Your Dot-Com

Some artists use the website space provided as part of their Internet service with an ISP (Internet Service Provider) like Earthlink or AOL. But to appear more professional and to make it easier for people to remember your website address, you need your own domain name (or URL) — something like 'yourname.com.' Read the CNet.com article for more information. Also, this site offers a good glossary of terms: 1st-domain-name-registration.info.

To get a domain name you need to register your name through a registrar. Some website hosts will do this for you, but I think it's generally better to take control of the process. Then you can keep your website online even if your host suddenly goes out of business.

You will get at least one e-mail address with your website. I recommend using an e-mail program like Eudora (it's free) to save and organize your mail professionally. I will help you set up your e-mail.

Most artists should get a name like 'yourname.com.' Everyone knows 'dot-com,' which makes it easier to tell to people. Other choices are .us, .tv, .biz, .info, and so on — interesting choices for an artist to make!

Look at all the variations of dot-com names in artist's websites on Yahoo.

As part of taking control of your Web presence, you should register your own domain name. This means that you pay the bill, and you really own it.

Here's a place to register your domain name:

namecheap.com
Registers domains for $8.88/year and provides a good level of administrative control.

You can find out if a name is already taken by using the 'whois' search below:

If you already have a domain name:

How did you register the domain name? If you did it through a Web hosting company, which company did you select? I'll need to look at their capabilities to see if it limits the website design.