Obtaining a web domain

I found a simple sounding domain name I might want to purchase. It's taken, but for sale at a low price of $130, according to godaddy. It's a buy-it-now price, I'm not sure I want to bring attention to it by bidding, and think I should snag it soon. Kind of feel it's not worth underbidding, because whoever is holding it might think twice about the price.

It's a .com domain, but the .uk or .co, is taken and in use. If you're in the idea stage developing an idea of what you want the brand to be ultimately, I'm worried about a trademark suit coming up and forfeiting the address anyway. What's the cheapest, yet most reliable way to be sure you're getting a domain name which won't be stolen from you? What other things do you have to worry about I'm not even aware of?

Have to admit, after even getting a domain, I'm going to be stuck there and at this point, will not have resources or skills to do anything with it past there. I'm just in the idea stage, have a vision, and that's pretty much it. There are probably 4,000 problems ahead, dont know the solutions yet, or even what the problems are. For all I know, it's all been done already, but I think it's a niche.

Quote: onenickelmiracle

I found a simple sounding domain name I might want to purchase. It's taken, but for sale at a low price of $130, according to godaddy. It's a buy-it-now price, I'm not sure I want to bring attention to it by bidding, and think I should snag it soon. Kind of feel it's not worth underbidding, because whoever is holding it might think twice about the price.

It's a .com domain, but the .uk or .co, is taken and in use. If you're in the idea stage developing an idea of what you want the brand to be ultimately, I'm worried about a trademark suit coming up and forfeiting the address anyway. What's the cheapest, yet most reliable way to be sure you're getting a domain name which won't be stolen from you? What other things do you have to worry about I'm not even aware of?

Have to admit, after even getting a domain, I'm going to be stuck there and at this point, will not have resources or skills to do anything with it past there. I'm just in the idea stage, have a vision, and that's pretty much it. There are probably 4,000 problems ahead, dont know the solutions yet, or even what the problems are. For all I know, it's all been done already, but I think it's a niche.

Web Development is my full time business.

If there's a full trademarked term in your domain name, there is no guarantee. It's up to the trademark holder whether or not they want to fight you, and up to you whether or not you want to fight back.

Not to be a downer or discourage you, but what I will say that if your idea requires any kind of custom functionality it will likely be much harder and more expensive to develop than you think.

I get contacted nearly weekly by people who say they have a great idea for "the next Facebook" or something in that regard. They never have money to pay upfront, but always promise I nice percentage once the site hits it big.

The other one I get often is "Your prices are ridiculous. Squarespace is $10/mo and I could do it myself. Didn't you see the superbowl commercial?" I don't respond to those either.

Hey thanks. No barron of the new economy here, lol. Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps to the door, baby steps to the elevator. Love What About Bob? I dont envision any custom functionality, but I might not even know what that means. Personally I dont even think there is a trademark, if so they're dead trademarks. I did this before, got a crazy idea, spent $200 on all these dumb domains, and never did anything at all. I even think they were highjacked, maybe somehow stolen, and had ads there. Didn't say parked, just had ads. Swear, they had ads on how to meet a transvestite. Made no sense with the domain name. Didn't care either way, spent money on something stupid on an impulse, realized it, and gave up. Can't stress this enough how stupid it was, such a rash decision I'm not making this time.

Custom functionality meaning there's some level of software engineering involved.

Doing something like the WoV site is easy. The functionality is 99% "off the shelf" in that software already exists to do it. All the hard work is done.

Something like a highly custom twitter clone though? The sky could be the limit.

Quote: gamerfreak

Custom functionality meaning there's some level of software engineering involved.

Doing something like the WoV site is easy. The functionality is 99% "off the shelf" in that software already exists to do it. All the hard work is done.

Something like a highly custom twitter clone though? The sky could be the limit.

OK, no, thanks. This site is awesome in my opinion, loads fast, what I was told meant well thought out programming. I see what you mean though, it is pretty simple, but it works.

Quote: onenickelmiracle

Swear, they had ads on how to meet a transvestite. Made no sense with the domain name.

Probably related to what you had recently been searching for :o)
I could offer a bit of free or low cost help setting something up there. You could just park your own ads there and make a few dollarsm or maybe just use the domain for email.

Quote: OnceDear

Probably related to what you had recently been searching for :o)
I could offer a bit of free or low cost help setting something up there. You could just park your own ads there and make a few dollarsm or maybe just use the domain for email.

Think it was while at the library, so that could be true, just not me personally. Thanks for the offer. We'll see.

If you decide to purchase an existing (previously registered) domain name, just remember that you will still have to pay the annual registration fee to keep it. The registrar that I've used for the past 15 years is now up to $15/year for each domain name (and I haven't bothered to price shop.)

If you don't pay the annual registration renewal, the domain name will be released. Random ads will appear when you no longer own the domain name.

I have been registering domains for as long as possible at the current rates as opposed to renewing them yearly. The profit comes in now and it is fire and forget for a very long time...

Can someone really self-train to become a web developer? Are there free services and sites, and what will you have to pay for no matter what? What kind of timeline does it take etc., etc? What is really useful out there?

If not free self-taught education, what kinds of things are recommended that have fees? What to watch out for, known scams, rip-offs?

Whatever I do, I'm starting to realize it's years away. Fine with that.

Really the only fee could be as simple as yearly hosting fee. I believe my old website I paid for 5 years and got a discount. A lot of hosting sites wI'll give you a generic layout that you can customize for free. When I had my site up which was about 12 years ago I designed it in word and uploaded the html. It was better than their generic but not as nice as a professional site.

Also, how do you make certain nobody hijacks your website? If you hire help, how do you know they won't transfer your site to someone else?

On registration, yes I've read about your searches being used to buy sites you're interested in and having to either buy them at mark-up or not get them. It's crazy how much plain sites can cost. Look up anything, it's for sale, for much more than 99c or $15. Plus all the new whatever they are, .nyc, new.whatever, .mobi. Hey, what does it mean when on go daddy, in a little grey box, it says "ad"? I dont understand it.

On the same note search your first name or any name, you'll pay outrageous prices for eternity. I can see it might be worth that for someone, but, the barriers are definitely going up. People are going to have to be more careful about what they want when the price goes up.

Well there is always a possibility of needing more money. If you are getting large then you will need security, firewalls and pay for Google searches. If you just want a basic site there is no need for that.

You also might need better computers or pay for hosting files if you are keeping databases and such.

Quote: onenickelmiracle

Can you self train

Yes and no. I self trained 20 years ago, already having a programming background. But my coding was pretty shoddy, graphic design was lame and child-like and I hardly used any modern features. Self training to create your own commercial website is a bit like learning to build a car, so you can have ONE car to drive to work in.
There are 'web template' solutions that make the job do-able, but they are only a starting point. GoDaddy offer such templated solutions and you can create a slick website quickly. But it will probably be a case of 'almost but not quite' what you wanted.

Quote: onenickelmiracle

Also, how do you make certain nobody hijacks your website? If you hire help, how do you know they won't transfer your site to someone else? Same with hosting company: Only YOU get access to the hosting account. YOU create the server and dish out credentials to your contractors.

Simple to keep control of the domain. Never give them credentials to your domain registrar account and learn to create DNS entries yourself. For the actual servers, you are down to writing clear Non-Disclosure docs and insist that you retain ownership of any coding that you pay them for. When their work is done, lock them out of the server. Truth be known, they could give themselves back door access, so you should learn the basics of SSH user administration ( half a day) and firewall admin (about a couple of days) and if they use a Content Management System* such as Drupal, Wordpress, or Silverstripe or some other templated solution, familiarise yourself with that to the max as time permits. Ensure they make a strong business case before implementing a CMS*, as that will put you somewhat at their mercy. Pay the developer promptly and well. They make bad enemies and are expensive to replace.

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what does it mean when on go daddy, in a little grey box, it says "ad"? I dont understand it.

GoDaddy do sell third party solutions. That sounds like they are showing adverts on their site in amongst their own product offerings.

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On the same note search your first name or any name, you'll pay outrageous prices for eternity. I can see it might be worth that for someone, but, the barriers are definitely going up. People are going to have to be more careful about what they want when the price goes up.

Domain names are a gold rush that already happened. All the good stuff has been registered and its value is set by demand, there being no further supply. I got my name as domain name, plus some other treasured domains. :p

Don't know, next to .online and .co, just a small grey box and all it says is ad.

I'll probably learn just to have an understanding at the very least and sound more competent than someone that doesnt know anything. Found some YouTube videos, will look into them. Being a designer would not be something I'd be a natural at, but never know. Yeah those templates stink. Hate those websites. It might work for a while though.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fljl9MkWehg

Quote: onenickelmiracle

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fljl9MkWehg

LOL at that Indian guy.
No money: No Skill: No problem
This reminds me of one of my ex-contractors. Claimed massive skills, but was a cut and paste scam artist who never did anything useful in his life, but sold himself as a skilled 'expert'.

did you get to where you needed to with this?