Are You Master of Your Own Domain?This is an important topic for anyone who currently has a website and domain name, as well as for anyone interested in building an internet identity. I am sharing not only from personal experience (I have five active websites online at this time) but from my business, Connecticut Secretary, and the projects I have been involved with in creating and building websites for my customers.
Oftentimes customers will approach me after they have already chosen a domain name. What I investigate first is who actually owns that domain name. I no longer ask the customer directly, because 99.9% of the time the response is always "I do!" when in fact many of them unwittingly do not. Determining this is an easy step; you simply go to an independent domain registrar such as Register.com, http://www.register.com, and type in the domain name and choose whois when the results pop up. Feel free to go and type in connecticutsecretary.com and choose whois. You will see that I, Kate Smalley, am listed as the owner and administrative contact for Connecticut Secretary. The technical contact is simply the hosting service I have chosen.
The problem we run into is when individuals have chosen to purchase their domain name through a hosting service at a discounted rate. The hosting service is the company that purchases and owns your domain name, and in essence you sometimes just end up renting it along with your hosting service. This is a great way for the hosting company to ensure continued business. Think about if, in the future, you decide to change hosting services. Who do you think you will have to contact to have your domain redirected to another hosting provider? How anxious do you think they will be to provide service to you? How quickly do you feel they will redirect your url? What will happen if they forget to renew your domain name and someone else obtains control and ownership of it? What happens if that hosting company goes out of business? I have seen it happen. To take this conversation one step further, there are now hosting companies that will purchase the domain in your name, so you are the official owner, but they still retain control over your usage of the account. An important point to remember is that ownership of an account as well as having the ability to use the account are important features when deciding how to purchase your domain name. "...in essence you sometimes just end up renting... "
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Web Hosting: Selecting the Right Host!Choosing a web hosting company is a very personal decision based on your own unique needs. Web hosting is what places your website into the World Wide Web, where anyone can access to it 24 hours a day. In other words, without placing your site onto a web hosting service, you won't get the visibility you want. Most small business owners will most likely go through a web hosting company rather than invest in acquiring their own servers, which is very expensive and difficult. On top of the expense that is involved with having your own server, you need to have a strong educational background to be able to deal with the technical aspects of implementing your own server, or having your own technical computer staff on hand to deal with the process. (And those programmers don't come cheap either!) If you're a new online business or looking for ways to expand your market reach, web hosting is definitely the way to go.
Which web hosting service do you select? There are two key things to keep in mind when you begin your search for an appropriate web hosting service: (1) Find a web hosting company that meets your needs for today, (2) Make sure that this web hosting company you choose can grow with you as your business expands. Another important factor you want to know up front about hosting services, is that once you choose one, and decide it doesn't pan out for you, to switch to another service will be a very painful and a lengthy process. It's just not worth the mistake to make!
Check out these tips in how you can select a web hosting service that has the most qualities such as flexibility, service, and growth capabilities along with a strong background in technical abilities that you're seeking, at a price you can afford.
Shop and Research Do your surfing on the net. Shop around and compare the services between the different web hosting services. Ask other businesses what hosting companies they're using. Make sure you check out businesses that have made statements in testimonials about the particular web hosting company they're using. Follow up by contacting them and have a series of questions to ask, and see how they respond to your questions in regards to those services. Still don't know where to start? Check out the web hosting directories on the net, which will save you hoards of time, because the real good ones will be the ones on the first, few pages, www.webhostingrebates.com could be a good place to start.
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