I prefer using Namecheap as my domain registrar to purchase all of my domains because their interface is easy to navigate through, they don’t have a ton of upsells, I get a free Whois Guard for 1 year, and most importantly; I can buy really good domains on the cheap.
So, remember when you get ready to check out, review your order. Make sure you are only paying for your domain name which is about $10 per year. If you don’t want to be billed automatically annually, make sure you untick the auto re-bill. Namecheap has very good customer service if you ever run into any problems. You can signup for Namecheap here.
If you do not want to purchase web hosting right now because of financial constraints or you just do not want to worry about the technical side of things that Joe mentions in the video, here is an excellent free alternative.
You will still experience the same functionalities of owning your very own website. You just won’t have to deal with nameservers, and web host technicalities. It is analogous to renting an apartment without having the worries that comes with home ownership.
If you have any questions about the signup process, you can contact me here brendanjohnston@homebasedideas.com. I do have one strong recommendation for you. DO NOT register your domain name with Hostgator or any web hosting company for that matter. Here’s why,
When you set up hosting for a website, you can also register your domain through your host (most of the time). For a lot of people, keeping all your website information in the same place sounds like a good idea. You only have to keep up with one set of login information,, passwords, and you know that your host’s technical support staff will make sure everything is configured correctly.
However, you also have the option to register your domain elsewhere and simply point it to your host. This is what I strongly recommend for a number of reasons.
Keep your domain in one place. If you no longer want to host your website with Hostgator, and decide to move your site, you’ll also probably want to transfer your domain if it’s registered with Hostgator or whichever web hosting company you chose.
Domain transfers can be annoying, time-consuming, and confusing. But if you’ve registered the domain elsewhere, you don’t have to do anything except update your DNS settings to point to the new host.
Register all your domains together. You might be thinking, But I only have one website! That may be true, but for many online marketers, we own multiple websites because often times we are involved in different niches.
For example, I own 5 domains right now. If I need to manage them, like when I transferred all my files to my new servers, I can just go to my registrar and mass update the DNS settings.
Added security. A few years ago, a fellow marketer’s website got hacked. Not only did the hackers destroy his site, but they also transferred his domain away from his web host and took it over.
It took months of agony and frustration for him to prove ownership and get everything back. When your domains are separate, even if someone gets access to your files, your domains are safe (assuming you aren’t using the same login and password).
So in the video where Joe is registering his new domain name with Hostagtor, don’t do that. Click on the tab where it says I already own this domain because you already purchased it from Namecheap. Just signup for the web hosting and skip all of the upsells if you don’t want any of them.
Also, if you are on a budget or you just want to try things out and cancel later, you can pay on a month to month basis. This is how to setup web hosting for your new domain name.
As always before you hit the checkout button, make sure the amount you want to pay is correct.
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