Who Owns Your Website
Do you own your website?
I have been in two minds lately that this sort of activity still happens today. With all the abundance of information that people have today about building websites and ownership of domain names, people still get dragged into loopholes that their website designers make. As a client of a website developer or graphic designer, you should know what the ownership structure of your website is going to be before you sign on the dotted line.
Recently I received a call from a website designer that said they were from Gold Coast. (after looking into it, they were from India) I looked at some of the sites they have designed and noticed that the business the site was built for didn’t own their domain name. Obviously their client wasn’t told that the web designer is going to own the name and if the business florishes and goes international or wants to expand or change providers, they won’t be able to because the ownership belongs to the web designer.
This is not a coincidence and happens quite a bit. I am a domainer and I know that it is very important to own your own domain name. Especially if it is a generic name. Domain names today are very valuable and can be traded. Recently i aquired SecurityAlarms.com.au for my brother who is going to be expanding his business into that field. Domains like this one can and do sell for many thousands of dollars and if your website designer owns it, YOU DON”T
How can you check the ownership?
Have a look at the whois data to determine the ownership or your domain name:
www.DomainTools.com – All Domain Names
www.who.is – All Domain Names
www.MyWebName.com.au – Australian Domain Names
It is important that you own your assets if you are paying for it. It is like buying your house and the realestate shop owning it. Its just not on and you should be aware of it.
I hope it is a small insight into ownershio or domain names, it is my passion.
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