Okay, I’m beginning to mull over finally biting the bullet and registering my own domain name. Any hints, tips, suggestions on folks to use or pitfalls to avoid?
Thanks!
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make sure it’s a .com
your full name is your best bet…eugiefoster.com 🙂
Even though Network Solutions isn’t the sole domain registrar, I still prefer them and use them regularly. I trust them and I’m happy with the service I’ve received from them. I’ve received misleading advertisements from other domain registrars and had less-than-stellar services with a few others that I have tried. Some companies will register your domain dirt cheap – but then THEY own your site name. You want make sure that you own your own site name.
Dot-com is easier for folks to remember, but if you choose a different one, I’d stick with the standard dot-net or dot-org alternatives rather than the many other lesser-known alternatives. Unless you want to go into TV then the dot-tv domain makes sense, but the other lesser-known alternatives can be harder to remember.
I can recommend a decent low-cost provider that just happens to be the company my husband owns, <http://www.barant.com>Barant Technologies.
When I first got my own domain, I picked a local small business, because I wanted to support local small businesses – but there’s really no reason why you need to choose a local web space provider versus one anywhere else in the world. The only thing you really want to think about is reliability and how responsive and helpful they are to your support questions if you have any.
Ask friends who have web space how happy they are with their web space providers. Some are bare bones providers, you have to get your own FTP client to upload, you won’t get statistics from your site, you just get a place to put your stuff. Some providers have slick web-systems that you can use to upload your content and look at your statistics. Some offer scripting services as well, or free scripts that you can add to your site. That depends on what you want to do with your site, and whether you want to do it yourself or pay someone else to do it for you.
That might’ve gone beyond what you were really asking, but I hope it’s helpful!
I too trust netsol, and I registered my name with a hyphen between first and last and without, both as .com. The company I go with to host my site is hemingways.net. They’re not the cheapest, but they have great customer support, and they’re great at keeping track of all the nitty-gritty details of domain renewal and such.
Domain registration
I own over fifty domains (because I run a web-hosting business on the side), and so I had to find someplace cheaper than Network Solutions. (Incidentally, tiellan, I have recieved misleading ads from Network Solutions — they’ve sent me letters telling me it was time to renew my registration, even though I had long before transfered my domains to another registrar.)
The registar I use is GoDaddy.com. I’ve been using them for a couple of years, and never had any problems. Since domain registration with them costs less than a third of what Network Solutions charges (for a 1-year registration), if you want to save a bit of money, I’d suggest going with them.
As far as what domain name to use, I agree with the above comments: eugiefoster.com, .net, or .org would be best.