Hi everyone, Owning your own domain name and website is a great step to take for online business, and can be very rewarding and fun. However, you need to be very careful about who you register with, who you host with, and about keeping careful hard (printed) records. At this moment in time, I'm in a situation that is entirely my fault. I should have paid more attention to details back in 2003 and again in 2005. Here's what happened. In 2003, I registered a domain name and parked it, as I had no real use for it at the time. In 2005, I acquired hosting for the domain with a company I've used for years. Since that time, I've renewed the domain several times through my hosting company, and have assumed that the domain is registered through my hosting company, since that is where I renew it. A few days ago, when I went to renew my domain and hosting once again, imagine my shock when I discovered I could not renew it! Apparently the original registrar I used is STILL the registrar of record, and they have put a lock on the domain, meaning I can't renew it, change any information on it or anything other than simply using the domain, and that, too, will disappear once it expires. At this point in time, I'm trying to contact the registrar, but have so far only received a polite email informing me that I need to contact one of their resellers who is the one who is actually in charge of the registration. So far, I have not had any success, but do hope that this will be resolved shortly, as the company in question is a large, reputable company. However, there still looms the sad possibility that I could lose this domain name AND website, and all the work done to bring it up in the ranks of visibility in the online world. I could have avoided all this by paying more attention to detail. I SHOULD have carefully examined the whois record for my domain at least yearly. I should be able to find my original record from 2003 easily. I should have updated the email address associated with the registration, since the address they have is an old one that no longer exists. Furthermore, I should have been absolutely certain to confirm who the registrar of record was and made sure that I could contact them and they could contact me. Instead, I assumed that everything was changed over when I changed hosts and renewed through my host. Such an assumption may, possibly, have cost me a domain that I particularly want to keep. Time will tell. In closing, let this be an important reminder to do your due diligence, know who you are working with, and even more importantly, know who it is that you are planning to work with. Keep meticulous records in printed form for anything that is important to you. One day you may need them for proof of, say, ownership of a domain. God bless, Dave

Hi Dave

This is very true A friend of mine almost lost her domain because the reseller vanished into the blue. I will not post here how she saved it as I am sending you a private message on it and I would not like to see any nasty person go and do it just so you lost it.

Part of the ebook my partner and I published about 10 days ago covers hosting and domain names, the pros and cons of having your own domain name and some advice on how to get it, along with other warnings many will not be aware of.

I have always made direct purchases of my domain names and they are registered to me and under my direct and total control. I would never take a hosing that included a domain name unless I could get a 1000% guarantee in writing that I could keep the name and take it with me if i moved to another host.

 

 

Hello Dave,

Thank you for this information.  I am looking to
get my own website name very soon, I am tired of
using various free online hosts and would like to keep
websites in one place.

I have lost memberships because I have not kept up with logging in at least once per week and or my email address I opened with was not longer available to me because of changing internet service and even from computer crash and having to reformat before I could retrieve my information.

I am learning from these mistakes to send login
details to an online web email account that I use
on regular basis.

Kind regards
Amanda
 

Hi Bj, In this case, the reseller died! Thankfully, I keep very good records and have been able to recover enough information that it should be no problem to get this matter settled satisfactorily. However, this was VERY sloppy of me. I purchased the domain originally mainly as a "vanity" domain, didn't use if for two years, and then, on a whim, decided to use it to share family pictures, and just went to my regular host for hosting and set up the site, without checking everything thoroughly. I set up the website, and never paid attention to details on it, renewing it when it came due, again, not checking the Whois information at all, like I always do with all my other domains. It is critical to make sure that your Whois information is correct. Imagine what it would be like to be in this situation if this was a site that had a lot of traffic and was making me a lot of money! If I lost it, the financial hit I would take would be FAR beyond the mere cost of the registration and hosting. The main point is, as you say, to make sure the domain is completely and totally under your control (I have always done that) but ALSO to make sure you can ALWAYS and EASILY get into and update your Whois information as needed. It is also a very good idea to put a domain lock on your domain, which makes it much more difficult for a fraud artist to steal your domain. God bless, Dave

Hi Amanda, I strongly recommend not only having an online email account, but also that you acquire at least one permanent PAID online email account. I use NetAddress and can tell you that it's worth every penny I pay for it. I've had it since 1998 and could write pages about all the benefits of such a service. Furthermore, it's imperative that you not only have your login and member details sent to that account, but that you also create a file in that account for saving important emails AND print out every one of them and store them safely where you can access them quickly, if necessary, in the future. This practice has probably saved my thousands of dollars and a lot of headaches over the years. God bless, Dave