1.1 Registering a Domain
There are plenty of companies on the web to choose where to purchase a domain name from (try searching "domain names"). Simply check whether the domain name you want is available, register an account with one of them and buy it - nothing could be easier. Shop around and don't pay any more than two or three quid for 2 years for a domain name, and in fact, some companies may offer a free domain name if you sign up for one of their web hosting packages. A well established UK company I would recommend is 123-reg or for those in the US, godaddy.com.
When choosing a domain name, try to make it short or catchy or easy to remember, with only one possible spelling and pronunciation if possible. Domains with the extension .com are still the best choice for promoting international projects in English, although any extension is as good as another in terms of visibility on the Internet (search engines will not discriminate although people may). If you wish your sitre to have a national flavour, domains are available from the corresponding national zones, such as .de for German sites, .it for Italian sites, etc. It is a good idea to use keywords in your domain names if possible i.e. words you think a visitor will enter into a search engine (such as Google or Yahoo) when looking for a site like yours. For example, a site on making boats would best be called something like howtomakeboats.com. This will be covered more in the section on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) later.
Nominet is the Internet registry for .uk domain names. They run one of the world's largest Internet registries and manage over seven million domain names (and counting). Domains can be obtained directly from them but tend to be more expensive than from most web hosting companies. Wherever you buy your domains from, Nominet will often send an invoice reminding you when renewall is due, where they often admit it will usually be cheaper to renew with whomever you bought them from in the first place.
