The first two steps in getting your site online are signing up for web hosting and registering a domain. If you haven’t signed up for web hosting yet, you’ll want to do some research and select a web host. When you do sign up for web hosting you’ll be given the option to choose a domain, and the web host will take care of the actual registration.

It helps to think of it this way. When you buy a car from a dealership, the dealer usually handles the registration with the Department of Motor Vehicles. Your web host will do much the same thing for your domain registration. This means that all you have to do is choose what your domain will be called. The sky is pretty much the limit, as long as no one else owns the domain.

Think you have a good name? Here are some things to consider:

1. Does the domain name represent your website? Make sure that it says something about you or your company.

2. Is it memorable? Longer domain names are more difficult for people to remember and write down.

3. Is it easy to say? Some domains look great "on paper" but are confusing when pronounced. You never want to have to spell it out for people, so try saying it out loud before you register it.

4. Does your domain name have an unintended meaning? Since domain names are often two or more words stuck together, make sure you don’t spell out anything embarrassing. Notable examples include:

a. www.whorepresents.com (www. who represents .com)

b. www.expertsexchange.com (www. experts exchanged .com)

c. www.skipass.com (www. ski pass .com)

d. www.speedofart.com (www. speed of art .com)

5. Is it close to another website’s name? You probably don’t want to confuse people, so make sure that your domain doesn’t sound too much like another site that already exists.

6. Is it spelled correctly? Once you register a domain, it’s yours for a designated period of time, usually a year. If you make a mistake, you can’t take it back.

When your web host registers your domain name, your information will be submitted to ICANN, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (to go with our car metaphor think of them as the Department of Motor Vehicles, except more efficient). ICANN is a non-profit corporation responsible for domain registration. Essentially, they keep the Internet as honest as possible.

It’s important to note that anyone can look up the contact information for any website by doing a whois search on a website like network-tools.com or register.com. If you signed up for web hosting using your home address and phone number, it will be viewable to anyone online. In order to protect your privacy, most web hosts offer a service called "domain privacy."

If you choose to have domain privacy, your web host will either list themselves as the owners or list it as anonymous. You get your privacy, and you still follow the rules set out by ICANN. Sometimes it’s free, and sometimes it will cost you. Check out the web hosting reviews on NextAdvisor.com, for a rundown on who charges and who doesn’t.

Once you have web hosting and a domain, you can build a website, create a blog, set up email accounts, and start directing people to your very own home on the Internet