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Monday, November 10, 2008

Godaddy vs. Google Apps for kicking-off

 

For those who would like to earn money online, the first question could be: using GoDaddy directly, or Google Apps for Your Domain and other services?

There seem to be pros and cons to both options: buying your domain name direct through GoDaddy, or through Google Apps.

Simplicity. For GoDaddy, it's not clear what you do or don't get as part of your domain name purchase, and what has to be selected and paid for as an extra. Though you could probably figure it out from the final page, or after the event! At least with Google Apps you know what you're getting, much more clearly: Gmail-type email, etc, for free. Which may be worth the (probably) slightly greater cost, if you're only buying a single domain.

Cost. One factor is of course cost. For a single domain name, GoDaddy seems to be cheaper, but if you add the private registration fee then there's little difference, at the moment anyway. However, GoDaddy often have a multiplicity of special offers, e.g. if you buy lots of domain names in bulk, there can be a discount. (You might want to buy up variations of your blog names as I have, e.g. in my case consumingexperience.com, aconsumingexperience.com, theconsumingexperience.com). The price can also vary depending on whether you're buying a year's registration, or more than 5 years' worth, etc. And you can get private domain registration if you buy direct from GoDaddy too.

A minus from a consumer/usability viewpoint is that GoDaddy's offers are hard to figure out, with some inconsistencies or contradictions on the site. In particular it's not at all clear whether and when you can combine several different types of offers on their website. I spent a happy few hours (not!) hitting the Back button, opening lots of browser windows, trying out different combos.

The moral is that you need to figure out exactly what package you want, then try different routes in to your desired package, from different parts of their website, and see if they make a difference to the final pricing and features.

    Tip: for non-US residents, you can choose to see the pricing in currencies other than US dollars, if you prefer. It's up to you whether you want the conversion to your local currency to be done by GoDaddy or your credit company, really.