I currently have a website and am looking into purchasing a domain name. My web-hosting service charges about $20 bucks a month for one. I'm sure there's a cheaper way.

There are many companies that offer great domain name registry services for a great price. If your paying somewhere between $20, to $30, to $40 per domain, you're getting ripped off. The average price you should pay to register a domain name is around $10-$15 per year.

A great service I found is DomainerDude.com.They charge $7.99 to register a .com and they also have low cost web hosting and good customer service. When you visit their website you will need to look for their "search function" in order to search to see if the domain name you want is available to purchase.

Make sure to max out the amount of years you claim ownership for your domain name to 10 years(you will save more this way). Avoid using lengthy domains, or too many dashes. Learn about the domain name extensions and see if they apply to you. Protect control over your domain to avoid loosing it later on. Use sub-domains to illustrate different content not related to your main content. Forward other domain names if needed until you want to use them. Setup your domain name by getting a hosting service to store your website files, and change the DNS info to point your domain to your hosting services. Protect your company branding by buying up all the extensions possible for your domain to prevent anyone from using them against you.