Internet question

[Kiwi]

I want to know how to buy a website name....

like say I wanted to buy "kiwi.com" or "kiwiisthemostawesomepersonever.com


how would I go about that?

[JLRodgers]

Just go to a place like godaddy.com or register.com -- or whatever webhost you're going to go with (as many offer the service as well - and included in webhosting fees). If that's what you mean that is

If you want a domain that someone already has.... you've got to bribe them with your first born child and a few hundred to see if they'll give it to you.

[Kiwi]

thanks

does it say who owns the site if it is already taken?

oh and how do you know you have the site ownership and that someone can't just come along and buy the same site from the same people again?
Is it a one of payment or a yearly thing?

[JLRodgers]

It might say who owns it (although many sites provide a "whois" anyway -- which has the contact info... generally if it's "for sale" they have one of those "parked domains" and such so you know).

After you buy it (sometimes there's an escrow service for the things -- depends of course), the site has to be registered in your name, etc -- so the only way someone else can steal it is if they have your info (login/password). Many places now lock the domain so you have to personally (via phone/e-mail) tell them it's OK to transfer the domain.

And yes, it's a yearly thing -- as you'll have to pay the yearly domain registration fees. Now you can pre-pay 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years for the thing... but frequently you don't get a discount if you do.

As long as you keep on paying the yearly fee with whoever you've registered the domain, the domain stays in your possession. Most will even warn you 1-2 months beforehand of it expiring. My place sends me up to 20 e-mail notifications of it being renewed/expiring before it actually happens - to multiple accounts just in case.

The hardest part is if someone else owns the domain already. I actually had to buy one domain from a person not because I wanted the domain - but it'd be a common misspelling of a domain that I did want.... fortunately they only wanted $120 for it...... some want thousands+.


Of course you'll want to ask if it's already taken. My personal opinion is if the one you want is registered already - just try for another one. Less risky, and a LOT cheaper (domain registration is about 9.95-12.95/yr, buying will cost you at least 10x that (generally) and then you still have to pay the registration fee. Then you still have to pay for the webhosting so there's actually a website at that address....

But that's another thing altogether. I actually have close to 16 domains registered to me or my company -- about half weren't my first choice, but i didn't want to mess with buying a domain, so I picked another. (that's "buying" as in buying from another person who's registered it, not "buying" as getting one that's not currently registered)

[Kogarashi]

JLRodgers summed it up nicely.

My friend Anki and I share a domain name that points to our personal websites (sub-folders within the site's space), and it's registered in her name. Every other year when it comes due in May, she lets me know how much I owe her and I send the amount her way, and she sends the total to the company we registered through (we pay in two-year increments). Luckily our webspace itself is hosted on her family's server, so we don't have to pay webhosting too.

For a whois search, just Google "whois search" and you'll get quite a few pages that'll let you search by domain name to see who it's registered to.

[Kiwi]

Thanks for the help

K wants to open up his side business a little more as his list of referrals is growing and he seems to be getting a house a month but all of his clients tell him its so hard to "find him" even with word of mouth.

So we thought we would build a simple website with contact details and his portfolio and then print business cards with his contact info and the website (so they have an email).

Big big help!!

[JLRodgers]

Oh, and there's sedo.com (where I bought one of my domains from another person), so I know at least one time they were fair and honest -- of course they're just for buying a domain that someone has up for bids and maybe other similar things. They're fairly big I think for people selling domains. And they have a "acquire it" service.... not sure if that'd be the best thing though (and not just because they charge $69 no matter what I think).

But just for more info for you ---- but like I said, I'd recommend just picking a domain that hasn't been registered.

[PepperElf]

i have my dot.com through yahoo.
technically it's a geocities site but since it's paid for, i get domain name registration and file hosting and no ads.

i'll need to revamp it someday tho


hehe i just tested it out... went to geocities/myname (etc) and yeah it redirected to my dot.com address

[Kogarashi]

Now the question, PepperElf, is will your site stay intact when Yahoo! gets rid of the Geocities stuff this summer/fall?

Which reminds me, I need to make sure I've backed up everything I've got on my Geocities pages so I don't have to worry about that anymore.

[It's me]

Lot's of good advice here.

I use mydomain.com for my domain registration. It's gone up to about $10 a year, but that includes e-mail forwarding (yay I can change providers any time and still keep my email address!) locking so someone else cannot hijack your domain name.

They also do web hosting if you need that...

[JLRodgers]

Now the question, PepperElf, is will your site stay intact when Yahoo! gets rid of the Geocities stuff this summer/fall?

Which reminds me, I need to make sure I've backed up everything I've got on my Geocities pages so I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Geocities is being canceled?
Granted I haven't visited them for anything (had a website with them many, many years ago (like 15 I think), probably still exists even though I haven't a clue. But I didn't know they were stopping the service altogether.

[Kogarashi]

Geocities is being canceled?
Granted I haven't visited them for anything (had a website with them many, many years ago (like 15 I think), probably still exists even though I haven't a clue. But I didn't know they were stopping the service altogether.

Sometime later this year, yep. I noticed it when I went to the main Geocities page to log in. I'm not too bummed about it. I've got some old pages on there, and I used it as a quick and easy dumping ground for pictures I wanted to show friends of mine, but I'll live without it.