subject: Taking Control Of Your Website [print this page] All small to medium sized businesses must have a website to be noticed in their marketplace. Local business, National business or International business all have the same requirement for an online presence.
Small to medium sized businesses often struggle to keep control of the Domain, their Hosting cost and their Website. Your Domain name is as valuable as a trade mark, patent or your Brand and you should protect it in the same way.
Over the past six years, we have owned a number of Domains and various websites. Our first website and domain we purchased as part of the assets of a going concern business. Initially for the first two years we were provided with access to our shopping cart and we could update products, photos and prices. We also had access to our online orders and could view site stats.
This was great while we had access, but as time went on we found other businesses not related to our own being advertised on our website. Communication with the webmaster became nonexistent and eventually we lost control of our site and it was no longer available online. It also turned out we were not the registered owners of the domain, the webmaster was.We eventually lost the site and the domain.
Our second website we also purchased as part of a going concern. This time we made sure we were the registered owners of the domain and had full control over it. We still own and control the domain although there is no live site online at the present time.
Again we had limited access to our products, primarily because of the coding of the site, we could change products and pictures and pricing and review order details. This site became outdated and required a complete rewrite, in less than 12 months of owning it. According to our hosting company, who also were the site's designers it was going to cost us many thousands of dollars to rewrite it. Once again the site went offline, all we have to show for it is a cd with the source files.
Hopefully these couple of examples show how important it is for small to medium business to take control of their domains, their hosting and also their website or potentially websites.
Ensure you are the registered owner of your Domain, just in case you decide to move it to a new Hosting company. Make sure your Webmaster gives you full access and control of your website so you can make changes or organise for changes to be made as and when you require them. With these issues handled you can then get on with your business knowing you have your web presence handled.
