Where to buy cheap domain names for your author website

Who am I kidding when I say that you can buy cheap domain names for your author website?

Yes, you read that right. It’s possible to buy cheap domain names for your author website.

In general, you can expect to pay around $10 to $15 for a domain name.

But you can also buy domain names at a much cheaper price during the special promotion.

If you’re thinking of getting a new domain name or transferring your existing domain name to a new registrar, it doesn’t hurt to do it when these websites are having a special promotion.

Buying a domain name isn’t as hard as you think even if you’re doing it for the first time.

All you need to do is to think of a name you want for your author website, pick any domain extension that works best for your author website and you’re good to go.

What name you should use on your brand new author website

For some people, coming up with a name for their new website is like a walk in the park.

But for some people, it can be a struggle especially if it’s the name that will affect their author career down the road.

If that’s you, how you should go about when it comes to buying a domain name for your author website?

Should you use your own name? Or should you use a brand-like domain name for your author website?

To answer this question, it depends on the purpose of your author website.

If writing a book is the focal point, then it makes sense to name your website with your author name. That is always the case if you’re a fiction author or if you’re a nonfiction author who only writes books.

Austin Kleon comes to mind when we talk about authors who make a living from their books. Of course, he also has speaking gigs as well and he’s actively blogging too. But you don’t see him offering consultations or have his own online courses. Well, that is as far as I know. I could be wrong about that.

If you only use your books to land consultant and coaching clients, then it’s fine to name your website with a brand name.

That’s what I do with The Efficient You. While I do have a book, it’s not the main focus of my website.

The Efficient You is more about me sharing my author business perspective. So, it’s fine for me not to name this website with my name.

But it’s a different story for my fiction author site where my books and my blog are the only thing I’m known for as Sekina Mayu.

What about the website that uses the name of the book?

I’m sure that you come across many authors who has a dedicated website just for their book.

If you only write one book and you don’t plan to write another book for the next couple of years, then this approach will work for you.

This approach will also work for you if you plan to write the same book with a different spin-off for the rest of your life. And you’re offering other products and services derived from the book.

But if you do plan to write many different books, then it doesn’t make sense for you to use the name of your book as a name for your website.

Using the name of your book as a name for your website will also mean that you have to create a new website every time you have a new book coming out.

Creating a website is already hard and can be costly to some people.

You’re better off naming the website with your name or using a brand name if you plan to write many different books and have plans that are not related to your books down the road.

Where to buy cheap domain names for your author website

Now that you already decide what name you should be using on your author website, it’s time for you to buy cheap domain names that you always dream of.

Here are the websites that you can use to  buy cheap domain names for your author website.

Namecheap

Namecheap comes to mind when we talk about the domain registrar that allows you to buy cheap domain names.

While the domain names at Namecheap are affordable enough, you can get the domain name even lower if you use a promo coupon code.

It’s not that hard to find the promo coupon code for Namecheap since they have a dedicated page just for that. So, don’t forget to take a look at this page to take advantage of their latest offers.

This is the domain registrar that I use to buy domain names for The Efficient You and also my fiction author site, Sekina Mayu.

iwantmyname

I admit that iwantmyname isn’t the place for you to buy cheap domain names for your website since the domain names are pricey regardless of which domain extension you choose.

But I feel like it’s worth mentioning iwantmyname here because of its one-click installation domain-mapping process.

With iwantmyname, all you need to do is to purchase the domain name you want, choose which app to install on your domain name and you’re good to go.

You don’t even need to do any manual configuration at all.

You can take a look at this page right here to find out which apps that you can install on the domain names that you purchase from iwantmyname.

It’s too bad that they don’t have one-click installation process for WordPress. So, you will still need to do manual configuration for your WordPress site if you get your domain name from iwantmyname.

I used iwantmyname back then when I still had my website on Tumblr.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy is another place for you to buy cheap domain names for your author website.

While the domain names at GoDaddy isn’t that cheap compared to Namecheap, it’s still cheaper than domain names at iwantmyname.

I can’t say how good is GoDaddy service-wise since I’ve never bought any domain names from them. But some people who bought their domain names from GoDaddy said that GoDaddy tends to bill services that they didn’t know that they had.

To be honest, I’m not sure how true is their claim.

But if you do plan to buy your domain names from GoDaddy, just be sure to check what other services they include during checkout.

I’m sure that you can uncheck other services that you don’t need before you proceed to the payment page.

Which domain extension you should get

.COM, .NET, .ORG. Heck, you can even get your domain name that ends with .MEDIA, .LIVE and .TV.

With so many varieties when it comes to domain extensions for your author website, which one you should get?

Well, that will depend on your author brand, how much you’re willing to spend for the renewal each year and the availability of the domain name you want.

For the most part, .COM is the preferred domain name extension since it’s the easiest to remember. And it also costs less to renew the domain name too.

But if you want something unique for your author brand, then it doesn’t hurt to pick a unique domain name extension such as .MEDIA, .AI, and .LIVE.

Keep in mind that you will have to pay more for a unique domain extension like this, though.

What can I say? Branding ain’t come cheap, you know?

But I got myself a free domain name!

Some web hosting services such as Bluehost and HostGator will give you a free domain name for the first year when you sign up with them.

As much as I love saving money, I don’t recommend you to have your domain name being lumped together with your hosting account.

The reason for that is because it will be difficult for you to reclaim your website if someone managed to hack into your hosting account and change your Whois record.

Of course, it shouldn’t be a problem if you use a strong password for your hosting account. But it doesn’t hurt to keep your domain name separate from your hosting account to prevent such situation from happening to you.

Another reason why you should keep your domain name separate from the hosting account is when you decide to change your web hosting service.

Let’s say you currently sign up with Bluehost. But for some reason, you just don’t like it or you happen to outgrow your current hosting plan. And now you’re thinking of moving to a different web hosting service.

If you have your domain name on any of these web hosting services, you can’t have your domain name there anymore since you’re no longer hosting your website on Bluehost.

In the end, you have to transfer your domain name to another domain registrar. That adds another thing to do besides transferring your website to another hosting service.

Of course, transferring your domain name to another domain registrar isn’t as complicated as transferring your website to another hosting service.

But it’s still adding another extra work for you. And I’m sure that you don’t want that.