Registering a domain name....

[Flubba]

Hi, am thinking about registering a web address for a potential business in the future.

1. Can you recommend a reliable company that won't cost the earth and doesn't have any hidden extras?

2. Is it worth doing now, in case someone else comes along and nicks my idea, even though I may not actually use it for a while?

3. I've never hosted a website before and don't have the first clue about how to do it - am fairly computer literate - is it something I'll be able to do quite easily? Will I have to learn html or some such, or is it a bit like creating a blog on, say, wordpress?

Thanks in advance :)

Should add I've been looking at 123 reg and it seems like a decent enough place to start, but I have no experience, so looking for your expertise and knowledge.

I've used TSOhost and 34SP in the past. Both I find are reliable webhosts and are both UK based which can be handy should you need to contact tech support.

If you are simply registering a domain name for future use (so what may be called Domain Parking), then you can use anyone to do that, though check conditions about transfer of domain - such as any fees involved with a transfer. You may transfer the domain in future to whichever company provides your website hosting.

With regard to webhosting... your website designer (such as Zoe and her team at BWebsites) will be able to arrange that, or you could do it yourself. Some webhosts will provide template based packages to create your own website... can be good initially though anysite based on a template is going to look like another site based on the template.

Your business idea may involve quite a complex website... it may need a shopping facility, order tracking.

I would suggest you think about if you are going to be able to design a website yourself, or if you are going to use a designer... then take things from there. Think about what functionality the website would need to have - is that something you can code, or something that is already provided as part of a package. Does your website need to be Tablet / Phone friendly? Would you need it to be findable easily by search engines. How good are you at creating images for the website... logo, pictures, backgrounds, all sorts of things may be needed depending on what it is you are wanting to do. Lots of things to consider... along with Budget.

You could send an enquiry to a webdesigner with some basic details of the concept... and see what they suggest.

Personally, having created websites myself over the past few years, for something business related I would use a webdesigner, as quite frankly I have not got the time or the energy to be coding things myself, fiddling with code to get it to work on multiple devices/platforms. I would use a content management system, so that the site could be created but have thing updated by me - in a similar way to editing a post on Wordpress.

i used 123, there was another thread about this in freelance topic last week

Thanks nannynick that's really helpful and has given me lots to think about.

Cheers southeastastra will do a search for it.

If you're considering other domains than just .co.uk then may be worth checking prices for .co .com .info .tel at name.com mydomain.com godaddy.com as they have keener pricing than most UK firms for those TLDs

Also, as you can register most others for just a year, whilst .co.uk has to be for 2 and only 2 years, with .com etc you can transfer (eg from godaddy.com to name.com) and often find transfer saves cash.... eg $7.99 rather than a $12.99 renewal fee. Look to do transfer 6 months before renewal date each year, or if we get to good dollar exchange rate ($2 to the pound) then you can transfer every 3 months and build up to an expiry date 10 years away while paying lowest fees :) :)