Shop Around when you register your domain name and host your site
Oct 31 '00
Boy, can you find some deals for registering your domain names and hosting your site if you shop around. In this epinion, I'll tell you what I did and how you can do it better than I did with a little extra research.
What I did:
Last year, I registered two domain names with Network Solutions. For the first one, I paid $119 and never did anything with it for a year. For the second, I paid $79 and filled out the information for it to be hosted on a friend's server. I also bought Microsoft Frontpage figuring that I would use this as the tool for building the two sites. Well, I've finally gotten around to building my own site and setting up my own "vanity" email.
How I originally built my site?
I started with the bizcard that Network Solutions provides for free. This gives you a choice of simply posting your resume or posting one page of information with one graphic about yourself or your business. I quickly graduated to a 6-page site that was created using the Network Solutions templates and is hosted on Earthweb. The cost for this is free for the first 30 days and $24.95/month after that. My goal is to leave this site up for a couple of weeks and then move it before I have to begin paying the $24.95. I also used my Yahoo mail account for my vanity mail. Through Yahoo mail, I registered up to 5 names from my domain and have email go to various accounts for a year for just $10.
My experience with Network Solution's ImageCafe:
While I found the Network Solutions templates easy to use, I also found them to be pretty simplistic. I can't really add hyperlinks or graphics to them and this is just too confining. For $24.95/month for hosting, I really want to be able to have a site that I am proud of. So I'm going to work with a friend of mine who's a graphic artist to create something better.
So what have I found that is better for my next site?
When I started thinking about putting up another web site of my own recently, I decided to look for even more inexpensive domain name hosting. Fortunately, you no longer have to pay a lot to register a domain name. Network Solution’s monopoly on domain name registration is over and it’s a competitive field. If you go to ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, you'll find a list of registrars. ICANN licenses the registrars of domain names. There were at most a few dozen companies that operated in the US, though there are many more resellers as well. Here are the best value registrars that I found:
DomainSite
Cost/year - $10
Parking* - Free
Forwarding** - Soon
Bulk Registration of Names*** - Yes
GKG
Cost/year - $10
Parking $10/year
Forwarding - No
Bulk Registration of Names - No
Special Offer - $8.99/year to register a domain for up to 10 years
www.Stargateinc.com
Cost/year - $12
Parking - Free
Forwarding from other domains - Free
Bulk Registration of Names - Yes
Special Offer - FREE DOMAIN NAME when you sign-up for 3 months of hosting or longer. Hosting plans start at as low as $14.95 per month.
* Parking is leaving your domain name with the registrar rather using it to name your own web site.
**Forwarding allows you to forward requests for your domain name to a different web address. Some registrars charge up to $10-20 per month for services like these.
***“Bulk” refers to the ability to register multiple names at one time. DomainSite can register five names at once, and Stargate can register a virtually unlimited number. Stargate's prices decline to $10 per URL when you register just two domains at a time, and decline further from there.
I'll most likely chose Stargate as my registrar because it has free parking and pointing. I can save money by parking my URL there and forwarding it to a free web host where I keep my site. I have also found that Stargate has an excellent interface.
At these prices buy those domain names you always thought you’d like to have… if they’re still available. In a few months ICANN will announce new top-level domains (such as the current .com, .gov, .net, and .edu), expanding the supply of good names available.
So, if you are thinking of setting up your own site, shop around. You can do a lot better than I did when I set up my original site. But, like me, if you've already set something up, it's not too late to change it to something less expensive that is more suitable for your needs.
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Epinions.com ID:
caroleg
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Location: Boston, MA
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About Me:
Live in Boston. Enjoy lots of home & garden things - especially epinions.
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