Firstly, for those of you who don’t spend their days surfing the web and are asking ‘What is a domain name?’, simply put a domain name is a more technical term for a websites address or URL.

Now that that’s out of the way, allow me to show you how you could potentially save a couple of dollars every year, by registering and managing your own domain name. I’ve put together a simple step by step list and also recommended my two favourite domain registrars that I personally use on a regular basis.

1. Decide on your business/website name
2. Go to either www.godaddy.com or www.hostess.com.au and check if your domain name is available
3. If your domain name is available continue to the next step. If it isn’t available please go back to step #1.
4. Congratulations, your domain name is available for purchase! Click ‘Go to checkout’ or ‘Add selected to order’
5. Proceed with registrars requirements (adding in all your details)
6. And you’re done!

It’s that easy.

Why do I recommend GoDaddy and Hostess?

Now, why did I recommend GoDaddy.com and Hostess.com.au? They’re value for money. You pay for what you use – nothing more. And they’re the cheapest registrars I’ve found. Both have good customer service and reasonably easy to navigate around user log-in areas. So why not?

For .com, .org, and .net domain names I use www.godaddy.com, and for any Australian domains like .com.au or .org.au I use www.hostess.com.au.