blogmaking.net

Even if you go with one of the hosted solutions, it is still worth getting your own domain name. If you come up with a unique title, it’s a good idea to reserve the domain because you might want to upgrade later and iloveblogs.com is a lot easier to remember and looks better than iloveblogs.blogger.com. A decent domain registry will let you redirect your domain so that when you type in “iloveblogs.com” you go straight to “iloveblogs.blogger.com” until you set up your domain on your own host. How to do the redirection will depend on your domain registry.

A domain registry, where you register your domain name, is different from a domain hosting company (host), where you host your domain, but a lot of companies now do both jobs, also a lot of hosts offer free domain registration with hosting packages. I like to keep them separate but that’s just my personal choice.

I’m currently using namecheap.com because they are quick and have a good (as far as registries go anyway) interface. I also like the fact that they don’t keep your credit card details on file but you can upload funds if you like. They also give you a year’s free privacy protection and have all the standard tools like domain and email forwarding.

Some other cheap registries:

• RegistryFly.com (amazing specials but their reputation is a little patchy, I’d go with the PayPal option)
• Godaddy.com (they have some of the cheapest .tv prices)
• DomainCentral.com.au (for Australian and NZ domains)
• 123-reg.co.uk (for UK domains)

It is also worth doing a google search on your registry’s name and “coupon” or “code” or “promo” because the big registries do specials regularly and you can save a lot.