Starting website, got some questions

[Breakaway]

1. I was wondering where I can get domain names. In one of Steve's articles, he says about $10 is all it took, yet most websites I find have about $25 per year or something similar to that.

2. Is getting your own domain name on your own host better than using something like wordpress as your domain?

3. Where would you be able to get access to statistics on who your audience is on viewing your page?

Thanks

[Dani]

Go to namecheap.com to get a domain. $8.88 a year.

godaddy.comanother cheap one, but they are touchy and can actually confiscate your domain name if they recieve one single spam complaint about you. Even if you don't spam, someone just needs to complain and bam your site is locked until you prove to them that you didn't spam.

You can install your own wordpress site on that domain for free once you buy the domain and get a host (another $10 a month for host a usually)

You could use wordpress.com if money is an issue. But then you are just another wordpress.com blogger.

If you want a lot of control over your site, then do it yourself. If you just want an online diary, use wordpress.com

[Baltar]

Originally Posted by Dani

godaddy.comanother cheap one, but they are touchy and can actually confiscate your domain name if they recieve one single spam complaint about you. Even if you don't spam, someone just needs to complain and bam your site is locked until you prove to them that you didn't spam.

They can't "confiscate" your domain name because they don't own it. All they can do is terminate hosting service if you're hosting your site with them.

[AndrewJ]

I use and recommend Namecheap.

Andrew

[AndrewJ]

The Namecheap coupon for March is MARCHMADNESS
This makes a domain $7.99

Andrew

[Breakaway]

Thanks guys....
so how would I be able to view statistics in terms of where my visitors are coming from etc?

[Dani]

Originally Posted by Baltar

They can't "confiscate" your domain name because they don't own it. All they can do is terminate hosting service if you're hosting your site with them.

Except that Godaddy is a name register, not a host.
You don't 'own' your domain either, just lease it, the registers maintain it, and they can shut it down if they need to.

Because once it has been registered with them, another register can't also register it. If they lock out your name servers then you can't do anything. You could try to take legal action, but iirc spaming is illegal in the US so they would have the upper hand legally if they blocked you because you were a spammer (regardless of the truth).

I got this info initially from some very successful knowlegable internet marketers, most of whom don't touch go daddy for this exact reason. But, having said that, if you are only making a blog, then you don't need to stress.

Lots of different tools to get statistics. LOTS.
I use google analytics for mine, because it's free, convenient, has enough information for what I need, but I am sure there are better tools out there.

Do a google search on 'site statistics' or 'website visitor statistics' that should give you plenty to look at.

If you are going to use wordpress for your site than you can get plugins for google analytics, and a few other statics tools, which make it much easier to incoporate them into your site.

[da1prophet]

Originally Posted by Breakaway

Thanks guys....
so how would I be able to view statistics in terms of where my visitors are coming from etc?

Most decent webhosts provide services of this sort, or you could go with a third party service. I use Google Analytics, which I *think* is still free (I'm pretty sure its at least free for Google AdSense clients). There may be others, but I've been pretty happy with Google's service and the price is definitely right :-)

Google Analytics

[da1prophet]

Originally Posted by Dani

Go to namecheap.com to get a domain. $8.88 a year.

godaddy.comanother cheap one, but they are touchy and can actually confiscate your domain name if they recieve one single spam complaint about you. Even if you don't spam, someone just needs to complain and bam your site is locked until you prove to them that you didn't spam.

You can install your own wordpress site on that domain for free once you buy the domain and get a host (another $10 a month for host a usually)

You could use wordpress.com if money is an issue. But then you are just another wordpress.com blogger.

If you want a lot of control over your site, then do it yourself. If you just want an online diary, use wordpress.com

That's kind of scary--do you have any firsthand experience with GoDaddy "confiscating" your domain name? I don't spam or anything, but I do have an opt-in email list. I'd hate to have some trouble if an opt-in client forgot that he "opted in". I hosted with 1&1 for awhile and had a ton of trouble with them--they didn't even have to get a complaint, but when I sent out a few hundred emails at a time they'd accuse me of spamming even though every name emailed had opted-in...

[Dani]

I haven't ever had a name at go daddy, so no experience first hand.

Confiscate is probably the wrong word. But they lock out your name servers so your traffic can't reach your site. So 'block' your site is probably better.

I learnt about it while doing some internet marketing study. 2 different guys mentioned it when discussing name registrations.

You don't get flagged by sending lots of mail, it's if soemone physically complains to godaddy that you spammed them. Mailing your opt-in list should be fine.

[Baltar]

Originally Posted by Dani

Except that Godaddy is a name register, not a host.
You don't 'own' your domain either, just lease it, the registers maintain it, and they can shut it down if they need to.

They might maintain it, but they don't own it. Again, this may only be applicable in the US, but here's what Wikipedia says: "In one of the cases, Kremen v. Network Solutions, the court found in favor of the plaintiff, leading to an unprecedented ruling that classified domain names as property, granting them the same legal protections." Thus they can't take away your domain name. Removing your name servers is not the same thing.

Originally Posted by Dani

Because once it has been registered with them, another register can't also register it. If they lock out your name servers then you can't do anything. You could try to take legal action, but iirc spaming is illegal in the US so they would have the upper hand legally if they blocked you because you were a spammer (regardless of the truth).

I'm surprised that they would actually remove your name servers but it is certainly within their power. I'd be pretty pissed off at them if they did that to me though. However, they can't prevent you from transferring the domain name to another registrar. So even if that did happen you don't lose the domain name. Though now that you've mentioned this I'm going to check their user agreement to see if there is such a (rather ridiculous) clause in there that allows them to do something like this. If they actually did this without warning, it would be grounds for a lawsuit because of how much money the owner of the web site can stand to lose by losing their name servers. The only thing that would allow them to do this is if you agreed to it when you registered the domain name.

[edit]

Well, it looks like you're right that they can terminate your account at any time or drop your name servers if they want to. Here're some quotes from their agreement:

"You agree Go Daddy may immediately terminate any account which it believes, in its sole discretion, is transmitting or is otherwise connected with any spam or other unsolicited bulk email."

"If Go Daddy determines that the services in question are being used in association with spam, Go Daddy will re-direct, suspend, or cancel any web site hosting, domain registration, email boxes or other applicable services for a period of no less than 2 days."

[Dani]

You can transfer yoru domain name uyes, but -they- need to transfer it for you iirc. So they will dawdle around and not get to it in a hurry of course.

The first guy who talked about it got his brand new site locked for over 3 weeks, while he argued with them about how he has an optin list and not spam.

That's long enough to do some serious hurt to a company.

[AndrewJ]

Not only that, but apparently they charge you something like $200 to get your domain back. Ouch.

[Baltar]

Originally Posted by Dani

You can transfer yoru domain name uyes, but -they- need to transfer it for you iirc. So they will dawdle around and not get to it in a hurry of course.

The first guy who talked about it got his brand new site locked for over 3 weeks, while he argued with them about how he has an optin list and not spam.

That's long enough to do some serious hurt to a company.

I've done some googling, and based on what I've found it's even possible that they won't let you transfer the domain name until you pay their $200 "fine". I'm not sure if they can legally do this but by the time you're done arguing with them it won't matter much. If this happened to me I wouldn't waste my time arguing, I'd just pay their extortion fee and never use their services again. But it looks like this sort of problem can only happen if you send out a mailing list through your domain. I don't think anyone has gotten in trouble without sending bulk emails.

I was told long ago by experienced people that you should always use a third party service for sending out mailings. This way your domain name isn't linked to your mailing list, which puts it out of godaddy's jurisdiction. This also prevents someone from shutting down your web hosting service by complaining to the host company. The worst that can happen is someone complains to your mailing list provider and they terminate your account, but they will be fully aware of whether or not you're sending out legitimate mailings and can respond accordingly.

[JPX]

I have had my smaller sites with Go Daddy since 2002 and never had a problem. Not even down time (that I have noticed) in 5+ years.

I have had bad experiences with Hostway, Valueweb, and IPS Hosting -- mostly related to down time.

My biggest hosting nightmare was when I rented a server from Startlogic.
They had so many technical issues that the sites never actually went live, and six months after cancelling, they charged my credit card out of the blue for two billing cycles (about $200). I am still fighting that one. But with GoDaddy, never a problem.

In reality any host or even your ISP can cancel your account for spamming, and in most ToS you will find that most hosting companies charge a "clean-up" fee between $100 and $500 if you're caught spamming. I have never heard of anybody actually paying it, but they do put it on the ToS.

If you Google any hosting company you will find horror stories and disgruntled customers. Nobody is inmune to that.

These days buying a domain and hosting it is cheap enough to where you can try several companies over several months and see who works best for you.

[Dani]

Hosting and the Domain register are two different things though.

You are talking more abut hosting. If a host shuts you down, you just get another host for your site and change the name servers.

It's like your mobile phone breaking, but you still have the sim card, so you just buy a new phone.

But if your Domain gets suspended you are done. Because that is how people find you. That's like losing your simcard!

[Breakaway]

Well this is an interesting discussion!

I was wondering, when you get a domain or host, you usually have to give them a lot of info like your home address, phone # etc....is this all safe?


Also, just a hypothetical question, when choosing a domain name, is it possible for some company to sue and say that I used a trademarked name even if I'm the one who registered it and they didn't? For example if I made a domain that had the words "desperate housewives" in it, would I be allowed to keep it?

[escapee]

I'm using the service offered by namecheap.com ( Paypal is acceptable ), netfirm (4.95 per yer ) and yahoo domain.

Netfirm domain registration service has to be the cheapest in the world.

[Kenny Lindsay]

To be honest with you I would recommend starting a blog with Blogger.com

It is very easy to use and allows you to have Adsense + affiliate programmes.

Also it is free.

WordPress is quite fiddly to use and if you use the free version it'll not allow you to use Adsense.

If and when you really want to get good at creating websites I highly recommend using XSitePro. It is so easy to use and offers so much power too!

[Baltar]

I found a site that may be of interest to some people: NoDaddy.Com Here are some exerpts from there:

On January 24, 2007, I (Fyodor) woke up to find that my domain registrar, GoDaddy, had suspended one of my most popular domains (SecLists.Org) because MySpace objected to content posted by some user to a mailing list which SecLists archives.
...
When Kevin notes that GoDaddy shut down the domain only 52 seconds after leaving the [notice of suspension] voicemail, not one hour as Jones previously claimed, Jones “admits she doesn't know exactly how much notice [Fyodor] had” and declares that “I think the fact that we gave him notice at all was pretty generous”
...
The truly frightening aspect is that this isn't an isolated incident. Many people have posted and emailed similar stories of GoDaddy hijacking their domains without any sort of court order or other due process.

Suspended the domain name because of what a user posted on a mailing list??? This is analogous to Steve's registrar suspending stevepavlina.com because someone complains about a post in these forums! The info on that page (which is corroborated by the wikipedia article on GoDaddy as well as a CNET article) was enough evidence of lunacy for me to transfer all my domain names to namecheap.com. It seems to me that GoDaddy is mostly interested in what's good for GoDaddy. That is, keeping in good relations with other large companies (like MySpace) as well as making sure their IP ranges never get blacklisted for spamming, even if it means stepping on innocent people to do it.

[Dani]

It seems I have saved another poor soul from possible retribution.

Bless them father (not bless them [go]daddy), the know not what they do....

[AndrewJ]

Netfirms are ok. It's $4.95 first year then $9.95. I still say namecheap are the best and I'm moving all of my domains over to them.

Andrew

[Breakaway]

Originally Posted by Kenny Lindsay

WordPress is quite fiddly to use and if you use the free version it'll not allow you to use Adsense.

I think Wordpress does allow you to use Adsense as long as you have your own domain.

[Dani]

Originally Posted by Breakaway

I think Wordpress does allow you to use Adsense as long as you have your own domain.

I know it does.

It all comes down to how much control you want over your site adn what you want to do with it.

If you just want an online diary then yes the free services are great.

But if you want something to make an income from, I would definitely go for my own site.