OK, I’m helping someone set up a small business webpage. They registered their domain name on namezero, as it’s a free service. I said this all sounds a bit odd. Last I checked, I thought it cost money to register a domain name.
So what is going on with this service? I’ve read the FAQs and still don’t quite understand everything.
The way I’m used to doing it is you register a name and get hosting space, pay $xx a year, upload your HTML and files and you’re done with it. What does this service do? Do I simply get a name, which will be technically registered to them? Does the web site simply act as a pointer, or rather forward you to another site where your real web page is? Are they actually giving me space where to upload my HTML files and images? And, of course, I realize that there’s gonna be a bunch of ads, which I discourage my friend from having.
Basically, I need all the facts to tell my friend to pay the $30 a year or whatever it is to get the full service and need to understanding this service fully to explain to her why.
FYI, I’ve had Geocities accounts for nearly 5 years now and I’ve always disabled the pop-ups and placed the banner ads at the bottom of all my pages. It’s just a simple matter of where you place the coding.
I used Namezero to register my domain, and after one year, it’s not free anymore.
When it comes time to re-register the domain, they want money. It’s not an exorbitant amount, and the longer you go without buying it, the lower the price gets. But I’d still rather register my name with someone with more of a well-known reputation, such as register.com. Namezero is technically of any domain you register with them. That gives you no administrative power, unless you pay their fees (and then I’m kind of sketchy about what powers you have, if any.)
Anyone using a domain for a business name should spend the money to register it using a real registrar. I would definitely would be wary of any business website that’s on a free domain/server. If they’re not going to, at the very least, pay $30 for their own domain, it makes me doubt the quality of their product. A list of companies that are approved to register names can be found here http://www.internic.com/alpha.html . I would go ahead and pay Namezero the money it costs to get rid of the ad banner, and then find out how you go about getting the domain registered in YOUR name, rather than Namezero’s.
Remember… the days of everything-for-free on the internet are coming to an end. A lot of times when you click “OK” to a big long agreement that you didn’t bother to read, somewhere in there they said, “I really own this when all is said and done, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Be cautious with your domain names, and intellectual property. Just because someone offers something for free doesn’t mean they’re well meaning.
OK, so I did understand correctly that it does not supply the space. So then if you have space at Angelfire, and your domain name through NameZero forwards you to that space, then am I assuming correctly that the Angelfire pop-up ads would then appear?
Yep, the popup ads from Angelfire would still show up. Maybe you could find a cheap hosting service that wouldn’t have ad banners/pop-up ads. Or maybe a free one with unobtrusive ad banners at the bottom of the page.
No, no. I don’t want to do that. I want them to pay for it…just need to make sure I have all the info available to explain why they should just fork over the $30 or so. Thanks all!