Tips on Choosing a Domain Name Registrar and Hosting Provider

Some quick definitions ...

A Domain Registrar is a company that enables you to register (pay for and own) a domain name such as www.DevelopAndPromote.co.uk.

A Hosting Provider (or company) gives you space on the internet where you can put your website pages (images, text, etc). They backup your content as well as maintain the computers and all the technical stuff related to keeping your website live.

You need both to have a website.

My keys for choosing a domain name registrar:

* Inexpensive. This is not something you should pay a lot for.

We pay about £9 a year for each name.

* Trusted name. You don't want your company to disappear. You want a company that will work hard to serve you.

* Service. You want a company that is always trying to improve and give you more.

The keys for choosing a good Host Company:

* Good up-time - This means that your website doesn't crash or go down often during maintenance or upgrades. I've had bad hosts in the past - where my sites went down due to unannounced maintenance and I spent hours trying to resolve them.

* Good support - They are easy to reach by phone. They spend time needed to make sure you get the help you need as well as have the right amount of technical prowess.

* Lots of features - As a developer, I need to get my hands dirty. I like options and features to make sites sing. This makes your designer's job easier.

* Trusted name - Again, a name that I can trust. A company that is big enough and works hard to improve.

My golden rule for choosing any online provider is a company that shows it cares by surprise improvements. I like that a lot.

At Develop and Promote all our cleints get these high quality services as part of their package. We also offer web mail for people on the move. Our web server has a 99.9% up time.