18 Nov 08 Whose Web Site is it anyway?

My Web Designer takes care of everything!

What happens when you order a domain name, secure a great value web hosting account to showcase your products and ask your web designer to set up your web site? Do you know how to manage your web hosting account and your email set up? Do you have access to edit your own web site or shopping cart? You don't?! ' Really?? ' You can not be serious.

Like many other people on the internet, you left all the details to your web site with your web developer. You've paid your dues, though ' the invoice came through promptly and you paid it bang on the nail! It's about time you looked at this another way!

When you buy a retail shop or rent commercial space for your bricks and mortar store, you always make sure you have the keys, know how to operate the burglar alarm, understand how to get your post delivered to the premises and install all the necessary phone lines, telephones and faxes and pcs to be able to communicate effectively with your customers. Your insurance company would throw a fit if they you asked them to insure a premises where you didn't have control of the security and access. Even if you only visit once or twice a year, leaving the property in the hands of your staff for most of the year, the buck stops with you.

So, it's really strange that you should be happy to leave control of your web business in the hands of a virtual stranger. Although you may find it difficult to learn your way around your hosting control panel or the control panel for your domain name registration, you are risking your whole online business by not persevering and becoming familiar with the basics of running your web site.

About the author: Margaret MacGillivray is a self-confessed domain-aholic! ' She has bought and sold domains and web sites and software for several years now. Find out more at Sell My Domain - where listing your domain for sale is free, with a modest commission paid only if it is sold.