| Reprint from: http://www.AgentsSalesJournal.com |
| August 2009 - Prospecting Corner | |
| Written by Marilee Driscoll | |
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Would you allow someone else to control the lease on your office space, your business phone number, or the renewal of your insurance license? Of course not! Being a business owner means having the responsibility to control and deploy assets that are important to your practice. And these days, your email addresses and Web site domains can be just as important to your business as a phone line. The way that you have purchased or leased these online assets may leave you vulnerable to a variety of avoidable risks.
While setting up your online presence, make sure you are prepared for any later issues by avoiding two serious mistakes when it comes to establishing your Web address, your page design, and more.
Mistake #1: Not owning your domain
The owner of a domain is called a "registrant," and that entity (it can be a person or another legal entity) controls the URL in the same way that the owner of a life insurance policy controls the policy. To keep things simple, you should be the registrant for any and all domain names you use.
But here's the really important advice: Never, ever, obtain a domain through a reseller, even if they may you an offer to get your domain "on your behalf" for free when you purchase another service through them - usually a Web site and/or hosting. Why does this matter? Imagine that your Webmaster (or anyone else) purchases a domain that you use for your Web site (in this case, they are usually the registrant). You become unhappy with the service you are getting, and you want to switch to a new Webmaster or service. Well, like the insured who wants to change a policy that they don't own, they are at the mercy of the owner (in this case, the registrant). And there's no legal obligation to play nice. Your domain can effectively be held hostage while an expensive and time-consuming appeals process takes place. This type of situation is not, unfortunately, unusual. It happens all the time.
A less malicious but equally difficult situation can happen when someone else acts as the registrant of your domain, and then becomes disabled or passes away. Will your domain be renewed (after all, it's the previous owner's credit card that's file)? What will their estate do with your domain?
It should cost you less than $10/year to own your domain. The company that I use and recommend is www.GoDaddy.com (you've seen their ads on the Super Bowl). You can find other places to buy domains by searching for an "ICANN-accredited domain registrar." (ICANN is the worldwide organization that controls the Internet's naming system and can be found at www.ICANN.org.)
Registering your domain has nothing to do with where your Web site is hosted; they are separate and distinct functions. Once you own a domain, you can have it hosted by any company, or leave it unhosted, if you like. You can also point a domain so that, when someone puts it into a browser, it points to another domain that is hosted. GoDaddy, for example, offers free pointing when you purchase a domain through them.
Mistake #2: Not owning your Web site design
Also be sure to stay legal by checking the usage guidelines for clip art and any graphics you use on your site. You certainly wouldn't write a new application using someone else's name as agent. So don't make the similarly foolish mistake of abdicating ownership of the all-important online infrastructure of your business. Take the proper steps to keep everything under your name and your control, and you can avoid some unexpected but messy situations later on.
Marilee Driscoll is a professional speaker and consultant, the author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Long-Term Care Planning," and a principal in FollowUpSystems LLC. She can be reached at 508-830-9975 or through www.marileedriscoll.com. |
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For information about Insurance & Real Estate visit: http://www.robertjrussell.com or http://www.InsurancePricedRight.com
