Pricing & Perks
In case you are wondering if and how much this will all cost you I am here to tell you that it will indeed cost you. This is by no means a free service. Prices with the different companies can vary quite a bit. You can also get discounts by buying more than one domain or by buying your domain(s) for more than one year. The prices aren't too bad though. Most places charge in the range of $19.95 to $31.95 per year. Of course if you look around you may find higher and lower prices.
When you register your domain name you may also purchase other perks. Some of these companies will offer you things like email addresses to go along with your new domain name and Web site forwarding. Web site forwarding is where they will attach your new domain name to your existing Web site so it will automatically bring people to your site without you having to move the whole site. Of course, these perks will cost you extra with some of the companies and are included in the price with others. So be careful, read the fine print, and look around at more than one place before you buy.
Hosting Your New Domain Name
If you don't already have a Web site but want to build one or you just decided not to pay extra for the site forwarding then you will need a place to host your site. This is where you have many choices.
First of all you could go with a "free" hosting service. The hosting may be free but the domain parking may not be. You will have to check with each one to see what, if anything, they charge.
This may be the way for you to go because it is simple and the hosting provider handles all the dirty work for you. Some of them even offer domain registration so you can register your domain right from their site instead of going through one of those registering companies I mentioned earlier.
You could go with a low cost hosting service. There may be good reasons to choose to pay for your hosting and only you know what those reasons are if you need them. It may be that your site is going to be extremely large and no free site will host you. Then you will have to pay.
You could purchase your own server or host your site on your own computer. This takes a lot of work and a lot of time but some people do choose to go this route. You will always have to leave the server or computer on, perform constant routine maintenance on it and keep the hardware and software updated. You will also be leaving yourself open to the possibility of virus'.
No matter which way you decide to go just make sure you weigh all the possibilities first so you don't have to go back and move your site later. It really is a big hassle to move hundreds of files to a new server and you don't ever want to have to do that. Good luck!
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