iwantmyname Domain Blog

WebFaction Gives Away $100,000 In Hosting Services To Celebrate 10th Anniversary

2013-02-04T23:10:42Z

Happy 10th Birthday WebFaction from the iwantmyname team! To celebrate this milestone, the hosting company is giving away $100,000 in services to new and existing customers. Here are the details of their awesome web hosting deal:

New customers: just sign up from Feb 5th at 2pm UTC and pay $9.50 for the first month (or pay for longer). $100 will automatically be credited to your account.
Existing customers: add one new service to your account from Feb 5th at 2pm UTC (a 256 MB plan, 256 MB extra memory, or a 1GB plan) and pay for one month of that service, and you will receive the next three months of that service for free.

All domains registered at iwantmyname can be easily pointed to their service by choosing WebFaction's nameservers from the popular hosting provider list in the iwantmyname dashboard.

If you're in the market for a new web hosting provider or just want to start a new site, this hosting giveaway is just too good to miss.

Four Fantastic February Domain Discounts On .ME, .IO, .NET & .ASIA

2013-02-01T00:00:01Z

Throughout February you'll be able to benefit from the following great top-level domain sales at iwantmyname:

.ME @ $19.90 USD Montenegro's domain extension and your web address for personal sites.
.IO @ $55.00 USD The geekiest domain around the interwebs. Now at our lowest price ever!
.NET @ $10.00 USD Get a .net domain as alternative if your desired .com is already taken.
.ASIA @ $12.00 USD Perfect for landing pages in the Asian market.

We also throw in an additional 10% transfer discount on any .com/.net/.org domain transfer from GoDaddy in February (make sure to avoid these problems when starting domain transfers from GoDaddy).

Pitfalls To Avoid When Transferring Your Domain From GoDaddy

2013-01-31T00:59:45Z

We get our fair share of domain transfers from the world's largest registrar and while it is generally a smooth process, there are few things you should know before moving to iwantmyname (or any other registrar):

Whois privacy: You need to disable whois privacy through GoDaddy's DomainsByProxy service. Otherwise they will allow you to start the transfer to another registrar but cancel it later in the process.
Recently updated owner: If you have updated the owner details of a domain, GoDaddy will decline the transfer for 60 days. You can send an email to review60 [at] godaddy.com and they will work with you to make the domain transferable.
Incorrect authorization codes: Should you request an authorization code through GoDaddy's control panel for some country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), they will send you an invalid code by email. This applies to .de, .ms, .fm, .nz and some other domain extensions. We recommend to contact them by phone and specifically ask for an auth code from their ccTLD team.
ccTLDs needing local presence: GoDaddy might also decline a transfer if you use a proxy service, e.g. a German address for .de domains. In that case, we are able to provide you with details of our local presence service so they can update the domain accordingly.

If this sounds at all complicated or you run into any problems, we are more than happy to help in migrating your domains with our managed domain transfer service.

100+ Hosted Services For Your Domains

2013-01-30T01:57:30Z

Since launching iwantmyname, our mission has been to help you find and set up the best hosted services through our unique app marketplace for domains. The number of listings is constantly growing and now features more than 100 applications with easy 1-click DNS setup.

The iwantmyname marketplace lets you discover hosting services and apps from 15 different categories:

Blog: Blogetery, Blogger, Jux, Page.ly, Posterous, Scriptogram, Soup.io, Tumblr, TypePad
Business: Google Apps, Desk.com, Get Satisfaction, Onepager, Tender Support, Uservoice, Zendesk
Developer: Amazon S3, App Engine, AppFog, Bitbucket, cloudControl, dotCloud, Github Pages, Heroku, Pingdom, Windows Azure
Ecommerce: Big Cartel, Enstore, Flying Cart, Goodsie, Shopify, Storenvy, SupaDupa, Tictail
Email: Gmail (Google Apps), Fastmail.fm, Rackspace Email, Windows Live, Zoho Mail
Forum: Vanilla Forums, Zoho Discussions
Mobile: Atmio, DudaMobile
Music: Bandcamp, Onesheet, Soundfolder
Open Source: Drupal Gardens, Magento Go, WP Engine
Personal: DooID, Flavors.me, Forrst, Zerply
Portfolio: 22slides, 4ormat, 500px, Behance Prosite, Carbonmade, Cargo, DeviantART, Parade, PortfolioDeck, Projeqt, Salon.io, SmugMug, Viewbook, Zenfolio
Social: DonationTo, Grou.ps, KickApps, Meetup, Ning, Twylah
URL Shortener: awe.sm, bit.ly, CloudApp, Droplr, ShortSwitch
Website Builder: Breezi, DropPages, Harmony, Jimdo, KickoffLabs, Launchrock, LetsEat, LightCMS, Moonfruit, Pagebuild, Site44, Squarespace, VidCaster, Vimeo, Virb, Weebly, Wix, YikeSite, Yola, Zoho Sites
Wiki: PBworks, Wikidot, Zoho Wiki

As an iwantmyname customer, you will be able to add the DNS settings for any of these services with just one single click from the dashboard, e.g. create a website with Virb for yourdomain.com, start an additional shop through Shopify at shop.yourdomain.com, set up a knowledgbase on support.yourdomain.com with Desk.com and many more (some of them even offer free hosting). It's really the easiest way to get started online!

Popular Country Code Top-Level Domains Now Reduced In Price

2013-01-17T05:47:50Z

We are starting off the new year 2013 with some price reductions for the following popular country code top-level domains:

From $33 to $29.90:

.CO (Colombia)

From $35 to $29:

From $24.90 to $19:

.ES (Spain)

From $59 to $49:

From $29 to $24.90:

.IN (India)

These prices apply to new purchases as well as renewals. Happy domain registering!

Happy Holidays

2012-12-20T23:57:06Z

It has been an amazingly full and challenging year for us here at iwantmyname as we continued to win over new fans with our no-nonsense approach to domain management. Elsewhere, from Hobbits to hurricanes to Halloween, 2012 has been a rather eventful year globally as well. Now as the holiday season is almost upon us, you can rest easy in the full knowledge that we will still be on deck keeping a watchful eye on your domains.

During the year we launched a crisp new design for iwantmyname including improvements in search speed and functionality. 2012 was also the year in which we witnessed hundreds of aspiring domain applicants preparing bids for the release of new top level domains. Some of the applications had merit, whilst others were downright domain crazy. We continue to monitor the process and will keep you informed if and when new domain spaces emerge.

We've got major plans for 2013 ourselves too, including additional development work on our customer dashboard. We're also doing our bit for the economic recovery by taking on more domain elves, plus we are planning a move to bigger and brighter premises as we continue our global growth. None of these things would have been possible without the support of our valued customers however. Apart from your domain business, we especially appreciate all of your feedback. We want to make registering and managing a domain name easy and fun, so it really helps us to improve when we hear about our customers' experiences.

Best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season from the iwantmyname team!

P.S. Stumped for gift ideas? Avoid shopping mall madness this season and register a gift domain name for friends and family.

Iceland Haz Cheezburger?

2012-12-17T00:57:04Z

We're not to sure if they do because both cheezburger.is and cheeseburger.is are still available for registration. There seems to be an Iceland Cheeseburger Pizza though?!?

Now THAT sounds healthy! Anyway, as one of the most requested country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) at iwantmyname, it is with great pleasure to announce the addition of the Icelandic domain extension to our TLD family.

Iceland's ccTLD can be registered at a yearly cost of $99 USD with .is domain transfers being free of charge. Please note that ISNIC, the Icelandic registry, has special nameserver requirements. If you are planning to use different nameservers than our ns1/2/3/4.iwantmyname.net, please check with your nameserver or hosting provider first.

Since the .is namespace is rather small (41361 domains as of today), many great domains or domain hacks are still available. Make yourself a domain Christmas present and get your Icelandic web address today!

In The Domain of Middle Earth

2012-11-25T21:00:00Z

Many of you will be aware that iwantmyname is based in New Zealand, which is the location for filming of both the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy and now The Hobbit. In fact Oscar winning director Peter Jackson shot much of the movie footage on a huge sound stage just a few minutes drive from our office in downtown Wellington.

The movie maker also employs a large CGI and special effects team nearby who additionally delivered the amazing digital effects for other movies such as King Kong, Tintin and Avatar. We are incredibly fortunate to be immersed in such a creative environment focusing both artistic talent and high technology on delivering a world class product to millions of fans globally. Some of the iwantmyname team even had roles as extras during the making of The Hobbit and we have many friends employed in software development and tech support within the film industry. It's within that context that we ourselves are driven to build and deliver the most innovative and cool domain registrar technology on the planet.

With the worldwide premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey happening on our front doorstep this week, the city is buzzing with excitement and has transformed into "the middle of Middle Earth" as the stars arrive for their much anticipated walk down the red carpet. There's also been some odd and fantastical characters spotted entertaining fans around town in the lead up to the big event. I even had a very close encounter myself with a rather hungry and scary looking Orc (see photo).

Did you know you can have your own Middle Earth domain name? We offer .ME domains that double nicely as your Middle Earth address on the web. To celebrate Hobbit week, the Orcs have been busy chopping and slashing our domain prices. So we are offering discounted .ME domains for only $14.90 until December 1st. If you are a Hobbit fan, get blogging all about it or set up a domain customized photo portfolio site in time for the movie launch.

Thanksgiving Is Here. Start Your WordPress Engines!

2012-11-19T21:50:19Z

Thank goodness it's almost Thanksgiving! Everyone is looking forward to putting their feet up over the holiday weekend, eating good food and spending lots of leisure time with friends and family. It's also a time when online retailers get busy offering a wide range of fantastic deals to lure customers away from their turkey and cranberry sauce. So to get into the Thanksgiving spirit, we sniffed out a fantastic offer for you from WP Engine.

From November 22nd to 26th, WP Engine is offering $25 off your first 3 months of service! That's premium WordPress hosting for as low as $4 per month for the first 3 months. There's never been a better time to get yourself online and start sharing your thoughts with your own fantastic WordPress blog. Better yet, WP Engine handle everything for you. No need to worry about software updates or hosting.

Of course iwantmyname makes it easy to domain customize your hosted WP Engine blog. So you don't need to settle for a plain old vanilla flavored URL. Choose from our selection of more than 100 international domain extensions and get blogging over the long weekend with WP Engine (affiliate link).

Are You A Kick Ass Front End Developer? Join Us!

2012-11-12T19:59:14Z

* APPLICATIONS NOW CLOSED *

iwantmyname is hiring a full-time front end developer in Wellington, New Zealand (international applicants welcome!) with a passion for simplicity and building experiences that people love.

You'll be working for an international startup where creativity, transparency and happiness are the company's core values. Our team is a bunch of geeks who love building the most awesomest domain registrar on earth. We also have a strong commitment to open source and are frequently involved with local developer community user groups, conferences and events.

If you are a frontend developer who is obsessed with building the best possible user experience and have a strong background in Javascript and CSS, then read the full details here.

Parking Domains Can Delay Website Discovery By Search Engines

2012-11-08T02:47:39Z

Google's Matt Cutts explains why you shouldn't park your domain right until the launch of your website:

Some more tips from us:

If you are using a registrar automatically connecting your domain to a parked page — with or without ads — disable the setting immediately (e.g. by removing the DNS records).
Use a simple publishing tool such as Site44 or Virb to quickly summarize what the website is about before launching.
There are lots of other free hosted services with custom domain option which can be used to announce your launch or build an audience.

Why Your Domain Survived The Sandy Storm

2012-11-01T09:58:00Z

Before co-founding iwantmyname, I was employed as an aviation meteorologist, so the events of this week have been both fascinating and frightening as New York and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States endured a full frontal assault from Extra-Tropical Storm Sandy. Forecasts of the danger led to mass evacuations and shut-downs of key infrastructure such as airports, subway and power utilities. But how did Sandy get so damn big and is there a threat to Internet services and data security when disaster strikes in the future?

Sandy began as a late season hurricane originating near the Bahamas. Although the tropical storm barely made it to category 2 strength as it scooted past Florida, subsequent interaction with mid-latitude upper level systems and cold air from the north increased her ferocity. Energized by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream that flow along the east coast, the region experiences one or two major storms each year. Sandy was one of the largest recorded Atlantic storms by surface area and has similarities to Hurricane Floyd that deluged the north-east with rain in 1999. Hurricane Andrew (1992) and Hurricane Katrina (2005) gained greater infamy for wind strength and the extent of devastation wrought in the south of course.

With climate change and the forecast increase in severity of storms, how robust is the Internet infrastructure that we rely upon daily? Preparedness and technical redundancy are issues that constantly prey upon the mind of operational teams at any fast growing Internet company and iwantmyname is no exception. Consequently, we have our front end servers parked in several geographically remote locations globally. We also secure customer, domain and DNS record data externally with independent partners in Europe that have their own highly robust system architectures. System failure at any single location would never result in an irrecoverable loss of customer data or degradation of the existing DNS service on your domain.

Service providers who support key elements of the global Internet infrastructure and domain name system also have multiple layers of redundancy in place. For example ICANN was quick to allay fears regarding handling of DNSSEC management based in its Virginia data center. Most hosted services in the affected area coped well despite some challenges. But the reported outage at Amazon and failures of some prominent blog sites suggests that the chief threat lies with individual cloud based applications that may be a little over-reliant on a single server node. But losing access to your Pinterest or Instagram for a couple of hours is hardly a crisis in comparison to the severe trials being faced by residents of the North-East in the wake of the storm. Keep safe!

Image credit: NOAA

Halloween Week Domain Sales

2012-10-31T04:46:34Z

Since we did not have a pumpkin at our office for a photo, I proudly present you my first attempt of painting the versatile vegetable instead (as you can see I'm really good at it). It somehow reminds me of that horrendous clipart collection on 10 CDs that I bought in the 90s for my first website.

So should you have plans for a clipart revival blog, we've got the following great domain sales for you this Halloween — and beyond:

.COM, .NET, .ORG @ $12.00 USD until Sunday, Nov 4
.CO, .ME @ $19.00 USD until Dec 31
.AT @ $14.90 USD until Nov 30
.EC @ $49.00 USD until Nov 30

All .COM, .NET, .ORG, .CO and .ME domain names come with free whois masking which makes them a real bargain. Also, if you sign up at iwantmyname, we guarantee a horror-free experience for your domains!

Wishing you a safe and happy Halloween... :)

Just Can't Get Enough

2012-10-29T17:23:12Z

Frequently described as one of the most influential bands of their era, British synth-pop pioneers Depeche Mode are planning a world tour plus an album release in 2013. They are amongst many groups managing their online brand presence using various smart domain customized hosted services for musicians.

So we were thrilled when they tweeted using a superbly crafted short domain set up through iwantmyname to illuminate their new studio production video clip.

Have you watched the in-studio collage video shown at yesterday's press conference in Paris? If you haven't... dpchm.de/SiByGo
-- Depeche Mode (@depechemode) October 24, 2012

With around 100 million album sales, Depeche Mode must surely be the most well known band on our 'books'. As music fans ourselves, it's hugely exciting to be involved — albeit in a small way. Musicians, artists and writers 'just can't get enough' of our hosted services when it comes to promoting their work online.

Got a musical or creative event launch planned? Grab yourself a cool domain and customize your own url shortener to track clicks and make content sharing easy.

And here's the full clip for all fellow music lovers:

12 Links For Weekend Reading And Experimenting

2012-10-27T02:32:28Z

Happy browsing and have an enjoyable weekend!