Grab and Tuck Your Domain Name!

Clients sometimes bring us incomplete information about their existing hosting or domain name. They'll say they registered it a long time ago and now they want to set up a new site.

(Not sure what a domain name is or what hosting is? Click here.)

Once you've lost this information it can be time consuming to get the password reset. To get a password reset you have to call your company and prove to them it's your account by telling them what it says on your first tattoo or something personal like that. This is to keep hackers from calling up and taking over websites.

There are two factors that make it easy to overlook the important email containing your password:

You are looking for two emails, not one. To keep things more secure, the domain name companies send the password in a separate email from your new account information. The fact there are two emails to save instead of one is one cause of the problem. They send the password only ONCE so look for the password in a separate email and hold on to it.

One email says account number and login information. The second says password. The new account information email says something like login name. When they say login that sounds to many people like it's the password. That also throws people off and makes them think they have the right paper.
You will receive renewal notices from the domain name company…but none of the subsequent communication will have the password. You must hold on to the password when it comes the first time.

So grab and tuck those 2 initial emails from your domain/ hosting company. Check that one says account number andlogin information. The second says password. And yeah, there will be a bunch of others with welcome info and billing info.

Tuck these emails into a website records file. Place a copy in your fire safe or safe deposit box. Sounds like a lot but it's better than digging through files or hours on the phone later when you need access to your website.

On a related note, competing domain name companies will send you bogus or deceptive domain name renewal notices. OK, they are probably skating within the letter of the law…but they'll write you a letter asking you to renew your domain name with them and it won't be clear that they are asking you to "switch" your domain registration from your current register to them. So memorize the name of the domain name company or put the record where you can find it in seconds and save yourself confusion.

Take if from me who sees several clients a year go around in circles over a domain name issue. Being fastidious with the domain name information will save you hours of fustration.