.COM will go up by 7% and .NET by 10%.

The increase will be passed to registrars (like HAI Hosting) and then, unfortunately, to customers.

So, as of January 15, we will be forced to raise prices for both .COM and .NET domain name registrations and renewals.

If you want to avoid this price increase, at least for a while, renew your domain name now for a year or more. But, you have to let us know before the end of the day on Friday, January 13, 2012.

If you’d like to read the news article that caught my eye, visit Website Magazine’s Web.com Buys Network Solutions or you can check out what Network Solutions has to say at Web.com to Acquire Network Solutions.

Network Solutions was most people’s registrar of choice when High Aspiratios, Inc. was started back in 1999. I remember all too well the hoops I had to jump through in order to prove to NetSol that my clients were indeed the owners of their own domain names and that they wanted to transfer them away to another registrar.

Luckily, this purchase won’t affect majority of our clients as almost all domains we handle for clients on maintenance are with HAI Hosting, our own host using the Wild West Domains/Go Daddy infrastructure, who we’ve found to be cheaper, provide quicker transfers, and better support.

If any of our clients are worried about their domain names, wonder who they are registered with, or want them transfered away from the unknown of a new Network Solutions owner, just let us know and we’ll take care of it.

Please view the ICANN press release for more information.

Joke of The Day: My Site is Worth Two Billion Dollars by jeffry

I just came across a site called dnScoop. We can guess what they do by looking at their page title “dnScoop – Domain Name Value, History, Stats Tool and Forum.”

Out of curiousity, I put the URL of my brand new blog (still building it, at the time of writing this post) – this very site you are looking right now, crossed my fingers, and clicked the “Check It” button.

Bunch of statistical datas appeared – from the domain age, pagerank, traffic rank, and such – but what really caught my attention was the “Money” part (what else!). It said that one link on my site worth about $5/mo, and if there are 8 advertisers buying the links I could get about $40 per month. I smiled. Not bad for a site that still under construction.

But, here’s the joke: The Site Value Report said:

The estimated value of http://www.supersubconscious.com is: $0

Then came the punchline: they smile, gave me a string of HTML code and said “Copy and Paste this code to your site.” That code will show a small square banner that says “My Site is Worth $0″ followed by a big dnScoop logo under it. It’s like having your naked picture exibited in front of your house, framed, with the name of the photographer under it.

Anyway, enough with the self pity. I continued the fun and went crazy checking out other sites that I visited often. It’s so fun that I decided this will be one of my slacking off activities.

I chuckle a little bit when reading the link value report for Google.com. It said, “We can’t generate a link value for this site.” The machine thought that no advertiser can afford placing a link ad on Google. Yet, the irony is, everybody does that all the time – for just cents per click. (AdWords, anyone?)

So, I ended the journey by copying the HTML Site Value code (of Google’s), and pasting it on my site. Now, what everybody sees – on the right column of the page – is that my under-construction site is worth two billion american dollars. (And it’s for sale if there’s somebody willing to pay that much. Tee-hee).

So, how much is your site worth?

When I first found this post, highaspirationsinc.com was worth only $250. Obviously they have no idea of true value! Just a little over a month later when I’m posting this article, it’s now worth $1,112. Guess Ma and I are doing something right!

This was originally posted on the blog supersubconscious: Joke of The Day: My Site is Worth Two Billion Dollars by jeffry. It is republished here thanks to the Creative Commons license.

Yesterday, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) agreed to a policy that will eventually open up new top-level domains. We may see a lot more specific dot-whatevers before too long such as hobbies (.bookclub, maybe?), businesses (.restaurant or .store, could be?), places (.city or .state, who knows!), and more.

You can read the entire news article at CNN. [Note: Link no longer works. - Liz 04/18/11]

Once the new top-level domains are decided upon and released, we’ll be sure to offer them via HAI Hosting.

The promotional pricing will be applied automatically in your cart when you add an annual shared hosting plan and the .com together from the shared hosting page.

Now’s the time to take advantage of this great offer and get that project you’ve been putting off going. Whether it’s a hobby, family, or business idea you have that’s screaming for a home on the net, make this your summer to finally get those web sites done and off that to do list of yours!

Sale expires July 31, 2008 at Midnight!

• Hosting – Shared & Dedicated
• Domain Name Registration
• Email
• SSL Certificates
• Email Marketing
• FaxThruEmail
• Online Photo Filer
• Website Tonight®- allowing even the least tech savvy to create their own professional looking site
• and much much more…

If you’re a do-it-yourselfer and don’t feel you need our design services, you can now setup your own account, register your domain name, and design your own site with Website Tonight®. Of course, we are always here for you if instead you’d rather not deal with any of this on your own. The choice is yours, do as much or as little as you like. You will still receive the same high level of service you’ve come to expect from High Aspirations any time of the day or night and always by a human being!

We hope you’ll take advantage of the many new services HAI Hosting has to offer. We’re very excited about this new venture and we hope to help add excitement to any new venture you may have been thinking of as well.

This one works like this: an email is received which seems to be saying that you need to renew your domain name when in fact it is trying to get you to register your existing domain name with a new extension (.us for example).

So, I say again, please do not fall for these scams!

If you receive anything that looks like a renewal notice or invoice (by mail, fax, email, pony express even!) that you do not believe is from HAI or your current registrar, please contact us immediately. And remember, you can always ask us for a “domain inventory report” which will tell you everything you need to know about all your domain names!

Remember, any questions or doubts, ask us before you pay anyone!

These notices appear to be bills, but in reality are domain registrar transfer authorizations. These companies are trying to “steal” your domain name away from your current registrar and our control. Last year, I even received a few phone calls about expiring domains!

Please do not fall for these scams!

If you receive a renewal notice that you do not believe is from HAI or your current registrar, please contact us immediately.

Most of our clients have us handle their domain names which means that the only bill you would receive for domain name renewal would come from us. You might receive email notifications from the registrar, usually Go123Web, warning you that the domain will expire soon. If you handle your domain yourself, make sure you know who your registrar is and when to expect it to renew. If HAI handles your domain name, sit back and relax and don’t pay anyone but us. If you aren’t sure who should be billing you for your domain name(s), when they expire, or who the registrar is, just contact us and ask for a “domain inventory report.”

Remember, any questions or doubts, ask us before you pay anyone!

Yes, you can use numbers or dashes/hyphens in your domain name.

Search engines could care less about the actual wording of a domain name. Whether it has dashes, numbers, both, or none doesn’t affect how your site is ranked. But, remember, you want a domain name that is easy for your customers, etc. to remember. The domain name you choose is going to be linked to your company, it’s going to be part of everything else you do to brand your company, so it is very important to choose your domain name with that in mind. You wouldn’t pick a logo for your letterhead and business cards that didn’t “go” would you? It’s the same with your domain name. So, choose wisely, tell everyone via letterhead, business cards, offline advertising, have your web designer do their thing and sooner, rather than later, your domain name will be remembered and linked to your company in the minds of your clients.

If you want, you can always register different versions of your domain name and just have them forwarded to your main site.