Buying a Domain Name

I bought two domain names this morning. Should be a straight forward transaction, right? A no-brainer.

Not so.

I assumed the cost would be more or less the same, since there’s a ton of companies that are selling domain names.

I did a Google search and clicked on the first entry (SEO consultants everywhere are cheering now).

I checked the domain name was available and my Firefox plug in entered my information. I chose the 2 year option. I wasn’t paying much attention, because I buy on-line all the time. I was reaching for my credit card when I noticed the charge was $70 .. okay, I must have chosen the 5 year option.

No, I chose 2 years .. $70 divided by 2 is HOW MUCH ??????? (the answer is way too much). Guess that SEO optimization cost them a lot of money and they want me to subsidize it.(SEO consultants are now throwing tomatoes at me).

My almost-ex web hosting company charges $10 per domain name.
I may be angry with them for their up-time issues, but I’m only buying a domain name. They won by default. I’ll leave these domain names "parked" there for now. There is no charge for parking domain names and there shouldn’t be a charge for transferring them either.

When I choose my new hosting company, I’ll ask them to move over these domain names, as well as my blog and two existing web sites. Most hosting companies will do that for you when you sign up with their service.

<Canadian rant on> I bought the .com and not the .ca because dealing with CIRA is a hassle. CIRA is the organization that’s mandated to administer .ca domain names. It’s a not-for-profit, but I swear it’s run by gold ex-bureaucrats. I just want to register a domain … not become a CSIS agent! <Canadian rant off>

How much do you pay for domain names?