Get A Dynamic Website – Advice for your website or blog

Make sure your domain is secure

Common Domain Name Mistakes:

Allowing another party to purchase your domain name
This is very common mistake. In the beginning of a project businesses may put too much trust in a designer, developer or service provider and allows them to purchase their domain name under their name. This leaves you with virtually no control over your domain name. If the designer doesn’t like the way the project is going or doesn’t feel his end is being met financially he can hold your domain hostage until he is paid or hold the domain forever forcing you to purchase another domain name. This can sometimes be a difficult option if you’ve already invested in advertising and printed business cards.
The Solution:
Always buy domains under your own name!

Losing your domain login information
This sounds so innocent but can cause so many headaches! Some domain registrars are not forgiving or difficult to get hold of. Sometimes they may be hard to find if you’ve deleted their web address & contact info. Losing this information can change a launch date from hours to weeks.
The Solution:
As soon as you purchase a domain name make sure to save all the information and print it if you have to. You’ll be glad you did!

Letting your domain expire
This one can be oh so painful. Registrars are not very forgiving and will put your domain into redemption if it expires. Once your domain is in redemption it can cost you hundreds of dollars to get it back. Even worse if it passes the redemption period and goes up for sale another buyer can snatch it up. Sometimes people from other countries will buy these domains knowing that the owner may eventually want it back and will pay a healthy sum to get it back.
The Solution:
Never let your domain expire. Put it in a calendar if you have to or pre-pay for years at a time. You don’t have to wait for a domain to near its expiry before you renew it. When you renew a domain it will simply add one year to the expiration date.

Don’t let 3rd party registrars transfer your domain name
There are companies out there that run legitimate scams and fool businesses into transferring your domain name to their registrar that can cost four times the cost you are currently paying. One of these 3rd party registrars is called Domain Registry of America. What they do is send you a regular envelope in the mail that looks like a bill to fool you into thinking that they are in fact your domain registrar and that your domain is up for renewal. The victim then fills out the bill and puts in all necessary information including the domain authorization key or code (security code for an authorized transfer). Once they have this information they transfer your domain to their registrar and charge you quadruple the amount you were paying previously. Why is it legitimate? They’re not breaking any laws…but ethically it is wrong.
The Solution:
Know who your registrar is.  Shred mail that doesn’t make sense. If you don’t know or think your domain is about to expire then do a whois lookup to confirm your domain expiry date and registrar information.

Additional Information & Tips:

• If your domain registrar offers domain privacy get it. This can reduce the amount of email spam and junk snail mail
• Learn how to do a whois lookup so you know what information is on your domain record. You can do this by going to websites like Domain Tools
  
• If you run into problems with your domain, don’t blame parties that have no control over your domain…this will only complicate things.
• Before purchasing a domain always make sure it is being purchased in your name

Tags: domain names