Why buy a custom domain for your ministry?
What can a DOMAIN do for you?
For about $15 a year you can own a custom domain. This becomes a "digital address" for you that never changes - no matter where you move to, no matter what your email is, where you blog, how you do your newsletters, or what social media platform you focus on.
Point it to your "Hub", and even if your hub changes, people will always be directed to the right place.
One link on your prayer card becomes the gateway to everything else.
Custom domains look professional and make you a memorable ‘brand", much like a clever newsletter title does.
Create sub-domains to make some important links easier to find. For example, smithfamilyadventure.com/give can be linked to your giving page. You can create as many subdomains as you need for free when you own the root domain.
You can use it for a personal email address. joe@inlandinfaith.us
Some tips… Shorter is better. Make it easy to spell. Consider not using your name.
What exactly IS a domain?
It’s an address on the internet that you can make point to whatever you like.
It’s NOT the same thing as a website. A domain can point to a particular website, but the website itself is a bunch of files on a server somewhere (a server that you typically have to pay something for - this is what’s known as a "hosting account")
You don't have to pay for hosting (something like $100 a year) in order to own a domain (typically around $15 a year).
Every domain has the potential to be used for custom email addresses. Email "hosting" will cost more, however, since email also takes up space on a server somewhere.
Understanding the landscape…
What's the difference between a Domain, a Host, and Website?
This analogy of a House might be helpful...
The Host is the piece of land you build a house on. The Website is the house. And the Domain is the nameplate ("Welcome to the Smiths") you hang over the door.
You can build the same house on many different pieces of land. And you can hang your nameplate over any house. You might move all over the world in your lifetime, leaving behind many towns and houses, but you will always take your nameplate with you.
When you buy a domain, you don’t have to also buy the "land" and build the "house." You can choose to simply own the "nameplate" and point it to something else (or many different somethings in the case of subdomains). |
How to grab a domain:
When you buy a domain, you gain administrative controls to manage that domain. This is how you point it to a website, create subdomains and point those, set up email, etc.
MANY hosts out there sell domains. You can simply Google "buy a custom domain" and start exploring.
One tried and tested recommendation is namecheap.com
We like them for their no-nonsense service, easy interface, great prices, and free domain privacy. If you don't turn on domain privacy, you will get a lot of spam emails like: "Hey, we saw you recently bought a domain - let us build a website for you."
No matter what service you set up your domain with, there will be a little bit of a learning curve in learning to manage the domain. Domain hosts usually have very good help documents and tutorials. The most common thing you will do is create "redirects" for your domain, which is pretty easy.
Start a domain name search to see what’s available:
