Author Tech Tips » Domain

6 Reasons Why You Should Avoid GoDaddy

Thomas Umstattd — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:50:01 +0000

There was a time when I have almost 40 domains with GoDaddy. I started using them almost ten years ago back when GoDaddy was a new website with dungeon low prices.

Now I don’t own a single domain with GoDaddy. Here are six reasons why you should move away from GoDaddy too.

#1 GoDaddy Has Terrible Support

I had one client who had constant trouble with her email because GoDaddy support constantly gave her wrong advice. She would have a small problem with her email and would call GoDaddy. By the end of the call her email would be totally broken.

Finally, she hired me to conference in with the GoDaddy representative and interrupt each time the GoDaddy rep would give her bad information. I had to interrupt a lot.

#2 GoDaddy is Expensive

GoDaddy lures customers in with prices that look low. GoDaddy makes it look like .com domains cost $1.99 per year when in reality domains cost $10.69 per year.

Price Breakdown:

GoDaddy $10.69 per year
Namecheap.com $9.69 per year
Name.com $8.99 pear year

They then try to up sell you worthless services like whois “protection.”

#3 GoDaddy is Hard to Use

I cringe any time I hear a novice say they bought a domain on GoDaddy.

GoDaddy spends so much time trying to upsell customers that it takes an act of congress to just buy what you came to buy. If you don’t know what you are doing you may find yourself paying for all sorts of things you don’t need like WHOIS “protection.”

You have to be fairly savvy to use GoDaddy and not get ripped off.

#4 GoDaddy Hosting is Slow

iThemes, a major WordPress theme development company, recently blasted GoDaddy for overselling hosting space. GoDaddy puts thousands of websites on a single server. All those websites compete for server processing time and bandwidth. This causes the sites to run slow especially if any of them are popular. The GoDaddy speed issues are exacerbated by the fact that Google now penalizes slow sites on its search results.

Not only is the hosting slow but making server changes is slow as well. If you change the wrong thing you may not know anything is broken for thirty minutes and it may take another thirty minutes to unchange whatever it is you broke.

#5 GoDaddy Gives Too Little Control

Not only is GoDaddy slow but their server back end is difficult to use and limited. Instead of giving users an industry standard admin interface like cPanel or Plesk they give users a proprietary admin interface that is more interested in selling you more GoDaddy products than in giving you the tools you need.

#6 GoDaddy Uses Smut to Sell

Some people are more concerned about the moral degradation of our country than others. Many people feel the country is moving in the wrong direction. Let me just say that GoDaddy is no force for good in our culture. GoDaddy notoriously has the most offensive Super Bowl ads every year. Each year they submit ads that are deemed too inappropriate even for TV.

They then feature these “too hot for TV” ads on their homepage.

Even the ads that do get approved objectify woman’s bodies and degenerate women into objects of lust for the purpose of making money. This is inappropriate, uncalled for and not something conscientious people should support with their money. If we allow companies to manipulate our sexual desires to make a profit how can we say we are any better than the animals

Thinking authors can do better than GoDaddy.

The Good News

You are not stuck with GoDaddy.

I help authors move away from GoDaddy every week. Namecheap even offers a discount to GoDaddy users who transfer their domains away. Just use the coupon code Switch2NC and you will get a year added to your domain for only $6.99.

There are also a lot of better hosting providers. We here at AuthorTechTips recommend:

Media Temple (Best speed)
Host Gator (Best value)

We recommend that your domain be registered with a different company than where you have your hosting. Your website is safer when you don’t have all your eggs in one basket and the companies who are the best at domains (like Namecheap) are often not the same companies who are best at hosting (Media Temple and Host Gator).

Disclosure: While I have signed up for the Host Gator and Namecheap affiliate programs none of the links in this post are affiliate links. I want you to believe me when I say GoDaddy is not the best choice.

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8 URL Display Traps Authors Fall Into

Thomas Umstattd — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:47:18 +0000

So you bought a fancy new domain and now it is time to print business cards and fliers. Many authors print their URL in such a way that no one remembers it. Don’t be one of those authors. The following post has the 8 taps most authors fall into and how to avoid those traps.

Special thanks to our good friends at Good URL Bad URL for letting us use their photos.

Trap 1 – alllowercase

Don’t do this. typinginalllowercasecausesthewordstoblendtogether. If you want people to remember your URL use CamelCase.

Trap 2 – ALLUPERCASE

Don’t do this either. When you go all caps people start thinking about the letters instead of the words with is much harder to remember. THISISJUSTASBADASALLLOWERCASEBUTITLOOKSLIKEYOUARESHOUTINGTOO

Trap 3 – http://www.

This third trap not only catches authors when they print their domain but also when they say their domain. You never need to put “http://”. You usually don’t need to put the WWW either.

Imagine you are doing a radio interview and you hear the closing music start to play. The host asks you to give your website one more time. What do you say?

What not to say: “For more help about (book title) visit my website at http://www.booktitle.com”
What to say: “For more info about (book title) visit BookTitle.com.”

Do you see what just happened? You were able to mention you book title twice right at the end of the show. The listeners are much more likely to remember your title and website than they were zoning out to http://www.

Trap 4 – Multiple Lines

Displaying your URL across multiple lines is a great way to get people to fail to find your site. Many people will think this is an add for USA.com which it is not.

Trap 5 – Too Small

It is important that you make sure you URL is big enough to be seen. Imagine yourself 40 years older. Can you still read your URL?

Trap 6 – Confusing Spaces

Spaces get you into trouble. Is this site Boredom.com or BanBoredom.com?

Trap 7 – Not Owning Common Misspellings

Amazon.com also owns Amizon.com why? Because people say “Amizon” and are likely to type the word the way they say it.

Trap 8 – Confusing Fonts

Sometime fonts can help make long URLs more clear. In other instances the fonts can just make the URL more confusing.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and let us know.

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7 Ways to Send More Traffic to Your Website During a Radio Interview

Thomas Umstattd — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:53:21 +0000

Imagine you are doing a radio interview and you hear the closing music start to play. The host asks you to give your website one more time. What do you say?

#1 Repeat Your Domain

On average, radio listeners listen for about 5 minutes at a time. So If you are in a 30 minute interview and you mention your website twice more than half of the listeners will never hear how to get more information. Don’t wait for the host to remind you to push your site.

#2 Include a Goodie

You want to give the listeners a reason to visit your website. I’m not just talking about a sample chapter here. Give them something they can only get on your website. This tip alone can more than double your hits after an interview.

Whatever you give away make sure to get it professionally edited. Then you can setup an auto responder so that anyone who signs up for your newsletter gets it for free. Or just add it as a pdf download.

Fiction Goodie Ideas

If you write fiction take some of that back story you cut and put it together into an interesting 10 page short story.

Or put together some short stories from your box of short stories.

Non Fiction Goodie Ideas

Non fiction has a ton of potential for creative goodies.

Writing a book on marriage? Put together a 10 Dating Ideas for Married Couples guide.
Writing a book on parenting? Write up the 7 Funniest Things Children Say.
Writing a book on music? Include a free mp3 download.
Writing a book on personalities? Include a free personalty test.

Be creative. This is also a chance to supplement your book with videos, music, tests and other media that paper cannot convey.

#3 Buy YourBookTitle.com

You don’t need to build a new web site for this step. You can buy YouBookTitle.com from NameCheap for $9.69 and have NameCheap forward visitors to your real website automatically. The benefit of pushing YourBookTitle.com is that it makes people twice as likely to remember your book and your website. When you push one you push the other

#4 Don’t Say “Http://”

Saying “http://” is code for “zone out now.” Don’t do it. They don’t need to type it. You don’t need to say it.

#5 Don’t Say “www” Either

People know to type the www. And, even if they forget they will go to your website anyway. Don’t believe me? Type “YourWebsite.com” into your browser and see where you land.

#6 What to Say

What not to say: “For more help about (book title) visit my website at http://www.mywebsitename.com”

What to say: “For more info about (book title) visit BookTitle.com. And while there don’t forget to downlaod my free short story about Carl the cowboy ninja who falls in love with a pirate princes…”

Do you see what just happened? You were able to mention your book title and your website twice right at the end of the show. This is a double win. The listeners are much more likely to remember your title and website than they were zoning out to “http://www.”

#7 Repeat Your URL

We are not kidding about this tip. If you want people to visit your site they must know about it. Repeat Repeat it as often as you can without becoming obnoxious.

What do you think?

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Does Your Website Pass the Radio Test?

Thomas Umstattd — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:59:21 +0000

When you say your website on the radio can listeners find it? Can they spell it? The radio test is not just important for the radio. Anytime someone talks about your website you want to make sure the listener goes to the right site.

Here are 7 tests to see if your website passes the radio test.

Test 1 – Numbers?

When you say a number over the radio it will fail the test. 12Step.org sounds just like TwelveStep.org. Only one site will help you with addiction recovery.

12Step.org (fail)
TwelveStep.org? (fail)

How to get around this pitfall: Buy both domains then have one forward to the other. So if your book title was 8 Ways to Save Your Marriage I would buy both 8WaysToSaveYourMarriage.com and EightWaysToSaveYourMarraige.com.

Test 2 – Similar Sounds?

My website cgames.com is short but it fails this test. Is it SeeGames.com or SeaGames.com? Can’t tell. I always end up spelling it over the air. To make matters worse, the letter “c” sounds like half a dozen other letters.

cGames.com (fail)
SeeGames.com (fail)
SeaGames.com (fail)

How to get around this pitfall: Before you buy a domain, call a friend and tell them what domain you want to buy. Ask them to spell it back to you.

Test 3 – Acronyms

When your website is an acronym instead of a word you say the individual letters. The letters “b” “c” “d” “e” “g” “p” “t” “v” and “z” all sound the same over a bad radio connection. Buy domains with words not letters whenever possible.

ccsa.info (potential fail)
cbsa.info (potential fail)

This not a universal rule. YMCA.com will work. If people know the acronym or what it stands for you can sometimes get away with it.

Test 4 – Underscores?

Avoid underscores at all costs. They are cheesy and they take too long to say over the radio.

KathyHoward.org (pass)
Kathy_Howard.com (fail)

Test 5 – Dashes?

Most listeners don’t know what a dash is or how to type it. They also get confused with the difference between a dash and a hyphen.

FreedomForGamers.com (pass)
Freedom-For-Gamers.com (fail)
Freedom4Gamers.com (fail)
Freedom-4-Gamers.com (epic fail)

Test 6 – Text Speak

Just because “u” means “you” on a text message does not mean it will work for your domain. HelpForU.com sounds cheesy and it fails the radio test.

HelpForU.com (fail)
HelpForYou.com (potential fail)

I would completely avoid the word “you” in your domain.

Test 7 – Weird Spelling?

The problem with UmstattdMedia.com and ThomasUmstattd.com is that no one can spell “Umstattd.” If the word is not in Websters it will fail the radio test. If your 7th grader can’t spell it, your domain fails the radio test.

UmstattdMedia.com (fail)
ThomasUmstattd.com (fail)

What do you think?

Have you ever been confused with how a URL sounds? How about your domain? Does it pass the radio test?

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