Simply put, a domain name is the name of your website. it is officially registered online.
Tech speak: Domain names are officially registered with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and computers us the DNS protocol (Domain Name System) to look up these addresses.
You can buy a domain name, but these can also be bundled in for free when you sign up for website hosting.
You want to use something simple and snappy – for instance “www.theplacewhereIsellmybooksonline.com“, is just plain silly and is difficult to fit on business cards. Use something more practical and easier to communicate. Many authors use their name or pen name. In the following examples I will use “myname.com“.
Please note, it is worth mentioning that WordPress offers 2 ways to publish a website, the first is totally free but very simple, the second is also free but more involved.
WordPress version 1: Totally free but very limited on what you can do on this website. It will be called “www.myname.wordpress.com“. This will be a basic hello world, here I am type of web site, with no real interaction with visitors. This can be useful for people who want to start out and explore simple websites.
WordPress version 2: This will be called “www.myname.com“. You can use all the available functionality of WordPress to create a fully interactive website. See pages on website building on more details for WordPress.
Please note the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org. The former is the commercial site, where you can publish your simple website, the latter is the pro site where you can publish a professional looking web site.
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