Long term thinking. That’s how I approach almost everything in life, be it investments or relationships. Back in March 2011, I thought it would be a good idea to grab AnnetteAndRay.com when I was registering FeedForwardFeed.com for my best friend. I didn’t want to be scrambling for it in the future, due to the high sentimental value. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t taken! Amusingly, RayAndAnnette.com was taken at the time by a couple in Singapore, but has since expired. I would’ve grabbed that too, but Annette absolutely insisted that girls go first.
I then pointed the domain to a hosting account at FatCow while I experimented with web hosting and WordPress. They were running a special for ~$36 for a year of hosting. For those unfamiliar with the role that web hosts and domain names play on the internet, this little comic should make it clearer: How the Internet Works in Simple English.
Now experimentation is over. I intend to keep this website running for the long term. Thus I needed a web host for the long term, with the three criteria:
- Inexpensive – this is a personal site, one that generates no revenue
- Stable – uptime is always a good thing
- Fast – the site on FatCow was noticeably slow, taking about an awkward second for the page to load.
After much research, I waited (long term thinking + patience!) for StableHost’s Black Friday special on hosting plans. They offered 65% off yearly plans for life. I went with Namecheap for the domain name. It works out to $26/year for the domain name and hosting.