Heir-Q Online

If you are the owner of a website or indeed a marketing consultancy maintaining a portfolio of websites you will be familiar with the trials and tribulations of understanding DNS settings, MX records and A records.  As a marketing consultancy or marketing professional it is not our business to understand the technical blueprint.  It is our job to manage our clients’ expectations and business ambitions.

As a rule of thumb there is one simple method to make sure that you can never be dictated to by 3rd party IT vendors and web developers – by making sure you take ownership of all associated domains.

Purchasing New Domains

There are a number of excellent companies who manage the simple process of purchasing domain names.  Enon and Afternic are the industry leaders and will offer you the opportunity to sign up as a reseller.  An off the shelf domain purchased in this way should cost you $10 to $15 dollars a year.

If your domain isn’t available you good consider a domain auction.  Enom and Afternic both manage domain auctions.  Afternic’s is available through their website – Enom is called NameJet.  Both have search features to enable you to track down a previously owned domain.  There are a number of obvious benefits – you will inherit the relevant traffic that this domain has been receiving which could lead to potential new business as well as a good search engine history and profile.  The cost of the domain will vary depending on the competitiveness of the keywords but the benefits are plain to see.  Enom and Afternic will manage the auction and communication with the domain owner and even review the domain to approximate the value and forecasted sale price.

Now you have total ownership of the domain you can decide where the domain is hosted.  i.e. use your existing hosting, try out an alternative, etc.  Either way, you will have total control of the domain and never be at the mercy of a third party IT company managing this on your behalf.  Change the DNS records to point wherever you like – all you need is the IP address of your new host.

Taking Ownership of Existing Domains

If you are maintaining an existing website or overseeing the re-development of a project that requires updating, the principles are the same.  If you are the owner of a company and an IT vendor has purchased the domain on your behalf, it is your intellectual property and you have the right to make the necessary changes.  Likewise if you are managing the expectations of a portfolio of clients you want the flexibility to meet their expectations – for this you need a level of flexibility.

If the domains have been previously registered the process is a little different.  You are relying on your website contact managing the domain to change the IPS TAG.  In order to change the IPS TAG your IT vendor will need to contact the company the domain name is registered with and ask them to change the IPS TAG to the TAG of your new provider. Enom’s TAG is ‘ENOM’ for instance.   If you have been using an IT vendor to manage on your behalf, as the primary domain account holder they will have to make this change.  Make sure you know the TAG for your new provider and relay this information.

This process always creates a level of friction between you and you current IT vendor.  In many ways you are implying that you don’t trust them to manage the domain on your behalf.  Facts are, by not releasing the domain this vendor is actually suggesting you have some reason not to trust them.  The profit margins on the domain management are very small – they are losing their biggest negotiating tool in keeping your business.  Now you will find out just how much they are prepared to keep your business because the only reason for you to maintain their services is a decision based on quality of service.  If you’re not happy with the quality or there is a break down in communication at the flick of a switch you can update your DNS records and point them at a different vendor.

A Word on MX Records

An MX record is a record in the Domain Name System (DNS) specifying how Internet e-mails should be routed using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).  In real terms the MX record determines where your emails are sent.  Generally if you transfer a domain to a new domain directory or change the DNS records the MX records will remain the same.  Make sure with your new domain registry you know how to update your MX records and know the details for your mail server for troubleshooting.

Summary

Marketing consultancy executives and leading marketing professionals tend to focus on the creative, revenue centric and lead generation side of marketing.  As a marketing consultant take control of your own and your clients domains.  This will give you full control over the web development process and position above your competition on managing the expectations and corporate objectives or your business and your clients business.

END

Darren Henwood,
Director,
Heir-Q Marketing Consultancy,
darren.henwood@heirq.com,
http://www.heirq.com

Tags: Data, Data Brokering, Data Cleansing, Data Verification, Database Acquisition, Direct Response, Email Strategy, Hardcopy Design, Marketing Collateral Design, Marketing Consultancy, Marketing Consultant, Marketing Spend Review, sem, seo, Strategy Review, Website Design

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.