By Paul Van Kirk ~ NWG Creative Director
Some developers/hosting companies like to suck you in with low development costs, then rapidly raise your hosting fees, reduce service, or just plain ignore you once they have your web site up. How do they get away with it?
The answer is simple: your domain name. Do you own yours?
Your domain name is the address that everyone types into their browser to get to your web site. If you didn't purchase your domain name yourself, but rather had your developer or hosting company handle everything for you, you may not own it. This means your developer could prevent you from using your own domain name if you try to move your web site to another hosting company or use this as leverage to increase their charges.
If you don't already own your own domain name, you should work at securing it from your hosting company now. If you are looking at a new web site, there are a few things you can do to help protect yourself from being taken hostage.
- Use a service like godaddy.com to purchase your domain. Its easy to do and registration is cheap.
- Register someone inside your company as the administrator of your account. Your hosting company does not need these privileges.
- Consider registering your account for multiple years. Multi-year registrations can save you a few bucks and save you from a lapse in your registration (a lapse can allow someone to sneak in and steal your domain name.)
Ask these questions before you start your web site, or switch hosting companies and save yourself a bunch of trouble down the road.
