God their addicting.

If you have never purchased a domain name, I highly recommend you do.  The first recommendation I can make, is to buy your name.  This way, no one else can have YourName.com or something similar of the sort.  Which is great, because you can then attach that domain to any free web host or purchase a host and create a personal website.  You can even have it go to your twitter account, or facebook, or blog!  The options are limitless.

Why do I want a website? You ask.  I dunno, maybe you don’t.  But if you purchase your name in domain form, at least you’ll know that no one else can create a website that uses your name.  Or maybe you can attach it to a blog… like mine, and talk about jibberish.  Or make a personal website that holds your resume, or portfolio.  Again, none of that is necessary to just OWN your domain.

The worst part happens when you realize that certain domains are available.  Did I know thequirkydigest.com was available?  I did not.  But when I tried it, it certainly was.  You best believe I bought it.  Did I know if any of the other 5 or 6 domains that I have were available?  Nope.  But I did a search, found out they were, and upon consideration realized they would be really cool to own.  So I bought them.  Seriously.  Get a domain.  Although they’re not free, they certainly are cheap.  A good domain registration site will also offer a protection plan that keeps your details hidden from the interwebs, which honestly won’t cost that much.  There’s a bunch of sites out there that you can pay to register your domain, it should not cost you more than $30.  And that’s on the high end.  Most domains are around $15 or so, and then the protection plans increase it by whatever amount it is.  Usually like $6 or $8.

But how long will my domain last?  It depends on how long you want to buy it for.  Many domain registrar’s offer anywhere from 6 months, 1 year, or 3 years.  I always purchase it for 3 years.  So that’s $15 per year, x 3 = $45 for a domain for me to own for 3 years.  There’s sites like GoDaddy.com which offer discounts on the first year of registration, but I personally don’t like the renewal fees they have.  Definitely do yourself a favor and search for a good registration site that offers not only a good deal to initially buy a domain, but also has very affordable renewal fees.  Unless of course you get tired of that domain and don’t care to renew it.

Beware though, it can get very addicting buying domain names.  But if you’re frugal it won’t be an issue.  Just make sure you own your name before someone else takes it and turns it into a porn site or something.

Another round of unsolicited advice.

Quirkily yours,
The Quirky Digest