Domain Name

[gillumhouse]

If GoDaddy says the domain is for sale, it probably is.... more specifically, the owner abandonned it, and goDaddy kept possession of it to extract any remaining value that they can.
If it has meaning and is a good domain, it can be worth paying some extra money for it. which you may have to do through goDaddy I am afraid. It is not so much a buyers agent and sellers agent issue.... probably a better analogy would be a car dealer that repossesses a car....when they repossess it, they still own the car so if you want to buy it, you have to buy it through them.
you could buy it through godaddy, then transfer it to any other registrar you want. When you buy it, it becomes yours for the time that time frame that you pay the registration ... after that it becomes publicly available and the first to register it anew, wins. this is why it is important to keep an eye on your expiration dates and make sure you don't let your registation lapse..

Our deal hit some snags, but now it appears we may close soon. The domain is listed with sedo as for sale-- make an offer. Looking at their site, with info on buying it made me feel like the dog chasing the car who caught it. NOW WHAT? Their site talks about "parking" it with them and the posts here speak of registrars and hosting. OK assuming I get my offer accepted, how do I choose where to put it? Sorry to be so ignorant, I almost didn't post this. I really need to find a class somewhere.
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You done good to post it here. I know nothing, but MANY of the others DO KNOW and will help you with it. This Forum is pretty much a one-stop shop for into an innkeeper needs.
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Thanks for your support. This forum has been a GOD SEND! I am really freaking!! I've been reading all the FAQs on go daddy and other sites trying to learn some things but little is sinking in. My spirits are just sinking down.
This is why people run and throw money at people to make it all better!! I don't even know who to throw money at! I need to learn-- I try to keep telling myself they learned you can too..but ARGH!!
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I switched to 1and1 when my new site was being designed. My old hosting was $25 per month 1and1 is $4.95 I think. BIG difference and I have not had a big problem. Had a small problem one morning with my e-mail (could not look at it on the server as I always do first) and e-mailed them about it from my other account (with the DSL) and they responded before the end of day but the problem had cleared up within a couple hours. I found them to be very responsive and I like the price. I have a LOT of redirected e-mail addresses too.
Getting a good web master is the best thing you can do. Learn how to make MINOR changes (I leave the big ones to the all-knowing) such as adding and removing specials, changing text and rates. Big things are moving things around, new pages, new buttons, changing online rez companies, etc.

 

[birdwatcher]

As far as I know the owner does not owe anything to the webmaster and no its not the same domain name but the website name is close. The hosting and domain name is now separate from the webmaster-as it should be. The old website is just sitting there but has the wrong information on it-I totally agree with you about the defamation of the business...we are going to talk to the owner about this.

 

[toddburme]

I just went through this and we paid $500 to aquire the old domain from where it was parked. He claimed he was making adsense money with etc etc. I think the idea of short and easy is very good but also needs to be accurate. "White pine lodge .com" is worth a lot more then "white pine lodge online.com" or adding "the white pine lodge .com" as people will not know to add a word to find you. The people who are actively looking for your website are for sure clients so if you gain one extra a month it pays for the $1000.00 or so pretty quickly.
If it comes up on Sedo and godaddy as being for sale, it is for sale. Just make a nice offer of a few hundred and see what they say. Even 10 years of registrations is only about $100 so if you offer $300, it is a great return on his/her investment.

 

[white pine]

If GoDaddy says the domain is for sale, it probably is.... more specifically, the owner abandonned it, and goDaddy kept possession of it to extract any remaining value that they can.
If it has meaning and is a good domain, it can be worth paying some extra money for it. which you may have to do through goDaddy I am afraid. It is not so much a buyers agent and sellers agent issue.... probably a better analogy would be a car dealer that repossesses a car....when they repossess it, they still own the car so if you want to buy it, you have to buy it through them.
you could buy it through godaddy, then transfer it to any other registrar you want. When you buy it, it becomes yours for the time that time frame that you pay the registration ... after that it becomes publicly available and the first to register it anew, wins. this is why it is important to keep an eye on your expiration dates and make sure you don't let your registation lapse..

Our deal hit some snags, but now it appears we may close soon. The domain is listed with sedo as for sale-- make an offer. Looking at their site, with info on buying it made me feel like the dog chasing the car who caught it. NOW WHAT? Their site talks about "parking" it with them and the posts here speak of registrars and hosting. OK assuming I get my offer accepted, how do I choose where to put it? Sorry to be so ignorant, I almost didn't post this. I really need to find a class somewhere.
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Do you absolutely have to have THAT domain name or can you come up with a better one that is not being held hostage?
Hosting is the place in cyberspace where your site will reside. I think 1&1.com has gotten good reviews here. What you want to watch for is a hosting site that allows you to build a site that is covered with their advertising.
To register the domain as belonging to you, I think you can go thru a lot of different sites with a lot of different prices. I use Network Solutions just because it's been around forever and I got my first site registered with them. 1&1 also does registration.
Be wary of any website designer who says they will do it all for you. Not that they would 'steal' your domain name, but some might hold it hostage for high monthly maintenance fees on your site. It takes zero ability to register a domain name so do it yourself and set up the account in your name with your passwords that you don't give out.
Do a search on 'web hosting reviews' and you'll see a lot of info condensed into a nice spreadsheet format so you can compare. You'll also get an overview of what is offered so you can figure out what you want...
Hosting, email, a shopping cart (if you want to sell souvenirs online), etc.
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Thanks for pointing the reviews site. I spent lots of time reading & reading. Still confused, but at least the terms and options are starting to make sense. I thought there must be multiple approaches to this which is true and adds to the confusion.
Step one, will offer on the domain name. I assume that if we get it, we will have a little time to figure out who to register it with? 1 & 1 did rank up there, but all of the reviews listed lots of negative comments, and as I don't know which pertain to my needs, it seems as good to go with them as not.
We don't have a website yet, so it seems like I should "park" the name, or does it just hang out in space until I do get a website up and running. Is it better to get a webmaster going, or should I consider a quickie site, like "Daddy" offers--lot's of templates & up and going tonight? My impression is that this is not a good thing to do start with one, and change to another?
Thanks again for your help!

 

[white pine]

I just went through this and we paid $500 to aquire the old domain from where it was parked. He claimed he was making adsense money with etc etc. I think the idea of short and easy is very good but also needs to be accurate. "White pine lodge .com" is worth a lot more then "white pine lodge online.com" or adding "the white pine lodge .com" as people will not know to add a word to find you. The people who are actively looking for your website are for sure clients so if you gain one extra a month it pays for the $1000.00 or so pretty quickly.
If it comes up on Sedo and godaddy as being for sale, it is for sale. Just make a nice offer of a few hundred and see what they say. Even 10 years of registrations is only about $100 so if you offer $300, it is a great return on his/her investment..

Thanks for the info. We are looking at sedo, and the info shows that it is expiring next Feb. It has essentially no links to the name, and no ratings. I am assuming that this would make it of lesser value?
They offer an appraisal service, but I am considering the $300.00 range as I consider it more important than what I would have paid for a news ad. Do you think this is reasonable? I would go quite a bit higher too. The domain is the "name".com simple and sweet.

 

[Forfeng]

I just went through this and we paid $500 to aquire the old domain from where it was parked. He claimed he was making adsense money with etc etc. I think the idea of short and easy is very good but also needs to be accurate. "White pine lodge .com" is worth a lot more then "white pine lodge online.com" or adding "the white pine lodge .com" as people will not know to add a word to find you. The people who are actively looking for your website are for sure clients so if you gain one extra a month it pays for the $1000.00 or so pretty quickly.
If it comes up on Sedo and godaddy as being for sale, it is for sale. Just make a nice offer of a few hundred and see what they say. Even 10 years of registrations is only about $100 so if you offer $300, it is a great return on his/her investment..

Thanks for the info. We are looking at sedo, and the info shows that it is expiring next Feb. It has essentially no links to the name, and no ratings. I am assuming that this would make it of lesser value?
They offer an appraisal service, but I am considering the $300.00 range as I consider it more important than what I would have paid for a news ad. Do you think this is reasonable? I would go quite a bit higher too. The domain is the "name".com simple and sweet.
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I would be very cautious buying a domain through a reseller of a "bought" name, Many of these bought names ask for a fee and then they up it again once someone has paid already. Unless you can buy a domain direct that is available or legally expired I recommend staying far far away.
Have had several clients try to buy domain names through aggregate agencies (against advice) and they have lost hundreds of dollars in the process so speak from past experience.
Is it really worth the name? you could do variations, i.e. instead of janedoeinn.com, do janedoeinnma.com or janedoe-inn.com etc for only 10 bucks through godaddy I would think the price and the hassle would be worth it.

 

[domsmom]

I did a WHOIS search and then went to Network Solutions and this shows up. So looks like someone owns it for 10 year. So you can't get that domain. Honestly I would not pay that kind of money for a domain. That is like blackmail in my mind. If I were you I would look for a similar one and pay the regular price. Get it for as long as you can.
But curiously enough...go to www.whitepinelodge.com and a site comes up which is located in ON. So I don't have a clue what is going on..

I had a problem with my domain name a few years ago. I simply changed it from .com to .us. $9.00/year.

 

[domsmom]

Mort-ABSOLUTELY- NEVER ever give a webmaster control of your domain name. That is the problem we are having right now because the old webmaster didn't want to relinquish the website because the owner was not going to pay astronomical amount every time there was a change and when the owner refused to pay it the webmaster SHUT DOWN her site.
So...here we are with two live websites---not good for business, the webmaster will not shut down this erroneous website because the owner owned neither the domain name nor the hosting...any clues on how to fix this other than a law suit?
Need advise as well since I need a CLASS as well..

If your owner does not own the domain name, then your new site has a different domain name, correct? These are examples: old domain name- ABCinn.com, new domain name-ABCinnonmain.com
You can't both be using the same domain name.
What stinks is that the original domain name is the one with the history. Is the website still active? Is it awful? As in, is the webmaster posting awful things about the inn on it or is it just sitting there? Is it bringing in business or driving it away?
If there was an agreement at some point about what was to be paid and it wasn't paid, I'm not sure you CAN get the other site shut down. If the old website has defamatory info on it, you may need an IT lawyer to step in. And your owner may owe back payment if any changes were made at her behest that weren't paid for.
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Actually, I recently bought 4 more domain names and forwarded the new domain names to my original site. I did this for a few reasons, but one of them was to attract a visitor who might type "mycityaccommodations.com" in their browser. May only happen 1 or 2 times a year, but if it does, really cheap marketing. If not, lesson learned.

 

[JBloggs]

There is too much to say on this topic. It requires much more feedback. We have discussed it in the past. I will have a search for it later on here.
More valuable than owning a ton of domains is the SEO on the main website. Having redirects all over the place might do you more damage than good in google.
I would use godaddy for a realistic domain fee, there s/b a variation of what you can use there available.

 

[white pine]

There is too much to say on this topic. It requires much more feedback. We have discussed it in the past. I will have a search for it later on here.
More valuable than owning a ton of domains is the SEO on the main website. Having redirects all over the place might do you more damage than good in google.
I would use godaddy for a realistic domain fee, there s/b a variation of what you can use there available..

I did search the forum, and I got a lot of information re domains, but the actual purchase transaction was not much discussed. BTW "Daddy" now says the name is taken, but may be for sale; sedo says the owner has listed it, make an offer. As it expires in Feb. maybe I should just wait and take my chances. Who do you contact to bid on it when it will be up? Is that what the "backorder" is all about? Still confused, have emailed chamber re: webmasters.

 

[Samster]

There is too much to say on this topic. It requires much more feedback. We have discussed it in the past. I will have a search for it later on here.
More valuable than owning a ton of domains is the SEO on the main website. Having redirects all over the place might do you more damage than good in google.
I would use godaddy for a realistic domain fee, there s/b a variation of what you can use there available..

I did search the forum, and I got a lot of information re domains, but the actual purchase transaction was not much discussed. BTW "Daddy" now says the name is taken, but may be for sale; sedo says the owner has listed it, make an offer. As it expires in Feb. maybe I should just wait and take my chances. Who do you contact to bid on it when it will be up? Is that what the "backorder" is all about? Still confused, have emailed chamber re: webmasters.
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Is this an old domain that you want to keep? Do you have to keep the same name for the place? I have 1 & 1 and have loved it and had no problems with the site being down, etc. It's cheap. It received high marks from several IT trade magazines.
I don't access my email from the website through that though...I have emails forwarded to Thunderbird where I have several email addys dumping into it. You can do the same with Outlook. It made no sense to me to log onto a bunch of different web based email accounts when I could consolidate it all in one place. You might want to set up separate email addresses for guests, vendors, marketing, etc. (stay@ xyzinn, innkeeper@ xyzinn, info@xyz inn, etc.) It's not difficult once you've done it for awhile.
Makes no sense to pay a lot for domain registration or web hosting these days.