This blog is designed to provide your with the information to register your own domain name and the steps your will need to make to register it.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is a unique global web address that people enter to visit your website or send an email. E.g. www.rippedorange.com is the web address and info@rippedorange.com . Is the email address.
In this case rippedorange is the name and .co.nz is the domain prefix. There has been a large number of domain prefixes added globally, so you can chose from .farm .co.nz .kiwi and more. Once you have a domain name you can have multiple emails e.g. info@rippedorange.com, service@rippedorange.com and others.
How do I find out what is available? There are many sites that you can go and search for your domain, just like you look for a personalized plate. www.discountdomains.co.nz is one we use, you pay a registration fee per year, and different domains have different prices.
What now…
The next step is redirecting your email so when someone sends you an email it comes to you. Unfortunately this is a lot more complex than just putting a new personalized plate on the car or going to the post office.  First stop should be your internet service provider or the people that sold you the domain name, they should be able to talk you through the process.
Basically you want any email sent to your old email address sent into your new one, then you can start telling everyone your new email address.
Who manages your email is also worth considering, think of this as courier service there are many options. All internet providers offer a service to hold and forward email. This means they keep a copy in their server and send a copy to you. This is useful as you can login to their website to check email.
Another option is to consider having your email hosted by either Google, Microsoft or Apple. They all have cloud based services that host and send email to you. Some are free and others provide extra paid for features.  See. The video below on Office 365 as an example.
By using one of these services you remove the reliance on email with the internet provider you use, allowing you to pick and choose the best offer for access w having to change email address.
Ripped Orange can help you move your business to the cloud, contact us today to discuss how.