order to have a Web site, you need to reserve a domain name, which will be the home of your site. I can do that for you when I set up your hosting plan. There are dozens of companies who offer domain name sales and they have become quite competitive in price. My current favorite place to register and purchase domain names is Dotster.com, with an annual domain registration fee of only $14.95! To find out if the name you have in mind is available for purchase, go to Dotster and type in your choices. You will be able to find out if your selections are available or if someone got to them first! 

It's best if you select a domain name that indicates the nature of your business or organization, and one that is as short as possible and easy to remember. Keep in mind that even if yourfirstchoice.com is already taken, you might be able to reserve yourfirstchoice.NET or ORG. It's true that people automatically think ".com" but as more and more domains are being taken, people are using ".net" and ".org" more often.

Once your domain is established, you can begin receiving e-mail addressed to yourname@yourdomain.com. Example: My e-mail address for this site is ellen@designingforyou.com. You can have any number of e-mail addresses using that domain name, such as: sales@yourdomain.com, or information@yourdomain.com.