Beware Of The Strings Attached To Getting A Free Domain Name For Life
Beware Of The Strings Attached To Getting A Free Domain Name For Life
There are a few web hosting companies around that offer a free domain name for life as part of their marketing technique or as a special deal, but in reality they are not really free as there are usually strings attached to the free domain name for life promotion. In this article we will look at how these promotions work and what they actually mean in terms of what you have to do to keep the free domain name for life.Firstly, if you ever see the offer of a free domain name for life the first thing that you must check out before you do anything else is find out who actually owns the domain. You may think that it will be you but some companies will register the name themselves then let you use it while you are using them, but if you try to leave and move the domain name you will suddenly find that you can not as it is not yours, or they will try and sell it to you.
So, make sure that you know who owns the domain name before you do anything else.
Now that that important part is out of the way, here is how the free domain name for life offers and promotions usually work.
These companies that make this offer usually offer it as part of a package deal.
For example you have to sign up for a year hosting and when you renew your hosting after the first year, they will renew your domain - in effect giving you a free domain for life as long as you keep your hosting with them.
Another example that I came across the other day was that you had to get a new domain name with them - you could not transfer in a domain name that you already owned from somewhere else.
Registering a domain and hosting a domain are two separate things and can be done at two separate places.
If you want to move your hosting to another company you are free to do so, but you may then find out that your old hosting company that was offering the free domain name for life will not renew your domain name as you are no longer using them.
In this case you need to make sure that before you move a domain name away from a host that was offering a free domain name for life, that you have control of your domain and that you can update the Name Server records for your domain, else you will find that you have moved your domain but you can not get the new site showing in a browser as it is still pointing to the old site.
Web Hosting With Free Domain Name
When signing up for a web hosting account, be sure to take advantage of the promotional items. Many hosting companies offer free domain names to entice new customers to sign up. Along with your hosting, you should be getting a free domain name. A domain name cost about $10 a year. So that means you are getting a $10 discount upfront on your hosting plan.What happens if you wish to change web host?
Don't worry, your domain name won't be stuck with your hosting company. But you must transfer your domain name out to your favorite registrar (like GoDaddy or NameCheap) after you sign up for your hosting. The domain is free - it is given to you. You should have full control over the domain name. The only way to regain control is to request for a transfer. Send a support ticket to your hosting company, mentioning that you would like the domain to be transferred to your registrar. They will revert with the transfer instructions.
Once the domain has been transferred out, remember to change your domain name servers to point back to your servers. Otherwise, you will experience down time.
A domain name can become a very valuable brand. So even though it's offered to you free of charge, don't just register for any domain name. Make sure you pick one that suits your business.
You can make as many searches as you like on the web hosting site to see if the names that you want are available. Try to choose domain names that contain your primary keywords in it. For example, if you are selling "basketball shoes", you may wish to register something like "basketballshoes dot com". Always choose a dot com extension if it's available. A dot net or dot org will do as well, but they are not really meant for commercial sites.
After you have transferred the domain name to your registrar, you can switch hosting companies any time you like.
To do so, start by signing up for a new hosting account. Don't terminate your existing hosting account yet. Transfer all the files and databases to the new server. Sometimes, if you give the login details to the support department of the new company, they may even transfer everything for you. Test out the site on the new server. If everything works out fine, it's time to make changes to your domain name servers (DNS).
Go to your registrar, and make a request to change the DNS. You have to modify at least two fields - the primary DNS and the secondary DNS. Once the changes have been made, the site migration will take place. Do be patient and allow up to 48 hours for the information to be updated. If the domain name still point to your old server after 48 hours, recheck the DNS, and send an email to your registrar to see what could have gone wrong.
