Securing your domain name

One of the biggest mistakes I've seen people make is waiting to register their domain name until they are ready for a website.  In fact one of my clients lost the name he wanted six days before he first called me.  Of course there was nothing we could do about it, so he chose a different URL rather than pay the outrageous amount the other person asked for.

You can easily avoid this problem yourself by registering it now even if you don't think you'll be ready to build a site for years.  There's a large variety of domain registrars now with a diversity of prices and services.  Don't worry too much about who you choose to register it with, because you can always transfer the domain to another registrar later if you prefer their services.

On the high end you have your choice of network solutions and register.com.  Both are very respectable and have been around for many years.  Your domain will be safe with them.

For the budget conscious, there are godaddy and dotster.  I have used both and I must admit that I'm very fond of the variety of services that godaddy offers, especially considering the low price they charge.

Many registrars also allow you to have a simple coming soon page or even a one page site with basic contact information.  For some businesses, this is enough to tide them over until they are ready to develop a full professional web presence.

You should also selectively register misspellings and derivatives of the domain name.  One of my clients registered HelpYouFindBooks.com and decided that securing HelpMeFindBooks.com would be a good idea.  A simple session of market research revealed that people preferred HelpMeFindBooks.com, so they decided to use that as their primary.  The other domains they registered are all set to redirect visitors to their primary domain, so even if people forget the exact name, they will find the site.

The final thing to make certain of is that you have your domains set on auto-renew if it is available at your domain registrar.  There are few things as frustrating as losing your domain name if you forget to renew it.  There are whole industries cropping up that specialize in expiring domain names.  It may cost you a lot to get your domain back if you let it expire.

If you follow these simple suggestions, you will be prepared when you are ready to contact an experienced web developer.  And best of all, you will know with confidence that the domain is yours.

March 03, 2005