Did you know your website can be held hostage?
Q: I’m not building my site myself - so why should I know how the domain works?
I have had one too many potential clients who have said they need a new website because they no longer have access to the old one. When I inquire about “How?” it’s usually along the lines of:
“ The person I hired to build it ghosted me and now I don’t have access. “
I then follow up with an important question:
“Did you buy the domain yourself?”
The answer? Almost always “ No”
Owning your domain is so important when it comes to things like transferring your site, your site data, your rights as an artist, and what you post on your site. In other words, owning your domain and understanding how it works- is good artist business practice.
Q: How do I buy my own domain?
Great question. There are two ways I find are the easiest for people to use and understand:
Through a Domain Registration Site
Through a Web Builder
I’ll give you a little breakdown as to what these two things mean.
Domain Registration Site
This is the option I used myself when I first started. A friend told me to buy my domain name as soon as I thought of becoming a professional spoken word artist and he was right! It was really easy, cheap and I did it on the spot on my phone! So Easy!
Namecheap is an example of one of the many domain registration sites.
A domain name registration site is a website where you can go to reserve a name on the Internet (the URL or for example,123.com) for a certain period of time. You will own this site as long as you keep paying for it and they usually cost as little as less than $10 a year and don’t usually go higher than $20 a year (CAD). Mine s about $7.99 a year CAD.
This site will also let you know what is available so you won’t have to worry about duplicating but you will also find out if your ideal site name is taken. (this happens very often with firstnamelastname.com URLs. The best part is that these are easy to transfer if you wish to change web-building sites. (will go into those in a moment).
I recommend this to my clients because it’s easier for me if they wish to change over web builders and for them to have access to that initial purchase of the domain name and have peace of mind knowing where and how the domain was obtained. If something happens to your website or the person you hired to design it locks you out, you will still own the domain, disconnect it and start over.
Examples of Domain registration websites:
NameCheap (this is what I use)
Web Builder
A web builder is a website that allows you to build a website without the knowledge of code. I use the web builder to design my website for clients because one of my goals is to give artists and business control of their content and using a web builder is a way for me to give them a site they can maintain themselves. Ultimately saving money from hiring me to keep updating the site and to understand how certain technologies work. If they do want to hire me again it would be to do a major update or a re-design.
I’m not a fan of locking someone into a website where they have to depend on me forever. I do offer website maintenance packages for my clients who are extremely busy and do not have the time or patience to maintain a site however, as I mentioned before that is not the goal.
Examples of Web builders:Wix, Weebly, WordPress & Squarespace. There are many more
Source: Vancouver Island Designs
A web builder can offer domain names as part of a paid package or you can get a free one with the host’s extension.
For example, Wix has free and paid options. (not all web builders have free options)
Paid options can let you have an example.com domain and a free one would be example.wixsite.com domain name which isn’t bad at all if you’re starting out or are on a lower budget, but eventually, you do definitely want the professional look of having a non-extension site domain ( this also makes it more appealing to potentials clients, buyers etc)
Web builders are awesome because then you can do everything in one place and be done with it. However, sometimes it is harder to transfer from a web builder domain to another one. It’s not impossible, but it does take a little longer ( just hire if you do not want to do it honestly) some web builders make it harder because they don want people to leave their service of course but some web builders do not let you do it at all or make you pay to do it. But If you’re sure about your web builder then honestly go for it!
Examples of Web Builders:
I have used all these at some point or another but the site you’re reading this on was built with Squarespace and my least favorite is WordPress (no offense) simply because I find it the hardest for my clients to navigate or the longest to teach how to navigate and I want my clients to have as seamless an experience as possible.
Q: How does this benefit me as an artist?
I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-C-E
When you begin your working artist journey to gain financial freedom while doing something you love, why start your journey by giving control of your main platform to somebody else, and not understand how something as little as a domain name can shut down your site?
Understanding how to access your domain at any time is crucial to maintaining the independence we strive for as artists who want control over how our art is perceived in the media.
