Acquiring a Domain Name

Choosing a domain name is a lot of fun, and also a great learning experience. Because your domain name defines you in a lot of ways, it's definitely worth taking some time and consideration. We actually ended up putting a lot of thought into the choice of a domain name for our website: webmarketjournal.com.

Here are some of the things we wanted our domain name to do:

• Generally describe what we do.
  
  
• Be easy to remember and easy to spell (so if someone only hears it once, they can type it as a url).
  
  
• Be a name we can use not only as a website url (webmarketjournal.com), but also as a company name (Web Market Journal), and possibly in an 800 telephone number (1-800-webmarket, for example).
  

Once we decided what we wanted for our domain name, we needed to find out if it was available. There are lots of places on the web where you can check to see if a domain name is taken. We started with WhoIs.com . They have a LOOKUP button where you type in a domain name and it tells you if it's available. If the name you're looking for is taken, you can see who owns it, and a lot of times the contact information is there so you can contact the owner and see if the domain name is for sale.

Some other good domain name search sites we found are:

• Instant Domain Search
  
  
• Domize
  
  
• NameBoy
  
  
• Domainsbot
  

We were actually pretty surprised when we found out that webmarketjournal.com wasn't taken!

We definitely wanted the .com extension, rather than .net, .org, or any one of the other extensions. Frankly, it's much more common, and people tend to type it automatically. If you have to settle for another extension, you run the risk that people will still type .com and be directed to someone else's website.

It's hard to describe the thrill we felt when we officially owned our very own domain name!

Coming up next... choosing a web hosting service.

Go It Alone or Partner Up?

"Two heads are better than one."

Or so they say. In our case, as we set out to learn everything we can about developing profitable websites from the ground up, I frankly can't imagine going it alone. It's becoming more and more evident that we've embarked on a journey that will take us into all kinds of new territory.

So, if you can find someone with talents and knowledge that complement yours, I would highly recommend partnering up in your web business. Of course, it helps if you get along with each other, because you'll be working together closely and sharing ideas and discoveries at all hours of the day and night!

Of course, you will want to consider the pros and cons, and some people may find they just work better alone. In our case, the concept for Web Market Journal developed through lots of conversations that eventually turned into major brainstorming sessions. So working together was a natural for us. Here's why:

• We each have different talents to bring to the table.
  
  
• We have each other to bounce our ideas off of.
  
  
• We can divide up the responsibilities and jobs.
  
  
• We can share our knowledge and learning as we go.

Bottom line, by working together towards a common goal, I believe we will accomplish some remarkable and creative stuff! Stay tuned...

Learn With Us!

It can be pretty intimidating to see all the information online about website development and marketing! That's why we decided to record our progress -- every step of the way -- as we design, create, develop and eventually make a profit from our own website. The plan is provide a "road map" for anyone else who wants to do the same thing but doesn't know where to start and which way to go!

WebMarketJournal.com, the website, will launch in about two weeks. In the meantime, we'll be sharing all the steps we've taken so far to get our domain name, design our web page, find a place to host our website, and much more.

So watch for daily posts, and please share your comments with us.