As companies purchase more and more domains, keeping track of these domains can get rather confusing as to which ones have been paid and which ones haven’t. A recent company who made a web site for children recently had their domain register by someone else who put up a pornographic site.
The scoop
From the NYTimes: “The sudden change of scenery was a result of an expired domain registration, a situation that has become more common as companies amass dozens of Web addresses, which generally must be renewed every year. Ernst & Young had not renewed the registrations for the Moneyopolis addresses, which expired this summer, because VeriSign Inc. (news/quote), the company that handled the registration, sent notices of the expirations to an employee who had left the company, Mr. Kerrigan said.”
Get the full story here.
Dos and Don’ts
Here are a few tips that may assist you if you own several domain names or even just one domain.
- check your domains now
- use your palm pilot, contact software or other tools to remind you of their due dates
- never let your employees register a domain in their name
- use an address of “hostmaster@yourdomain.com” which forwards to the appropiate person(s)
- keep your information on your domain uptodate
- think about using an email address that isn’t associated with your domain name, if your domain expires, you will never get an email!