Domain Name Registration & Points To Bear In Mind
Having chosen your new domain name..? We now need to look at the various options with regard to Domain Registration. We basically have just two options here, we can either opt to use our hosting company as our registrar or we can use a third party independant registrar. Please bear in mind that a registrar simply registers your name for you, so little is likely to go wrong, where as hosting can have all manner of problems & pitfalls. So lets look at the advantages of each choice.
1. Using a hosting company is the easiest method in as much as all will be dealt with by the hosting company, you simply choose your domain name, pay your money & that my friends is it! You should be up & running within 48hrs. But what if you’ve chosen a bad hosting company..? What if you’ve worked hard for 6 months on your new website / blog & you suddenly start having problems with your hosting service..? You’ve paid your money & now their servers are offline as much as they are online ! You threaten to move to another company only to find that you cannot, you or rather your domain name is not transferable.
2. Using a seperate (3rd party) domain name registrar, this is the method I would, in most circumstances, recommend. Whilst it can cost slightly more, you are more likely assured of a safe haven for your domain name, especially if you do your homework & research first. The thing to bear in mind is any website can be easily downloaded and burnt to a disk or stored on a pen drive, but your domain name is how people find your site, it is your brand, your company name, your label, lose this & you may as well start from scratch!
Using a third-party registrar makes it much easier to switch web hosts in the future, should you experience any problems with your hosting service. Using separate service providers also halves the hassle of switching hosts. On the other hand, getting web hosting and domain registration from the same company is less expensive and easier to set up initially. Although from my own experience, most reputable hosting companies & domain registrars are usually more than happy to help with the technicalities of switching hosting company.
Homework & Research is Better Than Asprin
A little effort now can save you some severe headaches in the future, so please spend a hour or so researching on the Internet to find the best or most reputable registrars. Costs are really only going to vary within about $5.00 for a .com domain with most decent companies and to be honest if $5.00 is a major issue to you when taken over a 12 month period, then perhaps you should think twice about setting up your own website or blog.
Domain Name Registration: Things You Need To Check
- Make sure the registrar is accredited by ICANN, or is an authorized reseller of an accredited registrar. Check the ICANN-accredited registrar official list here:- ICANN LIST
- Find out the cost and procedures for transferring your domain name to another domain name registrar in case you become dissatisfied or find a lower price. Registrars in general do have a bit of a reputation for holding names hostage. Some charge exorbitant fees or create delays to avoid losing business.
- Consider extra features, if you want them. Extra services offered by domain name registrars are generally oriented to domain name speculators or duplicative of what web hosting services provide. Those often include e-mail accounts, e-mail forwarding and domain forwarding.
- Consider add-on services. Private registration hides your identity and your contact information from Whois searchers. However, using this option damages the credibility of a business website. A better option for dealing with spam is to use seperate software.
- Consider support options. Registration should be simple, and a name is a name, which means most customers will never need tech support or other customer service. If you want, or know you’ll need more support/service, look for e-mail options, live chat and telephone options. Most registrars have limited phone support, if any, and it usually requires a toll call.
- Make sure the domain is registered to you, as opposed to your web host or registrar. Some people claim that if you get a free or below-cost domain name, the registrar will control the name to make switching to a competitor difficult or impossible.
- Finally, check that you have access to a client control panel..? This is usually a very good indication of a trustworthy registrar, as your control panel is the area where your domain name is managed & controlled. Domain locking / unlocking, forwarding, parking & renewal are all dealt with through this control panel.
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