When you’re dealing with an outside firm for your web work, it’s very important that you maintain ownership of your domain. If you plan to launch a website and don’t yet have the domain, buy it on your own before contracting with a web development company. In a perfect world, this wouldn’t be an issue, but contractual relationships can turn sour and not having control over your domain could seriously hinder your business’s progress.
Purchasing your own domain name couldn’t be much easier. There are a wide variety of sites – including GoDaddy, NameCheap, Network Solutions and Yahoo! Domains – where you can purchase the domains within minutes using your credit card. Pricing varies, but it’s usually in the $10 range. You can purchase ownership for several years at a time or be charged a small amount annually. Domain ownership is not the same as hosting.
While the purchasing process is simple, finding a decent domain that’s available can be quite frustrating. For some of our clients, we research domains and then recommend they buy them on their own so they can be sure they’ll maintain control no matter what. If a firm has a problem with this approach, you really have to wonder whether it’s wise to do business with them.
If your relationship with the design firm does go bad, there are ways to get your domain back, but they can be very time consuming and can take years. It can also get expensive, especially if attorneys get involved. Owning your own domain from the get-go is the only way to ensure this doesn’t happen.
Of course, learning all this doesn’t help if a developer’s already hijacked your domain. If you need help getting your valuable domain back or finding a decent one, feel free to call us at (603) 217-5583 or shoot us an email.
