Second – GoDaddy has no problem with seizing your property (domain name), then charging $200 or more to let you tell them why they should return your property. If there’s any question at all about your website – fairness goes out the window. As GoDaddy’s head attorney notes:
Jones pointed out that GoDaddy’s terms of service say the company “reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever.”
Avoid GoDaddy and Register.com at all costs – because they’ll cost you.
So what’s the alternative? I personally like namecheap.com. They offer domain names at a good price, and you can always search for “Namecheap coupon” to get a further discount. Also, they’ll offer you one year of privacy for free.
What would you be keeping private? Well, every domain has contacts for administrator, technical, registrant and billing. Usually all four are the same – and they include your email address. Of course, there are automated programs to scan your domain contacts, and save your email address for spamming!
(This is one of the main ways that your email address can be collected for spamming. Another good way to get spammed is to put your email address on your website, instead of using a contact form.)
Namecheap’s privacy after the first year is just $3 or so a month. GoDaddy charges about $11, and they make it darn near impossible to remove. You MUST remove GoDaddy’s privacy registration before you can choose another registrar – they probably make this difficult on purpose.
Be aware – don’t be overcharged by something you don’t quite understand. Pay the right price for your domain name!
5 responses so far ↓
1 Juliette // Jun 11, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Ugh. I wish you would have posted this over a week ago. I just reserved 3 domain names with GoDaddy. I thought the price was fair 6.99 each BUT if they are just going to turn around and try to sell it back to me for $200–that stinks. Is there anything I can do?
2 Burton Kent // Jun 11, 2009 at 7:24 pm
It’s not -THAT- bad, but if there’s any problem, you’ll lose. You can simply transfer them to any other registrar, I’m not sure if there’s a waiting period before you can make the transfer though.
Simply go to any other registrar and look for the link that says “Transfer domains to us” or something like that.
3 Cynthia June Christensen, L. Ac, NCTMBW // Jun 11, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Will I be able to get my domain name through your website service? You have already convinced me that your site is a good way for me to go,as soon as I possibly can! Blessings, Cynthia
4 Eric Sherrell // Jun 12, 2009 at 1:04 am
You will need to wait at least 60 days to do a domain name transfer to a different domain hosting company. That is an international standard.
Another solution is finding a small hosting company. Almost all of them provide domain name registration. Register your domain name with your hosting site. For instance, I use http://www.liveoakhosting.com. They registered my domain name for $15 per year. They are also very personable. The owner called me on the weekend to make sure that my account was up to speed and that I was happy with me service (troubleshooting a problem also). My website hosting costs $9 ($10 without the discount) per month.
Practically nothing for the exposure that I’m getting for my website. You’ll have to build your own site for the smaller hosting companies. If you use a Mac, I highly recommend http://www.karelia.com, which created Sandvox for the Mac.
Good luck with your ventures. Websites should not cost that much. The staff should be personable. And above all, you should get a great feeling when you talk to people on the phone.
Have fun!
E
5 Burton Kent // Jun 12, 2009 at 9:17 am
Eric,
I don’t recommend giving a “small hosting company” control over your domain name unless you really trust them. Registering through them may give them ownership of your domain, and it certainly gives them control.
It’s better to set it up yourself, and just pay the yearly fee. It’s not that hard.
Burton
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