The Tech Mind

paan 2 April 2008 Featured, Tip & tricks 1,881 views 3 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

Well, now that you’ve made the hard decision on what your domain name is going to be. You want to go ahead and register it. First thing you should know that not all domain registrar are the same. Some are more expensive than others here I will give you a few examples of sites that offer cheap domain name registering.

First and foremost, never search for domain availability at Network Solutions’ website. They put a hold on the domains that you searched so that you can’t buy it from anyone but them(at a high price). I REALLY REALLY hate them. But just do a search on  “network solution” and “front running” enough people rant about them already.

Ok, moving on.

Typically a  .com domain goes for USD10(Google Apps - USD10/yr, Yahoo Domains - USD9.95/yr, GoDaddy - USD 9.99/yr and pretty much everyone else is offering it at USD 10/yr) , USD10 is a good midrange price. Some companies offer .com domain names at the expensive price of USD 30. Stay away from these companies and all their other products(register.com, Enom, network Solutions)(I won’t even link to to them, HA!).  Local companies usually give these out for RM50(Exabyte -RM55, Serverfreak - RM40/yr), but a lot of companies also offer it for RM80. So usually it’s better to buy it from overseas companies at USD10. (espcially now with the USD at 3.1 RM).
Edit: Some local company actually do provide budget domain names at RM30 ( MercuMaya -RM30/yr)

Shopping around, you can find real cheap .com domains that go at around USD6/yr (Netfirm - USD 5.95/yr, Name.com - USD5.99/yr, MadDog (USD 6.95/yr) ) , most companies that sells domain at USD10 will also let you have the domains at these prices if you register for 2 or 3 years.

.my domains are a more expensive. Typically it goes at around RM100/yr. With some companies offering it at around RM80. Furthermore a .com.my requires you to have a Malaysian bussiness license

If you are on a budget. A .info domain are now selling really cheap at around USD 1/yr. (ix-one.com - USD1.99/yr, GoDaddy - USD0.99/yr,)

If you are REALLY on a budget. A .tt domain is available free at Joynic.

Shop around.Some registrar provide whois privacy where the registrar info is on the whois lookup, as a protectection against spam abuse. Or just as a privacy matter. This is good for individuals but bussiness sometimes like to put the info up on the whois so that they can be reached easier. And if you are not tech savvy maybe a company with a good support is an important issue for you. Also remember that web hosting companies also sometimes bundle free hosting with their hosting plans. So please consider these issue also when deciding on where to get your domain from.

This is just a basic overview of the domain name price. If you have any tips. Please feel free to share them. I conclude this with a list of my recomended domain name registrar.

1. Netfirm (http://www.netfirms.com/) USD 5.95/yr (18+-) (I use this)
2. MercuMaya (http://www.mercumaya.net/domain_details.html) RM30 (support local, Malaysia boleh! :D)