If you'd like to register a domain to ensure that no one else will take it, but you haven't created the website for it yet, you could park it. This is a feature that registrar companies offer if a domain name is not connected to any web or e mail hosting service. That way, you can protect a brand name, for example, and you will own the domain in question even though it won't load any content. If you want, you can select some default template that the registrar provides, like For Sale or Under Construction, or you can forward the domain to an alternative web address. Your second option is extremely helpful if you own a few domains, but you want each and every one of them to open the same site. For example, you can register domain.net and domain.org, then park them and direct them to domain.com. In this example, you'll need hosting for the third domain name only and the traffic to the other ones is going to be redirected to it.