Is your domain name registered properly?
You know what websites can do for you, but you don’t necessarily know how to go about getting one. You hire a website firm (or maybe a cousin or brother-in-law) to register your domain name, set up your hosting, and build your website for you. BUYER BEWARE!
You need to make sure your domain name is properly registered in your name and company name! This probably happens more than we care to know. Whoever is setting up your website, might actually register your domain name using their information and sometimes even under their own account. This is a very poor practice and even unethical in my opinion. Of course its never a problem until its a problem. Later down the road, you decide its time for a change for whatever reason. You’ve hired someone new to redesign your website or move your hosting to something more affordable. The original person you hired gets offended and refuses to help transfer the domain. Maybe this person has fallen off the face of the earth or even gone out of business. You’re now stuck like Chuck.
You have no login information to the registrar where your domain sits idle. You try to call the registrar and you are informed that you are not the registered owner of the domain. Unless the registrar decides to be nice or you hire an attorney, you have just lost control of your website.
At a minimum, you must insist your domain name be registered to you and your company. The website design firm can be listed as a technical contact. If possible, you should insist on having your own account with the registrar and supplied with the username and password to manage the domain name. This will allow you to take control of your website just in case. Here at aeTechnology, we set up your own account, with your own login, and register the domain name using your information. We manage it for you without additional charges and you can take over anytime you like. We do not hold websites hostage nor do we copyright the design. You paid for it. Its yours to do whatever you like. It’s April 1st today, but don’t let another website company fool you. Its your domain name! Not theirs!