This is the first in a series of articles on building a platform that matters based my lessons-learned building and managing websites.
If you are getting ready to build your first website, the first step in the process is going to be acquiring a domain name and finding a hosting service. In this article, I'll cover a few considerations in acquiring a domain name.
Use a Separate Domain Provider
I highly recommend you separate the purchase of a domain name and your hosting service. There are several advantages to this approach, the biggest being the flexibility it provides if you decide to change hosting services. I've done this a fews time over the past several years. Having my domains with a provider that specializes in domain registration makes changing hosting services very easy. Quite often if you decide to change hosting services, you want to cut all ties to them. With a separate service you need only point your domain to the new hosting service and you're done. The change is nearly instant.
Seriously Consider Hover.com
My preferred registrar is Hover.com. Why?
- Their dashboard is very clean, easy to use.
- There are no upsells, though they do provide an email option. Other services will often run you through an endless series of upsells.
- Their domain cost includes WHOIS privacy, which most services charge $12/yr or more. This keeps your overall costs lower and keeps your personal data private (although, by law, privacy protection can't be purchased on .us domains).
Hover.com is the service I use for all of my domains and recommend to clients.