Help! Can I purchase a domain name...

[thedapperdad]

without my website being ready first? Any suggestions on whom to use as a host? I plan to attract MANY visitors and my website will be fairly busy (possibly 100 MB). Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Dan Grossman]

Yes, you can absolutely purchase a domain name before your website is ready, and you probably should. It's best to register the domain yourself, rather than purchase it from a web host, so that you don't run into any trouble if you decide to switch hosts at some point. You can bring your domain to any host by updating the nameservers through your domain registrar's control panel.

I use GoDaddy for all my domain registrations. They're the largest registrar.

[thedapperdad]

Thanks Dan The Man. One more question. I visted Godaddy and noticed that they offer 4 different options. I'm pretty new to this stuff. Which one do you suggest? Keep in mind, as I've previously stated, my website is going to attract many visitors, who are gonna leave me tons of e-mail, I'm gonna blog regularly (both text and video), and it's gonna be around 100 MB.

[Dan Grossman]

I suggested GoDaddy as a registrar, and using a different registrar from your web host. I strongly recommend you not host a website with GoDaddy or any other domain registrar. It's not their primary business and it shows. Get the domain there, then look for web hosting companies separately.

What you're describing is a small website. A large site would be many gigabytes in size or getting tens of thousands of visits a day. Until you're at that point, all you need is a shared hosting plan. I can't recommend a company, I haven't used shared hosting in about 5 years.

[ldcdc]

I suppose that your question is about hosting now. First thing to keep in mind, is that don't have to host with the company you register the domain from. Best registrar does not equal best host. (assuming such a thing as "best" even exists and can be determined)

Just because you have big plans for your site, and the idea behind it makes it really worthy of huge success, doesn't mean it'll happen, or that it'll happen over night. As such, "shared/virtual hosting" is generally a good option for most startup sites, at least in the beginning.

Now, if you've got friends who can help you promote the site, or you'll be invited on the Tonight Show or Oprah, or have any other reasons to be reasonably sure that and instant success/public interest is very likely, powerful dedicated servers and other more advanced hosting solutions are available and would be a good idea.

Edit: I shouldn't do several things at the same time. I get beaten to the punch.

[thedapperdad]

Duly noted. I REALLY appreciate it!! I'll definitely keep in touch with you guys!

[Dr_J]

You can always purchase a domain without anything being ready. you should buy whenever you decide a name as the name may be purchased by someone else if you dont buy it.

[bamaboy]

godaddy is quite hard to register domains, i dont mean its a bad registrar, but it is quite hard to order a domain. I would suggest you to try out name . com and you can buy domain from them. Regarding host, you can try hostgator.

[MyDomAinZ.us]

godaddy is quite hard to register domains, i dont mean its a bad registrar, but it is quite hard to order a domain. I would suggest you to try out name . com and you can buy domain from them. Regarding host, you can try hostgator.

Why to specify few names only if there are many accredited registrars around and good hosts for many many years? There are many sites where comparisons are as well available to choose registrars and hosts.

[SiberForum]

sites where comparisons are as well available to choose registrars and hosts.

I agree with you but at the same time there are no many honest comparision web sites or review web sites. All know they are paid by the web hosting services which are being compared there

[MyDomAinZ.us]

I agree with you but at the same time there are no many honest comparision web sites or review web sites. All know they are paid by the web hosting services which are being compared there

Fully agree with you on this point. clients should know this fact very well.