There are lots of good trusted companies that will register domain names for you. They range in price from a few dollars to fifty dollars per year.
But, be careful. Often times, the refund policy on a domain name ranges from no refund to a few days. Different companies have different special offers, but always read the fine print.
Teachers are not usually webmasters, so here are some things to know if you are thinking about buying a domain name for your school website or classroom blog:
- You can buy a domain name separate from a web hosting package. (If you’re using a free service like WordPress.com or Edublogs.org to host your class blog, chances are, you’re only in the market for a website name.)
- Sometimes a domain name registrar will sell domain names for $1.99 per year. Read the fine print: they might be for less popular domain extensions (i.e. .info), the price might be valid for only the first year, or you might need to buy a hosting package as well.
- The typical .com or .ca registration costs around $10 per year. At this price, you should be able to point your domain name to any server in the world. (Be careful: If you use a free service like WordPress.com or Edublogs.org, you might have to pay a fee to have your new domain name show up on the address bar. For example, if I buy the domain name classroom-teacher.ca, I can point it to my wordpress blog (classroomteacher.wordpress.com). If I type in classroomteacher.ca, it will send me to my wordpress blog, but the address in my webbrowser will switch to classroomteacher.wordpress.com unless I pay a premium to WordPress.com).
- The Canadian Internet Registration Authority publishes a list of accredited registrars that are allowed to sell .ca domain names. Make sure you shop around. Prices vary significantly. (Some places charge over $30 per year for a Canadian domain name.)
- Make sure you get domain name privacy when you register your domain name. (Otherwise, students can look up your address, email, and telephone number). By default, the information you use to sign up for a domain name is publicly listed in the whois database, unless you get a privacy package included from your webhost. (For example, BlueHost offers free Privacy with their web hosting package. UPDATE: Why we’re thinking about leaving BlueHost.). All personal domain name registrations in Canada are automatically hidden from the whois database.
- It can take up to 24-48 hours for your domain name to become live on the internet. (Your new domain name address needs to be sent to DNS servers around the world and sometimes this can take time.)
Where do we shop for domain names?
We currently have domain names registered with the following companies:
- BlueHost
- UPDATE (Dec 2009): 1 and 1 Internet
- 10dollar.ca
- GoDaddy
Incoming search terms:
- another name for teachers web pages names
- website name faculty
- things in the classroom name
- teacher website names
- teacher homepage names
- suggestions for teacher website names
- great teacher website names
- good teaching website names
- get a domain name for teachers
- domain name for teachers
Other posts:
- How to Start a Classroom Blog, Edublog or School Website 4 quick and easy ways to set up a classroom website, an educational blog (edublog), or even a school website....
- Why we chose Bluehost to run our Classroom Blogs UPDATE (Dec 2009): Why we’re thinking of leaving Bluehost. Paying for a web host to run your own self-hosted WordPress blog is not for everybody. In fact, it’s for very...
- WordPress Roles and Capabilities: How to get Students and Teachers to Put Content on Your School or Class Website We use WordPress as the engine behind our school website and classroom blogs. It’s great because you can log in to the class website online and use the web interface...
- 4 Extra Things That You Can Do With a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog (that you can’t do with a Free WordPress blog) We’re writing our ebook with step-by-step instructios on how to make a school website or classroom blog and quickly remembering why we like self-hosted WordPress blogs so much. Lots of...
- Classroom Blog Ranking – How Popular is Your Classroom Blog? How does your classroom blog rank in the blogosphere? Where does your class website rank? Is anybody even out there? As teachers, we’re focused on helping our students to polish...
4 responses so far ↓
1 mssmotorrd // May 3, 2009 at 8:51 AM
It’s the first time I commented here and I must say you share us genuine, and quality information for bloggers! Good job.
p.s. You have a very good template for your blog. Where did you find it?
2 Mr Kuroneko // May 3, 2009 at 10:44 AM
It’s the cutline theme. The link to the theme is in the footer. Good luck.
3 Phil Barnhart // Jul 4, 2009 at 5:44 PM
Unfortunately, sometimes those harmless-looking, perfectly-named domains may have a checkered past. Before picking up a domain name that may be banned or blocked due to previously delivering malware, trojans, or porn, you need to do a background check.
We’ve set up a free Domain Background Check cheat sheet at http://siteriver.com/domaintest.php – just enter the domain name you are researching and we generate 14 links to domain check, anti-malware, and other tools to quickly check if your domain name is ready for business or is still on parole.
4 Why we’re thinking about leaving Bluehost and finding a new home for our Classroom Blogs | blog.classroomteacher.ca // Dec 12, 2009 at 6:46 PM
[...] cost around $10 per domain name per year. When you register a domain name, your personal information usually gets published in an online database called WHOIS. (Canadian .ca domain names generally do not publish your personal [...]
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