Small Farm Central

A domain name is defined as:

"...an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS)."

That doesn't help much, does it? Basically, a domain name is something like yourfarm.com that identifies your website on the internet. This is obviously an important decision as you start a farm website and one you have probably thought about.

If you don't have a domain name yet, search for your preferred address at domaintools.com.

We've covered domain names in the past, but here are some basic thoughts to keep in mind as you make that decision:

1. Shorter is better. For example, if your farm name is Beautiful Meadows Artisan Cheeses and Dairy, beautifulmeadowscheese.com is better than beautifulmeadowscheesesanddairy.com.
2. If available, always use the "dot-com" address. I have heard .com addresses referred to as downtown real estate while other address endings like .info, .us, .name, etc are in the suburbs -- you want a downtown store front so your website is easy to find. (Of course, you may want to be .org if your farm is a non-profit.)
3. Buy your domain name today even if you do not plan to start your website in the near future. It costs about $10/year and we can still host your site in the future no matter where you register it. GoDaddy.com is a popular domain registrar (a registrar is a company that registers domain names).
4. Consider registering your domain name for longer periods such as 5 or 10 years, because you do not want to be in a situation where your domain name accidentally expires. This is what one of our farmers is dealing with right now and it can be a real pain to get it back online while your email and website are in limbo. It's low cost and your farm is going to be around in 5 years right?
5. Think twice about using a "sub-domain" address like yourfarm.blogspot.com or yourfarm.wordpress.com. We always encourage farmers to use a full domain name like yourfarm.com because you will have complete flexibility for your website into the future. If you have a .blogspot.com address, you are limited to using blogspot's service. If you want to upgrade or move on, your signs, business cards, customer bookmarks, and etc will need to be reprinted or changed.
6. All Small Farm Central sites are hosted at a full domain name. If you purchase a subscription, we'll take care of your domain name for you so you don't have to worry about it! If you already have a domain name when you start your website with us, we'll explain exactly how to re-point the domain name at our servers. It's not hard.

Is your preferred domain already registered? We'll cover that soon in the blog. In the meantime, if your domain name is registered by someone else, let us know via email and we'll help you pick an alternate domain name.