Once you have chosen the registrar that you will register your domain through, there are a few basic guidelines you may want to consider that can keep your domain safe and alleviate problems that can occur.
Contact E-mail Guidelines
When you register a domain, you are required to provide an e-mail address. This address is used by the registrar to inform you of a number of different things, such as changes that are made to the registering process, changes that you have made to the domain, or to let you know that the domain is about to expire. It is very important to provide an e-mail address that you are certain you are going to have for a long time. Often, people will use an e-mail address that is offered by the Internet Service Provider that they get their Internet access through. This is a risk because they could change providers in the future and not remember to change the contact information at the registrar.
It is also very important to NOT use an e-mail address that is part of the domain you are registering. For example, if you are registering thisdomain.com you would not want to use sally@thisdomain.com as the contact e-mail address.
Lock Your Domain
Domain registrars will offer, through the domain management interface, an option of LOCKING your domain. This is always good as it keeps others from making any changes to your domain settings that you have not authorized.
Check Your Registration Periodically
Just as you should check your credit report regularly, you should check your domain registration regularly. You want to do this because things DO change, and you may find you forgot to change an entry with your registration when the change occurred. You want to be sure the Administrative Contact name, address, phone number, and e-mail address correctly reflect the owner of the domain; the Administrative Contact is expected to be the domain’s owner, and is authorized to make all changes.
Know Your Registrar
There are companies that will try to trick you into a number of different things. Namely, purchasing another domain name or renewing a domain name with them instead of your current registrar. These companies will send email, fax, and snail mail notices that look very official. So, it is a good idea to know who you have your domains registered with. If you ever have any questions, your registrar or hosting provider should be able to help.