One of the most important components to having an effective online presence is having a great domain name or two. Domain names are one of the most important things that people remember about your site. It also denotes your space on the Web.

So how do you register your own domain and use domain management services effectively?

Put on your thinking cap! The first thing you need to do is come up with a list of potential domain names for your site. Try to think of several, and don’t settle with the first one you like. Think of at least 10 and be prepared to cut this list down to the “top two”. Set those two aside for awhile and come up with another list of 10. Then select the two “best” from that list as well. Now you should have four possible domain names. Now select the two you like the best. They should be descriptive of your business, while being intuitive enough to accommodate users who randomly type domain names into their browsers.

Register your domain

Now you need to see if your selections are available and if so register them for your use. There are many places on the Web you can register your domain. My favorites are www.godaddy.com, www.mydomain.com, and www.register.com . If you want others just type in “register Web domain” into your favorite search engine and there will be many other options.

You will need to become a little familiar with any service you select, in terms of how it works, fees, etc.

Make sure that your name is listed during the domain registration process as the “Administrative Contact” person. This is the person who will have the authority to make changes, etc. in the future.

Re-direct Your Domain

You will then need to “point” the domains you registered to your domain management service like MyDomain.com. This is called changing the “DNS settings” and is quite simple to do. Using the registration service’s Web site, you must point the DNS settings away from the location where your originally registered you domain, and to your domain management service. The values for the domain management service’s DNS settings can be found on their Web site. This usually takes about 24-48 for the DNS settings to take effect.

Once you point the domain names to your domain management server, you need to tell your domain management service where to forward the URL to when your domain is entered by a person on the Web.

URL forwarding is done automatically by your domain management service after you set it up. You can set it up on their Web site. When you do set it up you tell your service where you want the domain server to send the browser when your domain name is entered.

As an example, let’s say your site is hosted with your ISP so your domain might be something like www.yourISP.com/~myaccount.html . This is not a good domain name for many reasons, least of which is the fact that you are promoting your ISP’s business and not yours! However, this will help you take advantage of all the free Web space available to you through your ISP.

Let’s say you registered www.yourname.com for your domain. You want the browser to be forwarded to www.yourISP.com/~myaccount.html whenever anyone types in www.yourname.com or clicks on one of its links so your Web page will come up. You can setup your domain as “cloaked” at MyDomain.com. This means you want your registered domain to appear (www.yourname.com) in the browser’s address bar, not your longer and more confusing www.yourISP.com/~myaccount.html address.

You would repeat the steps in this example for every domain you wanted pointed at www.yourISP.com/~myaccount.html .

This example of URL forwarding was be done quickly, easily, and free!

Promote Your Domain!

Do everything you can to tell potential clients about your new domain name. This includes putting it on your business cards, letterhead, envelopes, yard signs, disk labels, e-mail signatures, chamber of commerce listings, press releases, your Web site, banners, and anything else you can think of that people see.

Editor's note: Market Conditions Report is a personal marketing tool that puts you and your domain name in front of millions of consumers on Realtor.com, MSN HomeAdvisor, HomeSeekers.com, Homes.com, Lycos and Yahoo!, to name only a few.

Take it slowly when doing this for the first time. Even go so far as to write down on paper your URL’s, passwords, etc. just so you keep everything straight. The nice thing about this is that you only have to set it up one time! Make sure and double check all the links personally to make sure that everything links where you want it to go.

Published: May 14, 2002

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Dave Eliason is President of Computer Business Training Services, a technology consulting business formerly from Atlanta, GA, now located in Concord, New Hampshire. Dave specializes in integrating technology into the real estate businesses of his clients and their brokerages. He has taught numerous hands on classes to Realtors since 1996, and speaks to many organizations throughout the real estate industry. Dave is on faculty at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord, NH, a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, in Rochester, NY and a Top Producer Certified Instructor. He can be reached at Dave@NHAgentTraining.com or http://www.NHAgentTraining.com