As a refresher, we covered the Basics to Purchasing a Domain in a previous post. The more we learn sometimes the more questions we have. Domain Registration, whether for a website, blog or a social media network, domain and/or user names are a valuable piece of web real estate, protect them.
Domain Value
Domains are an extremely valuable real estate, internet real estate, and the earlier you secure your brands and trademark the better. Protect your brand by registering variations of your domain names and other trademarks.
It guards against brand dilution, customer confusion, disgruntled employees, dissatisfied customers or even competitors from attacking your company’s reputation.
Expand your planning. Avoid competitive vulnerability by purchasing your domain in different extension (i.e. .com, .net, .org), and forwarding them all to your primary domain. You can also purchase domain with the common mis-spellings of your company name, so you don’t lose traffic.
Examples:
• einnoventions.com
• einnoventions.net
• einnoventions.org
• e-innoventions.net
• e-einnoventions.com
• einnovenitons-u.com
This is also true for Social Media Networks
The big brands understand this and they have secured their brands and trademarks on a host Social Media and Networking sites in addition to web domains; Twitter, YouTube, Delicious, Flickr, Facebook Pages. Social Media is the newest component to a solid communications plan. Secure your user names in the popular networks. You may not be ready to use them, but secure them for your future use. Most of these sites are free.
Domain Management
Your domain has a value. With the cost of marketing, branding and gaining internet traffic, you could cost your organization time and money if you fail to follow-up with Domain maintenance.
All of your domains should be held in a centralized system or Control Panel, managed and maintained. One common situation is having employee’s register domain names. Sounds like a simple request doesn’t it? Now imagine your relationship with this employee changes in the future, who is the domain owner?
The domain owner is the individual who purchased the domain. Domain names should always be purchased in the name of the business owner. A Disgruntled employee, domain hostage, dozens of communications, a payoff and finally your 9 dollar domain has cost hundreds and even thousands. The clean-up process is exhausting and costly.
You need a centralized location to:
• Purchase
• Renew
• Maintain WhoIs Records
• Transfer
All which can be achieved by selecting a quality Registrar.
Selecting a Registrar
Registrars are independent of ICANN and many extend this service to their Hosting services. Each has different processes and other domain service considerations. Here are some questions that we find important during the Domain Registration process.
• Are they ICANN Accredited Registrar?
Make sure they are the ICANN Accredited list, provide coverage to your country, has signed the current RAA which is currently 2009 and can manages the extension you choose; .com, .net, .org., etc. For a long time I “assumed” each registrar could provide all extensions, and found this not to be accurate.
• Do they 24 x 7 x 365 support?
Support is a valuable service no matter what service your business is evaluating. Can be significantly important if you hosting, coordinating or managing your clients Domain Records. Evaluate on the areas of the great important to your organization.
• Do they have a knowledgeable and helpful support team?
Are you confortable getting answers from an “support” member using an standard FLIP CHART, primarily effective with basic questions, or is your organizing highly technical and need support with knowledgeable individuals. Businesses need to understand each Registrar’s support services, prior to making a selection.
• Are the Domain Management Tools Intuitive?
Never under estimate the value of easy to use, intuitive domain management tools and online support.
• Do they offer auto renewal?
A simple feature such as Domain Registration Auto Renewal can save you many future headaches. People get busy, take vacations, have emergencies, it happens. This simple feature can avoid having another person buy your domain and then sell it back to you. Yes, happens often. A domain that would have cost you $9 to renew, is now going to 8k to get it back.
• Overall are their fees cost effective?
Registrar costs vary due to the competition of other Registrars. Each permitted to set charges above standard costs. I have seen prices vary from $1.99 to $30.00 a year. All registrars pay the registry a fixed price of $6 for each domain they sell.
Keep in mind if a Registrar is selling a domain for $1.99, and they pay the registry $6, they are making up the revenue in another service. Compare transfer and private registration fees.
Here are a few companies we have had good experiences: Go Daddy, eNom , Tucows (through Hosting.com)
Guard Your Privacy
It often surprises people how much of their personal information is on the internet. This goes for Domain Registration as well. Recently I shared a CEO’s home address to him on a conference call. He was surprised. Simple it was on WHOIS. It was correct it immediately.
It is simple to miss, but during the registration process, you can select standard or private registration. You will provide the same Registrant, Administrative and Technical contact information, however Private Registration your information will not be shown on the WHOIS list.
The information you provide is published in the WHOIS Public Internet Directory. This includes your name, your company name, telephone, email address or even home address.
Some services can also include domain history, IP history, Whois History and other information:
The best practice is to use pay for the annual PRIVACY feature, which is on average is $2 -$10 a year, for each domain, removing it from WHOIS.
See the information available on your registered domain names. Here are a few links to search WHOIS.
• http://whois.domaintools.com/
• http://network-tools.com/
Length of Domain Renewal
Registrars can offer registration periods from 1 to 10 years. Some offer multi-year discounts, which may be beneficial to you, but not necessary.
At some point in the future you may transfer your domain, and those fees may offset your savings. Most providers offer auto renew feature in your account control panel, making annual renewing simple.
Avoid Domain Renewal Scams
Through WHOIS other registrar’s can locate your information and send you letters, that appear to be from your Registrar making notification your domain is ready for renew. Our Registrar’s contact us using an email reminder, linking back to their website, not through the mail. These letters usually come MONTH before the renewal period is near. If you are not sure who your Registrar is, check the who is record. This will show your Registrar and your hosting provider who registered on your behalf.
Another security measure, lock your domain and prohibit transfer.
Summary
Domains are an extremely valuable piece of internet real estate and should be managed accordingly. Knowledge is power and I hope this post has provided some valuable information to manage your domains, locate a quality Registrar, avoid the mail scams and protect your personal information you don’t necessarily want on the internet.
Tags: domain, domain registration, protect your brand, registrar, trademarks
