Having your own domain name is not absolutely necessary but it certainly looks good and can drive a lot of traffic to your site. It can also be fun, make a statement about yourself or your site, be an advertising gimmick, or even be a gift for the person who has everything. Just think, your rich Uncle Fred has a birthday, and you don't know what to get him. You do a domain name search and find out that the name UncleFred.com is still available, apply to register the domain name for a small fee, and build your UncleFred a modest little home page. Whalla, a birthday present of www.UncleFred.com for the man who (thought he) had everything!

Before we discuss the concept of domain names further, you can get an idea of how funny or useful they can be by perusing our list of almost 100 domain names for sale.

A site's domain serves as both its address and, in most cases, its primary identity. Domain names can not be bought outright, but are rather registered for set periods of time, generally 2 years. Practically, there aren't many differences between registration and ownership, as the registration can be renewed as often as you'd like and you enjoy full rights to the domain during the registration period.

All US domains, including those ending in .com, .net, and .org, are managed by a US governmental agency known as Internic. Until recently, Internic had granted exclusive registration rights to Network Solutions, which standardized registration prices at $70 for the two year period. Due to recent deregulation, other sites are now able to offer registration services as well, and the terms are no longer set in stone.

Virtually Ignorant has a few recommendations about domain registrars. There are higher priced options who have been around since the beginning, like Network Solutions, which you may actually prefer.

Here are a few other options:

• Yahoo! Web Hosting -- Priced at only $2.99 (limited-time offer) per year, Yahoo! Domains include 24/7 support, web page and forwarding. If you use Yahoo! for hosting your domain, you can get a domain name for free. While their hosting is by no means considered cheap, many companies and small busineses, including Million Dollar Affiliate Jeremy Palmer, count on the reliability of Yahoo! hosting for their domains.
• www.GoDaddy.com -- GoDaddy made its mark by coming in as a bit of a discount registrar compared to the big priced companies of the time such as Registrars.com. It became extremely popular as the brand name became more recognized. Today there are complaints that do indeed have a foundation. It seems that for one Spam (unsolicited commercial email), GoDaddy will deactivate a domain, possibly an account. If you're really a spammer, well, you deserve it. If you're not, then it's a major business problem for nothing. Still, many people have had no trouble.
• Domains from $2.95 at iPower.com -- iPower is actually best known for its hosting. There are those who swear by them, and those who swear at them. Such is life on the internet. You can pick up yor domain registration separately, though, saving yourself a few bucks and not worrying about whether the hosting is right for you.

Domains are currently being registered at the rate of over 10,000 names per day, and almost all single word domains have already been taken. To see if the domain you'd like is still available or to go ahead and register a domain, enter it below in the search box and you will be instructed on how to proceed. Click your back button to return to Virtually Ignorant.

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