Merry Christmas, here's your website.

December 3, 2008 9:24 AM

Looking for a webhost/reseller deal for registering MANY domains w/ temporary hosting - and need advice.

Okay. I am currently using 1and1.com as my webhost for 3 sites and don't really have any complaints or concerns with them specifically.

What I need now is a host/registrar combination or singly to be able to register 20-ish domains and host them cheaply for about a year.

My plan is to to register the domain names of all my coworkers, (ie. janesmith.com, johndoe.com, etc) and create a generic but slightly personalized "personal/business web page" for all of them in the next few weeks.

For Christmas, I want to "gift" them the domain and login information et al. WHat they do with it from that point is out of my hands and they can worry about renewing their domains and hosting issues and all the other stuff on their won (though they will probably call me for advice)

All i really want is cheap/free registration and cheap/free hosting without the ads. I've done the basic research but I can't seem to find any good one-stop shop, and I'm not sure what the best way to go about combining two services for this end result. Any ideas?

posted by emjay to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Pair.com is a host as well as a registrar (pairNIC) but their prices are a bit high compared to the rest of the industry.

You can also get web hosting through GoDaddy (the biggest registrar) and also get some substantial discounts when registering multiple domains at once. However, their web hosting is notoriously bad and hard to use as soon as you want to do anything but static HTML.

Search through the webhostingtalk.com forums for better advice. I'm sure someone there has a cheap solution that won't bankrupt your holiday budget.
posted by camworld at 11:06 AM on December 3, 2008

I use hostdepartment.com for hosting. Unlimited domains for about $50 a year, as long as you are the registered owner. You have to request each new block of 10.

I register through Omnis.com, but it's nothing special. I've just used them a long time and it's easy. Names are $8 a year, which is not the cheapest.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 12:24 PM on December 3, 2008

One grouchy thing to keep in mind. You should consider the possibility that you will become tech support for these people forever.

Here is another option that should alleviate some of that responsibility.

Give out gift cards and write up some detailed instructions on how these people can set everything up themselves. Include toll free numbers for both the host and registrar's support. This would be something to be sure and research and verify that the companies do have phone support.

In the printout maybe include spaces for them to write down their usernames/passwords/urls, etc. That way everything relating to their website is in one spot.

Also include coupons/discount codes for them to use when they register. You can find some here:

http://www.retailmenot.com/view/godaddy.com
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/pair.com
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/dreamhost.com
posted by rdurbin at 12:40 PM on December 3, 2008

ER, this seems to be exactly what I was imagining in my previous post http://www.mediatemple.net/webhosting/thehostingcard/
posted by rdurbin at 2:11 PM on December 3, 2008

Hmmm, why not do Google Apps for Domains (free, other than the domain name). You get them started, Google tries to make things easy enough so that they never need tech support.
posted by Good Brain at 3:05 PM on December 3, 2008

You don't want to do this. There's no way to do this well and be cheap. You're talking about having roughly 20 people on a single hosting account which means they would all need the user/pass and it's just a mess.

Also - a host rarely has good pricing on domains. They will often give you a free one but that's about it.

Give them the domains and Google Apps/gmail.

I'll pimp my company and a couple of others if that's ok.

Name.com - Best domain registrar, ever! Inexpensive domains, free privacy and free Google Apps fully integrated at the touch of a button. You can buy all of the domains from a single account then create a new account for each of them and push the domains for free to those accounts.

Fabulous.com and Moniker are other good registrars. But they don't offer the same features. :)
posted by FlamingBore at 10:25 PM on December 4, 2008

Google Apps turned out to work well and I did a mass registration and got a reseller's discount with 1and1. Thanks all!
posted by emjay at 12:27 PM on January 3