Domain Name Alert!
May 2, 2008
- In Brief:
- Domain Name Registrar Scams
- Domain Name Expiration Surprises
- Domain Name Ownership Issues
- Professional Management of Your Domain Name(s)
Protect Your Domain Name!
There are several areas in which your domain name is vulnerable, and since it is "your real estate" on the internet, it is vital that you retain control of domain names that are important to your business.
One of the most significant problems we have had as website hosting providers has been with trying to help our clients rebound after they have lost their domains. For some time now, as a result of our past experience, we have been including FREE, professional domain management for all of our clients.
There may be several entities involved in the service of your website: a webmaster that develops and maintains your website, a domain name registrar (where your domain name is purchased) and a website host. The same company can provide all of the above services, but usually they do not.
If your domain name expires, your website will not be visible via the domain name, even though the website is still in place. When your domain name is nearing renewal, your domain name registrar will begin sending you emails reminding you to renew your domain. You must stay on top of this if you are listed as the administrator of your domain.
. Domain Name Registrar Scams
There are several effective scams being utilized where domain name registrars either send you something in the mail or via email - it looks like a bill, but it is not! It is actually a solicitation for you to transfer your domain! You do not want to do this, regardless of who you are paying for website hosting services!
This is the single reason we starting urging our clients to allow us to manage their domains for them free. Almost weekly, someone was calling because their website was gone and they assumed there was a problem with our server. We would do a "whois" lookup on their domain to see where it was registered and who was listed as the admin and billing contact, and then would explain to them that the registrar was emailing a certain email address. (Click Here For Internic Whois - Domain Name Lookup)
Their response was typically one of two things: 1) "O yeah, I don't read that email address anymore." or 2) "That is my nephew's email - he registered the domain for me.
So, we no longer tell our clients to "login to their domain registrar account and point their domain names to our servers" or ask for their usernames and passwords to do it for them. -- We urge complete, professional domain name management services.
With the domains underneath our professional management, they cannot be "scammed" away from our clients.
. Domain Name Expiration Surprises
Don't be caught off-guard! Some business owners say, "my domain is registered for 6 more years" and think that provides security for them. It does not! It is even worse, because they are more likely to forget about it - change their email address and be caught off guard in six years.
It is painful to lose your domain and often nigh to impossible to get it back! Once your domain expires, with better registrars, it will remain "restorable" for 30 days. They will usually charge you $100 to $150 to restore it, but that is cheap compared to what it will cost if it goes beyond that period and is purchased by someone else!
This can be a time consuming process. We charge an additional minimum of $100 to assist in the restoration of an expired domain, that is in addition to what the registrar will charge.
We can discount our services and sometimes do, but we cannot discount our time, so if you lose your domain and expect us to help restore it, it will cost you at least $200 total, and it may be a lot more. It is better to stay on top of things.
If a new client wants to maintain their domain name(s) themselves - instead of letting us do it FREE, we require them to sign a contract that discloses a minimum $500 fee if they lose their domain and call on us to help restore it. If they want to find someone else to do it, we are ok with that, too!
. Domain Name Ownership Issues
Do you really own your domain? Do you know? You may be surprised!
There are multiplied thousands of small business owners that have websites and think that they "own" their domains, but they do not! -- The real truth is that no one actually owns their domain(s), they are only "renting" them from the registrar. It is much like the illusion of owning real estate -- something to think about. Those of you who think that because you have "paid off" your mortgage will discover that you really do not own your real estate if you don't pay your taxes.
It seems that the government might indeed be the owner, since it can be taken away from you if you don't pay your taxes!
That being said, you should be listed as the "Registrant" of the domain, or have a contract from the individual or company that registered the domain name for you naming you as the registered owner. You don't need to be listed as the administrative, billing or technical contact.
When we register a domain for our clients, we write them a legal contract that we both sign that guarantees they are the legal registrants of the domain(s) even though our company most often shows up on the "Whois" report. This is just another layer of protection from the plethora of dishonest people that seek to pray on ignorant small business owners.
. Professional Management of Your Domain Name(s)
Most of you should be paying someone to professionally manage your domain(s) for you. If you are hosting with PROSBO, Inc, or you are a pajezy.com customer, we offer professional domain management services to you FREE.
What this means is we keep your domain pre-registered for you automatically and handle all issues related to your domain. If you receive any communications about your domain, you call us.
We are master resellers with http://www.enom.com, and you domain will be locked and auto-renewing each year. In order to receive this service, you must allow for the transfer of your domain from your current registrar to our account with enom.com. You retain the ownership of your domain, but we become the administrators and billing contact.
If you are not a PROSBO webhosting client or a pajezy.com customer, we will provide this service for you for $50 per year per domain.
