[SixOfEleven]

My domain name is coming up for renewal in August. I created a company for selling my books. It has been about three years. My domain is number 1 in Google but my books, except 1 book, are virtually unknown. I've been considering registering www dot myname dot ca hoping to get more recognition and hopefully more traffic. I was just wondering if this is a good idea? Any opinions?

[no2pencil]

Your domain name has 3 years of registration value. You throw that away if you don't renew it.

I say keep it & get another. While you can always purchase more, you can never purchase 3 years. Well, you could buy one on eBay sure... but I think you know what I mean. The time the domain has been in existence holds value to search engines.

[SixOfEleven]

no2pencil, on 21 May, 2009 - 10:49 PM, said:

Your domain name has 3 years of registration value. You throw that away if you don't renew it.

I say keep it & get another. While you can always purchase more, you can never purchase 3 years. Well, you could buy one on eBay sure... but I think you know what I mean. The time the domain has been in existence holds value to search engines.

Good points. I see what you are saying. I have a few questions though. Can I host both domain names on the same server? What should I do about the site, have two or just update it for the new domain name?

[no2pencil]

Depending on your hosting service... it's really up to them.

I host my own domains, so I can make virtual hosts all that I care to. I just need to tell Apache what it's going to listen for, & what root directory & root index to point to. Lastly (for SEO value) I created a symbolic link index.html to the original html, & instruct spiders through robots.txt to not index that html file. Otherwise they get dinged for likeness. As if I'm copying my self.

See if you have access to all of that with your hosting service. If so, I'll be more than happy to go over it with you.

& please, if anyone has reasons not to do this, let us both know

[brandon99337]

Sorry for how off topic this is but @no2:

How much did it cost to get the whole hardware/software setup to have a fully functional hosting service.

For personal use of course.

[no2pencil]

I can't really say for sure, as I didn't build it for personal use.

I got a Dell PowerEdge 350 with an attached Sun D1000, which is the Apache & MySql server.
I also have 3 Sun X1 servers for email, ticketing, & testing environments.

They are all running FreeBSD, & it's been so long since I purchased them, I couldn't even tell you.

I Know that the X1's were between $40 & $60, & the D1000 was $200(ish?). I can't remember how much I picked up the PowerEdge for. Then there is some 10/100 cabling, the NetGear switch, the Cisco 1900 (10mb, I know I know), it's really hard to say.

I hope that helps.

[no2pencil]

@brandon There are some rather nice Sun V120 servers on eBay right now, with 1gb of ram for under $100.

Not sure if you want to go Unix/Linux, but if so, I like (& would suggest) the Sun hardware.

[SixOfEleven]

no2pencil, on 21 May, 2009 - 11:32 PM, said:

Depending on your hosting service... it's really up to them.

I host my own domains, so I can make virtual hosts all that I care to. I just need to tell Apache what it's going to listen for, & what root directory & root index to point to. Lastly (for SEO value) I created a symbolic link index.html to the original html, & instruct spiders through robots.txt to not index that html file. Otherwise they get dinged for likeness. As if I'm copying my self.

See if you have access to all of that with your hosting service. If so, I'll be more than happy to go over it with you.

& please, if anyone has reasons not to do this, let us both know

I doubt I will be able to make a server, not that I don't have the skills. I will do some research and try and figure out what the best approach would be.

[baavgai]

no2pencil, on 21 May, 2009 - 11:32 PM, said:

if anyone has reasons not to do this, let us both know

Well, do it if you need it. I always have a few headless servers running for various projects, at home and work.

However, if it's just one site, or even a couple, host sites are extremely reasonable. You can get exceptional services for less than $15 a month that suit most needs. If you needs are small, then under $10. I'd add up the cost of hardware versus the yearly cost of the plans available.

Also keep in mind that simply hosting your own content with a standard broadband plan is usually against the contract. The price of a business plan alone will usually be less that a few sites on a hosting service. At this point, even GoDaddy has ssh access. Hosting sites are now offering services never available before, mostly because they can jail the rowdiest customer into a VM and not worry about them taking out other customers if the do something stupid.

[no2pencil]

baavgai, on 22 May, 2009 - 09:17 AM, said:

no2pencil, on 21 May, 2009 - 11:32 PM, said:

if anyone has reasons not to do this, let us both know

Well, do it if you need it. I always have a few headless servers running for various projects, at home and work.

That comment was meant towards having multiple domains & dealing with them over virtual hosts in Apache.

I would never suggest that anyone run their own server equipment from home, unless they understood the difference between a commercial & residential isp connection.

In fact in most cases here in Dream In Code I've suggested against running server equipment from home. I don't even do it myself, it's all at my office.