The Cost of a Domain Name – Registering Your Domain
Posted on Thursday, Feb 18, 2010 in "Domain Names"
The face of every online business is the domain name, which is ultimately responsible for embedding the identity of your website into the minds of your visitors, thus providing repeat traffic and eventually sales. Although owning a domain name is absolutely imperative, it is surprisingly cheap to buy a domain name. However, there are many domain registrars that claim to sell cheap domain names and charge a lot more than advertised.
Domain Name Cost
The cost of a domain name is largely dependent upon the nature of the domain. Buying a standard .info domain could cost you less than $1, however registering a .com domain with private registration and certified ownership could cost around $20-$30 depending on the registrar. The key to buying a good domain name is not price, as any domain speculation expert would tell you – it’s quality that matters. Purchasing a top level premium domain name will do more for your business in one month than any .info domain name could do in 5 years. However buying such a domain could cost thousands of dollars depending on the name and who owns it at the time. If you are in the process of registering a domain, then the following information may prove to be useful.
Assessing Your Needs
Choosing the right domain name for your website will depend upon your needs as a website owner. If you are planing on starting a reputable professional business, then you’ll need nothing but the best. Online business owners should set their goals towards premium .com domains. Such a domain should only cost around $10-$20. If you find a service that offers .com domain names for $10, make sure there are not setup fees which could bring the price back up to about $20. If your planning on starting a personal blog for fun, you should consider a .me, .info or .cc domain name. These domain names usually cost less than $5 a piece.
Private Registration?
Another determining factor in the overall price of the domain will be private registration. Private registration is a service that hides the information of the domain name owner from the WHOIS database. The WHOIS database is a publicly accessible database that anyone can use for free to find the information on a domain owner. All of the information you give to your domain registrar will be on public display at all times, for anyone to see. If you’re going to build a website that represents your currently established physical storefront, then having this information may be desirable. However, if you provided personal information to your domain registrar such as your home address, then you may want to consider private domain registration.
Domain Name Protection and Automatic Renewal
Another service that may increase the cost of a domain name is domain name protection and automatic renewal. This service prevents you from losing your domain name by accidentally forgetting to renew it. It also keeps hacker from stealing your domain by notifying you when any changes are made to the account. With some domain registrars this service is free, however other may charge an initial fee of about $5-$10 for this service.
