Domain Names

There are hundreds of registrars that want you to buy a domain name from them. Registrars that sell domain names at a really cheap price are basically offering a bare-bones domain name. You need to buy back basic features that is included with other companies.

When shopping for a domain name, it’s really buyer beware. Here’s what you should look for…

The cost of buying a domain name can range from $0.99 to $36.00. As a general rule, .com internet domain names cost around $10 per year. At this price, a good registrar will include the following features with your domain name:

1. Free domain name forwarding and masking. This is when a visitor types in yourdomain.com and gets automatically sent to yourotherdomain.com.
   
2. A personalized email account. For example, yourname@yourdomain.com that you can access from both your email program (POP mail) and a website (webmail).
3. Unlimited email addresses that you can forward to any email account. For example, you could create info@yourdomain.com, sales@yourdomain.com, and feedback@yourdomain.com and any mail sent to these addresses would automatically get forwarded to your real email address.
4. Full DNS access. You should be able to point your website address to the Domain Name Servers of any web host in the world. For example, if you have a free blog at Blogger.com or WordPress.com, you should be able to change your DNS servers so instead of typing in yourdomain.blogger.com, they just type in www.yourdomain.com. Be careful with this one. Not all registrars give you full access to your DNS information.
5. Free Parking. If someone tries to visit your internet domain name, they are sent to a generic website that says your site is coming.
6. You may or may not get free domain privacy. When you register a domain name, all of your contact information (full name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number) are published in the WHOIS database that can be accessed by anyone. Some registrars offer a privacy feature where they will publish their corporate contact information to protect your privacy from spam and prying eyes. (You still retain full control of the domain name)

If a registrar is offering internet domain names for less than $10 per year, then look at the fine print to see what services you are missing.

Here are some of the traps to avoid:

• Bait and Switch. Buy domain names at $2.99. For example, GoDaddy offers domain names as low as $0.99 but they’re for the .info domain name. Chances are you want a .com domain name which costs $9.99 plus $0.20 (ICANN registration fee)
• Two sites that look awfully familiar. It’s probably because one of the sites is a domain name reseller. Some enterprising soul buys domain names at wholesale cost from the big companies and then resells them to regular people like you or I.
• Special Discount Price applies to the First Year Only. For example, you could buy a domain name from Yahoo for $1.99, but that special price was only for the first year. It would switch to $9.95 per year after the first year. The discount applied to new customers only and there was a limit of one offer per customer. (The offer expired on Mar 30, 2008)

GoDaddy Update

• GoDaddy is currently offering .info domain names for $0.99 per year and free privacy (regular price: $6.99 per year) when you register or transfer five or more domain names. (No quantity limit). NOTE: Make sure you register your domain names for the free privacy registration before you pay for the domain names, or you’ll have to pay their regular privacy fee of $8.99 ($6.99 sale price) per year per domain name. (The $0.99 pricing only lasts for the first year. After that, the pricing gradually goes up until it reaches $10 per year)
• Thanks to Mirjam at Me Myself and I Blog for pointing this deal out to us. She won our $5 comment contest and flipped her $5 prize into 5 domain names with free privacy by buying .info domain names at 0.99 from GoDaddy.