I don’t know about you, but I find it particularly annoying when a registrar domain transfer takes far longer than it should. In my opinion, if a domain name is transferred to another domain registrar, it should take no longer than a day to complete as long as all approvals are made by the transferring parties. Unfortunately, it can take up to 5 days for a transfer to be finalized.

Some domain registrars make it very easy to transfer domain names. I’ve transferred names from Enom to GoDaddy in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, I’ve found that some domain registrars seem to make it difficult, and it takes the full 5 days to go through. Perhaps they think that a customer will change his or her mind during that time period or maybe there are other reasons, but it’s frustrating to wait when I know it can be done more quickly.

If you sell a domain name and are awaiting the successful transfer to get paid or if you are consolidating your domain portfolio at one registrar and want it done more quickly, here’s a tip to speed up the domain transfer process.

As I was going through my domain name registrar accounts to change passwords due to the Heartbleed bug, I realized how fortunate I am to have domain names registered at just a few domain registrars. I don’t know how many domain registrars are vulnerable due to the bug, but I do know account security is one of (if not) the most critical components to a domain registrar.

If you are able to do so, I strongly recommend consolidating your domain names at one, two, or three domain registrars for a number of reasons, and I want to share five of them with you. If you have other reasons why you think consolidation is important, feel free to share a comment. If you disagree with me and feel that your domain names should be spread out amongst a variety of domain registrars, you are welcome to share your thoughts about that as well.

1) Account Security – The fewer domain registrar accounts you

Personalized emails are the norm in the banking and finance sectors, and this practice should be utilized by domain registrars who hold our valuable domain name assets. Personalization should be easy for domain registrars to implement, and I don’t see a reason not to use it.

I received an email from a domain registrar yesterday morning, and the email was not addressed to me personally. Shortly after I received the email, I learned that it was most likely a GoDaddy phishing attempt. However, I still think the personalization should be required for all domain registrars on all emails, including marketing emails, transfer completion emails, and any other registrar to customer communication.

Personalizing an email doesn’t necessarily solve the issue of phishing entirely. There is a more targeted phishing attempt called “spear phishing.” This involves a phishing attempt that is very targeted. According to Norton, “the spear phisher thrives on familiarity. He knows your name, your email address, and at least a little about you. ”

To make it even more safe for customers, I think domain registrar emails should also include a bit of account info, perhaps a unique passcode or something else from the user’s account. Maybe the last four digits of the user’s account number. Since many domain administrators receive these emails, it might be more safe to not include payment information like the last 4 of credit cards or social security numbers, but the last 4 digits of an account is pretty innocuous.

With the new Whois verification requirements from ICANN, explained in this article on TheVerge.com, there will likely be many phishing attempts to steal domain registrar account information. Domain registrars need to do their part to ensure customer security, and domain owners need to be wise when it comes to opening these emails and ensuring that they are from their domain registrar and aren’t a phishing attempt.