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The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Conor writes:

“”I am giving fullname.com domains as gifts for Christmas this year. Any suggestions on how to give as a gift? I am thinking about just registering and hosting myself and if they want to take full control I will transfer it to an account they create. Otherwise, I’m not sure how to register in another person’s name easily (have to create and verify whois info for them and setup payments for them, etc.). Asking Elliot the same, but not sure if there is an easy answer. I know the domain gift card idea has been mentioned previously, but how about just gifting domains in general?”"

   ***FS*** Giving a name domain gift can be a big responsibility ..  and if done correctly, can really change a person’s online life.  I would renew the name for 10 years upfront..  spend the $100 or so, so that the name doesn’t expire right away..  I’d set the name up in a seperate account with a top-tier registrar and a very easy to remember password (unless the name is bobsmith.com it’s unlikely that somebody will try to hack the account and hijack the name) .. You want an easy password because the person receiving your gift may not be net/name savvy and may let their administrative email address lapse at some point over the next 10 years and you don’t want to loose control of that registration.  Conversely you could manage the name on behalf of the gift’s recipient..  I’m still managing family gift names ..  my oldest one is 7 years now.  I couldn’t buy that name back today and have actually had offers to sell the name, so you are doing the right thing..  It’s entirely likely that you won’t be able to get your desired .com first and last name in 5-10 years time.

This entry was posted by frankschilling on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 1:37 PM and is filed under Ask Frank a Question:, Domain Names (Domains). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Comment


  1. Conor Neu says:
    December 11, 2007 at 2:10 AM

    Thank you, Frank, as always I appreciate your advice. The color on your own family gift names is helpful too…I have to imagine I’ll end up managing several of these for a while if I do not put into a seperate account completely. That is an important point to take into account on the purchase. I the end, I think the domains are worth it for these people even though they may not realize it yet, so it is probably worth me managing for now rather than letting them do something wrong. Put them on the bike, but do not take off the training wheels until they ask to do so.

    Regards,

    Conor