Registering a domain name....

You have to be a bit carefull, I would recommend Vidahost or godaddy.

You won't get email in most cases, you need to buy hosting for that. This can cost around £20 a year.

I would say register for a short a time as possible first time. If you need help just pm me and I'll be happy to assist without cost.

Hi JETNewbie, and welcome to the steep learning curve which is starting a business - been there, still doing it!

I used 123-reg to buy and register my domain names of which I now have about 15 or so I think. Very happy with their service but I'm sure others are equally as good. I just used 123-reg and got on well with them.

Firstly I would get in there quick and get what you want, and try to get .co.uk and .com if possible. It costs a bit more to get both but then you've pretty much protected your name here in uk. The other endings are not so popular. If you don't get in quick apparently there are people who can find out whats been searched for, buy them, and then offer them on at a higher price.

Email - with 123 I think you can buy that facility but obviously it costs more. But doesn't it look so much better than some traders I see driving round with 'theircompanyname @ yahoo' or similar. Or is that me being snobbish?

As for how long to get them for, I think 2 years is the minimum, but you can get them for longer if you want. When they come up for renewal the price is whatever the going rate is. Some of mine have just been renewed and the new price was the same as when I first got them, so they don't seem to hold you to ransom.

Regardless of how many names you get you can get them to point to the same website so that you only advertise the one, say .co.uk, but point the .com to that as well.

Hope that helps.

JETNewbie said:

Many thanks websitehandyman.

Whats the reason for only registering for a short time to start with? If you want to extend are you always given 'first refusal' & at a reasonable rate?

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Just that you don't get any real value for registering longer and you rule out all your options. I mean if you don't want the domain after few months you've not wated ten years payments.

When you register a domain you get plenty of notice to renew it and even if you let it slip or forget it's a few months before anyone else can buy it.

JETNewbie said:

Is there one 'official' website to do this on as a google search brings up lots of results?

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No official website. When it comes to .UK domain names it's well worth choosing a Nominet accredited registrar. Our own domain company, Domains Foundry is Nominet accredited as are some other members on this forum.

JETNewbie said:

I also wondered if you always get free email with this & if so how do you then set this up?

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Not always, but some domain companies do include a free email account with new domain name registrations. For example we offer a free email account, with webmail, SMTP, POP, IMAP etc with all new domain name registrations.

JETNewbie said:

Finally, am uncertain as to how long I should register the domain for in the first instance. If you only do so for 2 years, does the price go up to renew & can you extend at any time?

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The Nominet cost price for a single year is higher than multiple years so it's often cheaper to register domain names for two years over a single year. For example our price for 1 year .co.uk is £4.99 per year, whilst 2 years is less than a £1 more, at just £5.98, or equal to £2.99 per year. One advantage of buying multiple years, is you can lock-in your domain name at today's prices. Shielding you from any future price increases.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Rich

Check terms and conditions, as some registrars charge an exit fee to transfer out - code of practice say they should make this clear at sign up but they often don't. So a cheap domain name may become expensive after the first term and then you have to pay £10 to transfer out. E.g. http://www.cheapnames.co.uk/ don't make this clear at all so you end up with a not so cheap domain name after all (after the first 2 year term the £8.00 raises to a silly £19.99)

Personally I use 123-reg for .co.uk they have been consistently reasonably prices, don't hike on renewals and have all the features you need.

For .com I use godaddy, same reasons.

Most, but not all, will provide free e-mail forwarding, so if you have a personal e-mail account at gmail for instance the [email protected] -> [email protected]

If you want a 'pro' email account i.e. when you send from that e-mail it comes from [email protected] there are several solution, most cost money (a few £ per month) but there is at least 1 free method however to set it up means following some basic instructions relation to DNS MX records which, whilst simple for some one that has done it before, can be confusing for a novice.