The Wilder Source

Today, I was finally able to do something that I have been waiting weeks to do. In February, I lost my domain name because the auto renew feature on my account failed to purchase the rights to jacobwilder.com.  When this happened, my domain went into a redemption period that would require me to pay $100 to get it back before it was deleted and returned to be purchased again.

After countless hours on the phone with ‘customer service’ representatives from the registrar, I am still not entirely certain how the whole ordeal went down.  I did know that I was not going to pay the $100. Instead, I opted to wait until my domain was deleted so I could repurchase at the regular rate.

I purchased it today, and I am so relieved to have it back. I learned a valuable lesson today. Protect your brand.

When I first purchased my domain name, I was told that I would be protecting my brand — the Jacob Wilder brand. For the two years that I owned jacobwilder.com, I was proud to know that I was the owner.  I have seen other Jacob Wilders on the web, so owning jacobwilder.com was important to me.

From now on, I will make sure that I personally renew my domain and hosting accounts.  Protecting your online brand is simple, so I will share with you how to do so.

1. Reserve your domain name – Visit a registrar like GoDaddy or Dotster and enter your name in the register your domain box.  See if you can get your name in .com, .net or .org. If it is available, go ahead and order it.  Don’t worry about creating a website; we’ll get to that. If your name isn’t available, get as close as possible. For example, if jacobwilder.com is taken, try ‘thejacobwilder.com,’ ‘jacob-wilder.com’ or ‘kennethjwilder.com.’

2. Build a website – “But I don’t know how to build a website.” Don’t let that stop you.  You can build your website for free with online services like Wix. For a few extra dollars a year, Wix well let you host the site you built on your own domain name. You can also find someone who knows how to build a website and pay them to build one for you.

3. Start a blog - There are several great options for blogging. Wordpress and Blogger are more popular options.  With WordPress you even have the option of installing the open source software directly on your website so that people visit your website to view your blog. I believe I have heard that Google’s Blogger can do this also. I can’t verify that at this time.

4.  Write it all down – Here is where I failed.  Write down all of the login, payment and renewal information for your blog, domain name and hosting. I put my renewal dates in my calendar, so I will always know when a renewal payment is due. Put all the login information in a folder on your computer, or be extra secure and write it on a sheet of paper and file it away.

5. Be Active - Now that you have it. Go out there and participate. Start your blog posts and update your web pages and build your brand.

If you need some ideas or help, you can find my contact information by visiting www.jacobwilder.com.