Using Your Custom Domain With A Cms
Alternatively, host your domain independently and use a content management system to build your website. WordPress, Drupal, and all the other CMS heavyweights are set up to cater for personal sites. With dedicated personal domain templates, in a few clicks, you can have a professional resume, or personal site live on the internet. All of the above can be installed with our hosting options.
All CMSs are self-hosted meaning you buy your domain, set up hosting, and choose someone to create your website with. WordPress is the most popular CMS by a longshot. Managed WordPress hosting solutions like EasyWP take the heavy lifting out of hosting a domain yourself. Start a website in minutes and connect it to your particular domain. It does the hard work for you.
Choose A Hosting Plan
The hosting menu will expand and present you with three different options:
- Dedicated Hosting
- VPS Hosting
Youll still be able to bundle your hosting plan and domain registration if you select dedicated or VPS, but most of you wont need to worry about that right now. Just stick with shared hosting.
Bluehost offers four different shared web hosting plans to choose fromBasic, Plus, Choice Plus, and Pro:
If youre launching a small personal site, the Basic entry-level plan starting at $2.95 per month should be fine for you. For those of you launching a site for your business, Id go with the Choice Plus plan, at a minimum.
The extra features that come with this plan are worth the few extra bucks per month.
To continue, just click the Select button under the plan that fits your needs.
Is The Distribution Network Strong
The potential to get your domain name in front of the right buyer is vital.
Listing in a distribution network such as Afternic can get your domain name in front of millions of potential buyers each month. Afternic is owned by GoDaddy and it will automatically list it with GoDaddy as well as over 100 other companies such as Network Solutions or Register.com.
Do you know people who could benefit from the domain name? Why not reach out to them and see if they have any interest in using the domain? If you are working in an area of the domain space you are familiar with, you should be able to convey the value proposition of your domain name for the potential buyer.
Keep it short and only approach people you know and think would be interested in the domain for their business.
You do not want to start sending spam emails. You want to have conversations with people you know would appreciate the ability to own the domain.
Letting a great name you purchased at a fair price to make a profit sit in your account, instead of getting it in front of the right buyer, is like finally finding that pirate treasure map but framing it to admire in your living room instead of following it to the booty.
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Find A Custom Domain For Your Site
Whether youre working on a blog, an online portfolio, or an online shop, Mailchimp offers custom domains that can make all the difference to your online presence. And theres no reason to stop there. Use Mailchimp to build your website and connect it to our all-in-one marketing platform to really make your offerings stand out from the rest.
Learn more about how to get a free domain name from Mailchimp and how our offer compares to the competition.
Connecting Your Domain Name To Mailchimp
Whether youve bought your domain through Mailchimp or a third party, you can transfer your domain name and connect it to your Mailchimp account. Once connected, you can use that domain with a custom landing page or Mailchimp-hosted website. If you dont already have a website, Mailchimp offers a free website builder that you can use to make your brand stand out with no coding skills required.
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What Are The Benefits Of Registering A Domain Name Through Wix
First, Wix provides free domain registration for the first year when you register a new website through their platform, but after the first year your domain will renew at $15 a year. If youre not sure if creating a website is for you, this is a helpful way to save some money on your initial startup costs.
Long term however, free is not free. Its free for the first year, but the renewal rate at Wix is quite expensive and is almost double what a domain registrar like Namecheap charges.
The next benefit to registering through Wix is that your custom domain and SSL will be setup correctly and immediately. Unlike using a domain registrar where you have to wait a few hours for everything to propagate, getting your domain at Wix will have your website with its custom domain ready to go in minutes.
This technical setup may be a bit techy for beginners with you needing to create an A-record and a CNAME record in order to point your domain to Wix and have an active SSL.
Last, you can also transfer an existing domain to your Wix account if you already have one registered elsewhere, but this is costly and time consuming so we dont recommend it. Please note that the cost to transfer a domain is a separate fee from the registration and renewal costs.
Its not possible to get the domain for free at Wix for the first year and then transfer it to Namecheap in order to avoid the more expensive renewal fee at Wix.
What Are People Searching For
You can use Google Analytics to see what search queries people are using to get to your website. In your account, head over to Acquisition > Search Engine Optimization > Queries. From here, youll be able to see which queries have brought people to your site.
For example, going through our own Google Analytics account, I discovered that some people landed on our site after accidentally typing hoover webmail instead of hover webmail. This is understandable since we are just one letter off from the name of the vacuum manufacturer Hoover. Since its a trademarked name there isnt much we can do about that, but had that not been the case it probably would have been worth it to try to get that domain name.
Id recommend considering two key factors: number of clicks and number of queries. If a query brings a substantial number of clicks then thats a clear indicator that that query is driving traffic to your site. Similarly, if there are a dozen queries that all use the same misspelling, chances are that a lot of people are misspelling it in the address bar as well. In this case, its probably worth the investment to buy the corresponding domain name.
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How Do You Buy Premium Domain Names
If youre thinking of possible premium keywords, theres a strong possibility that they might be available on new domain extensions such as .tech, .store, .site, .online, .space, .fun, .press, etc.
Related: Domain extensions guide What you need to know before you pick a domain name
While the registry reserves some of the top-tier names on the new domain extensions that it operates, most of them are still available. If youre keen on exploring or buying a few, check them out on GoDaddys domain search.
Go ahead, give it a try:
A premium domain name might be just what your business needs to get to the next level.
The Best Domain Names For A Personal Blog
If you want to create a blog with your own domain name, you may be thinking what should my personal blog domain be? The first option to consider is of course your name, for example, isobelweston.com, or just your initial and surname, like iweston.com.
Ideally, youll land a yourname.com domain name, but if your name is common then unsurprisingly, a personalized URL based on your name can be tricky to get hold of. If this is the case, it might be worth taking a look at alternative top-level domains.
Top domain extensions for a personal blog
When it comes to coming up with top-level domain ideas, take a look at our name checker and see what comes up when you search your name. Some great domain extensions for a personal blog are .me, .site, .website, and .work.
Ultimately the choice is yours, a TLD thats perfect for one person, may not suit another. You might find the .net TLD is available and that you work on computer networks, or the .icu TLD is free and you run a portrait photography business.
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How Do I Buy Domain Names
The concept of being able to buy domain names isn’t technically correct – nobody can buya .com.au domain name permanently or even a purchase a .com , whether you get a new name or acquire an existing website URL.
A domainpurchaser inreality is a registrant renting the license from the Australian registry to use the website name for a setperiod, with an option to renew the lease.
In the case of getting a new website address, while you cannot buy domain names outright or permanently, what you can do is to registera name. This is like purchasing a lease from the organisation that runswhatever registry the extension is associated with and shouldn’t be confused with third party name leasing.
For example, any website name with.au as an extension is regulated by auDA, the Australian Domain NameAdministrator. Our company is an auDA accredited domain registrar which is very different to a website address reseller.
Registration lease times can vary depending on the extension – some domain names you can register for upto 10 years at a time. The standard period you can register .com.au, net.au, .org.au, .asn.au or .id.au names is 2 years. That is another myth we can bust – you cannotbuy a domain name forever however, you can continually renew registration tomaintain control over it.
The Advantages Of Purchasing Multiple Domains For A Single Site
In the huge scheme of things domains are very less expensive. They vary from some pounds per year to some pounds per year. If you require a domain-name then do not be so monetarily restricted as to offer purchasing it for such a limited sum of money you may feel sorry for it down the line. In the majority of cases, it is suitable to have over a single domain-name and indicate them to similar website. There are some of the leading perks or advantages of purchasing multiple domain-names for a single site.
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Your Domain Name Should Be Brandable
Your domain name needs to brandable.
Basically, when people hear your domain name, it needs to sound like a legit business in your industry and have a hip vibe.
So, for example, if you were starting a remote jobs board, you could name it www.remotejobsboard.com But doesnt remoteok.io sound much better?
Remoteok.io
Of course, you need to take industry standards into account, boring names work for businesses that need to appear formal.
Say, if you run a funeral home, then its important to be serious, no one wants to hold a wake in a hip funeral home.
However, you probably dont need to be formal, so get creative!
How To Use A Personal Domain
So, what do people use personal name domains for? Perhaps you’ve registered a personal domain name because you thought you’d create a website and never did. Or maybe you’re just hosting a custom email address and you wish you were doing more.
There are plenty of benefits to having your own domain, whether you use it to promote yourself, provide quick information, or just do something cool. Here are our favorites.
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Purchase Your Domain Name And Complete Its Registration
Once you settle on a domain name, its time to purchase it. When you buy through Mailchimp, well let you know the annual cost of the domain name as well as any available discounts.
During the checkout process, youll be required to enter your contact information, including an email address, to register the domain.
Create A Holding / Under Construction Page
With the excitement of a new business or website launch comes the urge to tell the world of your future plans.
If you do this before you have any kind of web page present its an opportunity missed. This is why its a good idea to get a holding page for your website online.
A holding page is useful for a few reasons
- Firstly, it proves you have an active presence
- You can give a website launch date
- Build your mailing list nice and early by including an email form
- Encourage social network shares
- Include a contact form / contact details so interested parties can get in touch
When building your website wed recommend trying out WordPress in fact, we use it for this very blog. Its extremely flexible and since it is so incredibly popular, theres loads of fantastic support guides available online.
A major benefit of WordPress is that by using plugins you can pretty much get any functionality you could dream of all at your fingertips, often without the need for any coding skills.
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How Much Does A Domain Name Cost
So, how much does a domain name cost? Thats a pretty tricky question to answer since the domain name price range is insane.
On GoDaddy, for example, you can get an .xyz domain name for $0.99. While www.lasvegas.com was sold for $90 million back in 2005.
Lasvegas.com domain
Now, this is the full range of domain name prices, $0.99 and $90 million represents the opposite ends of the spectrum.
But what determines how much a domain name costs?
Are The Optional Domains Accessible
Before you spend a lot of time to consider whether you must purchase multiple domains, first of all look for to see if they are accessible or not. A person who is ever looked for a suitable domain name has certainly attempted to seek something that was taken or purchased already, hence there is a possibility that you might not even need to have this dispute to start with. In case your domain names misspelling has been already purchased, you can make an offer always to its proprietor to see if they are ready to sell it to you.
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