Own Your Domain

Your domain name is a vital part of your brand’s identity. It’s used by customers + potential customers when they visit your WordPress website. The domain name is often how they’ll remember your business + share it with others.

A domain name typically costs less than $20 per year, + this link will save you $2 on your next purchase. The price usually depends on the extension, but can also climb if you’re looking to buy a really short domain. The most commonly used extension is “.com” but there are some wild ones available now. In fact, I could buy tinyblueorange.furniture if I wanted to. 🤔

While I noodle on that possibility, there is one thing that I’m certain of. You want to own your own domain + keep full control over the registration.

It can seem like a good idea to let someone register a domain name on your behalf. This is quite common if you’re having your first website built or simply don’t want to deal with the technical stuff.

However, not registering or owning your domain name leaves you open to risk.

What happens if the person who registers your domain name has to leave their business for an extended time, or worse? They may be completely uncontactable + this could cause your registration to lapse, losing your domain name entirely.

There have unfortunately been many situations where a business owner has lost access to their domain name because they relied on someone else to register + manage it for them.

It’s not always easy to regain access to a domain name, especially if it was registered in someone else’s name. The name tied to the registration would be considered the rightful owner in accordance with the domain registrar’s policies. There are processes you can follow to regain access, but these are costly, time-consuming, + not always guaranteed.

I highly recommend that you manage the registration of your own domain name. All you need to do each year is pay the renewal fee, which only takes a few minutes to do. In fact, you can register a domain for up to 10 years at a time, so it’s worth taking the opportunity to secure it for as long as feels right to you. And if someone has registered a domain for you, all you need to do is transfer it to your account with any registrar you’d like.

Long story short, don’t rely on someone else to renew or register a domain name for you. It might save time in the short term, but it only takes an unfortunate event to turn everything into a nightmare for your business. If you don’t want to do it alone, have them walk you through it during a video call.

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