NetFlint Website Services» domain names

Is It Okay to Use a Free Domain Name?

Sparky — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:54:02 +0000

A lot of web hosting providers offer free domain names as a lure to draw in customers. This can be an enticing proposition to the novice website owner. There are some circumstances where this kind of arrangement may be worthwhile. However, before you leap at such a deal, consider the pros and cons of a “free” domain name. As with anything, you get what you pay for.

Why would a host offer a free domain name?

Let’s cut to the chase. The reason web hosting companies offer free domain names is to make it very difficult for their customers to switch to a new hosting company later. For about $10 a year in savings, the customer gives up control of their domain name and the flexibility to switch hosts if problems arise. By locking in the customer, the hosting company is guaranteeing a recurring monthly payment that nets them much more than that $10 a year they are giving away.

Are there any benefits to a free domain name?

For some people, loss of control and flexibility is worth a savings of 83 cents a month. If you are running a personal site or a site with a temporary lifespan, that kind of savings may be appealing.

Another benefit often touted with free domain names is the “ease of setup”. With the host controlling the domain, they are the ones responsible for making sure it is pointed to the right place. Of course they don’t tell you how simple this configuration really is. Don’t let fear drive you to give up the control you need.

What are the cons of a free domain name?

The biggest problem with getting a free domain name with your hosting contract is that generally the name is registered under the name of the hosting company. When you consider how much time and money you may invest in this name, you really want to make sure there is no doubt it is actually owned by you. Most hosting companies are sincere and honorable, they will live up to their vendor client relationships. But what if something goes wrong? What if there is a disagreement? What if they succumb to the current economy? If something should happen, or you simply find a better hosting deal, do you want there to be any questions about ownership of the domain name?

The next major problem with the hosting company controlling the domain name is that it is harder to make changes when necessary. Most hosts provide simple tools to do basic things, but will require a support request for anything else. This takes away the flexibility you get when you register your own domain name.

Many hosts will transfer your “free” domain to you on demand, but then you must pay for the transfer and renewal. Now it is no longer free. Given the time and trouble required to make the change, it seems better to start out the right way. Every hosting company is different so it is important to check out the fine print of their offers and freebies.

Should we avoid hosts that offer free domain names?

No. It is not necessary to avoid them. Many offer great deals. Just understand what you are getting into. Use the “free” domain as a secret or throwaway domain, and register your “real” domain name that represents your identity, brand, marketplace, idea, product, or organization under your own name. Only develop the domains that belong to you.

Better yet, use NetFlint Website Services. We offer a hybrid approach. We give you fantastic prices if you use us to register your domain names. This gives you control over all of your domain names, but we don’t require that you use us for hosting. Use anyone you like for hosting, we’ll even recommend some of our competitors.

However, if you do use us for hosting, you can get your domain name for as little as $1.99 for the first year. The domain is registered under your name, giving you complete control and flexibility, but you still get ease of configuration because it is automatically pointed to your hosting plan and website. If you choose to change hosting plans later, you have the flexibility you need to do that and there is no question about ownership.

How do I register a domain name?

Sparky — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:07:29 +0000

Registering a domain name is a simple process. You pick a name, find out if it’s available, and then purchase the exclusive right to use it. Some registrars charge an arm and a leg for domain name registration. We don’t think that’s right. At NetFlint, we give you some of the lowest prices on domain names so you can spend your time and money building the perfect website. To get started follow these simple steps…

1. Find out if the name of your choice is available using our special form.

If your first choice is not available, we’ll provide a list of similar names that are available. Need more ideas? Check out the Smart Search tab. This feature suggests variations of your search term.

We’ll also search our database for Premium Domain Names that may interest you. Premium Domain Names are valuable domain names that are made up of common words or phrases that are frequently typed in by web surfers. Premium Domain Names are already owned by a third party, but they are available by special arrangement at Net Flint and offered for sale at a premium price. This premium price is a one time cost that goes to the existing owner. After you own the domain name, our regular low renewal prices apply.

Select the domain name or names that you want to register and click “Continue”.

2. Enter your registration information (or log in if you already have an account).

It is important to enter accurate information when you register. This information will be used for billing and domain name administration including renewal reminder, transfer notices, and other official account communication. Entering inaccurate information could result in the loss of your name. Your contact name, address, phone number, and email address will be available as part of the public registry for your domain. If you do not wish for others to see your contact information, then you should select a Private, Deluxe, or Protected registration when you check out.

3. Select your registration and checkout options.

On this screen you may choose to register your domain for 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10 years. There are discounts available for 5 and 10 year registrations. You also have the option of adding a hosting package, email package, private registration, or a website creation wizard. When you have selected all the options you want, click “Continue”. You will have the opportunity to verify your purchases before completing your transaction.

4. Review your shopping cart.

Make sure you have ordered all the products you want for the time periods you want. Select your payment method, and check the boxes to accept the registration agreement and terms of service. Then click the “Checkout Now” button.

5. Enter or confirm your payment information and click “Checkout Now”

Congratulations! You now have the exlusive right to use your new domain name. In addition to getting a great name at a great price we also give you up to $141 in free extras. Get started right away by setting up a personalized email address or building a new webpage.

How do I set up a website?

Sparky — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:18:21 +0000

There are three basic things you need to set up a website for yourself or your organization.

A domain name.
A place to “serve” or “host” the website.
Content (the words, pictures, and other goodies that make up your website)

This article explains each item and shows you how to acquire each one. It also offers warnings of things to watch out for and provides links to additional information.

1. Domain Names

A domain name is a user friendly name that points to a place on the internet. In our case, the place is a website. NetFlint.com, www.Google.com, and www.Yahoo.com are all examples of domain names that point to websites. It’s very easy to register a domain name. In fact we’ve made special arrangements for you to register yours really cheap right here.

Remember a domain name is not a website. It is a pointer. After you secure your domain name you must point it at your web server and content. If you do not have a server or a host yet, keep reading…

More Information on Domain Names:

2. Web Servers or Web Hosts

In order for a website to be available on the Internet it must reside on a properly configured web server that is connected to the Internet. This arrangement is called “hosting”. A single web server can serve or host any number of websites. The key is to match the power and functionality of the server to the requirements and popularity of the websites it hosts.

Web Hosting prices can vary greatly from no-cost advertising supported hosting to hundreds of dollars a month for powerful, fail safe, dedicated servers. Businesses and organizations should stay away from “free” hosting. Cheap hosting plans can be had for less than $5 a month. Choose a host that allows later upgrades as a website’s popularity increases. Make sure your host provides the features, reliability, and support your site requires to meet your needs.

More Information on Web Hosting

What is web hosting?
13 Reasons New Bloggers Should Start with Their Own Domain and Hosting
How do I choose a web hosting plan? (coming soon)
Is it okay to use “free” web hosting? (coming soon)

3. Content (a.k.a. Your Website)

The last thing required is your actual website content. A website is made up of text, pictures, links, and other media, laid out and formatted using HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and often other code. The content of your website is its heart and soul. The golden rule of websites is “Content is King”.

Web pages can be extraordinarily simple or very complex. They can be static – meaning they are always the same for everybody that looks at them, or dynamic – meaning that the page or elements of the page are generated on demand or change depending on conditions.

There are tons of ways to create the content that makes up your website. You can build from scratch, start from templates, use on-line or standalone software to create webpages or hire a designer to do the work for you. How you create your content depends entirely on your skill and your goals for the website. Do not be afraid of creating website content. There are many tools that allow complete beginners to create things of beauty.

I am a big proponent of WordPress for creating and updating website content. It provides an excellent balance between power, effectiveness, and ease of use. All of our hosting plans offer automatic installation and upgrade of WordPress. We have a great article with a checklist for setting up WordPress. However, if WordPress is overkill or still a little too complicated, we also offer a simple website creation wizard that includes hosting and provides step by step set up and design instructions.

Putting It All Together

Many website service providers allow you to acquire a domain name, hosting services, and content creation tools all at the same time in a bundle. Purchasing bundles from the same provider is an excellent way to make sure that all elements will work properly together. If anything is not working properly, one support call should solve all your problems. However, depending on the terms of the bundle, it may be difficult to move your website to another server or host later if required. While there are excellent reasons for purchasing as a bundle, there are also strong arguments for purchasing elements separately and configuring them to work together. These arguments can include cost savings, flexibility, power, and control.

NetFlint has arranged to offer the savings and simplicity of a bundle with the flexibility and control of separate services. Check out our current offer of domain names for $1.99 with the purchase of a hosting or website wizard package.

Depending on where you buy your domain name and services there will be different processes for making them work together. Check with your service provider for specific instructions. At the end of the day, you want your content configured properly on your web host and you want your domain name pointed to that web host. For NetFlint services there is an excellent help center with all the step by step instructions you will need.

What is a Domain Name?

Sparky — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:29:37 +0000

In simplest terms, a domain name is a user-friendly name that represents a “place” on the Internet. That place can be a web page, a computer, a device, or a whole network of computers and devices.

More specifically, domain names map to mostly numeric addresses called IP addresses that are assigned to devices on the Internet. An IP Address is kind of like a street address (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue), a domain name is like saying “the White House”. They both take you to the same place.
There are two benefits to this:

It’s easier to remember a good domain name.
If you change the mapping, you can change what the domain name represents. (For example, you can move a website to a new computer and keep the same name)

Is a domain name a webpage?

No. A domain name is not necessarily a webpage. A domain name can be pointed to a webpage, but a webpage is its own entity. After securing a domain name, one must set up a webpage, host it on a server, and assign the domain name to that webpage. Net Flint makes this process very easy.

Why are there dots in a domain name?

Domain names are hierarchical with each level separated by a “.” (dot). For example, each has a Top Level Domain (TLD) listed on the far right like .COM, .ORG, or .NET and a Second Level Domain (SLD) to the left of that like Google, Yahoo, or NetFlint.

The registered user of a second level domain can have any number of sub domains under that secondary domain. Once again, a subdomain is to the left of the secondary domain and separated by a dot. For example, the registered owner of the domain netflint.com can point www.netflint.com to a web server, ftp.netflint.com to a file transfer protocol server, and mail.netflint.com to an email server.

How do you become the registered owner of a domain name?

To become the exclusive user of a Second Level Domain name, you must register the name with a registrar and pay an annual fee. Names are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis so it is important to secure your desired name as soon as possible. The fees are determined by individual registrars with prices varying wildly from registrar to registrar. NetFlint has made arrangements to allow people to register domain names at some of the lowest prices available.

What does this mean to me?

Today, domain names are most often associated with webpages. Webpages have become the single most important method of providing information about your organization, product, or idea. If you are selling something or have something to say, it is essential to have a webpage and it is important to have a domain name that is easy to remember, easy to spell, and easy to associate with your organization, product, or idea.

Domain Name Registrars

NetFlint has some of the best deals for domain name registration and hosting available, but feel free to check out other registrars’ prices and services. Here are some popular choices: