A note from the authors: Some of the information and instructions in this book are now out of date because of changes to Hugo and the blogdown package. If you have suggestions for improving this book, please file an issue in our GitHub repository. Thanks for your patience while we work to update the book, and please stay tuned for the revised version!

In the meantime, you can find an introduction to the changes and new features in the v1.0 release blog post and this "Up & running with blogdown in 2021" blog post.

— Yihui, Amber, & Alison

C.1 Registration

You can purchase a domain name from many domain name registrars. To stay neutral, we are not going to make recommendations here. You can use your search engine to find a registrar by yourself, or ask your friends for recommendations. However, we would like to remind you of a few things that you should pay attention to when looking for a domain name registrar:

• You should have the freedom to transfer your domain from the current registrar to other registrars, i.e., they should not lock you in their system. To transfer a domain name, you should be given a code known as the “Transfer Auth Code” or “Auth Code” or “Transfer Key” or something like that.

• You should be able to customize the nameservers (see Section C.2) of your domain. By default, each registrar will assign their own nameservers to you, and these nameservers typically work very well. However, there are some special nameservers that provide services more than just DNS records, and you may be interested in using them.

• Other people can freely look up your personal information, such as your email or postal address, after you register a domain and submit this information to the registrar. This is called the “WHOIS Lookup.” You may want to protect your privacy, but your registrar may require an extra payment.