What does it take to reduce the world’s spam by two thirds?

Apparently, it takes some socially active research geeks, some corporate embarrassment, and well, that’s all it takes!

A few researchers proved this out this week, when they exposed Global Crossing and Hurricane Electric Internet Services for renting servers to a company called McColo Corp.

He and other analysts circulated a dense report Wednesday that blamed some companies for allowing spam to proliferate. Two big providers of Internet connections named in it — Hurricane Electric Internet Services and Global Crossing Ltd. — acted quickly to cut ties to the core subject of the document, a little-known Silicon Valley company called McColo Corp. that rents out servers to clients.
The researchers didn’t say whether McColo knowingly aided criminals, but they described some of the nefarious activities conducted on some websites the company hosted. Among other things, McColo reportedly enabled its customers to control vast networks of hijacked computers to send spam and take payments for fake anti-virus software.
"We got the report, and it looked pretty damning," said Benny Ng, director of infrastructure at Hurricane Electric, of Fremont, Calif. "They were a client of ours, and we turned them off."
Global Crossing did the same thing, security researchers said, though it didn’t respond to interview requests.
McColo didn’t answer messages seeking comment, and its website was off-line late Thursday. The company is now under FBI scrutiny, people familiar with the case said. An agency spokesman said the FBI wouldn’t confirm or deny an active investigation.

Spam traffic plunges after report blames server hosting company

That wasn’t so hard after all, assuming the bad guys don’t pick up some downloadable audio books from Neal Stephenson outlining how to avoid this type of exposure. 

What’s next for the world’s new heroes?

Curing Cancer and Aids next week and finding a new habitable solar system starting in 2009.

I used to pick up domains from the cheaper source possible.  Later when I was ready to develop a domain name into a site, I’d then turn to InMotion Hosting for my hosting and redirect the domain from wherever over to InMotion Hosting.

That worked great for several years and I saved a lot of money.  But over the last year or so, those great domain deals are not as good.  Even worse the hassle of dealing with the companies that offer them is just not worth it.

So the other day, when I needed to pick up a single domain for a future project, I turned to InMotion Hosting.  The price isn’t too bad, just $7.95 per year, which is only just a little more than what I’d pay about anywhere else these days.

Buying just a domain there is not exactly easy.  In fact they almost seem to discourage it.

Its buried at the bottom of this page, that tries to up-sell a hosting plan (which is in fact a good deal).

Once you get that far, you still have 2 more screens to click through, a car cover to remove and you have to dance a jig underwater before you actually see the price is $7.95. 

But hey, I understand that.  Their just trying to turn off domainers.  Each unto their own I guess.

They do have great deals on hosting, and that deal is a lot sweeter when you experience their awesome tech support, which makes their prices look like their free. 

Business Class Hosting by InMotion Hosting Plans Starting at Just $6.95/mo • Unlimited Disk Space • Unlimited Data Transfer • 90 Day Money Back Guarantee • True 24/7 Support Rated 3 Out of 3 Stars by CNET.com!

In Step 1 of this 2 part series we described the steps necessary to change the registrar accounts on a domain purchased through IPower.  However, that will not update the credit card and billing information, which could prevent the domain from successfully renewing upon the expiration of the domain registration.  This step will address how to finish this process and establish the appropriate billing information securely within the IPower system.

The Hypothetical Example

Say you have a website covering the topics of home theater seating.  Maybe you purchased the domain with several others like it as part of a brain storming session when you were initially planning you web strategy. Now your site is in full swing and you no longer need this domain so you decide to sell it off for a certain amount of money.  This sale should be permanent.  The domain should not revert back to the seller in 6 months, and to achieve that with IPower you have to walk through an odd little process.

This process involves actions that will need to be performed by the seller and the buyer separately on the IPower site.

Conceptually, the seller needs to remove the domain from their account so that IPower can later reassign the account to the buyer

TIP!  this is why I like to do the Tucows step first, so that IPower can then see who really has purchased this domain!

Sellers Process for Transferring a domain at IPower

1. 1) Log into the Control Panel http://www.ipower.com/member with your username and password.
2. 2) Under Domain click on the option ‘Domain Central’.
3. 3) Click on the domain name.
4. 4) Click on ‘Remove’ button.

Buyers Process for Transferring a domain at IPower

First the Buyer will need to establish a Free domain parking account with IPower.  There is no charge for this, but to get to the point where the account is setup, the process is somewhat counterintuitive and the buyer may feel like they are going through a process that will ultimately charge them a fee, this is not the case.  There should be no reason to buy anything, but providing credit card information for the future auto renewal of the domain will be necessary.

To establish a domain parking account go to IPower.  Click on the Home button in the top left hand corner.

Then Navigate to Transfer under Domain Registration

Click on “Use an Existing Domain” (notice there is no fee for domain parking in the checkout basket).  or select Do Not Register a domain and then later add the domain to the account that you will

Complete your order, which will establish your user account.

If you opted for “Do not register a domain” above, you will now need to add your existing domain to your new and existing Ipower account.  In order to add the domain to the new owner account, please follow the steps given below:

1. 1) Login to Control Panel http://www.ipower.com/member with your username and password.
2. 2) Under Domain click on the option ‘Domain Central’.
3. 3) Click on ‘Add Domain to Account’.
4. 4) Enter the Domain name.
5. 5) Click on ‘Add Domain’ button.

Here is a copy of my full transcript on this issue

The following is a transcript of your chat session.

General Info

Chat start time

Jul 20, 2008 9:06:17 AM EST

Chat end time

Jul 20, 2008 9:46:22 AM EST

Duration (actual chatting time)

00:40:05

Operator

Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name

Chat Transcript

info: Thank you for contacting support.
Please be prepared to answer your Security Question when we begin chatting. To enhance our security protocols, we’ll need you to provide the answer to your Security Question at the beginning of our conversation. If you have not yet set your Security Question and Answer, please log into your account now to set it up. Thank you.
Please hold for the next available operator to respond.
info: You are now chatting with ‘Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name’
Yours Truly: Hi Rep with a Last Name for a First Name
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Hi Yours Truly. My name is Rep with a Last Name for a First Name, how are you today?
Yours Truly: I need to transfer the ownership of a domain on my account to a different person. How do I do that?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: While reviewing your account, I have noticed that you have not yet set the Security Question for your account. To set the ‘Security Question’ for your account, please follow the steps given below:
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 1) Log into the Control Panel with your account username and password.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 2) Click on the link ‘Set Security Question’ under Account Information section.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 3) Click the ‘New Profile’ radio button.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 4) Enter First Name, Last Name, and set the Security Question and Answer.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 5) Click on the ‘Save’ button.
Yours Truly: I do in fact have a security question on my account
Yours Truly: I have had it there for quite some time.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: In order to assist you further, please set the Security Question for your account and provide us the answer for the Security Question.
Yours Truly: OK, done, so now I have a different (additional) problem. Why was my security information wiped out?
Yours Truly: This is not the first time, I’ve had to chat in regards to my account.
Yours Truly: I’ve been through the security question before.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: To protect your account from unauthorized changes, can you please verify for me the answer to the Security Question:
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: What is the answer to your security question?
Yours Truly: My Answer to My secuirty question
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Thank you for the authentication.
Yours Truly: So why did my security question get wiped out?
Yours Truly: and how do I transfer the ownership on my account?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Due to some technical glitch.
Yours Truly: ok, so how do I transfer the domain registration and remove a domain from my account?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Could you please let me know whether you wish to change the ownership of the domain or account?
Yours Truly: I only want to change the ownership of the domain, my-own-domain.com and not the account nor any of the other domains on the account.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: In order to change the ownership of the domain, you need to change the contact e-mail address of the domain.
Yours Truly: will that create a new account then for my-own-domain.com?
Yours Truly: I do not want the new owner to have access to my other domains nor any of my credit or billing info.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: To change the contact information for your domain, please refer to the steps given below:
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 1. Log into https://manage.opensrs.net/ with domain name, domain username and domain password.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 2. Click on the ‘Admin Contact’ link.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 3. Enter the new contact information. If you wish to apply the changes to Organization, Billing and Technical contact information too, check on the ‘Yes’ radio button available under the ‘Also Apply these changes to’ option.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 4. Click on the ‘Save Configuration’ button.
Yours Truly: OK, that raises 2 issues
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: No, it will not create new account.
Yours Truly: First, I’m very familiar with Tucows. I need my password there reset.
Yours Truly: After I make the change at Tucows, do I then update something in my account through domain central?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: I have sent the domain Login information to your domain Administrative e-mail address. Please retrieve the information from this e-mail address.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: No, it is not required to update in the Domain Central.
Yours Truly: thanks, got it and can access tucows now.
Yours Truly: So how does the billing change hands for the new owner?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: You’re welcome!
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Yes, you can access.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: If you wish to apply the changes to Organization, Billing and Technical contact information too, check on the ‘Yes’ radio button available under the ‘Also Apply these changes to’ option.
Yours Truly: Sure, but how will the new owner log in to IPower to setup their credit card later on so that you can then charge them when it comes time to renew the domain registration?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Can you please hold while I review your account and get back within 2 to 3 minutes?
Yours Truly: Sure.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Thank you for holding.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: You need to remove the domain ‘my-own-domain.com’ from your account ‘Yours Trulybum’ and add the domain to new owner account. In order to remove the domain, please follow the steps given below:
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 1) Log into the Control Panel http://www.ipower.com/member with your username and password.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 2) Under Domain click on the option ‘Domain Central’.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 3) Click on the domain name.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 4) Click on ‘Remove’ button.
Yours Truly: Can I do that before I change the info at Tucows or after or does the order matter?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: In order to add the domain to the new owner account, please follow the steps given below:
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 1) Login to Control Panel http://www.ipower.com/member with your username and password.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 2) Under Domain click on the option ‘Domain Central’.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 3) Click on ‘Add Domain to Account’.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 4) Enter the Domain name.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 5) Click on ‘Add Domain’ button.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: You can do changes before or after removing the domain.
Yours Truly: So what if the new owner does not have an Ipower account (ergo this will be their first)?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: He needs to sign up for an account.
Yours Truly: Where could he do that?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: In order to sign up for an account, please refer the link given below:
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: http://www.ipower.com/ipower/index.bml
Yours Truly: I do not see anything on that page to set up an account?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: You need to select ‘Buy Now’ option bottom of the plan.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: http://www.ipower.com/ipower/webhosting_starter.bml
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: In order to sign up for a Domain Parking account, please refer the link given below:
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: https://secure.ipower.com/register/registration.bml?masters=194
Yours Truly: Will this be considered ‘an existing domain’ then?
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Yes.
Yours Truly: OK, great, I think I have what I need on this account.
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: You’re welcome!
Yours Truly: Have a good day!
Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
Yours Truly: Nope, I’ll cover my other issues when I get back into the office. Thanks again.

There are two general processes that you have to work through if you want to transfer the ownership of a domain that you have initially registered through IPower Hosting.  According to IPower these steps can be done in any order, but I recommend this step first as it involves updating the official information with IPower’s own registrar Tucows (aka manage.opensrs.net ).  (For the Next Steps see our follow on Article Step 2)

Here are the steps according to IPower

To change the contact information for your domain, please refer to the steps given below:
1. Log into https://manage.opensrs.net/ with domain name, domain username and domain password.
2. Click on the ‘Admin Contact’ link.
3. Enter the new contact information. If you wish to apply the changes to Organization, Billing and Technical contact information too, check on the ‘Yes’ radio button available under the ‘Also Apply these changes to’ option.
4. Click on the ‘Save Configuration’ button.

Note, this will not change the credit card or billing information for the domain with your hosting or parked plan at IPower.  So if the domain being transferred comes up for renewal that renewal will process according to the original registrants IPower account through vdeck.

So if you sell your domain, and you do not change the account on IPower in addition to tucows, you could be automatically charged for the renewal of the domain, or the new domain owner could loose the domain if the renewal does not process at all!

See Step 2 to learn how to solve the billing dilemma.

Original Transcript from IPower relating to this aspect of Changing a Domain Name Ownership on an account.  (The rest of the transcripts are available in the Step 2 article)

info: You are now chatting with ‘IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name’
Yours Truly: Hi IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Hi Yours Truly. My name is IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name, how are you today?
Yours Truly: I need to transfer the ownership of a domain on my account to a different person. How do I do that?
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: While reviewing your account, I have noticed that you have not yet set the Security Question for your account. To set the ‘Security Question’ for your account, please follow the steps given below:
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 1) Log into the Control Panel with your account username and password.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 2) Click on the link ‘Set Security Question’ under Account Information section.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 3) Click the ‘New Profile’ radio button.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 4) Enter First Name, Last Name, and set the Security Question and Answer.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 5) Click on the ‘Save’ button.
Yours Truly: I do in fact have a security question on my account
Yours Truly: I have had it there for quite some time.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: In order to assist you further, please set the Security Question for your account and provide us the answer for the Security Question.
Yours Truly: OK, done, so now I have a different (additional) problem. Why was my security information wiped out?
Yours Truly: This is not the first time, I’ve had to chat in regards to my account.
Yours Truly: I’ve been through the security question before.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: To protect your account from unauthorized changes, can you please verify for me the answer to the Security Question:
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: What is the answer to your security question?
Yours Truly: My Answer to My secuirty question
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Thank you for the authentication.
Yours Truly: So why did my security question get wiped out?
Yours Truly: and how do I transfer the ownership on my account?
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Due to some technical glitch.
Yours Truly: ok, so how do I transfer the domain registration and remove a domain from my account?
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: Could you please let me know whether you wish to change the ownership of the domain or account?
Yours Truly: I only want to change the ownership of the domain, my-own-domain.com and not the account nor any of the other domains on the account.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: In order to change the ownership of the domain, you need to change the contact e-mail address of the domain.
Yours Truly: will that create a new account then for my-own-domain.com?
Yours Truly: I do not want the new owner to have access to my other domains nor any of my credit or billing info.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: To change the contact information for your domain, please refer to the steps given below:
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 1. Log into https://manage.opensrs.net/ with domain name, domain username and domain password.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 2. Click on the ‘Admin Contact’ link.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 3. Enter the new contact information. If you wish to apply the changes to Organization, Billing and Technical contact information too, check on the ‘Yes’ radio button available under the ‘Also Apply these changes to’ option.
IPower Rep with a Last Name for a First Name and a First name for a Last name: 4. Click on the ‘Save Configuration’ button.

All things considered this part of the process (outside of IPower’s system) works very well and seems reliable unlike most acne scars creams.

Today, I have a nagging bill from one of my favorite hosting companies.  One of my primary websites is on its own separate hosting plan.  I happen to also have server space with this same hosting company where I host a couple dozen sites belonging to myself and my clients.

Now, the single hosting plan is something that I signed up for years ago.  I tend to collect domain names like I collect checking accounts.   My old hosting plan keeps auto renewing each year at the same price that I paid when I signed up.  The rates for the same plan have come down since then, but they keep charging me the historical rates.

I have thought about transferring everything from the server the site sits on and pushing it to my own server to consolidate things and save about $100 per year.

The only thing is that this is not always a good thing to do for Search Engine Optimization purposes.  Search Engines can view sites all sitting on the same server that happen to link to each other as one collectively controlled group and therefore discount the value of the links.

Now, I don’t use the sites to build up links between each other.  They just happen to sit where they sit and they just happen to link where they link, but for some people this is a decision that they must make and a situation they should consider in their strategy.  Consider where you put your sites, how you group them together on servers and under common IP addresses.  You might even consider mixing their placement with multiple hosting companies and in some situations you will want to take a look at hosting your sites or backups in different countries or geographical regions.

There is a time and place for each of these actions and you should review which options are right for you or your clients.

I ran across this a discussion on a forum where a poster was trying to figure out what to do when their Hosting company appeared to fail to deliver the guaranteed 99% uptime promised in their reseller package.

I have recently brought a reseller account and part of the deal was hosting guarenteed uptime was 99% however, the site is down a lot of the time so i was wondering how i go about making a formal complaint, stop them from doing this to other people and getting my money back.
The hosting company just refuse to help saying its not there problem.
Surely if my sites down, then its there problem?

Web Hosting Complaint – Help! – Web Hosting – My Site

Your website is useless if your host is down and your site is offline and so this is a very important question for many people. 

What is a Reseller?

A hosting reseller is a person that purchase up a block of hosting space and then resells that space to other sites.  They can typically get a slightly better deal as they are leasing hosting space in bulk.  However, the real advantage in being a reseller normally comes into play for webmasters that are managing multiple website accounts that they either own themselves or that they manage for their web clients.  The reseller level usually gives them more control over the accounts and easier access to provide a tech support interface.

What can you do to keep your Hosting Company up for as much of the time as they promised?

1. Always pay for your plan with a visa or mastercard.  An actual credit card, not a debit card or a paypal card.  If your provider fails to deliver, you can charge them back.  This should be a last resort as it will likely lead to a disruption in your web service and might force a move of your websites to a new host.
2. If things are that bad, move to a different host.  Do not reward bad service with continued business.
3. Keep good records of the situations where the hosting service goes down, and the amount of time that it is down during those situations even if you have to use a pocket watch ~ I recommend a screen recorder program if the host is down for less than 15 minutes at a time typically.  Make sure you note these records and the statistics to your host when you talk with them.
4. Before charging your host back, try getting them to improve their uptime.  Seek promises in writing, keep copies of emails and chat sessions.
5. Ask for discounts on your hosting plan to compensate for downtime.  It doesn’t fix the problem but places a financial impact on the host and alleviates your costs slightly.  That said, a discount probably is not worth as much as keeping your site(s) up and running and making you or your customers money.
6. Ask for an account upgrade at no additional cost.
7. Review your plan.  Maybe your plan is just not meeting your needs and you need to consider upgrading yourself.  That said, if your host can not deliver on its promises with the level of plan that you have now, then they may not do any better when you pay them more for a bigger plan.

Domainers that purchase a large number of domain names or even web masters or web designers that register a large number of domains, might consider setting themselves up as a registrar or domain reseller.

Tucows is an online company that can enable you to do this.  Its a little more involved than regular affiliate sales, but it can be worthwhile in both savings as well as in possible margin earnings (a buck or two).  Regardless, it is something to consider and might make for a good addition to your business line up.  If nothing else, it can remove a middle man from the picture when it comes to domain transfers and managing your domain name through Icann.

For non domainer types, I’d offer an example of another perspective.   I worked with a client a while back on a site focusing on bodybuilding supplements.  Working with domains directly, it can save your budget a little money that might be used to register additional domains to prevent your hard work and effort from being picked up by domain squatters. 

Anyone that has spent anytime working with websites or blogs even probably runs across a domain name that they just have to have.  Its like one of those bad ideas you get when you are drinking with your buddies, “Hey let’s go steel a bull dozer and drive it through a Shriner’s Building”.  That was the idea a child hood friend of mine had about 20 years ago.  Jail time followed – I wasn’t there, but it was a funny story after the fact.

Anyway, you get one of these crazy ideas for a domain name, and domains only cost $6-$10 to register, why not?

It could be the next big thing, like Google or Digg or The Onion or Ask a Ninja or Wanks for Piece!

Here’s a few that I thought I’d share with you.  If you register one of these, drop me a comment, I’d like to interview and figure out what the hell you were thinking!  If you get rich from the idea, – piss off.

• http://www.halfwanked.com/
• http://wankersanonymous.com/
• http://www.splogoftheday.com/
• http://www.fartperpost.com/
• http://www.heathenology.com/
• http://www.NaJaJeMo.org – like NaNoWriMo (national november writers month) but national january jerkoff month – hey you know its the internet.  It doesn’t have to make sense until you BRAND it to make sense, just ask Yahoo!

Mesothelioma is a form of lung cancer derived from asbestos exposure.  It became notorious decades ago when it was banned in the 1970’s, but it became notorious twice over on the internet when every one and their brother, threw up a website about it hoping to either:

1. Cash in on the tort lawsuits in one form or fashion

or

2. Cash in on the ridiculous pricing for Google Adsense ads from ads covering the topic

Now there are so many different websites covering Mesothelioma that it is almost impossible to find any information about the subject without going through a trial lawyer website of one form or another.  There are lots of different sites out there from those trying to cover victims or their families or offer up options to screen and diagnose people inflicted with Mesothelioma to those trying to pull in the people seeking Mesothelioma treatments.

Technorati shows that just for the word ‘mesothelioma’ alone there are over 26 thousand blog posts and if memory serves Technorati only counts back six months!

Many people also accuse Google of harboring blog spammers with Mesothelioma sites on blogger.  Just out of curiosity, I attempted to set up a blogger blog with the name Mesothelioma Treatments, then Mesothelioma Diagnosis, and a dozen other options and didn’t find an available sub domain until I went all the way down the list to Mesothelioma treatments and diagnosis.

Its a crazy subject in that so many people are covering it for profit and it begs the question, can anyone actually cut through the noise to find real help or information?

This evening I did something unexpected.  I registered a real domain through Google.

In fact I was registering a domain for my mother’s birthday present.  She has been writing on a Gardening blog, on and off for the last year or so.

The blog was in need of an upgrade, but she’s not really ready to tackle WordPress yet.  She’s been writing on a blogger blog all this time and it works well enough for her with Picasa and other things.

I upgraded her blog first to the new blogger, and set up the new blogger templates with a number of items from a Google news feed on gardening and herbs (thought that was well executed on Google’s part actually.)

I added a Feedburner email subscription as many of the people in her gardening club understand email subscriptions but not necessarily feeds.  Plus, I didn’t want her to get in trouble with the canned spam act and a gardening news letter, so that was one less reason to buy her a pulse oximeter to keep her heart in check.  Less stress all the way around.

Google Domain Registration

Then I decided to follow the links and investigate what it took to manage a blog on a real domain from blogger.  I’ve heard some good things about the new system lately and thought I’d give it a try.

It rapidly offered to check for the availability of a domain, I plugged in GardenClubsOfCentralIllinois.com and it was available.  Google offered it for $10.  That was about $3.50 more than I normally pay for a 1 year registration, but I know Google has fallen on hard times lately and needs the money so I said what the hell.

It registered the domain, charged my credit card through Google checkout and will even handle the redirects in about 3 days once all the cob webs shake loose.

Now my Mom can keep blogging from Blogger (going to show her Windows Live Writer next), she’s on the new blogger system and I reconfigured her template for the new setup adding the widgets.

All in all I’d have to give Google an A-.  I’d give them an A if they had more theme options, but all in all it was pretty good.

The web is filled with all sorts of analogies of web business models applying real estate practices and models.  Buying a domain and building up a website is often times considered a ‘property’ and the sale of this type of property even goes through an escrow account.

Banner ads have their name derived from the physical banner advertisements that are prolific in cities and along the interstates in the US.

A website is called a site, just like a construction site is a site.  Its considered a place.  Although sometimes its called a web page.  Even the primary index page of a website is commonly referred to as the ‘home’ page.

Plus, in SecondLife you can go and build virtual buildings and land in cyberspace essentially using a graphic engine that is running on a domain hosting server.

So its probably no surprise to anyone that someone came up with the concept of leasing a domain.  Afterall, we already had free domains which is kind of like the homesteading principle used to populate the US in the 1800’s. 

LeaseThis.com provides people with the ability to lease a domain from 1 month to 24 months at a time.  You do not have to make a greater commitment and so this provides people with a new way of evaluating a domain name to see just how much traffic it can really pull in.  I suspect this could even become popular for people looking to sell or buy domain names. 

If you don’t trust the stats, then lease to buy and see if the stats hold up for you!

 Several times over the years I have occasionally gone to a hosting companies’ registration page and typed in a domain name to see if it was available.  Maybe I had an idea for a domain or a site or something. 

Often times these companies will show you 10 other alternate or similar spellings for the same domain encouraging you to pick something or pick lots of related ’somethings’.

A few times I have looked at a domain like this with a name that was unlikely to mean anything to anyone else in the world, and when I came back to purchase or register the domain name a week later, it was no longer available!

Originally, I chalked this up to chance, but it happened a few too many times.  I eventually came to the conclusion that something was up.

• maybe someone hacked the hosting companies registration tool
• maybe someone hacked my computer
• maybe an employee at the hosting company was sifting through aborted registrations looking for the next hot thing like Paris-In-Prison.com

I never thought (originally) that the hosting company might be buying up these domains themselves.

Well it was revealed about a year ago that Dotster a company that functions as a registrar, a place you can go to register a domain, also registered domains for themselves.  They were a domain registrant and their own registrar.

Neiman Marucs litigated against Dotster for registering more than a dozen domain names that were similar to trademarks that Neiman Marcus owned.  Plus they provided evidence that Dotster had done the same thing with hundreds of other domains for unrelated companies.

They brought complaints that Dotster would taste a domain by registering it through themselves and testing the traffic.  If there was no traffic, they would cancel the registration within a 5 day grace period and not pay anything for the registration.  (anyone can do this, but I do not advise it.  Dotster had an advantage because they were a registrar themselves and could hit the registration pipeline easier and not have to sit on hold for an hour to cancel early.

What does this Mean for Average Webmasters?

Do Not test the waters of a domain name through a registrar’s site. 

How to avoid having your future domain name stolen by your Registrar

1. Type the domain name into Google and see if it works. 
2. If it doesn’t (no page and no ads load up) then go to your registrar and register the domain on the spot.  Do not pass go, do not delay, do not abort the checkout.
3. Just Buy it!
4. If you change your mind about the purchase, you have 5 days to abort your purchase after the fact.  Use it.

Example

Let’s say that you want to sell swiss army watches online.  You want your site to have an e-commerce name so you decide eWatches.com would be perfect. 

You type http://www.ewatches.com into your browser and if nothing comes up you go to your registrar and register the site right away.  (It will only cost between $1 – $7 depending on who you register with and what types of incentives they offer).

You get the account setup, buy a bunch of product, hire a crack web designers to put together a hot and efficient shopping cart and you sell swiss army watches like there is no tomorrow.

But watch out for your registrar or hosting company.  They may purchase a domain name that is similar, like ewatchs.com.  They will taste the domain and see if anyone is trying to find your site and mis-spelling the domain.  They’ll park the site with ads and try and get your would have been customers to click on ads that might even take them to some other site that sells swiss army watches.  (Could be anyone on the net too, The Dotster litigation showed the Dotster engaged in this activity, but they are definitely not the only ones.  Thousands of people do this every day.)

Conclusion

Buy your domain right away when you visit a registrar.

Consider (very carefully) buying up all the alternate spellings for your domain name as well.  You can establish a 301 redirect and send any potential customers to the right address if they mis-spell your URL.  That’s more business for you and your registrar or host won’t be taking some of your traffic.

Subscribers May Request a copy of the Complaint from Neiman Marcus against Dotster via email at

info@top-5-hosting.com