Microsoft Office Live Small Business Community

• FACT 1:  When you sign up, you get a fourth-level domain name (for FREE!)When you sign up for Office Live Small Business, you automatically get a fourth-level domain name based on your user name. It looks something like skipchilcott.Web.officelive.com. It’s called a fourth-level domain because it has four parts (subscribername.Web. officelive.com) separated by dots.Fourth-level domain names are long and don’t say much about your business, but they do the job. People could find your Web site or send you e-mail at this domain. Think of it as a “starter domain,” one that you’ll eventually want to replace with something relevant to your business and that grabs the attention of Internet users. Small digression: You have the power to make a fourth-level domain work a little better by customizing the third and fourth parts. On your Domain Manager page, next to the domain name, click Rename. Enter whatever text you like for the fourth part. A drop down list lets you select from various industry related terms for the third part. For example, if I ran a toy store called Wingtip Toys, I could change skipchilcott.Web.officelive.com to wingtiptoys.retail.officelive.com. It’s a slight improvement –maybe.

• FACT 2:  Your fourth-level domain is your primary domain (to start with)This fourth-level domain name that you receive when signing up is also automatically designated as your primary domain. Your primary domain is the one associated with your Office Live Small Business account.  Here are the two things to understand about your primary domain:
• It’s the domain name that sends people to your Web site
• You can only have one primary domain associated with your account

The topic of primary domains makes more sense when you understand that you can buy additional domain names and manage them under your account, too.  And if you want one of those additional domain names to be primary, you can make that change. On your Domain Manager page select the name and click Make primary.

• FACT 3: You can replace your fourth-level domain with a custom domain (and make it your primary domain)As you now know, you can go out and get more domain names if you don’t like your fourth-level name. Additional domain names you acquire and manage under your account are considered custom domains because you, with all your creative powers, get to dream up the name.   A custom domain is generally a two-part name (like wingtiptoys.com) that can more effectively represent your business on the World Wide Web. Because most Web experts consider it important for a business to operate online with a custom domain, Office Live Small Business enables you to select your first one and use it for the first year with no charge. After the first year, you pay an annual maintenance fee to keep it. And remember: To have your custom domain point to your Web site, you need to visit the Domain Manager page and make it your primary domain. Does that clear things up at all?  If not, let me know. And check out this previous post for additional info and advice regarding domain names.