Registering a new domain name

Before you can register a domain with ™, you need to become a member. Membership is free, and signing up is a quick and easy process.

Click here to learn how to become a member.

Once you are an ™ member, you can register a new domain name. If you already told us you wanted a new domain name when you signed up, you will be taken to the registration process directly. Otherwise, you will need to click the add a domain button on the side menu:

... then fill out the sign up form with your new domain name:

If the domain name you selected is already taken, you will be presented with a list of alternative names you can register. Or, you can go back and pick another domain name.

Once we've determined that the domain name you want is available, you will need to enter the contact information for your domain. This information is required by the registries that are in charge of handing out domain names. There are four contacts for each domain: the organization contact (generally regarded as the "owner" of the domain), the administrative contact (the person in charge of handling administrative queries for the domain), the technical contact (the person in charge of technical issues for the domain, and making sure it "works"), and the billing contact (the person responsible for paying the registry fees, if any, for the domain).

™ is the technical contact for your domains, but you can specify anyone else for the other contacts. If you are registering a domain name just for yourself, or for personal uses, chances are you are going to be the organizational, administrative, and billing contact. If you are registering a domain name for a business, you probably want to list the company as the organizational contact (i.e. owner), perhaps your marketing or sales department as the administrative contact, and your accounts payable department as the billing contact.

The first form you need to fill out is the organizational contact:

If you personally want to be the owner of the domain name, then select the top option. If you are also going to be the administrative and billing contacts for the domain (e.g. if this is a domain for your personal use), then you can also check the box next to "I will be the only contact person for this domain", and then click the next button. That way, you can skip the next few steps since we already have all your personal information from when you became an ™ member.

If someone other than yourself (your company, for instance) is going to be the owner of the domain, the select the second option and fill out the following fields. We've already filled them out for you with the information you gave when you became an ™ member, but you can change them if necessary. Once you are finished, click the next button.

Unless you selected "I will be the only contact person for this domain", the next form you need to fill out is the administrative contact information:

This form follows the same format as the organizational contact form, except for a new option if you know the NIC handle of the person or role that you wish to designate as the administrative contact.

If you choose the third option, you will need to specify whether the administrative contact is an individual or whether it is a role within an organization. For example, if John Smith was going to be the administrative contact, I would select "an individual person" from the drop-down list, and enter John's name in the "Name or Role" field below. However, perhaps John wants to specify his V.P. of Marketing (Mary Jones) as the administrative contact. He can either choose "an individual person" from the drop down and enter Mary Jones in the "Name or Role" field, or he can choose "a role within the organization" from the drop down and enter V.P., Marketing in the "Name or Role" field. Either way is acceptable, but if mary ever decides to leave the company, it may be better to have picked the second method. That way the role of V.P. - Marketing is associated with the domain, rather than an individual person.

Once you have entered all the required information for the administrative contact, click the next button and you will proceed to the billing contact information form:

Look familar? It should ... it's laid out exactly like the adminstrative contact form. Just pick one of the three choices, fill out the required fields, and click next for the last stage.

Afer you've entered in the information for the organization, administrative and billing contacts (or decided that you will be the only contact for the domain), the final step is to confirm all the infomation you've entered, choose a level of service, and agree to the ™ Terms and Conditions.

Look over the information on the confirmation screen and make sure that it is correct (it is possible to change it later, but it isn't always an easy process). If there are any mistakes, or if you want to make any changes, press the back button to back up to any of the previous stages when you can then re-enter the information.

If everything looks good, you then need to choose a level of service for your domain. We've made another support section that tells you the differences between our levels of service, so take a look at it to find out which level is right for you.

The last thing you need to do in this step is agree to the ™ Terms and Conditions. Click here to read them now.

Once you have confirmed the information is correct, selected a service level, and agreed to the Terms and Conditions, click the next button, and ...

Congratulations! Your domain name is queued to be registered with ™. Once you pay the invoice for our fees for this domain, we will send the registration in to the registry. From there, it may take a day or two for your domain name to be visible to the rest of the world. This is because it usually takes a few days for the registry to process your registration and update their servers. We will notify you via email when the registration is complete.

You can now go back to your members page and start taking control of your domain name!

Click here to learn how to take control of a DNS Service domain name.
Click here to learn how to take control of a DNS-Plus Service domain name.
Click here to return to the main support page.

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