How to get your first website up on a shoestring - Chintzy makes GoDaddy give up the deals

Whether you think its a good thing, or a bad thing, the invasion of the internet into the private lives of all of us has begun.  Or should we say, the invasion of our private lives onto the Internet has begun?  Either way, more people than ever before are getting online and putting up their own online presence.  And where  would you be without Chintzy to do the research, break the news, crunch the numbers?  You would be paying, kind reader, paying all too much and too often.  Stay tuned for Chintzy's take on how to get the best, cheapest website deals, particularily from the big name in websites, GoDaddy.

What you have to know about GoDaddy, is they are all about the marketing.  You may have seen their super bowl commercials or seen Danica Patrick driving the GoDaddy indycar.  You may have seen their very prevalent web advertising popping up all over, including their risque commercials.

The main thing you have to know about them though, is that they offer special promo codes and discounts.  If you haven't come across this before, I'm talking about the little coupon, or promo code box that you sometimes see in an online checkout before paying.  You type in your promo code, and then you receive the qualifying discount.  It's the online equivalent of clipping coupons and presenting them at the checkout.

You come to Chintzy for the deals, not technology advice, right?

This article won't cover all the ins and outs of choosing and setting up your own website, the fact is Chintzy is first a deals hound and only secondly a technology expert.  And if you were a fly on the wall at Chintzy Headquarters, you might have your doubts about the second!  So for our purposes here and now, we'll assume that you, for the most part, know what you want.  Chintzy can then do what Chintzy does best -- hunt the deals.

After many hours of shopping cart experimentation, price comparisons, a few calls in to GoDaddy (including 'The Office of the President') and after all is said and done much online sweat and tears are distilled down to gain these most valuable drops of knowledge.  Let's get to the deals.

The first important lesson of GoDaddy shopping is, order of operations is important.  They offer so many deals and incentives, that depending on the way you go through the website, you may, or may not be offered or eligible for certain discounts.  Of course, Chintzy has done all this research for you, and the little nuances will be summarized at the end.  Pictured above is something of an example of this.  You are given the opportunity to claim up to a 15% discount based on pre-paying for your service.  If you are certain that you are going to want a website past next weekend, then this is definitely a Chintzy approved way of saving some money.  You aren't just putting up a website on impulse, are you?

Pre-paying ($3.18/month) 36 months  of hosting vs. month to month - Savings 15% = $27


Now this is important, so listen up.  You only get one kick at the can when pre-paying (why, I have no idea).  What this means is, you can only get this discounted rate when you are signing up for a new hosting service.  If you buy a couple of months worth and then decide to pre pay, you aren't getting these savings unless you sign up for a new hosting service, which means you would have to start from scratch, transfer over your website, and incur much sorrow and gnashing of teeth with GoDaddy support.  So if this deal is for you, take note, and take advantage, the first time around.

Would a rose smell as sweet by any other domain name?


If you are signing up for hosting, I'm going to assume you need a domain name too.  Something catchy hopefully, that gives an idea of what your website or blog is all about.  Although it seems to Chintzy that GoDaddy's "regular" pricing doesn't have a heckuva lot of credibility with all the discounts and savings and special offers going around, they have a long running discount for people who are signing up for any kind of service with them.  Get your first year of your domain name registration for $1.99 which is a pretty steep discount off their regular price up near $10 - $11.  There may be some variations based on extension, but the cliff notes is, for the first year this deal cannot be beat.  If you're not buying another service at the same time, or you are planning to register for multiple years, then there's further deals coming.

Private registration, or 'WHOIS' protection


Now domain names have publicly available registration information attached to them.  And by the rules, these are supposed to be legal owners or agents, with a proper address and contact information.  So if you don't want your boss possibly coming across your personal blog that sometimes gets a little heated about work life, or you don't want your professional life colored by the fact you have a slightly risque off hours pastime, then privacy protection is the way to go.

  Of course, you could opt to put in somewhat incorrect information, and not buy the private registration, and certainly it would not be the first time this had happened in the history of the internet.  Be warned though, if you do not put correct information in, you do run the rather slight, in Chintzy's opinion, risk of losing control of your domain name some time in the future.  And if you've built a following, and spent a lot of time and effort behind that domain name, you probably want to keep it.

Free privacy available at checkout

Take note:  another long standing promotion available on the GoDaddy website is that if you have not selected a privacy option when you arrive at the checkout or 'cart' page, then you will be offered the opportunity to upgrade to "Free Privacy"*.  What the asterisk means is, the free privacy lasts for one year, and then rebills at the regular price of $8.99.  Highway robbery, by the way, in Chintzy's opinion.  However, free is free, and there are ways to extend that free privacy.   More on that in another article, dear reader.

So we've come to the checkout, and you've saved, by Chintzy's count, $27 on hosting, about $8.70 in domain name fees for the first year, and $8.99 on free privacy registration for the first year.  Pretty good for a day's work, don't you think?  Well there's more.  We haven't got to the good stuff yet, dear reader.

For another 25% off - It's about the coupons, dear reader!  


As we've mentioned earlier, GoDaddy advertisers are given 'coupon codes' to make purchases more attractive, and there are many websites set up to make you aware of them.  Chintzy hopes to have a page dedicated to the most current and best coupon codes automatically checked and verified up to the minute at some point, but that's a story for another day.  For the moment, the lesson is simply, use your favorite search engine before making a purchase and save big.  It helps if you know the ground rules so you know what you are looking for, in a general way, too.  Chintzy has spent more than one weekend afternoon surfing coupon codes, holding out for just another few percentage points off the regular price, but its a much easier and shorter experience if you know what your targets are.  And of course, Chintzy has done the work for you in this case, so you may not even have to search yourself, at all.

The good news for this shopping cart full of stuff, is that one common coupon code is 25% off purchases over $100, and since this one qualifies, you save big.  On top of our previous savings!   And that's the kind of savings Chintzy really gets a kick out of!  Watch that bottom line shrink!  Check the bottom of this article for a list of current coupon codes vetted by Chintzy and his analysts.

Now that you've saved a further 25% it is indeed time to check out.  But before you do, good reader, peruse the short list of coupons and tips assembled for you by your loyal dear friend and dealhound, Chintzy.

The best GoDaddy coupons and savings tips from Chintzy

• Link to GoDaddy
• only one coupon can be applied at any one time, although it will stack with website offers
• free one year privacy reg offered on cart page on new domains, and NO privacy in cart
• 15% off new hosting services on pre-payment for 36 months , one chance only
• $1.99 domain registration with any other GoDaddy service
• BTPS255 coupon - 25% off services totalling more than $100, with some restrictions
• cjc749fat coupon - an old reliable favorite of Chintzy's, domains for $7.49, including renewals
• .info domains are 89 cents perpetually
• Free privacy for as many years as registering, with 5 domains (buy 1 year .info's to fill up)
• Don't forget to set excess .info domains to not auto renew or they will rebill at a higher price.

Tips on coupon hunting


If you need a current coupon, it helps to know what is commonly available.  Chintzy regularily sees big discounts on domains, especially the top TLD's (.com, .net, .org).  Aim for about $7.49 before ICANN fee, although Chintzy has less commonly seen $6.99 domain coupons once in a while.  25% off over $100 is the best general services discount, and there are often 20% coupons available that only apply to hosting.  Once in a while a special single-use coupon comes out for $1.99 .coms, and recently there have been similar one shot $4.99 and $5.99 coupons seen in the wild.  If a coupon doesn't work today, sometimes it gets 'refilled' at a later date.  Sometimes it may not seem as if it applies, if you do not have the correct items in your shopping cart.  Precision breeds exceptional savings.

With that, good reader, Chintzy shall bid you adieu, and many happy website building returns.  Do be sure to give ol' Chintzy a little link credit when you have your website available.  Check back often, because Chintzy will be blowing the lid off more advanced GoDaddy savings in a future article.  Until next time,

Good deals to you,

Chintzy

UPDATE: A loyal dealshound has emailed in to remind us all that domain name registrations are set to increase in cost July 1, 2010 for .com and .net so if you were on the fence you may want to act sooner than later.