You have spent a long time to choose the perfect domain name for your soon to be website and found that it is available. Now most people simply purchase their name through the host while some purchase on their own. The problem is that one of those groups of individuals did the worst thing possible in registering their domain name. This article will not only address what not to do when purchasing a domain name but also what you should do to ensure that you have complete control over the domain. Continue reading to learn more as the wrong choices can actually leave you in a position where your domain is no longer yours to own.
The biggest mistake people make when purchasing a domain name is by allowing the hosting site to purchase it for you. The fact is that even though you are purchasing the name, they are registering it on your behalf and actually owning it if you default on your hosting payments as the registers mailing address will be theirs and not yours. When you read the terms and conditions of your hosting agreement, you will also see clauses pertaining to the domain name that may not be favorable to you as far as linking to other sites or revenue generation that may be required to be shared. You need to register the domain name on your own as you will be able to take the name with you if issues arise and you need to break your hosting contract.
Another mistake many people make is by purchasing the domain one year at a time. If someone likes your domain name and they want it, they can sign up for alerts as to when the name may be available. This can be an issue for you as despite claims of email providers, email disappears in cyber space and if you do not receive a renewal notice and forget it is due, you just lost it to somebody who slid in the backdoor and grabbed it. You need to lock in your domain for as long as possible.
There are also people who will piggyback on your success by using the name on a common domain that you may not have chosen like .net or .org. You should always lock up the domain name on all popular platforms to prevent someone from stealing traffic based on domain confusion. These additional domains can be set up to jump to your main site as well instead of setting up websites on each one. You are simply protecting your business by locking in the domain name on all popular platforms.
Finally, make note of the payment dates for your domain names. As mentioned, someone could slip in, purchase your name and actually try to sell it back to you at a higher cost. There are some things that can be forgotten for a few hours when maintaining a site but the domain name needs to be paid promptly to prevent loss.
As you can see, the domain is everything and you need to maintain control of it at all times. Register it on your own and do so for multiple years at a time. Make sure that you register on all domain platforms and you will ensure that traffic is driven to your revenue generating site and not to someone else.
