How to lose your website's domain name

There's a very easy way to lose your Website's presence on the internet AND all its followers.

Just FORGET TO RENEW YOUR DOMAIN NAME

Your website still exists - but nobody can see it. That's all. It's really very, very simple.

I've lost count of the number of artists and art societies / groups / organisations who have fallen foul of thinking somebody else would remember to remind them that the licence for the domain name needs renewal.

This morning I came across another to add to the list.

Things you must remember

1. You do NOT own your domain name
2. When you pay for a domain name, you license it for a specific period of time
3. If you do NOT renew the licence in time you risk losing your website's presence on the internet i.e. your website ceases to exist
4. If you are unable to re-register the domain name, all the effort you have made to get the domain name recognised is wasted

More VERY IMPORTANT TO BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS TIP at the end - and the last two are critical!

Why are domain names important

Domain names provide a unique way of referencing a single unique site on the internet.

Hence they are very precious. They are that important. 

Quite often people buy their domain names before they've even worked out how they are going to build their website.

Speaking personally, I own far more domain names than I do websites. That's because I've got a bunch of them which were bought for defensive reasons i.e. I didn't want anybody else having the name.

How domain names work

A timely art business reminder

It's a timely reminder for me! 

In the days of digital calendars we can set up reminders to renew:

• website hosts
• domain name registrations
• any other service we pay for relating to our website

The thing is we tend to input credit card details or include a balance on the account to pay for these - thinking everything will just rollover automatically when it comes time to pay. No need to worry

Forgetting that our cards all have expiry dates - and when the card is expired - as mine did at the end of last month - it cannot be used to make the automated payment.

I just spotted the email in time to get things sorted - as my payment was due and the notice about my card having expired had been issued 

This was the notice I got this week.

It's really very easy to lose an email if you get a lot (as I do) and they race off your front page or you're very busy and don't look at your emails for a few days - or you get ill!

So 

• keep a note of the credit card used against each website service / domain name and WHEN it need to be updated
• input the renewal dates for all relevant services to your digital calendar - with an alert set up for a week beforehand and an annual reminder turned on

Otherwise your website or your domain name could end up like VERY MANY I've come across in my time looking for artists websites - offline and potentially dead and buried.

To be honest, the most common problem seems to be the failure to renew the domain name. I've come across many websites which indicate a domain name renewal problem.

It's all in the domain name

This is about:

1. How to make a website domain name work for you as an artist and 
2. One reason why your artist's website is NOT found on the first page of Google when people look for it.

An artist wrote to me today to say I'd not included her website in a list of selected artists. The reason why I hadn't was linked to the nature of the domain name of her website.

BELOW: I explain:

• why her website domain name was a problem and why I couldn't find it;
• some tips on how to choose a domain name which gets found fast by people who don't know you - but may have heard of you.

The selected artists post - matching names to websites

I find and match artists' websites to the names of selected artists and publish a post about this quite often.

Names of artists are often meaningless while a list with embedded links means that those aspiring to be selected can check out the websites to see the standard of work selected. This is enormously helpful to:

• up and coming artists 
• the peers of those selected who have not yet realised that in fact they are actually good enough to submit work via the open entry.

and that's why I do it!

A query

So here's the letter (minus all names)

Hi,

I found your site for the first time today as I was seeking a list of AWS Exhibition artists for 2016. I cam across your list of the 2013 accepted artists where you provide links to the artists' web sites. Mine was not linked, but I have had a site for many years. If you can, at your convenience, please link my name to my site.

I enjoyed your site and will bookmark it for future reading.

Thanks

and here's my response

I've updated the post with your website which I'm always pleased to do for any artist whose website is incorrect or missing.

However please note the following:

• Latterly it's been my practice to put "the name of the artist" + the word 'art' or 'artist' into Google to find the websites for 'selected artists' posts. This is to speed up the search process
• the artist then has 15 seconds to deliver a result - i.e. enough time for me to scan a page to locate the right website. That means that the website MUST turn up on the first page of search results on Google - and preferably in the top half of the page
• if the website doesn't get much traffic and/or there is another artist of the same name then it's quite likely I can't find the website that fast - and it is left

If you wonder why I do this, take a look at the number of artists listed in that (art society acronym) post and then multiply out that number by (say) a minute and you can see very quickly why to do otherwise would waste an awful lot of my time. I used to find that if I just put the name of the artist into Google it could take ages to find the website. It's my habit to "max out" at a minute of searching.

My job is to find the website. It's the artist's job to make sure I can find it fast. Unfortunately I think the addition of the letter "K" in the middle of your domain name really does not help.

Unfortunately if I just put the name "name of the artist" into Google I don't find you. You may say you always use the letter "K" with your name but I don't know that and that is not how your name was listed by the (art society acronym). Invariably it's the names of artists with extra initials which present problems with finding websites.

In my experience, the artists who are competing with others of the same name do much better being found if they add on 'art' or 'artist' after their name. Initials rarely do anything unless the person looking already knows the artist and knows that's how she styles him or herself. Semantically they add nothing.

You may have had a website forever - but the key thing is whether or not people can actually find it.

If you want to test it for yourself you need to do it on somebody else's computer (eg one in a library) which has no record of entering your name or searching for your name - or eliminate all the stored cookies and search history from your computer.

I hope you find this useful

More on the topic of domain names

examples of domain names for artists

In general I recommend:

• Test out whether anybody else with the same name as you owns a website domain name - this is your competition and the domain name you need to differentiate from. 
• ALWAYS use .com for the suffix. It 's the most popular and most easily found by a very long way. It outranks everything else and reigns supreme.  
• ALWAYS use your own name for your artist's website.
• Differentiate yourself and add value in an informative way if you can't get the .com for your name
• Use a country domain name (eg .co.uk) if you can't come up with a .com domain name
• use an extra word in your .com domain name which adds value eg. art, artist, painter, watercolours etc

If you want to make life difficult for yourself use an extra letter in the domain name. NOBODY ever uses letters when referencing you by name - unless you are only ever known by your initials (eg "JR Ewing").

and finally.......

The next time the domain name registrar tells you all about the new whizzbang domain names which exist, do remember that they are in business to make money and sell you things whether or not you need them.

Try and always stick to a .com website if at all possible.