Does the prospect of signing up for website hosting boggle your mind? A Wordfeeder reader recently wrote in to ask me a few questions about purchasing hosting for a new website. Here are my responses:
Q: Is there any reason not to buy a domain name AND hosting from the same provider? Network Solutions offers domain purchase along with hosting. If I can do name and hosting as a package deal w/netsolutions, I can save some $.
A: It’s a better idea to keep your domain and hosting with two separate companies. This way, if you ever experience a problem with one company or if they unexpectedly go out of business, you won’t be SOL.
Q: Godaddy recommended not using Hotmail-type email accounts when signing up to buy a domain through them. Any opinion? I could use our Comcast.com email account if it’s better to do so.
A: I’m really not sure why GoDaddy gives out this info. I took their advice with my first sites. Used the email account that I got when I signed up for internet in my town, which was Comcast at the time. For a while, there was a problem because GoDaddy kept sending emails to that danged account which was cancelled when I moved. In fact… to this day, with every new website I purchase, they automatically put me on that email account, which does not exist. And each time it happens, I update my address to use my Yahoo account instead, which I have never had any sort of problem with. So, who knows. But good question.
Q: Should I register a domain name that “says what it is” or should I try to get clever and creative? For example, GoDaddy.com obviously does not “explain what they do.” Does that make a difference?
A: Yes - if you use the exact keywords in your domain name, you WILL get more google cred.
Q: When I sign up to purchase a domain name, there are also options for “certified” and “protected” hosting or domain accounts. This seems like a little unnecessary fluff. Agree?
A: I have never “certified” any of my sites, nor have I ever run into any problem as a result of not doing so. The only situation where you might want to consider privatizing your domain is if you plan to market “incognito” (using a pen name, for example). You might do this if your site is one of the more racy topics - for example, the fine folks at http://revengecrabs.com may not wish to share their identities unless pressed for this information.
Q: The hosting company I’m thinking about going with offers different account options, i.e. starter, biggie, bigger, biggest. I do not understand what all the gigabyte available stuff means; seems like “starter” would make sense for me. They also talk about setting up with Unix. Seems a little too much to me. Do you think going through Windows is good enough?
A: Starter Account is fine for a startup business, and you should actually host on UNIX. I know, one would think Windows because we all use Windows, but Unix is the better option. Boston Computing explains it much better than I ever could hope to.