Ready to Register? Web Domain Name Registration Do's and Don'ts

So you’re ready to register, web domain registration isn’t something play around with, nor is it for the inexperienced. If you are a first time domain name purchaser, you are set up to over-spend and order un-needed upgrades right out of the gate. Domain registrar’s, which are the places like GoDaddy, Enom, etc., have had so many purchases and ran so many tests that the checkout process experience takes advantage of the newbie and sells them over-priced, and un-needed upgrades. They make it look like you need to buy but you don’t, but they make you think you do. They have psychoanalyzed hundreds of millions of purchases and their system makes them more money because of their data to be able to manipulate first time buyers. And their hope is that you will think you need these services on every domain name you ever buy, turning it into a very lucrative business.

So let’s talk about some of the do’s and don’ts, the first don’t is, do not purchase more than 1 year unless you are sure this is a super awesome domain name and are looking for a pricing discount. When you go to register, web domain registrars by default set it to two years, and usually you are already through their long, difficult, don’t turn back checkout flow and you just leave it, but don’t, be smart, just buy one year, make sure to click the dropdown menu to change this. If you really want to spend more money, buy the.net and.org versions of your domain name, this is a better investment than a two-year purchase. They are set to auto-renew anyways and only cost ten dollars, so don’t worry, just get it for 1 year and save some money, or invest in other top-level domains for your purchase.

The next don’t is, don’t buy all the upgrades they offer you during multiple steps of the checkout process. You don’t need this stuff, for example, email, you don’t need to pay for email accounts, uneducated website newbies do, and they don’t need to. Why? Because you will have to host your website that you create and when you host it, wherever you host it, you will get free email accounts, some places have unlimited email accounts, so don’t fall for this old trick in the book.

Now, what about hosting, all websites need to be hosted, right? They sure do, so now, here is a do, hosting, you do want to buy this with your domain name, but you need to do it at the place where you want to host your domain, so now, stop. That’s right, stop, wherever you are, go to where you want to host it, find a good host. This is the beauty here, when you go to sign up for hosting, you will always be asked if you want to register a new domain, or host an existing, choose register domain name. The beauty of this is that then the DNS will be pointed already to the proper server, bypassing all this technical stuff, so if you are a newbie, this is a good thing.

So there you have it, two big no’s when you are ready to register, web domain name buying is not hard or costly if you know what you are doing. So remember, change the drop down to one year, don’t buy any upgrades, and don’t even buy it from a domain registrar, go find a good web host and register your domain there so it is all setup and ready to go. Fast and cheap, what could be better?


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