All About Domain Name Registration

What to Know About Registering a Domain Name

by Bernard Kohan

Domain name registration services:

Domain name registration service is a yearly registration service for your domain provided by a domain registrar company such as GoDaddy or Network Solutions.
The cost for a domain name can be anywhere from $10 - $35 per year and you can prepay for your registration services up to 10 years.

Below is a checklist of useful information for registering your domain:

1. Make sure that the domain is not infringing on another company or another entity's trademark which can cause future legal issues for you.
2. Some people purchase the '.net' domain when '.com' domain is taken, or they use a hyphen to slightly change a domain name that is already taken so they can register it. This is not a good idea, because users can mistakenly type the more sensible domain (the domain without the hyphen and the domain that is the .com) and if those domains are also in your business industry, you could loose your traffic to them. This may also create trademark infringement issues.
3. If you are not listed as the registered owner or administrator for your domain, you will have no ownership of your domain. If you are registering your own domain, or you are having a consultant or a friend registering your domain, make sure that your correct name, company name (if any), address, phone and more importantly the correct and current email address is used for the registered owner and administrative account for your domain.
4. Make sure that the registration company (the domain name registrar company) is an ICANN Accredited Registrar company.
5. Make sure that the registration company is United States based, so they are bound by legal and ethical business practices set forth by our Federal, State and local government agencies.
6. Make sure that the registration company is the direct registrant and are not reselling registration services. I have seen many cases when the reseller has gone out of business and the original registration company will not communicate or hand over the ownership or the control of the domain to the owner of the domain unless they get the authorization from the reseller. This is a big problem when the reseller is out of business.
7. Make sure that you can phone the registration company and are able to talk to a live person and ask questions about your domain.