Website Ownership - Part 1; How to Buy New, or Transfer Owners
By Brett.Tesol
How to Transfer a Domain
To do this, you will need to use a domain registrar such as Godaddy.com or 123-Reg.co.uk. They will register the URL name for you and often offer additional securities, such as sending you an email when the domain is up for renewal or even automatically renewing your domain each year or two for you ... making sure that you don't lose it! They will update WHOIS details for you, which confirm website ownership, and help with the name servers (these are settings which point anyone that enters your domain into a browser, to where ever the files are hosted - i.e your website).
If you have hosting and domain in one place, this will make your life easier and it is also very easy to set up a professional email for your domain with a the hosting company/registrar that has registered your domain ... for example info@Blah.com. Also, remember that if you want some privacy, you may also want to pay for a private registration service, where your personal details can be hidden by hiding your registrar info from public view.
Fortunately, it is normally very easy to transfer a domain from one person to another. Especially now with the larger registrars like Godaddy, as the seller can use a 'push' domain service to move it to the buyer.
To do this, the buyer must first open a free account with a chosen registrar, they then advise the seller of the user-name or code provided by their registrar. With this information, the seller can then ask their domain registrar to "push" the domain to the buyer - this makes the registrar transfer much easier. Most registrars have this facility and provide full guides on how to do this.
The buyer will then need to log into their registrar account and will either provide a code (emailed) or just click to accept the pushed domain request, so that the domain name can be fully transferred into the buyers account - providing full control over the domain to the buyer.
However, if you wish the seller to make any changes to the site and the setup, I recommend they do these all before transferring the domain and files. For me, this allows an easier update of the site, although if you wish to transfer quickly, some registrars do have a facility to allow someone else (other than the owner) restricted access after the transfer is complete - so that you can allow people access to certain files, but not to change any of your settings (very handy for upgrades and adjustments, especially if you are not a web programmer).
With a .co.uk or .org.uk domains, the process then continues a little further. The owner can submit a 'change of owner' form to Nominet, where a small fee is involved for registering the new owners details (Nominet will normally contact the new owner via email). However, if you are purely switching to a new registrar, then you can request the IPS TAG and request your current registrar change the details to the new registrar for you.
Furthermore, check carefully the rules for country specific domains, as they may have separate rules. For example, when you transfer a .co.uk domain, the new registration details become public knowledge (unless you 'opt out' after the transfer is complete). With Australian domains .co.au, you must actually be an Australian citizen. Obviously, these are all additional issues your should consider before buying a website.
If this was interesting to you, you may like the others in this series:
My First Time ... Buying a Website
Or some connected Hubs like:
Why not Big Up your Blog? Create some Backlinks
Want more people to read your Blog!?
Boost your Website/Blog - Create some Backlinks Daily.
Next in this series will be 'How to Transfer a Website - Part 2', where I will talk about the details of exactly (yes, you've guess it!) how to transfer a website - including moving the files, hidden files, documents, databases, programs etc.
Whether you choose to keep the current hosting of your website, or buy your own, you should always make sure you have a copy of ALL the files!
© Copyright 2011. Brett.Tesol - Full terms available on Brett.Tesol's profile page (click the blue link for profile, failure to read the Copyright Contract could be expensive. The act of copying this work means that you accept the full terms of the contract, regardless of whether or not you have read it).
Comments
Thank you for your valuable advice, I was able to move my page to my own subdomain... though my hubscore went down several notches lol... which I understand can be a common occurrence in any page. Been reading some of your hubs, they have been helpful and interesting.
Hey Suramya
Thanks for reading. It is actually good for me too, as my memory isn't so great lol. Once it is on here, I will be able to refer to it all and update it any time I want too. Hope it saves a few other readers some surfing time along the way ;-). Thanks for commenting
Definitely useful hub,
Thanks for continuing this series! As all the online users (and possibly many HubPages users) should deal with internet and domains at some point of time, your hub will be pretty important to them and for me too. See ya!
@ Dexter, Cheers for reading and commenting ... hope you get/have a successful website.
@ BlissfulWriter, interesting comment. I didn't know that, but then it also makes perfect sense! Imagine how many backlinks and visitors you would get if you owned 'example.com'!!! lol
Very useful info, Brett. Thanks for sharing!
Certain domain names such as "example.com" and "example.net" can not be transferred because they can not be owned by anyone. They are reserved for writings in documentations, in web articles, and print as "example domain names" so that author can provide an example domain name without inadvertently promoting an "live and active" domain name.
Hi Phil,
Yea, I have found Godaddy.com to pretty affordable and they provide a reliable service (so far). 123-Reg.co.uk also seem to be quite good, but will see how they fair ... however, for now, their help and customer service is proving to be excellent!
P.S. Anyone who comments from now, I will try to reply to + visit all those that leave comments, I'm just out of town for a few days now ....
Hi Snurre - Thanks, glad you liked it. Also, if you use a .co.uk domain, you may want to change your registration details with Nominet (registrars usually do this, but the seller should consider changing this.
I have an account at godaddy as well as a couple of websites and have been quite happy with their service. I find their interface a little bit cumbersome - taking three or four clicks before getting to a website control panel, but anyhow, they are inexpensive so I have been pleased.
Very useful article. I'm thinking of transferring one of my domains. Voted up and useful.
Hi Alocsin,
Cheers for the votes ... think you are my first reader too, well at least the first to comment. I'm trying to create a comprehensive guide, so if I miss anything, please let me know.
I'm glad you wrote this, since I may be transferring my blogger website soon. This is Up and Useful for me.
Brett.Tesol 10 months ago
Hi moiragallaga,
Not a problem. Glad you have made the move. Things may go crazy (traffic and ratings) for the next month or longer, but they will settle and then it will all be up to your articles (unaffected by low quality hubs). My hubscore dropped today too (after rising while I did nothing lol) ... but today I have lots of traffic and comments, so will see how the weeks plan out :-)