Website Essentials: Claim Your Domain
Or, what’s in a (domain) name? That which we call a website...
My dear writer,
It is time to take the first brave step into the Inferno. It is time to claim your domain.
This month’s topic in our Website Essentials series is all about web domains. If you’re wondering what a web domain is, then check out my last post, “Web Terms Everyone Should Know.”
Hint: the web domain is the name of your website (think of it as your street address).
Buy Your Author Domain Now
If you ever intend to publish a book, you should buy your web domain. It doesn’t matter if you’re unpublished or you don’t feel ready to build a website. This is an easy first step to claim your corner of the Internet. We’re doing the tech equivalent of calling dibs.
The first step in purchasing a web domain is to visit a domain registrar. Forbes Advisor released their list of the best domain registrars of 2023 which includes popular companies like Namecheap, Domain.com, and GoDaddy. Go to any of these websites and you should find a search field on the home page. Type in your desired name for your website and the search will tell you if that domain name is available and how much it costs to purchase.
What’s In a (Domain) Name?
What should you name your website? This is a very important question, and the answer might not be obvious. It’s actually a marketing and branding decision. How do you want readers to find your work online?
Let’s work in reverse.
First, I recommend buying a domain with a .com extension. Why? It’s the most popular extension and the easiest to remember. Almost 48% of all websites online use the .com extension as of June 2023. This blog post from Wix explains it best: “Ever since the phrase “dot-com” was used to describe the rise and subsequent fall of online start-ups in the ‘90s, this domain extension has become synonymous with the internet.”
In comparison, other extensions like .org or .net are each used less than 5% of the time. The purpose of web extensions was originally meant to indicate what type of content to expect on the site: for example, .com means commercial, .net means network, .org means organization. While these other extensions might be more readily available, they probably don’t fit with the profile of your author site.
Next, we have to make a tougher decision: what’s your domain name?
I know that some of you might be tempted to pick the title of your book for your domain. Don’t do this. Even if you’re excited to promote this book and it’s going to be your big splash debut, this is not the best long-term strategy. You don’t want to build a new website for every book you launch.
(Okay. Yes. There’s an argument to be made about owning all of your book title domains for other marketing purposes, but that’s the Advanced Track and we aren’t there yet.)
Your website is your author house and it’s all about you. You might be writing many books in your lifetime (hopefully!) and you might even write across different genres. Your website is the one place where all of those items come together because they’re all linked to you. Author and branding expert Karen A. Chase recommends that you market yourself, the author, and not a specific book. (In fact, she has a whole workbook about author branding that I highly recommend.)
Let’s take our friend Dante Alighieri. Within his Divine Comedy, there are three parts, each with distinctly different themes. A website for Inferno would be a very different website from Purgatorio or Paradiso. But The Divine Comedy is about the journey through all three. We don’t want to separate these out. Instead, Dante should make one website where he can boast about all his different writing.
There are other ways to promote specific books, such as landing pages or subdomains, which I’ll cover in the future.
One more point to consider: your book title may change if you’re going the traditional publishing route. Therefore, you don’t want to build an entire web presence around a name that’s undefined.
Exceptions to the rule:
Authors who write under multiple pen names (author Seanan McGuire also writes under the pseudonym Mira Grant and has websites for both names)
Authors who write under a business/company name or have branded themselves with a specific phrase or concept (like Mark Dawson’s Self-Publishing Formula, where he uses selfpublishingformula.com as his domain)
Now at this point, my dear writer, I have hopefully convinced you to use your name (or penname) for your domain. But the truth is that web domains are not unlimited. In fact, the more common your name is, the higher the chance that someone already owns the domain of your first and last name. There are also scalpers who buy up “premium domain” names they think will be desirable based on certain criteria - popular names, phrases, etc. - and turn around to sell them at obscene costs. (I mean thousands of dollars.)
Let’s pretend that Dante Alighieri is shopping for a domain name. After doing some research, he finds that dantealighieri . com is already taken. What’s a poet to do? Think of something catchy!
Consider adding an extra word to your domain name to create something unique. Dante could try dantealighieripoet . com or dantealighieribooks . com or dantealighieriwrites . com for starters. Find something succinct but unique that looks good on a business card.
Also, don’t add punctuation in the domain name. This makes your domain very hard to remember. A domain of dantealighieribooks . com is not the same as dante-alighieribooks . com and users will get confused. Even if your last name is hyphenated, you can drop the punctuation for this.
Some of you may luck out and get your first pick of domain names while others might struggle. Here are my hard-and-fast rules to keep in mind:
DO:
Pick something that’s easy to remember (succinct but unique)
Pick a .com extension
DON’T:
Don’t go off-brand
Don’t buy domains for every book title you write
Don’t add hypens or other punctuation
Factor Domain Costs Into Your Marketing Budget
Buying a domain name is not a one-time purchase. At minimum, there will be annual renewal fees. So, what can you expect to pay?
The difference between domain registrars comes down to pricing and package deals. For example, GoDaddy has very low upfront costs but slightly higher renewal rates. On average, I see domains go for somewhere around $15 - $35 for annual renewal. Yes, you will pay this regardless of whether or not you’re doing anything with the domain name yet.
Some registrars offer add-ons like domain emails or protection plans. If you choose to purchase these add-ons, expect small increases to your fees. Typically these cost around $5 - $10 per add-on on a monthly or annual basis.
Of all the add-ons available, these are the two I think are worth considering:
Domain Privacy/Protection: Puts a layer between the web and your personal information you used to register your domain. This prevents spam from getting through to your personal accounts. It also can provide auto-renewal services to make sure no one else can buy the domain while you are using it.
Email: If you want to set up an email address that ends with your domain name, most domain registrars provide this service as an add-on. This is typically used for businesses but you might want an info@ email for general inquiries.
In total, let’s put aside $50 in our annual marketing budget for domain registration and potential add-on services.
Other domain registrars, such as Namecheap and GoDaddy, also provide web hosting. As host providers, their list of add-ons can include additional offerings that are related to hosting. We will talk all about web hosting in next month’s post. For now, keep this in mind: if you aren’t planning to host your website through the domain registrar, you don’t need these add-ons.
Add to Cart
That’s it! Once you’ve purchased, you have officially claimed dibs on your domain name. Now let’s put it to good use and build a website!
- - - Your Literary IT Support
Next Up
Next month, our Website Essentials series continues and we venture into the world of web hosting. Don’t miss out on any new content – subscribe to Literary IT today to get the next post sent right to your Inbox.
If there’s something you are struggling with right now on your author website, please reply or leave a comment! I’d love to fit it into this series!