Domain management - easy? No way!
If you're involved in domain management then you'll know that even though it seems like it should be a relatively straightforward task, managing lists of domains is full of pit-falls and difficulties. One of the first things you learn is that it's an almost thankless job - domain management is a dull administrative task that everyone seems to feel should be in "someone else's domain" (so to speak!)
Why is domain management important?
Effective domain management is important because it could mean a potential loss of revenue either to yourself or to your client. If you're a domain broker and you accidentally allow an important domain name to lapse out of your control then you could see yourself having to compensate your client to the tune of many thousands. If its your own domain name - your financial losses could be anywhere between minor and devastating.
People - customers - rely on domain names to bring them to a website. If they've used a search engine to find you then the domain name won't matter - but sooner or later the marketing choices that were made when that domain name was selected for a web site come very directly into play. Your domain becomes a brand (of sorts) and becomes a way in which people directly arrive at your site. People will post links to your site all over the web; and you soon have a dynamic group of people who arrive at your online business directly because of the domain name you hold.
So what happens if you lose your domain name? Let's be realistic here - neither yourself or a domain broker is likely to be so negligent that you main web site address is allowed to lapse. To suggest otherwise is pure scaremongering - and that's not what this article is about. It's not your primary domain name here that we're concerned with: it's all the other domain names that back-up your business that you need to worry about.
Whether it's the domain names you've bought in different TLDs (Top Level Domains) such as the .co.uk or the .org and .net version of your domain name, or it's domain names that you've scavenged across the same vertical to avoid competitors from taking them and challenging your space on the internet; Typo versions of your domain names; Marketing sites you created as one offs - ALL of these can soon add up and make a significant difference to your domain portfolio.
That's why you (hopefully!) employ someone, or are yourself employed, as a domain manager.
Different ways to manage your domains
There are plenty of different methods by which to manage your domains, but that doesn't mean that domain management should be taken lightly. There are many variations that we've come across over the years from:
- Waiting until a renewal email gets sent (very dangerous - see "multiple email address for expiring domains" for details)
- Maintaining a list in excel
- Maintaining an access/filemaker database
- Using offline software
- Using online software for domain management
Maintaining domain name lists - domain management
The moment you start owning/managing more than a dozen domain names is the moment you require a system. It honestly doesn't matter which one of the above you choose, so long as it works and works effectively.
The problem with choosing to manage your domains using an offline system is that your domain information will have to manually updated. Offline systems are often seen to be better because they can be easily tailored by the person managing it - but if that person goes off sick even for just ONE DAY, then the whole system can fail. Yes, the domain name can be easily salvaged - but was it really worth the risk?
What any professional domain manager should be looking at is using a service which monitors and tracks all their domain names, ideally providing continual feedback on the portfolio so that they can adjust and plan ahead. Obviously this is a plug for our service here - but the Domain Name Manager does exactly this job!
