How to get a domain name for a website?

Self

[Pocketdoor]

I'm trying to buy / register a domain name for a new business. I've been stumbling around the web and when I type in the www.address its says not secure and I see go daddy says its parked for free. They say its taken but want a brokerage fee to I guess "try" and get it. I know there are tons of Freepers on here with experience in this. So Im asking for a simple how to on getting my domain name for a future website. Thank you.

[Pocketdoor]

I'm trying to buy / register a domain name for a new business. I've been stumbling around the web and when I type in the www.address its says not secure and I see go daddy says its parked for free. They say its taken but want a brokerage fee to I guess "try" and get it. I know there are tons of Freepers on here with experience in this. So Im asking for a simple how to on getting my domain name for a future website. Thank you.

[Pocketdoor]

In 2004-05 I built 2 simple websites using Yahoo web builder. That was easy, and the last of my web building experience.

[texas booster]

Go to hover.com and buy there.

Very affordable and they will be honest on domain name.

I understand that GoDaddy often squats on names but have not had an issue with Hover.

[stars & stripes forever]

Step by step directions...

https://www.pcworld.com/article/477298/how-to-register-your-own-domain-name.html

[Drago]

I use “https://www.pair.com“...they have been good for me...good customer service. If the .com domain you want is taken, there are other extensions available.

[politicket]

There are certain best practices for choosing a domain name:

1. Use .com normally. You want people to easily find you
2. Keep the domain name as short as possible. Ideally 10 or less characters
3. Keep the name easy to spell. Do not get too creative with variations, or people won't find you
4. Don't pay high prices, unless it's a domain name you desperately need and it's available for sale.

[Pocketdoor]

Hover says its taken also.

[Angelino97]

I read that with some web registrars -- GoDaddy among them -- if you search for a domain and don't buy it, then come back later, you'll find that it's taken because the registrar bought it. Because if someone searches for it, their computer figures it must have value and so buys it.

Don't know how true this is.

[Pocketdoor]

...I read that with some web registrars — GoDaddy among them — if you search for a domain and don’t buy it, then come back later, you’ll find that it’s taken because the registrar bought it. Because if someone searches for it, their computer figures it must have value and so buys it.
Don’t know how true this is....

Thats exactly what I was thinking.

[Angelino97]

If you can't find the .com, there's .org and .net and .biz -- and many others. A .com is nice, but not a must-have.

Sometimes you can buy what you want by varying it a bit, such as by adding a hyphen. If freerepublic.com is taken, you might be able to get free-republic.com or myfreerepublic.com

[Angelino97]

Yeah, GoDaddy used to have a reputation of being libertarian. But it's been sold at least once, and is today very woke. And like many big registrars, can be quite sleazy.

A common tactic is to sell cheap domains, then charge a lot for renewal, since many people don't want the hassle of moving their domains to another registrar.

GoDaddy also makes it hard to buy a service, because as you try to check out, you're hit with page after page advertising other services before you can pay for what you actually want.

[palmer]

I've used namecheap for a while now after godaddy kept getting worse and worse. I've never seen namecheap grab a name and park it. But what you might want to do is use a neutral third party whois server to verify whether a name is taken. For example use https://lookup.icann.org/en/lookup to look up verystrangelongdomain.com and you'll get a not found. But look up freerepublic.com and see it was created in 1996. Likely hosted at Linode, although it could just be using Linode DNS

If you get tired of trying names that are already taken you can go to namecheap and do the search and it will suggest untaken alternatives and all kinds of alternatves to dot com. But your best bet is to be creative and try to figure out something that is easy to tell people over the phone (without having to spell it out) and not too long so they don't have to do a lot of typing.

When I look up notsofreerepublic.com I see it is not taken. It's a clumsy name but I can tell people the name on the phone as "not so free republic dot com all one word".

[palmer]

free-republic.com or myfreerepublic.com

The first was taken last June. The latter has not been taken.

[Pocketdoor]

Looks like Go Daddy is the registrar
Does this look like a place holder? Because when I type in the www.addre$$.com I get the “not secure” icon.
So should I just go to go daddy and buy it from them? Or try another broker like Hover was suggested above?

Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: https://www.godaddy.com
Updated Date: 2023-02-11T11:59:48Z
Creation Date: 2021-01-30T14:15:31Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2024-01-30T14:15:31Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC

[Angelino97]

If you must have a domain that GoDaddy owns, you'll be buying it from them even if you use another registrar as broker. You'll be paying both Hover and GoDaddy. Do you think GoDaddy will give a discount to Hover, who'll pass it on to you?

Or are you talking about buying a different domain from Hover?

[lgjhn23]

“..GoDaddy today very woke. And like many big registrars, can be quite sleazy...”

I wouldn’t use GoDaddy if my life depended on it for even the time of day.
I used em for almost 8 years with nary an issue. When renewals came up, we paid and continued on without issue.
When my renewal came up this last time for my domain, they sold it out from underneath me!!! Lost my email accounts that I had all that time. When I complained, I got some guy from India that fed me a line of BS.
Went to Hover for new domain, but decided it was time to use Proton for email, and it’s taken some time and effort to get everything switched over and back in order.
Nope....GoDaddy can go pound sand where the sun don’t shine as far as I’m concerned.

[time4good]

I’ve been using 1and1.com for years. Reasonable prices and packages. Now they are IONOS.com

[Pocketdoor]

More to the story... the business is open and had some conflicting business name in the same state online but 100’s miles away. A couple of lawyers talked to try and hash it out.. and want $$ but I dont think anyone actually checked on the www.domain name. I think its being place held by go daddy.
This is just a super small business. Both are super small.
Go daddy and hover say they can “broker” it.
I think I should just click the “broker it” button with go daddy and see where the chips land. BUT if the other business actually “does” own it, I dont want Go Daddy getting in the middle of it...

[Angelino97]

I moved some of my domains over to Network Solutions. So my domain names are registered with NS, but hosted by GoDaddy.

You don't need to register and host with the same company. It can be beneficial to split your business. A greater hassle, but keeping your eggs in separate baskets makes it harder to screw with you.

[Zack Attack]

If your name is a popular word, it will be more difficult. Don’t be afraid of trying an alternate tld should dotcom not be available.

https://iwantmyname.com/domains