How can we educate lay people to register domain names in their own name?
The typical domainer lives and breathes domain names. It’s understandable that non-domainers who hire a web designer to create a web site don’t realize the importance of registering and owning the domain name themselves. How can we teach them?
I was reminded of this issue today when reading about an author who is having trouble getting control of her domain name. It was registered in the name of her web designer.
I wrote about this issue back in October when a small town in Connecticut was in a battle with its web design firm.
Even if a client has a contract with a web design company that states the client owns the domain name, it’s important for the client to register and own the domain name itself. Too many things can happen that could lead to a prolonged challenge and ultimately losing the domain name. How many times do clients part ways with web designers who aren’t making the cut? I’ve rarely had a successful relationship with customer web developers.
The role of a web designer with regards to domain names should be to educate his or her clients on how to register a domain name and to watch the domain to make sure it isn’t expiring.
David J Castello says
I agree, this is truly sickening and it happens all the time. One of the reasons I started gifting splash pages to our advertisers when I started in 1997 was because so many were being held hostage by their webmasters. Ironically, these splash pages “piggyback” off the popularity of our city sites and they often rank higher than our clients own web sites.
Denver Web Design says
I hate these kind of stories. The .com should always belong to the business, not matter who registers it. As long as the client is paid up, then there should be absolutely no reason for a designer to hold it hostage. Fortunately I’ve only had to deal with this one buying back a domain for only $100
Steve M says
DWD…actually, “as long as the client is paid up” is part of the problem.
It’s not the designer’s name to hold hostage; even for owed money. They don’t even hold a security interest in the domain (and even if they did, they’d still need a court’s approval to keep the domain).
Owed money? Take it to court…and leave the domain alone.