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Own Your Domain
A famous surgeon loses his business website and the ownership of his domain name. Avoid this by owning your domain. Plus how to register your domain name and select a web hosting company.
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Own Your Domain
The Short Version
When you create your business website:
1. Register your own Domain
2. Setup your own hosting account
Then find a web developer who can build your website.
Avoid The One Stop Web Development Disaster
One stop shopping is almost always a good idea. Hire one company to provide all related products and services so you can rely on them to keep everything working with no finger pointing. But for your business website this can lead to disaster.
I got a call last week from an attorney friend of mine who is helping a famous south Florida plastic surgeon reclaim his domain – the story goes like t his. A few years back this doctor hired a small web development company to build his website. Like many small web developers this company registered the domain name, setup the web hosting, and built the website. And everyone was happy.
A few years later the doctor lost interest in his website and told the web developer he was not going to maintain the site. Then one day the doctor gets a phone call from a patient who says they found his website but it was a advertisement for a Mexican Resort. Sure enough the web developer had re-purposed the domain, which includes the surgeons first initial and last name and was using it as an Internet marketing tool. To regain control of his own domain the web developer is charging the surgeon $1,200.
This scenario is actually not that bad. The doctor will get his domain back and the entire situation was his own doing. In many cases the web developer who registered the domain, built the website, and hosted the website, has gone out of business. In those cases the website is gone. Rebuilding the website can be done but what about the domain?
If the out of business web developer registered the domain in their own account then they own it. That means you have to track down the web developer and get the ownership transferred to you. If you can’t find the developer you will have to wait for the domain ownership to expire and hope that no one else buys the domain before you do.
The Bottom Line
Own your domain. Register it with a registrar such as GoDaddy.com. And setup your own hosting account. Here are a few details…
Register Your Domain
Her is how it works on GoDaddy.
1. Check if your desired domain name is available
Enter the domain name you want in the Domain Name Search box.
2. Purchase the domain name
IF the name you are interested in is available, purchase it. You pay an annual fee to own a domain. Each registrar sets their pricing and GoDaddy.com is very affordable. Consider registering your domain for a few years and paying in advance so you don’t have to worry about it expiring.
Pay for Privacy
Be aware that every registrar (including GoDaddy) will offer you a long list of things you don’t need or should not purchase from a registrar. The only exception is privacy. When you purchase a domain name your information such as your name, phone number, address, and email address is all visible to the public. You can keep your identity private by paying a small fee - $6.99 in the case of GoDaddy.
Another web registrar worth considering is Network Solutions. They are one of the oldest registrars and very reliable. They cost a little more.
3. Setup Your Own Hosting Account
Once your web site is built it will need to be hosted somewhere. There are thousands of web hosting companies but like everything else only a few are worth considering. It is critical that you setup your own hosting account. If your web developer has a preference then you can take that into consideration but you setup the account.
Go with a Tier One Web Host
Many of the bigger web hosting companies make it easy for developers to be resellers of their hosting services. Taking this approach can put you at a disadvantage so work with your web developer to make sure the hosting platform (the server and all the technology installed on it) meets their requirements but you setup the account directly with a tier one web hosting company.
Selecting A Web Host
You select a web host based on three basic criteria – uptime, features, and support.
Uptime
Does the web server where your web site will live stay up and running and does the web host connection to the Internet stay connected. A quality hosting company will guarantee a certain amount of uptime.
Uptime is typically stated in nines – meaning that two nines is 99 percent, three nines is 99.9 and so forth. The more nines the better. Five nines is as good as it gets but very difficult to achieve. If you want to sleep at night make sure the hosting company you select guarantees at least 99 percent up time.
Web Hosting Features
Features refer to the software installed on the web server. For a basic web site every web host should meet your requirements. But if your developer wants to include specific technology you must make sure the web host you select supports those technologies.
Support
Regardless of how great a hosting company is there will be an occasional failure and that is when support comes in. Try out the support before you buy. See if you can find the phone number for support and give them a call. If you can get a person on the phone that can answer a basic question that is a good sign. Some hosts rely on email, which is also fine. Just send them an email and see how long it takes to get a response.
Examples of Tier One Web Hosting
There is a long list of web hosting companies that offer basic low cost hosting in the $7 to $10 a month range. These hosts are fine for a basic website. Here are a few:
For a more complex website that uses a database or is published with a web publishing tool these basic hosting companies may not cut it. In that case consider a full featured web host.
Here are a few:
Publishing a Blog
If your website is intended to be a Blog or you want to make regular updates to your website there is a type of host that supplies you with the blog software and hosting as a combination.
A few examples of Blog and Hosting combination packages are:
The biggest advantage of using a blog software to create your website is that it is very easy to get started and depending on the blog software you select there are many features you can use to make your website more dynamic.
Conclusion
Most important is that you register your domain name with your own account so you own it and you setup the hosting. That way you are in control and if your web developer disappears or you want to change web developers you are in control.
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