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Avoid These Common Mistakes When You Buy a Domain

If You Do Not Purchase Your Domain Correctly, You Will Hate Yourself Later

When it comes to branding on the internet, the single most important thing is your domain name. From type-in traffic to perceived authority in the search engines, your domain name could spell the success or death of your project.

However, do not make these mistakes when registering your domain name.

Click here to download the full report on how to avoid domain registration mistakes.

Mistake #1: Not Registering a Domain Yourself

You know how a business owner hires someone to create a website for their company and then after a few years, the person (or company) who created the website disappears for whatever reason (out of business; moved out of the area; got a real job; etc.)?

Then unknowingly, the web domain registration expires and is automatically, electronically grabbed up by opportunistic domain squatters. These domain squatters then register the expired domain in hopes that the original owner will be highly motivated to purchase the domain name at a much higher asking price. Usually, squatters might ask for $200 to $2000. Sometimes, it could even be much more.

So what should you do instead if you have not registered the domain yet? Just go to one of the best domain registration services below and register the domain yourself.

• Namecheap – one of the cheapest with free domain privacy for first year.
• Godaddy – the most popular and trusted domain registrar.

Did someone else register your domain name for you? A webdesigner or web host perhaps has done it for you. That’s fine, but you’ll want to check a few things. Find out what you should do next.

Mistake #2: Registering a Trademarked Domain Name

Don’t think that riding on other people success can get yourself rich quick. There is no free lunch under the sun, and everybody is working hard to be successful and they are paying attention on people that is violating their rights.

You might get away for awhile but when you are caught in a trademark violation, you are not only loosing your online business instantly, caught in huge damage claim. So, be very careful when selecting a domain name to avoid being caught in all these when you are on the way to the success.

Mistake #3: Thinking all Domain Registrars Are The Same

They are not. You should be getting the domain name from an ICANN accredited company. There are many resellers out there. They cannot give the same support like these big companies can. Instead of getting a domain name from a Godaddy reseller, you should get straight from Godaddy because usually they have lower chances of going out of business or having inconsistent support quality.

This is Godaddy's website.

A Godaddy's reseller site with similar products as Godaddy.

Why would you want to go with a Godaddy reseller as opposed to Godaddy? We have seen this issue too many times in the forums and in blogs. Someone went with a small unknown registrar because of their cheap fees. Then they ended up getting hosed some way or another. Smaller reseller companies have higher chances of going out of business too. So which one would you choose?

A Good Domain Registrar May Not Be a Good Web Hosting

We believe that there are very few companies that are both good at website hosting, and at offering comprehensive domain registration services. We would recommend getting the best services from each category.

For domain names registration, if you stick with Namecheap or Godaddy, you should be fine. They have millions of domains registered with them and they are the best at what they do - registering domains.

For domain hosting on the other hand, Hostgator is well known for being one the best website hosts in the industry. We have been using them for more than 7 years and could not recommend anything better. Hostgator is rated A+ by BBB, has 45 days money back guarantee, gives you cPanel and 4500+ website templates. The Hostgator coupon code 2012 - WEBTEMPLATE - can give you extra 25% discount from your initial bill.

Mistake #4: Using a Free Domain Name for Business

There are two major ways to get free top level domain name:

1. Using The Not-So-Popular Top Level Domains - There are a few places where you can get free top level domains (TLDs). They are free but they are not the popular and well-established TLDs such as .COM. .ORG or .NET. These dot.tk, .co.nr or .co.cc domains are only used by spammers and phishing scammers. There are many reasons not to use a free domain name.

   These domain names:

   • makes it hard for your customers to remember your address (not the regular .COM, .NET, .ORG etc)
   • indicates you are NOT a serious Internet player
   • does not help to brand your image
   • reduces the level of trust and integrity to your site
   • many search engines refuse to list pages from free domains
2. Using Free Domain with a Hosting Plan - First of all, there is nothing wrong with getting a free domain from a hosting service. Many web hosting companies now package a free domain together with their website hosting service.

   If you really need a web hosting with free domain name, make sure you get the service from a reputable company like InMotion Hosting or Fatcow. The Inmotion hosting reviews we have seen say that this company is good for business websites. The Fatcow reviews on the other hand, recommend Fatcow for their cheap hosting price.

But now, imagine that your web host has serious problems with their servers. Your website is more down than up, and you want to move to a new web host. You can find a new web host within a few hours, then all that is left is moving your website.

Moving your website to a new web host is a 2-step process.

1. Upload your website to your new web host's server.
2. Change your DNS (domain name servers) to point to your new web host's domain name servers.

Step 1 can be done without involving your old web host, as long as you have a copy of your website on your computer. Step 2 may involve your web host, if you registered your domain name with them.

Let's first explain why DNS is so important

DNS means domain name servers. Domain name servers make it possible to access your website via a domain name. (for example yourdomain.com).

If you host your website with HostingABC (made-up name), you will typically use the addresses ns1.hostingabc.com and ns2.hostingabc.com as your DNS.

When somebody follows a link to your domain, their request will go to your domain name servers, who will forward the request to the server your website is physically located on. Then the server will serve your website to the visitor.

Your domain name servers are the access point to your domain and website. So controlling which domain name servers you are using means controlling access to your domain and website.

Bad things can happen

If you have registered your domain with an your web host, one of the following scenarios will happen.

• You have to contact your old web host to make them change your web servers. Depending on their speed, it takes from a few hours to many days to make them do that. To avoid this in the future, you will also want to transfer your domain to a new registrar.
• You have to transfer your domain from your old web host to a new domain registrar. This process must be approved by the previous registrar (your old web host), and will likely take several days, maybe even weeks.
• Your web host registered your domain in their name. The domain is legally theirs. That is really bad. You can try to buy the domain from them, or redirect the traffic from your old domain to a new domain. An emergency domain change like this will result in lost visitors and lost money.

All three scenarios are causing unnecessary downtime, from a few hours extra to several weeks in addition to lost business.

Which domain hosting to use?

So which domain hosting company is good? We recommend Hostgator. Hostgator is rated A+ by BBB, has 45 days money back guarantee, gives you cPanel and 4500+ website templates.

Use Hostgator coupons 2012 below to save more:

• WEBSITELAUNCH - to try HG for a penny
• WEBTEMPLATE - to get a whopping 25% off your first bill.

Do you want to learn more about domain registration? There are too many tips and tricks about domain registration that we want to share, but we would not be able to fit them all here. Download the reports and guides; and to subscribe to the newsletter below.