3 Facts About Domains That Everyone Should Know

You have spent endless hours and money to build and maintain your domain name, but have you secured your investment? It’s an unfortunate event, but some domainers have found themselves empty handed after working so hard to create a worthy web site. Here are three tips every domainer should know and abide by.

• 1. Make sure your domain name is registered in your name. It seems obvious that it would naturally be in your name, but it can easily happen that it is not. For example, web designers often offer consumers a service in which they register domain names for their clients. This is a convenient way to register your domain name. However, when utilizing this type of service, ensure that they register the domain in your name and not theirs. Unless you have a trademark on the name, you can easily lose that name forever. Having personally worked for a large domain name registrar I can attest that this happens much more often than you could imagine.
• 2. Next, if you are not the registrant on the domain name, find out who is. This can be done by looking up the domain in the WHOIS database. The registrant’s contact information will be listed in the database. From here, contact the registrant and request the information be changed to your personal information. Ideally you should always have your domain names in your own account and manage them yourself.
• 3. Lastly, if you register a domain name for a multi-year term, make sure you keep your contact information updated. Generally reminders are typically sent via e-mail, however it is always a good idea to ensure your mailing address and phone number are up to date. If for any reason you move, change phone numbers or e-mail addresses, make changing your information with your registrar a priority. If you accidentally miss the renewal period, there is an expiration grace period in which the site will be shut down and held for registration. Following this time frame, however, the domain name will be put up for auction and the previous registrant will lose rights to the domain name. Don’t let this happen to you.

By keeping these three simple tips in mind, you can safely secure your domain name investment and protect one of your most valuable assets. It only takes a few minutes to follow these simple steps. The effort is worth the payoff.