How to manage and protect your domains.

Domains are assets

How to avoid losing your domains, and how to give access to agencies.?

One of the most important brand assets a company has is its domain name.?

A domain name is used for email, websites and web applications.?

When you buy a domain name, you have to renew it every year. If you don’t renew the domain on time you risk losing it.?

Losing a domain name can have devastating effects on your business.?

You lose access to email, your website with all your information is not reachable, and if you have any web applications that your company relies on to operate, well you are in trouble.

It goes without saying that your domain name is the key to your online presence.

Unethical business practices?

There are individuals and companies that have made a business out of buying expired domain names.?

They monitor hundreds of thousands of domain names and once they expire they quickly buy them and offer them back to you for huge sums of money.?

Other businesses that rely on their email or web apps have paid hundreds of thousands to claim back their domains.?

While this process is legal, I believe it’s unethical. It’s comparable to blackmail.

Be careful when you change credit cards or bank accounts and remember to update your email address so that you receive notices by the domain registrar.?

Agency vendor-lock

Another massive risk is when you allow another person or company to buy and manage your domain names for you.?

I’ve received many calls from people that have the same problem:?

They assign an agency to build their website. The agency buys or takes over the domain names and manages them.?

When for some reason you decide to part ways with the agency, they refuse to give you back your domains.?

We’ve had instances where marketing agencies took months to transfer over domain names. We’ve also had cases where the domain names were never transferred.?

This is a form of vendor-lock and in my opinion still comparable to blackmail.?

The solution: Own your domains.

So what can you do to protect your domain assets?

Own your domains.

It doesn’t matter if you aren’t tech savvy.?

Make an account with a domain registrar like namecheap or godaddy and buy your domain there.

It’s easier to manage when you keep all your domains at one domain registrar so if you happen to own multiple, try to transfer them all to your preferred registrar.

If your domains are essential to your business or brand, then have them on auto-renew.? All registrars provide this option.?

Note down the account details to that registrar and keep them safe! Either jot them down on a piece of paper you keep locked somewhere safe or use a password manager like 1password.?

How to give access to your domains

When an agency or studio wants access to your domain name then you can choose one of the following options:

Nameservers (Own the domain, but have no control over its records)

Give them complete control to the domain without owning it by changing the nameservers of the domain to the ones the agency wants you to.?

This gives full control over all the records of a domain name to an agency but you still own the domain name.?

Note that when changing the Nameservers, you don’t have control over the domain records. This means that when another party needs to make changes or add records to the domain they still have to go through the agency whose Nameservers are currently in use.

Give editing permission (Own the domain, share the control over its records)

Most domain registrars allow shared access to domains. This enables you to give an agency access to your domain's records and keep control over them as well.?

By doing so you are also enabling other vendors to have access without being restricted to one agency.

As an agency owner, this is my preferred option when working with clients.

This can also be combined with an external DNS record manager. For example, we often use Namecheap to register domain names and use Cloudflare to manage the DNS records. Our clients get access to both.?

Manage it internally (Own the domain, have full control over its records)

If you have an IT department or if you are handy yourself then you can keep control over your domain and its records.

This is the most secure way but it can slow down an agency's work when changes to records have to be implemented. This is because every time they need to make changes to a record they need to get in touch with you or your IT department.

Transfer the domain but sign an agreement (Domain not in your control, no control over its records)?

If there are reasons why you must transfer your domain name to an agency or individual then you can have them sign an agreement.

The agreement is to protect your domain names from being taken hostage by the third party.?

The agreement has to include a transfer deadline of 15 days once the partnership has been terminated.?

Conclusion

Businesses should own their domains and give access to agencies and individuals carefully. If you must transfer the domain name consider signing an agreement with them.

Original article: https://nevron.io/insights/how-to-manage-and-protect-your-domains

Written by: Tony Kyriakidis