Your Little Bit of Online Gold

If you are lucky enough to have any gold, I'll bet you take pretty good care of it. If it's valuable enough, you may even keep it locked away for safekeeping, only bringing it out on special occasions. If you don't have any gold, you probably have some valuable possession that you take extra special care of.

Did you know that you have something just as valuable in your online world?

Your Domain Name

You might be thinking, "really? What's the big deal".

It can be a HUGE deal! You may have spent hours, days, or months trying to find just the right name. Or, you may have just picked one or more up without much thought. Neither of those activities matter. What matters is what you did with it after that.

For the sake of this article, let's assume that you are using it for your business. Your business has been operating for a number of years, is reasonably successful, and is your sole source of income. You regularly get activity and email that is generated by your website.

You are still wondering, "What's the big deal"? 

A Real-Life Domain Nightmare Story

Let me tell you a real-life story of one of my clients. (This is the VERY abridged edition.)

ICANN Infographic Registry Process
Credit https://whois.icann.org/en/domain-name-registration-processSoon after beginning to work with this client, I needed access to the business's domain name account. The account had been in existence for at least five years and my client didn't remember the password. I checked their ICANN registration information and discovered the domain name was registered under a former partner in the business. (ICANN—Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers—is the non-profit that oversees and coordinates the unique domain names across the world.) The next step to gain access was for my client to contact the company (registrar) the domain name was registered with and provide proof that he was the owner of the domain. They would then contact the former partner to confirm this information and access to the domain name would be granted.

Not So Fast

It sounded so easy—until the former partner claimed that HE was the rightful owner! He had been gone from the company for five years and felt like he had been wronged by one of the other partners. Even though my client had an email stating that the domain belonged to the business and had documentation that the former partner had been reimbursed by the company for purchasing the domain with his personal credit card, that wasn't enough to resolve the issue. Because the domain name was set up as a personal account, the former partner's information was on it, the company name did not appear on the record, AND the person whose name was on it claimed it was his domain, we were in a pickle!

Some of the Costs of Starting Over with a New Domain Name

You may be thinking, "So why don't you just drop it and go get a new domain"? Well, those were some initial thoughts of my client. He actually did go and purchase a number of similar domain names just in case. But, this was not a brand new business. They had over five years of clients and prospects using this website address and associated email addresses, printed materials, published articles on national websites with links back to this website, and recently produced videos that displayed the website address and active social media accounts. Losing this domain name was going to be a significant setback for this business—both in rebuilding connections and the cost to reproduce materials. 

There was another risk that, thankfully didn't materialize. But, it was clear that this former partner might have taken this step if it occurred to him. Having control of the domain name, he could have pointed it to a new website AND even recreated the emails and impersonated the real people through email! (I imagine that could have put HIM in a whole bunch of trouble, but not until even more damage was done to this business.)

So, the legal department at the registrar was called on, a legal hold was put on the domain name so no changes could happen until the issue was resolved, and my client had to engage lawyers. This went on for 6 stressful months!

And now, there was a new wrinkle in the saga—the domain expiration date was coming up. If the former partner did not turn it over and did not renew it in time, the website would go dark and all email for the business would stop working. There is a 30-day grace period during which the owner has the opportunity to pay for the expired domain name (with an additional penalty), but the services will not work until that payment is made! And, at the end of that 30-day grace period, the domain name is sent out to auction for anyone who wants to purchase it at a minimum price that is about 6 times the normal price. If you get into a bidding war, it could even be thousands of dollars!

Finally, a Resolution, Not Ideal, But a Resolution

After six months of trying all kinds of reasoning and engaging lawyers, we were days from the expiration date with no indication that the former partner was willing to do anything. My client tried one more thing before the website would go dark—he offered a generous ransom payment (my words)! And, that did it. The domain name was transferred that day. (By the way, those transfers don't happen as smoothly as you'd hope—that was a full day of jockeying between the former partner and the registrar—all the while fearing he might change his mind!)

What is important to note here is that my client felt that this former partner was a friend. He knew there was "bad blood" with one of the other partners, but never imagined that this former partner would do what he did.  

There Are Two Key Reasons You Can Have a Problem with Your Domain Name

How does something like the story above even happen?

Now we get into all the technology gobbledygook. This is what I hear all the time. "This is easy." "Just go do it." "No big deal." Well, some things with technology are a big deal if you don't know more than the surface information. (Hold me back about "DIY" websites for a business.) Domain names are cheap and easy to get. Inexpensive sometimes hides the real value and importance of something. 

Purchased and Set Up Without Proper Care

As in the example above, the domain record was not set up properly. The person who purchased the domain name did not properly attribute it to the business. If you don't purchase the domain for your business, be sure the WHOIS data is setup correctly.

Payment Made for an Extended Period of Time

Another "contributing factor" is that some registrars allow you to purchase a domain name for as long as 10 years. Buy it and forget it. A lot of changes can happen in 10 years. This was absolutely a contributing factor in the story I shared. While it might be tempting to do this, I recommend renewing annually to keep it "top of mind".

So, now that you know how important your domain name registrant information is, how do you take care of it?

How to Protect Your Domain Name

ICANN encourages you to check your information at least once a year. Registrars (like GoDaddy, Namecheap, Network Solutions and many, many more) are required to send you an email each year to confirm your information. Make sure that any changes to your name, address, or email address are corrected right away. The email address is particularly important because that is how they contact you if there is a problem. It should not be the email connected to your website. If your hosting is down or you decide to let it expire, your email may be down, too! 

Another important factor is your payment method. Make sure that if you change your credit card or the expiration date is updated, that you log into your account and update it. Some registrars offer a backup payment method. I encourage you to use it.

How to Check Your Domain Name Registrant Information

Once upon a time, you could search a WHOIS database and see all the information you needed to confirm your data. With the introduction of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), ICANN began redacting identifying information to comply with the privacy regulations. Therefore, this is no longer publicly available. The only way to confirm the information is through the email the registrar sends, or by logging into your account and reviewing the information.

All the registrars seem to display this in different ways. You may see information for the Registrant Contact, Admin Contact and Tech Contact.  The Registrant Contact is the owner of the domain -- you want to be sure this information is correct.

The image below is what you formerly could find online. Now you either have to review the email you receive, or log into your domain account.

Update this whenever there is something incorrect (if I am managing this for you, just let me know that something needs a change).  The company holding your domain name will send a confirmation to the currently listed email to be sure the change is legitimate. No change will be made unless the confirmation link in that email is clicked and received by the registrant. If you are making a change, make sure you verify that the change actually took effect.

Tip #1 - Don't Pay Extra for Privacy Protection!

Before GDPR, you had to purchase domain privacy protection if you didn't want your information to be publicly available in the WHOIS database. Many registrars push hard for people to buy this, and it's no longer necessary. This is just providing the registrars with additional income! Save your money! 

Tip #2 - eKamria Clients Have Added Protection!

All clients of eKamria have a bit of added protection. We have real-time monitors on all websites. We get notified within 5 minutes if a website goes down. If a site doesn't come back in a reasonable amount of time, we start investigating. There are many things that can cause this, but one important one is a problem with the domain name -- and, usually that it wasn't paid for. (Credit card expiration dates can be a real problem.) If the problem is with your domain, we can make you aware well before the 30-day grace period is up and your domain is made available for sale to someone else.

I hope this opened your eyes to the real value of your domain name—and gave you some insight into how to preserve your online gold!

The luck of the Irish to all you fellow Irishmen and Irish wannabes!

Have you or someone you know had a problem like this with their domain name? Share your experience in the comments to help others out!