"Buying" a domain name is a bit of a misnomer. When you pay for a domain, you're really just renting the domain for a set period of time. While some domains can be rented up for as long as a decade, but many are held to limits of as short a period as two years. Luckily, by regularly renewing your website, you can hold it into perpetuity. Remaining vigilant and following some sensible rules can ensure that you come as close as possible to owning a website domain, even if it's a popular commodity.

Track Your Domain's Registration

Maintaining strong bookkeeping is the best way to make sure you hold onto your domain's name. Regardless of the term length of your domain lease, renewals will occur on the exact anniversary of your purchase. Determining the length of your contract is largely a matter of personal preference. Registering your domain for 10 years eliminates the hassle of having to renew it on a regular basis, but getting into the regular routine of updating your domain every year can make it easier to not miss your registration date.

Although renewing domain names can be done automatically by deducing from your credit card, you should regularly check it at least once a year. Sometimes, your credit card is expired without knowing. The cost of domain names rarely changes in a significant way, so the length of your registration should be predicated on your personal preferences.

Find the Right Registrar

Finding the right registrar to work with is also important. If your domain isn't taken, you can usually choose to rent your domain through any number of registrar companies. A "master list" keeps track of all available domains and makes them publicly available to anyone who wants them. Find a reliable registrar who offers a strong customer service experience. Many registrars will send you email alerts when your domain is about to expire.

Particularly if you're managing multiple domains, make sure that any messages from the registrar go into your inbox or a specialized folder rather than being directed to your junk mail. Personal calendar alerts can also provide good safeguards to let you know when your domain is at risk of expiring.

If you aren’t sure which one to use, check out our registrars list.

Know the Rules of the Business

If you're worried about your domain lapsing, there are a number of criteria that can help you win back your domain in case it gets registered by another customer and bolster your ownership of it. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers handles the policy for domain ownership and has three provisions for rightful ownership disputes.

If the domain is protected by trademark or similar to a protected trademark that you own, then you can argue in favor of rightful ownership on your behalf. Similarly, if you can prove that the new owner has no legitimate interests or has purchased the domain in bad faith, you may be able to reclaim ownership rights.

Create and Maintain Your Personal Brand

The best way to protect your domain name even in a case of lapsed ownership is to secure a name trademarked strongly to your brand. Maintaining a domain that's named after a product, company, or organization that you claim ownership of it can strengthen your claim. If none are openly available, you may want to consider negotiating with someone who already owns a domain that suits you. Getting the right domain for your needs can strongly effect your brand's value and the traffic to your site.

Exercise Caution

Most of all, be vigilant. Be sure to partner with a registrar that has a reputation such as Godaddy for protecting the interests of their customers. Establish personal alerts, and keep substantive records of your ownership rights and payments. Providing a paper or email trail can mean the difference between holding onto the domain you want and losing it due to negligent bookkeeping.

With the world today a global village, any serious business requires a website to reach out to customers from far and wide across the planet. Such a business website is not complete without a reliable partner in web hosting. In this regard, EuroVPS is a good choice. Below are reasons that make the company reliable:

Service with Experience & Expertise

GreenGeeks offers its customers a large variety of web hosting services to meet their business and web-presence needs. The company provides shared and VPS hosting, domain name registration services, dedicated servers and much more.

EuroVPS is also committed to making available for their clients' use such innovative services as solid state drives. It aims to be a one-stop shop for all web-hosting services all across the globe. The California-based company has been in the market of web hosting for over 8 years. The company serves ten thousands of clients, from individuals, to small business enterprises, mid-size and large organizations.

The company has worked on both simple and very complex high-level projects, garnering a lot of invaluable experience that helps GreenGeeks to continue providing quality products and services for all their clients even today.

Core Features & Key Statistics

GreenGeeks subscription comes with a number of features that accompany the web hosting service. They include: 99.99% uptime guarantee with free nightly backups, SSH access, google apps integrations, dozens of easy-to-install one-click tool, C-panel control, and a fully-managed client support on their service.

What's more, there are a number of key statistics that define the history and current status of GreenGeeks, including: 8+ years of offering managed web hosting solutions;- A total of more than 30,000 clients served, over 40 years of team experience and 300,000 websites hosted across the globe.

User Satisfaction & Customer Support

Before selling their services to potential customers, the company makes sure that they are aware of what to expect by helping them learn more about what benefits web hosting is going to bring to their businesses. In addition to the easily available documentation on their services, more can be found in their easy-to-navigate website.

The company is renowned for a good technical support and documentation. They can be contacted 24/7/365 via telephone on 1-877-326-7483 or live chat service.

Their email addresses, which are also monitored round the clock, include sales@greengeeks.com, support@greengeeks.com, billing@greengeeks.com, and abuse@greengeeks.com. Their support staff are available 24x7x365 for all queries on their service as well as any emergency requests.

Speed-Focused Secure Web Hosting Services

GreenGeeks are very passionate about enterprise-class web hosting. This is the driving force behind the company's continuous growth and expansion. With technology evolving every single day, GreenGeeks are always on their toes to make sure that their services and infrastructure are constantly evolving with technology so as to build new products and always satisfy what their customers want.

Being a key part of a business enterprise's website as a web hosting service provider, GreenGeeks understands that its customers are trusting them with all their files, data and display to online users. It is for this reason that the company wants them to always know that when they do this, their information and data is in the right hands and will be handled in the most professional and secure way.

Affordable Pricing

GreenGeeks offers offer a competitive price for web hosting services. While so many web hosting services on the market cut corners and are more concerned with their own profits than in their customers' well-being, GreenGeeks offers its subscribers shared hosting packages that is not only a reliable platform for their sites but also lets them have peace of mind as they focus on developing their businesses while GreenGeeks does the web-presence part for them.

In their shared hosting plan, it starts with only $3.95 USD a month coming with unlimited domains, SSD storage, bandwidth, and even a free domain name. The wordpress hosting package at $9.95 USD also has a similar offer with additional wordpress management tools such as a 1-click installer, Custom PHP & PHP.INI, WP-CLI & SSH (Shell), and more.

Dedicated servers: starting from $169 per month, this package offers GreenGeeks customers reliable server-grade Intel Atom 330 Dual Core, 2 GB DDR 3 Memory, 1x 500 GB SATA Drive, 5 IP Addresses, and 10,000 GB Transfer.

Reliability & Stability

GreenGeeks offers clients very high levels of reliability and stability in their hosting solutions. The company's servers are operated by only them and are really "their" servers. GreenGeeks also offers a reseller service allowing its customer to use the same feature as hosted at GreenGeeks. The company prides itself in being greek about the hardware they use.

A web hosting service provider is a core part of your website since it contains all of your files, data and displays them to users. It is never easy to choose a web hosting service especially if it is your first time. Several factors need to be considered such as price, reliability, speed, specs, and so on.

Choosing a wrong host does not only waste money, it also increases tons of complicated stuff you need to deal with when moving to a new host.

The cost of web hosting service provider varies significantly from less than $10 a month to easily over $100 USD based on types of hosting package and specs. Some web hosting service providers also offer an extra like a free domain registration, coupons for a various marketing campaign, and free cloud storage. If you are planning to use a web hosting service, check the full list below to find out which company offers the cheapest price while providing good speed, security, and support at the same time.

Web hosting service providers listed here are evaluated based on price, both starting price and annual price, reliability, speed, usability, and value.

• GoDaddy
• RoseHosting
• Arvixe
• iPage

GoDaddy

In the almost-twenty years since their inception, GoDaddy has become one of the best known - if not highest-regarded - domain name registras and web hosting providers in the world. GoDaddy’s sheer size and familiarity (thanks to a series of provocative Superbowl ads) frequently brings them first to mind when making hosting decisions.

Although GoDaddy is a very popular choice for web hosting, it remains a sideline for the Scottsdale, Arizona based company. Their primary and most lucrative business is domain registration. Thus, it’s worth looking closely at the pros and cons of hosting through GoDaddy before deciding on a web hosting provider.

The One-Stop Shopping

GoDaddy strives to be a mega-mart for all services needed to establish a web presence. Once you’ve selected and reserved your domain name, GoDaddy’s online ordering process quickly suggests web design and promotion services, but not before they offer up hosting options for a website behind your new URL. And you can even make money from their Auction House.

Their basic packages can seem almost laughably inexpensive. GoDaddy can afford to be generous. Most websites consume negligible resources on the virtual hosts GoDaddy uses, and access to internet backbones ensures the company is never bandwidth-challenged. Selling hosting at very minimal prices attracts clients who can later be pelted with an almost-endless array of upsells.

Thus, cheap hosting service counts as not much more than cheap advertising for GoDaddy in the early stages of the game.

How Cheap Can You Get?

How cheap is cheap? Very cheap. During GoDaddy’s frequent sales - or by using one of their widely-available coupons - the basic plan starts at $1.00 per month when paid a year in advance. This includes one website/URL, 100GB of storage, 100 email addresses, “unlimited bandwidth,” and — often enough — free registration of a single domain.

Many an aspiring webmaster finds that one-dollar-a-month deal very hard to pass up, especially considering how GoDaddy sweetens the deal. Included in the basic package is instant install of popular content management servers like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal, as well as 1 GB of space on a shared MySQL database server.

It seems almost too good to be true. And likely, it is.

GoDaddy is under no obligation to keep the price at $1.00 per month after the first year. It’s a competitive market, and competition from other ISP’s should restrain any astronomical increases, but your chances of paying $12 for your second year of hosting are slim to none. Moving a site to a different ISP is a pain, and GoDaddy knows you’re probably just going to accept the charge to your credit card at the full price of the plan once you’re part of the family.

And being part of that family seems to satisfy the needs of GoDaddy’s over five million ISP customers. The catch is, very few of those five million need much of anything at all.

User Satisfaction

With a staggering ten million websites hosted, it would seem unlikely GoDaddy could seriously offer “unlimited bandwidth.” What if all those sites started taking major traffic at once? Cables would surely melt, no?

The thing is, most websites see very few visits, if any at all. Even a blog heavily promoted through social media might see 100 hits per day, with a percentage of those coming from web-crawler robots. GoDaddy’s infrastructure can easily withstand this minimal level of traffic, even multiplied times ten million. In actual use, most websites won’t get more than two or three hits per day.

This means the minimal package can satisfy the minimal expectations of most basic users. Users get to say they have a website. They see their URL up - most of the time. They’re happy with the negligible monthly expense for a web presence and an “official” email address. Even at the full price of $3.99 a month customers are still getting a decent value.

And they’re happy with it.

Unlimited Bandwidth

Though it might be true in some way that bandwidth is “unlimited,” purchasers of the basic hosting plans sometimes report unexplained slowdowns. This is of little concern to the entry-level user who’s just happy to be online at all.

But what happens when the stars align, the heavens open above, and your website actually starts getting real traffic? In a few cases reported in online forums - and among real-life contacts - only higher GoDaddy’s shared plans can accommodate a serious flow of constant users. This isn’t such a bad situation as long as a quick solution is available.

But at that point, you’re dealing with GoDaddy’s support teams. Mostly, GoDaddy's team can address your issues within a few minutes. For a more complicated case, it can take a while until the problem is solved. In a rare case, a scheduled move to a dedicated server was delayed for different reasons.

And then, you’re no longer in the realm of GoDaddy’s promotional, get-them-in-the-door pricing strategy. GoDaddy’s prices for dedicated hosting - where your site runs on a separate server - are competitive with prices available almost anywhere else.

Should You or Shouldn’t You?

Let’s summarize the pros and cons of GoDaddy hosting:

Pros:

• Very cheap at the bottom end: If you want a cheap, simple way to establish an online presence, it’s hard to turn down GoDaddy’s offer to handle it all for you, especially if you can get one of their promotional deals.
• Full features and one-stop shopping: Even the basic plan includes everything you’re likely to need in a basic website. Domain registration, content management, storage, email, and even DB access is all there in one place, and it all works well enough for most users.
• Phone support: Many other more highly-rated ISP’s don’t offer phone support: They conduct support through chat interfaces and email. Many less-savvy users value the ability to talk to a human being on the telephone to walk them through unfamiliar steps.

Cons:

• Not their core business: GoDaddy is primarily a web domain registrar with hosting as a profitable sideline.
• GoDaddy offers no money-back guarantee for their services. They explicitly state no refunds are available. At $12 a year for a promotional url and hosting package, this might not matter much. As business grows, it might matter more.

RoseHosting

Web hosting companies are increasingly diversifying their hosting plans and technologies, branching out from shared hosting plans to virtual private servers and completely dedicated servers for their most demanding customers. For RoseHosting, this is old news. In business since 2001, RoseHosting has long been one of the Internet's most reliable and affordable VPS hosting choices.

RoseHosting.com's 15 years in the industry have taught it how to offer affordable and reliable products that offer real value and a path for growth to new customers who may need more advanced features in the future. With that in mind, prospective customers will want to take a look at the three tiers of service, the value-added features, and the guarantees that make for a reliable website upon signing up for the service.

Available Hosting Options: More Than Just Shared Hosting

When it comes to web hosting, the most basic option is also the most affordable. Shared hosting, as it's known, involves placing many websites side-by-side on a single server, with control over the website's features but not the server's features. This combination of affordability and minimal control is an appealing option for entry-level customers who have never purchased hosting before. With that in mind, let's take a look at what RoseHosting has to offer its shared hosting customers.

Shared Hosting: A Great Choice for Entry-Level Customers

The company's shared hosting plans are offered in three tiers, from a basic plan capable of hosting a single domain to the "SSD Ultimate" plan, capable of hosting as many as 20 domain names. First and foremost, it's important to look at the features that all three tiers have in common:

• 24x7 online and phone support services
• SSD-based storage for lightning fast data access speeds
• 100 percent uptime guarantee
• DNS management
• Free weekly site backups
• Advanced control panel for granular site control

Pricing tiers are decided based primarily on the number of domains a customer is hosting, the disk space they require, and the monthly bandwidth their site needs. Other features also vary based on price. The three tiers include:

1.SSD Basic ($4.95 per month)

• 1 domain
• 2GB disk space
• 200GB data transfer
• 50 email accounts, aliases, and auto-responders
• 2 mailing lists, sub-domains, and MySQL databases
• 50 FTP accounts

2. SSID Business ($9.95 per month)

• 5 domains
• 8GB disk space
• 1000GB data transfer
• Unlimited email accounts, aliases, and auto-responders
• 20 mailing lists, sub-domains, and MySQL databases
• Unlimited FTP accounts

3. SSD Ultimate ($19.95 per month)

• 20 domains
• 20GB disk space
• 2000GB data transfer
• Unlimited email accounts, aliases, and auto-responders
• Unlimited mailing lists, sub-domains, and MySQL databases
• Unlimited FTP accounts

All shared hosting plans are paid on an annual basis. Importantly, there is no setup fee charged for initiating a new shared hosting account with the company.

VPS Hosting: The Main Attraction at RoseHosting

While shared hosting is a low-price, high-value option for entry-level customers, RoseHosting has made its name since 2001 in offering affordable, advanced VPS hosting options to power users. The company's VPS hosting is based entirely on high-speed solid state drives, making for much faster servers and response times.

In addition to SSD storage across all RoseHosting VPS plans, the company includes fully managed, 24x7 tech support, free website migration assistance, and free weekly backup service. A single IP address is dedicated to each VPS account, and each account is billed the monthly fee on an annual basis.

While RoseHosting offers high-end tiers that range in price from $119.95 monthly to $319.95 monthly, its four most popular tiers range from $19.95 per month to $79.95 per month. Pricing tiers are differentiated based on the number of processor cores, ranging from two to 6, as well as the amount of disk storage and monthly data transfer. For $19.95 per month, customers get 30GB of storage, 2TB of data transfer, 1GB of RAM and two CPU cores to handle the load. That's an impressive value, and it only gets better as prices and features increase across four entry-level tiers.

If none of the company's four low-end tiers or four high-end tiers meet the needs of a VPS customer, there's another option worth considering. RoseHosting offers a custom VPS configuration service that allows prospective customers to create a custom setup based on their RAM, processing, storage, and monthly bandwidth needs. Prices are competitive with the industry; customers pay for their custom VPS configuration on an annual basis.

Dedicated Servers for the Biggest Customers

With XEON E3 dual-core and quad-core processors, 500GB of RAID5 storage, and between 2GB and 4GB of RAM, RoseHosting's dedicated servers are advanced, lightning fast, and built for the enterprise. The company's dedicated options begin at $299 per month, with four tiers that escalate in price, up to $449 per month. Dedicated server customers receive the same 24x7 support commitment and 100 percent uptime guarantee. Unlike VPS and shared hosting options, however, billing is performed monthly instead of annually.

The Bottom Line: Price, Value, Reliability, and Reputation

RoseHosting is one of many options available to customers who need a wide range of Linux-based hosting services, from small shared hosting accounts to powerful dedicated servers that can handle the most popular websites on the Internet. Though the field is crowded, RoseHosting.com stands out for a few important reasons:

1. Affordability and Value

With hosting plans starting at less than $5 per month for shared hosting, and less than $20 per month for a VPS alternative, RoseHosting has one of the most affordable fees in the industry. When combined with round-the-clock support and a 100 percent uptime guarantee, neither of which should be taken for granted among today's web hosting companies, customers get peace of mind as well as excellent value and an affordable price.

2. Customizability

While many hosting companies only offer rigid tiers of service, RoseHosting goes out of its way to encourage customization of its VPS hosting product. That's likely to resonate with the small, but vocal, power user market. Between the ability to pick specific server features, operating systems, and tiers of monthly bandwidth, there really is an affordable option for each VPS customer considering RoseHosting.com

3. Support, Support, Support

Though mentioned earlier, it bears repeating: RoseHosting offers 24-hour support for all of its hosting options. Between phone, live chat, support ticket, and email support options, customers will find a method that matches the urgency and severity of their support request at all hours of the day. That's something that many competing hosting companies just don't provide. It adds peace of mind and real value to the company's products and makes the service a great fit for inexperienced, entry-level customers as well as server customers who have unique support needs at all hours of the day and night.

The bottom line is simple: RoseHosting.com is a highly competitive hosting service that smartly offers the right blend of affordable pricing and high-end features, standard pricing tiers and customization, entry-level products and advanced dedicated servers. For this reason, it's worth seriously considering the pricing tiers and 100 percent uptime guarantee offered at RoseHosting.com

Arvixe

Arvixe Web Hosting, recognized by industry authorities as one of the fastest growing web hosting companies worldwide. Founded in San Luis Obispo California, Arvixe’s core values are based on growth and solid ground work. Thousands of websites have been hosted worldwide by Arvixe wide variety of hosting plans. They have been recognized and awarded by industry authorities such as Host Review and Inc. Magazine.

With a wide array of services such as web hosting for a variety of platforms, Arvixe also offers dedicated servers, Domain names, developer compatibility and more. They also

• Offer 24-hour customer support
• Have a 99.9% uptime ratio
• Have been noted as having the recognized SSD server speed

Overall Service Offerings

With respect to the overall service offering that should be provided through a web hosting service provider, Arvixe Web Hosting has covered it all. They have hosting services for all types of web platforms that are broken down by class and consist of web hosting services for personal class, business class, reseller class, VPS class and the dedicated class.

Arvixe has clearly had all customer types in mind when they put time into developing various web hosting service areas. Not only do they have reasonable prices, but their features, platform performance and support systems are compatible with the best in the business.

Below is a breakdown of some of the hosting services offered by Arvixe Web Hosting.

Linux Shared Hosting

The PersonalClass is offered in two different packages, including the regular PersonalClass and the PersonalClass Pro. Both offer a Linux shared hosting plan, which is a more common form of hosting that is being sought after by multiple hosting clients. With prices being as low as $4 a month for the PersonalClass and $7 per month for the PersonalClass Pro, Arvixe Web Hosting offers very competitive rates in this area compared to other hosting companies.

Both plans come with unlimited disk space, unlimited monthly data transfer, six website domains through the PersonalClass and unlimited website domains that are offered through PersonalClass Pro. This area also offers several other benefits as well, such as a Softaculous Script Installer, $100 worth of Google Ad words vouchers and $100 worth of Yahoo! and Bing vouchers (within the US only.)

They have gotten rave reviews from their current customers who seem to be happy and satisfied with services and the performance of Linux Hosting platform.

Window Shared Hosting

Also offered in this category is a PersonalClass ASP and the PersonalClass ASP Pro hosting plans for windows. Both of these areas offers unlimited disk space, unlimited monthly data transfer, six website domains from the PersonalClass ASP and unlimited website domains under the PersonalClass ASP Pro.

With prices beginning as low as $5 and $8, respectively, the PersonalClass for windows is equally as reliable and offers several other useful benefits to their customers as well. From scheduled task and custom error pages to Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive compatibility and a host of other features, Arvixe Web Hosting remains highly competitive and receives four and five-star ratings from their very satisfied customers.

BusinessClass

Arvixe’s Business Hosting plan offers the same great service and reliability as the PersonalClass plans, but they offer more with respect to an increase in uptime and overall reliability. The BusinessClass plan also offers Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive compatibility, unlimited disc and monthly transfer data, free domains and SSL certificates for life, cPanel Control panel, FTP account, HTML editor's, file management systems, password protection directories, a host of email plans and support services, statistical support areas as well as the ability to support web development.

You'll find that the business hosting plan is compatible with any web hosting plan for businesses on the market. Their plans began as low as $22 a month for the business class and $35 for the BusinessClass Pro. Arvixe also offers web hosting in the BusinessClass ASP for Windows where they offer similar hosting services to support the Windows platform to customers all around the world.

ResellerClass

Arvixe Web Hosting also offers reseller hosting plans for those who are interested in starting their own web hosting accounts. They have ResellerClass plans for Linux and Windows platforms and makes the same web products and services offered to their clients to their resellers. Their prices start at $20 per month for the ResellerClass and $50 per month ResellerClass Pro plan.

VPSClass

When it comes to Virtual Private Servers, Arvixe Web Hosting has covered every area possible to support each of their hosting functions. From dedicated disk space of 50 GB for the VPSClass and 100 GB of dedicated to space with the VPSClass Pro, to four and eight CPU Cores respectively, 1.5 GB of memory for the VPSClass and 3 GB of memory for the VPS Class Pro. They also offer a wide array of other areas that support the Virtual Private Server hosting plans as well. These prices began at $40 a month and $70 a month for each plan respectively and have received multiple five-star ratings from a variety of satisfied customers.

DedicatedClass

Dedicated web hosting is a fully managed dedicated server design for those in need of a web hosting platform. They offer high-performance, security and reliability. The plans are offered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and dedicated customer support. The DedicatedClass also offers customers a choice of Linux or Windows software, nightly security updates and a host of other services. The services are compatible with other companies that offer similar web hosting products and services in the same class.

Having access to a cloud-based hosting plan provides you with state-of-the-art technology and a world-class platform that keeps you in control and in the driver’s seat. Avixie Web Hosting has gone over and above the call of duty with respect to its hosting product and service offerings. They have developed a platform to ensure that they remain both competitive and on the cutting edge with their cloud-based service offers.

Other Hosting Plans

Additional hosting plans include those that address some of the more common ways that people interact when doing business. These include discussion forums, blog hosting platforms, e-commerce hosting platforms, Video sharing platforms and much, more.

The Bottom Line: Speed and Value

There are numerous reasons why customers use Arvixe. Some of the pros consist of:

• High-speed and reliability
• Unlimited disk space
• Unlimited data transfer
• Unlimited email accounts
• Free domain names
• A 60-day moneyback guarantee
• 24 hour technical support

Although Arvixe strives to be the leading hosting company in the industry, there are still a few areas that could stand some improvement. Below are some of the cons of working with Arvixe:

• Does not offer a complete full-service hosting plan compared to other hosting companies such as RoseHosting.
• Not the most recognized brand in the industry. Especially with industry giant such as GoDaddy who continues to dominate the marketplace and is known for their catchy advertisements and up sales.
• Although known for great customer support, Arvixe still trails behind in both customer support and overall performance compare to companies such as RoseHosting.

Overall Arvixe Web Hosting services can stand next to any hosting and domain service in the industry and remain competitive in all hosting services offered.

iPage

iPage tries to be a one-stop service for all hosting and domain needs at the competitive price. With their package starting price at only $2/month, included free extra features, it is a good budget choice that hardly takes eyes off.

As with any seemingly great deal, there are drawbacks and hidden costs. Any potential iPage user needs to understand them before signing up.

Full Price Details

iPage’s biggest selling point is the standard hosting package at$1.99 a month. This price goes up dramatically to somewhere between $9 and $20 a month after the first term, depending on which level of service needed. Despite this, an average price is still lower than an average market. Signing up for three years at the initial rate ($71.64 up front) still makes a great deal to getting a website rolling.

Not only that, hosting packages in iPage.com comes with a free domain name (.com) for 1 year. The domain fee is not waived for other luxurious TLDs such as .blog costing over $40 USD a year

Ipage.com also offers a domain registration service starting $8.99 USD per year for .com with choices for optional features such as a domain privacy, to hide personal informations such as contact details, costs at addition $9.99 per year, or SiteLock, a service scanning for malware and protecting against bot hacking

Unlimited Disk Space and Bandwidth

Each site gets unlimited disk space in all hosting plans with 1Gb on a cloud storage. However, the unlimited disk space does not mean that clients can stores any files and data without any limitation. iPage admits that in a few cases, they’ve had to work with them to reduce file storage. A hosting package with an unlimited disk space never truly exists anyway.

Although unlimited bandwidth is offered, it works similarly to unlimited disk space. Once a site grows beyond the hidden limitation they have, iPage will request their clients to upgrade to a better package such as VPS which is generally costed at $20 more per month. The support for an upgrade will be provided free of charge.

Problems with Speed and Control Panel

Although iPage servers do not crash often with a next to little downtime, it has a problem with speed. All sites under shared web hosting packages traffic goes through a shared pipeline. It means that if there are tons of traffics on a single site hosted at iPage, it significantly slows down speeds for all other sites.

Another drawback of iPage comes from a control panel for domain and file management. Several customers find it counter-intuitive and confusing. Although there's an explanation on each menu at other part of the site, it is still not good enough.

iPage does offer 24/7 phone and email support with 3 out of 5 stars from user ratings, although some users claimed that support stuff here is very helpful. There are support and help buttons in the control panel directly taking customers to FAQ page, with an option for live chat if the provided answers are not helpful.

Those that prefer email or phone help can find the necessary information under "Contact Us" at the bottom of the page.

Additional Features

One factor making iPage a great choice for a beginner is the inclusion of several website builders such as wordpress. It's pretty helpful when creating website for the first time with ready-made solution within a few clicks. The website builders is value at $500 as claimed by iPage.

iPage includes the option to redirect multiple domains covering range of related site names at a single place. Files can also be easily transferred in through FTP. Most importantly, iPage also provide a back-up service free of charge. One thing that an advanced user do not like iPage is the lack of SSH access due to their security reasons.

iPage also offers free marketing credit from various reputable search engines. Any customer gets a direct $100 worth of advertising in Bing for free, while Google requires $25 spent before receiving a free $100. These deals actually pay back the initial cost of hosting.

The Bottom Line: Good Price, Beginner's Friendly but Having Problems with Speed and Intuitiveness

The Good:

• Competitive price
• Beginner’s friendly
• Unlimited Storage and bandwidth
• Good uptime

The Bad:

• Speed with high traffic
• Price spikes after first term
• Tries to sell endless expensive extras
• Site intuitiveness.

Who Should Sign Up?

iPage isn't really the best deal for experienced webmasters. The biggest benefits are from their price and easiness. It is definitely a good choice for beginners who would like to make a small blog or portfolio for their works, or even making a website for a company profile or small business showcase. For more robust sites, it is better to look elsewhere.

WordPress has revolutionized the internet over the past several years. They have grown rapidly since the initial release back in 2003. In fact, over 25 percent of all websites are now running on WordPress. Because of its versatility and incredible ease of use, WordPress is the best content management system out there without any doubt. It works well whether for a personal blog, a business site, or even for an e-commerce website.

Why do I need a hosting provider?

WordPress is only a free open-source CMS (Content Management System) allowing you to create a website easily once installed. You still need a space for your site to live. A web host provides server space, where all of a website's content is stored. Once you have a web host, you can build and publish your site and people will see your content when they visit your URL.

Which host should I use?

One of the best hosting providers is GoDaddy. They have long been a leader in the web space, providing domain registration and web hosting as well as other related products. They are particularly great for hosting WordPress sites for a number of reasons.

They are very affordable

Hosting your website shouldn't break the bank. GoDaddy offers very affordable rates. The cheapest plan is only $7.99/month and should work for most people. Other plans are only a little bit more and offer a few extra features like the ability to host more than one site and have more storage space. Even better, they regularly offer great discounts and coupon codes.

They offer nearly unlimited bandwidth

One of the reasons making GoDaddy stands out is the nearly unlimited bandwidth. Bandwidth is a measure of how many visitors a website can handle at once and how much data can be transferred between your site and site visitors. This is pretty important, especially if your website gets a lot of traffic.

If you've ever heard about a website crashing because it's getting a huge influx of traffic, that's a bandwidth issue. GoDaddy's plans say they give you unlimited bandwidth. Other hosting providers make you pay more for different levels of bandwidth. It is important to point out, though, that technically, there's no such thing as unlimited bandwidth.

Within their terms of services, they do point out that if you need a level of bandwidth that risks stability, performance or uptime, you may be required to upgrade to a different kind of hosting. They don't list at what point this is, but if you do reach this mysterious point and you don't choose to upgrade, they will limit your available bandwidth.

For most users, the "unlimited" bandwidth they offer should be more than sufficient, but if you expect truly massive traffic with better security and control, it is highly recommended to purchase a VPS or dedicated server plan.

They make installing WordPress fast and easy

One of the best things about WordPress is that it makes it easy for non-tech people to create beautiful, effective websites. That is, it's easy once the software is installed. With some web hosts, this process is a little bit too complex. GoDaddy offers an auto-install that is absolutely painless. With just a few clicks, they get it up and running quickly and easily.

They offer WordPress-specific hosting with additional features

While you can host your site on any of their general hosting plans, they also have specific plans just for hosting WordPress sites. In addition to the one-click installation, they also do some of the management work for you. WordPress is constantly going through updates and with this plan, GoDaddy deals with the update process for you. They also offer an extra layer of security with these managed hosting plans.

They have a great support team

Your website is important, and it's nice to know you can rely on good help in the event of any problems. GoDaddy has a very strong customer support team. Support is available 24/7 via phone or web chat. They also have a pretty robust community forum, where other users can offer support and guidance. Knowing there is quality support available can give you peace of mind.

They have a stellar track record in the areas that matter most for a website

They boast of a 99.9% uptime guarantee, meaning there's almost no risk of your website ever being down. This is a big deal since you want your website to reliably be there all the time. They're also great with security. This helps prevent spam and malicious attacks from hackers. Hackers are getting ever craftier, but GoDaddy has a great arsenal of security technology and they're also continually upping their game in this area. You want to trust that your website is safe, and with a trustworthy and secure host, you can rest easy. Additionally, they help ensure that your website is fast and that it ranks well in search engines.

Is GoDaddy the best hosting provider for WordPress sites?

The truth is that most of the major hosting providers will do a good job of hosting WordPress sites. They can definitely get the job done, but so can other providers. They're affordable and trustworthy. They also make the process as easy as possible. Other providers are good choices as well, but GoDaddy is probably the best choice if any of the following are true for you:

• You purchased your domain name through GoDaddy: having domain and hosting through the same provider simplifies things and they integrate their products well
• Low cost is particularly important to you: they offer some of the most affordable plans around and they regularly offer great deals and coupon codes
• You are not very tech-savvy: GoDaddy really simplifies the WordPress installation process, can handle some of the management for you, and has solid support

WordPress is a fantastic CMS that will ensure you have a great-looking and perfectly functional website. With hosting from GoDaddy, your WordPress site will have a solid place to take root and grow.

As digital currencies continue to grow in both acceptance and popularity, web hosting and domain registry companies have been embracing the foremost cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, as another method of payment. The privacy and anonymity that is provided by Bitcoin transactions are attractive to a wide-ranging variety of domain registries and web hosting clients.

Bypassing government regulations and financial institutions, Bitcoin transactions usually require very little or no processing charges, and it can be used by customers and companies in all countries with access to the Internet, as well as countries that don’t permit the usage of PayPal.

Bitcoin transactions, ever since they became more common for payments in 2008 use peer-to-peer technology as well as open source software, and managing transactions from an encrypted network. The bitcoin account holders only need to provide their Email address to have their Bitcoin wallet set up, and their transaction details are secure.

The companies listed below are verified, and they accept Bitcoin in exchange for all web hosting services.

Qhoster

Bitcoin is one of numerous unusual payment methods that Qhoster accepts for all hosting services as well as domain name registration. Alongside Bitcoin, Qhoster also accepts payments from debit and credit cards, Perfect Money, PayPal, WebMoney, NETELLER, Skrill, Payza, Litecoin, SolidTrust Pay, Ukash, cashU, OKPAY. They also accept EgoPay, Alipay, Paysafecard, MoneyGram, SOFORT, Western Union, QIWI, Alfa Click, Prezelew24, Sberbank Rossii, Promsvyazbank, Svyaznoy, Interac, Boleto Bancario, OneCard, MercadoPago, PagSeguro, DaoPay, and Fortumo.

It was established sometime in 2004, and they specialize in Windows RDP VPS and Linux VPS. Qhoster also serves the hosting market internationally with well over 2000 customers spread out in five continents which are hosted in the seven different geo locations. Their web hosting services include reseller hosting and cPanel shared, dedicated servers and SSL certificates.

Arvixe

The privately-held web hosting company was founded in San Luis Obispo in 2003 to offer web hosting services which include shared web hosting. Arvixe is optimized for Bitcoin payment for as low as US$4 every month. The accounts can be for personal use, reselling and businesses with a money back guarantee of sixty days. Other services offered by the firm include Virtual private server hosting (VPS), dedicated server hosting, as well as domain name registration.

They offer support for ASP.NET, Linux, and a variety of e-commerce platforms and content management systems that include Joomla, WordPress, Drupal, and Magento.

HosterBox

The Canadian web host called HosterBox was established in Ottawa in 2005 to provide hosting services on a very fast Gigabyte network using a short path between the server clusters. It is guaranteed never to exceed sixty percent of the capacity for the optimum bandwidth. Their professional shared site hosting plans begins at 3.95$ every month.

Registration for a domain name with HosterBox includes a free account transfer. Other hosting services which are provided by the firm includes dedicated hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, as well as e-commerce hosting on a substructure that has nil single points of failure. It also has a 99.99% money back guarantee.

Namecheap

This site was listed as Readers' Choice in the HostReview awards 2003. Namecheap was founded in 2000, and they primarily offer domain name registration services at value prices. Presently, Namecheap manages around three million domains for over a million clients. The company also offers hosting services which include reseller hosting, shared hosting, VPS hosting, private email hosting, and dedicated servers. Other services include one-page websites, SSL certificates, and a support center for users, and it features a live-chat and how-to videos.

Users can pick from a data center situated either in the U.S or the UK for their shared hosting plans which start at US$3.98 every month. The business-class shared hosting plans, on the other hand, starts at US$19.98 every month.

HOSTING.co.uk

The London based hosting company, Hosting.co.uk has shared web hosting charges that start at £2.00 every month. They offer hosting which is built on the single fastest network in the UK. As a green website host, the UK datacenter has a Power Usage Effectiveness of less than 1.3 with an Intel-powered low-power server CPU for energy economy and performance. In addition to reseller and shared hosting with migration services at no cost to the user, HOSTING.co.uk also offers dedicated servers, VPS hosting plans, and business email hosting as well. The encrypted MEGA hosting with cloud storage allows secure storage of the data for a low rate of £8.38 every month for 1TB bandwidth and 500GB storage.

Hosting.co.uk have a MEGA Pro 3 plan which permits the storage of 4TB of data with 8TB bandwidth for only £252.22 every year on the annual plan.

Bitcoin vs. Real World Currency

Pros

Due to the unusual nature of the virtual currencies, there are a few inherent advantages to concluding a transaction with Bitcoin that users of the real world currencies don’t get. Even though these digital currencies such as Bitcoin are a fairly new and experimental medium of exchange, they appear to offer a few unique prospects.

User Anonymity

All Bitcoin purchases are extremely discrete, including a domain name purchase. Unless the user voluntarily circulates his/her Bitcoin transactions, their purchases can never be associated with the personal identity of the user. Just like cash-only acquisitions, Bitcoin transactions cannot be traced to a particular user. In fact, the Bitcoin system generates a new address for all user purchases for every new transaction to ensure anonymity. It uses a decentralized DNS system, and it does not require users to provide any personal identification which can be used against them.

No Third-party Interruptions

Another widely publicized benefit of Bitcoin is that banks, governments, and other financial institutions have no means of interrupting a user transaction or even freezing or controlling the Bitcoin accounts. The system is entire peer-to-peer and users experience a higher degree of freedom in contrast with real world currencies. Governments can block or seize regular domain names, but the decentralized DNS makes it impossible.

Purchases Are Not Taxed

With Bitcoin, there is no avenue for third parties to detect, track or even intercept any transaction that is paid in Bitcoins, and one of the most important advantages of this digital currency is that sales taxes isn’t added to any purchases. A user can pay for his/her domain name without paying any tax on the transaction. In contrast, real-world currencies, when used to pay for such transactions tax the user.

Very Low Transaction Fees

Typically, foreign purchases and standard wire transfers involve fees and exchange charges. Since Bitcoin transactions do not have an intermediary institution such as a bank or the government, the cost of purchase is very low. Also, any transfer made in Bitcoins moves quickly, eradicating the inconvenience of usual wait periods and authorization requirements.

Zero fraud

Most online businesses have to handle multiple fraud issues due to payments from their consumers online. The chargebacks do not only result in loss of their revenue, but they may also need extra man hours to handle and resolve. Because of the nature of bitcoin protocol, every transaction is irreversible, and this means that when a business has been paid, it has been paid and vice versa.

Cons

Price Volatility

If users keep the Bitcoins in their digital wallet instead of spending them almost immediately, they may have to handle their volatility, which may be significant. In the first part of 2014, the price of the Bitcoins ranged from about $1,100 to $600. Just like with consumers, the merchants also suffer due to the volatile nature of the Bitcoin to fiat currencies like euros or dollars. Even though there are machinations in place through services that can instantly convert the payments to a currency of the user’s choice after the transaction, the volatility may still affect consumer buying behavior.

Limited Merchants

Although a lot of big names have begun to accept this digital currency as payment, the other main retailers have not. Therefore, the use of bitcoins is rather notably limited presently. Even though a few web hosting companies receive Bitcoin payments, the options are still limited and this is rather discouraging. Real world currency is received worldwide by all retailers and this is a major edge of digital currency.

Risk of unknown technical flaws

The Bitcoin system is fairly new and could have unexploited flaws. If such a flaw is discovered, it could be used to cheat users out of their funds. Hackers or fraudulent persons can use such flaws to their own advantage. The system is still in development stages and a lot of its features are new. More features will still be required to make it more accessible and secure for use. Until those tools are developed, it stands a risk of being used for fraud.

Wallets can be lost

When a hard drive crashes, the wallet file can be lost without a possibility of retrieval. The wallet.dat file is usually stored in the computer and must be backed up externally because simple tasks such as a computer upgrade can cause a loss of this data.

The coins can no longer be claimed, unlike real world banks that help clients recover account details. The Bitcoins are lost and can’t be reclaimed.

Choosing a host for your WordPress website can be quite confusing. This is because there are a lot of hosts that offer numerous services that are all beneficial to your WordPress website or blog. Getting the best combination of services from a single host can be hard, but there are a few platforms that render all the services you may require for WordPress. We will be taking a look at the top 5 hosts in 2016 and the services they offer that sets them apart from the competition.

Top 5 hosts for your WordPress website in 2016

1. Hostgator

Hostgator is one of the most popular platforms for hosting a WordPress website. It is the name on most people’s lips when looking for affordable web hosting. This is not as a result of mere publicity. Hostgator offers a lot of reliable services that make them a force to be reckoned with. This platform comes with systems that are available 24/7, helping to monitor activity on your site. It also has a power back up that is more technologically advanced than other hosts. Hostgator also stores all of its data in secured servers whilst keeping additional backups just in case of unforeseen problems. One of the main reasons why people patronize Hostgator is the fact that it has very little downtime.

Hostgator’s services are up and running 99.9% of the time, giving you unmatched levels of uptime. They manage to do this through intensive monitoring by technical specialists. Hostgator also offers its users unrestricted space in terms of bandwith. A standard account gives you unlimited bandwith and disc space, which is something that a lot of hosts simply cannot offer you. It also gives its users unrestricted database access, providing all you need for a high quality database website or blog. Hostgator boasts of over 400,000 customers across the world (with hosting in over 200 companies). One of the best features of this host is that it offers a money-back guarantee. When dealing with hosts, users tend to feel more comfortable when they have the option of getting their money back if they are unsatisfied with the services rendered.

2. Bluehost

When starting a website or blog, developers often look for the platform that can offer them all the services they want whilst remaining within their budget. Bluehost is one of those platforms. This host manages to offer its users a lot more than they pay for. This is perhaps the major reason why a lot of developers make use of Bluehost. It is also very effective in terms of customer support. A lot of users do not like a host that does not render customer support when they need it. With Bluehost, this problem is eliminated. They offer effective customer service around the clock that is patient enough to deal with all their client’s needs. The support team always stays on the phone until the problem is resolved, and never seems impatient when asked a lot of questions.

Bluehost also offers no downtime at all. While they may rate it as 99.9%, a lot of users can testify to absolutely no downtime at all. This host is also easy-to-use and very self-explanatory. It offers its users a simple interface that gives no room for confusion. Their control panel is also very easy to understand, making your site managing experience a very smooth one. Bluehost also offers a lot of unlimited services at ridiculously low prices and remains one of the most affordable hosts on the Internet. This involves domain registration, bandwith, emails and other services. Perhaps the most important benefit is that Bluehost comes ready for use with WordPress. It is also officially recommended by WordPress, making it one of the few hosts you can trust.

3. Siteground

Siteground is one of the most effective hosts when it comes to WordPress hosting. This platform boasts of speeds that its competitors only aspire to reach. This web host has over 10 years' experience in terms of providing effective web hosting solutions for its customers. Currently, Siteground boasts of over 250,000 domains around the world. This is because they offer services that only a few hosts are able to match. Siteground is effective because of its philosophy regarding customers. They realize that each client has a specific set of needs. The platform therefore takes out time to sort out each client’s needs and concerns. They also offer effective customer service to each and every one of their clients.

Siteground own technical specialists, who also operate them even after development and improve them if the need arises, design all their systems. Siteground makes use of technology that surpasses most of its competitors. It is also one of the most affordable web hosts. Siteground offers secure services that do not give you any cause for concern. Since it is compatible with WordPress, a lot of user’s make use of it. Even though Siteground offers a slightly lower uptime record than most of its competitors at 99.98%, it more than makes up for this with its other amazing services. It is also incredibly easy to use and provide support even to wordpress plugins. Siteground is one of those web hosts that have good company ethics. They also believe that every client is important, ensuring to address all concerns forwarded with utmost importance.

4. InMotion Hosting

InMotion is another effective host for WordPress. The company was set up in 2001 and has managed to place itself strongly among its competitors. The company carved out a niche for itself by rendering basic shared hosting and fully configurable dedicated servers. InMotion makes use of technology that ensures its clients get the best possible experience from hosting. When using a hosting service, clients really do not care about the technical aspects. InMotion realized this and began to offer services that relate more with their customers. They offer a 90-day money-back guarantee for clients that are not fully satisfied with their services. They also pay attention to every need of their customers, by offering unlimited disc space and bandwith. This gives their clients the freedom to achieve all they want to. InMotion also guarantees 99.9% uptime, giving its users a totally reliable service.

Most importantly, InMotion is WordPress compatible. This provides their clients the freedom to create websites, blogs and E-commerce sites using WordPress. This web-developing tool enhances the capacity to create on the web, giving designers access to a wide range of tools that help to make the job easy. InMotion is also a front-runner of the Green Revolution. It makes use of green data centers and encourages recycling programs. The company has managed to reduce its carbon output by up to 2,000 tons, which also reduces their running costs by up to 70%. They also give their customers the choice of server location. They have multiple data centers that are constantly monitored, ensuring stable performance.

5. GoDaddy

It is impossible to mention the top hosts for WordPress sites without mentioning GoDaddy. It offers cheap hosting plans as well as domain registration. They also offer coupons, which further reduce the prices on hosting plans for loyal customers. While GoDaddy is not mainly known for hosting websites, they are doing particularly well when it comes to hosting. They initially started as a domain registrar, but are making good use of their market presence to bring their prices even lower. GoDaddy also provides unlimited bandwith and disc space for every client. They also offer auto-install for WordPress. This makes it very easy to use the web developing software. All you need to do is purchase hosting for WordPress and select auto install.

GoDaddy also offer auto upgrades and effective security monitoring. This is the edge GoDaddy has over most of its competitors. They allow for easy integration of products. The platform is secure and there is little room for hackers. They also have a lot of restrictive policies, which help to keep out spam. GoDaddy offers effective customer support should any problems arise. Under its new CEO, GoDaddy has ensured 24/7 customer care by using the latest technology. They also boast of a 4GH Linux Hosting system, meaning they can compete with other top hosting platforms. Even though GoDaddy is relatively new in terms of web hosting, they have emerged as one of the most efficient web hosting platforms in 2016. With cheap hosting plans and the latest technology, its no wonder they are becoming more popular on the web hosting scene.

Conclusion

These web hosting platforms have managed to set themselves apart when it comes to providing top-notch services for clients. They operate in several countries, providing money-back guarantees for developers who are not fully satisfied with the services rendered. However, with the recent trends in technology, it would not be surprising to see a couple new names on this list in the near future. The web hosting world is an immensely competitive one, and only the providers that are able to evolve with the recent technological trends can compete. Using any of these platforms for your hosting would ensure you get the best for your WordPress website or blog. In case you are still looking for a place to register a domain name, check out our registrars compare page.

Selecting the right Domain Registrar for an individual or business is important. There are many things to consider when selecting a Domain Registrar, but first of all, what is a Domain Registrar? A Domain Registrar is a company that manages the registration of domain names (website names). All domain registrars must themselves be registered and accredited. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is an international non-profit organization that creates contracts and regulations for Domain Registrars to follow.

These regulations make the internet usable and accessible across all platforms. For a list of accredited domain registrars go to ICANN.org and review the domain registrars who are compliant with the RAA, Registrar Accreditation Agreement. Only choose a Domain Registrar who is accredited with ICANN to ensure proper service.

What to Consider

Cost

The pricing for domain name registration varies widely and depends primarily on the type of TLD, Top Level Domain, desired. A Top Level Domain refers to the suffix attached to the end of the domain name. For example, in www.example.com, the '.com' portion is the top level domain and 'example' is the domain name. In the past there were only a few types top level domains available, such as '.com' and '.org'. Now there are hundreds of different TLDs to choose from ranging from '.agency' to '.discount' and more. The more specific or exotic the TLD, the more it will cost to register the domain name.

Not all domain registrars offer a wide selection of TLDs. Domain registrar, NameCheap.com, does offer many of the newer top level domains and you can browse them here. It is good to shop around because different registrars will have varying prices for the same domain names. Domain names with '.com' still continue to be the least expensive and most reliable TLD available, with an average price of $10 per year.

Length of Registration

The length of registration for a given domain name factors in to the cost of the registration. All domain registrars offer yearly and multi-year plans, all with renewal options. When registering for a plan it is important to note exactly how long the domain name will be registered for, what the renewal fee is, and whether it is an automatic renewal.

WHOIS Privacy

Register a domain name can expose your personal information such as name, email, address, and phone number to other person that can be easily checked by WHOIS Lookup tool. WHOIS privacy is a common practice because all of that information is free and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. It is not unusual for someone to begin receiving spam or even email phishing scams after registering a domain name without WHOIS privacy.

Some Domain Registrar's offer WHOIS privacy protection for free. This protects the registered domain owner's information from display publicly. Instead the information comes up as private with some contact information for the Domain Registrar. If a Domain Registrar is offering WHOIS privacy for a fee, it is probably because their service is inexpensive to begin with.

Registrar-Lock

Registrar-Lock is a function of top level domains where the domain name is locked, or unchangeable, from the name of the authorized registered owner of the domain. The registrar lock prevents any unauthorized activity, such as domain transfers. A good Domain Registrar will automatically enable registrar lock on every registered domain.

Unlike WHOIS privacy, domain name registrar usually offers this service for free without any extra cost. To unlock the domain, the client would need to contact the Domain Registrar to have the domain unlocked or possibly the client has the ability to do this themselves through the Domain Registrar's website.

Transfer Fees

Some domain registrars have a fee associated with moving to a new domain registrar or 'transferring-out'. If there is a chance of needing to transfer the domain registrar for a website, it is important to check how much the transfer fee is to move the domain from the registrar and also be aware of a 'transfer-in' fee from the new domain registrar. Some domain registrar's do not charge a fee for domains transferred into their service, but will often charge an additional year of whatever the cost is of registering a domain for one year.

For example, if Joe moves Joe.com from his previous registrar to a new one, his new registrar charges Joe $10 for one year or registration and an additional $10 for the transfer itself. If Joe's previous registrar has a 'transfer-out', Joe will be paying even more.

Easy to Use

Domain maintenance can be relatively simple and require little effort beyond the initial registration. However, this can be a problem once you have many domains under the same account. Good domain registrar should have a good bulk domain management system allowing its user to easily manage multiple domains at once instead of updating it one by one.

In addition, user should be able to log in to the Domain Registrar's website and easily navigate to the different areas of interest such as renewals, transfers, or authorization codes. A good member portion of their website and good user interface is indicative of good quality.

Customer Service

Good customer service is irreplaceable. Many good domain registrar's offer 24/7 customer service availability for email and good hours for phone and webchat. This service is absolutely essential when something is not going as planned, both technical and billing problems.

Good customer service goes beyond being available. It is also about not constantly attempting to sell clients more than they have already paid for because they are calling for help with a service they do not understand or a product that is not working. Good customer service is a positive indicator that a Domain Registrar is doing their best for their customers.

Fine Print

It is imperative to read the fine print. This is important for any contract. Registering for a domain name is entering into a contract with the Domain Registrar. The fine print is where the information about domain authorization codes, transfer-in and transfer-out fees, renewal fees, and other potential 'hidden fee's may be found. Scrolling to the bottom and clicking 'agree' could lead to surprises that a domain buyer was not previously aware of. Taking the time to read the contract and understand what is being agreed upon is essential to keeping hidden fees at bay.

In Conclusion

It is best to choose an ethical Domain Registrar. An informed buyer will not choose a company that offers the cheapest, rock-bottom pricing for their domains, nor one that charges far more than a domain is worth. Taking the time to read reviews and customer feedback of potential Domain Registrars and taking special consideration for the topics mentioned in this article will ensure domain name buying success. Or just simply look at our top domain registrars list.

WordPress website owners occasionally need to make updates. Web administrators that want to improve a website's appearance with a little privacy from the public employ coming soon or launch pages. These pages place a shield of privacy between the actual website and the public, so designers can modify their website's theme, design or content to perfection before making it openly available. Coming Soon pages are also great for creating a little buzz before launching a new site. The Best WordPress Plugins for Coming Soon Pages include email capture forms, allowing users to capture their contact information for future communications.

Why Not Use a WordPress Coming Soon Theme?

During discussions of WordPress coming soon pages, the idea of using a WordPress coming soon theme sounds like an easy fix. People might ask, "Why not go with that option? It seems like the most logical choice." Except it isn't. The idea of using a coming soon theme seems simple, but using one is actually more problematic than it's worth. Using a WordPress themes actually changes the entire appearance of the website, thus locking someone out from the actual site's layout. Using a WordPress plugin will actually leave content and layout undeterred and accessible when logged in. It simply provides a secure wall between the public audience and the website, giving administrators the opportunity to tweak and finalize any changes before they go live. Here are some of the best selections for users interested in WordPress plugins specifically for Coming Soon/Launch Pages.

Easy Coming Soon

The name says it all. The Easy Coming Soon plugin gives WordPress owners quick and easy options for constructing a coming soon, launch, or under construction page for their website. The plugin demonstrates compatibility with most WordPress themes, and provides the ability to show different content to logged in users. While the free version provides a default template, the upgraded premium design is easily customizable to help match the site's brand appearance, and includes email collection options for integrating Campaign Monitor and Mailchimp.

The Ultimate Coming Soon Page

The Ultimate Coming Soon Page is a WordPress plugin that provides quick coming soon pages with flexibility and ease. This plugin works with any WordPress theme the admin may have on the site, so interactivity isn't an obstacle. This plugin also allows logged-in users to work on or access the site as usual to get things done without the public peeping.

WP Construction Mode

WP Construction & Maintenance Mode gives visitors an attractive landing page while admins have the ability to conceal either specific pages or the entire website. Between its flexible application and gorgeous design, the WP Construction plugin is almost a must-have for WordPress site owners who plan to perform routine maintenance from time to time. Best of all, this plugin includes the ability to add Google Analytics codes for traffic and data analysis.

SeedProd Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode

SeedProd's Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode provides a number of different licensing options in its premium version. Providing a complete solution in an easy to use plugin, SeedProd offers a rich number of features that allow WordPress site owners to fully customize their experience. One of the plugin's most notable features is its ability to integrate with email marketing platforms. The process is simple too; just a few clicks and Mailchimp, Aweber, Campaign Monitor, or any of the other available options are configured to capture web leads.

Launchpad

Launchpad is another free WordPress plugin used to create launch pages. Launchpad is popular with WordPress owners who desire an integrated countdown timer. The plugin also features social media linking, and allows site visitors to enter their email addresses for future communication. This plugin is compatible with many themes and displays responsiveness in its design.

EZP Coming Soon Page

EZP Coming Soon Page, like the other WordPress plugins listed, can be installed to let website visitors know a website is under construction. EZP Coming Soon Page delivers a highly customizable, professional look that's fully responsive with no HTML required. Site owners have the option to add their own logo, use built-in backgrounds or provide their own branded one to give the page a company look, and preview the results from their Admin panel. Social media support for Facebook, Google+, and Twitter are included, and the page can be selectively disabled for certain URLs as necessary.

Site Offline or Coming Soon

Site Offline or Coming Soon is very useful for those who want to apply a coming soon page before their site goes live. As the admin works site privately, public traffic will simply see their coming soon or maintenance mode page. Site Offline features an easily manageable maintenance mode that activates at the click of a button. It also allows site owners to display customized messages to visitors, provides and admin dashboard notice to alert back end users of when the site's in "maintenance" mode, and provides a responsive design that's flexible to use in several Internet browsers.

Smart Maintenance & Countdown

Smart Maintenance & Countdown is another option for users in search of a WordPress plugin with coming soon page capability. This plugin is particularly easy to set up, and the site can be put into maintenance mode for any user role. Like the other WordPress plugins, website administrators can set custom page titles for the "under construction" feature that includes custom name and a specific message. Smart Maintenance & Countdown provides three attractive templates to choose from, and social media links to Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, in addition to contact information, are also supported.

Responsive Maintenance Pro With Countdown

WordPress administrators can work on their website away from prying eyes. Responsive Maintenance Pro with Countdown provides a stylish Coming Soon or Maintenance Mode page. With 6 fully responsive designs to choose from, including CSS3 animations, Youtube Background video, and plain image, this plugin's design options provide a level of variety not seen with many other plugins. Responsive Maintenance allows companies to add their company logo for branding, employ a countdown timer, and manage roles behind the scenes. Along with the standard features of customizable text, user-friendly setup, social contact integration for Facebook, Google+, and Twitter, this plugin allows users to provide phone and email. What makes this plugin really distinctive is that it works with any WordPress theme or version, it's multi-site supported, BuddyPress supported, and WooCommerce supported, making it robust for more complex websites. Best of all, as it is completely free, there's no reason why Responsive Maintenance Pro isn't one of the best coming soon plugins for WordPress.

Sunrise Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode WordPress Plugin

Sunrise Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode is another WordPress plugin to help administrators launch coming soon pages within minutes. Simply install and activate to create a coming soon or maintenance mode page. Sunrise Coming Soon has several features, including responsive design, the ability to capture email information for future contact, and compatibility with any WordPress theme and version. No programming, coding or design skills are required to use this plugin, making it simple and easy to use for even the most novice WordPress administrator.

Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode

The Minimal Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode plugin gives WordPress administrators the ability to swiftly set up Coming Soon or Launch pages for their websites. It works with any WordPress theme to provide a completely customizable look and feel to match the company's branding. Elements on the page can be arranged according to preferences, and previewed before activation. Minimal's support of W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache Support allows the site to maintain speed. Use of CSS, HTML, and custom URL gateways are also supported.

Have you experienced coming up with a cool and snazzy domain name for your new business only to find out that it's already been taken? It can be difficult to find a good domain name that is perfectly matched for your needs. Sometimes, you even spend hours and hours online looking for the right registered domain name to no avail. But do not lose heart. There are reputable sites out there offering a service to get you any registered domains you want.

Reasons why people buy registered domain names include:

1. Registered domain names are bought to avoid competing providers from acquiring a similar domain. When your competitors get the registered domain for their services and products, you may end up losing visitors to your website as they go to other similarly-named sites.

2. A company may identify a good domain name that will represent their products and services well, but find the name has already been taken. Therefore, the company will look for a registered domain to talk about its business. This is why Apple Inc invested $4.5 million to buy iCloud.com in 2011.

3. People buy registered domain names at a lower price and sell them to buyers at a high price; making a profit. The business of making a profit through domain names is known as domain name flipping.

4. Companies also repossess a lost domain name that had been deleted after the company failed to redeem it or felt no longer needed it. The expired domain name will then be sent to the general public where it will be bought by domain flippers.

There are several sites that offer registered domain names for sale, but only a few have reputable recognition for the domain names they sell. Some of these places are:

Godaddy

Godaddy is one of the most popular domain registrars in the world because of several reasons. The site offers hundreds of registered domains at affordable prices. Plus, the site also offers an auction house service where sellers and buyers meet to trade domains. Sellers who have registered domains use Godaddy's services by listing their domains' firm. Buyers looking for registered domains bid for the names and the highest bidder takes the domain. At Godaddy, buyers need not pay the company any fee for purchasing the registered domains via the auction. Once the buyer wins a domain by auction, the process of the payment transaction is easy and simple, facilitated by Escrow.com and the site's In-House Transaction.

The site is filled with registered domain names that usually go for $500 and above. Godaddy operates by offering expiring and expired domain names to buyers at a low cost. The price is influenced by the number of bidders who want the domain. Where there are many bidders, the domain name will fetch a high price. Provided you are the only bidder for a domain, chances of paying a low price of about $500 will be higher.

SnapNames

SnapNames specifically deals with domain names that are owned by other people. It offers a Buy-It-Now listing where buyers can purchase domain names from domain sellers. With over three million customers, the company offers premium auctions and a private brokerage service. Buyers can get a good domain name without worrying that it has already been taken. By using the snapper technology, the company is connected to exclusive partners to provide domain name buyers with the domain they want once it becomes available.

The most amazing thing with SnapNames is that the buyers can easily get back a domain name that they had previously lost. By searching at the SnapNames database inventory, they will be notified if the name is available within 30 days. If they fail to get back the domain, buyers can make a back-order of the domain, and it will be reserved for them when it is available. Domain name at SnapNames can be bought for as little as $69.

Sedo

Sedo offers an outstanding marketplace where more than two million people meet online to buy and sell registered domain names. The company uses Smart search functions to enable the buyers pinpoint the domain name they want. The company allows dealers to purchase premium domain names from sellers who are looking to sell such domains. Instead of negotiating for a favorable domain name price with the seller, buyers can contact Sedo to negotiate on their behalf. Sedo domain register will get buyers the domain name at the appropriate price while keeping their anonymity to the seller.

With the sites' direct Auction tool, sellers are allowed to start a direct auction of their domains and set reserve prices for $59 anytime they want. Once the sellers' lays down the minimum bid, Sedo immediately features the domain on their home page and the matching search results.

Namejet

The auction house boasts of over ten thousand auctions of domains every month. Namejet has an exclusive relationship with domain registrar and for the expiring domains; they give a pre-release status that is listed for thirty-five days. Buyers who make a domain order within the thirty-five days get a three-day private auction. Namejet offers ultra-premium and some of the most valuable registered domain names at affordable prices. Namejet allows buyers to make a back-order request with currently registered domain names.

Namejet offers pre-release services where it gets the domain for the buyer although it has not yet acquired it. Where there are a lot of buyers who want the same domain, Namejet will then go into a private auction with the buyers who bid for that specific domain. The auction for the domain will last about three hours and will be auctioned after one day after Namejet acquires it. The company has developed a mobile site where buyers can purchase registered domains through mobile functionality. The site also has featured auctions, both from registries and private sellers. Their service involves giving the buyers a filter set up that enables them to get monthly emails that have keywords phrase of the domains.

DomainNamesSales.com

Some of the great domain names can be found at DomainNamesSales.com. The site regularly transacts business with Godaddy and other registered domain name dealers to give users a powerful experience while purchasing registered domains. The platform is free to join, and buyers are individually engaged on how to get the best of the domain names. The site has an iPhone application where buyers can easily get offers, inquiries and communicate with brokers in real time. There is a large pool of premium domains that willing buyers can purchase at DomainNamesSales.com. With a price quote on the home page, buyers of registered domain names can easily identify the price quotes offered by the DNS platform.

To obtain a registered domain at DomainNamesSales.com, buyers submit an inquiry or call the brokerage team and the buyer is presented with clients from all over the sphere. Offers made online are assigned to a broker who immediately contacts the domain name seller on the buyer's behalf. This strategic method offers an efficient way of acquiring registered domain names with ease and satisfaction. Payment can be made using bank wire, checks, VISA, MasterCard, American Card or Discover Card.

Many people are making money online by buying domain names at a lower price from domain name auction houses. They make an extra amount by selling the names to buyers at a higher price. Just like buying a commodity for a lower price and selling it at a higher price, the same applies to domain names. This process is known as domain flipping. Domain name flipping has become a common occurrence, facilitated by outstanding companies, which auction domain names. One such reputable domain name registrar that has gained worldwide recognition with its domain auction house is Godaddy.

Godaddy Auction House money making strategy heavily relies on the amounts of good domains you have. If you can come up with something good, it's recommended to get it now before someone takes it. $14.99 investment can easily turn into $1,000 without having to do anything.

Understanding the Godaddy Auction House Functionality

Godaddy auction house is an online market platform where buyers and sellers meet to exchange domain names. Godaddy allows sellers to list their domains and sells them to willing buyers who have the highest bid. Once the domain gets a buyer, Godaddy charges a small fee to the seller. Through the auction, buyers can broker a domain name that is soon to expire at an affordable price. The price is usually lower when the domain bidding period is soon going to expire. Chance of being the only bidder of a domain are high when the bid period is almost over, giving buyers the opportunity to buy the domain at a lower price. If Godaddy finds no bid for a domain, the company will delete the domain name and make it available for a hand registration. Godaddy not only facilitates selling of the domain names but also sells some domain names at the auction house. When domain buyers are unable to renewal their domain name for whatever the reason, the domain is taken back by Godaddy. A good number of people allow their domain to expire every day while some come to a point where they no longer need the domain. Since the domain registrar wants to make money from the non-renewed domain, they send the domain back to the auction house.

How to Auction Domain at Godaddy

The seller should start by creating a free account with Godaddy. The seller sets the search results to display the frequency at which to receive text message alerts. The account will have details of the default payment type, auction listings to view per page, enabled or filtered adult domain names. Buyers are allowed to search through domain names coming before the bidding period expires. The domain auction house allows people to list as many domains as they wish. To accomplish this, the seller needs to list the domain name as an Offer Counter, Offer or Counter Offer with Buy Now auction type. Counter Offer with Buy Now auction type is considered a violation of Universal terms of service that the seller agreed upon while setting up Godaddy auction account. If the domain name is listed as a Public Auction, the seller can only list it with Godaddy. The site offers an amazing Afternic promotion where buyers can instantly can purchase immediately sell their premium domain names in a hassle free mode. Afternic is a premium domain name market with more than five million premium domains in the market. Domain dealers need to create an account with Godaddy to include their Afternic domains listing.

Buyers and Sellers Verification Process

Godaddy auction house has a simple verification process aimed at protecting both the buyers and sellers of domain names. To be fully verified, both must provide their PayPal contact details. The information is meant to protect the two parties from fraudulent activities at the Godaddy auction house. There are two types of auction inventory at Godaddy that require verification. Value Priced, which refer to domain names, have been reacquired by Godaddy and are being auctioned. The second auction inventory that requires verification is Expiry Auctions. These are domain names that have expired, not yet renewed and available for auction.

How to Get a Registered Domain Not Available at Godaddy

Godaddy allows buyers to get a registered domain that is not available at the auction house. Using a service known as Our Domain Buy Service, Godaddy assigns an agent to the buyer who will work to contract at the current registrant and negotiate a transaction on his behalf. The service is meant to protect the buyer and guarantee that the money demanded together with the domain name are exchanged once the transaction is finalized.

Godaddy's Push to Auction Service

The company's domain auction house offers a useful service known as Push to Auction; a feature that lets the dealers convert their domain name listings from Counter Offer to a 7-Day Public Auction. When the buyer chooses to push the counter offer listing to bidding, the offer will be the opening bid in the seven-day public auction. Since Godaddy converts the offer to bid, it's not possible for the buyer to cancel the listing or add a reserve price after the Push to Auction. In case a listing made by the buyer to Push to Auction has multiple offers, Godaddy makes the highest bid to become the opening bid, and all the pending offers are then canceled. Domain names are added to watch list for every member who made an offer. The members who made the offers are informed of the change and given a link to the auction.

Higest Bidden Might Not Get the Domain Name Here

There is no guarantee that the highest bidder will get the domain name at Godaddy. Reasons include failure to meet the reserve price for the domain name set by the seller. For the buyer to win auctions that have a reserve price, they must either meet or exceed the reserved price. The highest bidder may also fail to get the domain name in case the auction house decides to extend the duration of the auction. Godaddy may extend the time when there are several bids brought at the last moments, and the auction is set to end.

How to Make Profit with Godaddy Auction House

1. Identify the correct domain to flip

Buyers need to develop strategies for identifying great domains to flip. Having a poor domain name is risky and can bring losses. Some names cannot fetch buyers since they are naturally unappealing. The secret lies in identifying a domain name that buyers will want. One key strategy to use is to look for people who have sites that relate to the domain name. For example, if buyers purchased a domain name like newairlife.com, they can use search engines like Google to identify sites that deal with air activities or animals that live in air. Get their contacts and email them requesting if they are interested in the domain.

2. Create an online payment account

To make money online by flipping domain names using Godaddy auction house, buyers start by creating an online payment account that will facilitate payment transactions. Arrangement for a simple payment through the internet since domain name auction takes place over the internet. Escrow and PayPal are some of the best accounts to use with Godaddy auctions.

3. Sell Domains for 100% profit

To be always on the safe side, always sell domain names at Godaddy auction houses with a 100 percent amount of the buying price. If one wins a bid at the auction house for a domain name valued at $1000, and then set the selling price at $ 2000. While it is not a rule, it is a good way to ensure that buyers get a worthy profit for their domain.

4. Identify expiring domains

Buyers should consider buying domain names that are older. These are the domains that are being auctioned after owners failed to renew them. The dealer might get lucky and find a domain name that every buyer wants. Not only consider older domains but also go for premium domains.

5. Deal with domains that have generic names

Using words, which describe a product or service is a great investment in the domain auction market. Buyers want domain names that explain their businesses and organizations. If a buyer is bidding for a domain at Godaddy auction house, then they should make sure the domain has a generic name. They should also consider domain name that describe geographical locations. It will sell to web developers seeking to create a website based on geographical locations.

6. Figure out why the owner of the domain name decided to drop

Dealers should try to figure out why the owner of the domain name decided to drop it. Knowing the reason will help the buyer avoid purchasing inappropriate domain names that may never be bought. When one buys a domain, his expectation is to sell it at a higher price. Although it is not absolute, getting the right domain name will not only get one a high profit but also attract a lot of bidders for the domain. Use tools like DNSalePrice.com to compare the pricing of previous domain names.

7. Go for the Top –Level Domain (TLD).

Domain buyers must ensure that they have the most sought after domain names. For incredible outcome, they should go for the Top –Level Domain (TLD). These are domains that end with .com, .net and .org will get a higher price and more buyers than domain names that end with names like .biz. Dealers should avoid domain names that make no sense. These are named like frlllk.net, ilfgr.com, re.com. Buyers will evade purchasing such names since nobody will remember such names making it difficult for website users to search for the name in search engines. Keep off misspelled domain names and one with many symbols and wordings.

8. Auction during evening hours

Auction the domain names at Godaddy auction house during evening hours when people are home after work. The strategic time will see many buyers flocking the auction house, unlike daytime hours.

9. Generate traffic for the domain

Buyers can improve the value of the domain by forwarding that simple domain name to a web page. Doing so will generate traffic for that domain. Since the domain may take several days or months before getting to the right buyer, it's good to increase its value rather than keeping it parked up displaying only a website notifying the visitors that the domain is parked.

10. Identify the key value for the domain

Domain dealers need to determine the key value for the domain. To successfully put the domain name in Godaddy auction house and get a bidder is not easy. It is because there are hundreds of other domain sellers against them. Dealers want to attract buyers to the website within the shortest time possible and generate profit. To accomplish this, buyers must determine the key value of the domain name to enable it to generate visitors who visit Google and search for names similar to that of the domain. Buyers want a domain build on great keywords that will enable their websites embrace visitors.

Godaddy Auction House money making strategy heavily relies on the amounts of good domains you have. If you can come up with something good, it's recommended to get it now before someone takes it. $14.99 investment can easily turn into $1,000 without having to do anything.

Godaddy Auction House Fee

So far, there is no fee charged by Godaddy to buyers other than the one-year renewal fee. The firm facilitates payment transaction of the domain name. Where the domain name sells for an amount below $5,000, Godaddy will process the transaction in-house through Transaction Assurance. With transaction assurance, the buyer pays for the domain to Godaddy auction house. The transaction Assurance then approves the fund within five days. After the verification process, the domain name is shifted from one account to another. Once the account is moved from Godaddy, payment transaction to the seller is initiated by Godaddy. The fund is held by Godaddy for 20 days before being released to the domain name seller. Where the domain name sells for an amount exceeding $5,000, the auction house will process the payment transaction using Escrow.com. Escrow.com emails the buyer and the seller with detailed instructions after the buyers finalize the transaction with Godaddy. Escrow held and approved the funds in an account that bears no interest. The buyer then contacts the seller and shortly after, the seller initiates an accounting change from Godaddy to another account or initiates a domain transfer. The buyer has only 15 days to file a dispute in case he does not receive the domain name. After the buyer notifies Escrow that he has received the domain name, Escrow takes the processing fees and issues the funds to the seller.