If you’re thinking of kicking off 2010 with a new website look for your business – congrats! There’s nothing like the New Year to inspire a web makeover. Planning a web project can be a lot of fun and there are great possibilities to increase your visibility with blogsites and social media too. With that in mind, I thought it would be a good time to post a series of articles to highlight what clients need to know before launching a website project. Today’s “Things You Should Know” is about domain name control.
Do you control your domain name?
That’s the first question I ask a new client about their web project. It seems like an odd question – but many times, the answer is “no”. By “control” I mean that the client purchased their own domain at a registrar and has access to their own account. In years past, it was common for well-meaning web designers to “take care” of all such techy details, including purchasing the domain name and site hosting. The problem with this is that inevitably, the designer and client lose touch, the domain nears its expiration date and there is no way for the client to directly access it to assure that it is renewed. I have even heard horror stories of clients whose domain name were held hostage by their former webmaster.
In addition to the possibility of losing the name entirely, not having control over the domain is a real problem when you want to change web hosting providers, switch your mail service, or add redirection or a subdomain. This issue can derail your web project before it even starts.
In short, the domain name is the key to your website kingdom… not to mention your email! Be sure to purchase it yourself at a registrar with good prices, support and DNS control (you don’t always need DNS changes, but it should be available to you just in case).
A note on price: some registrars are still charging $25 – $35 a year, like it’s still 1997. You should never pay more than $10 per year for a .com domain. If you are still at a high-cost registrar like Network Solutions (still a crazy $34.99 after all these years!), you can purchase a domain transfer from a reasonable provider. It’s a bit of a tricky process, but it can be done within 7 – 10 days.
I recommend ProVirtual Domains (domains are $3.99 with purchase of another service), GoDaddy and MyDomain.
It is surprising when companies do not control their own domain. I started working with one person as a freelance web designer, and she had a friend of the family originally purchase and designer her site, and he was charging her $15 a month for hosting + domain registration. It turned out her account was on a server that only charged him $3.99 per month and $7.99 for the domain registration yearly, so she was being scammed. It pays to do the research before entrusting your site to a person or service that will charge you a lot more than you need to pay.
Just looked at your site and noticed your upcoming Jan. 26 session is still posted. Today is Feb. 7
I totally agree with you there Mary! I’ve seen that happen to clients (and a former employer) before, and it’s just sad!
I know, its a totally frustrating experience…and easily avoided! Thanks for commenting, Sherra!!