A Little Detail Your Web Host Might Not Want You to Understand About Your Domain Name

A Little Detail Your Web Host Might Not Want You to Understand About Your Domain Name

I've been doing accounting website design for numerous years, and often I'm discovering new clients have an entirely avoidable quandary. We get a site designed and geared up for them in a matter of hours, but when the time comes to publish it under the web address it constantly becomes apparent that the prospect doesn't actually own the domain he or she has been using for years!

Don't be taken in by this scam. Many web hosts will offer to reserve the domain name for you, then turn around and reserve the domain in their own name in an account that you can't access. Dealing with a established company is no protection. My biggest competitor does this, and they actually charge people a $50 fee when they leave if they want to take the domain name with them!

If You Already Have a Domain

If you aren't confident about whether or not you own domain name check it right now! Unless the registrant uses a privacy service when they get a domain their possession 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 submit 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 tell you the name of your domain "registrar". 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 and their 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

Always ask some essential screening questions when purchasing a domain through a web host:

* 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?

All these questions should be answered with a "yes". If the rep says "no" at any point politely tell them that you'll get it yourself.

It is easy to register your own domain and it will guarantee that you can keep control of your address even when you change website providers. 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. The trick is to put client domains into a retail account in the clients name. We make a little less money, and it's a little more work but we feel it's a lot more honest. If clients ever want to change hosts they can take the domain with them without giving me so much as a "how do you do". Even if they just want to lock me out and have their domain manged by an in-house IT person it's easily done without having to consult me or beg for permission. They not only own their domain, they actually have 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!

TIPS

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 horrendous headache waiting for you when it comes time to renew if you no longer have access to the Email address your registrar has on file.

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