Any recommendations/tips for buying a domain name?

JockVSJock

I'm interested in purchasing a domain name for my blog, so it can take on a bit more of a professional appearance.

This is the first time that I have though about buying a domain name.

I looked at godaddy.com, however I'm sure there are members on here who can pass on some knowledge to help in avoiding pitfalls.

santaowns

I use Godaddy, i know there are others, but if you want to host it yourself it gives you that ability as well. And for me you can transfer a domain to another account or even give someone access to your domains using godaddy which is a good feature if you ever decide to go into web hosting...

santaowns

forgot to add to make sure you find a coupon on like retailmenot or somewhere, just google godaddy promo code and you will find a better deal.

paul78

I have been using register.com for many years but personally I find their adminitratively portal to be terrible and a melange or unrelated and silly marketing campaigns. But it hasn't bother me enough to do anything about it. If I ever get around to it, I will probably move back to Verisign.

GoDaddy is very affordable but my perception is that they seem like a cut-rate operation like register.com.

There's really not a lot to domain name registration. I probably should have just stuck with Verisign.

undomiel

I recently went with hover.com and definitely do not regret it. They have a very good DNS management portal. I'm amazed at all of the brain dead zone management portals at the various companies out there.

hoktauri

I use GoDaddy for all of mine, combining that with hosting makes things super simple. Setting up hosting for external domains isn't hard either.

DevilWAH

I use ZEN internet for my domain stuff. There a little more expensive, but have great customer service and that's the main reason I haven't looked at cheaper ones.

The also do very good business grade services as well if you need that.

s1mple

ideally, you'd need to find a domain that's available ~~ you can use BustAName.com to do that, it'll let you search available domains in real time and then give you the option to save names for later

As far as domain is concerned you'll need to look for Renewal rates and WhoIs Privacy -- most Registrars will try to get you to signup by offering low prices for the first year but they make their money on renewals and outrageous hosting plans

Registrars like GoDaddy are awful since they'll try to up-sell you things you won't need on virtually every page -- it's like a spam ridden site that's always trying to get you to spend more $$ AND they charge you Extra for WhoIs privacy protection + you often have to aggressively huntdown a coupon that'll apply towards domain renewals after the first year, since they're so rare.

I have domains registered all over the place but I recently found NameSilo.com and I've transferred almost all my domains to them. They don't have upsells, offer free whois privacy (for life) and their interface is simply awesome and offer easy domain management tools

Domains are $8.99 (or $7.99 with coupon Name1) and prices remain the same for life -- no need to hassle with coupon codes after the first year. Comparatively, GoDaddy domains are $10.99 + ICANN Fee + Extra for WhoIs privacy.

btw, if you need a webhost look to someone like DreamHost or better yet BigScoots -- their customer service is hands down phenomenal.

hope that helps

DevilWAH

I would also suggest if you are looking to get website hosting and a domain name as getting them under different contracts. I came across one which required you to use there hosting service if you wanted to register a domain name.

Remember you don't own a Domain name, all you are doing is registering it so you can use it on the internet DNS systems. A good registr service allows you easy access to manage you domain and DNS recourds, which in turns allows you to be very flexible in how you use your name.

kurosaki00

Web admin for over 6 years

There are other places where you may save 2 bucks or something like that
But godaddy domain handling is straightforward, easy and cost efficient.

also, just browse around "godaddy coupons"
and I usually find something that saves me 10% or something like that very easy.

pamccabe

I've yet to use it, but was recommended to go to Web Hosting, Domain Names, eCommerce - Bluehost.com. This is by the author of the evilrouters.net website. He recommends them and is a good CCIE guy. I checked their prices and seem to be in the range of everyone else listed here. I am finding that prices seem to be close to one another, unless there are hidden costs I'm not aware of. Going to be starting my own blog soon so just recently started researching. Again, I can't vouch for their service.

JockVSJock

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I went with GoDaddy. Registering the domain was straight forward, however I've gotten a few sales calls to make sure I got all of the "services" that I needed.

datgirl

I have used GoDadddy, 1and1, and others for myself and clients of mine. Each company has nuances and subtle differences in their control panels that may take a moment to get used to. At the moment I am working on building a webserver so that I can host my sites myself, though I would still need a registrar. The cost of domain registration isn't bad, however the Whois privacy costs may vary as others have pointed out, and I recently advised a client to possibly use contact info that they wouldn't mind being spammed on, to avoid those costs (p.o. box, MagicJack phone, etc.). Almost was remiss in adding Amazons' EC2 as a hosting option, as I have a few sites on there.