There are many great reasons for a person to consider leasing a domain name.   Although the cost of leasing a domain name rather than buying it can be much larger over the long run, it’s a great opportunity for a fledgling business to get started with lower upfront costs.   The company is able to prove their model, and they would hopefully be able to buy the domain name after a set period of time. Also, some domain owners are reticent to sell a prized domain name, so leasing it is a win/win for domain owner and leasee.

While there are plenty of reasons to lease a domain name, there are some things the leasee should consider prior to signing a lease agreement. For the sake of playing devil’s advocate, let’s say you sign a 10 year lease @ $500 month for a great domain name.   You are leasing the domain name from a company owned by a person (or just a person) who registered the name 10 year ago. You build a great interactive website on the domain name, and traffic is growing, revenue is flowing, and all is good.

Four years into your lease, the company owner dies/declares bankruptcy/gets divorced/loses the name in a lawsuit/can’t repay a loan he took on the name…etc. What happens to your website built on this great domain name if something like this happens and the name is no longer owned/controlled by him and/or all living financial agreements are made null by a court?

At the moment, there are many apartment renters who are faced with eviction when their landlord was forced to foreclose.   As for a domain lease, what contingencies are in place in the event of this to 1) prevent losing your ability to lease the name 2) prevent having to pay $xx,xxx in a lawsuit to stay a court order?   It is critical to think about all of this before signing a domain lease and building a website on that domain name.

I’m glad this post isn’t a “I wish I backed up my data before the fire, flood, pool incident…”   Instead, it’s more of a best practice reminder because it’s something I frequently need to remind myself about so I don’t forget to do it.   Back up data!

It’s probably enough to back up all computer data on a flash drive at least once a week, and that flash drive should be kept in a secure location.   If you are so inclined, you might do it every night, especially if you are working on a major web development (or similar) project. In fact, if you are working on anything that would be difficult to start from scratch, it’s a good idea to back-up your drive as much as possible – just don’t keep your flash drive attached to your computer all the time.

Another best practice is to back it up at least once a month with a flash drive that is stored off site – like in a bank deposit box.   If a fire or flood were to ever damage your computer, it’s possible that it will get your back up source if it’s not kept on site.   You should take precautions, because at the very least, if you are audited, the IRS won’t be accepting of a data loss excuse for the reason you can’t produce your files.

Apple has a product called the “Time Capsule” which automatically backs up data while you are working, in a machine that is also your Wifi base.   The Time Capsule, which can store one terabyte of data, is very expensive, but it does automate the process. The downside is that the Time Capsule is kept on site, so a fire or flood would also probably render the data useless.

However you back up your data, please choose to do it often and keep a back-up copy somewhere.   Having a good backing up strategy will help prevent you from having to come up with an emergency data recovery strategy!

There are a lot of people on the domain forums who don’t have much business experience, and there are others who do have business experience but don’t have much Internet forum experience. Many became domain investors by accident, and by one way or another, they found a place like DNForum or NamePros.   I had been selling domain names for two years before even realizing there was a domain industry and   DNforum was the first Internet forum I joined in early 2006.

Yesterday, I received an email from a person who shall remain nameless informing me of a new service he was offering.   I recognized something in his email, which reminded me about a person on DNForum, and a subsequent email revealed that they were “business partners.” After exchanging a couple additional emails, one of which was mysteriously from his partner’s email address – all under the same email string, I became even more suspicious, and I am not interested in working with or publicizing their company as a result.

Whether the emailer and “his partner” are different people using the same Gmail account is something someone else can determine, but I want to use this as an example for a post I had been meaning to write.   I’ve never done business or had a dealing with this person’s “partner,” yet I was reluctant to do any business with him or even work with him because of this person’s domain forum persona.

There are a number of people who I would put in the same category as this person.   From seeing their posts on domain forums, I wouldn’t do business with them for a variety of reasons. There are scammers, spammers, cybersquatters, lowballers and other people whose business practices I find abusive, annoying, or unethical.

Using Google and other free resources, it’s fairly simple to link a person’s name with their online identity (as I did yesterday). I think people should consider the implications for their forum commentary before they post. Not only could it impact their business today, but it could have long term implications, too. Career advisors recommend that job seekers review their Facebook/MySpace pages before applying for jobs.   Likewise, domain investors should know that there are always people who will judge them based on their Internet persona.