How To Buy A Domain That Is Taken
Chances are, the domain name that you might find would be taken or already registered. Well, its not the end of the world. Here are the exact steps you need to go through to buy a domain name that is taken:
- 1.See if the domain is used If the domain is not used on a website, the owner would be more likely willing to sell and is just waiting for an offer.
- 2.Find out the owner This is can be achieved by a lookup service like ICANN and it will tell you some basic information like:
- When the domain was registered,
- Who the domain was registered by,
- How to contact that person or company,
- Even when the domains current ownership expires.
- 3. Know what youre willing to pay Chances are, most owners pricing will not come in handy and it will cost way more than your business can potentially make! Therefore, its advisable to know the range of prices that youre willing to pay before contacting the owner! You can have an idea of the prices on marketplaces like Flippa.
- 4. Contact the owner To contact the owner, you either reach out directly or leverage a domain buying service. To reach out directly to the owner, you can use the information found in your lookup service but make sure to make your email brief and include your offer right away to speed up the negotiation process. If you want to use a domain buying service, here are the 2 best and trusted marketplaces:
- NameCheap
- Flippa
More About Shopify Payments
What is it? Put simply, Shopify Payments is Shopifys own, in-house payment gateway and works similarly to Square, Stripe or PayPal. You can set it up to process all your stores payments and its designed to accept most major payment methods.
The basic idea behind using Shopify Payments is that it eliminates the hassle of connecting a third-party payment processing provider to your site. This keeps all your transactions and payments neat, tidy and in-house. Using Shopify Payments is the only way to avoid Shopifys transaction fees and support multiple currencies on your store. So, by default, its your best option for processing payments.
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Publish Your Shopify Store
Until you upgrade to a paid plan , your Shopify store will be password protected and not visible. To push your site live, upgrade to a paid plan of your choice, then go to Online store from your main left-hand Shopify admin menu, click Preferences then Password protection and uncheck Enable password.
With that, your newly minted online Shopify store will be live and ready for business! If you’re looking for some inspiration, check out these Canadian sites that were built on Shopify like 24hockey.ca and faircrochet.ca.
Also Check: How Much Does It Cost To Purchase A Domain Name
Attention Shopify Theme Makers
Start selling your Shopify themes at the TemplateMonster marketplace. Enjoy author-driven pricing and high commissions. Get a share of up to 70% for exclusive items, and 40% for non-exclusive ones.
Moreover, a good domain name increases brand recognition among customers. Here is an example of the well-known beverage, Pepsi-Cola. It used to be called Brads Drink until 1898. Surprising isnt it? Other examples, Mozilla Firefox used to be called Firefox and the extremely popular selling website eBay was first called AuctionWeb. Now we even do not know the old names of the popular websites that now use completely different names. Therefore, it is very important to select the right domain name to have a great brand recall. Furthermore, having a unique Shopify store name is the perfect tool to make your website SEO-friendly.
Connect Domain Via Website Admin
2. On the left side, you will see the menu where you should open the Online Store section.
3. In the opened menu click on Domains.
4. Click the Connect existing domain.
5. In the appeared window enter the name of your domain and click Next.
Note, that you can connect your domains automatically if you use the following services: GoDaddy, Google Domains, and 1& 1 IONOS. Therefore, when you click Next , you will see the button Connect automatically. Click on it and the name will be connected.
After that, go to your GoDaddy, Google Domains, or 1& 1 IONOS and log in. Click Connect near the domain.
In other cases, you should connect it manually. In the Shopify Help Center, you will find the instruction on How to connect domains manually.
Lets return to our instruction. On Step 5 youve saved the domain name but now you should activate it. To do this you need to change the domains DNS settings in order to point to Shopifys servers. The detailed instruction is available in the Shopify Help Center How to set up an existing domain to connect to Shopify?
There is also an option that allows transferring domains. The instruction about this feature you can find in the Shopify Help Center Transferring a domain.
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Buy A Shopify Domain Using The Shopify Mobile App
1. Open the Shopify App on your mobile device and press the Store icon in the bottom right corner.
2. In the Sales channels section press Online Store.
3. Press Domains
4. Press the BUY NEW DOMAIN button at the top.
5. Type the domain you want to buy into the domain search box and see the domains available.
6. Choose the domain you want and press the Buy button next to it.
7. Add your payment details and complete your purchase.
8. Return to the Domains screen. If your new domain is ready it will be listed here. Press the Change primary domain link.
9. Select your new domain from the list and press Save.
Congratulations! Your new Shopify domain is ready to go.
How To Select The Best Domain Registrar
Domain name registrars are companies that manage the purchase and sales of generic top level and country level domain extensions. Hundreds of companies have been authorized by the ICANN to act as domain name registrars. However, no two registrars are alike with some offering benefits and services that others dont. So, how can you identify the best domain registrar for your business?
With a domain name search, youll discover that there are a few key areas in which leading registrars tend to shine:
- Pricing: The best domain name registrar is the one that offers excellent deals on registrations and renewals. Sometimes you can find deals for as low as $5 per year.
- Control panel: Ideally, you want to opt for a registrar who offers a simple user panel to help you control your domains. Maybe you want to transfer your domain name to someone. Perhaps you want to modify the domain names CNAME records. An intuitive control panel can simply such tasks.
- Privacy protection: At the very least, the domain name registrar should give you the option to conceal your personal information from those who would to peak at your website records.
- Payment methods: Popular registrars allow you to pay for domain name registration online by bank transfer, PayPal, or credit card, and that is what you should do. While some give the option to send checks via mail, that could be risky in the fast-moving world of the internet.
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Considerations Before You Buy A Domain Through Shopify
Before you buy a domain through Shopify, review the following considerations:
- Email hosting services aren’t provided on Shopify. Instead, you can connect your Shopify-managed domain to a third-party email hosting service.
- Some domain extensions include WHOIS privacy, which is a service that keeps your personal contact information hidden from public domain registration records. If you want WHOIS privacy, then make sure that your domain extension isn’t on the WHOIS exceptions list.
- Some domain extensions have specific residency or business registration requirements. Make sure that you can meet these requirements, because you might need to verify your registration information. If you can’t meet these requirements, then your domain might be suspended.
- A new SSL certificate is created automatically when you buy a domain through Shopify. You dont need to buy SSL encryption for your domain.
- You need to pay the registration fee every year to renew your domain subscription. Domain renewals are charged separately from your monthly subscription charges. The exact pricing depends on which domain extension you choose.
- Domain hosting services are only available with a paid Shopify plan. If you want to close your store or your Shopify account, and you want to keep using your domain, then you need to transfer your domain before you close your store. You can transfer your domain to one of the following:
- another domain registrar
Why Change Shopify Domain And How To Do That Fast
If you change your domain name, you give yourself and your store the chance to have a distinctive identity online since the same domain name can’t be registered more than once. Remember, your domain name is as essential to your brand as your business name.
A domain name that uses strategic keywords makes it clear to visitors and casual browsers what your business is about and helps rank on Google. This is not only valuable but necessary for marketing purposes. In addition, a unique domain name can help your business stand out among competitors.
It’s best to use short Shopify domain names they are easy to remember and type, avoiding unnecessary mistakes that may land potential customers on other people’s sites.
How to change your Shopify domain is fast and easy. Here are three easy steps.
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Shopify Vs Godaddy: Which Should You Use
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When comparing the e-commerce platform builders Shopify vs. GoDaddy there are key points to understand before deciding to use, or not use, either one. Youll have to consider cost, availability of themes and options, the importance of having your own domain name, the size of your business, how much bandwidth youll need and ease of use, among other factors. Ultimately, Shopify has more functionality, but GoDaddy comes in at a lower cost, making it an attractive option for small businesses that dont need all the bells and whistles.
Shopify Credit Card Fees
In this case, this kind among the Shopify fees will base on your Shopify plan with the below rates for an online credit card:
- Basic Shopify: 2.9% and 30 cents.
- Shopify: 2.6% and 30 cents.
- Advanced Shopify: 2.4% and 30 cents.
In addition, here are the rates for an offline, or in-person, credit card for each Shopify plan:
- Basic Shopify: 2.7%.
- Shopify: 2.5%.
- Advanced Shopify: 2.4%
More importantly, these fees are calculated based on each transaction, not the item. It also means that if a customer purchases many items from your Shopify store in one transaction, you will be charged only once.
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Add An External Domain Using The Shopify Mobile App
1. Open the Shopify App on your mobile device and press the Store icon in the bottom right corner.
2. In the Sales channels section press Online Store.
3. Press Domains
4. Press the dots in the top right corner to display the dropdown menu. Press Connect existing domain.
5.Type the domain you want to connect into the empty field and press Next.
6. Now Shopify knows which domain you wish to connect but for it to work you must change your domainâs DNS settings to point to Shopifyâs servers.
7. Log into your domain providerâs dashboard, select the domain you wish to use and click Manage Zone .
8. Create/edit your A record to point to the Shopify IP address, which is 23.227.38.32 and set TTL to the lowest time possible .
9. Create/edit your CNAME record to point to shops.myshopify.com and set TTL to the lowest time possible .
Note that it might take up to 48-72 hours for these changes to take effect across the internet depending upon your domain registrar.
Once your domain settings have been verified by Shopify you should receive a notification. You can also check by revisiting your Domains screen. After your domain has been verified you need to make it your primary domain by following the instructions below.
Setting Up A New Domain
Once youve chosen your new domain name, its time to register it.
Here are the steps to follow :
After, youll need to alter DNS settings on your third-party domain account so it configures your Shopify store.
You can do this by following a couple of simple steps:
Thats it. You have retained your existing domain and can start selling on your Shopify storefront.
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Transfer A Domain From Shopify To Other Registrar
Many people afraid that they will not be able to transfer their domain if they ever decide to cancel their Shopify subscription. Thats not true unless you registered or transferred your domain within the last 60 days. This is how you can transfer a domain outside of Shopify Transfer your Domains Outside Shopify .
Here are the instructions for each of the registrars I mentioned earlier. If you follow the previous article and one of the next ones you will be good to go.
Should You Buy Your Domain From Shopify
Shopify provides a free trial and allows its users to create a store using a subdomain of Shopify. However, no one would take you seriously if you are using Shopifys subdomain. So when you are ready to launch your brand, you need to buy a custom domain.
Its easy for Shopify store owners to set up a domain through Shopify and this is the biggest selling point behind Shopify domains. So as a Shopify user, it makes sense to buy domains from Shopify, right? It would seem so but there are several factors you have to consider before buying your domains from Shopify.
We feel its important to discuss the pros and cons of buying your domain name through Shopify. This will help you make informed decisions when deciding whether to buy a domain through Shopify or not.
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