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domain names and websites

updated fri 13 sep 02

 

Janet Kaiser on fri 13 sep 02


I am glad the penny has dropped, Mel! :-)

I believe a domain name it essential and was convinced of that from day
one: even before getting a web site up and running, including the tedious
job of getting it listed with search engines. This is all especially true
for you (and anyone else) who has such an important web presence... IMO As
soon as mail is archived, the contact e-address of the poster should remain
active, never mind the search engine listings for any web site they may
have.

However registering a domain name does not necessarily mean you have to
hire space on a new ISP... For example, I did it by getting the domain name
from a company who "forward" an unlimited number of e-mail addresses and
the website (http://www.the-coa.org.uk) to the real time ISP of our
choice... It has been the-chapel-of-art.freeserve.co.uk since 1999, but we
could change to another ISP without it affecting the domain in any way...
Even if the realtime ISP address changes (as it has for you) we would only
have to change the forwarding address with the domain name holder.

All we paid was the US$35 Nominet registration for two years. It will be up
for renewal soon, but I am not sure how things work these days, since the
restructuring... It has certainly worked OK so far.

The only drawback has been the high percentage of hits which are of
"unknown" origin... We monitor the hit counter to see which countries are
currently most active. It seems to miss any which are forwarded from
the-coa.org.uk domain name.

A positive advantage, is that when people make a search and The CoA pops
up, the search engine will list the real address as well as the domain
name, so you have a higher rating and Internet presence (as it were).

I do know it is worth looking into it really well when deciding on a domain
name and provider, because some of the "deals" sound extremely expensive to
me.

I am sure there are other proper terms for all this, but I no geek!

Sincerely


Janet Kaiser

The Chapel of Art =95 Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent, Criccieth LL52 0EA, Wales, UK
Tel: 01766-523570 URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk