After you register a domain, your term is usually for a year. That means you have to renew it after a year, or that domain will be open again. Near the end of your year-long cycle, you may get a piece of mail that says it is from a national registrar, or some other domain registry company claiming that you must renew with them or else you will lose your domain. This is a trick into making you pay a ridiculous amount to renew your domain, usually $125 or more. Don't believe anything about your domain or site hosting unless it's from your actual providing company.

Some companies offer "free" site hosting or domain registry, but there is ALWAYS an underlying reason. Free hosting companies either jam your website full of spyware and spam collectors, plaster it with ads you do not get to choose, or both. The url for the domain is usually VERY long, and will be a major turnoff to your customers. These companies can also gain control of your domain and refuse to give it back to you unless you pay a high cost. These are just the average problems with "free" hosting companies, some can be more sinister. Even worse for you, none of these sites allow custom scripts or even basic features you would receive with a paid provider. You usually won't have to spend more than $10 a month for hosting, and it's well worth the money. These scam and ad companies will end up costing you more time, money, and effort.

Another fake service scam companies get away with FAR too often is offering to put your website on the world's major search engines (such as google, yahoo, aol, etc.) so that your customers will be able to find your site. This is a complete and utter lie, as all search engines run their course independently and build their own databases using machines that bump around on the internet 24 hours a day, collecting information. If a service offers to raise your chances with search engines to find you before your competitors, that's a lie, too. Your actual website and the way it is designed, coded, and worded defines how well you turn up in search engines, nothing more.

For a HUGE database of internet scams, identity theft traps, and other things to avoid online, visit Scam Busters.