It’s happened again. Hardly a week goes by that I do not hear or read about issues surrounding domain name ownership; issues that can seriously impact any business.
Items 9 and 10 on my Business Computing Basics page depends upon domain name ownership:
8 – Evaluate your company’s Internet marketing identity. Confirm that you completely control your email, website and domain names.
9 – Bulletproof your Email messaging systems.
I can’t stress these two items enough. If you are concerned, check WHOIS, the recognized Internet services used to confirm domain name ownership.
Web site building companies commonly register domain names for the web sites they build in their names instead of the company purchasing the web site’s name. When the time comes for change, the unknowing company finds itself not owning their own domain name and at the complete mercy of the web site building company.
The result can be as easy as a clean, quick transfer of ownership or an ugly drawn out court case or sloppy arbitration, and everything in between.
So, check WHOIS, determine that the Registrant is you. If not, take action to transfer registration to you using Network Solutions, the original domain name registrar!