- Don't Lose Your Website

Protecting Your Domain, Your Kingdom
Think of your website as your kingdom. And the key to your web kingdom is your domain. You wouldn’t give the keys to your kingdom to anyone but many small business owners make that very mistake – here’s the scenario.
You start a business and need a website so you find a web developer. The web developer offers to take care of everything. He will register your domain, setup hosting, and build your website. To you this sounds great. Mainly because you have no idea how to register a domain name and are totally lost when it comes to which hosting company to pick. But this is a recipe for disaster.
If someone else registers your domain for you then they own the domain name. In most cases there is no malice intended but small web developers come and go. If your developer goes out of business and disappears then you have no control over your website. This happens all to often.
Worse yet, if your web developer setup the hosting account for your website then you can lose the code. That means you rebuild the website from scratch. But it can get worse. There are many stories about small companies losing total control of their websites that then become sites about unrelated and even unseemly topics.
Control Your Website
To be the master of your domain do these two things:
Register your domain name in your own account
Setup your own web hosting account
Registering Your Domain Name
Registering a domain name is not difficult. There are hundreds of approved registrars – companies approved to register domain names. You select a registrar, create an account and reserve your domain name. You pay an annual fee to own a domain. Each registrar sets the fees they charge, which range from about $8 to $20 a year.
Setup A Hosting Account
There are probably a million companies that offer web hosting. These companies have rooms full of computers (called servers) connected to the Internet. They rent you space on one of the servers where your website will live. The primary job of a hosting company is to keep the server up and running, keep it connected to the Internet, and protect it from hackers. Web hosting for a small business website typically costs from $10 to $30 a month.
Work with Your Developer
Selecting a web hosting company depends on your needs. There’s no reason you should not work with your developer to pick a hosting companies that meets their requirements. The important thing is that you setup the account.
Article Sources & Takeaways: There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of approved domain registrars where you can register your web domain. Setup an account and reserve your domain on your own - don't outsource this step.
If you have no idea which registrar to choose there are many experts that will recommend a domain registrar they have experience with.
It's critical that you own your domain name and you control your web hosting account. This is especially important for small business websites. Think of your business website as an asset. It can bring you new customers and will be considered important if you ever sell your company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mitchell_Adams