Monday, April 29, 2024

What’s The Best Way To Buy A Domain Name

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Many hosting plans offer free domain name registration and at least one free email account with a matching email address . DreamHost offers the best value, with unlimited free business email addresses within its ultra-low-cost plan for just $2.95 per month in the first year. It also comes with many other money-saving extras such as unlimited website hosting, a free domain name, and free SSL certifications.

Set Up Website Hosting

Finally, if youd like someone to do it for you, its time to find a website host. We recommend Kinsta.

Kinsta websites are fast, easy to build, and protected with hardware firewalls, SSL support, uptime monitoring, and Distributed Denial of Service detection. Kinsta also offers expert help and allows you to choose which of the 28 Google Cloud Platform data centers hosts your site.

You can get started with Kinsta by signing up for one of our plans. Then, follow our instructions to add your domain to your Kinsta site.

Protect Your Brand With Multiple Domains

Even if you manage to snag a coveted .com address, you might consider purchasing other TLD variations and setting up redirects. You can even go a step further and buy common misspellings of your domain name that way, youre not missing out on traffic lost due to user error.

You can apply this strategy to social media as well. Even if you dont think youll use Twitter, you might want to grab a decent handle if one is available. That way, youll be ready if you ever decide to tweet, and youll prevent anyone else from taking that username.

Related: 5 Reasons You Need More Than One Domain

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What Not To Do

Heres what you DONT want to do: Target prospective buyers based on their perceived economic status, without any insight into the industry youre targeting. Lawyers seem to do well, you think, maybe I should start selling names to them. So you rush out and buy a bunch of domain names you think would appeal to the law firms youve identified as potential buyers.

Without knowledge of the space, you may not know that the American Bar Association and other industry-specific organizations set rules that govern some aspects of legal advertising. Youre not going to strike gold selling names your target buyers cant use.

You can keep a domain for 10 years and still sell at a considerable profit. While you are waiting for it to sell you can monetize the domain and throw in some SEO, which in turn can justify the cost to the buyer.

Most domains end up paying for themselves so your portfolio wont really cost you any money out of pocket.

Remember to focus on the areas you know well and you will be much more successful than buying and selling domains you think would benefit someone in an industry you know little about.

Pick A Trustworthy Domain Registrar

What are some tips for buying cheap domain names?

The domain registrar is a company that registers a domain name on your behalf, and then gives you full access to that domain name.

The key with registrars is to only use respectable and trustworthy companies. You really dont want to run into any domain problems further down the line when your websites brand is already established and losing the domain would mean trouble.

The registrars we always recommend are:

  • SiteGround our top recommended hosting company that also sells domain names.

Also Check: Does Squarespace Own My Domain

Ok Thats Nice And What About The Cheapest Domain Registrar

So the domain registrar Ive mentioned earlier is NameBright. You can see the invoice below, o that you know the price is real. All you need to do is send them a wire transfer or a check . Then you get the $8.03 price. Even if you dont deposit money, their prices are very low. It is $8.53 and you get free privacy protection for first year. This price is the same for new registrations, renewals and transfers. Now that is about as low as you can get anywhere in the world.

So, is this the best place to buy domain name?

NameBright renewal price

Set Your Domain To Auto

Generally, when you register your new domain name, you get to choose the registration period the time span during which the registrar keeps the domain active on your behalf. Most commonly, everyone registers their domain names for either 12 or 24 months.

After that initial period, your domain name needs to be renewed . Otherwise, it becomes inactive. And then, after a short while, if you miss your window, the domain goes back to the pool of available domains, which means anyone will be able to register it.

What usually happens in case someone doesnt make it in time with renewing their domain is that the domain gets snatched by a domain broker or someone similar. Basically, aged domains are valuable in the domain market, plus theres higher chance that the person who originally failed to renew the domain will want to buy it back at some point.

In the end, stay safe by opting to renew your domain name automatically whenever the time comes. Nearly all domain registrars give you this option. Heres what it looks like with Namecheap:

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How To Get A Domain For Free

If you already have hosting services, you wont be able to use this method unless youre ready to upgrade to a better plan or switch to a new host. As such, timing is an important consideration if youre set on getting a domain name for free for the next year.

But if youre starting a website from scratch, you need web hosting services in addition to a domain name.

So, it makes sense to bundle them together. Its an easy and affordable way to get everything you need in one transaction while saving a bit of money.

The biggest consideration is choosing the right host for your website. So, lets talk about how to do that.

What Is A Registrar For Domain Purchase

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Registrars are services dedicated to helping you choose and for buying domain names for your website. They enable you to register as many domains as you want, and either assign them to a site or just save them for later. Either way, youll need to pay a yearly fee to maintain ownership after initially buying domain names.

In general, domain registrars enable you to check if a given domain is available, often offering multiple Top-Level Domain options. If they have a domain you want, you can register it by filling out a few forms and paying a fee, which varies depending on the domain and TLD you choose. Once you complete your domain purchase, youre free to do as you please with your domain.

Just to be clear registering a domain and hosting a website are two different things. You can tackle them in any order you want. However, many web hosts provide domain registration services, so you can check both tasks off your list at once. This is because domain services are an integral part of website management, and its only natural for people to want to take care of everything from one service.

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Do I Need A Domain For A Website

It is possible to create a website without registering a domain name, but you wont be able to properly brand your site. For example, if you choose a free website plan from a web host, youll be given a subdomain of the hosts domain . Its more professional than an actual domainplus, it helps with your brand equity and ranking in search engines. Learn how to make a website for your business.

Top 4 Cheapest Domain Name Registrars

#1 Domain.com Use coupon code Sitehub to get 25% off domains and hosting

#2 Namecheap.com get a .com for as low as $8.88

#3 Bluehost.com Free domain when you buy hosting

#4 Namesilo Domain name pricing starts at a very cheap $0.99

Several of the best domain registrars offer affordable domains. There are also web hosting providers that will take care of the registration process for you and offer a free year of domain registration.

These options can help you get your site established without breaking the bank. In this guide, well go over some of the cheapest domain names around. Before we do that, its important to understand the basics of what a domain is and what a registrar can do for you.

Disclosure: When you purchase a domain or a web hosting package through links on this page, we earn some commission. This helps us to keep this site running. There are no extra costs to you at all by using our links. 

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How To Register A Domain Name With Namecheap

As the name suggests, this Namecheap offers great value for money. Its .com domains start from $8.88/year, which is a low price compared to the rest of the market.

To buy a domain name on Namecheap, head over to the homepage and insert a name on the search field. Alternatively, head to the Bulk Domain Name Search tool and enter up to 5,000 keywords and find multiple domains at once.

The site will redirect you to the search results page. Feel free to sort the available domains by cost, extension, or alphabetical order. Click Add to Cart on the name you want to register and the Checkout button on the bottom-right corner to continue with the payment process.

The page will preview the order and suggest several add-ons to add to the cart, including PremiumDNS for a performance and security boost. This domain registrar also provides a free privacy and protection feature.

Confirm the order to move on to the next step creating a Namecheap account. Insert your contact information, including your name, phone number, email, and physical address. Enter a company name and tick the Im registering on behalf of a company box if applicable.

Press Continue to go to the Setup page. Here, specify the contact information for the domains registrant, administrator, technical support, and billings. If youre responsible for all these things, select User default account contact. Otherwise, choose to Add new contact where appropriate.

More Naming Tools To Come Up With Concepts

Foolproof guide to domain name registrations

Stuck? Dont worry. This is a tricky process.

My recommendation: Listen to this podcast episode with Anthony Shore from Operative Word, a company that specializes in naming things.

Hes named the on-demand fitness system Tonal and Virgin Voyages . He uses a variety of tools, too, which Ill list here:

OneLook.com This is like a thesaurus juiced up with killer capabilities and wildcarding options. Say you want a name that starts with Bl and ends with rd, and its seven letters long you can literally search for that.

RhymeZone Pretty self explanatory. Bet you didnt know that Quick Sprout rhymes with six out, big trout, this crowd, clear out, and sixth round. In addition to rhymes, you can also find synonyms and adjectives.

Sketch Engine This is very intense corpus linguistics database it uses a large body of real world language that it runs through a computer to organize and tag that language. Anthony sets his to all the news articles from 20142017. You can look up words that are used near or in relationship with other words. Basically, youre finding words that are already natural together. This makes your name more relatable, credible, and adoptable. He talks about it more on the How Brands Are Built podcast.

MRC Psycholinguistic Database He talks about this more in the podcast its a pretty advanced way to search for words with certain criteria. You can use it to find words that start or end a certain way for example.

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REVIEWED BY:Elizabeth Kraus

Elizabeth Kraus has more than a decade of first-hand experience building and growing a boutique digital marketing agency and double that in small and mid-size business marketing management. She provides expert answers to questions related to branding, content marketing, web development, email, social media, and SEO.

Roberta is a staff writer for Fit Small Business. With more than 5 years of experience in the writing industry, she now focuses on creating content about business websites for the Sales and group.

Purchasing a domain name is a must if you want a website or business email, and its affordable, at only around $10$15 per year. However, there are ways to get a domain name for free. For example, a free domain is often included with other products small businesses need, like web hosting, all-in-one website builders, and email hosting. Well show you four options for how to get a free domain name for your business and help you decide which is best for you.

Choose The Right Domain Extension

When picking the extension or TLD for your domain name, .com is still the best choice unless you have a reason to choose something else.

While Google confirms that your choice of TLD will not impact rankings, it does affect consumer perception. Many people view other TLDs as less trustworthy.

That said, .net or .org extensions are not uncommon, so they can be good secondary options if you find the perfect name and the coveted .com isnt available.

But if you do decide to go with an extension other than a .com, make sure you take a look at what type of website is currently on the .com extension. Someone is bound to go there accidentally while looking for your brand. If the site holds fishy or offensive content, you might want to steer clear of that name altogether.

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Buy A Website Domain Name Directly

Lets face it, there are a lot of websites and each one of them has a domain name. There are also many individuals and corporations that buy domain names just in case they ever need them. Thus, the true number of available domain names is shrinking.

This can leave certain websites in a problematic situation, especially when it comes to marketing. The good news is that many individuals and organizations are willing to part with their domain names, as long as they are at the right price.

Lets look at what its like to buy a domain name from another person.

Step 1: Find Out Who Owns the Domain Name

The first real step is to discover who owns the domain name you want. This sounds simple, but its actually a bit trickier than one would think, but there are a variety of tools that can help with the search.

The one I recommend is WHOIS Lookup. Once you enter the domain name into the search bar it will pull up a variety of information. If the domain name is owned by an individual, it will pull up some key information, including an email address.

Of course, sometimes it will pull up a registrar instead. This might require you to contact them and to be honest, the likelihood for the domain name to be for sale if it is in use is very low.

Regardless, get the contact information.

Step 2: Research the Domain Name

These factors will help determine the price as an unused domain name will not cost as much as one that is currently active with visitor traffic.

Is There Any Difference Between Domain Registrars

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Once you register a domain, its yours it doesnt matter which service you purchased it from. If a domain is available, you can usually buy it anywhere youd like. However, some domain registrars offer services or advantages that others dont.

Lets talk about a few key areas in which registrars tend to differ:

  • Additional hosting services. As we mentioned, some platforms tackle both domain registration and hosting, while others only offer one service.
  • Different prices for the same domains. Two domain registrars may charge you different prices for the same domain, for any number of reasons. That means its in your best interest to shop around if you want to save money.
  • Support for different sets of TLDs. Some registrars only deal with popular TLDs, such as .com and .net, whereas others may include more niche options. A few examples of those include .wiki and .blog.
  • Better domain management features. Ideally, you want to use a registrar that offers an intuitive user panel to help you manage your domains. At some point, you may need to transfer some domains over, or maybe modify their CNAME records. A convoluted control panel can complicate those tasks.

In summary, its smart to be picky about which domain registrar you use. You may want to choose one that offers premium top-level domains. At the very least, you want to use a service thats not going to make your life more complicated, which brings us to our next point.

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Find A Good Domain Name

Now that you have found a registrar through which to register your domain, the next step is to perform a domain name search.

When choosing a domain name, make sure to pick the right domain extension as well its the suffix at the end of a web address. Domain name extensions are also referred to as top-level domains .

There are different types of domain extensions available, such as:

  • Country Code Top-Level Domain . This kind of TLD represents a specific country, letting both users and search engines know that a site is designed for visitors from a particular region. An example of this is the .us domain, which is the ccTLD for the United States.
  • Sponsored Top-Level Domain . Its a type of TLD restricted to certain types of groups and organizations. Some of sTLD examples include .mil, .gov, and .edu.
  • Generic Top-Level Domain . Its the most common type of TLD it doesnt rely on a country code and can be used for general purposes. A few examples of gTLDs include .com, .org, and .net. This category also includes new extensions, such as .xyz, .club, and .online.

When deciding on the extension that is suitable for your domain, look for a TLD that represents the purpose of your website. Choosing the wrong suffix can confuse visitors and make your brand name prone to being misinterpreted.

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