A loyal reader reached out to me recently following my post on Free Wifi locations in Osu. I decided to post my response following her query:

I am a follower of your blog. I really like what you do on website. Please, I want to know how website addresses are personalized. I know there are some charges. How are those charges paid and to who, especially in Ghana. Can you also recommend good companies that host websites and are affordable? Thank you so much. - Delai

 I’m thinking that you mean how to have your own personalized domain like mine or delali.com for example, right? What you need first is a domain registrar. If you have an International VISA card (from any of the banks such as Ecobank, GT Bank, Zenith Bank or Stanbic Bank), then you can use a domain registrar such as godaddy.com or hostmonster.com to purchase a domain. I highly recommend those two as they are the most affordable and accept VISA cards issued from Ghana to make payments. If you don’t have a card and prefer to deal in cash directly, you have 2 options:

• DreamOval offers a domain purchase service where you pay in cash and they make the order for you. I’m not sure how much it cost so you will have to contact them http://www.dreamoval.com/contact-us 
• ghana.com, the official domain registrar in Ghana for .com.gh also provide a similar service. You can contact them as well to find out how to proceed and how much it costs http://ghana.com/index.php/contact 

If you intend to host your website in Ghana, ghana.com is the best option you have, so you can ask them about that as well. Otherwise, hostmonster is really good as well and will provide you with some basic hosting service when you purchase a domain with them.

Here are some fantastic benefits of having your own domain name:

1. 80% of the time, search engines will pick up your domain name and show it as a priority.
2. Increases your brand visibility
3. Its more professional on your business cards and social media accounts
4. Its easier to link all your social media accounts in the site, hence increasing your followers whilst putting all your #sm content together.

I hope this answers your question. :-) Please input any further questions in the comments below ;-)