If you want to register a domain to make sure that no one else is going to take it, however, you haven't created the site for it yet, you may park it. That is a feature that registrar companies offer whenever a domain isn't connected to any web or e-mail hosting service. By doing this, you can protect a brand name, for example, and you will own the domain in question even though it won't open any content. If you would like, you can select some default template that the registrar offers, like For Sale or Under Construction, you can also direct the domain name to an alternative web address. Your second option is extremely helpful if you own a number of domain names, but you want each and every one of them to open the same site. For instance, you may register domain.net and domain.org, then park them and direct them to domain.com. In this example, you will need hosting for the third domain address only and the traffic to the other ones will be redirected to it.