Getting a Domain Name

You get a domain name from a domain name registrar. The following registrars are inexpensive and relatively well-rated, though there are many others:

• GoDaddy
• NameCheap
• Register.com

I’ve used GoDaddy for years and it’s where I maintain the majority of my top level domain names.

Once you purchase your domain name, it may take up to 48 hours for the domain name to start working.

Subdomains

Subdomains can be used for microsites, side projects, or other websites tangentially related to the main site, or sometimes not related at all. If you sign up for Neocities, you will be given a subdomain such as htmlhobbyist.neocities.org

If you own the top level domain you can create your own subdomains to differentiate from the main domain. It’s a great way to keep the code for various projects separate. For example: I own lilly.art and use it for my main informational site. In the DNS entries I can create any number of subdomains that I want, and host them at any of a variety of hosts. My top level domain contains my main website which I have hosted on GithHub Pages. To contain my WordPress journal hosted on DreamHost I created a subdomain journal.lilly.art.

In professional web development subdomains are often used. The top level domain is the main production website available to the public, but you could use a subdomain such as test.website.com for a draft version of your site. When the draft version is ready, and works how you expect it to, then you can move it up to the public site. This is great when you are making changes that you want to test before releasing them to the public.