I have been blogging for a few years and for each one of my blogs, I have chosen to have my own domain name instead of using a free one such as blabla.blogspot.com or blabla.wordpress.com. There is something about blogs with their own domain names that makes them seem more ‘legit’ or ‘professional’ which is why I always recommend new bloggers to consider getting their own domain name. It is fairly cheap and easy to setup. Of course, you need to get your own hosting as well but we will not touch that topic in this post.
Until recently, I had only used GoDaddy for buying domain names. It is one of the most popular domain registrars. In case you are not familiar with what a domain registrar is, it is simply a service which lets you purchase and register domain names. You know who is also a domain registrar? AWS.
Yes, you can actually purchase domain names from AWS. Their domain registrar is called Amazon Route 53. It’s a DNS service but it also provides domain registration. For this blog, I chose to try something new and got my domain name from AWS instead of GoDaddy. And I can’t begin to tell you how easy it was.
Fun Fact: Route 53 is named after the TCP or UDP port 53 which is used for addressing DNS requests.
Since, I already have an AWS account setup, it took me few simple steps to purchase my domain name. You can create your own account here.
Once you are logged into AWS, go to Route 53:
Then, check to see if your domain name is available. Most likely, your first few choices won’t be available. For example, techcrunch.com is taken.
But, techsurfbar.com is available! Sweet! This would make a great name for for a bar for nerds who like to surf (internet?). Hmmm.
You can also choose to buy domain with a different top-level domain such as .net, .info, .link, and .net. Note that the price varies for different types of domains. Some domain names are very popular and hence, are more expensive.
Pick your favorite domain name, click the Add to cart button, scroll down and then click continue.
On the next page, enter your contact information and click continue. Finally, you have to agree to some Terms and Conditions and click Complete order.
That’s it! It’s just like buying your monthly supply of toilet rolls on Amazon. Well, not exactly the same but very close.
Overall, I found the experience to be very convenient and since I already use AWS, I found it better than using GoDaddy. Once, I bought my domain, I configured it to point to my hosting’s nameservers and that was it!