Two Different Routes About Owning a Domain:

Route 1: Domains are registered for a year at a time. To purchase a domain name a person goes to a domain register like GoDaddy.com, types in the name they want, if it is avaliable.. you can purchase it for around $10/year.

After you purchase the domain, you will need to host the domain, which is around $8-$10 a month for shared hosting.
This is the more expensive route and the route which require more ramp up time faster. The good news is both the domain register company and the hosting company normally is more than happy to help you through any process. I personally use GoDaddy.com for domain purchases and HostGator.com for domain hosting, both are very helpful.

Route 2: I would recommend starting out with blogger.com or wordpress.org. Both are very powerful blogging type sites with many options. Also, both sites also will teach you much needed steps to be able to maintain and manage a real domain.

Once you have an established blog with either of the two, you can then purchase a domain for around $10 per year and run it through blogger.com or wordpress.org for free. This option will save you the monthly hosting fee which is around $10 a month. Both sites have detailed information on how to run your blog through your domain.

If you have additional questions feel free to contact me as I own a domain company and enjoy helping others.

It’s fast, easy and secure. And we provide a lot of free services. Just check us out.

Therefore, I suggest you investigate hosting plan costs etc at the same time from companies that do both. Many prefer to have their domains with their hosting account for convenience and perhaps an even better saving.

Regards,
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3 Namecheap $8.88
2 Moniker $9.95
1 Dynadot $7.99
1 Yahoo! Small Business $9.95
1 GoDaddy $9.20