Do you have access to your website, its content and its host? If not, you may be at risk.
It’s a sad day in Online Hell when you can’t get your web designer to give up control of your site or you can’t rescue your domain name registration from a defaulting web host.
Oftentimes web designers register your domain name for you, host your website for you and update your content for you. While this can be handy in the moment, it can become a nightmare real quickly when you and your web designer no longer see eye-to-eye.
What’s more important than convenience and strategies to keep the peace with your web designer? I feel you must own the assets that are responsible for promoting your business on the Web. Licenses. Domain names. Websites. Hosting. All of it. Why?
In Europe, legislation is in place to make owning your online assets the law, not just the preference. Here in North America, however, licensing terms are vague, occasionally only spelled out in a non-committal contract between you and your web designer.
I insist that all of my clients register their domains, own their WordPress™ plugin licenses and control access to the web host provider for their websites, period.
Instead of registering assets for you, I carefully instruct you on how to secure your domain, pay for your plugins and setup hosting. It’s all very simple, especially when you consider that you’ll have full authoritative control over all of your online business assets.
I realize that you may not understand the Web as much as I do, but I still feel you must own your assets. The perfect domain name, the easily updatable website and the web hosting are all key assets. Don’t conveniently pass control to your web designer.
You wouldn’t hand your home back to the builder, would you? You wouldn’t leave your car keys with the insurance agent, right? Similar to having the locks changed at your home or installing an auto security system, you must have control over your assets.
Owning all of your assets puts your business in the best position to be secure on the Web. Plus it gives you the most superior level of control whenever you may need it.
Do you own your assets? If not, how will you regain control of your business online?
