The past several months have presented a few challenges for us concerning some domain names. As new customers are completing their sites they want to start the transfer process. While you think this would be fairly simple, and it is for many users, at times this can be a very difficult process.

Most of the organizations we work with started their web presence when a volunteer offered their time and talents to help with the project. This usually involved them also making the investment in the organizations original domain name. By registering the domain name they also tied their email address to the domain. Any changes or transfer requests for the domain will require permission and confirming emails sent to the registrants email account. If that account or person is no longer available things can get very complicated.

There are a few things that will help you keep you domain house in order:

1. Register your domain with a reputable company (We use a top level provider eNom and register our domains through on your email system, either as a forwarding account or an alias for another account and have ALL domain and website related emails use that account.
2. If you are registering a new domain change the email address after registration following #3
3. If the WhoIs information is not what you need it to be either contact the registrar or login and change the information now, don't wait until you need to make a change. If you cannot access the control panel seriously think about transferring the domain to a new registrar.

We used to provide free domains with our hosting packages but no longer provide that "service". While it was nice for the clients to save the money, it is not worth the potential pitfalls that can surface 5 or 10 years down the road.

Get control of your domain name and keep it that way!