What are some pitfalls when registering a .com domain name and how do you avoid them?

I have no experience registering a .com domain name and am looking into how to do this. I came across a site which lists “10 things you must know before you register a domain name with anyone.” The site's really an advertisement for a particular domain name registrar, but it does seem to list valid warnings; from what I understand, among the most important things it warns about are registrars who:

Charge "transfer-out" fees when you move a domain name from them to another registrar
Lock you to their services through “registrar-lock ” or by withholding the “domain auth-code ” from you
Charge fees if you want to edit your whois database record
Register your domain in such a way that they are the legal owner rather than you (through “premium whois privacy services”)

Are there other pitfalls that I should watch out for? How do I avoid them? How much should I expect to be paying for registering a .com domain for 1 year while avoiding such problems?

Web Domain

asked Sep 29 '12 at 23:42

Rinzwind
116 points

Top digital marketing agency for SEO, content marketing, and PR: Demand Roll

2 Answers

Well there is always plenty out there to scare you. It is basically a very trivial task.

If you have any friends that have websites ask them who they register their domains with.

If a registrar has online chat ask them your queries.

If you worry about people whois'ing your domain and finding your details pay extra to have these details hidden. What I do is register my domains under my accountants address and therefore don't care if people see this address.

Ultimately a .com domain should cost you about $10 - $15 per year. Try someone like GoDaddy. They are just fine for registering domains and I have never had issues with them. I'm not promoting them I'm just showing you one of the big dogs out there.

Good luck with finding a decent .com!

answered Sep 30 '12 at 04:18

Haraldo
86 points

I remember GoDaddy blocking everyone who wanted to go out during CISPA protest. – Abhijit Navale 11 years ago

To avoid the pitfalls consider some factors given below:
1) Domain names should be unique and always choose short domain name.
2) Don't use hyphens and numbers in your domain name.
3) It should be easy to spell.
4) Choose the name that should be relevant with the content of your website for (e.g)if your website is about beauty equipments like makeup kits, cosmetics etc... you can choose your domain name as Beautyqn.com and so on.
) Avoid Trademarks
5) While choosing domain extension try to get the domain names in .com or .net or .org.
Get the reliable domain names at the site Tucktail.com,at low cost.You can check your Domain name details using the site WhoisXY.com whether it is correct or not.

answered Apr 29 '13 at 15:29

Lucas54
11 points

Domain names have to be unique and as for finding short ones even junk like zrdv.com will most likely be gone! As for hyphens the jury is out on that one though I do agree on avoiding numbers for the most. The main thing to realise is that people very rarely actually remember a domain and type it in so SEO/SEM is actually more important than the domain name especially as most if not all good names are long gone! – Bhttoan 11 years ago
Try a simple hypenated domain name experiment. Make up a domain with and without a hypen. Time how long it takes to tell 50 people to write the domain name down, with and without a hypen. Count the number of people who made a mistake in each case. Hypens always lose. – Gary E 11 years ago