Well, here we are in the 3rd week of the new year and the first tech challenge has reared its ugly head. Funny thing is, I was just reading not to long ago about a similar situation and had one of those "That’ll never happen to me" thoughts run through my head!
Bottom line: Always, always, ALWAYS make sure you own and manage your own domain names!!
I registered my original domain almost immediatly after starting in real estate. I’ve advertised it heavily. I’ve spent a lot of time and money over the years getting it out there. Last night I realized that I wasn’t receiving any e-mails. I usually get at least 50 or so per day over the weekends. Odd. Then I remembered … My domain was due for renewal this month wasn’t it? So I run a quick whois command and lo-and-behold I no longer show up as the registered owner!
Now, I am going to contact the company and try to get the domain back, but I’m not holding my breath. Loss of e-mail is going to cost me thousands of dollars – I can’t wait to see what the outcome will be. I spent the better part of the day (and tonight) setting up a new mail server, copying e-mails from my old setup to the new, reloading all of my google-app calendars and to-do lists. Luckily today was a holiday so my REO clients were off. I had to migrate over 1000 contacts from my old g-apps account to my new one and send out an e-mail to everyone requesting them to update their records.
A total waste of a day that could have been avoided by keeping on top of my domain registration. If I don’t get ahead of this I’m going to get smashed by my clients – if they can’t get a hold of me I will lose REO assignments. Hopefully I’ve done enough initial damage control tonight to be okay, but I may never know the business I lost by a forgotten profile out there somewhere.
Learn from my mistake … Own and manage your domains!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I almost exclusively use GoDaddy.com to buy and manage my domains. They are very good at notifying you by email, repeatedly and well in advance, of expiring domains. As long as you keep your contact information current, read your email, and react, there's no reason for your domain to expire.
Yours is a very good point overall of owning and managing your own domains. Nothing like building up an Internet presence and following on someone else's domain (e.g. Yahoo, Google,) only to have them start charging for the service, changing the allowable content rules, outright stopping, or any number of other things that will vaporize or cripple your site in an instant.
Thanks for the comment!
Agreed. I've migrated all my domains to Godaddy. The domain in question was my first and I set it up through a template provider several years ago before I knew anything about domains, etc. When I switched web site providers I had them release the domain, but evidently never completed the process. When renewal time came I was not notified.
I do need to give the company props, though. They did contact me yesterday and tell me what to do to get my old domain back online … I will update this post when I finish the ordeal.