Ever since I verified my Paypal account, I started investing in domain names.
A domain name gives credibility and remeberability (if that’s even a word!) to your site. I used to have this super long URL: RandomDetoxification.blogspot.com. I had it for about three years, but my friends could never remember it. I must have lost many potential followers with that hard-to-remember domain name. Now that my domain’s at RandomDetox.com, I’m sure my first-time visitors will remember it and are able to return whenever they want. I’m also #1 on Google when you search for the keyterm “random detox“.
I have other domains like JunkFoodHeaven.com, BodySoulDetox.com, Free-Games.Me.UK and several others. I haven’t developed any of them fully yet, they’re just sitting on my domain manager waiting for when inspiration hits. Hopefully soon.
The first domain I ever bought was from a local domain reseller. That was for a client of mine. The rates were cheap, they used CPanel and the uptime was average. Unfortuately, the bandwidth proved to be too limited, and the available space too little as well. I’ve upgraded my client, fortunately, but that first year gave me a lot of headache.
The second domain I bought was for myself. Again the rates were cheap, but this host proved to be worse than the first one. My website was down four days in a week. I could hardly access CPanel because the connection was so slow. Plus, the company support system responded after a whole week.
It was only after browsing through web hosting tutorials that I found a cheap place to buy a domain name (GoDaddy go!) and a good place to host a domain (BlueHost consistently outperforms the rest).
As a newbie domain buyer, it never occured to me that there were websites that actually dealt with web hosting rating and web hosting awards so that customers could make an informed choice.
An example of an up and coming website is WebHostingRating.com, a site where oldtimers (or all customers, really) actually rate hosting companies based on customer satisfaction, affordability, reliability, uptime and techical support.
The first page of WebHostingRating.com features the Top 10 web hosting providers of 2008. As expected, Bluehost Inc figures near the top at #2. InMotion Hosting bags the top spot.
However, none of these top ten providers may be the best for you. For example, you might specifically be looking for a good place to host your blog. Then Globat.com may just be your answer, offering unlimited domains and subdomains, a bit of marketing credit and blog-friendly content management systems like WordPress and Joomla for only $7 a month.
On the other hand, if you need hosting for a full-fledged website with services like unlimited emails, parked domains, spam and virus protection, with FTP, PHP, MySQL and more, but have a limited budget then the place to go is InMotion Hosting which offers all these for only $10 a month.
Web Hosting Rating provides all these information, including each company’s detailed plans, and whatever discounts they may be offering, plus real reviews from actual customers.
So the next time you (or I) decide to buy a domain name and a hosting package, don’t just rely on the advice of a friend. Check the advice of many, and make an informed choice.
