Domain purchase advice

Jimmy1983 · 21 May 2012 at 14:50

Iam intending to setup a basic wordpress site for my photography and need to buy a domain. Can you knowledgeable people offer me some advice on the process involved?

Ive had a look on 123reg for ideas, is it just a case of thinking of a good domain name and checking to see if its available? Then go from there...

Jimmy1983 · 21 May 2012 at 15:02

Cheers fellas, now I need ideas for the domain name :confused:

jameswhitephotography.com / .co.uk has been taken as I expected really :mad:

Jimmy1983 · 21 May 2012 at 15:27

Banzai_Joe said:
too long, easy to misspell.
jwt.co.uk?

Do you mean jwp.co.uk ?

Jimmy1983 · 21 May 2012 at 15:44

Banzai_Joe said:
clickjwp.co.uk
jwphot.co.uk

Hmmm, jwphot :eek:

Thanks for the ideas

Jimmy1983 · 21 May 2012 at 23:48

michaelp said:
You should have a look at this.

Its just general tips on choosing a domain name.
http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/domainname.shtml

Thanks, vgood read

jamespwhite.com is free iam not sure if I want photography in the URL tho what would you guys suggest?

michaelp said:
and also http://www.gbbo.co.uk/ <- After 60 days you can transfer the free .co.uk website address to your website. or you can point to your url from there instantly.

Cheers was thinking of getting the domain from 123reg...

Jimmy1983 · 22 May 2012 at 09:09

Spunkey said:
I'd get a domain with and without. You can 301 redirect one to the other for now, and then if you decide you want a personal domain you can split them.

Thanks, quite happy with jamespwhite would prefer to be able to drop the p tho. But james-white and james.white is already taken.

Do many people use their middle names in URL's nowadays?

Also would the price of said URL be the same from price wherever I purchase it from? jamespwhite is £10.99 currently on 123reg

Jimmy1983 · 23 May 2012 at 11:01

m4rkw7 said:
Different prices through different people. Try Godaddy.com or Vidahost.com
The shorter the domain, the better imo.

Cheers man

Jimmy1983 · 24 May 2012 at 12:42

Still trying do decided on a sutable name

What do people think to

Jameswhitepix and photojameswhite ?

Jimmy1983 · 25 May 2012 at 13:31

GaryH-21 said:
jameswhiteonline.co.uk ?? 2 years, £6.98
jameswhitemedia.co.uk?

the problem with having your name in it, is that if you're adding a word after it, it becomes a pretty long domain name which is prone to spelling mistakes and/or people won't remember it!

Yeah I see your point, but I dont really want to design a brand name. I feel using my name would suit my needs better. Jameswhiteuk is free but don't feel thats good option either

radderfire said:
No and no.

First of all, how are you going to "brand" your business, i.e. what is the best business name you would tell someone? E.g. how would you answer your business phone line?

Rgds

Ref above, don't feel I want to go down the brand route.

Jimmy1983 · 26 May 2012 at 02:13

GaryH-21 said:
Remember, you can always start off with just your name or something simple and get another domain name further down the line... It's not a one-chance decision

Hmmm, I thought it was pretty much :confused:

but long term if I did change domain name I might have a good number of people following me changing it may cause a lot of confusion.

Iam not sure tho I could be wrong, you probably understand this subject more than me! Thanks again

Jimmy1983 · 28 May 2012 at 20:18

ristac said:
If you are buying a .com get it through namecheap.com far better interface than 123-reg I use both and honestly, namecheap rules over 123-reg and there is no need to keep clicking and unchecking 'no thank you' boxes.

As for domain name IMHO you MUST include photography in there somewhere, treat the domain name like you would your shop front, if you had a bricks and mortar business would you not tell the public that inside you would find a business related to photography?

How many times have you followed a sign written van that doesn't have the trade on it? XYZ Painters and Decorators, Plumbers, Bakers etc. etc. etc.

Decided on like you suggested to include photography/photos/images something along those lines in the URL I see your points

gord said:
Why would you want your domains all over the place? And those two registrars are not the ones I would go for. Would more than likely be cheaper to get your hosting and domain from the same place as they often come bundled from a reputable place such as Vidahost. If you don't need the hosting then I'd still steer clear of godaddy as a registrar.

Need the URL and hosting probably going with TSOHosting

Jimmy1983 · 24 Jun 2012 at 15:34

Right still not sorted a domain name...narrowed it down too

photojameswhite.com
PhotographyJamesWhite.com
jameswhitephotos.com
jameswhitephotograph.com

Thoughts? Think iam going to go with photojameswhite.com

Jimmy1983 · 24 Jun 2012 at 15:47

Beansprout said:
I'd choose jameswhitephotos because it's the easiest to say/remember - the word ordering seems natural.

Thanks

Jimmy1983 · 25 Jun 2012 at 19:45

So whats best to use namecheap.com or 123-reg.co.uk ?

Jimmy1983 · 25 Jun 2012 at 23:11

Do I need to add Whois, and anything like SSL?

Jimmy1983 · 30 Jun 2012 at 14:43

gord said:
Vida or TSO, you can't go wrong with either.

Yay, finally bought jameswhitephotos.com now what

Been looking at both Vida and TSO, similar basic packages TSO slight cheaper. Can someone tell me what package would suit me the best? Would I get away with the cheapest?

Disk Space - The amount of space provided to store your website files and e-mail. 0.5GB Does this mean I would get 500MB a month to upload?

Jimmy1983 · 30 Jun 2012 at 15:49

Hxc said:
That means you have 500mb of space on the server in total. Your website including all images and media cannot be larger than 500mb on that package.

Hmmm, well considering each photo I would upload is around 1MB that is pretty small. But I guess thats about 500 photos per year which is quite a lot really.

Can you change your web hosting packages during the year?

Jimmy1983 · 2 Jul 2012 at 22:38

orderoftheflame said:
With Vidahost, you can get the 2gb package for just a few quid more than the 500mb starter package if you use their starter code and go for the three years for the price of two.

500mb = £17 x 3 = £51
2gb = £29 x 2 - 10% = £52.20

If my maths is right... And you get a lot more stuff on the 2gb package.

New starter voucher code = VIDA10PERCENT

Its actually £62.64 (inc. VAT) but yeah seems the best deal. Cheers

Jimmy1983 · 4 Jul 2012 at 00:08

Moses said:
Can I hijack this to find an address for me?

Basically, I don't do anything (lol)... in the sense that I'm not a photographer/have no immediate business interests... I'm just interested in a personal domain/something to sort out my own email with.

martinpayne.com is obviously taken, but as is stuff like mjpayne/mpayne/etc. I could get paynem.com or paynemj.com? Am I missing an obvious trick, here... or is that the best I'm going to get?

Sure, try nameboy.com for ideas.

I remember reading that I think its suggested to use Google tools? For the domain email?

Jimmy1983 · 4 Jul 2012 at 08:04

Jimmy1983 said:
Its actually £62.64 (inc. VAT) but yeah seems the best deal. Cheers

orderoftheflame said:
Stupid VAT making my maths wrong.

I went for that deal and paid last night. But now once I open jameswhitephotography iam getting re-directed to 123reg. Shouldn't I get directed to vidahost cpanel?