Domain names and email addresses for my new business

[Merguez]

Hi - I know there are a number of threads on this but I don't seem to be able to find the answer I'm looking for.

I need to buy a simple .co.uk domain name and get email addresses to go with it. Don't want to pay any more than I need to.

But I am going to get the website hosted elsewhere. So far I think names.co.uk looks quite good value. Anyone got any experience of using them, or able to recommend any others?

Have also looked at 123-reg but business email addresses start at £4.99 a month which seems like a lot.

Many thanks!

I use Easyspace a lot. You can register domain names and just 'park' them until you're ready to use them.
Or you can buy webhosting from them too, in which case you usually get the first year's domain name registration for free.

123's hosting package includes email addresses - although they don't make that abundantly clear on their website!

Once you OWN the domain you can have a billion email addresses if you want - it's Y.O.U.R.S! - but only if your hosting package allows it...

I use fasthosts its £2.49+vat per month for a basic web and email package. They've been good and non patronising when i've rung up with queries and upped/ dwned my package combinations over time.

Don't check possible names out until you're ready to register them otherwise they often get snapped up and others then to try to sell them on to you.

Better to work out a list of names you want in order, then check them out as company names and then domain names - then go for it there and then when you find your highest place name choice.

all my hosting is with 1and1 through Simon of UKSiteBuilder
I pay a bit over 100 a year for website and several domains
am very happy with the service and support

I use 1and1 as well for domain names for me and for my clients, and their web package for myself. I recommend clients use wordpress or another free website tool to start with but use 1and1 to get their domain name, and then they can just set it up to redirect.

Don't know what you're calling it, but do think carefully about your choice of domain name. Ideally you want it to have something that's easy to spell (and to spell correctly if done from memory or told it over the phone), that includes key words to do with you or your business, and doesn't look odd when written out. This will also help with you being found in Google searches. E.g.
www.janestrong.co.uk if your name is Jane Strong. Or www.surreymathstutor.co.uk

therapistdirectory.co.uk is an example banded about to illustrate something that sounded good in theory but looks bad in practise!

Thanks everyone. I ended up going for 123-reg, it was quick and fairly easy and I got the basic email package which was just 99p a month.

So now I have the website and the email address, next stage is to design the site and get it hosted.

Part of my extra cost is that I own several of the permutations of the name to stop copycat sites.
they all mirror to the one hosted site though