If you are new to the web, you will quickly find out that getting a domain name is essential to your online presence. It is almost always easy to come up with a good domain name for your business or website because many times you already have a name for your business or website. Finding and purchasing the domain name can be another story. There are many different companies and places you can go to get a domain name. The three major places to get a domain name would be a domain reseller like hostgator, directly from a domain registrar like tucows or godaddy, or from an easy website builder like WebStarts. Choosing one these is what I will help you to do.
How do you get from purchasing a domain name to being able to view your website files on that domain name? This is a major question that you need to be able to answer before you go and purchase your domain name.
If you purchase the domain name from a domain registrar like Godaddy, you will be responsible for setting up the dns to get your website up and running. Many times, this means sifting through pages of settings to find what you need and sometimes sifting through help documents to find how it is supposed to be done. This can be especially difficult because you have to have and IP address, nameservers, or other record from your hosting company before you even get started.
When you purchase your domain name from a domain reseller, you are often in the same boat as if you bought it directly from a domain registrar. Many times, you are charged more and receive nothing additional. Some domain resellers charge a premium but they will also assist you in configuring your domain name for your website, email addresses, etc... This helps you avoid some of the problems but you are still responsible for providing your hosting information so that they can configure it properly.
Purchasing your domain name through an easy website builder like WebStarts will be the quickest and least painful situation. When you build a free website, you can simply add a domain name to your website. It is as quick and easy as it gets. You simply check to see if your domain name is taken, then choose one. As soon as it is registered, you own the domain name, your website is configured to that domain name, and your email addresses are set up with the domain name that you just chose. This leaves all of the technical knowledge to the company and makes life easier for you.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I believe that going through an easy website builder will be the easiest and quickest way for you to get a domain name working. In most cases, it is the quickest and easiest ways to build a website as well so you can't go wrong. So get out there, build a free website, then add a domain name at http://webstarts.com.