Domain Names
A domain name is the www.yourname.com that is that address to your website and becomes the anchor for your email address.  A number of considerations go into picking a domain name. We'll attempt to explain some of them here.

Suffix  The ending of your domain name now has more choices than ever before.  The most popular remains .com but .net has gained great acceptance in the last two years.  Another popular one is .org.  Many people have the mistaken notion that .org can only be used for nonprofit organizations.  That is not the case as there are no restrictions on its use, but that is the best use of that suffix.  There are others such as .us, .biz, .info, .tv, .bz, .cc, and more but those are still relative unknowns (although could be useful in a search optimization plan).  If possible, shoot for a .com for your business and consider buying both .com and .net if they are available.

Length  The controversy over long vs short domain names has gone on for a very long time now.  Because your domain name can affect where you rank on search engines you can't automatically say that a short one (like an acronym) is best.  If your business name is "Concord Construction Services" it doesn't follow that ccs.com (if it were available) is the best domain name for your business because of the search engine aspect of having a domain name with keywords in it (which we'll cover elsewhere on this site).  You may be better off with concordconstruction.com and even concordconstructionservices.com is not out of the question.  In fact, all three of the names mentioned (even the short one) might be worth having—as each one has value for differing reasons.

How Many?  In the example above all three of the names mentioned (even the short one) might be worth having—as each one has value for differing reasons. The costs to secure additional names is relatively minor and when pointed to the same website the additional hosting fees are minimal.  However, a short domain name can be great for email.  The more descriptive names can be great for search engines and will often be the names plugged in by a visitor who knows your business name but isn't sure of the web address.   So don't limit yourself to having to have one "perfect" name—as there may be no such thing!

Domain Name Costs & Management
Domain names are not something you buy and own outright.  You "register" a domain name to use for a specified period of time.  At the end of the time period you have the first rights to registering it for a longer period of time or you can let it lapse.  Businesses which register domain names are called registrars and there are a number of them offering prices from under $10 to as high as $35 for a one year registration.  Contrary to popular belief, there is a difference among registrars and it's important to pick a solid registrar.  Failure to do so has thrown websites offline for nearly a week (we've seen it happen) due to registrars with bad zone files (technical hosting stuff).   We suggest only one registrar and that is Network Solutions.   For the small amount of extra money you're going to pay it's worth the peace of mind of having the original internet registrar handling your name with care.

Bizhand.Com generally manages a domain name completely for over 85% of our clients.  We secure the name, make sure it's renewed, provide the technical details to connect it to our server and make sure everything works smoothly.  We don't tack on any fees to what the registrar charges for the name and we pay it and later bill you for reimbursement.  This is just another example of Bizhand.Com working to ensure our customers can focus on their business and allow one firm to service all their website needs.