Domain Registration By Someone Else

Every website has to have a domain name - that's the core website address.  Quite often, website designers register domains names for the clients to make it easier and that it's done correctly.  But be very careful - if the domain isn't registered in your name, you do not own it.

If you don't own your domain name, then several problems can occur:

• If you want to change who hosts your website, you can't without access to the domain control panel.  If your host and the person who registered your domain are the same person, then you cannot move elsewhere because they hold all the keys, not you.
• Quite often, there are "domain transfer fees" imposed by web designers.  It takes about 20 minutes to transfer a domain, not hundreds of dollars worth of time.
• Australian domains cannot be transferred within the first 6 months of registration - you might stuck for a while.
• You probably won't get notifications of when your domain is about to expire.

Always make sure that the domain is registered in your name (or company name) and that your contact details are on it, not someone else's.

Sneaky and Dirty!

We had a client come to us for help.  Their website had been built and hosted by the same company, which is common.  That same company had registered the domain in their own name.  When the client became unhappy with their host/designer, they wanted to move and their host/designer wanted $2,000.00 before they would let the client "go".  The client didn't own the domain name, so they couldn't change where their site was hosted.  The client didn't know how to control the hosting or their website, so they couldn't backup their website and get someone else to handle it.  They were stuck.

The sad thing is that backing up a website and sending it to a different designer should take approximately 1 hour at most - hardly worth $2,000.00.  The design company was in control and they knew it.  Fortunately, the client got us on the phone and it was solved in an afternoon.