Domain Name Registration Only for Free Minds Free Lines Part II

Continued from Page 1

How to register a domain name

If you also believe that it’s time to register domain name for your blog, then read on.

Let’s now talk about how to register a domain name. I’m sorry if you have WordPress because even if most of the web loves this Linux based programming, I don’t. Not that I hate it because I know there are many benefits of using WordPress for a blog but I still don’t like it period.  I still prefer Blogger and all things Google. I love them more for a few other things which I’d like to talk about some other time (they actually do respond to small people like us).

Blogger domains can benefit the most from custom domains. The service allows an existing Blogspot address to upgrade to a custom domain. The migration process normally takes 2-3 days and while the new address is not yet 100% live, the old address can be accessed. The Blogger redirect domain service is very convenient. Any attempts to visit the old site URL leads to the new domain instead. The web hosting service by the way remains free and your blog gets registered with either eNom or Go Daddy.

Domain name vs. web hosting

Domain names registration refers to the process of registering your ownership of a website or blog address. Web hosting on the other hand literally refers to the whole concept of subscribing to a web hosting service in order to have your site hosted online.

Most providers offer services will have you pay to register domain and be hosted, separately. Some can offer cheap domain names or maybe even let you register a domain name for free but the catch will be on the web hosting fees. The .blogspot.com domain is completely free except that the generic URL is there. So there’s actually nothing that’s 100% free.

Also, free domain name registration only, particularly for blogs will need you to keep the host blog platform in the URL (as mentioned earlier). This applies to most blogging platforms not only Blogspot but also WordPress, Tumblr, Type Pad, Live Journal, and so on. Web hosting providers on the other hand that offer free domain name registration service may pass the fees to the web hosting part.

If there are any services which offer both free domain name registration and free web hosting, there is still a catch. They have advertisements all over your blog. Worse, your site may catch suspicious and malicious software from the provider.

As for Blogger, it lets you keep the free web hosting already available under the generic domain so you only pay for the registration of the domain. The whole process of updating the URL of blog domains in this platform is also simple and convenient. A domain name checker automatically tells you whether or not a domain is still available. If it is, you can continue to Google’s Checkout or payment page. Registration of the domain will be through either eNom or GoDaddy. Making changes in between in between the Checkout page switches the service provider from GoDaddy to eNom and vice-versa.

Domain name registration process

The domain name registration process is similar in most providers whether it’s a new domain or an old one. You will have to submit the desired URL to a domain name checker which can automatically detect whether or not it still available. Related domain names may appear in case the URL you want already belongs to someone else. Suggested domains can be of a different top level domain name extension such as .net, .org., .com, etc. Dashes and hyphens may also be inserted to make it look a little bit different from an existing domain. I won’t pick these though if I were you and would rather just think of a completely different name instead.

As for the types of top level domains mentioned earlier, let’s just talk about a quick comparison. The .com was primarily created for business purposes but has now been widely embraced as the main and most acceptable top level domain in the world. The .net domain on the other hand represents a network of sites associated or interlinked with each other. The .org domain is supposed to be for non-profit organizations (hence the name) but these are also used by any form of group online.

For the rest of the domain names, please read this.

Going back to the domain name registration process, you’re almost done after you buy domain name. Payment is settled. You agree to the terms and conditions (must be read especially by someone who gets banned in sites like I am).  Everything else remains the same except for links and widgets you need to fix as they appear broken after an update of the URL. In case you’re registering a domain from scratch with no blog built yet, then that’s a different story.

Last Note

The domain name registration only for Free Minds Free Lines blog is complete now and the new URL is finally live, so welcome to the new blog!