The tough thing is that you may invest large amounts of money, time and marketing into your site.   Once you become dependent on this website and the name becomes valuable due to search engine position, the web designer can charge you whatever they want.

Just because they seem nice when you are paying them – doesn't mean that they won't take advantage of you when you are in a dependent position.   In fact this is a great test of ethics on the part of a web designer.   See if they offer to register the name on your behalf.   To the unsuspecting it seems like you are getting great customer service.    However an honest developer will help you do it for your self.

These tactics on the part of web service providers may violate a host of laws – however most people just don't want the headaches of going to court and hiring lawyers.   You are often faced with either paying exorbitant fees, legal time and expense, or simply letting go of something that should belong to you.

All of this grief can be avoided if you register the domain name in YOUR name with your own registrar and simply POINT the DNS records at the server where your website will be hosted.

These are also known as Name Servers.

An example would look like this.

ns1.yourhost.com

ns2.yourhost.com

It just takes five minutes to insert this wherever you registered your domain.

You have to be sure that the administrative email listed in the Whois record lists an email address that YOU control.  A good idea is to create a Gmail account just for domain registration purposes.

If anyone tries to initiate a transfer of the domain name – the authorization will be emailed to that address.

Have Your Own Agreement

You may want to require that the designer sign what is called a "Work for Hire" agreement.  This stipulates that they are simply working for a fee and that all content is to be rightfully owned by the "Hirer", including all copyrights.  Be sure your agreement mentions "written content, graphical content, audio & video media content and Search Engine Optimization assets.

This standard type of agreement is also used, for example: in the music industry when composers are retained to write musical material.  The original composer forfeits the right to even receive credit for writing the work: the writing credit may be attributed to whomever the employer elects.

Be sure that your web developer doesn't then go ahead and try to get you to sign another agreement giving them contradictory rights.

Without some type of explicit protection: your web developer might at anytime claim ownership of your website, its words etc.   The language of your agreement must also cover future modifications to the work and entitle you to move your website in its entirety to another hosting situation or designer of your choice at any time that you elect.

You can even go so far as to specify the jurisdiction any proceedings must be decided in and who will be liable for legal fees in the event of a dispute.

It could also be useful to specify the limits of your mutual liability in the event of termination of your agreement.

I have seen web developers say that their subsequent search engine work to bring the website up in the ranks entitles them to financial consideration beyond the scope of their original work.

You may wish to retain an intellectual property attorney to be sure you are protected.

Other Domain Name Scams

Fake Renewal Letters

Let's say you registered a name about a year ago with a legitimate registrar.  Months later you had almost forgotten about it – but something tells you that your renewal fees are coming due.   Then one day you get an invoice in the mail.   Its a little more than you originally paid – but – you like your website so you just pay it.

Well – this company that sent you the invoice is not actually the one you originally registered with.   They are just trying to pluck customers.   If you send in the payment – they transfer the name to their registrar and keep billing you.   They make it really confusing if you try to move your domain back to your original registrar.

Registrars that Auction Names

Once I used the big "G" domain name registrar – thinking I would save a couple of bucks.  However it seems that they may have a conflict of interest – because they are big into auctioning valuable dot com names. 

Once it came time for renewal – I received a couple of unobtrusive emails – which I neglected to act upon.   The day my registration expired – they attempted to sell my name back to me for about $80.

My other favorite registrar has never attempted that.    They notify me over and over, starting well before the expiration date and will keep a name off the market for up to a month after the registration expires to give you first dibs on renewal.

Many design-seekers have been enticed by the opportunity to take their web development business off-shore to Asian providers who work for pennies on the dollar.  Although it might seem to be a winning proposition there are many pitfalls to watch out for.

A strange phenomenon happens whenever too-many opportunities exist in a market: which is that the level of professional integrity begins to drop.

With both off-shore and local web developers here are some of the impasses that we have encountered. 

• Designer promises the sun, moon and stars: then disappears part way through the project.  Web designers are a strange breed with emotional issues.  For whatever reason they are unable to continue your project due to personal circumstances.
• Designer can't be found later when you need to make updates to your site.
• Designer holds onto your dot com name and demands exorbitant ongoing fees.  This is especially hard when you have poured marketing resources into your website and now have search engine ranking.  You already printed business cards and bought yellow pages ads.  Read our article on web designer complaints about this and how to prevent it.
• Design provider refuses to answer questions on specifics and only wants to know what your budget is.  I see this a lot with off-shore providers who are interested in not-savvy customers with deep pockets.
• Design provider offers an unbelievably good rate. But the beautiful examples on their website are higher-ticket designs.  The good-rate gets you something really basic and ugly.  But then they are so nice & persistent you don't want to back out and end-up paying for the expensive design.
• You get a gorgeous website with no search engine value: so Nobody can actually find you.  Watch out for websites totally done in Flash!

These issues tend to drain your reserve of the critical financial resources you need to float your enterprise.

Ignorance is not Always Bliss

Customers usually think they can go out and find a couple examples of what they like and expect a project to come in at budget.   The client has no idea of what goes into making these features happen, or how specific you have to get in order to make them into a coherent working reality.

Web designers world wide comment about the "Throw it over the Wall" attitude many clients have.  They don't like to know what is going on behind the scenes.

Smart providers have learned to practice the car dealer mentality when interacting with the public who often is coming from an informational disadvantage.  They will tell you ANYTHING can be done at your target budget: however in practice, the end website comes in at least 2.5 times over the originally intended budget.

Many developers prefer a scenario where the client thinks that web design is an open-and-closed process.  The goal is to kick out thousands of sites as fast as possible and be finished with each project so they can move on quickly to the next one.

However your website design should be a part of your overall marketing picture.  Finding all the ways to maximize your benefit is an ongoing process that requires a web development partner who sees the big picture & where your business fits in.

The Empowering Approach. 

At CashBoxoptional Hosting.com we refuse to give you those pat answers.  Instead we quote you a realistic upfront fee.  The web design process becomes an educational experience for the end user.  We train you as we go to add your own content.  You learn to do so in a way that is friendly for search engine marketing.

As a result: you have the tools you need to continue evolving your web site with the skills you learn: even if your starting budget is small.

We invite you to talk to us on the phone or post some questions in our forum for some realistic feedback on how to maximize your value proposition to the world.

Is this honest advertising?

When you visit their website you see some very tempting professional designs that look every bit as good as sites other sites you have seen.

However: once you have been pulled in and paid for your membership, you discover that it is impossible to produce anything of that quality using the included web design tools.  In order to get that sleek professional appearance: you must pay extra for one of their team to set up the design for you.\

The additional fees are often more expensive than hiring a full service web designer.

Need Web Marketing?

This isn't free either!  If you want anyone to actually FIND your website.. You need search engine assistance.  The website promotion freebies that are "included" – end up being costly up-sells one way or another.

What do you Lose on these Deals?

Precious time & energy that you need to make it happen the right way.  

Ya Can't Get Something for Nothing!

However at CashBoxHosting we create that design which says "world-class" to anyone who visits your website.   We then empower you with the tools to add your own words, pages, links & images.  We also teach you how to "work the search engines" with your website.