Topic: .com

[Doris_Pinks]

I am starting my own business and want my e-mail adress to read    businessname.com or .co.uk. How do I get one of these and what do they mean? Is it just the company you get your e-mails through?
Hope this makes sense!    DP

[Sarah-b]

Hi DP,
Go to http://www.internic.net
You'll find lots of answers there plus a list of companies who will register your domain name for you.
Sometimes the name you want will already have been registered by someone else and sometimes with the sole idea of flogging it on to someone who actually wants that name (in which case it could cost you God knows what to get the name you want). In other cases, the name yous want is still freely available, in which case it shouldn't cost a lot to register is to yourself.
Sometimes the registration company is also a webhosting company and they will host your website under the name you have registered. If this is the case, check there charges against other web hosting companies. Be careful, because sometimes the original company who registered your domain name may charge a "release fee" to let you go to another web hosting company.
You do need a web hosting company (because you won't want to run the web site from your home computer). Some ISPs are also web hosts.

That is probably the sum total of my knowlege on the matter.
I'm also going through the same process - planning on setting up a company. What's your line of business going to be? PM me if it's a secret!

Good luck anyway,
Sarah.

[derbex]

Doris -short answer whichever you want .com is global .co.uk is local -how ambitious are you?

Do shop around there are all sort of companies out there (I'm working at one of them). Before you buy your domain work out if you want or need web-hosting &c., most registrations should come with free (or very cheap) mail & web forwarding which will redirect your mail to your home account and your web addres to any space that you might be already paying for with your dial-up/broadband provider.

Jeremy

[tim]

Internic - interesting that it is 'updated frequently so keep checking'.

Last date was 2002!!! = Tim

[Jesse]

Doris try www.virtualnames.co.uk, we've bought a few web addresses with free email forwarding from them without any problem at all. They do also offer web hosting at a small fee but we have not taken this route, our ISP hosts our websites. I'm really curious now, what business are you going to do? I guess it's top secret!  ;)

Once your website is up and running you can go to www.alltheweb.com and suggest your site for inclusion on their search engine, it's free. It takes a few weeks and is not guaranteed to include your website although all my sites have been included within a few days. Alltheweb is what google and yahoo and others use to gather search information so if your website is included it will come up under these search engines. On your home page include as much information and key words that describe your business, it is often the wording on the home page that is used to bring your page up when a search is done. You can also include metatags within your page (these are hidden key words) that the search engines look for when doing a search.

Good luck!


Edit: sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself now, you never mentioned having a website!

[Doris_Pinks]

Thank you all for your replies, I shall take a sneaky peaky at them all and let you know!
Jess the website is the next task to undertake......Groan!!!
Jeremy it will only be local, much as I would like to I can't spread myself globally! :( So thanks for explaining that, simple really when I think of it!
Sarah have pm'd you, but it isn't really a secret! ;D

[Hex]

Hi Doris,

Newly registered - mostly as light relief from carrying out a similar process setting up an on-line HR advisory service for small businesses.  I registered my site name (cost £9 or so)and will choose a host when I have done some more work.  The company I bought it from automatically forward any mail addressed to the site on to my personal address.  I bought .Net magazine which includes some free full version web page design software this month.  Huge help and full of adverts for cheap hosting at lots of different levels - starting from free if you let them post their advert on your site through to £30 a month for a dedicated server.  All of them seem to include registering a .co.uk site for free as part of the package.  I am told that the key thing is to make sure that you own the rights to the website, not the hoster so you can transfer elsewhere, that there are no exit fees, and that if you are concerned about being charged an excess if there is a boom in hits on your site to go for one with unlimited bandwidth.
I also found some brilliant general advice on webmonkey http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/e-business/building/

I hope this helps.  I hadn't a clue about the IT side when I started a few weeks ago but a combination of these resources and a 'dummies' guide have really got me started.

[NattyEm]

Just to clarify something (I think the basics have been covered though)

"Alltheweb is what google and yahoo and others use to gather search information so if your website is included it will come up under these search engines"

Isn't actually true.  There are lots and lots of different factors the different search engines use to list and rank your webpage.  Rather than go into it in any depth here PM me if you want any more detailed info.  I do a little bit of work in search engine optimisation, so know a few tips and tricks for improving your rankings.