iPage Hosting is running a money-saving special over the Holidays to save those looking for a web hosting company quite a bit of money. There are plenty of reasons why iPage Hosting is one of the best web hosts on the Internet (see iPage Review Updated). But right now, you can get two or three years of hosting by one of the Internet’s top web hosting companies for 63% off the regular price people normally pay. iPage Hosting makes it easy to sign up–and you get a free domain as well.
iPage Hosting Sign-Up, Step 1
The first choice you have to make is if you want a free domain as part of your iPage web hosting package, or transfer an existing domain that you already own.
There are a couple of things to be aware of as you make that decision: First, if you do decide to take iPage up on their offer and get a free domain, THEY are technically the ones that own it. You can buy it from them for about $17, which is not that bad (there will be a price increase on January 15, 2012). iPage gives all hosting clients the option for a free domain in hopes of keeping you a customer for life.
Second, if you decide to pass on the free domain from iPage and just take advantage of their web hosting, your domain can come from any of the popular domain registrars, like GoDaddy, NameCheap, or Moniker, just to name a few. All you will have to do is change the Domain Name Server (DNS) in your registrar’s account settings. Your iPage hosting account is different from your domain registrar account.
iPage Hosting Sign-Up, Step 2
Step 2 in signing up for iPage hosting is about entering in your payment information.
Be Sure and Look For This When Signing Up For iPage Hosting
But there is something you need to be aware of–a few checkboxes on the sign-up page are already selected, increasing your final cost if left to default. Personally, I don’t get too upset with iPage for pre-populating the checkboxes. For one, they’re offering one of the cheapest web hosting plans on the internet; they’re just trying to make a buck, which I can relate to. And second, they have a running total at the bottom of the page, so the small additional fees are right there in front of my face. If iPage were trying to “trick” me when signing up for web hosting, they wouldn’t have an automatically updating total right there in plain site.
Nevertheless, if you do not want your domain to have the Privacy feature, uncheck the box when signing up for iPage hosting. The Privacy feature keeps your personal information like name, address, email, and phone number from being displayed with your domain Whois information. Spammers sometimes scour domain information databases and collect contact information to send you spam emails. Since the iPage hosting plan you’re signing up for has Spam Assassin filtering software, it will pretty much take care of any spammy email.
By the way, $8.99 for domain privacy is pretty much the going price with other domain registrars, though GoDaddy has coupons to bring the price down on occasion (GoDaddy is not only a popular domain registrar, they offer web hosting just like iPage does. But do not purchase a hosting plan through them as they have a terrible reputation for banning a website over the least little complaint or accusation of spam.) Moniker, on the other hand, sells domains a little cheaper but gives you the option for privacy for only $2. It’s a trade-off. Again, remember you don’t have to get a new domain when signing up for an iPage hosting account.
iPage Hosting Web Essentials…You Decide
A little further down the ipage are iPage Hosting Web Essentials, a collection of optional hosting services. The things is, they may not be all the essential to you. That’s a decision you have to make, especially since two of the services have their checkbox pre-selected. Beefed up website security is always a good thing. iPage understands those with a hosting account will need all the protection they can get, but at $12.95 a year (advertised as a $59.95 value), you have to count the costs.
The other pre-selected checkbox feature for new iPage hosting accounts is Automated Backup. Backing up your website is a good thing, but you can do it yourself for free. And if you’re using WordPress, you can set it to backup automatically to a directory within your iPage hosting account or email it to you daily, weekly, or monthly. My personal opinion is iPage is trying to save all of their hosting clients a lot of grief, but how you backup your site should be your decision.
Other Web Essential Features Provided by iPage Hosting
iPage will provide a Fast Start page with basic information about your site while you or your designer(s) craft your website. That can be very helpful. I think it’s always best to take action as soon as possible. Having iPage set up a temporary page is an action-oriented step in your hosting efforts.
Getting listed in directories is over-rated. It may have been beneficial ten years ago, but today it has very little value. Still, getting backlinks from a few key directories may give your website some recognition by the search engines, initially. iPage’s offer to help new hosting accounts get some momentum might have it’s benefits to certain types of websites, like ones with low competition keywords.
All web hosting providers, including iPage, fight spam on a daily basis. The good news is, your iPage hosting account will have spam software to weed out unwanted emails. Paying for a premium version will only appeal to those iPage hosting clients that expect to have an enormous amount of email.
As you make changes to your iPage hosting sign-up page, the amount due at the bottom of the page changes. So whether you deselect some options or add some services, you’ll always be able to see how much your iPage Hosting account is going to cost.
iPage Hosting Final Step
The last step to getting your own iPage hosting account, after completing all of the requested information, is simply click the Check Out button. Whether you paid by credit card or with your PayPal account, you are on your way to being the newest member of the iPage Hosting family.
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