The purchase of my name.com

I'm a person that loves to learn and so I've become pretty familiar with a lot of different things.  But there are some things that I just can't seem to get my head around and these things provide plenty of roadblocks that I hit year after year after year.  One of them, oddly enough is the purchase of my domain name.  Seems simple enough, but for someone who works with and is inspired by the tactile world It's a purchase of something that you can't hold in your hand and that makes it something that I find extremely intimidating.

I met my friend Gayle in between shows yesterday because she is trying to get her ETSY store opened for her amazing knitting projects and I suggested that we do it together over coffee.  Lyssa Everett had helped me get my store open and I wanted to repay the favor for the next artist.  We met for coffee and I suggested that we open her store while we were sitting there.  She looked at me with that same - Oh, I'll do it later look of terror that I have felt on my own face so many times.  We had already searched and the store name she wanted - urbanpurl - was available; I asked how she would feel if tomorrow someone else had grabbed up her name?  Then the magnifying glass turned inside my head.  My name - what if someone beat me to it?  I had done the search and knew that it was available but that didn't mean it would be tomorrow.  We promised each other that by the end of the night we would purchase our domain names.  

Done!  And it was such a feeling of relief after all these years.  A few things that I learned:  There are plenty of popular registries on line and I started on one of those.  The beginning steps were easy enough but with every new screen there were more questions and I became just a little more confused (and nervous) with every step.  I have been doing my blog here at Weebly and have found it very user friendly.  I clicked into the HELP menu and found out how to register and that too seemed pretty easy.  I pulled out the credit card and about $40 later I have my domain name registered!   The best advice I garnered from my online research was, register your domain name for 1 year.  It keeps the investment down and gives you a chance to figure out the kinks but securing your 1st choice.  I also learned that once your domain is registered through an ICANN recognized site it can be used and transfered to any web server that you choose to use.  

Ta Da!

My website sandybinion.com

Gayles ETSY site urbanpurl

Little accomplishments for some are huge milestones for others!