There’s no doubt that one of the first things you should do when starting a new blog or website is to buy yourself a domain name. The costs are slight, but the advantages in SEO, ‘branding’, and simply being able to take your links with you no matter how many times you change hosts will pay you back a thousand times over.
But, when you buy your domain name, are you actually the owner; the registrant? According to this article Domain Name Ownership Explained, by Dave Zan, which I found via Andy Beard, you may not be. The article is comprehensive and a must read if you’re going to buy a domain, but the crucial fact is that some domain registrars don’t sell you the domain, they effectively rent it to you. Meaning they can charge you what they like for it upon expiry, or even sell it on to someone else.
The article has made me double check my registration details, and for all 3 domains I am listed as the registrant, which means the domains are mine. I use 123-reg.co.uk and they also offer some good pricing deals, so I’m happy to recommend them. Whoever you use, do ensure that you will be the actual owner of the domain, and it’s also recommended that you do not buy your domain via your hosting provider: In the event of disputes, it’s a good idea to keep these separate.
Do you have any domain registrars to recommend? If you own your domain, have you checked whether or not you’re the registrant?
10 users commented in " Do You Own Your Domain? Are You Sure? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThanks good info as I am looking into that for myself.
I am so glad you wrote this article. No, I am glad I read it. I had been ‘asked’ by MidPhase to transfer my domain to them when the 60 days were up on MyDomain.com
I’m still such a babe in the woods about this logical thinking stuff…thank goodness I have your Blog-Op to refer to.
We registered 2Dolphins with Godaddy about 5 years ago and haven’t had any complaints except that I would’ve liked to have had the option for a little more privacy on the domain ownership details.
Glad to help Webduck, and I only learnt this today thanks to Dave Zan.
I know what you mean about the privacy Rob. Andy Beard isn’t a big fan of GoDaddy, but I’m not sure why. Will have to find out.
That privacy issue has been discussed for like 2 or more years and still counting by the powers-that-be. Hopefully they’ll finally work out out something at the soonest possible time.
He he, one of my blog posts about Go Daddy might answer that question.
Thanks for commenting on my blog, too. I wouldn’t have learned about this site if not for that, now I’ve got a loooooooooooot of reading to do.
Hey Dave, thanks for dropping by, and the article.
The privacy issues is a weird one, my .co.uk’s seem to keep my address private (watch someone prove me wrong now) but the .com is there for all to see.
This is a bit skewed as I don’t fancy sending C&D notices to russian blog scrapers when they can get hold of my address with a couple of clicks - call me paranoid if you will
Read on Dave
click the question mark in the top right and have a random voyage around my blog 
Hi, Dave, I own a domain and and will expired within this year. And Your article really scared me a lot about the ownership.
And something seems happening to your link. I can’t go to your link above. it return 404 error. I need to go to your homepage to read it manually…
Good point Chris. After reading your article, I made a note in my task manager to check the expiration date on my domain name. The next day I found Website Grader (linked to in my name) and easily saw that it is expiring in September. That tool is useful just for this..
It’s a great tool K, thanks for bringing it to my attention.
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