pages that are empty. It is difficult to know whether they are for sale or not. Contact the owner to see if he is willing to sell.

I hope these tips to help you when buying your next domain on the network. Good luck in your search.

Written by: Juan Rivera