Much like your subscription to the jelly of the month club, your domain name needs to be renewed on occasion.  Your registrar (the company your purchased your domain name from) typically starts sending out threatening messages to the email address you used when you purchased your domain about 6 months prior to the expiration.  They are typically quite aggressive on this renewal stuff, so you may start ignoring their plea after a while. A good way to remember the expiration date is to use outlook or some such device to remind you about a month before the expiration so you can jump in and take care of it. 

One other important tip, DON’T lose the registrar username and pwd.  If you can’t get into the registrar account, it can be a nightmare to regain access. Lastly, If you allow your domain name to expire there is a bit of a grace period (depending on the registrar) but it is something you need to stay on top of.

So, you’re existing web site developer is obsessed with Front Page and frame sets, doesn’t respond to your phone calls and ONLY wants to be referred to by Webmaster?  You’ve got problems.  You seek out a reputable web design firm (like, for example, On Target Web Solutions) and hire them to redesign your existing web site.  No problemo… Until… The domain name needs to be transferred in. The new web design firm is to be hosting the domain, BUT, they can’t get access to the domain name to transfer the name-servers because the old ‘WEBMASTER’ either bought the domain name in your name (under his account…) or added himself as an administrator on your registrar account.

This happens MORE than you know and causes MANY problems.  Here’s how to prevent this from happening all together.:

:: Register YOUR own domain name.

:: Keep the user and password in a VAULT or bury it in a shoebox, what have you.

:: You can add your new web design firm as a TECHNICAL contact which will allow them to alter name servers if needed.

:: DO NOT add others as an ADMIN to your registrar account… This essentially gives them access over everything.

Hope this helps in your quest.  As a side: NONE of the employees at On Target Web Solutions, Inc. are EVER allowed to label themselves as webmasters.  Give us a call if you need a fresh look and feel for your web site or to get your web site found online.  407-830-4550.

One of our wonderful clients called yesterday in a bit of a panic: Her wonderful online bookstore was transformed into a Google AdWord repository page seemingly overnight….. Of course we were on the case: turns out she had let her domain name expire and had to act fast to avoid losing more and more online sales. She had exclaimed that she had gotten so many solicitations via both email and snail mail to renew the domain or transfer the registrar that she began to ignore them.

It is crucial to stay on top of your domain name: setup a folder with all of your domain name information including your registrar, password, user name, receipt and more importantly: the email address you used to set it up.  It can be a nightmare if you lose this valuable information resulting in the potential loss of your domain:  Set an outlook calendar reminder to remind you a month ahead of time to renew that domain: most registrars offer discounts for purchasing more than one year: not a bad idea to protect your investment.