Do you have a business website? Do you ever plan on having a website for your business? Are you even remotely interested in having a website for your business? If you've answered yes to any of these questions then it's important that you pay special attention to what we're about to discuss here. It won't change your life but it might just save you a gigantic headache and potentially thousands of dollars.

If you plan on either building your own website or having one built for you then you're going to need a domain name. Owning your own .com is a nice feeling and something that has a certain sense of pride to it. When you register your domain (or it's registered for you) there are three critical elements to this:

1. Who actually owns the domain. Make absolutely certain you have 100% legal and financial control over your domain name.

2. The number of years you want to register the domain for. Make sure your domain is registered for at least 5 years.

3. Always, always, always set your domain to automatically renew.

On point one here you want to be absolutely certain that nobody outside of your business has any legal or administrative control over your domain name - for any reason. It's just good business sense to retain 100% control of a company asset.

On point two it's important to register your domain for 5 years for one very simple reason - in case you forget to pay the renewal fees next year. It can happen all too easily too! If you forget to renew your domain ownership then somebody else can register that domain instead. As a matter of fact some individuals wait for just such an opportunity to arise. They'll pay for a service to inform them of the moment your domain name becomes available again on the market. They'll then register the domain themselves and either sell it on the open market or offer it back to you for several thousand dollars. This happens every single day.

Oh and what was the personal experience? Recently I was leaving my home office to drop off some toys to the childrens ward of our local hospital. Before leaving I quickly checked my email and found that I'd forgotten to pay the renewal fees for my domain. DOH! I came within moments of losing my most important domain name. All my email addresses, site logins and a whole pile of other things are tied into that domain. To lose control of the domain would have been catastrophic to me.

If your domain is important to you (and it should be) then take the steps to protect. Register it long term and always have it set to autorenew - never hurts to be cautious with these things.