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Your Web Host May Actually Own Your Domain
Avoid this scam. When you get a website from most established website hosts they'll almost always offer to get a domain name for you. For the most part they're honestly trying to help, but they rarely put the domain in your name. More often than not they put it in a wholesale account in their own name that you can't access. Doing business with 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 are not positive about whether or not you own domain name find out now! Domain ownership is a matter of public record, and this data is available online. Do a search for the key phrase "whois lookup" to find a site that will let you access these records. Once you find one just enter the domain name you're looking up. This might tell you the domain owner, or "registrant", but even if it doesn't it will at least give you the name 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 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 When allowing a host to purchase your domain name ask them some important 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? 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 normally 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. 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! 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. When it's time to renew this may save you a huge headache. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Brian O'Connell is the President and founder of CPA Site Solutions, one of the country's biggest web design firms oriented solely to accounting website design. His company at present provides websites for more than 4000 CPA and accounting firms. |
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