Get a website

If you want to maximize your marketability you're probably going to want a website.

So...we wanted a website and if you're not a computer nerd (and we aren't) this might be a useful, lay mans, guide to "getting a website" (and p.s. There is some vocabulary that you'll learn along the way).

So...we did what every intelligent entrepreneur does when tryin to do something we hadn't done before: googled it!  And there are a TON of ideas so I won't pretend that I have synthesized them all for reproduction here, just that I'll share what I found out.

Ok so a little history:  when the Internet was born, so were what I would compare to "families."  They are essentially the suffixes of the Internet community (.com .ca .uk .me etcetera).  We're generalizing here, but as in MOST families, it was necessary to give all of the kids different names so they wouldn't get confused.  Those kids are websites and their names are referred to as "domain names."  Because there are way too many people in the world wanting to have their own internet children, there had to be some overriding system so that no one would duplicate names.  This is a good thing because it would be a huge waste to build a website and have it trying to share the same website address as another.  It would be a train wreck.  So because of all this, when you want to get a website you have to go through one of the baby-naming gatekeepers.

I learned a bit about this and there are multiple options for where to get your website. The first step, though, is to see if it's already taken!  You don't need magical skills to know this; just type the website name you'd like to use into your search bar and see what comes up!  

If a full blown website pertaining to the name comes up, it's likely taken and not up for grabs (there is a chance this isn't true but unless you are interested in contacting the owner to buy their existing domain name off of them, I'd keep moving).

If the site is owned by a web domain sales company, it will usually come up with that company's site or redirect you to some sort of contact information in case you're interested in buying it off of them.  We, personally, contacted the sales company that had the name we originally wanted and they were asking somewhere in the range of $4,000 for it.  There were some existing domains I read about that could be bought for less and some for way more so you'll have to weigh your options and consider the size of your business and the capital you have available to see if it's worth it for you.

If you want to know another quick way to find out if someone already owns your domain name you can check the "who is" list which is the registry for all the baby names on the Internet.  This list can tell you who, if anyone, currently owns a domain name and you can find out details about past prices paid, location, other sites they own, and more (if you're interested).

Like I mentioned, we aren't in the position to pay $400 much less $4,000 for our site so we had to come up with another option.  If you're in the same boat, remember that flexibility is key! See if your desired company name can be shortened somehow.  Consider an abbreviation "NYtours" instead of "newyorktours", for example.  Get creative but remember the main goal is to stay searchable, that is to say, try to keep the words or names in your domain name something that a potential client might search for when looking for your product or service.

After reason quite a bit, we found this site to be one of the most useful: https://www.easydns.com/10-things-to-know-before-you-register/ it has some really helpful pointers on things to look out for on your domain contracts.

Find a place to register your domain name (an example of a registrar is godaddy.com or register.com (these are not recommendations, solely example of where you can register your domain name).  There are multiple options for hosting as well...before you buy your domain name with any given registrar, take a look at web hosting.