How To Choose a Good Domain Name Registrar


Registering a domain name is very simple, but be careful which company you use. Price is no reflection of the quality of service you will receive.
 
I’ll give you an example of how I got caught out, just to illustrate the point.
 
I registered 30 of my domains with a UK company called Easyspace (www.easyspace.com or www.easyspace.co.uk). When I first setup my account, their prices were low so I tolerated their poor customer service. Then they started putting their prices up ... and their customer service remained lousy!
 
So I decided to move to a cheaper and better company. It was only then that I found out that they had introduced a charge of £58/$100 to transfer each domain name. The cost to move 30 domains was £1,740.
 
That’s £1,740 ($3,500) to get my property back!!!
 
Given that domain name transfer is a fully automated process, this is an example of how you can be ripped off if you don’t read the small print.
 
The worst companies that I have ever used was Registerfly, and their sister company, Unified Domains. They actually LOST four of my domains, double charged on many occasions and had zero customer support. How they are still going today is beyond belief. AVOID them at all costs.
 
When choosing a registrar the essential services that you should check for are:
 
  • Cost of registering the domain
 
  • Annual renewal price - Some domain companies offer cheap or even free first-year registration and then hit you hard in subsequent years or if you try to move your domain.
 
  • Simple and easy to use account management interface - This lets you view and check your domain name.
 
  • Ability to easily move all your domains into one account for simple management
 
  • Free domain pointing - Your website will probably be hosted by a different company than where your domain is registered. You will need to point your domain at your website so that when people type your domain name into their browser, they end up at your website.
 
  • Free email forwarding – If you own the domain www.Run-a-Bar.com, you should be able to forward all emails sent to that domain, such as [email protected], to your email account.
 
  • Free transfer to another registrar – You should not have to pay to transfer your name to another domain name registrar.
 
  • Add privacy to your domain name – For a small fee ($1 or $2 a year), you should be able to hide who owns your domain. There are two reasons to do this. One, it avoids a lot of email spam messages and second, it stops people from hijacking your domain name.
 
  • Domain name monitoring and auto renew – Losing your domain name can destroy your business. You should have several layers of protection to prevent this from happening. Domain name monitoring will alert you if the domain expires. Auto renew will automatically renew your subscription.
 
Nice-to-Have Services
 
  • Webmail accounts – The ability to setup an email account using your domain name that is on the web, allowing you to access it from any PC. Examples of large webmail services are Hotmail and Gmail.
 
  • A range of hosting services – You may wish to use the company to host your service.
 
  • Web statistics – The ability to track how many people visit your domain, at what time and from where.