Protecting Your Domain Name Part I

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Since last few days we are receiving lot of request from this forum members to give a knowledge-base article on Domain name, so here is the tips which may help all of you to protect your digital assets (based on our long standing experience in the domain industry) :

In Part I - Value of Domain Name and Choosing Registrar

According to us Internet domain names are the 21st century's real estate (Plot of Land). It's a piece of real estate on the Web that can't be replaced. The more generic the name, the better its value, like the plot of land on prime location.
Websites created on these domain names are like constructing a building on these land and naturally it adds value to the estate.
Some people collects domain names like coins and stamps. Some considers "It's like buying a lottery ticket, but the odds are better" .

So Domain names are very important assets and you donot know when and where somebody likes your assets or idea behind that name? because when you buy any name you think this is perfect for so and so project but some people think other way ? According to our experience some people likes your domain name (because they think in the same way as you think) and they are the potential buyers ? it is not possible that everybody likes your concept but in this world there are lot of people who thinks like you ?

We want to share one example here which happened to us few months back, last year we registered some misspelled domain name for safety of one of our business name in .IN name space (Name is not disclosed here but lot of member knows it) but to our surprise one person came to us and requested us to give one of that misspelled name to him and according to us that name does not have value of more than USD 20 ? since we donot want to sale the domain name so we just told him that we want USD 10000 ? and to our surprise that party agreed to pay USD 8000 for that name ?

Now tell us according to you which domain name is prime ? If you ask us we will tell all domain names you have are prime names ? we donot know when someone will require that name and offer you an unexpected amount ?

So after you know the value of domain name, we move on to next point that is precautions you should take while registering a name :

Here we will not explain what kind of extension or domain name you should register but we will focus on safety and security part of your digital assets.

First things comes is choosing your Registrar for registration of name , this is very important part because registrar is custodian of your assets and if you make mistake in choosing your registrar then you may face issues , according to us following points should be consider before you choose your registrar :

1. Always choose registrar which you trust most or friends recommend because one person can be wrong but not all. Main thing is the comfort level you enjoy with the registrar. If you are comfortable with registrar then nothing like it. There must be reason to move.

2. Again choose the registrar which you think that can protect your domain names and your interest very well. Who helps you and take logistic view in case of any legal issues or spam complaint etc. on domain name.

3. Pricing should not be made as prime criteria to choose your registrar ? Safety and security of names is important then pricing ? this is again very important point to note because if a registrar is selling domain name in loss or almost at nil margin then how can you expect that such registrar will survive for long and give proper protection to your name? After all money is always required to pay salaries to staff and for survival of business, Here it will be appropriate to give you an example of one of the registrar who sold the domain name below the cost price to attract the business and ultimately due to mounting losses they closed down the business and client domain names are still in dispute with .IN registry since last two years ?

Sometimes temporary offers or promo's are created by registrars to attract business but such offers always have some or other hidden cost or terms, so always take precautions before you jump on any offer from unknown registrar ? Always double check terms of offer, free services and check the registrar's reputation ? In some cases we observe that in low cost offer some registrars compensate their loss by charging separately for privacy protections, DNS, domain forwarding and even asking payment for making any changes in whois records or not allowing the domain name to transfer out or not allowing any outside hosting on domain name etc.

Always compare registration/renewal/transfer pricing of any particular TLD as we experience that if registrar offers you low cost new registration then in some cases they compensate loss by charging more on renewal ?

If big registrars offers a low cost registrations then sometimes it justifies as they have domain volumes and they also have other income sources because of large customer base so they can survive but when a small registrar offers low cost domain names or below cost domain name how can they survive and how they will keep your domain name protected ? It is like small boat in sea cannot stand long in adverse conditions and sink with everyone on board but big ships can survive even big storms.

Creating domain portfolio with different registrars just because of pricing difference of 10 or 50 cents will always requires a lot of efforts in managing portfolio ? Time you will put in managing so many portfolio is much more costlier then 10 or 50 cents difference ? Keeping domain name in one or two portfolio is always easy to manage.

Always look for pricing offered by your registrar is consistent or not ? Frequent change of domain name pricing is not a good sign of registrar's reputation, if you take example of .IN promo some of the registrars are offering same price from the start of promo to till date and continuing to do so, this is good sign and shows consistency of registrar and on the other hand some registrars changes pricing every month this shows registrar's inability to absorb even a small price change thus such registrar cannot be trusted.

So pricing should not be sole criteria for choosing registrar, other factors also to be taken into account.

4. Always check that your registrar gives you control panel of domain name and any changes you made on domain name is reflected in real time in whois record.

5. Choose the Registrar which updates you regularly about your domain name or happenings.

In other word registrar you choose should be trustworthy and always ready to help you in any situation or you can interact with him/her for any advice/suggestions. Registrar should guide you in protecting your interest in domain name and always stand on your side whenever required.



Next Part on some other day... with details of how to keep your whois record and other detail for domains.....
 
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Nice Article:). Also tell us what happens when Registrar shuts his shop :eek:

Registrar donot shut shop overnight and same is lengthy process and in most of cases they give time to registrant to transfer out the domain names.

But if someone shuts shop suddenly then the respective domain registries (in case of CC TLDS) and ICANN in other cases immediately steps in and they always help out the registrant.

Such cases are very rare with big registrars but in case of small registrars this is frequent problem, Registrar who holds more than 10% of registry's registrations or manages more than 100,000 registrations are according to us is fairly large registrar and in case of such registrars registry actions are very quick to protect the registrant so always go with them.
 
What do you do when people start sending emails with false allegations regarding your domain name?
 
What do you do when people start sending emails with false allegations regarding your domain name?


Just reply email with details and if email sender donot stop then file complaint before cyber crime department in your area (if you are in India) and ourtside India then channel is different, Just PM us the complete detail, we will show you the wayout.
 

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