Did you know it is possible to point a domain name (website address) to your LinkedIn profile? For example, my profile can be found at http://www.linkedin.com/in/joebailey? So what right? Well, if I owned the domain name joebailey.com, or hirejoebailey.com, I could point it to my LinkedIn profile. And it would only take about 10 minutes from start to end.
How does this help me? Well, if you need to direct someone to your linked in profile, you could just give them your website address (domain name). It would be a lot easier. Also, you could set up an email address for that domain name as well. So, if anyone ever wanted to get in touch with you, they’d know your email address as well.
Here’s how to do it.
- Go to JoesWebshack and purchase a domain name. It will be less than $10 a year, and it comes with an email address
- Once purchased, log into your account if you haven’t already.
- Now, click on the top or left navigation where it says “My Domain Names”
- Now, you will see a list of your domain names. Click on the hyperlink of your domain name.
- At the top of the page in the navigation, click on the “Forward”, then “Forward Domain” option
- In the box, type in your LinkedIn address and press OK, and you’re finished!
Deciding on a domain name (website address) is a big decision and it will stick with you for a long time. If you own a company, chances are you have a head start. But, for others, it can be a real challenge.
What is in a domain name?
A domain name consists of two parts separated by a period. The domain name is the first part and the second part is the extension. The domain name should describe you, your company, or your topic. The extension describes more about your domain name (com, org, net). There are even more extensions for countries also. For now, we’ll just stick to the two (domain name and extension).
Choose a .com extension
Before we even settle on a domain name, stick with the idea of creating a domain name address with the .com extension. Why? It’s just common practice now to call sites by their domain name and not even include the extension. For example, we don’t ask people if they’ve gone to Google.com, it’s always Google. And, if you’re telling someone your website address, they’ll assume it’s a .com even if you tell them differently. Unless you are a non-profit organization, stick with .com. If you are a non-profit organization, everyone will think it’s .org.
Create a short domain name
It’s probably difficult these days, but, if you’re a company, or you give out your email address or website address a lot, keep it short. People just don’t like typing a long domain name, and thee are a lot of misspellings. So, keep it as short as possible.
Use real words in your domain name
Cool made up names like Google are pretty cool if people remember them or have them on paper. But, in general, people tend to forget these names.
Your domain name should be your company name
If you have a company, synchronize the two. It may be hard to get your company name so try a variation. It’s too difficult to remember a domain name/website address if the company name is different. It’s like trying to remember 2 different companies.
Make your domain name search engine friendly, but not too generic
When someone searches for your company, you want it to come up in search engines. But, remember, the search engines are flooded with search engine friendly names. So, try not to be too generic. Keep your domain name to a minimum of 2 words, three if you can get a way with it. The chances on getting a common dictionary name website address are almost slim to none. So, be creative but specific.
Make your domain name search engine friendly
Yes, we’ve already said this, but make sure your domain name could be a search engine phrase. For example, we chose parttimewebmaster instead of webmasterparttime for a reason.
Should I put a hyphen in my domain name?
I think this answer really depends on your goals. If you are an affiliate marketer or marketing products and need your domain name to come up in search engines then go for it. But, don’t think people will remember a name with hyphens in it. They’ll go straight to the domain name without your hyphens. So, as a general rule, don’t use hyphens.
Avoid using “the” and “my” in the domain name
It’s hard to get a good domain name these days. If you can avoid using a the or my in front of your domain name do it. If you are going to use one, use “the”. It’s simpler and easier to remember.
If you’re ready to choose a domain name, here are a couple of places to register:
- 1and1
- www.GoDaddy.com
- Fast Domain
- We use JoesWebShack
Yes, you can host your website for free. And, it doesn’t have to be a plain old site. You can host your website for free even if you use tools such as WordPress. But, as with all free things, there is usually some cost involved, granted, it may not be an out of pocket expense.
The initial question is “How come I get it for free?” After all, nothing in business is free. Well, hosting companies compensate for this initial loss in a couple ways as follows:
- ALWAYS: No matter what, the hosting company will post ads to your website. This way, they recieve money from new customers, pay-per-click campaigns, or affiliate marketing programs. It’s pretty smart actually. Consider this, all of the people you attract to your website are potential customers.
- They may ask you to purchase something such as a domain name. This way, they did make some money.
- The free hosting may be for a trial period. So, they’ll get money from you eventually.
- If you install software, there may be some limitations. For example, there could be limited fuctionality that you won’t know about until you test out the site.
- They hope that you’ll get frustrated with the ads and actually buy hosting.
If any of these things offend you, you may want to consider paying for hosting. Today, hosting is not that expensive, for example, you can host a site for less than $40 a year. But, if you are looking to test the waters, why not try it before you spend the money. After all, all of the hosting companies will allow you to switch over to an ad free site easily.
We’ve taken some time to track down several hosting companies that will offer free hosting with your domain. Granted, the hosting may be a do it yourself website. NOTE: In most, if not all, cases, the free hosting is a do it yourself website package, or they allow you to install packages such as Wordpress for free. Don’t expect that you will be able to register or transfer your domain name, then upload your entire site via ftp.
List of Free Website Hosting Companies (with domain name purchase):
- GoDaddy
With each GoDaddy domain you get the GoDaddy photo album, quick blogcast, hosting, personalized email account, starter web page, “For Sale” page, parked page, getting started guide, domain forwarding and masking, 100 pack email forwarding, total DNS control, change of registration, status alerts, domain locking, and more.
- 1 AND 1
With each 1and1 domain, you get free private domain registration, host unlimited 1&1 domans, 5 subdomains, 5 host external domains, DNS management, domain forwarding, URL masking, domain contact management, domain access with or without www, 1 email account, supported by IMAP & POP3, 2GB of mailbox space, 200 email aliases, email auto-responder, email forwarding, catch all email addresses, optional spam filter, 1&1 Starter website builder, 1&1 control panel, simple submissions for SEO, and phone support.
- Aplus.net
With each domain, you get a starter page, email address, and 100 email forwarders.
- JumplineJumpline offers domain control, email forwarding 5 POP email addresses, webmail client, and site builder.
What do we recommend? We recommend both GoDaddy and FastDomain.
Why? Both of these offer you the ability to set up a website now. So, if you’re just looking to get your name out and put up something quick these solutions are easy and quick. They also will allow you to upgrade when you’re ready.
If you happen to know of any more, please let us know. It took a while to track these guys down.
First, don’t panic, the information you need is available and it will take you about 5 minutes to figure out the next steps.
Ok, so let’s take a step back. Why would your webmaster not give you your domain name information? Well, I don’t know the answer to that one. But, we can find out 
It could be payment issues, it could be they are registering the site as themselves. Sometimes companies want to hold this information as leverage for hosting. Regardless, if you own the domain name, it’s yours and you can get it back with or without them.
Let’s start investigating your domain name and see if we can find out what’s happening. Go to this whois domain name lookup page. Type in your domain name and take a look at the results. What do you see? Do you see your information or someone else’s? Chances are you’re on this page because your name is not on your domain name.
Below is our domain name information with some descriptions on what the results mean. Review this next section, then review (See the section after this one if you want to get your domain name back from your webmaster):
[The registrant information states who registered the domain name. If it's not you, it could simply be your webmaster. ]
Registrant:
Joe Bailey
2849 Paces Ferry Rd
Overlook 1, Suite 750
Atlanta, Georgia 30339
United States
[Registered through: This is the name of the company that sold the domain name. So, if you do need to track down your domain name, this is the place to start. "Registered through".
It is possible to check the site and find out your webmaster is billing you more that the site is charging. That is possible, as we do it sometimes as well. Why, we initially set up and probably registered it in bulk and, it's a little extra money for us. Plus, you never have to touch it.]
Registered through: JoesWebShack
Domain Name: PARTTIMEWEBMASTER.COM
Created on: 15-Jul-05
Expires on: 15-Jul-10
Last Updated on: 16-Jul-09
[Administrative contact: This is here for any typical updates such as billing or whois information updates.]
Administrative Contact:
Bailey, Joe infoATparttimewebmaster.com
2849 Paces Ferry Rd
Overlook 1, Suite 750
Atlanta, Georgia 30339
United States
[Technical contact: Who can answer the IT questions, probably your webmaster.]
Technical Contact:
Bailey, Joe infoATparttimewebmaster.com
2849 Paces Ferry Rd
Overlook 1, Suite 750
Atlanta, Georgia 30339
United States
(678) 222-1758
[Domain name servers: The server where your site is located]
Domain servers in listed order:
NS01.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS02.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
The information looks nice, but now you’ve found out someone else owns your domain name, what do you do? Call the registration company listed in the “Registered through” area and prove to them you own the domain name. It’s not that bad though. You may have to provide some company documentation. Don’t worry, this is more common than you think.
As webmasters, we register a lot of domains through JoesWebShack.com and other domain name companies. We also list ourselves as technical contacts. If the domain name information is public, 95% of the time, we will receive a letter from an unknown company stating we have to renew our domain name. The problem is, we never registered with them in the first place. The second problem is the cost is 5 times more expensive than how much we pay.
So, what to do? We just throw these mailings in the trash and verify our existing registration. The best thing to do in any case, is to set your domain name to automatically renew. If you do this, you’ll never be overcharged for your domain name.
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