Recently in Custom domains Category

Droplr is a little Mac application that runs in your menubar and can be used for uploading, hosting and sharing files with your favourite Twitter client or other apps. What we really like with Droplr is the custom domain option. Simply enter your own short domain name into their web application, change the DNS A record settings and all links to your hosted files will contain your branded URL immediately.

It's best to see it in action so watch the demo video below and see how easy Droplr works with Twitter or email:

The service is currently in private beta but we could score some invites for you which will be raffled among all commenters to this blog post (don't forget to leave your email address).

Yahoo's Geocities service is about to close in 2 months and it's getting time to look for an alternative, if you haven't already done it. Today we'd like to recommend both some free and paid services for hosting your own website.

But let's start with one basic thing first and that's your own domain name. A domain should be the foundation for every website because, compared to an internet address like geocities.com/yourwebsite, you have full ownership and control over it. This gives you the advantage of being able to switch to another website hosting service if you become dissatisfied with features, price or customer support.

By seperating the three elements website hosting, email and domain registration you can even further minimise the risk of being caught in another Geocities-like incident. In such a case you simply have to point your domain name to a new hosting service whilst still retaining the same overall branding and email address. Our Domains For Apps offering can help you to achieve this 3-way setup.

The following 20 services make building a website, blog or community easy. It's worth to take your time and compare their features and prices to find the tool that's best suited for you.

Hosted Website Services For Your Own Domain

We help you to configure custom domains for the following services from your iWantMyName account:

1. Build websites online

• Google Sites - Create free websites and wikis. Google Sites is part of the Google Apps Suite which also lets you use free email on your domain with Gmail.
• MobileMe - Websites are built with Apple's iWeb and can be easily uploaded to MobileMe. You can choose from a variety of themes and also create a blog using iWeb.
  
• Squarespace - Popular online website builder service. Make websites, a blog or portfolio. Also offers an iPhone app.
  
• Weebly - Drag and Drop sitebuilder to publish text, videos, pictures, maps, etc. Additional blogging features included.
  
• Yola - Create a site for small businesses, groups, non-profits or personal use with Yola's intuitive online editor.
• Ning - Build a social network with members. They can have their own profile page, add photos and videos or write a blog. Available in 18 languages.

2. Make a Flash website

• Moonfruit - Easily build Flash sites using the Moonfruit sitemaker tool with WYSIWYG features and social network integration for Twitter & Facebook.
• Wix - Professional Flash website editor. Choose from hundreds of free Flash templates, no technical skills required.
  

3. Start your own blog

• Blogger - Free blog service to post articles, thoughts, photos and videos. Blogger just celebrated its 10th birthday and is available in more than 40 languages.
• Posterous - The newcomer. Just send an email to Posterous which is turned into a blog post and automatically shared to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and more.
  
• Soup.io - Free tumblelog services to share links, quotes, video, audio, files etc. Soup.io is completely customisable and perfect for a mini-blog or lifestream.
  
• Tumblr - Tumblr is another easy way to blog that lets you use a custom domain. Share your online life from your browser, iPhone, desktop or email.
• Typepad - Professional blog hosting for businesses, journalists and writers from renowned Six Apart.

Other Website Builders With Custom Domain Option

These services offer the option to use a custom domain name and can be configured using our real-time DNS editor (don't worry about it, we can help you with the setup):

• Jimdo - Another comprehensive and easy to use website creator. Jimdo also offers a special import feature for all Geocities customers.
• Wordpress.com - Hosted version of the popular Wordpress blogging software. Many free templates are available for personal and business websites.
  
• Viviti - Build a unique website for small businesses, bloggers and web designers. No code and no hassle. That's how we like it.
  
• SnapPages - Online website creation tool for the rest of us with drag-and-drop simplicity. Looks very easy and Apple-like.
• Tank - Clean and simple webpage creator. It is aimed at people who want beautiful sites that just work. Build anything, anywhere, anytime.
• Webstarts - Create a professional online presence. Add Flash files, slideshows, music, images, widgets, ecommerce tools and more.
  
• Webs - Webpage creator for personal sites, groups and businesses. Offers a variety of layous and also has built-in community features such as forums and an event organiser.

We hope you enjoyed this article. If you don't have a domain yet you should check out our domain search and register your web address now.

The sudden shutdown of popular URL shortener tr.im was already covered by the main tech blogs so we won't go into further details on the business side. In short the main problem resulting from this are the broken links someday and there's only one solution how you can prevent this in the future: run your own URL shortener.

Again, it all comes down to owning your namespace as discussed earlier with Facebook's username landrush. You are only able to fully control what's happening with your links if you own the domain name and run your own URL shortener on it. Anybody who's considering Twitter as an important part of their business or personal brand should start thinking about customising their short URLs now (also see our domain hack examples how they are used to create short links).

We have compiled a list of hosted services, scripts and plugins that make running your custom URL shortener possible:

Hosted URL shortening services with custom domain

• awe.sm - A custom URL shortener with API. detailed analytics, uptime guarantee and SLAs. According to their website you can take your data with you anytime.
• Tinyarro.ws - Use a custom domain with Tinyarro.ws' tiny links service. As their own service uses the ➡.ws domain you should also be able to use IDNs.
  
• budurl - The budurl Enterprise edition offer the possibility to use your own domain. Their dashboard provides extensive analytics and real-time stats.
  
• XR.COM - This free service is a basic URL shortening tool. If you don't need analytics and just want to shorten links XR.COM might be the right choice.
  
• Google Short Links - Google runs a URL shortener as part of Google Apps For Your Domain. It's a Labs feature but can simply be added to your dashboard.
  
• Peashoot - Manage social media campaigns with your own short URLs. If you want to grow your audience and haven't yet heard of Peashoot you've missed a great app.
• su.pr - StumbleUpon's own URL shortener drives traffic to your site can be used with a custom domain too. You need to install a small script or use Wordpress though.

Run a URL shortener on your own machine

• YOURLS PHP script - Small set of script to shorten links using a classic PHP and MySQL setup. Also offers an API and a Wordpress plugin.
  
• Short URL Wordpress Plugin - Create short URLs with this Wordpress plugin. Offers basic analytics and requires Wordpress 2.5 or higher.
  
• Movable Type script - Paul Roub's script to create a self-hosted URL shortener for the Movable Type blog software. You need some technical knowledge for this.
  

Other resources

If you don't have a short domain you should check out our list of ultra short and brandable domain names.

In addition to the popular Moonfruit solution, we've now added Wix as a second Flash Website Builder service. Wix is a complete hosting platform which also lets you use your own domain name. Linking domains to Wix works as easy as usual from your iWantMyName dashboard.

We wish the Moonfruit team all the best for their 10th birthday. They're not only great guys (we met them at ICANN Sydney last week) but they currently also give you the chance to win 10 new release MacBook Pro's (!) during a birthday celebration.

That's why we've also added Moonfruit to our Domains for Apps offering. If you've registered a domain with us and want to connect it to a Moonfruit site this can be easily done from your iWantMyName dashboard now.

There's a lot of buzz around the Facebook Vanity URL launch this weekend where you will be able to register your username such as facebook.com/username instead of having a long profile address. Of course it will be nice to have your name on Facebook, we will try and get our names too. But not everybody is excited and the whole story shows the dilemma that people are facing when it comes to owning who you are online. Do you really want Facebook (or MySpace, Twitter, etc.) to be your primary address identifier for other people? All these services are currently battling over your identity but what if you don't like Facebook anymore in 2 years, the Twitpocalypse is upon us or MySpace mysteriously vanishes?

The answer to these questions is simple: Own your personal domain name!

Domains are around since 25 years (!) now and there's no sign that they will go away anytime soon. A domain name is the only address that you can really own and control. You register it, you pay for it and you use it the way you want. It's as simple as that. And even if you are not planning to use it right now, it's really a must have for every internet user.

Special Offer

We have the best domain extensions for owning your online identity on special! All new .COM, .NET, .ORG, .NAME, .INFO domain registrations are only $9.90 USD, .IM (I am) & .TEL domains at $14.90 USD and .ME for $19 USD - valid until June 30th, 2009.

See our complete list of domain extensions for more details.

We have added another email hosting & online collaboration service to our Domains for Apps offering. Zoho Business offers a free email solution / business portal for up to 10 users - all under your own domain name. By registering your domain with iWantMyName you can now benefit from our easy domain configuration feature for Zoho Business and start using email with just a few clicks. Here's how it works:

1. Register or transfer the domain name you want to use
2. Sign up for a free Zoho Business account
   
3. Add your domain name to Zoho Business:
   
   
4. Choose the CNAME validation method:
   
   
5. Enter the validation code in your iWantMyName dashboard under "Services --> Zoho Business" and we will configure your domain with the respective DNS settings (CNAME and MX records) automatically.

The free version of Zoho Business is a great alternative to Google Apps and offers 1GB storage per user. You can upgrade at any time to the paid version with 25GB storage and professional support for $5 USD / month or $50 USD / year.

The main reason why we've built iWantMyName was to make domain management much easier. From searching for available domains to the domain registration process and finally helping you to use domains your favourite way, we aim to simplify the entire experience. No matter if you want to start your own business or just launch a personal website or blog, iWantMyName streamlines the process of promoting your brand with a custom domain name. So that's why we're really excited to introduce our revamped domain configuration service "Domains for Apps" featuring some of the most popular applications on the web.

You can now configure your domain names using our easy domain setup feature for 17 web services:

• Google Apps with Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Sites
• Apple's MobileMe website hosting
• Online website builder apps: Yola, Weebly and Squarespace
  
• Blog services TypePad, Blogger, Posterous, Tumblr and Soup
  
• Hosted wikis from PBworks and Wikidot
• E-commerce software: Shopify and Big Cartel
• Whitelabel Social Networks: Ning, GROU.PS and KickApps

See how it works for a Posterous blog in the following video:



We will be adding more  services over the coming weeks. Please feel free to contact us or leave a comment if you have any suggestions about which web apps you would like to see supported on iWantMyName.