I Want You to Imagine a Sign…
A sign on the road like the image above will point you to different places when encountered. A sign might point to a city and the path to get there.
Which however is more useful? A sign pointing in the direction of a city, or it’s exact GPS coordinates?
This is what a domain does. It acts as a signpost that when known points you to an exact set of coordinates on the internet.
In Short:
A domain allows you to simplify how people can find you. For instance if you were to visit this website which would be easier: typing into your URL bar playfrey.tech or something like 121.181.2.59?
Computers are highly technical, people are not, even the technical ones. We all appreciate being able to use domains instead of IP addresses.
The best part is though that for the most part domains are very affordable and able to be used by just about anyone.
Where can I get a Domain?
There are many places, but one of the best throughout the years has been a simple site called namecheap.com. Don’t let the name fool you, their strength is their simplicity. I wouldn’t rely on them for hosting, but for domains they are just fine.
Once you’re signed up and in your dashboard, click on your domain list, then type a domain you’d like in the search bar at the top:
In this example we’ll do a search for “AngelaTravelAgency.com”, and as we can see it’s available for about $10 a year.
Just place your order and poof! You now have a domain in your possession!
Great! Now what can we do with this thing?
With the domain in hand, the following becomes possible:
- You can create a custom email (we currently offer this service for $8/month/email) such as jamie@angelatravelagency.com
- You can set up a website
- You can set up redirects from your domain for all sorts of purposes, some examples:
- angelatravelagency.com/schedule could link to a calendly page
- angelatravelagency.com/meet could drop people into a catch all zoom meeting room
- angelatravelagency.com/give-review could link to a google review page for you to collect reviews
- angelatravelagency.com/bizcard could link to a landing page with your personal contact information you’d have on your business card
- And many, many more possibilities!
Effectively leveraging a domain using these methods can save you a lot of time, money, and energy, especially emails back and forth and answering the same questions over and over again.
How do I do all this?
This is where the technical part comes in, and why having someone like us available to help you configure your domain can do wonders. Reach out and say hello if you have gotten a domain for yourself and would like to leverage it.
So, if you don’t have a domain already, head on over to namecheap.com and pick one up!
A Word of Warning
We have seen it happen too many times where domains expire when people need them the most. It’s such a small cost that when it’s time to update debit cards people tend to forget to update their domain host with the new card.
When your debit cards expire, your first thought should be to update your domain host with the new card. At least, if you’re using your domain. Not doing this can cause you to lose all of your redirects, your website, even your email.
Failing to do this risks your domain getting scooped by a domain shark, and you’ll have to cough up big $$$$ to get your domain back. Don’t let this happen.
