I'm ready to buy a new domain name- help???

1. 87

   Dorsiposted 15 years ago

   I've tried this twice before, once through Yahoo (mistake) and once through VistaPrint (another mistake and they now have my name hostage). I once had a great site that a webmaster maintained for me and that was a good one (didn't make any money on it but hey)
   
   So I'm ready to try this again. I have my website name ready (it's not taken, I've already checked it) and I want to do as much work myself to maintain the site.
   Can you great website owners here give me some advice??
   Thanks in advance!

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   1. 78

      BDazzlerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I use hostway because it's the cheapest over all ... I pay $8 per year for most .com domains
      
      I'm not a big fan of goDaddy
      
      Some hosts include domain registration with your hosting package.
      
      I use hostgator for most of my work.

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2. 62

   Mishaposted 15 years ago

   Where are you going to host the site? You can either buy domain from your hoster (not recommended, but a lot of people do this, including myself sometimes), or you can buy it from another registrar. The most popular is godaddy.com.

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      RockyElCidposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Did You read my hub.There you can find some very useful links.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Well, it's one link and I'm not convinced how useful it is...

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3. 73

   thranaxposted 15 years ago

   GoDaddy is a good host. It offers easy to use features for people who can't code, you can buy the domain, and has a ton of great features and plans.
   
   The reason why I suggest this is I have a friend who can't code much, but she maintains a few sites for small businesses like a landscaping company. I figured if its so easy and user friendly, they also have great customer support I think (I dont personally own one).
   
   Best of luck to you,
   
   ~thranax~

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4. 83

   SweetiePieposted 15 years ago

   I am hosting with web.com and they are not too bad.  Of course I have never hosted with other sites, so maybe others are much better.  I have unlimited subdomains through them though, so it meets my nees.

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5. 87

   Dorsiposted 15 years ago

   Thanks everybody, I'm checking Godadddy out first. Amazing, the name I came up with was available yesterday and today it's gone. Just amazing. Back to the drawing board. EEEEEE.

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   1. 56

      guidebabaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      That's what is called DADDY SCAM on the Internet. I have 2 personal websites and I also maintain my electronic company's website. Here are my suggestions:
      
      1. Get your URL name registered from any such service providers in your area. Look at the daily newspapers or ads. There must be loads of them. Go and personally visit them and book your URL Name.
      
      2. Next, you need some space on a server. 50 MB of space is good enough for a descent-size website. Also check out for Bandwidth. Bandwidth needs to be good enough just in case the number of visitors to your website per month increases.
      
      3. Get 1-2 pages of your website designed by some professional and then design rest of the page by yourself in Frontpage Express. Use the "SAVE AS" option. Frontpage is extremely easy. Taking 4-5 classes on web designing won't do any harm and will be beneficial in the long run.
      
      4. Most Important: Avoid Online Webhosting service providers before it gets late. You can always personally visit your local service providers and complaint for any problem and get solved immediately. I had a bandwidth problem and I just had to make a phone call. They fixed it immediately before I visit them and make a hell of their life.
      
      Good Luck !

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6. 62

   Mishaposted 15 years ago

   rule of thumb - never check domain name for availability until you are ready to buy right away
   
   check back in a week, it might be free again...

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   1. 87

      Dorsiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the tip. Wow. I guess once you check names they go into some database and get snapped up, huh? I'm checking variations now. Question, I suppose the keywords should be in the title no matter what? In other words, I can take the key words and make something snappy to go along with it so people will remember the site.

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      1. 60

         Eric Graudinsposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         There's a current obsession with getting the keywords in the domain name.
         Apparently it helps your rankings MARGINALLY. But having your keywords in the URL as a directory or filename gives a similar result.
         
         If you can get the domain with the keywords you want, fine.
         Otherwise, don't stress out over it too much.
         Cheers, Eric G.

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   2. 41

      kashifmahmoodposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I can not agree more. Some domain registrars show a list of available domains which they create by combining the domain names that people have been checking from their site for availability.
      
      Another important thing to keep in mind is that good domain names are hard to find these days but if you find one , make sure you register it immediately. I am sure many would be able to pay around $10/year for keeping a good domain name and then utilize it whenever they require.
      
      In the past I bought a domain name (.net) and keep paying for it for 3 years (total of $ 30 almost) and then I finally could not use it and decided to let it go and was surprised to see that the domain name was worth more than a few hundred dollars. I am still keeping that domain

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7. 60

   Eric Graudinsposted 15 years ago

   Dorsi,
   
   A bit of advice:
   
   1.  I wouldn't register a domain name or get web hosting from GoDaddy. See www.NoDaddy.com for some info.
   I recommend www.namecheap.com or www.name.com
   Yes, there are other registrars where you can get domains cheaper. But if cheapest is your primary consideration when buying stuff , prepare to be disappointed a fair amount of the time.
   
   2. Host Gator is a good, cheap place to host your websites.
   
   3. I've written a definitive guide to choosing, registering, and protecting domain names. It's a totally free download. There's a link to it in my profile. (I won't put it here. Constable Misha will get me banned for spamming )
   Anyway, if you read it you'll know more about domain names than just about anyone.
   
   4. If you want a domain and it's available, register it immediately. If you don't some registrars will register it themselves and then do a variety of things like put adverts on it, or try to sell it to you at an inflated price.
   (this practice is called "front running". Check wikipedia for more info)
   
   If they can't make money from it, they'll release it after 5 days, so as Misha said - check again.
   
   5. Avoid any offers of free domain names with hosting services. There are generally all sorts of strings attached to these offers, which you only discover when you try to move away from the webhost.  Sometimes they own the domain, sometimes they impose huge fees to transfer the domain, and sometimes they just plain won't talk to you, and make it very difficult to move away from them.
   
   6. I recommend in most cases that you register your domain name with a company that is totally separate from your web host. Your domain name is the most important part of your online business. You need to have full control over it.
   
   
   Cheers,
   Eric G.

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   1. 62

      Lisa HWposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Eric, I haven't yet read what you suggested, but I would not necessarily recommend Godaddy because they sell you the domain name for higher than others charge; but then give you the site "free" - and put their ads across the top, with "this site hosted free by Godaddy" or something like that.  Other places charge less for just the name alone, and then charge for the site, itself (and it usually comes out about the same as Godaddy).  You don't have the "this is a free site" thing on other sites, though.
      
      In fairness to Godaddy, it's easy to you their site builder, I think.

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8. 67

   darksideposted 15 years ago

   In addition to the suggestions above, I'd use www.register.com to see if the domain name is available. BUT DON'T BUY THROUGH THEM. Way overpriced.
   
   Register.com do a lot of business though, and they're reputable. For 9 years now I've used the site just to check domain name availability and have never had the issue of a domain name being mysteriously snapped up by the next day. But I've heard plenty of stories to make me suspicious that the less reputable are up to shenanigans. My theory is as well as being reputable it would be too much of an effort for Register.com to want to play those sort of games with perhaps hundreds of thousands of queries a day.
   
   Next up, avoid Yahoo Domains. Not sure of your experience but I find their interface terrible as well as not being able to get a real human to help when I've had a problem. Of which I had several in the past when I took up some offer running at the time with registering domains for just $1. It wasn't worth the problems (or the cost) in the long run.
   
   I've heard all sorts of 'fors' and 'againsts' with GoDaddy. They're pretty cheap, and I guess if you're doing a LOT of domain name registering the 5 or so dollars I'd save on a domain name would make it worth it. Otherwise I use www.dotster.com. For around $15 and the ease of use of the domain name management and also REAL people answering emails when I've had problems or needing to be pointed in the right direction, they've been fantastic. I've also got no qualms with using them to search for domain names but it seems just a wee bit easier to use Register.com to do that bit.

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9. 87

   Dorsiposted 15 years ago

   Thank you thank you thank you everybody!!
   I downloaded your ebook Eric, and twitted your site. AWESOME INFO!!!
   I used host gator to register and host the site, and after much brainstorming my sis in law came up with the perfect name.
   
   Can I say it? I just got to because it is SO ME!!! Better than the original name I wanted ( which I'm still going to check on in a week and register it if it becomes magically available again!)
   
   sooooo....my official site now is...drum roll...
   www.GranniesGreenLiving.com
   
   Whoooppeee--- and I'm going to get a picture of me and my 4 month old grandson with garden gear and pots, and plants, and we are ready to rumble. That will be the web pic that I use.
   I LOVE IT!!!!

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   1. 61

      GeneriqueMediaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Awesome, good luck.
      
      I thought I'd also point out, for others, this website: FreeDomain.co.nr
      
      This gives you a free domain with the .co.nr suffixes. I've not tried the service myself, but it seems pretty legit.
      
      -GLM

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         Abhishek87posted 15 years agoin reply to this

         I am using it and its great if you are using a blog but want the name to look like a site Like I have this blog for Bankjobs (In India) on blogger, so I got a name from them : www.bankjobs.co.nr and if you click on it, it will redirect you to my blog.
         
         The best thing is I could not have got this name or anything near it on either Blogger or Wordpress

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      2. 60

         Eric Graudinsposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         It is just a subdomain. You have no control over it. Here's how it works.
         
         1. Someone has registered the domain name co.nr. This is issued through the domain space in Nauru.
         
         2. The person who has registered co.nr allows people to use subdomains of that domain name for free.
         (anyone who owns a domain name can sell or give subdomains to anyone they choose)
         
         3. hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands of people sign up for these free "domain names" in the belief that they are getting something wonderful.
         
         4. The owner of co.nr might decide to stop offering this service. Or start charging for it. Or forget to pay for their hosting. You are TOTALLY at their mercy.
         
         5. This may operate successfully for years. Or stop working tomorrow. You would be very foolish to use something like this for any business related website for the sake of saving a few dollars per year. (Or even a personal one into which you intend to invest your time.
         
         You've been warned. Make your own decisions.
         Cheers, Eric G.

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         1. 61

            GeneriqueMediaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for the clarification, Eric.
            I should have been able to get that out of my mouth...I feel like I wasted those 4 years in Cisco classes and earning my CCNA is now worthless.
            
            But you do have a rather valid point, and thats something I probably wouldn't have considered until it happened.

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10. 60

    Eric Graudinsposted 15 years ago

    Great domain name Dorsi.
    I'll look forward to seeing the site develop.
    
    Thanks for the tweet too
    Feel free to forward the PDF to people who are thinking of setting up a website.
    It will prevent them from making lots of common mistakes that sometimes are very difficult to fix later.
    
    Cheers, Eric G.

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11. 62

    Mishaposted 15 years ago

    Congrats Dorsi - and Good Luck!

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12. 87

    Dorsiposted 15 years ago

    Thanks guys. I'm really tweaking now. I'll probably be up all night thinking about how I want to build the site. There is so much to learn but hostgator has a web building service that comes along with the hosting. I've found a few I like and just need to think about the logistics now. This will be a fun project for me since I'm an artist. Sort of feel like the kid in the candy store right now...lol...
    I can backlink to my reporting site at the Examiner where I am writing about climate change, I can add my adsense which I have not done anywhere but here, add my "granny" green living tips...oh boy my mind is swirling now....
    Fun project and hopefully profitable for me!

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13. 60

    Eric Graudinsposted 15 years ago

    Hi Dorsi,
    
    I'd strongly suggest that you look at using self hosted Wordpress for your site.
    Wordpress is great  for pretty well all kinds of sites - both static and blogs.
    The plugins and SEO tools are amazing - and there's lots of free advice to help.
    The site builders are very limiting in what you can do, and are a pain to use for anything other than something very basic. And if you ever want to move your site, you could have real problems.
    
    Wordpress can be easily installed from the hostgator control panel using Fantastico.
    
    Then all you have to do is find a theme you like, and load it to your site.
    search for free wordpress themes or similar. (For maximum flexibility go for one that's "widget ready")
    There's themes that are optimised for adsense, if that's what you want to put on it.
    There's heaps of tutorials and videos available to show you how to do this.
    
    If you know what you are doing you can have a site up and running in less than an hour. If you don't, expect to spend quite a few hours - some of them very frustrating -  in learning how to drive it. But then that knowledge is yours forever to build on.
    
    cheers, Eric G.

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14. 62

    Mishaposted 15 years ago

    I second Eric on this

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15. 87

    Dorsiposted 15 years ago

    Thanks Eric and Misha,
    I'm off to check out Fantastico and Wordpress.
    Let's see how long this takes me..lol...

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16. 85

    Marisa Wrightposted 15 years ago

    I third Eric.  Wordpress is great.  There is a learning curve, but you can get a site set up in a matter of hours, then tweak it from there as you learn.  And you don't need to know HTML or coding to use it! 
    
    It is a blogging platform but you don't have to use it as a blog.  You can create pages as well as posts - theoretically the whole site could consist of pages with no posts at all, if you wanted.
    
    On my site, I use the posts to create the dancers' profiles and use the pages for my shop and other static content.  All I had to do was pick a theme, and my colour scheme and layout were all taken care of.

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17. 87

    Dorsiposted 15 years ago

    Well let me see. It's now 1 in the morning. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Wordpress twice through Fantastico. I had problems pulling any other themes in except the basic wordpress so I've been playing around with their sitebuilder there. Day 2 tomorrow ( or I should say today) I'm off to bed, I hate this technical stuff.
    Sigh....

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18. 81

    LondonGirlposted 15 years ago

    very best of luck with your new site!

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    1. 87

       Dorsiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks!
       
       OK so I finally got wordpress on my site correctly. I had to download FileZilla in order to bring in the theme I wanted, That's what got me almost hopelessly stuck but I finally got it!
       Whew....technology and why do I feel that having my first website that I am really managing on my own is going to be...well let me say I have a feeling I'm going into a big learning curve here.I need to put my patience hat on.

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          Abhishek87posted 15 years agoin reply to this

          Great site Granny D

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          1. 87

             Dorsiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

             Hi everybody and thanks (I really like the Granny D thing- sort of like the colonel sanders branding thing- now my family will have to put up with me snatching my grandson for various poses in weeds,grass,flowers.lol...)
             Hey has anyone heard of this site http://www.affiliatetheme.net/
             It's an affiliate wordpress software for optimizing ads.
             I was just wondering.I'm not about to spend anymore money right now, gonna start learning the ropes myself. I have a pretty basic Wordpress template to work with and think it will be ok.
             I'm having fun now that I got past the really yucky start!!

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             1. 85

                Marisa Wrightposted 15 years agoin reply to this

                I don't think it's necessary to pay for a theme.  Just do a Google search for "Wordpress theme Adsense ready" and you'll get plenty of options.

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19. 81

    LondonGirlposted 15 years ago

    isn't wordpress for blogging?

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       Marisa Wrightposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, it was originally for blogging.  As Misha said, there are two versions - one is Wordpress.com which works the same as Blogger, the other is Wordpress.org which is software you download and use on your own domain).
       
       The second version is so flexible, you can use it to build a blog, or a website.  You can create static pages just as easily as writing posts. 
       
       to give you some examples, my belly dance website  is built on Wordpress but you would hardly know it was a blog.  My flamenco website is a blog but it has a shop built using static pages.  You could just as easily set it up so the website was at the "front" of the site, with a blog section out the back.
       
       I love it.  It has taken me a while to learn enough to start tweaking, but I was able to get the sites up and running fairly quickly at a basic level, because of the fact you can use existing themes to get your colour scheme, fonts and layout all in one hit.

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       1. 87

          Dorsiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

          WOW Marisa,
          Your websites are FANTASTIC!!
          Beautiful design and layout. Very very nice!

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             Marisa Wrightposted 15 years agoin reply to this

             Thank you, Dorsi - but as you're discovering, I can't really take the credit for the look of the sites because most of the layout comes from the choice of theme (if you want to use the same theme, look in the footer of each site and you'll find a link to the designer). 
             
             I especially like the "Amazing Grace" theme by Vladimir Prelovac, which I used for the belly dance site, because you can customize it quite a lot without having to be a techie. With some of the other themes I tried - the one on the flamenco site for instance! - I sometimes found they did unexpected things if I added a widget or tried to make even the simplest changes.  And I found that some themes make your site slow to load, or have bugs in them.
             
             Dorsi, when I started the belly dance site back in May last year, I knew nothing about hosting, wordpress or any of it - in other words, I was about where you are now!  So hang in there - I'm sure your site will be looking just as "wow" in six months' time!

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          Whitney05posted 15 years agoin reply to this

          Marisa, how did you set up the shop? Also, I see on your belly dancing site, you have a shop, there as well. I'm curious how you go the ebay products to appear as such. I've played around on ebay, but haven't seen such layouts. Is it just a part of how you set up the static page?
          
          What exactly is a static page? I feel like a retard asking lol. And, how exactly did you set it up?
          
          I'm knew to wordpress, but I'm trying to set up a few domains cheaply until my dad has more time to create a more unique design and layout.

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20. 62

    Mishaposted 15 years ago

    There is wordpress.com, which is a shared blogging platform, and then there is wordpress.org, that gives away for free the script running worpress.com. One can download the script and install it on own domain, and have all the functionality of wordpress blog.
    
    Now, that script happened to be written so good and received so good support, that it became the most popular script for any kind of website. Using its built-in functionality and any combination of the plethora of available free and paid plugins and skins, one can basically make any type of site they want with a minimal effort.

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21. 81

    LondonGirlposted 15 years ago

    thanks for clearing up my idiocy, all!

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22. 60

    Eric Graudinsposted 15 years ago

    @ GLM,
    Don't feel too bad.
    The Cisco exam is not really about this stuff.
    
    Most people don't worry about the mechanics behind their email addresses, domain names, etc. until something goes wrong.
    Like a friend who didn't worry about computer backups, because files were copied to other machines in her office.
    After all her 3 computers were stolen, and all her data lost, she's suddenly become VERY interested in backups.
    
    @Marisa - your sites are looking great. I see you've added Adriana from down here in Tassie. :-)
    
    @Dorsi - Congrats on getting your site up and running. The worst part is over now - Just keep reading, tinkering, and learning. :-)
    Just a suggestions: Domain names and email addresses are NOT case sensitive.
    You might want to try GranniesGreenLiving.com on the header.- this looks better, and is easier to read.
    
    cheers,
    Eric G.

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23. 76

    Lissieposted 15 years ago

    Hey I missed all the fun here - well done Dorsi! Your site is not indexed yet so I put a link to you in my side bar - it should work - did for someone else reently - basically the google bot is living on my blog at the moment!
    
    Before you ask - to tell whether google has you indexed google
    site:http://granniesgreenliving.com

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    1. 87

       Dorsiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks Lissie and I am apparently doing something right with alot of help from my friends! granniesgreenliving googles at the number one spot, and there were more green grannies out there than I realized...lol...now I gotta get busy and build this site!!

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24. 59

    vgpposted 15 years ago

    Hi Dorsi:
    
    I have heard about Godaddy and not everything has been too
    
    positive. I would try http://www.webhostingtoolkits.com. You can
    
    register a domain anywhere from $1.99 to $9.99 per year.
    
    Goodluck

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25. 81

    LondonGirlposted 14 years ago

    Do you have an RSS feed on your blog, Dorsi? I can't find it.

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26. 58

    nobama is betterposted 14 years ago

    stay AWAY from godaddy:
    
    http://NOdaddy.com
    
    ^^ enough true to life horror stories to last you five lifetimes.  While they seem a viable choice.. when you get burned it will be badly... and you will get burned at some point.
    
    ICANN rules require you to have current contact information in whois.  If you're using public whois you CAN used munged contact information like
    
    f9a9s9c9i9s9t9s@a9c9l9u.o9r9g--remove9sandeverythingafterdashes.com
    
    which any intelligent sentient person can resolve into
    
    fascists@aclu.org
    
    if godaddy wants to take your domain they allege the automated spambots were unable to reach you at the published whois.  And right well they shouldn't: that was the point.  A REAL person could have contacted you.  Godaddy will snatch your domain.  If you're on the receiving end of slightly less fascism you will have the 'opportunity' to pay an excessive extortion fee to recover your domain.  lucky you?  no.
    
    
    
    moniker.com is nodaddy.com forum recommended but doesn't provide hosting and have elusive tech support.  While they suck the least they too have inane policies.  The best is password expiration that requires you to call them.  They keep super fantastic phone hours that makes that one a real joy.
    
    Use 'cheap' as your primary criteria?  You're going to get hosed.

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27. 58

    nobama is betterposted 14 years ago

    godaddy (http://NOdaddy.com) web hosting is a joke.
    
    Go ahead and try to use the space YOU'VE PAID FOR.  Go ahead.   If you interact with support EVER you're account is flagged for routine 'inspection'.  If no interaction you may well be flagged anyway. 
    
    You'll get a delightful "stop using your hosting" letter saying that you cannot store files on your account.  Godaddy hosts appears to have ZERO  understanding of apache, a webserver technology.  Files are stored and the software serves them up to requesting visitor's web browser. 
    
    Can't store files? 
    
    You ain't got not website.

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