Domain Registration

Make Sure It Is In Your Name!

If there is one thing we hope to educate you about by visiting us today - it is how to avoid or fix a common issue we frequently encounter concerning the ownership of a registered domain or web address. We find that 7 out of 10 contacts we talk to concerning website development already have a website address registered by someone they used to employ or was contracted outside of their business or organization's primary sphere of influence. When registering, these individuals place the Registrant and Administrative Contact information under their name and email address instead of under a business owner's or organizational principal's name. They, in effect, technically control and own your website.

What is most important is the email address associated with the administrative contact name. All management correspondence with the registrar is verified through the administrative email address. You cannot easily or quickly regain control of or receive forgotten password notifications to manage it if you do not have control or access to emails going to that address.

Go to Network Solutions website and perform a WHOIS search on your domain. Unless the information has been privatized, it will show you who is the registrant, administrative, technical, and billing contacts for the domain. It will also show you the expiration date for your domain, as well. The registrant and administrative contact information should reflect a principle of the organization with a well established email address for that person.

Bogus "Invoices" In the Mail

Have you received mail from Liberty Domains or Domain Registry of America where you open it and it "looks" like an invoice to renew your domain name. If you read the fine print, it is not an invoice but a solicitation for them to become the new registrar for your domain. We also frequently receive calls concerning these issues, as well. If you sent a payment, it generally results in having to call them to try and get your money back - if you even bother at all. Throw these solicitations away! It is highly unlikely that you are registered with either of them and also unlikely that they would ever service your domain if you paid it.



Now that we've educated you on two important, but common, pitfalls of managing your own domain, Graphic Memory offers domain registration done the right way. We have partnered with one of the largest domain registrars online today - Enom, Inc. At $25.00 annually we always register our client's domains under the principles contact information and ensure that the domain nevers expires. And, as your full service web managment company, you know you can ignore any website related invoices that do not come only from Graphic Memory.