How to register a profissional Internet Domain

An important part of your digital presence starts with your own Internet domain, which gives a more professional look to your business. And today I'm going to show you how you can register a unique domain for your business.com 😉

Hi, if this is your first time here, our content is focused on INNOVATION FOR LAWYERS and, in particular, this series is focused on LEGAL MARKETING.

I also present to you guys and girls the video I made on this topic from my YouTube channel, which is where I share some thoughts, tips and projects I am currently working on with other tech-fanatics, whether you are a developer, lawyer or enthusiast. Please also consider subscribing to my channel to not miss future videos and to join our live "coding sessions" and a nice, relaxing tech-related chat -- I promise to keep things interesting. The content is in Portuguese, but you can watch my videos with subtitles (maybe I will switch to English in the future, if this makes sense).

Watch here: https://youtu.be/iAUYyazHXeQ

All set? Then tag along.

Have you ever heard of the term "domain"? Domain is nothing more than the "address" of a website that you visit, easy to remember and that you probably alreaady know several by heart.

In reality, a domain is a series of letters that are registered on the Internet and act as a "shortcut" to the real address of that website, which is represented by an IP address and port of the machine where it is hosted.

For example, it's much better if I advertise my site here as www.hubjur.com.br than ask people to access the address 151.101.1.195, right?

With a proper address, you can even link to your website page, blog or articles that are on other services, such as Medium, Google Sites, Blogger and Tumblr.

After all, it's much better for you to access a dev.lawyer than a devlawyer.blogspot.com, isn't it?

So let's learn how to register a new internet domain.

BUYING AN INTERNET DOMAIN¶

To have a "professional" domain you will need to register a domain in your name. Give preference to .com or .net domains, which are the most common domain endings you see on the internet and that most people will remember. There are other options (like this blog itself which has ".lawyer" at the end) but choosing a different domain is something you should only do if you have a good choice.

OK BUT I DON'T WANT TO PAY ANYTHING. DON'T WE HAVE ANY "FREE" CHOICES? 

When you register a domain, you are required to pay an annual fee to the company that registers it. In the case of .com and .net domains, for example, it is Verisign. And my economics teacher already said: "There is no free lunch".

If to register a domain it is necessary to pay, it means that in the end any "free" alternative has something more to it. Let's first see what free alternatives exist to register a domain:

1. Free domains on hosting services:

It is quite common that when looking for free domains you come across hosting services that offer hosting services, usually at discounted prices with the free domain.

A print of Hostinger landing page (in Brazil), offering free domain

This other Portuguese website (amen.pt) also offers .pt domains for free

I believe that the value that these services bring is real, offering many tools for domain, website and e-mail configuration, for example, very easy especially for those who have no intimacy with technology. However, it is important to emphasize that the "free" part is not free indeed: the domain registration ends up being free but in general you end up being tied to the service, as it ends up being renewed the following year for a price that often exceeds the price that the domain alone would cost.

Some services still offer domain registration for free, but they do it under the company name, not yours. This means that if the following year you do not want to renew your domain registration with the company, you may find yourself in a situation where you will not be able to renew it on your own, as it will not be under your name. 

2. Free domains with Freenom

A company called Freenom offers free registration for a few different endings, but they are all "top level", meaning they allow you to have that a "short" address that professional domains have.

As you can see, using this service you can register a .tk, .ml, .ga, .cf and .gq domains for free. If you have creativity and luck, you might even be able to put together a really cool domain name. This is really a service that allows you to register the domain free of charge.

What is the "catch"? It turns out that when you use this service, the registration actually stays with Freenom, and they give you a "use license". You are not the owner. This means that if you need to transfer that domain to another service later or, if that's the case, negotiate and sell it, you won't be able to. In the end, you get a free service that works, but for use only. See the excerpt in their "knowledge base" saying this:

Você é usuário, não licenciado

OK, I GOT IT. AND HOW CAN I PAY AND REGISTER A DOMAIN? IS  IT EXPENSIVE?

As a general rule of thumb, you shouldn't spend a lot to register your own domain.

For .com domains you can normally get registration for around $12.00 a year. As you can see, it's low cost and, if you intend to use a professional domain to improve your digital presence and, consequently, your customer conversions, it should be an easy expense to bear because it's really worth it.

Note, however, that some domains can be more expensive if they are considered "Premium", meaning they are considered more disputed and therefore more valuable. His price will also be displayed on the purchase screen, don't worry.

As I mentioned earlier, you can use various services on the internet to register your domain (such as with website hosting services) but I will show you the way I do it and prefer it.

First, some recommendations for your domain:

• try as much as possible to use the "default" domains .com or .net;
• use a short, easy-to-remember domain name if possible. It's no use putting your German surname if no one can write 😝
• in some cases it may be interesting to register a domain with an alternative ending, creatively using your desired one with the ending (as I did here on dev.lawyer).

Registering your domain (.com, .net or others)

Although it's possible to do this in a number of ways (buying, for example, from domain.com) for very reasonable prices, I'm now buying only from Google Domains. I've used other services before, and I like the way they handle domain registration: it's all very intuitive, hassle-free auto-renewal and it has domain privacy as an option at no extra cost and SSL certificate for your website to have secure HTTPS protocol.

Google Domains home screen, just type what you want to register

They also offer you many domain options.

The registration process is really easy: choose, pay and go.

Regarding domain privacy, all domains are required to inform a series of data about the registrant, which leaves you exposed to the general public. You can consult any website, for example, by entering its domain in Whois. If you use linux (and mac, I think) you can access this data by typing "whois site.com.br" in the terminal.

With privacy enabled, at least you can prevent snoopers from accessing the data (see the dev.lawyer example here):

Whois from dev.lawyer, all "redacted" by Google Domains

Other services offer this functionality as well, but in my experience this was something paid for.

CONCLUSION¶

Registering a domain on the Internet is relatively simple and inexpensive. Having your own internet address will open many doors for you in terms of digital presence: you can build your personal or professional website, have a personalized e-mail and thus give a much more solid image of your profile.

It's a worthwhile investment and I personally consider that saving those few bucks per year while not being sure you can keep your address in the future (when your site ramps up and all the time, effort and money invested is flourishing) doesn't seem like the correct path.

My sugestion? Register your domain TODAY, just in case. It could be with the name of your office. It could be your first and last name. It doesn't matter. Just do it.

In our next content, we'll show you how to have your professional email with this domain you just bought, now without additional costs 😁

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