Buying a domain name.

[Arch]

I want to buy a domain name, for my fledgling craft business. Googling 'buy domain names' gets me lots of sites, all wanting to sell me my chosen domain, for different prices - albeit a difference of a quid or so over 2 years. Any recommendations/don't go theres?

 

[ianrauk]

I use Network Solutions, nice and easy to use and understand even for an internet luddite like me.

 

[Bman]

Go for a uk based registrar. They do Whois protection for free (meaning people cant just do a simple lookup and find your name and address that you registered it with)

 

[benb]

I've used 123-reg in the past, who were reasonable.

 

[annedonnelly]

I use Hostroute - http://www.hostroute.com/ - and have never had any problems. Support has always been good and they respond quickly to questions.

 

[Arch]

That's what I love about the internet. 4 replies, 3 different answers!



Any more for any more?

My problem is I only have the sketchiest idea about what I'm doing, and need explanations in words of one syllabub.

 

[ColinJ]

I use NameCheap and pay a little extra for Whois protection (not available for .co.uk domains AFAIK?). If you decide to use them enter DOMAINS4US at the checkout and get a bit off. I use NC because they are cheap and were recommended to me by someone else.

One thing to consider before going ahead... Are you bothered about people finding your site by searching on Google, or will you just tell people what the domain is? If you want to get high in the Google search results, it is very handy to pick a name that helps. For example if you want to attract people searching for craft shops in York, something like YorkCraftShop.com might be great but ArchIsFemale.com would be useless.

It would be worth you spending some time trying to find out what people are searching for before choosing the name. It might be that nobody is actually searching for "York craft shop"!

 

[MrJamie]

I think the smaller hosts tend to go through ups and downs and bigger hosts tend to be a little less impressive on customer service. My first host was amazing for customer service and features (for shell/scripting etc) for a few years then started getting worse and worse until they pretty much vanished. I switched to 123-reg.co.uk, iirc because they were taking over several other peoples domains from said failed hosting company. Theyve been fine although ive not made much use of them. For the past few years i just have my domain and email forwarded to my isp webspace/email. 123-reg do offer whos-protection on .co.uk domains btw, as i presume do others

For a business you might want to consider what features youre likely to want longer term, just a web presence, mailing lists, an online shop or you could just use ebay for the shop part etc etc. Although its pretty easy to move a small site from one host to another should you need more stuff.

 

[Linford]

I run an online business and would recommend www.names.co.uk. They are a Worcester based company, and when you ring them that is what you get (I've been with them for 6 years now) . I find their customer service to be very good. They offer a range of free web shops which are straightforward to install, and a hosted one which is new, but looks like they offer more support on it. PM me if you want to know more about online shops as I know a bit about setting them up and sorting the merchant services out so you can take payment through them.
The Domain registration process is very straightforward when you do that and your shop or website with a single provider.

 

[crazy580]

I used names.co.uk when I set up my first website. Excellent customer support, very easy to use control panel too.

 

[ushills]

Buy it through google apps then you can easily set up gmail, blogger etc for your domain name.

I use 1&1, however it is easier to do it all through google.

Highly recommend google app free as you get 100 email addresses for family etc.

 

[jay clock]

UK2. have used for several and very good

 

[Paul J]

Ukreg.com used them for years .co.uk domains £2.95

 

[Arch]

Cheers everyone!

I was out last night and talking to someone who gave me yet another recommendation, but more importantly, a little bit more confidence in what I was doing! I have the problem of being the sort of person who's convinced that one wrong move will break the whole internet.

So, I've got a googlesite set up, and have bought the .co.uk and .com domains from 123reg, after a lot of dithering, and have them forwarding to the googlesite, which is free. For the meantime, I'll just be using it as a bit of a showcase, and then when I feel ready to invest a bit more, I'll look to setting up an actual shop site - Linford, I'll bear your offer in mind then! I went with 123 just because I found they had some of the info I felt I was missing, and their website virtually had 'Don't Panic' written in large friendly letters...

Now I just have to actually create the website content, and I can start splashing it all over the place!

 

[Linford]

What sort of craft is it Arch ?