Did you know that over 210,000 domains are being registered every month in the UK?
And the number is growing each month!
Isn't it time to plant your flag on your own piece of the Internet?
Domains are the names that people type into their browsers to locate a website. They also have a suffix to indicate the type of top level domain - the most famous are .com or .co.uk. So macgold.com is our top level domain. Recently two new top level domains have become available, .biz and .info. It used to be expensive to register a domain name, ours originally cost £175 in 1995. However, times have changed and now you can register a domain for yourself, your business, your family, or your social club or church for as little as £9.99
So what should I look out for?
Registration is also a simple online process now but there are pitfalls to watch out for. There are so many companies offering registration at the same price which one should you go for? The differences are usually in the services attached to the name registration. Sometimes the differences don't become clear until much later when you want to actually use the domain name.
- Transfer charge - some companies will let you register a domain name for peanuts but the moment you want to move the name away from them they charge up to £19+VAT just for that act. Find one that has no transfer fee.
- Holding page - once a name is registered you want a holding page for the domain. Then if someone types in the domain in a browser they will find it has already been registered by you. Otherwise it will give the user an error "Specified Server Not Found" and visitors may never come back. Most companies provide this service.
- DNS alterations - a bit technical but if you move your website to another physical location e.g. you change your ISP and have to move your web pages (say) from AOL to Freeserve then you will need to alter the DNS record of your domain (or alter web forwarding -see below). This is so every one on the Internet can find your website at it's new location. You can phone your registration company to do it for you. Once it is altered it can take up to 48 hours for the information to be updated by the registrar. We prefer to have online access to our DNS to make changes ourselves rather than wait up to 3 days as we have in the past. Our registrar also updates the DNS records every hour on the hour.
- Web and E-mail forwarding - don't register the domain name unless the registrar offers this service. Basically it means that browser and e-mail requests to www.yournewname.co.uk or brian@yournewname.co.uk can be directed to your free dial-up account web space or e-mail address. But watch out - some registrars will do this but they include a banner at the top of the browser page. So the end-user sees your pages on their browser but with a bar across the top advertising the registrar's services! You don't want that.
So who should I use?
The company MacGold Direct use was selected because, like MacGold Direct, it has no hidden fees, its prices include VAT, a holding page, and web and e-mail forwarding. The important thing to note is that their forwarding is done without that awful advertising frame at the top of your site. They don't add advertising messages to the e-mail they forward either.
MacGold owns over 40 domain names and we can say that it's never been cheaper to get that domain you always wanted :)
As we said earlier, a .co.uk domain will cost just a total of £9.99 for TWO years registration. You can get also get a year's registration of a .com name for just £15.99. Subsequent years are only £9.99!
Note that this .com price is for just one year not two. It's two year fee is similar to that of a number of other low priced registrar's. However, it is useful if you want to reserve a .com but money is a bit tight.
If you have a number of .co.uk's you want to register then they have a very special deal - TEN domains will cost only £7.99 each!
Their service is quick - domains are usually registered within hours and their forwarding is usually up and running in under 24 hours.
We have included their banner below because it includes instant access to their domain search engine. Just type in a domain name and you be taken to their site to see if it is free to register!
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