The importance of a domain name can never be underestimated. Businesses throughout the world are sitting on a time bomb from having their domain name sold through nothing more than mis-management.

Domain names are the address to your website  e.g. www.toltech.co.uk  which is our address

How can your domain be sold without you knowing it?

It all goes back to when you purchased the domain name. It may be have been done 3, 5 or 10 years ago when you first entered this online world and so most things about it are forgotten. The most common scenario that we come across is that the Managing Director or  business owner at the time asked an employee, his IT person or more often his daughter’s boyfriend to book his domain name because he knows nothing about computers.

This  is the fatal part right at the beginning. Many of these people when purchasing the Domain Name when asked the name of the Registrant will put their own contact details in and inadvertantly became the owner of the domain name.  This is fine at the time and all runs smoothly until the IT person, daughters boyfriend etc. move on and are no longer in contact with this business owner,

The day the world falls in

It usually starts something like this.  Hello I’m wondering if you can help me. I have a business called MMCM Partners and for some reason all our email has stopped working. No one in our 5 offices can receive any mail. Also our website has disappeared.   Warning bells are ringing immediately for us. However we ask the standard questions -

What is your domain name?   We check immediately

We ask  “who is Jimmy Duff”  Why do you ask that they say. How do you know his name – he was once an employee of ours? Well he happens to be the owner of the domain and he has let it expire.

Never mind that they say – just turn it back on we can’t operate without it.

Too late someone in Germany owns it.

This has happened a number of times over the years we have been providing these services.  We are asked to go in and rescue a company’s services because they decided to use a friend etc. to organise a what looks like a simple task but needs proper management.

I say to businesses all the time that they have to understand the importance of losing a domain name rather that being able to save £7 by buying it themselves.  The reason companies like ours manage thousands of domains is because we have proper systems and processes in place to manage these domains and not let them expire.

What does it cost to buy a domain name properly?

The cost of buying a domain is typically £25 for two years and that usually comes with the setting up of email and the management of the domain to make sure it never expires.

What does it cost to buy a domain name with someone with the wrong knowledge?

Firsly you will get the domain name for £10 for 2 years or maybe even less. However they may not know how to set up email accounts etc. so you may pay yout IT person more for this service.

The cost if trying to save a couple of pounds by doing it yourself can run into thousands of pounds

• All email stops – if you have a large number of employees, sales people etc. out on the road then it all grinds to a very fast halt.
• The website disappears.
• You have to start contacting clients telling them that your email is down and to send via other methods.
• All your stationery such as business cards, letterheads, brochures are all useless and have to be reprinted
• You have to either repurchase your name from the new owner at an extortionate rate or buy a new domain (hopefully using a proper web developer this time)
• Your IT Person has to reprogramme all your computers – assign new emails – reset iPhones, Blackberries and other handhelds

All this upheaval can cost thousands of pounds. A Hotel we helped had just spend £5000 in adverts in Visit Scotland printed advertising plus their own stationery and brochures had just been updated when they lost their domain. (The girl receptionist had bought it 4 years earlier in her own name and had since moved on and was back packing somewhere round the world).

Use a proper Web Developer – not a guy from a back bedroom

The lesson here is Ask a proper web development business what is costs first to purchase your domain name. Also ask them the pitfalls of managing it yourself. They will tell you and you can them make a proper assessment of whether to have proper professional management in place or whether to do it yourself.

Domain Names are a much bigger discussion than the comment above as there are many other areas I have not covered but will with other posts so keep watching. If you want advice on  Domain names please contact me.