Man, there is so much choice out there… it would confuse a saint! It used to be that two scoops of DNS, a cup of apache, and a sprinkling of HTML was all that was required to have a presence on the InterWeb. Despite knowing all these technologies way back when, I was far from being a creative type that could meld them together to form anything which looked professional. Now we are spoiled for choice, so much so that we are liable to suffer from the paradox of choice…

So what does it take to be professional on the web these days:

1. It all starts with a domain name, your address on the web. More on this topic anon.
2. Somewhere to live! Do you host your presence yourself, or pay up for somebody else to do it?
3. A framework. While there have been template web sites previously, nothing matches some of the current “Content Management Systems” for power, functions, or flexibility.
4. A blog. Doh!
5. A gallery of your happy snaps.
6. A “Poke me, Ping me, Prod me, Link me” herd of social networking connections, ’cause I am available 24x7x365 and want to be SuperPoked! Honestly!
7. Some Google advertising, to bring the masses.
8. Some Google AdSense money, to pay for 1–7.

Finally, it would be really, really, really nice if all of that was backed up by email which was always on, available on the desktop, the browser, and on your mobile device.

So, I will (attempt to) document my experience implementing all of this. No problem

Firstly, domain names… I would imagine that most people know the in’s and out’s of domain names, but in case you were wondering:

“A name that identifies a computer or computers on the Internet” — Wikipedia

In a previous life, I worked at a company which was transitioning from developing Y2K software to e-commerce, and the marketing manager (rather painful person) approaches one of my colleagues (a clever guy) with the following question:

“Can you tell me if the domain name e.com is available?”

Guy pauses, does a quick Internet search and replies in the negative. Next question:

“What about ecommerce.com?”

Guy returns to Internet and again replies in the negative. So this goes on for a few minutes, much to our eavesdropping amusement. Eventually all good things come to an end, and the marketing manager, becoming impatient, poses the following beauty:

MM: “Ok then, can you send me a list of all the un-registered e-commerce related domain names?”

GUY: “Huh!?! That would be like asking me for a list of everything that is not green!”

MM:  “Are you going to do or should I speak with your manager???”

And the funny thing is, that nowadays nearly every sensible domain name in the English language has been registered, either by a legitimate business, or more likely, a “domain squatter” who profits from advertising and possibly selling the domain at a later date.

A good domain name is very important for your business / presence on the Internet, but what constitutes a good domain name?

1. Short and concise. Nobody wants to be typing for ages, so keep it short so your domain name is…
2. Hard to misspell. Type in nearly any well-known website address incorrectly, and I am sure that you will hit a domain squatter.
3. Memorable. This is a hard one these days, but web sites like flickr, digg, and even del.icio.us have managed it.
4. Related to what you do. In Ireland, for the .ie domain, this was never an issue in that you had to produce a legal document to prove that you were trading as “XYZ” in order to register “XYZ.ie”. Even with the advent of personal names as domain names, they require a passport or drivers license to prove who you are.  Thankfully most of the other top-level domains (.com, .net, .org, etc.) are not as rigid.

So are there any resources out there to help me pick a good name? Why, yes there is! These are some interesting ones from Smashing Magazine:

• http://www.makewords.com/ — Domain name generator
• http://www.dyyo.com/ — Locate domain names of a certain length
• http://xona.com/domainhacks/- Assembles “weird” domain names such as del.icio.us

In the end, I registered my name… for two main reasons:

1. Unless you have a registered business name, it is very hard to register a “.ie” domain for anything other than your name
2. I hope to make my way as a photographer, which is a very personal profession… your name is your business

Watch out for the next episode… Hosting, Google Apps, DNS settings, and WordPress.