I Had a nice marketing strategy meeting with some great folks who own a restaurant.  After much discussion about calls to action, their web site, their marketing  plan, etc., someone mentioned the domain name was up for renewal.  I asked when and they mentioned that it expires this week and had not yet been renewed.  I of course asked why it hadn’t been renewed yet and found out that they don’t actually have true ownership of the domain name.  They had an ex-employee register the domain name and now this gentleman is pretty much out of the whole picture, he ceases to be on the payroll…. If this domain is not renewed by the end of the week, someone can swipe the domain name and hold it hostage AND the web site goes away.

So, the restaurant owner is left with a considerable dilemma.  The domain name expires soon, they have no way of renewing it unless the ex-employee does it out of the kindness of his heart, or the ex-employee cooperates and transfers the domain name back to them.  WAY TOO MANY If’s in this equation.  The domain name is your foundation, it’s your concrete, you need to keep it under YOUR control. Even if you have a web site company register the domain, insist that they create an account for you and name you and your email address administrative contact on the domain name.  Unfortunately, in this case, you always need to be thinking about the worse case scenario.  The domain name should be registered and owned by the business owner.

No matter how long it may take and how much paperwork is involved, secure your domain name NOW with a reputable company such as GoDaddy or NetworkSolutions.com.  Be cautious about third party registrars that work out their garage, this is not the time to be cheap.

Not sure who owns your domain? Pop over to this domain name and look it up.  If your name and email address are not listed, you need to take steps to contact exactly who registered the domain and take ownership. http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp. There are legal actions you can take to regain ownership if traditional methods are not working, but you need to be able to prove that you are the rightful owner of the domain.

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