Whether you are yet to register your first domain or your 30th, here are some things to consider with domain ownership.
Domain Squatters
It’s unfortunate that people profit of peoples pain but be warned that if you ever let your domain expire, it’s possible for someone else to purchase it, and either hold it, or try to sell it back to you at a highly inflated rate.
Example, I once held a domain worth $12, but lost it, a company registered it, and raised it’s price to over $6000 USD.
Now, other than an inconvenience to me I came out pretty unhurt, I wasn’t using the domain for email and it wasn’t my brands primary domain, but how devastating could it be if it was your brands domain?
It’s been a decade, and they still have my unwanted domain.
It can happen to anyone, including Google, in 2020, Samay Ved temporaily bought Google’s domain, the ownership was brief, and Google bought it back.
Whois Database
When you register a domain, the registrants details are accessible via a database which is open to the public. The purpose of this database is to allow people to locate, and contact the owners of a domain.
By default your contact information will be accessible to the public, check to see if your registrar supports ‘domain privacy,’ it’s usually either free, or some registrars monetise this feature at an additional cost with your domain.
Regardless, I do recommend enabling this feature, as you will receive unwanted solicits from companies – you also run the risk of exposing your contact information to people with less good intent (scammers and criminals.)