Having a domain is a necessity for any serious webmaster. In fact, many webmasters have been known to register more than one domain per website that they own. This is to protect their brand name. Say you register “www.bicycles.com” (lucky you), and someone else registers “www.bicycles.net”. Most customers will easily mix the two up, and even return customers might mistake one for the other. So as you build your own reputation, you’re essentially building someone else’s as well.

What most professionals do who want to protect against poor business practices like that register as many domains as possible. Some register the basics (“.com”, “.org”, and “.net”) and others even go as far as registering all extensions, plus any common misspellings they can think of. Punch in “googel.com” into your browser, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Now obviously when talking about “Hosting on a Budget”, you’re not going to be able to go to that extent. But getting at least at least the 3 basic domains (“.com”, “.org”, and “.net) will ensure that most customers don’t get too confused. Less common extensions like “.info” and “.biz” will stand out to a return customer, and they will likely be able to tell you from those.

So now that you know how many domains you’re going to have to register, we move on to the next question: “who has the best rates, but aren’t a pain to deal with?” The first choice for many is GoDaddy. Why? Well first off, we’ve seen them on television with all those women just begging to be a GoDaddy girl. Unfortunately, those girls don’t come with the service.

What does come with the GoDaddy service is a lot of unnecessary add-ons which are explained to as “must-have” products. If it were only say 1 or 2, that would be alright but there are PAGES of these types of promotions to wade though before you even get your domain. Even after you make your purchase, extras are always pushed on customers throughout the existence of their account. Perhaps that’s how they can afford television commercials.

We’ve found a nice alternative namecheap.com. It’s a simple, basic signup process. There’s no pushy ads, and low-and-behold most of their prices are actually cheaper than Go-Daddy’s. NameCheap offers great prices and can be contacted via live chat any time of the day. You’ll also find that the time you spent waiting after purchasing the domain to actually use it is minimal to none.  Another option is to get a free domain with your web hosting account. Some web hosts that offer a free domain when you signup for a web hosting account are HostMonster, BlueHost, and JustHost.

So what you should have learned here is there’s two rules to domains. First, protect your brand. Register as many domains as financially convenient, but there’s no need to go overboard. Second, don’t overlook the little guy & be sure to shop around.