Your Domain Name: You've Added Value To It- Are You Convinced It's Truly Yours?
I've been doing accounting website design for a number of years, and all too often I'm discovering new clients have an altogether avoidable predicament. We get a site created and ready for them in a matter of hours, but when it's time to make it public it regularly becomes clear that the client doesn't own the domain he or she has been using for years!
This scam is easy to avoid. Many web hosts will offer to reserve a domain name for you when they set up your website. Usually they're honestly just trying to make your experience smoother and easier, but often they'll reserve the domain in a private account that you can't access. Dealing with a successful company is no protection. One of my biggest competitors does this, and they get downright mean about it if you try to leave them. They actually charge a $50 "domain fee" if you decide to take the domain to a new hosting service.
If You Already Have a Domain
If you are not certain about whether or not you own domain check it now! Unless the registrant uses a privacy service when they get a domain their ownership data is all on public record. You can find it all online, including the owner's name, address and phone number. To find a site that will let you access these records Google the keywords "whois lookup". Once you find one just enter the domain name you're looking up. This may tell you the domain owner, or "registrant", but even if it doesn't it will at least give you the identity of your domain "registrar". The registrar is the company that your domain name is registered through. Don't be surprised if you've never heard of your registrar, this is just another indication that you got your domain through a reseller. The reseller's identity will also be shown on the whois record. All registrars have their own whois databases. If you don't find domain ownership information in your first lookup, go to the registrar's company page and do a whois loookup there.
If you discover that you don't own your own domain the odds are you got your domain through a "reseller". Contact your reseller immediately about putting the domain in a retail account in your name. Don't just have them change the whois information. Have them move it into a retail account in your name.
If You're Getting a Domain for the First Time
When allowing a host to get your domain name ask them some straight forward screening questions:
- Will the domain be registered in my name?
- Will I be listed as the "Administrative Contact"?
- Will the domain be reserved in a retail account in my name with a control panel that I can access?
- Can I lock you out of that control panel if I choose to?
- Can I continue to manage my domain through this control panel even if I decide to stop hosting through you?
If the answer to ANY of these questions is "No" politely inform the representative you are speaking with that you will reserve the domain yourself.
Registering your own domain is easy. More importantly it guarantees that you'll be able access your control panel even if you change web hosts. acquiring a domain is also ordinarily very cheap (less than $15 a year).
CPA Site Solutions, my company, does things a little differently. Unfortunately we only really cater to CPA and accounting firms. When I do a client registration I set them up with a retail account in their name on this service. They can lock me out simply by changing their password and if they ever leave our hosting service they will be able to continue to manage their domain themselves. You don't just own your domain. You have actual administrative control over it.
Your domain name is your real estate on the web. Make sure you actually own it and not your web host!
TIP
When you change your Email address always make sure you log into your domain name registrars site first and make sure they have the new email. There might be a huge hassle waiting for you when it comes time to renew if you don't have access to the Email address your registrar has on file.