A domain name is similar to your home address, but it's on the internet

Imagine you're inviting a guest to your house. You'd give that guest your house number, street name and suburb.

A domain name is similar to this, it's sort of like a home address. It allows people to visit you (by visiting your website) or contact you (by sending you email).

You can register a domain name on its own; ie. without any hosting package; which simply stops someone else from registering the same domain name. Or you can combine it with shared or dedicated hosting to use that domain name on the Internet.

Search for available domains or transfer free your Australian domains or transfer / add 1 year on to your existing top level domain.

Let's use an example of a business called Dave's Web Design Studio. Dave could register a domain name such as davesdesign.com.au or perhaps designstudio.com.au and hold it until he's ready to use it.

Dave can hold his domain as long as he's eligible to register it, and as long as he renews it prior to the expiry date. In order to use his domain name on the internet Dave will need need to combine it with a hosting package.

Dave could then have a website at (for example) http://www.davesdesign.com.au and an email address of (another example) email@davesdesign.com.au or maybe dave@davesdesign.com.au