Here’s a list of potential charges by the web domain providers to give you an idea on how they make money:

• ICANN fee included in the price of the domain or an additional USD 20 cent yearly ICANN fee per domain. ICANN charges .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, .name, .jobs and .mobi domain extensions.
• Free domain privacy or yearly domain privacy fees per domain.
• Different prices for the each domain’s first yearly charge and the second year onwards.
• Different prices for the various types of domain extensions.
• Restrictions on the number of domains you can purchase at a discounted price.

Domains that do not allow anonymous WHOIS profiles:

.us – The United States Department of Commerce do not allow anonymous registrations for .us domains.
.org – ICANN requires .org domain owners to reveal their true identities.

Netfirms.com

• .com, .net and .org domains at USD $5.95 for the first year.
• .com, .net and .org domains at USD $9.95 from the second year onwards.
• .biz and .info domains at USD $9.95 per year.
• Free hiding of your public WHOIS record on .com and .net domains only.

Netfirms is a great choice if you are looking to get a cheap web domain name (.com and .net) and you do not need more than 5 domain names. Domains cost as low as USD $5.95 for the first year. This is the cheapest I have come across throughout my entire career online. Overall, Netfirms is good for .com and .net domain names because of the free WHOIS protection. Their .info domains are very expensive compared to the other web domain providers.

IPOWER.com

• .com, .biz, .info, .net and .org domains at USD $7.75 per year, USD $15.50 for 2 years and USD $23.25 for 3 years.
• Domain privacy at USD $8.99 per year.

IPOWER is better known for their web hosting services. Their domain prices are rather competitive but they do not offer free domain privacy services. They try to get you to pay for more than 1 year up front with very little savings, which is negligible in my opinion. There are better web domain providers out there with better rates without asking you to sign up for more than 2 years at a time for measly savings like this.

1and1.com

• .com/.net/.org/.us/.biz/.name domains for USD $6.99 per year.
• .info domains at USD $0.99 for the first year with a maximum of 25 .info domains per customer.
• .info domains at USD $6.99 per year from the second year onwards.
• Free private domain registrations.

1and1 is the best place to get cheap .info domains but you may only get up to 25 .info domains. Their prices for the other common domain names are pretty cheap at only USD $6.99 per year, which is the second cheapest after Netfirms. Furthermore, they do not have any restrictions on the number of domain names you can purchase at this price.

Aplus.net

• .com domains at USD $7.40 for the first year.
• .com domains at USD $8.40 from the second year onwards.
• .net domains at USD $6.95 for the first year.
• .net domains at USD $7.95 from the second year onwards.
• .org and .us domains at USD $7.95 per year.
• .biz domains at USD $15.90 per year.
• * .com domains only; ICANN fee of 20 cents per domain name year will be applied. USD $7.40 price valid only for first year of domain name registration. Not valid for existing customers.
• ** .net domains only; ICANN fee of 20 cents per domain name year will be applied. USD $6.95 price valid only for first year of domain name registration. Not valid for existing customers.
• *** .info domains only; ICANN fee of 20 cents per domain name year will be applied. USD $1.95 price valid only for first year of domain name registration. Not valid for existing customers.
• Domain Registration Privacy at USD $8.95 per year.

APlus is one of the most costly and complicated web domain providers. Why in the world are they charging USD $15.90 per year for a .biz domain name when others charge a maximum of USD $9.99 for it?

DomainSite.com

• .com, .net and .org domains at USD $7.88 for the first year.
• Hidden WHOIS services at USD $0.50 per year.

DomainSite is not the cheapest but they have reasonable prices.

MyDomain.com

• .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us and .info domains at USD $8.75 per year + USD $0.20 ICANN Fee = USD $8.95.
• WHOIS Privacy on any .com or .net domain at USD $6.99 per year.

MyDomain prices are quite a turn off because they do not absorb the ICANN fees and their WHOIS privacy service is quite expensive.

NameCheap.com

• .com, .net, .org and .biz domains at USD $8.41 for the first year with discount code.
• .com, .net, .org and .biz domains at USD $9.29 from the second year onwards.
• Free WhoisGuard for the first year.
• WhoisGuard at USD $2.88 from the second year onwards.

My web domain was purchased from NameCheap. I chose them not because they were the cheapest but because they were the ones with the best reviews I could find on the internet. I wish they could provide their WhoisGuard service free forever.

GoDaddy.com

• .com, .net and .org domains at USD $9.99 + USD $0.20 ICANN Fee = USD $10.19.
• .info domains at USD $1.99 + USD $0.20 ICANN Fee = USD $2.19.
• Private Registration at USD $6.99 per year.

GoDaddy is not known for its cheap web domain registration rates. They are the most glamorous web domain provider of the world with Playboy models like Candice Michelle and Amanda Beard as their spokespersons. If you enjoy buying from fashionable shops then this is the place to get your web domains. However, be prepared to pay a premium on their domain names.

How To Get the Cheapest Web Domains

• Get your first 5 .com, .net and .org domains from Netfirms at USD $5.95 for the first per year.
• Get your subsequent .com, .net and .org domains from 1and1 at USD $6.99 per year.
• Get your first 25 .info domains from 1and1 at USD $0.99 for the first year.
• Get your subsequent .info domains from 1and1 at USD $6.99 per year.

Other than Netfirms and 1and1, NameCheap and DomainSite are pretty cheap as well.

* The prices listed here could have been changed right now so please check their web sites for the latest prices and policies.

• Get a .com domain whenever possible. People will remember a .com name than a .net or other types of domains. Many people type in .com as the default domain type anyway, therefore it is best to use a .com.
• Use your company name if possible as your domain name.
• Use your first and last names as your domain name if your name is very important to the reputation of your business.
• Do not use dashes in between words in the desired domain names as they look kind of ugly, hard to type out and remember.
• Use short domain names whenever possible.
• Don’t register weird and hard to remember domain names like “io.us” and advertise your web site like “del.io.us”. Can you even remember how to type Delicious’ web address?
• Don’t use trademark names and terms for your domain name or buy a non .com version of a trademark term.
• Try not to use numbers in your domain name.

Getting a Web Site Domain

Once you have decided on a potential domain name, you need to proceed to a web domain registrar to purchase a domain. At every web domain registrar, you should see a form asking you to enter your desired domain name. Once you enter your desired domain and submit the form, the web site will let you know if your desired domain is in the pool of available web domain names. If so, you may proceed to register and pay for the web domain.

I prefer to get my web domains from NameCheap.com or Netfirms.com. I always try to get discount coupons from DNCoupons.com when I purchase web domains from NameCheap.com. Domains start at USD $9.29 for a .com domain. However, if you enter a coupon that works, you could get a .com domain at only USD $8.41. It isn’t the cheapest in the world but they are reliable and have great customer service. Regardless of where you purchase a .com domain, never pay more than USD $9.99 for a new domain registration.

What if My Desired Domain Name Has Been Taken?

If you want to get a web address and the web site address is already in use, fear not, as there is still a way to get the domain. Firstly, try to contact the owner of the web domain. You should be prepared to pay a lot of money to buy a domain from the owner. Another way to backorder the domain name. This is only a good idea if you can wait a while for the domain name to become available. You can go to BackorderDomain.eu or GoDaddy’s DomainAlert Pro to backorder your domain name. Both of them include the domain name’s registration for the first year. Others might ask you to pay the 1st year’s fees on top of the backorder fee. Remember there are no guarantees that you will the domain name you want. The worst case is someone else gets it before you do and you have to reuse your credit on another web domain.

In geeky terms, a web domain is a sequence of letters or words in front of an extension.  For example website.com – the word website is the domain and .com is the extension.

The 3 most popular extensions for web domain names are:

1. .com, short for commercial and used by both large businesses or individual ventures,
2. .net, short for network, also able to be used by anyone, but was once originally designated for technical websites only.
3. .org, which is short for organization and was once only for non-profit organizations or those that didn’t fit into the other categories, but now, anyone can register a website domain name using the extension .org.

Some of the other extensions commonly used in addition to those that are specific to a certain country include:

• .aero
• .biz
• .bz
• .cc
• .coop
• .edu
• .gov
• .info
• .int
• .jobs
• .mil
• .mobi
• .museum
• .name
• .pro
• .tv
• .ws

The Basic Cost of a Web Domain Name

The basic costs of owning a web domain name will vary depending on a number of different factors, including the extension category, as well as what specific features you select, such as email accounts, monthly bandwidth space, whether or not you want to receive visitor statistics and reports about your website.

Generally, .com, .net., and .org domain names are usually within the USD $8.99 to USD $9.99 range per year, while newer extensions like .info are about USD $1.99 for the very first year and then increase to USD $9.99 each year after that.

ICANN Accreditation

ICANN or Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is the non-profit corporation that oversees the assignment of domain names and IP addresses.

All domain names are “attached” to the internet’s DNS (Domain Naming System), which serves as a virtual phone book of sorts. The DNS converts the letters and characters used in domain names into their unique, numerical IP (Internet Protocol) address, which allows computers to electronically communicate with one another and share data without the need for using the series of numbers.

Domain name registrars that have been accredited by the ICANN have to go through a stringent accreditation process, which isn’t for small businesses without a lot of money.

If a web domain registrar is not ICANN accredited, chances are they are resellers (distributors) of an ICANN accredited web domain registrar. An example is NameCheap.com – They were resellers for eNom.com before they became ICANN accredited.

ICANN accredited web domain registrars tend to be more reliable but RegisterFly is an exception. In 2007, ICANN ordered about 850,000 RegisterFly web domains to be transferred to GoDaddy. It takes more than just being an ICANN accredited registrar to be considered a good web domain registrar.

I used to buy domain names from RegisterFly and this transition period was a tough time for me because I had to prove to GoDaddy that I owned the domains. Some of the RegisterFly domains belonged to eNom as RegisterFly were their resellers for some time too.

Web Doman Registration Sites I Recommend

Some of the web domain registration sites you may want to use based on their good reputation, service and cost include the 3 companies below.

Netfirms.com is my favourite. The domains only cost USD $7.99 per year with free Whois privacy. The customer’s interface is very easy to use and the customer support is great. This is as good as a steal for this level of service and price.

NameCheap.com offers web domains starting at USD $9.16 per year. NameCheap.com is also now offering their Whois Privacy Protection for free for the first year to new domain names registered or for transferred names as well as a host of other beneficial features. Their interface is very easy to use and they don’t overcharge on their domains.

GoDaddy.com is another reputable web domain registration site that offers web domains $9.99 per year, although including extra services and add-on features can end up being rather expensive. Not to mention they charge an ICANN fee of USD $0.20 per year when others usually waive this charge.

I personally believe their premium prices are for covering their excessive marketing campaigns of hiring pretty models to advertise their services.

Web Domain Registration Sites to Avoid

• Avoid web domain registrars with a history of bad service and complaints from customers. E.g.  RegFly.com, also known as RegisterFly.com.
• Avoid purchasing web domains directly from web hosting companies who will more than likely ask that you sign up for their hosting service, or require that you pay many months in advance, which “locks” you in to a service you may or may not be happy with over time.
• Avoid purchasing web domains from a web design company who may be resellers of an ICANN accredited web domain registrar. They may even overcharge on the domain name fees if you do not know how much a domain name costs per year.

Benefits of Getting Your Own Web Domain

Buying a domain name proves that you are serious about your online business and web presence. It is simply unprofessional to use a free subdomain like “myname.blogspot.com” or “myname.wordpress.com”.

Not only does this help you to appear to others as a credible and professional source, but it also gives your customers or business associates an easy way to stay in contact with you and your company or service.

Using a free sub domain or domain service has its restrictions and you do not own this domain name. Some of them even display intrusive ads on your web site. If you violate the terms and conditions of the free domain service provider, they have every right to delete the domain name and your web site will be gone.

This won’t happen if you have your own domain name. You will only lose your domain name if it expires and you do not pay the yearly fee.

Why You Should Own Your Web Domain

When you buy your own web domain, you own the web domain. If someone else buys a web domain on your behalf, he or she owns the web domain.

I never register domain names for my clients.

If I did, I would own your domain name. What that means is your company’s web domain or your web site’s domain name is owned by me. You should never let anyone but yourself own your domain name.

When you own your web domain, you can:

1. Edit your DNS (nameservers) to connect to a different web host
2. Edit your personal or company information of your domain name
3. Ensure that the yearly fee of the domain name is paid on time every single year or pay a few years in advance. Either way you can ensure that your web domain does not expire.
4. Be sure that you do not need to be at someone else’s mercy when you need to do the 3 things above.

What I usually tell my clients after they have purchased their web domain is to edit the DNS settings of their web domain to connect their web domain to their existing web host (if they have one) or the free web hosting I provide.

Sometimes my clients have no clue how to do this and I will either walk them through the steps or do it for them if they need me to. It usually takes 5 minutes or less.

What if Your Web Domain is Currently Owned by Someone Else?

You should request the person or the company who is currently holding your web domain to transfer it back to you.

The process of getting back the ownership of your domain depends on where the current domain name is held at the moment and where it is going to be transferred to. I usually walk my clients through this process to make sure that they control their own domain name.

This could take a few minutes to months depending on whether the current owner co-operates with you in an efficient manner. Sometimes you can’t get back your domain name because the current owner refused to do so.

This is a lousy position to be in and should be avoided right from the beginning.

.ORG Domains

Reseller Club is my first choice of .ORG domains because they cost only $1.49 for the first year if you are a Reseller Club reseller. You will need to put in a deposit of $199 to open a reseller account. Once you have done that, you may create a customer account to buy domains at your wholesale price.

.NET Domains

RegisterFly is the way to go for .NET domains. During a weekly 48 hour promotion period, you will be able to grab a .NET domain for only $2.99. Check out RegisterFly’s Fly Paper every week before Thursday EST to see what promotions they have.

Unfortunately, RegisterFly’s system does mess up very often and I will go into greater detail about how to use RegisterFly without pulling your hair out in another post. If you can’t get a $2.99 .NET domain from RegisterFly during the promotion period, get it from NameCheap.com at $7.98 instead with the latest coupon code from Domain Name Coupons.

.COM Domains

I choose Netfirms.com and NameCheap.com for .COM domains because their systems are much more stable than RegisterFly. I am tempted by RegisterFly’s $6.99 promotion but for a $1.00 difference, I do not wish to go through all the drama to get RegisterFly to work properly.

.INFO Domains

RegisterFly used to have this crazy $0.60 .INFO domain sale every Friday morning EST. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Now they have increased the price to $0.75. If you’re only buying a couple of domains from RegisterFly, it would be manageable. If you plan to buy hundreds of them, I would recommend that you be mentally prepared to spend a lot of time fixing all the errors you get in RegisterFly’s system.

Reseller Club has caught up with RegisterFly with their “Mega Bargains Month” promotion. They are selling .INFO domains at $0.99. This is $0.24 more per domain than RegisterFly. I highly recommend you to avoid RegisterFly if you do not have a lot of time to burn. Just do a search on Google for “RegisterFly Complaints” and you will get what I mean.

Conclusion

I would normally avoid RegisterFly if I need to get my domains urgently. I used to plan my domain purchases around RegisterFly’s promotion period. Now, I simply purchase it from the alternative domain registrar as mentioned above.

RegisterFly is cheap but it comes at a price of your time. Everything that can go wrong might go wrong when you use RegisterFly. Their system is so crappy it is almost insane! In my next post I will detail how I use RegisterFly to purchase domains to get the most out of RegisterFly and to reduce my anger levels.