Monday, August 15, 2005

[Biz] How do you buy a website?

Hey, has anyone out there bought a domain name? I have a couple in mind (probably .co.nz) but I'm just wondering - are most domain names already bought and you just rent them off some third party?

Does that third party then control the ongoing price, and you can't switch to a host with a better deal?

Does anyone know any particularly good deals?

**

I'll probably google some articles tomorrow, but I thought I'd see who's got personal experience.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should check first to see if a domain name has been taken (for instance freeparking lets you search several domain types at once). I use RegisterDirect to register my domains - it's $59.95/year, but unlike freeparking, that includes e-mail forwarding etc.

It's actually pretty simple once you start - find an unused domain name, register it with registerdirect, then use their web interface to forward any e-mails sent to that domain to your current e-mail address, and set it so that anyone who goes to the domain address (eg www.multi-dimensional.co.nz or www.steve-is-mad.com - both incidentally still available) will automatically be forwarded wherever you want them, which I assume will be here for now.

hix said...

So RegisterDirect gives me the rights to the domain name - and I can host the site anywhere I want (with them, with the space that comes with my slingshot address or wherever)?

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Future reference: I've started up a thread about international perception of various suffixes.

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16404.0

What's the code for hotlinking to a site like you did, Simon? I tried url= but that didn't work.

Anonymous said...

Yep - basically you're getting RegisterDirect to register the domain name for you, and then they advertise the DNS so that people looking for that address get a response, and they host the MX records as well so that mail going to that address ends up there.

You can then either go with a hosting package from them, or use url forwarding to redirect web traffic from your web address to your slingshot webspace/wherever.

Thus if you change your provider, you keep your web and e-mail addresses, and if you choose to change to a different hosting company than RegisterDirect, that's pretty simple too.


The hotlink just uses html:
<a href="http://www.link.com">link
text
</a> strong>

Anonymous said...

ignore that last bold tag - blogger seems to stuff up my html between previewing and posting. Code is:
<a href="http://www.link.com">link text</a>

hix said...

So, the link above is here.

Excellent. Thanks for all the advice, Simon.

Unknown said...

I'll also note that I use the basic RegisterDirect service and they seem pretty good. I'm considering going for a more full hosting package with them when I'm ready to sell my own games.

hix said...

What sort of upgrades will you be looking at, Mike?

Unknown said...

I haven't really looked into it yet. But as I'm currently learning this new and trendy 'ruby on rails' technology, I's like to get something that supports that - then I can write my own fancy-schmancy web apps to do... something neat!

I expect I will have some more specific ideas... later...