I just wanted to quickly explain my favorite method to set up new domains, as a lot of people seem to stick with a single-company solution often times simply because they don’t know anything else is possible.

I first buy all my domains through GoDaddy because they’re the cheapest, and I already have my credit card on file there, so there’s less typing involved. However, GoDaddy is annoying in a relatively large number of aspects, so to avoid having to use their clumsy interfaces more than once, I immediately change the domain’s nameservers (via their Domain Management interface).

Enter EveryDns- A simple free solution for managing your (sub)domains, mailservers, etc. Just point the primary A record to your hosting company and create CNAME records for all your subdomains (that are on the same server, anyway). I’ve tried 3 or 4 other free DNS services but experienced downtime and disliked the interfaces of them. EveryDns was my favorite.

Now, hosting. I use Jumpline, because they give me a fully configurable VDS system for really, really cheap. I like VDS over simple virtual hosts because it can give you much more control over your system configuration. Granted, if you’re not at all familiar with Linux administration, this likely isn’t very beneficial for you. If you are, however, it gives you your own root filesystem that you can alter in whatever ways you see fit. I think it’s great, and its just so damn cheap! Plus, search the
forums on Facebook Developers and you’ll find a coupon code for 100% free VDS hosting for a year — the deal that got me hooked.

I would like to also add that I’ve tried MediaTemple for a little while. Though I can’t attest to either services’ ability to handle large loads (as most/all of my sites are pretty low volume at the moment) I loved their web interface. If you don’t like working with a command line shell, they’re pretty great. Their DNS management is also fancier than EveryDNS’s, so you can consolidate your DNS management to the same interface as your hosting, which can be convenient. However, I just didn’t like not having total control and moved to Jumpline.

p.s. Are you annoyed by waiting so long when you buy a new domain or move servers to be able to see the result and access things the right way? I was. Check out OpenDNS.

Yup. That’s it.