I have been collecting good domains for the past several years. I usually buy them at 1&1 or GoDaddy. 1&1 used to be very cheap for buying all the Top Level Domains (TLDs). Their prices went up by a $1 as Verisign increased the wholesale price for the registrars by that amount. To register a .com at 1&1, it costs about $6.99. Godaddy charges about the same. These are great bargains considering that Network Solutions still charges $35.00 to register a damn domain name. I guess some companies never change with times, competition, or reality. When it comes to good domain name registrars, 1&1 and GoDaddy are the industry leaders in price, service, and features. Don’t fall for cheap sale offers from run of the mill domain registrars out there. Believe me, there are too many of them and it is not always easy to separate the good from the bad. RegisterFly was one such company that is thankfully not in business anymore.
I prefer to use 1&1 for my domain name registrations and renewals because they don’t charge extra for keeping my identity private. They give you the option to keep your domain registration information private. You can turn this privacy feature On or Off without much effort. Their domain management dashboard makes it easy to manage this feature at any time before and after the registration process. GoDaddy, on the other hand, charges extra for this privacy feature, and in my opinion, it’s a total waste of your hard earned dollars to pay for this feature with any registrar. GoDaddy also makes it complicated to manage your privacy feature because they require you to create a new domain proxy account for each individual domain name separately. Lately, they have a solution to consolidate all the privacy accounts with them into one account. The new process still needs you to tackle a few unnecessary steps that add no real value, except complexity. If you don’t plan to keep your registration info private, then Godaddy is a good choice too.
Godaddy has great customer service and most of their domain reps know what you are talking about. You can always save more by searching for coupon codes on the web before registering or ordering domain name services with GoDaddy. Also, subscribe for their special offers e-mailing list. The domain cancellation/non-renewal process with 1&1 is a little complicated and very confusing. I initially suspected them of trying to play games, but upon following their abnormal process, I am convinced that their cancellation process was just poorly conceived. When you run into issues with 1&1 with their cancellation process, just be patient and follow the instructions, and you will figure it out. One feature I really like about 1&1 is the their billing process. They don’t charge your credit card every time you register a new domain name. They consolidate your registrations for a given month and then bill/charge you once per month. This removes clutter on your credit card statements and also helps you keep your domain registration bills together. This billing feature is especially useful for bulk domainers and companies.
Always keep your domain name registration account separate from your hosting accounts. Don’t make the mistake of tying your domain names with a web hosting plan, as you will run into unforeseen issues. I had some expensive lessons over the years because I overlooked the issues that come with keeping domain registration and hosting together.
Posted on January 11th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Domain Names, How Tos?
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