How to register a domain name

November 7, 2006

Several folk have been asking me how I was able to get my own domain name late last year. Getting a domain name is actually much easier than one could imagine. Most people decide to get their own domain for prestige and brand recall, and yes, I do agree. It is time to claim your identity in online real estate. Of course, with the domain name comes the hosting: it is like milk and cookies (or beer and chicharon) – if you get one, you should have the other.

I bought mine from Big Sky Media a year ago but have hosting elsewhere (b5media gives free hosting to their bloggers as part of our company benefits … I am hosted here … apparently we’re neighbors with Engadget and Oscar de la Renta too).

You can also get your domain from Ploghost, and have them host it for P75.00/mo per 2GB of bandwidth per month. Another good hosting company is Mobile Hive, of whom I have dealt with in the past and have almost never experienced any downtime. They’re also good. Another good option is Pinoy Web Hosting.

If you belong to a non-government organization and would like to have your own website, Gary of Exchange.ph can host it for free. Read on for his terms.

Average Pricing for Domain Hosting Value Meal
Domain: P600.00
Hosting: P75.00/mo 2GB bandwidth
based on Ploghost data but may apply to most local web hosting

In sum total, a “starter kit” for your domain plus hosting would cost you about P1,500.00 which isn’t bad at all. This takes into account that you’re registering a non .ph site.

Some things to consider when getting a domain:

I never really realized it at first but getting a domain that start with the letter A or has numbers may help rank you at #1 in a web site’s blogroll. Getting my domain name to start with an A was purely coincidence

If possible, pay for more than one year of hosting. The search bots can detect whether your domain has been registered for the long term which will make them think that you’re in it for the long run.

A .ph domain costs more than a regular .com / .net / .biz. There is a story behind this but it is something best left to the annals of Google search. So, are you willing to spend an extra P1,000 a year to be more patriotic?

Comments

10 responses to “How to register a domain name”

November 7, 2006

noemi

You’re right about the domain name starting with “a”. Mine starts with “a” too . In less than 2 months, I got a page rank of 5.

Anyway, to add to your list of webhosting plans, allow me some shameless plugging… from my own webhosting business. The link is somewhere in my blog site.
November 7, 2006

Jayvee

i shall!
November 8, 2006

kid

for bullet number 2, is it the domain registration or the web hosting that search bots detect?
November 8, 2006

gary

hey jayv, thanks for plugging the Free Websites for NGOs project.

read your points. Re #2, I would hold off paying a year’s worth of hosting until I’m sure of the host’s performance. There are a lot of fly – by – nighters out there, and I’ve had my share of nightmares before I found someone reliable.

I’m with MobileHive right now, and I like them (actually just one or two guys I think), primarily because you can call / text him whenever there’s a prob. Last week my sites were shut when I exceeded the bandwidth allotted for my plan and a quick call later, my account was up again no problemo. Let’s see you do that with foreign hosts. He’s also on YM all the time. I’d put the ability to quickly talk to your host as priority #1.

Other factors to look for are Cpanel integration, and payment convenience. They can be paid via BPI / Gcash so that helps me a lot. Oh and finally, consider buying domains at Yahoo Small Biz, which sells them dirt cheap at less than $4 I think.

Anyway haba na nito. Thanks again!
November 8, 2006

noemi

jayvee-thanks I didn’t want to blatantly plug but thanks anyway.
November 8, 2006

Ronnie

I’ve been a reader of your blog for a few months already (and I’ve added it to my blogroll — I hope you don’t mind). I’ve been thinking of switching to paid hosting and getting a domain for myself, and what good timing your post had with my need. Thanks for the info!

By the way, if I get paid hosting and domain, how can I make sure that the domain name is registered in my name? Do I really need to register the domain name on my own before approaching any webhost to do this?

Thanks again!
November 8, 2006

Jayvee

ronnie,

you can actually do both at the same time. the only reason why i got my domain name seperately was because i already had a hosting plan available previously.

and yes, the domain will be under you name when you register so its no problem.
November 9, 2006

Seriously Considering Paid Domain & Hosting « Hmmm? Hmmm! Hmmm…

[…] I’ve been thinking about getting paid hosting for a few months already. The thought of getting a domain name of my choice and a host to run my preferred CMS (and let me have a great deal of control over it) could satisfy a little bit of geek lust in me. What great timing when one of the blogs that I read discussed some points in registering a domain name here in the Philippines. […]
November 10, 2006

jun

i had mine registered with yahoo ($3.99) for the first year, and 9.95 for the next. I’ve also done it with iPower (a bit cheaper) though yahoo is more efficient and better in terms of control and dns resolutions.

Yahoo occasionally makes a sale at 2.99 for the first year. You have to check every now and then when it comes out.

Anybody went with GoDaddy?
November 10, 2006

Ronnie

jun,

Isn’t it quite difficult to get hosting from another country? What I mean is, support-wise, isn’t it hard to contact someone (by phone, email, or SMS) if problems arise?