You need a domain name. Your own domain name is an essential first step. These are the yourname dot com thingies that you keep seeing. It is the part after http://www in web addresses, (also called URLs). A sure sign or an amateur site is a long domain URL address such as http://www.webhost.com/~yourname/index.html

Choose a simple name The best and most obvious choice is your companyname.com. Make sure that you can say the name and your email addresses to people over the phone without having to spell them out. Avoid cute, silly or trendy names which can go out of fashion or embarrass you and your staff.

Remember too, that your domain name is also going to be the last part of all your email addresses. All your email will be like this: info@yourname.com or president@yourname.com. So keep your domain name as simple as possible.

How to get your own domain name: You need to check to see if your choice is available.

Use the Internic Domain Name Wizard to assist you in creating and selecting a domain name.

Your ISP, the people who will be hosting your web site are the best people to register your domain name for you. They should do this for free as part of their services. Internic will bill you directly for their fees. Currently the fees are about US$75.00 for the first two years.

When you get your domain name: Put it on all your stationary, business cards and in your promotional and advertising material. You can phase it in as your material is reprinted if you need to save a few bucks. But above all you MUST promote and promote and promote your web site to get results and make money from your web site.