Buying a domain name for a friend?

[GoodEnough]

I have a GoDaddy account and a hosting plan.
Friend needs a simple website for his small business.
I was thinking of just buying the domain myself, and giving his info for ICANN registrar.
I can then host his small site on my hosting plan for free.

Any downsides with this?

 

[Kneedragger]

First possible issues I see..
If he has way more traffic than your hosting plan can provide and if his website takes up a lot of space you might not have room available..

 

[olds]

First possible issues I see..
If he has way more traffic than your hosting plan can provide and if his website takes up a lot of space you might not have room available..

Or have to pay more to upgrade.

 

[Carson Dyle]

The downside is mostly for _him_. If you two had some kind of falling out, he might lose all control/ownership of the domain name, since you control the domain name registration. You could go in and change all the contact information in a matter of minutes and he'd have little recourse.

His best bet would be to register the domain name himself. I don't know how GoDaddy hosting works, but I imagine you could still host the domain. He should then insist on receiving regular backups of the web site (assuming he's not the developer). If the agreement between you two goes to hell, all he has to do is find a new host, point his name servers at the new host, and restore the backup to the new server.

 

[GoodEnough]

This will be a minimal traffic site.
Think a website for a local handyman.

 

[Kneedragger]

This will be a minimal traffic site.
Think a website for a local handyman.

Then you probably wont need to worry about what I posted in my previous post. :thumbsup:

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's probably easier to manage yourself but make sure he realizes there are costs involved and he has to pay you to make up for it.

The issue if you let him manage it is he'll probably forget the password or overall be neglicent and then you'll be on the hook to try to fix it when there's nothing you can do because all the contact info points to him, the email address is no longer valid etc...

The worse thing that can happen is the domain expires. Typically it never goes back to the wild, it goes to auction and costs 1000's to buy back, or it just turns into an adware site. So if you manage it yourself at least you have access to everything and can easily renew/change DNS etc.

 

[RossMAN]

The downside is mostly for _him_. If you two had some kind of falling out, he might lose all control/ownership of the domain name, since you control the domain name registration. You could go in and change all the contact information in a matter of minutes and he'd have little recourse.

His best bet would be to register the domain name himself. I don't know how GoDaddy hosting works, but I imagine you could still host the domain. He should then insist on receiving regular backups of the web site (assuming he's not the developer). If the agreement between you two goes to hell, all he has to do is find a new host, point his name servers at the new host, and restore the backup to the new server.

Agreed.

1) OP should visit godaddy.com register for a NEW account, domain owner = your friends info, credit card billing = your info. Remember to change his DNS name servers to yours.
2) Remember to use your friends e-mail address.
3) Give your friend the GoDaddy password you used, suggest he log in and change it.
4) .... profit?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Oh and don't support GoDaddy, go with Namecheap or something.

Godaddy not only supports animal poaching but they also supported SOPA. People need to start voting with their wallets more when it comes to world issues.

 

[mikegg]

Never do this. I learned my lesson. It's a hassle maintaining a domain, website, webhost for someone else for free.