I've seen several websites that I would like to have purchased in the "Buy,Sell or Trade - Sites" sub-forum here on DP. Unfortunately I wouldn't know how to get the website in my name, nor would I know how to get the contents to a hosting account on Godaddy. After purchase, would I normally be given a userid/password where I would FTP the contents from the sellers hosting account to mine? If that is true, then I would have to get a new hosting account on Godaddy first, right? Would someone be able to give me an idea of the steps I would need to perform after I purchased a website in order that I could get it moved to a hosting account on Godaddy? I would like to have some idea of what needs to be done prior to making a purchase. Thank you.
This is a question you need to ask the seller before you bid. Generally you will be granted access to the control panel so that you may FTP the files to your local computer. If a database is involved you will also need to make a backup of it. Then you would need to arrange hosting. GoDaddy might not be your best choice. I could write a whole page about what you need to do to change the scripts and set up the databases. . The quick version: Know where you are going to host before you buy. cPanel hosting is the most common. Buy the site and copy the files to your local computer. Modify any files or scripts that need it. Create any databases needed. Upload the files to the new server. Change the nameserver info and wait until it resolves. Test the site for bugs. Then test again
Ok, what you say makes sense to me. I would be able to make all the script (php) changes and database setups/mods myself. So I would get everything onto my local computer and then FTP to my hosting account. Seems straightforward. I've don't know that I've ever seen cPanel... unless Godaddy uses it. But from what I've read this appears to be a popular management tool to manage domains via a web interface. I have all my sites hosted on Godaddy, so I assume I would just use whatever their management tool happens to be. I keep hearing of sellers doing a "push" of their website to the buyer. What exactly is that? Does it have something to do with transferring the domain name ownership? Thank you for taking the time to comment on my post. I appreciate it.
Yes, after the "push" the domain will appear in your account at the selected registrar, and you will be the legal owner of the domain name.
I would have to do something on my side (Godaddy or whomever the registrar will be) to complete the transfer, right? Some sort of acceptance? Thank you.
Here I fleshed out what I wrote in the post. Read it, ask questions whatever. If you don't get in a hurry I think you can do it. If not there are people around this forum who will move a site for you. I would be one of them if I wasn't busy at the time. Not sure you will get many takers if godaddy is the host. Most users prefer cPanel. When you deal with any other panel you can not be sure that everything will work. GoDaddy uses some home brewed version of a control panel. I have the imagegenie site there and using an older php script it works fine. I have heard a lot of complaints about some of the newer scripts and GoDaddy. Free push does in fact refer to the free transfer of the domain name to you. There are a couple of registars out there that do charge a fee. GoDaddy, Registerfly, namecheap and domainsite do not charge any fees.
Colbyt, eXe, Thanks for the help. I now have a much better understanding of what is required when purchasing/transferring a website.