Do artists need their own domain name? (And how to set one up)

A domain name is your address on the internet, like anaparker.com. It costs about as much as a sketchbook a year, takes ten minutes to set up and outlives every platform you’ll ever use. Here’s what you need to know, without the tech talk.

What a domain name actually is

Think of your website as a studio and your domain name as the street address on the door. The studio is where your work lives. That’s your portfolio platform, the company that stores your images and shows them to visitors. The address is how people find it.

When you use a free address like anaparker.semirare.com, you’re borrowing part of someone else’s address. With your own domain, anaparker.com, the address is yours. You rent it by the year from a registrar (a company that sells domains), and you can point it at any website you like.

Do you really need one?

No, not on day one. A free address like yourname.semirare.com works perfectly well, and it’s better to have a portfolio online today than to wait until you’ve sorted out a domain. But there are good reasons to get one soon:

• It looks professional. anaparker.com on a business card, a gallery label or an application says you take your work seriously.
• It’s easy to remember. People can type it after hearing it once at an opening.
• It’s portable. If you ever move to another platform, your address comes with you. Every link you’ve shared, every printed card and every Google result keeps working.
• It helps people find you. A domain that matches your name makes it easier for search engines to connect your website with you.
• You get a matching email address if you want one, like [email protected]. More on that below.

And the reasons you might wait: you’re still deciding what name to work under, or you’re just testing the waters. That’s fine. You can add a domain any time, and nothing breaks when you do.

How to choose a good name

For most artists the answer is simply your name. It’s what people search for, it’s what collectors remember, and it grows with you, whatever you make next.

A few rules of thumb:

1. Say it out loud. If you have to spell it out (“that’s Katherine with a K, and an extra N…”), look for something simpler.
2. Keep it short. Fewer letters mean fewer typos.
3. Skip hyphens and numbers. ana-parker-art2.com is hard to say and easy to get wrong.
4. Avoid names tied to one medium or place, unless you’re sure. anapaintsberlin.com gets awkward when you start doing ceramics in Lisbon.
5. Check social handles too. It’s nice, though not essential, when your domain and your Instagram match.

What if your name is taken?

Very common, especially with common names. Try these, roughly in this order:

.com, or something else?

.com is still the one people assume, so if you can get it, take it. After that:

• Your country’s ending (.de, .fr, .co.uk, .cz) is a great choice if most of your clients and collectors are local.
• .art, .studio, .gallery or .photo can be charming and descriptive, but they’re usually more expensive, sometimes a lot more at renewal. Some people will also still type .com out of habit.
• Avoid endings that look like spam or have nothing to do with you (.xyz, .biz, .info) unless you have a reason.

Where to buy it, and what it costs

You buy domains from a registrar. There are many, and the domain itself is the same wherever you buy it. What differs is price, how easy the settings are to use, and how hard they push extras. Popular options include Namecheap, Cloudflare and Porkbun, which are known for fair prices and free privacy protection. GoDaddy is the biggest and works fine too, but expect to click past a lot of extras at checkout, and check the renewal price. Most countries also have good local registrars for their own endings.

What it should cost

• .com: usually around $10–20 a year.
• Country endings: often similar, sometimes cheaper.
• Newer endings like .art or .studio: often a cheap first year, then noticeably more to renew. Always check the renewal price, because that’s what you’ll pay every year after.

Extras you can skip

At checkout, registrars often offer hosting, website builders, “SEO packages”, SSL certificates and extra endings. For a portfolio you don’t need any of them. Your portfolio platform provides the website and the security certificate (the padlock in the browser). Privacy protection, which hides your home address from the public domain directory, is worth having. Most good registrars include it for free.

How to connect it to your portfolio

This is the part that sounds technical, but it comes down to copying one line from one website to another. Here’s how it works with Semirare. Other platforms follow the same idea, with slightly different details.

1. Tell your portfolio the address. In Semirare, go to Settings → General and enter your domain with www. in front, like www.anaparker.com. It’s free on every plan, including the free one.
2. Add one record at your registrar. Log in where you bought the domain and find the DNS settings. They might be called “DNS”, “DNS records” or “Manage DNS”. Add a new record with the details Semirare shows you:

   Type	Name	Points to (target / value)
   CNAME	www	sites.semirare.com

3. Forward the short version. So that anaparker.com (without www) works too, turn on “domain forwarding” or “redirect” at your registrar, from anaparker.com to https://www.anaparker.com.
4. Wait a little. Changes usually show up within minutes, sometimes a few hours. Semirare keeps checking, sets up the secure https padlock for you, and sends you an email when your site is live at your address.

If it doesn’t work

• Check for typos in the target, and make sure the name is just www, not www.anaparker.com. Some registrars add your domain automatically.
• Remove older records for www. If there’s already a record called www (often a “parking page” the registrar added), delete it. Two records with the same name will conflict.
• Give it time. Occasionally it takes a few hours for the whole internet to catch up.
• Still stuck? Registrars’ support teams answer this question all day. Tell them: “I want to add a CNAME record for www pointing to sites.semirare.com.” They’ll know exactly what you mean.

Bonus: an email address at your domain

[email protected] looks a lot more professional than [email protected]. You have two easy options:

• Email forwarding (free or nearly free). Many registrars can forward everything sent to hello@yourdomain to your existing inbox. You keep using Gmail or Outlook as usual. It’s the simplest way to start.
• A proper mailbox (a few dollars a month). Services like Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail or Proton give you a full inbox at your domain, so replies come from your own address too.

Don’t lose it: three habits

Domains are rented, not bought outright. Every year someone loses one simply because a renewal failed. Protect yours:

1. Turn on auto-renew, and keep a card on file that won’t expire soon. Registering for several years at once is even safer.
2. Keep your contact email up to date at the registrar. Renewal warnings go there.
3. Save your login somewhere safe, like a password manager, and turn on two-factor login. Your domain is worth protecting like your bank account.

That’s all there is to it: pick a name, spend a few dollars and add one record. From then on, whatever you make and wherever you host it, people will always find you at the same address. If you haven’t built the portfolio yet, start with how to make a portfolio website. And if you’re wondering whether Instagram is enough, read Instagram vs a portfolio website.