THE BILL DOBBINS FEMALE PHYSIQUE WEBZINE/GALLERY
REGISTERING YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAME
By Bill Dobbins
How To Do It...Why To Do it
One of the first questions I ask women I photograph is, "Do you own your own domain name?" Having your own domain name – or domain names – is a way of capitalizing on your own identity, and to protect yourself from having others take that identity away from you. But a lot of the women have never given this much thought. Or they don't understand the difference between registering a domain name and having a website.
A domain name is just a name. It's like a product name or a trade mark. You type domain names into a computer to go to a website but the name isn't what takes you to a particular site. The domain name is ÒpointedÓ to an Internet address. When you (or somebody) administers a domain name information is typed in that says: when somebody enters this name into a browser to go Internet address 123.456.798 (or whatever the numerical address of the server is where the website resides – your web host will have that information when you need it).
However, this is something many don't understand: you don't have to have a website in order to register a domain name. In fact, you should be registering important domain names well in advance of actually create a site.
And I say domain names because there is no limit (other than financial) as to how many names you can register. You can register variations of your own name, slogans you might be associated with (gr8fitnesslegs.com), businesses (fitassociatesinc.com) or titles (fbbmusclechamp.com). This is important not just to protect the names from being used (stolen) by somebody else but because you can have any number of domain names forwarded to the same Internet address. So somebody types in www.yourname.com or www.fitmusclebabe.net can find themselves ending up at the same website page.
So it is important for EVERY PHYSIQUE COMPETITOR OR MODEL TO REGISTER HER OWN NAME/NAMES ASAP!!! And these names need to be registered to YOU – not to anyone else. You can give others access to the information necessary to administer the domain registration, but you should be the owner of record. I have dealt with a lot of women who signed with a manager or agent who then ended up owning their domain name and controlling their websites – and the same thing has happened with husbands, boyfriends, web designers and web hosts.
Once somebody owns the registration of your domain name it is difficult to get it back. There are several types of administrative and legal actions you can take because, if you are well known and have a unique enough name, that name is your trademark and belongs to you. This is certainly the case where cybersquatters are concerned (companies that buy up domain names and then demand you pay a lot to get them back) or others trying to capitalize on your success. If a company owns your domain name but does not have any people involved with the same name or represent any products or services using that name they are cybersquatting.
If your name is "Janet Jones" or something else as common and somebody else named Janet Jones has already registered that name you are out of luck. You'll have to come up with something else. But remember, if somebody owns janetjones.com you might be register janetjones.net – although to avoid confusion something more unique might be better.
How do you register a name? You go to a company that registers domain names, run a WHOIS search to see if the name you want is available and, if it is, you fill out the appropriate form to purchase it. This is very easy. The primary company that registers domain names is www.networksolutions.com. But there are others, most of which charge less. Enter Òregister domain nameÓ into www.google.com and you'll get a whole page of recommendations.
If this seems intimidating, just remember you don't have to do anything but register the name to protect it. Pointing it to a domain URL will come later and whoever is designing your site or hosting it can help you.
One other thing: once you have a website you can get your Email through it, such as janet@janetjones.com. But until then, you need a professional Email address that makes it easy for your fans and those who want to do business with you to make contact. An Email address like poohcrngrl@hotmail.com might be cute and personally meaningful, but try creating yourname@hotmail.com (or msn or yahoo) to keep things simple. Remember, you can have lots of different Email addresses – one for friends and family, a special one for that somebody special and a professional address for fans and business contacts. This also helps in preventing important personal Emails from getting lost in a lot of clutter.