Do yourself a favor and take a minute to check on this…

Is your domain registered with your hosting company?

If it is registered with your Hosting Company, this is a bad thing. For more information on WHY this is bad, check out my CheatSheet – Why Use Different Companies for Domain Registration and Web Site Hosting?

If both your Domain and Hosting Account are with the same company, you need to move your domain name ASAP, providing you are happy witrh your hosting. If you aren't happy with your Hosting Company, then things are a bit more complicated and that is a topic for another day

But, back to this topic…

The time to move your domain is BEFORE you have a problem.

Let me share my recent experiences…

I have a client with a web site. About 3 months ago, we ran into problems with the web site and the hosting company was now able to resolve the situation in a satisfactory manner.

My client and I decided to move her web site to a different hosting company, but…

In order to move the site, we needed to change the domain settings, meaning that  she needed to control or have access to her domain registration.

However, the hosting company had registered it for her and despite the fact that it IS registered in her name (a GOOD thing) she can not change the setting related to it (a BAD thing).

So far, we have been working on getting the domain registered to her account with a different domain registrar. The process has gone on 3 weeks and I will be working on it next week as well. I personally have made numerous phone calls and spent interminable amounts of time listening to bad elevator music,while on hold.

If she had her domain registered elsewhere AND had access to the domain settings, we could have moved / rebuilt her site after the first week of problems. As it is, we are looking at this for more than 3 MONTHS! and we still haven't been able to move her site…

BECAUSE SHE OWNED THE DOMAIN BUT DIDN'T CONTROL IT!!!!

The good news is that the web site is accessible to the public, we just can't make any changes to it. Things could be much worse, but we have also wasted 3 months of being able to market her business with her website!

So, do yourself a favor BEFORE you run into problems.

Check where your domain is registered. Owning the domain isn't enough. You need to be able to access the domain settings at will.

If this is not the case, go ahead and move your domain to a different registrar.

Be aware that the process maybe a long one.

Do it now, before you have problems!

Sharing the Road to Success,

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