Let’s look at “regular” registration first.  It’s an organized system where people get exclusive use of domain names for a period of time.  (You can learn more about domain name registration here.)  There are public records about who has registered what domain.  That means that anyone can look up the name, address and telephone number associated with any domain name.

As a website developer I sometimes need to research domain name registration.  I use a site called Domain Tools for that purpose.   If you have a website type in your domain name and take a look for yourself.

Business generally don’t care if their domain name registration information is public.  Sometimes though it’s not the best choice for individuals.  That’s where private registration comes into play.  With private registration a company agrees to act as your go-between.  Their name and address will be listed on the public records.  They also figure out a way so that you can be contacted about domain name renewals.  So you’ll be notified of any important news about your domain name, but you won’t get any of the hassle like domain name scams. Domain name registrars usually charge a small annual fee for this service.

Is private registration a good idea?  It all depends on your individual situation.  If your domain registration is public and you’d like to make it private, just call your domain name registrar and ask about it.  They’ll be glad to help you.

The subject came up recently in the news.

Brian McCrary was a disgruntled man.  He’s been caught speeding by a traffic camera on US Highway 11E.   He didn’t think it was fair as, “the speed limit, for no reason, changes from 55 to 45 on a four lane divided highway. About 100 yards away a speed camera is waiting, sucking over a quarter million dollars a month out of the local economy.”

The ticket was a sizable $90 from the city of Bluff City, Tennessee.  When Brian went online to look up some information about the matter, he made an interesting discovery.  The domain name of the police department website was about to expire.   He saw an opportunity to take his revenge.  Brian bought the domain name out from under the police department.  The website now features stories about the misuse of those pesky traffic cameras.

The moral of this story?  Remember to renew your domain name!

Easy to Remember

Make sure that people can remember your domain name.  You want them to be able to tell their friends about it, email others about it and most importantly, visit your site again.

Donny Osmond must have been thinking about that when he selected his domain name, www.donny.com. What’s so special about that you ask?  I happened to visit his site about two years ago and I still remember the domain name.  Sometimes, especially before the coffee kicks in, I can’t tell you what day of the week it is.  But I’ll always remember Donny Osmond’s domain name.

Easy to Spell

What if people remember the domain name but can’t spell it correctly?  That doesn’t work very well.  You want to make sure that people can find your site.  Again, Donny Osmond is all over this issue.  Who ever would have thought that he’d be a great example of website development?

Filled with Great Keywords

The art of having a site found in the top spots of an Internet search is called Search Engine Optimization or SEO.  You can give your site a boost in terms of SEO by making sure that the words people are going to type into a search engine to find you are part of your domain name.

A great example of this is the website owned by my customers the Campground Owners Association of Montana.  What would people type into a search engine when looking for campgrounds in Montana?  They thought about it and then selected www.campingmontana.com.

Descriptive

The domain name should also describe the website.  A good example of this is my very own www.litquotes.com.  Guess what the site does?  It has quotations from literature.

Compromise

Unless you’re Donny Osmond it will be hard to find a domain name that fits all the criteria. So what are you supposed to do?  Take the qualities one by one and think of domain names for each one.  Then look at your list of possibles and see what domain name fits more of the criteria than the others.

What about you?  If you’re thinking about starting a new website why not register the domain name now.  HostMySite is having a domain name registration sale.  It’s only $4 for the first year through March 14th.  See HostMySite for details.

It looks as though the Wall Street Journal agrees with me. In their September 25, 2007 article on web-address theft they state:

Problems frequently occur when an outside contractor or employee registers a company’s domain in their own name.

While we’re on the subject but be sure to keep track of your account information and your domain name’s expiration date. People forget to renew their domain names every single day. Make sure you’re not one of them!

It turned out that the letter was a scam. Her domain name was registered with a different company. Scamo Incorporated was trying to get her to change her domain name registration to them. Luckily she realized what was going on.

How can you avoid scams like this?

• Keep good records – Know where your domain name is registered and keep track of the expiration date.
• Watch for this phrase – One scam that’s been going on for at least 10 years says in the small print, “This is not a bill. This is a solicitation. You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer.” The small print keeps them out of legal hot water yet it’s placed subtly enough that it could be missed.
• Look at the domain name – Sometimes companies like Scamo Incorporated skirt the law by sending out a notice for a domain that’s very close to the one you own. They’re hoping that you won’t notice that their email talks about YourDomainZ.com instead of YourDomain.com.
• Watch the Price – The most you should ever pay for one year of domain name registration is $35.

You don’t want to let your domain name expire, but you don’t want to get taken in by a scam either.

To comply with the ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) WHOIS policy, we request that you confirm the accuracy of your WHOIS contact information. WHOIS is a publicly accessed database containing contact information associated with every domain name registration.

The emails sound very official and are confusing.  The company that registered your domain name sends them. 

Behind all the official sounding lingo here’s what’s going on – they just want to make sure your contact information is up to date.  That’s it.  To make sure that your information is current log into your account and take a look.  (Don’t click on the links in the email.  Go to the website yourself and log in there.)  Update the info if needed.  If you’re sure that your information is correct then just delete the email.

No fuss, no muss – no worries!

Domain names are assets just like a car or a piece of property.  While domain names are reserved or “rented” for a period of time people do sell the rights to them.  There are whole websites devoted to selling and buying domain names. 

But just how much is any one domain name worth?  There are certain rules of thumb:

• A shorter domain name is better than a longer domain name
• A domain name ending in .com is generally worth more than one ending in .net or .org
• A domain name associated with a website that has established traffic (visitors) is valued higher than one with no traffic

There are websites that will look at all the factors and give you an online estimate for just how much your domain name is worth.  I looked at a few sites that had online tools.  I found the one at http://leapfish.com VERY interesting.  It was interesting because when I entered my domain name, perryweb.com, it came back with a valuation of $294,150!  Wow! 

I savored the dream for a few minutes.  Then I decided to verify the number before I booked that flight to Hawaii.  While I was doing my research I saw that GoDaddy.com has a domain name appraisal service for about $15.  Part of the service involves a real person looking the situation over instead of just an online tool. 

GoDaddy promises the results in two days.  In my case it took about 4 hours.  I paused for a moment to savor the dream before I opened the email from GoDaddy.  $294,150!  Then I took a deep breath and saw how much GoDaddy thought my domain name was worth.  Instead of giving one number they gave a range.  The range was $72 to $208. 

Why the big difference?  I think perryweb.com fooled LeapFish because it’s an old domain name, it gets a lot of traffic and a lot of other sites link to it.  Those are all great things.  The problem is that unless your name is Perry and you’re involved in the web business it’s not going to do you a lot of good. 

So to the rest of the world it’s not that valuable of a domain name – but for me it’s perfect! 

As I explained in yesterday’s blog, domain names are unique names or address for websites.  These names are all registered to make sure they’re unique.  Website owners pay yearly registration costs. 

But what if website owners don’t pay the annual fee in time?  The situation wouldn’t be all that serious if this were like returning a library book late.  You’d just pay some sort of fine and be on your way.   It’s not that easy. 

There are people who make their living by buying expired domain names and then selling them back to the former owners at a nice profit.  They’ll add on a $500 or $1,000 processing fee for selling you YOUR domain name back. 

So how do you make sure that your domain name fees are paid?  Talk to the company that originally handled your domain name registration.  Make sure they have your current contact information.  Ask them if they have an “auto renewal” feature.  This feature would allow them to automatically charge your credit card and keep your domain name renewal up to date.