Are You Ready to Own A Website? Part 1: Domain Names and You

Everyone and their extended family three times removed has written an article about domain names. Why am I bothering, you may ask? There is conflicting advice all over the web, and a Google search is overwhelming. I’m going to discuss what I feel is important for my current and potential clients to know about owning a domain. This includes, but is not limited to:

• A note on what domain names are.
• Why you should buy your domain name yourself.
• What you’ll need to do while you own your domain name.
• Brief mention of how to pick one, and things you should consider while making your choice.

Before We Go Any Further:

So we’re all on the same page: a domain name is the address people will type into whatever program they browse the web with when they want to browse your website. They’ll see it on your business cards. Hear it in your commercials. And hopefully remember how to spell it. As such, it’s a vital piece of your website and business! You do, believe it or not, need to purchase this address from one of the many retailers on the web called Domain Resellers. Any questions? Of course! This was the obvious one.

Read onward.

Why You Should Buy Your Domain Name Yourself, OR:
Domains Lost in the Ether, and Other Terrifying Stories.

Many full service web design studios or hosting companies offer a “free domain” when you sign up for their services, or allow you to buy your domain name through them. Effectively, they are “renting” you the domain name- if you ever failed to pay them, they would own it, and could sell it to anyone else. I choose not to do this for my clients for what I feel are very good reasons- all to your advantage:

• You should be the registrar, or owner.

  Your domain name should have your contact info on it. This is for legal reasons. Believe it or not, domain names are considered property, and if you own a business and your website becomes successful, they can be worth quite a bit! Your domain name’s reputation determines its worth. How many people have heard of your domain, and visit it repeatedly? If you’re an individual or a very small business owner, this may not matter much to you- but the truth is, having a domain name that matches the name of your business can be a great selling point down the road. It all depends on what you do with the domain and how great you make it!

  Why on earth should I own what should be property of your business?

• What happens if you change designers, hosting companies, or they go out of business?

  Quite simply, if they’re not responsible enough to notify you, your domain name could be lost- and all that marketing work you’ve done, and business cards you’ve printed with that domain name on them will be worthless. Skeptical?

  One of my clients here in Denver went with a designer and web host from England, and purchased her domain name through them. She tried to contact him a year after the site had been designed, and he didn’t respond to emails or phone calls. He’d literally dropped off the face of the earth. To make matters worse, because the domain name was in THEIR name, not hers, she had no control over the domain, and it was stuck with them. Going after them legally would have been time consuming and expensive- and they were halfway across the world. After two months of overseas phone calls and emails, we ended up having to go with a new, shorter version of her domain name- and she had to reprint all her fliers and business cards. Purchase it yourself- keep the log in information- this won’t happen to you.

Short story: Buy it yourself, and you have the control.

Feeding and Caring For Your Domain

• Domain names must be purchased from a domain reseller.

  There are a lot of options out there, Google is full of them. Some of the most common choices include Godaddy.com and Namecheap.com. There are thousands of others. Don’t get scammed! Make sure that your reseller is reputable (check it on ICANN’s list of accredited registrars)- cheapest is not always best. I personally use Namecheap.com, as they have a very easy checkout process and good prices, and don’t try to get you to buy every offer under the sun. They also make transfers and other technical changes very quickly.

• Domains are generally sold for a yearly fee and must be renewed.

  They have to be renewed once a year. Some services will offer to let you buy five years, ten years, etc., for a discounted price. If you’re sure you want it that long, go for it. They will notify you via email when your domain name is close to expiring. DON’T ignore this if you want to keep the domain! There are people all over the internet waiting for domain names to expire so they can snap them up and sell them back to the original and now desperate owners for much higher prices. So renew on time!

  No domain name means your website goes down! No one can see it until you buy the domain back, or get a new one!

• You should keep your contact information with them up to date.

  If you want to continue owning it, log in every now and then and make sure your email address and other contact info is current. This is important so that the domain registrar can notify you when it’s time to renew.

• Don’t lose the original purchase receipt or your login information.

  The registrar will send them to you via email after your original purchase- make sure to save it, and print off a backup for your files. Your web designer will need this information in order to make your site work, and you will need it down the line to handle your subscription.

In short: You are responsible for making sure your web site’s domain, and therefore, the website, stay live for your readers and customers to view. Make sure to keep track.

Picking Your Domain Name: Somewhat Like Marriage.

Many others have elaborated on this subject, and probably know a whole lot more about marketing than I do. My general recommendation for artists or designers is to have the domain name their name, or their studio’s name. Small business owners often choose the name of their business as their domain. So long as it’s not a million miles long and hard to spell, that’s a great choice.

Whatever you make it- remember- your marketing will include it, hopefully your customers will remember it, and you will be living with it for a very very long time. Make sure you like it, because once you have it- changing it is a painful process that can hurt your business.

Two points to think about:

• The most common extension is .com. There are a million others out there today, but think about what you usually try first when you’re going to visit a site- it’s .com, isn’t it?
• You may want to purchase more than one domain name and have them all point to your site (make sure your hosting company allows this! Not sure what a hosting company is? Tune in next Monday for my next installment). One example would be yourwebsite.biz in addition to yourwebsite.com. Otherwise, if someone types in the wrong ending, they may end up getting someone else’s website that has your same domain name aside from the ending! If you’re not worried about competitors, this may not be such an issue for you- but it can hurt traffic and confuse your visitors.

I’ll leave you here and let others wax poetic on things to think about when choosing yourself a domain name:

• Avoid Trademark Infringement When You Choose a Domain Name on NOLO. A good resource for legal things to think on when trying to choose a domain.
• How to Choose A Domain Name from the Wall Street Journal.
• Choosing a Domain Name by Darren Barefoot. Good points to think on.

Join me next week to learn all about web hosting!