Do I need a domain?

Blogging can channel traffic to a website wonderfully. But for a company, a "business.blogspot.com" web address can look a little ... well, cheap.  Registering a domain name is easy and inexpensive, but should you tackle that just yet?

For those on a tight budget or steep learning curve, we vote "no". Start with free services, then get fancier as your skills grow – and you know the blogging wasn't just a flash-in-the-pan enthusiasm like that Thighmaster or pet rock.

Think of the web as Madonna, an endless font of reinvention. As Mike stresses, "things don't have to be perfect to be published online, because it is easy to correct them as you move forward."

That said, following is some information for when it comes time to register a domain name.

Photo: Madonna at the premiere of "I Am Because We Are" at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, courtesy of David Shankbone and Wikimedia Commons.

Know Your Frenemy

ICANN is a non-profit that oversees domain-names and charges $15/year for most. A higher price tag means that your registrar is padding the bill or that you're tapping a restricted top-level domain, like those ending in .jobs, .biz, .pro, .coop and a few others.

Many domain-name registrars lurk out there (accredited list here). We recommend GoDaddy.com with reservations: it baits in customers with the lowest rates, then tries to up-sell additional services they generally don't need. But it's a good option, if you have the gumption to wade through the sales pitches and find the "no, just let me pay you and get on with my life" button.

Google owns Blogger.com, so users can register a domain name from the administration interface. Select the "Settings" tab near the dashboard's top, then click on "Publishing" followed by "Custom Domain". Check the availability of a given domain name and register desired ones for $10/year each. Bargain! Google partners with both GoDaddy.com and eNom.com to provide this service.

Tread carefully, though. Companies that discount the $15/year ICANN rate hope to sell you lotsa stuff. Registration is their loss leader or "key value item": the peanut butter in the rat trap. So, be careful where you click.

Is ".com" DA bomb?

The ".com" top-level domain has been available for registration since 1984.  Unsurprisingly, many of the best names are sewed up.  So how does one establish an online brand?

Much depends on whether your brand already exists or not. New enterprises have an advantage here, since they can select a name with good online prospects. Still, the pickings are slim: most one-word domains have been taken, including such outliers as zwitterions.com (a chemical compound that carries a total net charge of zero) and quaesitum.com (Latin, a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith forbidding Catholics from joining Masonic organizations).

What to do?

1. Follow in the footsteps of Flickr.com, Scribd.com and Blogr.com and rmove a lettr or two from a regulr word.  Just make sure the resulting domain name still makes sense.
2. Copy Zazzle.com and Strobist.com and make up a new word or borrow from slang. (Strobist.com, by the way, is a good example of a custom domain name that does a simple redirect to a free blog).
3. Be like PlentyOfFish.com and BrazenCareerist.com: deploy a phrase, which can be just as easy to remember as a single word.  For example, "ImOffToSeeTheWizard.com" is still available (as is "IAmOffToSeeTheWizard.com"). Remember, however, that the geeks of the world have long been hording domain names. So if the phrase was ever uttered in a Star Trek episode ("MakeItSo.com") or Highlander movie ("ThereCanBeOnlyOne.com"), it's probably long gone.
4. Make a land grab. Offer to buy that perfect domain name, especially if it looks like this. Such hollow facades are "parked," which means the owner's either lazy or hoping for a sale. Register.com has a Whois Lookup to trace registrars and administrative contacts (also helpful if you're battling libel or copyright issues, but more on that later in the course).
5. Stay flexible, because .com is not the only top-level domain available.  Consider .net, as well as newer options like .info and industry-specific ones like .travel. They don't offer the cachet of .com, granted, but sometimes they're better for branding purposes.

While easy and superficially impressive, registering the perfect domain name does far less for your site than writing compelling copy. Google or Yahoo or Microsoft Live Search don't care if you post at "TheMostAmazingBlog.com" or "MyTabbyOutweighsPreschoolers.blogspot.com". Good material draws readers in and keeps them returning: pure and simple.

Note: that mix of capital and lower case letters – often called "CamelCase" – avoids ambiguity in multiword web address. The host name portion (see Tips and Tricks) of a web address is case-insensitive, so a mix of capital and lower case letters can make a long address more readable. This is especially useful when referring to your web site in print, such as on flyers or a business card.

A former student experimented with the address http://youhadmeatbonjour.blogspot.com. Mike and I – plus several friends and family – all read that as "You Had Meat, Bonjour" rather than "You Had Me At Bonjour". CamelCasing clears up ambiguities like that.

Image: The advertisement for the 1953 film "The Robe" debuted CinemaScope, one of the earliest product trademarks to use medial capital, aka "Camelcasing".

The ".com" top-level domain has been available for registration since 1984.  Unsurprisingly, many of the best names are sewed up.  So how does one establish an online brand?

Much depends on whether your brand already exists or not. New enterprises have an advantage here, since they can select a name with good online prospects. Still, the pickings are slim: most one-word domains have been taken, including such outliers as zwitterions.com (a chemical compound that carries a total net charge of zero) and quaesitum.com (Latin, a declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith forbidding Catholics from joining Masonic organizations).

What to do?

1. Follow in the footsteps of Flickr.com, Scribd.com and Blogr.com and rmove a lettr or two from a regulr word.  Just make sure the resulting domain name still makes sense.
2. Copy Zazzle.com and Strobist.com and make up a new word or borrow from slang. (Strobist.com, by the way, is a good example of a custom domain name that does a simple redirect to a free blog).
3. Be like PlentyOfFish.com and BrazenCareerist.com: deploy a phrase, which can be just as easy to remember as a single word.  For example, "ImOffToSeeTheWizard.com" is still available (as is "IAmOffToSeeTheWizard.com"). Remember, however, that the geeks of the world have long been hording domain names. So if the phrase was ever uttered in a Star Trek episode ("MakeItSo.com") or Highlander movie ("ThereCanBeOnlyOne.com"), it's probably long gone.
4. Make a land grab. Offer to buy that perfect domain name, especially if it looks like this. Such hollow facades are "parked," which means the owner's either lazy or hoping for a sale. Register.com has a Whois Lookup to trace registrars and administrative contacts (also helpful if you're battling libel or copyright issues, but more on that later in the course).
5. Stay flexible, because .com is not the only top-level domain available.  Consider .net, as well as newer options like .info and industry-specific ones like .travel. They don't offer the cachet of .com, granted, but sometimes they're better for branding purposes.

While easy and superficially impressive, registering the perfect domain name does far less for your site than writing compelling copy. Google or Yahoo or Microsoft Live Search don't care if you post at "TheMostAmazingBlog.com" or "MyTabbyOutweighsPreschoolers.blogspot.com". Good material draws readers in and keeps them returning: pure and simple.

Note: that mix of capital and lower case letters – often called "CamelCase" – avoids ambiguity in multiword web address. The host name portion (see Tips and Tricks) of a web address is case-insensitive, so a mix of capital and lower case letters can make a long address more readable. This is especially useful when referring to your web site in print, such as on flyers or a business card.

A former student experimented with the address http://youhadmeatbonjour.blogspot.com. Mike and I – plus several friends and family – all read that as "You Had Meat, Bonjour" rather than "You Had Me At Bonjour". CamelCasing clears up ambiguities like that.

Image: The advertisement for the 1953 film "The Robe" debuted CinemaScope, one of the earliest product trademarks to use medial capital, aka "Camelcasing".