The Cheapest Domain Names - What Do You Get For 1.99?

There are several sites on the internet claiming to offer the cheapest domain names. If you look hard enough, you can find domain names for as low as $1.99 or $2.99 per year. So, what's the catch?

You have to realize that not all domain names are created equally. And, not all domain registrars include the same services in the price of your domain name. A good .com domain name will cost around $10 per year and should include at the very least,

1. free domain forwarding
2. free personalized email addresses & alias forwarding
3. free parking
4. full DNS access
5. free domain registration privacy

When you buy a cheap domain name for $1.99 you're cutting out some of those services. Depending on your needs, that might be okay, but if you want to actually use your domain name for your website, make sure to read the fine print...

Here are some of the tricks that registrars use when they offer their "cheapest domain names" promotion. Even the big companies do it.

• Bait and switch. GoDaddy offers domain names for as low as $2.99 but they're for the .info domain name. Chances are you want a .com domain name which costs $9.99 per year.
• The special discount price only applies to the first year. Yahoo recently sold .com domain names in March for $1.99 but the special price was only for the first year and for new customers. It would switch to $9.95 per year after the first year.
• You only get the $1.99 domain name rate if you also buy a non-domain name product (Limit of 1 domain name). A non-domain name product usually means web hosting. Quite frankly, if you're going to pay for web hosting, find a good registrar that will give you that domain name for absolutely free.
• Two sites look awfully familiar. It's probably because one of the sites is a domain name reseller. Some entrepreneur buys domain names at wholesale cost from the big companies and then resells them to regular people like you or I.

Make sure you do your homework before registering a domain name because you can't get a refund. As always, buyer beware!

Keywords: