Best way to register a website/domain name?

[Common Sense Party]

I need to set up a website. Where's the best--good service, good value--place to go to set one up?

Any idea how much it costs? Is there any help on web design, or is it just locking in a domain name?

Thanks in advance...

[blogslut]

1. Well

You should pay no more than $10.00 per year to register a domain name. I use GoDaddy. But use caution, because they are very aggressive with the upsells and pre-ticked boxes. They're going to try to talk you into pre-built, ad-infested bullshit during the domain registration process. You just want to register a domain and maybe spend the extra nine bucks for privacy protection - your choice. There are other registrars out there and most web hosts will also register a domain for you. I use GoDaddy because they've never given me problems and they aren't Network Solutions, which is evil.

Most of my sites are hosted at GoDaddy, except for my main site. I have my main site @ another host because it's the one I care the most about and GoDaddy is just too damned big to get any sort of decent tech support from. My other sites are little ones that need virtually no attention and I've got them backed up so if my GoDaddy server crashes, I can restore everything.

You want to start out with an economy virtual hosting plan - none of that "website tonight" crap. Godaddy's virtual economy plan gives you a decent amount of storage/transfer as well as a 1gig email account, free addons that you can install from your account dashboard, all for roughly $5.00 a month and a three-month commitment. Another plus with GoDaddy is that one of the addons is WordPress, which is great blog software that allows you to upload any number of free, pre-made templates. You could also build a static website with a nice WYSIWYG webpage editor (I recommend Kompozer) and just upload that to your ftp server.

There's a whole lot more you'll need to explore and figure out and a bazillion tutorials are within a few Google searches.

:)

[Common Sense Party]

2. Thanks for your help and advice. I wondered about GoDaddy.

I hate their commercials, but I wasn't sure if they had a decent service or not.

How does the privacy protection work?

[blogslut]

4. According to ICANN rules...

(ICANN = Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)

Individuals and entities must provide correct contact information when registering a domain name. That information then becomes part of the registrant's WHOIS information. That information can be accessed by anyone that performs a WHOIS lookup. Here is the WHOIS info for a domain owned by someone you're familiar with:

http://whois.domaintools.com/barackobama.com

However, you may wish to protect your personal information from the prying eyes of snoopy snoops. I hide mine because I'm a single woman living alone and I don't need crazy people knowing where I live. A privacy protection service hides your personal information from public view while ICANN and your registrar know who you are in case there are any domain disputes. Here's is my WHOIS under Godaddy's privacy protection:

http://whois.domaintools.com/blogslut.com

[HopeHoops]

3. Seconded on GoDaddy. I've got a lot of sites hosted there.

The $10.00/year gets you free e-mail and a free web site, but that includes ad banners that they insert. The economy plan gives you ad-free web space.

I've been really happy with GoDaddy tech support. The wait time is very short and you get through to somebody who speaks English and knows how to answer/resolve your question/problem.