Is 1&1 Internet any good? My art blog is registered there...

[Sossity]

I recently went to this site's main page where there was an article about bad internet hosts, with a image graphic of all the bad hosts out there. Among them I recognized the one I have that I have making a yearly payment for a web domain name for if & when I get my own website going. I was corresponding on an art forum with an artist who told me that I should have or buy myself some domain names, sort of like buying an empty plot of land, or have my place on the internet, for when I get my own website. they told me 1&1 was good.

so I have bought www.sossitycorby.com, www.ravenfinearts.com & www.ravenfineart.com.

I think I got these at $10.00 each, & I have paid for them each year. I dont know if this was a good move or not, as all I have now is a blog on blogger http://ravenfinearts.blogspot.com/, that i do not update much, I have set up more to look or try to mimic the look of a website, not a blog with comments etc.

Odd thing is when i just went to check on this, i typed in my blog & got this;
https://www.google.com/search?q=ravenfine....=1360&bih=746

I got someone else's blog, & mine is underneath all their links, it is the Raven Fine Arts yet I am not part of them, ours are the same except mine is ravenfineart(s).blogspot.com, & theirs is ravenfineart.blogspot.com, it is so close that some g trying to google my art could easily get led to this other site that is not mine.

How do I fix this?

I would like mine to be separate from theirs. I am not sure using the raven as part of a web address for me & my art was a good idea or not, as it seems to be easily mixed up with others online. I used the raven for my art business because my last name is a translation of the Latin word for raven. Maybe i should just go with sossitycorby.com as this is unique.

I tried that web design fundamentals class that i took last fall at my school online that I was posting about here. Well I am glad I finished that class, i thought it would help me but it has not, i am still bit lost on this. I am an artist & not a technical person.

[kpmedia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sossity

I was corresponding on an art forum with an artist who told me ... 1&1 was good.

Most people have a very low threshold for what "good" actually means. In many cases, something is good simply because they don't know any better. They've either (A) never run into any issues, or (B) are wholly unaware that better services can exist. Because hosting is a very technical area, most people are clueless as to what to expect. Let me go back to "never run into issues" --- which more commonly translates into a person who doesn't even realize he/she is having problems.

1&1 is a large UK company with infamously uncooperative billing support. So if you ever run into an issue, there's a chance you could lose your domain names, because they're just not very consumer-friendly. And like with all other megahosts offering fake "unlimited" plans, their servers run fairly slow. Slow servers means slow sites, and slow sites means loss of rank in Google (because speed is now a consideration in SEO).

Quote:

so I have bought www.sossitycorby.com, www.ravenfinearts.com & www.ravenfineart.com.

All fine.

Quote:

I think I got these at $10.00 each, & I have paid for them each year. I dont know if this was a good move or not

I would suggest transferring your domains over to Namecheap.com if you want quality services.

IMPORTANT: Please note that I'm only suggesting the domains be transferred. Namecheap's hosting is not suggested. The rule of thumb is to always buy the domains separate from hosting. Never use a registrar for hosting, and never use a host for domain registration. 1&1 is a host, and Namecheap is a registrar.

As far as buying those domains -- that part was a good move. Just that you went with a poor choice of registrar. You can transfer domains, so you don't have to lose them. You must wait at least 60 days after the initial renewal/purchase to transfer, and I strongly suggest moving at least one months before the current period expires.

1&1 is a massively crappy registrar, and there are quite a few issues with their nameservers.

Quote:

some trying to google my art could easily get led to this other site that is not mine. How do I fix this?

Welcome to SEO. The only way to "fix" this is to provide better and more popular content for the same keywords. In this scenario, your keywords appear to be "raven fine arts". Because you're using a blogspot.com address, your site and the other person's site is consider to be part of blogspot.com, and will list as stubs for that domain. Theirs is more popular than yours, hence the top billing for the other person.

Quote:

I used the raven for my art business because my last name is a translation of the Latin word for raven. Maybe i should just go with sossitycorby.com as this is unique.

You can. It's really just a matter of choice.

Most artists use their own name for their portfolios, galleries, etc. It's primarily stores, including artist storefronts, that use names other than their own. Not that this is always true, mind you, but it's what I've observed for many years now, as a photographer myself, and as somebody that has been to countless numbers of photographer and artists sites in the past 20 years online.

Quote:

I am an artist & not a technical person.

These days, you have to become both, in order to survive as an artist.

I was having this conversation with a friend two Fridays ago, as we each ate a scoop of ice cream at the local Baskin-Robbins. Being an artist isn't enough. Even being technical minded isn't enough -- the tech is required, however, in order to power the extra things you do. For example, if you're a good artist, you can teach others (workshops). But in order to do that, you have to create a strong presence for yourself. And in order to compete, you have to really give value-added (translation: ONLINE!) type benefits.

Because the site has to be your tools. If you just build it, nobody cares. There has to be something unique and special about it. And that takes talent with both tech and art to happen.

So get after it!

[Sossity]

how & where do I add keywords in my blog? should I change my blogspot address? or just keep it & add keywords?

[admin]

You should setup your own domain, on your own hosting, and discontinue using blogspot.com.

Note that simply stuffing keywords into the blog won't work. SEO is a fairly complicated matter, and it addresses multiple aspect of the site: (1) unique and original textual content, (2) domain age, (3) site speed, (4) coding of the site, plus others. It's really quite involved, and is easy to overwhelm somebody. So let's start small.

The first step is to get the registrar issue situated. And then seek hosting from a quality host.

What sort of budget do you have? We can suggest several hosts. And then we offer hosting to certain people, under certain conditions. You may be interested in that. That allows us to directly help people with some of these matters (SEO, coding issues, etc), as opposed to just telling them what to do.

[Sossity]

Well, I did it, I transferred my domains to name cheap, when i saw where they are located, that seems a good fit, they are right up the road from me in California.

it was 29.61 for the 3 domain names.

as to finding a host, & my budget, the least expensive & complicated as possible, I am a college student, am living with family at the moment, with no big regular income.

My renewal with 1&1 hosting was in November, so I hope my timing on this transfer was OK.

I looked at my long list of passwords while updating with my namecheap one, & saw that I had bought a web address with blogger.com of www.ravenarts1.com which also renews in November. I am not sure what to do with this as it has been suggested to me that I discontinue my blogger blog. -Edit, I just clicked on the raven arts1 link in this post & I got server not found, so I am not sure what this means, did I lose this address?

If I discontinue blogger, would I just delete my blog?

& how would I get all my images to another host? I had customized my blog, with images, colors text etc. I would also have to change my business card as well, as it has my blogspot address on it.

I am still very much a newbie to the web, & to marketing my art, I have never sold paintings yet, just some banners at auctions. I have mostly just painted for my self. Being in school for the last year or 2, & feel sort of ashamed, I have not done any painting in quite a while, with this, & other areas for my art, i am trying to get back to it.

so I am following the steps suggested to me so far.

[NJRoadfan]

Stay far, far away from that company and make sure you properly close the account before it auto renews.

A friend of mine determined that 1&1 doesn't seem to have an actual billing department. They just send everything to NCO (their collection agency) whether the account is past due or not. That friend had to deal with a 1&1 billing mess a few years ago, and it was annoying. Instead of closing past due accounts that you didn't authorize any auto renew on, they keep trying to collect money. Instead of trying to solve the problem (that the customer didn't even know about), they just send it to collections. Its just bad business practices. A well worded debt verification letter got rid of them pretty quickly.

[Warth Publishing Inc]

In my opinion I would avoid 1 & 1. I don't have any beef with 1and1's web hosting. However, I curse the day I ever listed any domains with them. Check out Red Flag for some customer comments.

It should be a warning that when their phone was answered by a recording that tells you if you have gotten a notice from NCO, a collection agency, to press a certain number. If they are a reputable business, why did they have to send so many accounts to a collection agency?

The Eastern Pennsylvania /Washington DC Better Business Bureau had given 1and1 an “F” rating. An investigative journalist, Kelli Jack has written a series of articles about them and had a pending law suit. She said: “1and1 Should Be Shut Down.”

[kpmedia]

1&1 is one of about five large British hosting companies with a major attitude problem. Some show the attitudes in public, some do it in private. Several of them like to threaten people, especially with legal nonsense -- most of which wouldn't hold up in U.S. courts (or even UK courts, for that matter). Indeed, as the editorial series has begun to explain, there are a lot of bad hosts out there. Most are anti-consumerist companies that are best avoided.

Speaking of UK-owned and/or UK-run hosts that are best avoided: eUKHost outsources almost all of their support to India and Pakistan, and is condescendingly defensive when this is discussed online.

There are also bad registrars! 1&1 and Godaddy are great competitors for the "Who Sucks Most" award, due to their tactics in upselling and billing. Tucows and Network Solutions battle for second place, with their questionable aftermarket domain practices. My favorite two registrars are DirectNIC and Namecheap, as both have proven themselves to be consumer-friendly and intelligent on domain related matters.

Anyway...

FAQ on Domain Transfers:

Generally speaking, domain transfers happen like this:

1. Unlock at Old: You unlock your domain at the current registrar, and request an EPP code. The EPP is emailed to the registered owner of the domain. (If you have domain "protection" turned on -- i.e. a third-party contact is listed -- that must first be turned off. If you're registered with Godaddy, good luck with that.)
2. Request Transfer at New: You request a transfer at a new registrar, and pay for another year. You don't lose any existing time, but rather extend it. Quite often, during this process, you can submit the EPP code.
3. Wait: You'll usually wait about 5 days for a transfer to finish. The better the old registrar, the less time it takes. The crappier the old registrar, the longer it takes. If your old "registrar" is a host, then the host is likely just a middleman between you and a real registrar (like eNom), which adds time to the process.

If you don't supply the EPP at the transfer request, you'll just submit it after payment.

You'll get a lot of emails during this process. (If you're using a free email provider -- like GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail/Live/Outlook, Mail.com, or others -- then be sure to check the Spam/Junk folders, too.)

Important: Monitor the progress! Most registrars have a "transfer status" area in the customer panel, where you can monitor what is going on. Don't be afraid to open tickets at the old or new registrar, should you not receive EPP codes timely, or should the transfer take too long.

I'll address your other site-specific questions in a follow-up in the Premium Member forum, since it's a bit more private.

[NJRoadfan]

1&1 is actually a division of United Internet, a German based conglomerate. They get customers by offering free web hosting services for a period of time, along with cheapo DNS registration. You get what you pay for.

There are also rumors that 1&1 does domain "frontrunning" on their whois query system. Quite a few people have reported that domains they searched availability for were shortly taken by United Internet's Sedo dot com division. There have also been reports that folks tried to register an available domain with 1&1, received an error and later found the name registered under Sedo's control. This practice is common place all over the industry, so 1&1 isn't the only guilty party here. Of course the general incompetence of ICANN really doesn't help either. I lost faith in them resolving problems with the system a long time ago, but thats for another thread (which involves a famous "fly" registrar failure and some of my domains).

[kpmedia]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NJRoadfan

thats for another thread

Please do start one. I have stories of my own.

[Sossity]

Ok, I went through the steps, of trying to get the epp codes for my domain names,(at least I think I did & am not sure, but i don't know what number to look for; I took a screen shot of the info for one of my domain names, is there an epp code there?

I also took another screen shot of the overview of my domain names.

Edit- I went in & copy pasted the little code number like the one seen at the bottom of the info in one of my screen shots, went into my namecheap account, pasted these codes into the submit epp codes & I got a message saying submission successful, no known issues yet. I figured that I will get an e-mail from name cheap telling me if these are the epp codes they are requesting.

i also e-mailed 1&1 asking for the epp codes for my domains as well.

[lordsmurf]

EPP code and Auth code are the same thing.

Because public display of that code is a security risk, I've deleted your image attachments.
Wouldn't want you to lose your domain!

[Sossity]

thanks for deleting them, i feel a little dumb, I had second thoughts about the attachments but when I looked at my post they were already gone.

So have i done all I can for the transfer process for now? I did what name cheap asked me to do in their e-mail, do I just keep checking into my name cheap account at the transfer process? what do I do about my 1&1 account?

[kpmedia]

Once the 1&1 auth codes have been given to Namecheap (by you), you sit and wait.
Check back in 2-3 days, and see what the Namecheap transfer status is.

[Sossity]

Well i have checked back in with namecheap & and the status still waiting for release, do i just keep waiting? how long should I wait & what do I do if they do not transfer in more days time?

[kpmedia]

It's time to email Namecheap (actually, submit a support ticket) and ask what else needs to be done to complete the transfer.

[Sossity]

Well, my domain names have been transferred over to name cheap, they e-mailed me saying they have transferred over.

are they completely properly transferred? I looked at them in namecheap & they are there & listed under auto renewal.

what do I do with 1&1? I logged into my control panel, & domains & they are still listed & on auto renewal.

so afr, I have bought the transfer from namecheap, did as they requested in an e-mail to me to get the epp codes, I gave namecheap these codes, & now they are with name cheap.

[kpmedia]

You are now transferred.

Because a new similar topic exists, I'm locking this thread.
Continue at the new one here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/web-...ansferred.html

Thanks.