Domain Registrar Review

Afternoon Web Wisers!

We've just been discussing domain registrars in our domain registrar review forum. There are so many out there that it's incredibly difficult to find one that suits your needs. Which one should you go with? What experiences do you have with certain registrars. Is there one best domain registrar, or do different registrars have different areas of expertise?

I always say it depends what your needs are. Some registrars will be great for some people, whereas another person may find them awful. Where you are located might even make a difference, maybe you would rather go with someone 'local' so to speak. Domain registrars are a global business so most registrars will let you sign up wherever you are. Don't worry if the domain registrar that someone recommends to you is in Timbuktu ... Chances are you can still use them!

I've come up with 4 important points to consider before you choose a domain registrar:

1. Price - Hate to be a bore but this is an important factor in any purchasing decision. Think about the domains you need and compare prices between a few different registrars. If you only need one domain name then just compare the price of that one TLD. However, lots of us will register a variety of top level domains to protect our brand and give us more geographic reach. This means you'll have to compare a basket of goods to see which domain name registrar provides you with the best value.
2. Support - For me this may be the most important. If something goes wrong with your domain name or you're not sure how to add a DNS record or setup your email, at least you have someone on hand to help! There's a few registrars which I've used in the past where the support team is non existent. I'm talking 14 days to reply to an email. That's just silly and reflects extremely badly on the company. I like to call them up, ask them a few questions and get a feel for the support office before I purchase anything.
3. Other Services - Once you've got your domain name you might need other stuff to. Email is always the first, then web hosting, possibly SSL Certificates plus any other miscellaneous services you need. Personally I like to have as much as I can in one control panel. Others will say don't put all your eggs in one basket. but if one company holds all these things, interconnected issues are so much easier to solve. Again think about value here, are they cheap in one area and astronomical in another?
4. User Interface - Most domain registrars will let you have a look at the user interface you'll be dealing with after your domain registration. I won't name any names but some of them are shocking. I mean terrible. Make sure you've had a quick look round and you can see all the available options without too much trouble. 

Your domain name is incredibly important to you. It's your online first impression and your best branding tool. Don't let a bad domain name registrar ruin your experience!

How do I find a Domain Name?

I'm always wondering how different people find domain names to register.

Well I usually register keyword domain names.

This is how I do it in case you are interested?

Check out my thread here to get my pearls of wisdom!

Create A Website

We often get asked at Web Wise Forum how to create a website. This can get a bit confusing because some people mean a domain name and others mean the actual content held on your web hosting. Let's clarify the issue a bit.

A website is generally considered to be a combination of two main things. A domain name and web hosting. The domain name is the web address that you see in the URL bar above this post in your web browser. 'Blogger.com' for example is a domain name. The domain name itself doesn't have any content. It's just a series of letters that point somewhere on the internet. You can own a domain name and be fully under it's control but set it up to not point anywhere. This means people can type that URL into their browser bar, but nothing will appear. There is no content that matches up with that domain name.

The web hosting is the part of a website that people really use. This is the data, text, images and code that make up the website. See the theme on this blogger blog? The text your reading? All of that has to be held somewhere. Just like a file on your computer. If this data isn't available online how are people going to see it when they type in your domain name? Simply put, they aren't.

So essentially to create a website you first need to get yourself a domain name. There are hundreds of registrars out there, go and find one you like, pick a top level domain and get it set up.

Then you need to choose a web host. To get the best value make sure you think about how much data space you will need? Is your site media heavy? Then you probably need more space! Is it a personal blog where your images and videos are held on Instagram and YouTube? Then don't worry about having a great deal of space. Are you expecting massive amounts of traffic? Ask about your bandwidth allowance. If you just want to set up a basic site, any hosting package will do. But make sure the company responds to your calls and emails before you sign up. This is a great way to try and establish whether or not the company has a good support team and how helpful they are when things go wrong!

I hope that clears up the confusion for a few of you. If you have more questions come along to our web hosting forum and ask away!

Thanks for reading!
Web Wise Forum Admin

Domain Name Glossary

Hi Everyone

Hope you are signed up, introduced and enjoying yourself on Web Wise Forum!

Just to give you a heads up, we run a domain name glossary. This should identify any terms that you have been confused about while researching your domain names.

To give you an example of some of the more common terms:

DNS - Domain Name System. The system via which all domain names are directed to IP addresses. This system allows URLs to work. Without it you would be remembering an awful lot of numbers! 

ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - ICANN coordinate unique addresses across the Internet, from IP Addresses to Domain Names. They coordinate the Domain Name System (DNS), Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, Generic Top-Level Domains and Country Code Top-Level Domains. They are the highest authority in the domain name industry.

WHOIS – A protocol to query the databases that hold all the registrant details of Domain Names, IP Addresses and Networks. This allows Domain Names tobe attributed to a certain person or organisation.

And there is plenty more where that came from!

We have already defined over 50 terms and we plan to keep this growing and up to date. Head over to the thread here and have a look around. Is there a term that you need defined? Are you not sure what that article you read was about. Post in the thread and one of us will get to it as soon as possible!

Let me remind you that the forum is crawled by impartial industry experts who are going to give you the perfect answer without any waffle. That's why our newest members are posting more and staying longer!

So if you haven't already done so I suggest you go and sign up for our domain name forum today!

Web Wise Forum. The only Domain Name Forum you need!

Hi Everyone!

We finally decided to fill our boots with Blogger. (We're massive fans of Google in general!)

Web Wise Forum is one of the best domain name forums online. We discuss all sorts of Internet related stuff; domain names, web hosting, SEO, social media and everything inbetween.

If you head over to the site you will see what I'm talking about.

There are loads of things in the domain name world to discuss. Who is your favourite domain name registrar for example? Or who do you go to when you need web hosting. Our users always give an honest opinion.

We are also privileged enough to have a number of registrar and hosting company staff that visit the forums and give expert answers to your questions. We love to help each other and user answers are normally pretty good but you can't beat an expert opinion!

Besides that, we've also got a domain name selling and buying section with a feedback system embedded in the forum. If you've got a great domain but don't have time to develop it then list it for sale in the 'For Sale' section.

Even further than that we often post offer codes that you can use to get some money off your latest domain name purchase.

So if you've got a problem with your email MX records, your A record isn't propogating correctly, your chosen domain name is taken and you want to find out what people think is a good alternative then look no further.

It would be great to have you all on board with us and have you as part of this amazing community. There's so much to talk about and so many people to give opinions!

What are you waiting for head over to Web Wise Forum now and get yourself signed up!

Just send me, Barney, a private message if you need any help or if your activation has not yet been put through.

Thanks all!

See you on the boards!
David