GoDaddy.com domain registration advice

Godaddy.com is notorious (at least in my mind) for tricking customers. I've registered a few domains with them and have been frustrated when I see the final bill is much higher than I thought it would be. Not because I misread the prices, but because I was tricked.

They use tactics like: making a button say something that might sound like what you need, when in fact, it's actually adding some sort of add-on, like hosting or a blog account or emails. It's confusing.

So, I'm going to go through the process to buy a domain, and comment on the way on what to do and what not to do.

This post is about registering a domain with Godaddy.com, not hosting or anything else.

So, you go to their website here, and there's a menu bar just under their logo. It's about two inches from the top. There's a link on the far left called Domains. When you roll over that, a long menu drops down. Look for Register or Transfer a Domain and then just under that, Register a Domain.

On this page, right under the title Start your domain name search here! you need to type in the domain you are looking for and click search. This will take you to the results page.

You could alternately type in the domain you want in the box called Domain Search and click Go. This interface is somwhere in the middle of the page on the left. This will take you to the result page. (Use the previous scenario if you are not sure).

The results page may say your site is available or it may say it is not. Both results will suggest alternate names to consider purchasing.

The default is to have the chackbox selected for the preference that you specified earlier. So, I chose papistories.com, so the .com box is selected.

At this point you'll have to decide if you want .net, .org, etc. and you can select them here.

OK, at the bottom of the list of suggested names, (not at the bottom of the page) there is a buton with the word continue on it. Click that. Just to check, just above the continue button is a list of domains that you are purchasing.

No you get to a page with a silly Stop! You've found a great domain... title. Ignore that.

there's a green button that says Yes! Add these to my order. That is not the button to continue. That button adds those domains to your order. I've yet to find how a .info or a .biz will add traffic to your site.

So, right under that big green button is a link that says Continue to checkout... Click that.

Then you're taken to the Domain Registration Information page. Fill this out and click continue at the bottom of the form.

OK, at this point, I messed up and did not select the new account button at the top of the page. I had to go back and do it again.

Then you are at a page called Registration and Checkout Options. Here is where you choose your options.

I suggest choosing 3 years as your registration length, choose manual as your auto renew protection (you'll get notices a couple of months before it runs out), and I have no idea what the certified domain is.

At the time of this writing, there is an offer for adding emails to your domain. This is one of those things. You can not have emails using your domain unless they are hosting your domain. If they are hosting your domain, then great. If someone else is hosting your domain, then do not click add email. Looks like they lower the price of the domain, but you'll see, they'll add a hosting cost later on.

I'm hosting my site, so I've set the nameservers to my server. Talk to your hosting company about this, otherwise, you'll have to give them access to you godaddy account so they can do it or they can walk you through it.

Choose standard, deluxe or protected. These add packages. Be careful. If you are just registering your domain, disregard these. Standard should be selected by default.

Click quick checkout or you will be shown other offers. Then Continue.

Then you're taken to your shopping cart. There are all sorts of offers all over this page. Basically, all you'll need to do is choose a payment method and select that you have read the agreement and terms. Then click checkout now.

Yet another page with offers.

You'll have to create a new account here...again...or log in...again.

Make sure your info is right, etc. Then the third column. You'll have to go and select NO to most of those, unless you want them. Don't click continue until you do that, or it will be too late.

Then click checkout now after you've input your information.

You're done.

Even the page that says thank you for your order is full of upsales. OK. I understand they want to give the best, most complete service, but as you may have noticed, there are quite a few times where if you don't know what you are reading, you could easily add stuff to your order.

The thing it, it is in fact a good service. Yahoo.com is the other service I use, but it turns out, it was difficult to transfer a domain from yahoo.com (melbourneIT), and I've never had problems transferring domains from godaddy.com.

There you go. Hope this doesn't add to the confusion.

Website Design Process

This is an account of what usually happens when I design a website:

1. I design a mockup in photoshop and submit a jpg to the client. I instruct them to take a look at it and let me know if they don't like colors or if they have suggestions or specific details that either missed or they want added.

Sometimes I am redesigning their existing page that might be 5 or 10 years old, so I'll use the navigation and content that's already there. Some clients have the new information that they want on the new design and have sent it to me in a text document, that may or may not include a sort of site map. This helps with navigation and if there are any "callouts" or "sidebars" that advertise specific pages inside the website. If the client is not sure how many pages they are going to have, then I can design with that in mind, leaving some "growing" room.

The client looks at it and either makes suggestions or gives me the go ahead. At this point, I ask them for the content, pictures, and anything else I might need. Then I start production.

2. Next I take the mockup and slice it up for html. Here's where I take the layered photoshop file and break it up in squares for placement. I'll create the rollover images, the rotating images, etc., and leave space for text, footer etc. Then I'll decide if I'm going to use a template for the navigation, header and footer or if I need to have all the pages be different.

As I design and produce the html, I'll post it on my server in a specific folder just for them. I can do this because for the most part, I'm hosting their site on my box, so any code will work as long as I don't move it to another box. I'm on a Linux box, but if they need programming that's not PHP, I'll host on my Windows box.

3. After testing and approving, then I find out if I'm needing to transfer the domain from their existing registrar, or just point the nameservers to my server. If I need to transfer the domain, I'll go to my registrar and request transfer of a domain.

Then the existing webmaster will get an email requesting the transfer and unlock the domain, request an Authorization Code and Security ID. (If it's a .org, a third code is requested) That process usually take about 3 days. Once that's all done, I set up the new registrar and point the nameservers.

If I don't need to transfer the domain registrar, I request access to the clients registrar and point the nameservers to my server, or I walk them through the process. It usually takes 24-48 hours for the internet to see the change.

4. Then I'll migrate the work I've done to the new server (which is basically a folder on the server) and then test it some more. Migrating just means posting files from one server to another.

Depending on how many pages the website has makes a difference how long the production part of the process takes, but from start to finish, best case scenario, this could all be done in about two weeks, as long as the client has the content ready to go. If the site has a database, flash programming, 50+ pages or a very busy client who can't find the time to gather content for the website, then it will most definitely take longer.

5. Marketing stuff is done throughout the process. For example, when I design the site, I know not to have everything be a graphic, and make sure there is quite a bit of text on the home page. Also, once in the html phase, I gather and write the meta tags like keywords and descriptions and page titles and the alt tags on all the images. That's done as I go. I like making navigation using text rather than graphics, but some clients want graphics with rollovers and stuff. I like text navigation because search engines see text and links as important factors as to how to rank the pages in the site.

Once it's all done, I'll submit the site to google.com, yahoo.com and msn.com. Sometimes aol.com and dmoz.org.

How to read Website Statistics

So, you've got to report to your boss how the site is doing? You have a look at the stats, and you're not sure what to report. Here's a little help on reporting website traffic.

A hit is actually a deceiving number. When a user visits you web page, it counts one hit, but then if there are any graphics or other elements on your page, those will each individually count as a hit as well. So if your page had four graphics on it, your report of hits will be 5. The hit is actually how many times the hosting server is accessed for the graphics, or the page itself. So don't report the hits, even though it's tempting.

A visitor is the real number to look at, and even better (if the stats software your server is using accounts for it), unique visitors. A visit is actually counting IP addresses of the computer a user is browsing with. The visits are counted once for each IP during a specific amount of time. Usually it's around 30 minutes. So if a visitor visits your site, gos to lunch, and comes back, that will be counted twice (unless it's a short lunch).

Unique visitors are only counted once no matter how many times they visit the site.

Reports on both visitors and unique visitors could be helpful with how you market and advertise. My feeling is that the visitors report lets you know that your site has content that people are needing to look at a second time. The report of unique visitors is the reality of how many people are visiting your site.

A page view is a count of how many individual pages have been viewed. This is good when you are selling advertising on your site. Your potential advertisers will want to know how many times their ad might be seen.

Some statistic software applications report time of day and day of the month. These could be helpful when looking to redesign, update or change something on your site. You'll know not to do it on Tuesdays between 3PM and 10PM if that's what your stats are telling you. Maybe 9AM on Sunday would be better.

Some report top pages viewed. Again., this could be helpful when deciding what page to put your new coupon or article or special deal.

Links from external pages is helpful too, if nothing more than to figure out who you need to thank for the referral. Remeber, high ranking pages linked to yours is really good for your page rank.

Search keywords are something I look at sometimes just to find out how people are finding my sites. I've seen some strange stuff being reported, that somehow got people to my site. You should probably use this to refine keywords and maybe even content. Are the keywords being use relevant to your content?

Referring search engines and robot/spider visits are other tools you can use to your advantage. If the list does not include "google" or "Yahoo" or "MSN" or "AOL" or others, you can know specifically where you nee to submit your site or get onto their directories.

Hope this helps.