Domain Name Information

Protect Your Domain Name or Risk Losing It


Your domain name is an important part of your brand and identity. Losing it could be disastrous! Yet, month over month we see people lose their domain name, either because they ignore or forget to renew them, or do not keep their contact information - especially their email address - current and up to date.

A whole new industry has been created out of lost and neglected domain names. It is now common place for an expired domain name to be snagged the moment it is released back to the 'available' pool. These poachers will grab any domain name that has a decent search engine ranking and forward it to anything from a competitors web site, to a pay per click advertising site. They are hoping to have you pay a big ransom to get your domain name back or to capitalize on the residual traffic left over by your domain name's high search engine ranking.

There are steps you can take to protect yourself from these tactics:

  • Activate the 'Domain Lock' feature with your registrar. This prevents changes in contact info, DNS servers and most importantly, blocks transfer away requests that could be sent by a poacher trying to steal your domain name
  • Keep your contact information, especially your email address current and up to date. Be sure to white list the domain name of your registrar so renewal and other important email notices don't get caught in your Spam filters. If you are worried about listing your email address in the public Whois database, ask your Registration provider about Whois Privacy Service
  • Most registrars send out occasional Whois Confirmation emails to domain owners, giving them the opportunity to double check and correct any invalid or outdated information. Do Not ignore these emails, double check the information and correct any errors
  • Be on the lookout for fraudulent renewal notices that arrive both in email and especially by regular paper mail. There are a few companies sending very officially looking paper mail renewal notices that look very much like invoices. They are not! They are carefully crafted marketing documents designed to fool an accounts payable clerk into thinking its a bill that has to be paid!

Your domain name registration provider should be more than a domain name clearing house. They should help you manage your domain name with locking and privacy solutions and most of all, help you protect your name and brand, the one you worked so hard to create. Talk to your domain name registration provider to be sure you have done everything you can to protect yourself today!

About the Author: Robert Schwartz has helped thousands secure and manage their Internet identity and is President of LaneChange.net a Total Domain Management solutions provider. Find out more at http://www.LaneChange.net


MORE RESOURCES:

Iron Mountain Digital Announces New .Tel Domain Names
HostSearch.com - 9 hours ago
Tel domain names, it was reported recently. According to the company, the .Tel domain is “similar to an interactive business card on the web”. ...
Hosts Promote .tel Launch Web Host Industry Review
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TechCrunch

GoDaddy Uses Standard Tactics To Warehouse Domains
Washington Post, United States - 6 hours ago
Warehousing and auctioning off expired domain names is not necessarily against ICANN (the governing body over domain name registration) regulations and ...
What's a Super Bowl Without a GoDaddy-esque Ad? MarketWatch
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TechCrunch

.Tel Domain Names Go on Sale
ReadWriteWeb, CA - Dec 3, 2008
However, unlike most domain names, .tel domains are severely restricted by Telnic, the main registrar for these domains. Users and companies can only put up ...
.Tel Is Just A Featureless Social Network That Costs $10/year TechCrunch
all 2 news articles


Internet body to auction special domain names
The Punch, Nigeria - Dec 2, 2008
By Jonah Iboma The Nigeria Internet Registration Association, the body in charge of the administration of the country’s top-level domain name, .ng, ...
Industry Coalition Announced to Increase Adoption of Domain Name ... MarketWatch
all 12 news articles


VeriSign Releases Third Quarter Domain Name Industry Brief
MarketWatch - 6 hours ago
There were 174 million domain name registrations across all of the Top Level Domain Names (TLDs) at the end of the third quarter of 2008. ...


SnapNames.com Announces Auction Services for Deleting .mobi Domain ...
PR Web (press release), WA - Dec 2, 2008
Founded in 2000, SnapNames operates the largest auction of expired and deleting domain names. Partnering with the world's largest and best-known registrars ...


AP, UB block Kentucky customers
PokerListings.com - Dec 3, 2008
By seizing the domain names of some of the top sites that still serve US customers, the state hopes to block those sites from providing online gambling to ...


New York Times

Netfirms Announces Availability of Innovative .TEL Domain Names
PR Web (press release), WA - Dec 2, 2008
TEL domain names and acceptance of applications during the Sunrise period. Trademark holders worldwide will want to apply as soon as possible in order to ...
.Tel Them Where to Find You New York Times
Trademark Protection ... InternetNews.com
all 38 news articles


Early Christmas: Domain Name Community DNF24 Gives Away Free ...
7thSpace Interactive (press release), NY - Dec 1, 2008
Names range from short LLLL domain names (4 character domain names) and numeric domain names to brandable keyword domains. The first name has just been ...


Genius Marketing: Answer Trivia on Twitter, Win Free Domain Names
Mashable, CA - Dec 1, 2008
It seems like every day we see a new use for Twitter, some of which can be rather mundane, others of which are actually smart business ideas. ...

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