Your website's name

To have your own website you also need your own domain name. It's your Internet website "address".

You'll need to organise this yourself on behalf of your organisation or association as it's a legal agreement with a third party company. You also need to arrange payment every two years to keep your domain name registered.

Depending on what type of name you're permitted to use, and which registrar you choose to use, the cost could be as low as AU$9.95 for two years or as high as AU$225.00! Some prices are truly outrageous.

I'll talk more about prices soon, and help you minimise your costs, but firstly what name should you register?
 

What type of domain name is right for you?

To register a domain name ending in ".au" there are some special requirements. The policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain "space" is called auDA -  .au Domain Administration Ltd.

Names ending in .com.au are reserved only for companies or businesses formally registered in Australia.

Non-commercial groups in Australia are expected to use .org.au or .asn.au as follows:

Registered Australian charities and non-profit organisations should use .org.au .

Sporting and special interest clubs, incorporated associations, political parties, and trade unions should use .asn.au .

Alternatively, virtually anyone can use a "top level domain" name ending in .com (assuming you can find one of relevance still available).
 

Some relevant rules in brief

Domain Registrars are required to verify your right to use a requested domain name. Verification sources used are the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), Australian Business Register, Electoral Commission, Australian Industrial Relations Commission, Foreign Embassies and so on.

To use .org.au, charities and non-profit organisations used to need an Australian Business Number (ABN) as a minimum requirement (except for foreign embassies and consulates), though I believe that has been relaxed so you may be able to register a .org.au name as an unregistered association now, using "0000" as the ACN.

.asn.au may be used by sporting and special interest clubs even if you don't have an ABN, but the person registering the name must warrant that the association is a club, giving the club name and address.

There are also restrictions for the name itself, such as an overall maximum length of 63 characters, and only certain characters can be used (letters, numbers and hyphens). More details about Australian domain name selection rules and criteria can be found in the FAQs at:

http://www.namescout.com/dot_au.asp

You may find many of your domain name registration questions are answered here:

http://help.webcity.com.au/categories/DOMAINS/.au-domain-names/Domain-registration/
 

Best prices for domain names

Rather than steering you to just one domain registrar I'll give you the websites of a couple of them so you can choose the best for you. I've selected these after looking around the Internet for some time for the absolutely lowest prices I could find, but prices change so I can't guarantee these registrars will always have the lowest. Currently their prices are significantly lower than many other domain registrars on the Internet.

There are several differentiating factors in domain name registrations other than price though, like domain name redirection services ("URL forwarding"), online documentation of common questions and answers, domain locking security, methods of payment, support and so on.

If you search the Internet yourself for other registrars of .au domains, be aware that .au domain names are registered for a minimum of 2 years at a time and some quote the annual price to appear lower at first glance.

If you do want to do your own research, the auDA website has a list of accredited registrars for .au domains, but there are also lots of resellers that can have lower prices: http://www.auda.org.au/registrars/accredited-registrars/.

As a guide, as at 10 March 2008 shopping around for two years registration you can spend:

• less than AU$10 for .org.au domains
• less than AU$26 for .asn.au domains
• less than AU$24 for .com.au domains (commercial use only)

and for a one year registration:

• just over US$9 (approx. AU$11) for .com domains,

by choosing one of the registrars below, but there are some traps. Please review the table below.

(Please note that I don't have any vested interests in the registrars named below. I'm just trying to save you a lot of legwork if you'd like some help to find the best value.)