Custom Domain by blogger, any idea guys
I just happened to check out that blogger is charging $ 10 per annum for registering a custom domain, does it mean that after 1 year we have to pay renewal fees of $ 10 again. Nextly, do we loose the right over our blogspot, in case we don t renew it. Lastly the third party provider is free to sell our domain in case we don t renew it after one year. A clarity on the same would have bloggers to take a decision on whether to go for the facility. Why does Google by themselves don t provide such a service rather than engaging a third party who may be unethical in their approach and start blackmailing the blogger concerned is the key issue here guys ?
Google allows you to buy domains from them but you don't have to buy from them. They just happen to be a reseller. You can buy it from anywhere and then configure your domain settings to point to their servers. One of my blogs is set to custom domain on blogger. You can see it here. You do have to renew every year. Buying a domain name is not really buying but renting. Domain names do cost and it goes up almost every year along with the ICANN fees. Custom domains does not mean better SEO, its just helpful for others to remember.
I have one blog with a custom domain from Google. I renewed it for the second year recently. The TOS with Google seems pretty straight forward, and I didn't worry too much buying a domain with them. I trust Google more than others. My other private host, for example, now charges $12 to renew my domain after offering it for free for the first year.
Having a custom domain helps significantly with the SEO. Also, Blogger is free to use. If you go with private hosts, they charge you $100+ just to host your site and apply traffic restrictions on the top of it. I don't see what's wrong in paying $10 to Google, which is the same amount one will pay with other's as well. Unless you have a reseller account with any of the big hosts. You also get limited edition of Google Apps, which is a great tool to get familiarized.
@Umesh Google themselves can be a Domain registrar. Its not difficult for them to be for sure. But this is more of volume business. They are already doing that with their SME Business website offer. They are leveraging Google Sites for this.
@Umesh
Google is not a domain registrar neither they are planning to be one as far as I know but yeah they are providing it @cheap cost via one of the best registrars in the world like godaddy,enom,name and others.If you directly go to these registrar sites you will have to pay either equal or more amount and even you wont get the freewhois that google provides for free via the registrars(dont know what is the TOS between them)
The price normally is 10$/year via any registrar either its through Google or without google,incase you dont renew it would go in grace period I guess for 3 months(dont remember exactly as most of my domains are registered for 10 years or I renew it before expiration date) after which again it would be available to anyone like the sim card as its obvious if noone is using the domain its pointless not providing the domain to someone else
The main authority for domain is ICANN rest all are registrars for it so 5$ is not the feasible fee but many still launch many promo offers for 1$/year for the first year only applying the marketing formula that one will remain with them from 2nd year onwards paying 10$/year or more if opting for other services like hosting
Incase you dont renew your domain you would be automatically switched back to umeshxxxx.blogspot.com till you get back the domain name(incase some1 else hasnt taken it only).Google is a damn big company but it cant be in every field related to computers,moreover Google has already turned off many services like google toolbar etc and is in process turning off many others as Google wants to conc. on products like G+,chrome,android
I personally feel if google offers this facility, they can afford to offer it for less than $ 5 per annum this facility. Depending on third party will be downer or getting short changed for the blogger concerned.
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