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4. DO YOU KNOW WHAT MAKES A GOOD DOMAIN REGISTRAR?
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4. Do You Know What Makes a
Good Domain Registrar?
There really isn’t much for a domain registrar to do except record who
registered which domain name, so the only way to tell registrars apart
is by the other services they o er. These services break down into two
broad categories:
Domain management
Q —How easy is it for you to manage your
domains, update information, organize multiple domains, and
so on?
Add-on functions
Q —Does the registrar o er services such as auto
renewal or free e-mail accounts?
If you have only one domain, the quality of a registrar’s domain
management interface might not be all that important. But if you have
more than one, you’ll appreciate being able to easily tell the status of all
your domains, organize them into groups, sort them in various ways,
quickly manage where the domains are pointing, and so on. Figure 1-4
shows an example of a good domain manager layout.
The other important part of a domain management system is the
help function. You deal with domain names once and then maybe not
again for another year or more. Without a good help system, it can be
di cult to remember what you should be doing. Contextual popup help
screens are good, but video tutorials are even be er.
FIGURE 1-4
Importance
Registrars
vs. Hosts
It’s easy to think these
two are one and the
same because so many
registrars offer web
hosting and so many
web hosting providers
offer domain names.
But there is absolutely
no requirement that you
have your domain names
registered through the
company that hosts your
website, or vice versa.
Registering domains
and hosting websites are
two distinct functions.
If you discover a do-
main registrar with bet-
ter pricing or services,
you can transfer your
domain to that other
registrar at any time.
Your existing registrar
should not charge any
fee for this, but the new
registrar will charge you
for an additional year
of registration (which
you would have spent
anyway).
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