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Whois Confirmation emails to domain owners, giving them the opportunity to double check and correct any invalid or outdated information.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:

ME Registers 50000 New Domain Names in Open Registration
MarketWatch - Jul 22, 2008
More than 50000 new me domain names were registered in the first two days, with the first "live" name registered being: yusu.me. ...


Stake Claim Now for Social Networking Sites, the new Domain Names ...
MarketWatch - Jul 21, 2008
"Social network pages are the domain names of Web 2.0," said Tim Hickernell, associate lead research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group. ...


Stampede for .me domain names
iTWire, Australia - Jul 21, 2008
As a result of the slowness, some GoDaddy customers registered domain names that were already taken or reserved by the .me registry before launch - for ...


International Domain Names: Monografias.com Gets its Accent
Extra Newspaper, IL - Jul 21, 2008
However, some domain name registrars have found a way to register domain names with accents by using characters of other codes that can be translated ...


Times Online

Stampede for personalised e-mail addresses
Times Online, UK - 9 hours ago
More than 5000 were registered in the first minute and more than 50000 new domain names were registered in the first two days. ...


Ex-Microsoft Manager Pleads Guilty, Sentenced For Embezzlement
CRN, NY - Jul 22, 2008
The court said that on four occasions Gudmundson falsely told Expedia that she had used her personal American Express card to register certain domain names ...


Real Estate Domain Name Sale Announced by Ecominvestments.com
AddPR.com (press release), TX - 10 hours ago
eComInvestments.com has announced that it is selling a select group of Real Estate domain names to the public. The list features some precious gems ...


Foreclosure.com Owner to Acquire Property.com
MarketWatch - 3 hours ago
"My job is to acquire prime, industry-specific domain names with large volumes of natural type-in traffic and eventually develop them to their fullest ...


Moniker.com Announces Domain Name Inventory for the Upcoming ...
PR Web (press release), WA - 11 hours ago
SnapNames operates the largest auction of expired and deleting domain names and gives its customers exclusive first access to the world's largest inventory ...


The Tech Herald

Red Alert! DNS Flaw Revealed
InformationWeek, NY - 45 minutes ago
This involves remapping domain names to different, potentially malicious servers. US-CERT on Monday warned: "Technical details regarding this vulnerability ...
Researcher attempts to unravel Kaminsky DNS flaw ZDNet UK
To disclose or not to disclose? BBC News
Kaminsky's DNS Flaw Unravelled Techtree.com
Redmond Channel Partner - TECH.BLORGE.com
all 131 news articles

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