This is an important topic for anyone who currently has a
website and domain name, as well as for anyone interested in
building an internet identity. I am sharing not only from
personal experience (I have five active websites online at this
time) but from my business, Connecticut Secretary, and the
projects I have been involved with in creating and building
websites for my customers.
Oftentimes customers will approach me after they have already
chosen a domain name. What I investigate first is who actually
owns that domain name. I no longer ask the customer directly,
because 99.9% of the time the response is always "I do!" when in
fact many of them unwittingly do not. Determining this is an
easy step; you simply go to an independent domain registrar such
as Register.com, http://www.register.com, and type in the domain
name and choose whois when the results pop up. Feel free to go
and type in connecticutsecretary.com and choose whois. You will
see that I, Kate Smalley, am listed as the owner and
administrative contact for Connecticut Secretary. The technical
contact is simply the hosting service I have chosen.
The problem we run into is when individuals have chosen to
purchase their domain name through a hosting service at a
discounted rate. The hosting service is the company that
purchases and owns your domain name, and in essence you
sometimes just end up renting it along with your hosting
service. This is a great way for the hosting company to ensure
continued business. Think about if, in the future, you decide to
change hosting services. Who do you think you will have to
contact to have your domain redirected to another hosting
provider? How anxious do you think they will be to provide
service to you? How quickly do you feel they will redirect your
url? What will happen if they forget to renew your domain name
and someone else obtains control and ownership of it? What
happens if that hosting company goes out of business? I have
seen it happen. To take this conversation one step further,
there are now hosting companies that will purchase the domain in
your name, so you are the official owner, but they still retain
control over your usage of the account. An important point to
remember is that ownership of an account as well as having the
ability to use the account are important features when deciding
how to purchase your domain name.
"...in essence you sometimes just end up renting... "
I am not saying this is a fact with all hosting companies; I
only ask you to consider it for your own well-being and future
viability on the internet. Purchasing a domain name yourself is
only a matter of spending a few extra dollars per year, and is
well worth the security of knowing you are the owner and the one
in control of your domain. Consider the amount of work that you
have put in to targeting and obtaining traffic through the
search engines on your keywords and search terms. Think about
all the business you will loose if you have to start over again
with a new domain name from scratch.
I have changed hosting companies for Connecticut Secretary once.
As my traffic increased, with my other hosting company, they
limited my services and at times shut my site down because of
server load. This was an important issue for me, as it resulted
in lost sales and potential customer dissatisfaction, to say the
least. Because I owned my domain independent of the hosting
company, changing hosts was a very simple procedure. All I had
to do was start services with a new hosting company and redirect
my URL to that hosting company. Once the transfer was complete I
was back in business without a hitch. There was work involved
with rebuilding my site of course, but I was prepared for that.
If I lost my domain name I would have lost a tremendous amount
of existing traffic and potential business, not to mention my
business identity that I had worked hard for.
"...ownership of an account as well as having the ability to
use the account are important features... "
There are so many topics that we can go into regarding domain
names and your business on the internet: Cyber squatters and
your responsibilities with regards to trademark policing,
dispute resolution, the increase of typo squatters on the
internet, choosing a relevant domain name, how to promote your
business on the net through domain names, and so much more. With
this article on domain name ownership, Connecticut Secretary
wants to convey the fact that a domain name is a valuable asset,
and I suggest that you take the time now to check and verify who
actually owns your domain name. If you are about to start the
process of obtaining an internet identity I suggest that you
take the time to consider the future ramifications of the
decisions you make today.
********************
Copyright 2003
Kate Smalley, President
Connecticut Secretary
Specializing in Transcription and Freelance
Secretarial Services
http://www.connecticutsecretary.com
kms@connecticutsecretary.com
********************
About the author:
Copyright 2003
Kate Smalley, President
Connecticut Secretary
Specializing in Transcription and Freelance
Secretarial Services
http://www.connecticutsecretary.com
kms@connecticutsecretary.com
