GoDaddy Tutorials.

Buying a domain name

GoDaddy is the #1 ICANN-accredited domain name registrars for .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .us domain extensions. Recently they started offering hosting services as well, but they are mostly known for domain name registrations at market competitive prices.

Buying a domain name with GoDaddy requires you to create an account, and that's the first thing you should do ... if you can find the [Create new account] link. Having heavy links/ads loaded pages is their only "drawback" that we found so far, so if you only want to register a domain name, be ready to "fight" your way through all the ads (look for the [No thanks] links at the bottom of the pages). Once logged in, the [Register domains] link in the top right of the page will allow you to buy domain names.

When buying a domain name, beside the price, you need to decide on:

• Registration Length - (1,2,3,5 or 10 years). GoDaddy offers a small discount if you choose 5 or 10 years;
• Public or Private registration - A private registration will hide your contact details from being displayed on whois searches;
• Hosting package - Your domain name will be parked for free (meaning you will have a free "landing page") until you'll get a hosting package, but GoDaddy also offers hosting packages in case you're in a hurry.

You can pay by credit card or Paypal and if you have a promo code, you can also get a discount on your order. The current GoDaddy coupons are:

Use promo codes: OYH3 or cjcdeal12 - to get .COMs at $6.95
Use promo code: cjcdeal16 - $10 off $50+ orders
Use promo code: cjcdeal17 - $20 off $100+ orders

Changing Domain Name Servers (DNS)

Now that you have bought a domain name and you also have a hosting package, you will need to redirect the domain name to point to the web host that you selected (see our article on Domain name - web hosting relation). This can be done by changing the values of the domain name servers (DNS) for your domain name.

In the confirmation email that you received from your web host, you will have at least two DNS values. Log into your GoDaddy account, go to [My Domains] and click on the domain that you to redirect. Click on the [NameServers]:

• If your domain is hosted with GoDaddy, choose Default Hosting Nameservers.
• If your domain is parked at GoDaddy (you don't have a hosting account yet), choose Default Parked Nameservers.
• If your domain is hosted somewhere else, choose Custom Nameservers. Enter here the values received in the confirmation email.

If you're hosting your website at home (you have a dedicated IP) or if you only know the IP address of the hosting server, you can still redirect the domain name to that IP address. Leave the name servers on default settings for the domain that you to redirect and select [Total DNS].

Edit the IP address for the @ variable with the IP address of the server where your website is hosted.

This is how you redirect domain names with GoDaddy. Whether you just bought a new hosting package or you switched web hosts, you need to go and change your DNS settings for the domain name.

Changing Web Hosts - DNS TTL

When changing web hosts and redirecting domain names, there is a "trick" that you can use to speed up the process. All DNS records have a Time To Live (TTL) property, which "tells" the maximum amount of time other DNS servers and applications should cache the record. The longer the TTL, the longer the update is. If you change your web host you will want the change to propagate as fast as possible, so a shorter TTL will help you with this issue.

Go to [Total DNS] and click to the Edit action icon next to the @ variable for the domain. You can see here that you can modify the default TTL value. Set it to 1/2 hour.