The Haves:
If you currently have a domain name it is important to understand who has ownership of the name. In other words, who registered the domain name for you? If you did it yourself, by creating an account with one of the many resellers online, then you were given a login and a password to that account. It is crucial that you keep this information in a safe place. Your life will become a living hell if you forget where your domain name is registered or what your login and password is. It is also vital that your contact information, especially your e-mail address, is accurate and kept up to date. If your e-mail address is incorrect you will not receive billing information. This may cause your account to become past due and your domain name can be turned off. If this happens, someone else can purchase your domain name. This will also cause your web site to go down and you will not be able to receive e-mail with that domain name. Trust us when we say that you absolutely DO NOT want to be in this position.

There are a number of resellers out there who are a bit on the shady side. They will register your account for you, however, retain ownership of the domain name. You will not have your own login and password to the account. Should the reseller go out of business or flee the country, you will have no way of accessing your domain name account. This is another position you do not want to find yourself in. You can check the ownership and registration status of your domain name by doing what is called a Whois Lookup. Type in the name of your domain (the http:// and www are not required) and click ‘Submit’. You will be given the information of who the account is registered to, who it was registered by and who is listed as the administrative and technical contact. It is especially important that the e-mail address for the billing contact is up to date. If any of this information is incorrect get it fixed immediately.

The Have-Nots:
If you want to have a web site or a personalized e-mail address, you will need to register a domain name. This will be your address on the Internet. Registering a domain name is an easy and inexpensive thing to do, as long as you know what you are doing.

  1. Pick a domain name. Keep it simple; easy to spell and not too long.
  2. Make sure it is available by doing a Whois Lookup.
  3. Register the name.

Number three is where things can get a little overwhelming. Finding a place to register your domain name is kinda like looking for a pizza joint in the Chicago Yellow Pages; there’s a lot of them. Do a little research before choosing a company. Ask around, find out who other people have picked and what their experience has been. Don’t be swayed by price alone. The company has to be easy to work with and be reliable. Make sure that the company you choose provides you with a login and password and gives you access to managing your account. You will need to be able to edit your contact information, renew your domain name and have the ability to transfer it. If any of these options are not available then pick a different company. We recommend Dotster. They were one of the first companies to start reselling domain names and they know what they are doing.

Once you have decided on your company and have an available domain name selected it’s time to register it. Triple check the spelling of your domain name before hitting any type of submit button. Nothing sucks more than misspelling your domain name. Also pay close attention to the information you enter in the contact fields. These companies all send out their renewal invoices via e-mail. If your e-mail is not correct or up to date you will not receive renewal information. Your domain name will then become past due, get turned off and any web site or e-mail address associated with that domain name will no longer function. A worst case scenario will be someone else purchasing your domain name and offering to sell it back to you for hundreds of dollars. After you have completed the registration process, write down the name of the company, your login and password and keep this information in a safe place where you will be able to find it again.

All of the above advice has been taken from our experience in dealing with domain names. We have had clients completely lose their domain name because they failed to renew it and someone else purchased it. Other people have had serious delays in turning on a web site because they lost their registration information. So don’t make things harder than they need be and if you need help, we are just an e-mail or phone call away.

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