Use a premium DNS service, not your registrar’s free DNS.
The Tourist Map vs. The Live GPS
Your registrar’s free DNS is like the free paper map you get at a tourist kiosk. It shows you the main roads and will eventually get you to your destination. A premium DNS service is like a modern, live GPS navigator. It has a global network of satellites, it knows about traffic jams in real-time, and it will always calculate the absolute fastest and most efficient route to your website from anywhere in the world. For a serious business, that instant, optimized connection is a crucial advantage.
Stop using your hosting provider as your domain registrar. Do keep them separate instead.
The Deed to Your Land
Your domain name is the official deed to your digital land. Your website is the house you build on that land. Keeping your registrar and host separate is like keeping the deed to your land in a secure bank vault, not in the glove box of your builder’s truck. If you ever have a dispute with your builder (your host) or want to move your house, they can’t hold your land hostage. This separation gives you ultimate control and ownership over your most valuable digital asset.
Stop just updating your nameservers. Do learn to manage your own DNS zone records instead.
The Mail Forwarding Service vs. The Mailbox
Using your host’s nameservers is like telling the post office, “Forward all my mail to this one specific building.” You have no control over what happens inside. Managing your own DNS records is like having the keys to your own private mailbox at that building. You can create separate slots for different types of mail (like email vs. web traffic), set up special forwarding rules (CNAMEs), and change where your mail goes without having to move the entire mailbox, giving you much more power and flexibility.
The #1 secret for faster website access globally is an Anycast DNS network.
The Global Coffee Shop Franchise
Imagine you want a specific brand of coffee. With a regular DNS, every request has to go to the original coffee shop in Seattle. An Anycast DNS network is like a global franchise. When you want that coffee in London, your request doesn’t travel across the ocean. Instead, it’s automatically routed to the nearest London branch of that same coffee shop. You get the exact same product, but the delivery is almost instant because the distance is a thousand times shorter.
I’m just going to say it: Your “free” domain isn’t free; you’re just locked into an ecosystem with high renewal fees.
The “Free” Puppy
A pet store offers you a “free” puppy, which sounds like a wonderful deal. The catch? The adoption contract legally requires you to buy their overpriced, premium brand of dog food for the rest of the puppy’s life. The “free” domain from your web host is that puppy. The initial cost is zero, but it locks you into their ecosystem. The cost of the domain is hidden in the higher hosting renewal rates you’ll be forced to pay year after year.
The reason your new site isn’t working is because you haven’t waited for DNS propagation to complete.
The Change of Address Memo
You’ve just moved your store to a new location. You send a “change of address” memo to every post office in the world. This is DNS propagation. It takes time for that memo to reach every single location and for every mail carrier to update their route. For a while, some visitors will correctly go to your new address, while others, whose local post office is slow, will still go to the old, empty location. You have to wait until everyone gets the memo.
If you’re still manually updating an A record for your dynamic IP, you’re losing out on the convenience of Dynamic DNS (DDNS).
The Magical Moving House
Imagine your house moved to a new street every single day. If you wanted friends to visit, you’d have to call them each morning with your new address. This is like manually updating an A record for a home server. Dynamic DNS (DDNS) is like a magical address book. Your house automatically tells the book its new location the moment it moves. Your friends only ever need to know the name in the book, and they’ll always be directed to the right place, no daily phone calls needed.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about domain names is that the TLD (.com, .net, .org) significantly impacts your SEO.
The Color of Your Front Door
Your website’s quality is the house. Your domain’s TLD is the color of your front door. Search engines care about the quality of the house: Is it well-built? Is it full of great information? Do people like visiting? They don’t care if the front door is blue (.com), green (.net), or red (.org). While .com is often best for brand recognition, a great website on a .org domain will always outrank a terrible website on a .com. Focus on building a great house, not on the paint color.
I wish I knew about DNS propagation when I first launched a website and thought it was broken.
The Confused Friends
When I launched my first site, it was like throwing a housewarming party. I sent out the new address to all my friends. I could see the house perfectly, but when my friends called, they said they were standing at an empty lot. I thought I’d messed everything up. What I didn’t know was that some of their GPS systems (DNS resolvers) were slower to update than mine. My friends were still being sent to the old, empty address. The party wasn’t broken; they just needed to wait for the directions to update.
99% of beginners make this one mistake: letting their domain expire, even for a day.
Forgetting to Pay the Rent
Letting your domain expire is like forgetting to pay the rent on your prime, corner storefront in the busiest part of town. The very next day, the landlord can lock you out and rent the space to a competitor, who will then happily serve all of your confused customers. That one-day lapse can lead to a competitor hijacking your brand, intercepting your email, and destroying the business you spent years building. The cost of renewal is tiny compared to the catastrophic cost of expiration.
This one small action of enabling domain privacy (WHOIS protection) will change the amount of spam you receive forever.
The Public vs. The Unlisted Phone Number
Registering a domain without privacy protection is like agreeing to have your full name, home address, and personal phone number published in a massive, public phone book. This book, the WHOIS database, is a goldmine for spammers and scammers who scrape it automatically. Enabling domain privacy is like getting an unlisted number. It replaces your personal information with the generic contact information of a forwarding service, shielding you from an endless barrage of unwanted calls and emails.
Use a registrar with DNSSEC support, not one without it, for an extra layer of security.
The Tamper-Proof Seal
When you receive an important package, it often has a special, tamper-proof seal. This seal doesn’t hide the contents, but it guarantees that the package wasn’t opened and altered on its journey. DNSSEC is the digital equivalent of that seal. It adds a cryptographic signature to your DNS records, proving to visitors that the information they received from your server is authentic and hasn’t been secretly changed by a hacker along the way, preventing a common type of attack.
Stop registering domains with your web designer. Do maintain full control of your own domain assets instead.
The Deed to Your House
Your domain name is the legal deed to your digital property. Asking your web designer to register it for you is like asking your interior decorator to buy your house and put their own name on the deed. It might seem convenient at first, but it means they are the legal owner, not you. If you ever have a disagreement or want to switch designers, they could hold your entire online presence hostage. Always register your own domain, with your own account.
Stop just using A records. Do use CNAME records for subdomains that point to external services.
The Street Address vs. The Forwarding Note
An A record is a specific street address. It points a name directly to a physical location (an IP address). A CNAME record is different. It’s like putting a note on your door that says, “For all deliveries, please go to the address of the main Post Office.” This is useful for subdomains that use third-party services, like an email marketing platform. If that service ever changes its address, you don’t have to update your records; the forwarding note automatically points to the new location.
The #1 hack for a near-instant site migration is lowering your DNS TTL values before you change the records.
The Expiration Date on Milk
Your DNS records have a “Time to Live” (TTL) value, which is like the expiration date on a carton of milk. It tells servers how long to keep your website’s address in their memory before checking for a new one. A high TTL is like a long expiration date. By lowering the TTL from 24 hours to 1 minute before you migrate, you’re telling the world’s servers, “Start checking for my new address every single minute.” This ensures that when you do make the change, everyone sees it almost instantly.
I’m just going to say it: Most new gTLDs are a waste of money and have no brand recognition.
The Trendy New Suburb
New gTLDs like .pizza, .ninja, or .club are like trendy, new suburbs built in a remote area. They might sound cool and clever, but most people have never heard of them and don’t know how to get there. Your customers are conditioned to look for and trust the established downtown core: .com. Choosing a trendy TLD often just leads to confusion, forcing you to constantly explain that your address is “jimmy.pizza,” not the “jimmy.com” everyone will type by default.
The reason your email is going to spam is because you haven’t set up the correct MX, SPF, and DKIM records.
The Digital Postal Service
These DNS records are the foundation of a trustworthy email system. The MX record is like telling the post office which building your mailbox is in. The SPF record is like providing a list of your official, uniformed mail carriers, proving the email came from an authorized server. The DKIM record is like a unique, tamper-proof wax seal on the envelope, verifying that the message wasn’t forged. Without these, you look like a stranger sending a suspicious, unmarked package.
If you’re still using your host’s nameservers, you’re losing the flexibility and performance of a dedicated DNS provider like Cloudflare.
The Landlord’s Mailroom vs. A Private FedEx Account
Using your host’s nameservers is like using the basic mailroom in your apartment building. It works, but it can be slow and offers few features. Switching to a dedicated DNS provider is like getting your own corporate FedEx account. You get access to a massive, global, high-speed delivery network with advanced features like package tracking (analytics) and security screening (WAF). For most people, a free Cloudflare account provides a huge, immediate upgrade over the default option.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about domain transfers is that they are instantaneous.
Transferring a Bank Account
You wouldn’t expect to be able to walk into a new bank and have all your money from your old bank instantly appear in your new account. There’s a verification process. Both banks need to communicate, confirm your identity, and securely handle the transfer. A domain transfer is the same. It’s a formal change of legal ownership. The old registrar, the new registrar, and the global registry all have to process the paperwork, which can take several days to complete.
I wish I knew to unlock my domain and get the EPP code before initiating a transfer.
The Car Title and the Keys
When I first tried to transfer a domain, it kept failing, and I had no idea why. It’s like trying to sell your car but forgetting two crucial things. First, you have to “unlock” the domain at your current registrar, which is like taking the anti-theft club off the steering wheel. Second, you need the “EPP code” or authorization code, which is like the car’s official title. Without both of these, the DMV (the new registrar) cannot legally process the change of ownership.
99% of users make this one mistake: registering a domain name that is too long or difficult to spell.
The Unmemorable Business Name
Imagine opening a new restaurant and calling it “Superlative Culinary Gastronomy and Exquisite Delights Emporium.” No one will ever be able to remember it, spell it, or tell their friends about it. A domain name is your business’s front door on the internet. It needs to be short, memorable, and easy to type. A clever pun that’s hard to spell is a marketing disaster waiting to happen. Simple and clear will always win.
This one small habit of enabling auto-renewal on your critical domains will save you from a potential disaster.
The Automatic Mortgage Payment
You would never risk your house being foreclosed on because you forgot to mail a check one month. You set up automatic payments for your mortgage. Your primary domain name is your digital house; it’s your most critical asset. Manually renewing it is risky—emails get missed, credit cards expire. Enabling auto-renewal is the simple, set-and-forget habit that acts as a safety net, ensuring your business never becomes homeless due to a simple, preventable oversight.
Use a registrar that offers a free email forwarding service.
The Digital P.O. Box
You want a professional email address like contact@yourbusiness.com, but you don’t want to pay for a full email hosting plan. A registrar with free email forwarding is the perfect solution. It’s like getting a free P.O. Box at the post office. Any mail sent to your professional address is automatically and instantly forwarded to your personal Gmail or Outlook account. It gives you a professional appearance while allowing you to manage everything from the inbox you already use.
Stop just pointing your domain to an IP address. Do use URL forwarding for your secondary domains instead.
The Sign on the Empty Lot
You own two pieces of land: your main store is at 123 Main Street, and you also own an empty lot at 456 Second Avenue. You don’t want to build a second store. Instead, you put a giant sign on the empty lot that says, “Our store is located at 123 Main Street.” URL forwarding does this for your domains. If you own a secondary domain, don’t just point it at your server. Forward it to your main domain, so visitors are always taken to the correct, canonical version of your website.
Stop just having a single A record. Do set up redundant A records for failover if your provider supports it.
The Two Bridges into Town
Imagine there is only one bridge leading to your city. If that bridge collapses, the city is completely cut off. A smart city would build a second bridge as a backup. Some DNS providers allow you to set up two A records for your website, pointing to two different servers. If your primary server (the first bridge) goes down, DNS failover can automatically redirect all traffic to your backup server (the second bridge), ensuring your city remains accessible.
The #1 secret for setting up professional email is the TXT record for domain verification.
The Secret Code in the Window
You sign up for a professional email service like Google Workspace. To prove you actually own your domain, they need you to verify it. This is like the bank needing to confirm you own your house. They will give you a secret, random code (a TXT record) and ask you to “place it in your front window for an hour.” By adding this record to your DNS, you are displaying the secret code, proving to the service that you are the legitimate owner and have control of the property.
I’m just going to say it: The domain registrar with the Super Bowl ads is one of the most expensive options.
The Brand-Name Cereal
In the grocery store, the sugary, brand-name cereal with the cartoon mascot and the primetime TV commercials is always placed at eye-level. It’s also usually twice the price of the store brand in the bottom aisle, which is often made in the exact same factory. The registrars who can afford to run expensive Super Bowl ads have to pay for that marketing somehow. They do it by charging you higher prices for domains and add-on services.
The reason your domain transfer failed is because you have domain privacy enabled, which can block verification emails.
The Anonymous Letter
You’re trying to transfer a bank account, a process that requires the bank to mail a verification letter to your home address. But you’ve signed up for a service that replaces your address with a generic P.O. box. The crucial verification letter never reaches you, and the transfer is canceled. When you transfer a domain, an important confirmation email is sent to the owner’s address on file. If your domain privacy service is blocking that address, you’ll never receive the email, causing the transfer to fail.
If you’re still managing DNS through a clunky, old interface, you’re losing time to modern, API-driven DNS services.
The Paper Ledger vs. The Spreadsheet
Managing your DNS through an old, slow web interface is like doing your company’s accounting with a paper ledger and a pencil. It works, but it’s inefficient and prone to human error. A modern DNS provider with a clean interface and an API is like upgrading to a powerful spreadsheet program. It allows you to make changes quickly, manage records in bulk, and even automate repetitive tasks, saving you an enormous amount of time and effort.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about premium domains is that they are a guaranteed path to success.
The Prime Real Estate Location
Buying a premium, multi-million dollar domain name is like securing the single best retail location in the heart of Times Square. It gives you a massive, undeniable advantage in foot traffic and brand recognition. However, if you open a store there that has a terrible product, bad service, and high prices, your business will still fail. The location gets them to the door, but it doesn’t guarantee a sale. The quality of your business is what ultimately matters.
I wish I knew that my domain registration information was public by default.
The Unlisted Number You Never Asked For
When I registered my first domain, I assumed my personal information was private. I had no idea it was like getting a new phone and the phone company automatically publishing your name, address, and cell number in the public phone book without asking. The flood of spam calls and emails was a complete shock. Learning that I had to proactively purchase WHOIS privacy to make my number “unlisted” was a critical lesson in how the domain system works.
99% of agencies make this one mistake: registering client domains in their own name instead of the client’s.
The Architect Who Owns the Building
An agency registering a client’s domain in their own name is like an architect who designs a skyscraper and then puts their own name on the property deed. It creates a hostage situation. The client, who paid for the building, is not the legal owner. If the client ever wants to fire the architect, the architect can refuse to hand over the deed. The domain—the client’s core business asset—must always be registered in the client’s name, with the agency listed only as a technical contact.
This one small action of setting up a DMARC record will change how you protect your domain from being spoofed forever.
The Official Company Policy
Setting up a DMARC record is like your company sending an official policy memo to every mailroom in the world. The memo says, “You will be receiving packages from us. Every authentic package will have our special seal (DKIM) and be delivered by our uniformed carriers (SPF). If you receive a package that claims to be from us but fails these checks, you have our official permission to throw it directly into the incinerator.” It’s a powerful tool to prevent others from impersonating your email address.
Use a DNS provider with a global network, not one with servers in only one country.
The Single Post Office
Imagine if all the mail in the entire world had to be routed through a single, central post office in Kansas. A letter sent from next door would be fast, but a letter sent from Japan would take forever. A DNS provider with a global, Anycast network is like having a fully-staffed, identical post office in every major city in the world. Mail is always handled by the closest location, making the entire system incredibly fast and resilient for everyone, everywhere.
Stop guessing if your DNS has propagated. Do use an online DNS checker tool instead.
The Global Roll Call
You’ve sent out a change of address memo to post offices around the world. How do you know who has received it? You could call a few friends in different cities and ask. An online DNS checker tool is like a global switchboard that can instantly poll hundreds of post offices from Brazil to Japan to Australia. It shows you, in real-time, exactly which locations are reporting your new address and which are still using the old one.
Stop just letting a domain expire. Do try to sell it on the aftermarket instead.
The Abandoned Storefront
If you decide to close your business, you wouldn’t just abandon your valuable, long-term lease on a prime retail storefront. You would try to sell the lease to another business owner who wants that great location. If you have a domain name with a good history, traffic, or brand potential, don’t just let it expire and vanish. Listing it for sale on a domain aftermarket is the smart way to recoup some of your initial investment from someone else who can see its value.
The #1 tip for choosing a domain is to make sure the social media handles are also available.
The Consistent Brand Name
Imagine opening a new coffee shop called “Starlight Brews.” You secure the domain starlightbrews.com. But then you discover that the username @StarlightBrews is already taken on every single social media platform. This creates a confusing, disjointed brand identity. Before you ever purchase a domain, the very first thing you should do is check to see if the matching name is also available on all the social networks you plan to use. Brand consistency is key.
I’m just going to say it: It’s almost never worth it to backorder an expiring domain.
Waiting for the Perfect Parking Spot
Backordering a domain is like sitting in your car in a crowded parking lot, waiting for a specific person in a prime spot to leave, hoping you can snag it the second they pull out. In reality, the owner will likely just renew their “parking pass.” Even if they don’t, there are probably a dozen other people waiting for that same spot, and a high-stakes auction will likely follow. Your chances are slim, and you’ll probably just waste your time.
The reason you can’t access your site is a DNS caching issue on your local computer or network.
The Outdated GPS
A restaurant moves to a new location. The whole world knows and has updated their maps. But the old, outdated GPS navigator in your specific car hasn’t gotten the update yet. It keeps stubbornly trying to take you to the old, empty building. A local DNS cache is that GPS. Your computer or router will often store old addresses in its memory for speed. Sometimes, you need to manually clear that memory to force it to look up the new, correct address.
If you’re still using your ISP’s DNS resolvers, you’re losing speed and privacy to public resolvers like 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8.
The Small Town Library vs. The National Archive
Your Internet Service Provider’s DNS is like a small, underfunded town library. It’s slow, its collection is limited, and the librarian is watching every book you check out. Public resolvers from Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and Google (8.8.8.8) are like a massive, state-of-the-art national archive. They are incredibly fast, have a copy of every book imaginable, and are built with privacy in mind. Switching is a free, two-minute change that can make your entire internet experience faster and more secure.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about domains is that you ever truly “own” them; you’re just leasing them.
The Long-Term Lease
You don’t truly “own” your domain name in the way you own a car. The domain system is governed by a global authority (ICANN). You are actually just paying for an exclusive, long-term lease on that name. As long as you keep paying the annual “rent” (your renewal fee) to your registrar, you maintain the right to use it. But the moment you stop paying, the lease is terminated, and the property goes back on the market.
I wish I knew the difference between a domain registrar and a web host when I was starting out.
The Land and the House
When I started, I thought they were the same thing. It’s a common confusion. The domain registrar is the real estate office where you buy the legal deed to a plot of land (yourname.com). The web host is the construction company that you rent a pre-built house from, which you then place on your land. You can change your house (host) at any time, but you always maintain ownership of the land (domain) itself.
99% of small businesses make this one mistake: not registering common misspellings of their domain name.
The Typo in the Address
Your business is located at “123 Main Street.” But you know that people often mistakenly type “123 Mane Street.” To avoid confusion, you would tell the post office to forward any mail for the wrong address to your correct one. You should do the same with your domain. If your business is mikeshardware.com, you should also register mikeshardwear.com. This simple, inexpensive step catches common typos and ensures those customers find you, not a competitor or an error page.
This one small habit of keeping your WHOIS contact information up to date will ensure you never miss an important notice.
The Courthouse Records
The WHOIS database is the official courthouse record for your digital property. It contains your official “mailing address.” If there is ever a legal dispute over your domain or an urgent notice from the registry, this is the address they will use. If your contact information is five years out of date, you will never receive that critical, time-sensitive letter, which could result in you losing your domain without even knowing there was a problem.
Use a service that monitors your DNS records for unauthorized changes.
The Security Alarm for Your Mailbox
Imagine a security service that sends you a text alert the moment an unauthorized person tries to change the address on your mailbox. This is what a DNS monitoring service does. It keeps a constant watch on your website’s most critical records. If a hacker ever manages to gain access and tries to redirect your website or email to a malicious server, you will receive an immediate alert, allowing you to stop the attack before it can do serious damage.
Stop using a wildcard DNS record unless you have a specific, valid reason to do so.
The Master Key
A wildcard DNS record is like a master key that unlocks every single door in an entire city. It tells the server that any possible subdomain should point to your website. While this can seem convenient, it’s a huge security risk. It means that if a hacker finds a vulnerability in any corner of your system, they can use it to create and exploit an infinite number of subdomains. You should use specific, individual keys for each door, not a dangerous master key.
Stop just registering the .com version. Do register the .net and .org to protect your brand.
Buying the Empty Lots Next Door
You’ve just built your flagship store on a prime piece of real estate. To protect your investment, you would also buy the two empty lots on either side. This prevents a direct competitor from moving in right next to you and confusing your customers. Registering the .net and .org versions of your .com domain name is the digital equivalent of buying those lots. It’s an inexpensive way to prevent brand confusion and stop someone else from profiting off your name.
The #1 secret for running A/B tests without changing your site code is using DNS-level traffic splitting.
The Smart Traffic Cop
Imagine you have two different versions of your store entrance, and you want to see which one is more effective. You can hire a smart traffic cop to stand out front and direct every other person to a different door. This is what some advanced DNS providers can do. They can be configured to send 50% of your website traffic to Server A and 50% to Server B. This allows you to test major changes and new designs without ever touching your application’s code.
I’m just going to say it: You don’t need to buy the domain protection upsell from your registrar; basic security practices are enough.
The “Premium” Car Lock
The car dealership tries to sell you an expensive, “premium” anti-theft package. But in reality, it’s not much more effective than just remembering to lock your doors and not leaving your keys in the ignition. The “Domain Ownership Protection” upsell from your registrar is the same. It sounds important, but you can achieve the same or better level of security for free by simply using a strong password, enabling two-factor authentication, and using a registrar lock.
The reason your subdomain isn’t working is because you created a CNAME record on your root domain, which is not allowed.
The Forwarding Address for a Whole City
Imagine you live in the city of Springfield. A CNAME record is a mail forwarding instruction. You are not allowed to go to the main post office and declare that all mail for the entire city of Springfield should now be forwarded to your one specific house. It breaks the whole system. The root domain (springfield.com) is the entire city. You can only place a forwarding instruction on a specific address within that city, like house.springfield.com.
If you’re still waiting 48 hours for DNS changes, your DNS provider is not using modern instant-propagation technology.
The Pony Express vs. Email
Waiting up to 48 hours for a DNS change to take effect is like sending a message via the Pony Express. It was the standard a long time ago, but it’s absurdly slow by today’s standards. A modern, high-performance DNS provider is like email. They have technology that actively pushes your updates out to the entire world in seconds. If you are still experiencing long propagation delays, it’s a clear sign that your DNS provider is stuck in the past.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) is that you have to live in that country to register one.
The Themed Restaurant
Many country-code TLDs are like themed restaurants. The country of Tuvalu (.tv) realized their digital address was perfect for the television industry, so they opened it up for anyone in the world to register. The same is true for Colombia (.co, for companies) and Libya (.ly, for services like Bit.ly). While some countries, like Canada (.ca), do have strict residency requirements, many others are completely open and can be used for creative branding purposes.
I wish I knew that some registrars charge a fee to transfer a domain away from them.
The Moving-Out Fee
Imagine you’re moving out of an apartment. You’ve paid all your rent and are ready to leave. But then, the landlord hits you with a surprise “moving-out fee,” an extra charge just for the privilege of leaving. Some domain registrars have this same, user-hostile policy. They will charge you an administrative fee to transfer your own domain asset to another company. It’s a critical piece of fine print to check for before you ever register a domain with them.
99% of bloggers make this one mistake: choosing a trendy domain name that will sound dated in a few years.
The Fidget Spinner Store
Imagine in 2017 you decided to start a business and called it “Fidget Spinner Fads Forever.” It was trendy for a moment, but it sounds completely ridiculous and dated now. When choosing a domain name, avoid tying it to a specific year, a fleeting piece of technology, or a temporary cultural trend. A strong brand name is timeless. Focus on a name that will still make sense and sound professional ten years from now.
This one small action of creating an SRV record will change how you connect to services like Minecraft or VoIP forever.
The Direct Line to the Dispatcher
Normally, DNS just tells you the address of a building. An SRV record is a special, more detailed type of record. It’s like looking in the phone book and not just finding the address for the pizza place, but also finding the secret, direct phone number to their delivery dispatcher, including which port to use. This is essential for services like online gaming or internet phone calls, as it allows your computer to connect directly to the correct service at the correct port.
Use a DNS provider with an API, not just a web interface, for automating record management.
The Manual vs. The Robotic Assembly Line
Using a web interface to manage your DNS is like assembling a product by hand. It’s fine for one or two items. An API is like having a fully programmable, robotic assembly line. It allows you to write scripts that can automatically create, update, and delete thousands of DNS records instantly and without any human error. For a business that needs to manage DNS at scale, an API is not a luxury; it is an absolute necessity.
Stop using your domain registrar’s default parking page. Do redirect it to your main site instead.
The Empty Storefront
A parked domain with your registrar’s ads on it is like owning an empty storefront that has a giant “FOR RENT” sign from a competing real estate company in the window. It’s a waste of a valuable asset and looks unprofessional. At the very least, you should put up a simple sign that redirects any potential customers to your main store’s location. A simple redirect ensures that any traffic that lands on your secondary domain finds its way to your actual business.
Stop just renewing your domain year after year. Do shop around for a cheaper registrar and transfer it.
The Loyal Insurance Customer
You’ve been with the same car insurance company for ten years, and your premium slowly creeps up every year. You assume you’re getting a good deal for your loyalty. But if you were to spend 30 minutes shopping around, you’d likely find another reputable company offering the exact same coverage for a much lower price. Your domain registrar is the same. Don’t let complacency cost you money. It’s easy to transfer, and the savings can be significant.
The #1 hack for finding a taken domain name’s owner is to do a historical WHOIS lookup.
The Property Deed History
You want to buy a specific house, but the current owner has a private, unlisted number. How do you contact them? You can go to the county records office and look up the property’s history of past owners. A historical WHOIS lookup is the digital version of this. Even if the current owner’s information is private, you can often find the name and contact information of a previous owner, who might be able to help you get in touch with the current one.
I’m just going to say it: The ICANN fees your registrar charges are legitimate, but their “administrative” fees are not.
The Tax vs. The “Convenience Fee”
When you buy a product, the store has to charge you a government sales tax. This is a legitimate, mandatory fee. The ICANN fee on your domain registration is that tax. However, some stores will also add their own made-up “convenience fee” or “service charge” to the bill just to pad their profits. The “administrative” fees charged by some registrars are exactly this. They are not a required tax, but a junk fee they are hoping you won’t notice.
The reason you’re getting so much spam is that your WHOIS information is being scraped.
The Public Phone Book
Imagine if, when you got a new phone, your number was automatically published in a giant, public phone book for the entire world to see. Telemarketers and scammers would have a field day. The WHOIS database is that public phone book for domain owners. Unless you use a domain privacy service to make your number “unlisted,” your email address is publicly available for automated programs to “scrape” and add to their spam lists.
If you’re still managing more than 10 domains through a web interface, you’re losing efficiency by not using a bulk management tool.
The Single vs. The Fleet Mechanic
If you own one car, you can manage its maintenance just fine. If you are in charge of a fleet of 100 delivery trucks, you need a specialized software system to manage them all efficiently. The same is true for domains. A good registrar will offer bulk management tools that allow you to change nameservers, update contacts, or renew dozens of domains at once, with a single click. It turns a tedious, multi-hour task into a simple, two-minute one.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about DNS is that it’s too complicated for a beginner to manage.
Driving a Car
You don’t need to know how to build an internal combustion engine to know how to drive a car. Modern DNS management is the same. You don’t need to understand the deep, technical complexities of the protocol. You just need to learn what a few of the basic “dials” do: the A record is the gas pedal, the CNAME is the turn signal. With a modern, user-friendly interface, managing the basic DNS records for a website is a surprisingly simple and learnable skill.
I wish I knew what a time-to-live (TTL) value was and how it affected my website changes.
The “Best Before” Date
When I first made a DNS change, I was frustrated that it took so long. I didn’t understand TTL. The Time-to-Live (TTL) value on a DNS record is like the “Best Before” date on a carton of milk in a grocery store. It tells the store how long it should keep that carton on the shelf before it needs to check the back room for a fresher one. A long TTL meant everyone kept using my old “milk” for hours, even after I had delivered a fresh carton.
99% of e-commerce stores make this one mistake: not having a CAA record, which can prevent mis-issuance of SSL certificates.
The Authorized Locksmith
A CAA record is like putting a sign on the front door of your business that says, “ATTENTION: Only the locksmiths from ‘A+ Lock and Key’ are authorized to make copies of this key.” It’s a simple instruction that prevents a scammer from tricking a different, less careful locksmith into issuing a fraudulent key to your store. This DNS record tells the world which specific Certificate Authorities are allowed to issue SSL certificates for your domain, adding a crucial layer of security.
This one small habit of periodically checking your DNS records for old, unused entries will improve your security and hygiene.
Cleaning Out the Garage
Over time, your garage accumulates junk: old projects, leftover parts, and tools you no longer use. Your DNS zone is the same. It can fill up with old records from services you no longer use or subdomains you set up for temporary tests. This clutter is a security risk. The simple habit of opening up your DNS records once a year and deleting all the old, unnecessary entries is like cleaning out the garage. It makes things tidy, efficient, and more secure.
Use a registrar that supports two-factor authentication to protect your domains from hijacking.
The Bank Vault Key
Your domain is one of your most valuable business assets. Just having a password on your registrar account is like locking a bank vault with a simple padlock. Two-factor authentication (2FA) is the modern standard for security. It’s like requiring both the padlock key and a secret, one-time code from your phone to open the vault. It adds a powerful, essential layer of protection that makes it dramatically harder for a thief to steal your domain.
Stop using a long, ugly URL for your cloud storage. Do use a CNAME record with a custom subdomain instead.
The Custom Signpost
Your files might be stored on a service with a long, ugly address like https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/my-bucket-12345. Giving this address to people is unprofessional. A CNAME record is like putting up a simple, elegant signpost. You can create a subdomain like downloads.mycompany.com and have it point to that ugly address. Now, your users get a clean, branded link, while all the files are still managed by the powerful cloud service behind the scenes.
Stop just letting a domain enter the redemption period. Do renew it before it expires to avoid hefty fees.
The Towing Impound Lot
If you let your domain expire, it doesn’t just vanish. First, it goes into a “redemption period.” This is like your car being towed to an impound lot. You can still get it back, but the impound lot is going to charge you a massive, punitive fee—often over $100—on top of the original parking ticket. Renewing your domain before it expires is like moving your car before it gets towed. It’s the simple, cheap way to avoid a very expensive and unnecessary penalty.
The #1 secret for a smooth email provider migration is to lower the TTL on your MX records beforehand.
The Post Office Memo
You’re about to move your company’s P.O. Box from one post office to another. Your MX records tell the world which post office handles your mail. These records have a Time-to-Live (TTL), which is a “check for updates” timer. A week before the move, you should lower this timer from 24 hours to just 1 minute. This is like sending a memo to every mail carrier telling them, “Start checking for our new address every single minute.” This ensures that when you do make the switch, the mail starts flowing to the new location almost instantly.
I’m just going to say it: That domain appraisal tool is wildly inaccurate and just trying to get you to buy services.
The Psychic on the Street Corner
An online domain appraisal tool is like a psychic on a street corner who tells you that your cheap plastic ring is actually a priceless antique worth a million dollars. They do this to get you excited, so you’ll pay them for their “special” appraisal certificate or their “expert” brokerage services. These automated tools use simplistic, flawed metrics and have no real understanding of the market. Their valuations are meaningless and designed to upsell you.
The reason your website shows a security warning is a DNS mismatch in your SSL certificate.
The Mismatched ID
An SSL certificate is the ID card for your website. It proves that www.example.com is really www.example.com. A DNS mismatch is like showing a bouncer an ID where the name on the card doesn’t quite match the name on the guest list. Maybe the list just says example.com without the www. The bouncer sees this mismatch, gets suspicious, and refuses you entry. You need to ensure your DNS records and your SSL certificate’s list of names are in perfect alignment.
If you’re still using a registrar with poor customer support, you’re risking your most important digital asset.
The Unresponsive Fire Department
Your domain registrar is the fire department for your most valuable digital property. If your house (your domain) is on fire because of a hijacking attempt or a critical billing error, you need to be able to reach them instantly. A registrar with slow, incompetent, or non-existent support is like a fire department that doesn’t answer the phone. The small amount of money you might save is not worth the catastrophic risk of losing everything in an emergency.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about DNS is that changes are always slow; with a good provider, they can be nearly instant.
The Myth of the Slow Postal Service
People have an outdated idea that DNS is like the postal service from a century ago, where every change takes days to cross the country. While that used to be true, a modern, high-performance DNS provider is like a global, instantaneous teleportation system. They use advanced technology to actively push updates around the world in seconds. If you’re still experiencing long delays, it’s not a limitation of DNS itself; it’s a limitation of your outdated provider.
I wish I knew how to set up a catch-all email forwarder when I first got my domain.
The Mailbox That Accepts Everything
When I got my first domain, I set up a few specific email addresses. But if someone made a typo, their email would bounce. A catch-all forwarder is like a magical mailbox. Any email addressed to anything at @yourdomain.com—whether it’s info@, sales@, or a complete typo—will be caught and forwarded to your main inbox. It’s a fantastic safety net that ensures you never miss a potential lead or an important message due to a simple spelling mistake.
99% of developers make this one mistake: hardcoding IP addresses instead of using hostnames that can be changed via DNS.
The Stone Tablet Map
Hardcoding an IP address in your application is like carving a map to a specific treasure chest into a stone tablet. It’s permanent and inflexible. If the treasure chest ever moves, your map is now completely useless. Using a hostname (like api.myservice.com) is like using a modern GPS. The name always stays the same, but you can easily update the destination coordinates (the IP address) in your DNS at any time, allowing you to move services without having to re-carve your entire map.
This one small action of using a DNS lookup tool will help you debug so many website and email issues.
The X-Ray Goggles
Trying to figure out why your website isn’t working is often like trying to guess what’s inside a locked box. A DNS lookup tool is like a pair of X-ray goggles. It allows you to peer inside the global DNS system and see the exact, official records for any domain in the world. You can instantly see if your A record is pointing to the wrong server or if your MX records are missing, turning a frustrating guessing game into a simple diagnostic process.
Use a registrar that offers integrated domain and DNS management, but only if they excel at both.
The All-in-One vs. The Specialists
You can go to a big-box store that sells both lumber and electronics. It’s convenient. But often, the quality and expertise are mediocre in both departments. It can be better to go to a dedicated lumberyard and a separate, specialist electronics store. An integrated registrar and DNS provider is the big-box store. It can be a great, simple option if they are truly excellent at both services. But don’t be afraid to use a specialist for each if it means getting a better product.
Stop thinking of your domain as just a name. Do treat it as a critical piece of infrastructure.
The Foundation of the Skyscraper
A domain name is not just the sign on top of your corporate skyscraper. It is the very foundation upon which the entire building is constructed. It is the address that allows all deliveries, the communication system that connects all the phones, and the bedrock that supports the entire structure. If the foundation cracks, the entire building collapses. You must protect and manage your domain with the same level of care you would give to your most critical infrastructure.
Stop just buying domains you think you’ll use. Do focus on developing one good brand instead.
The Real Estate Speculator
Some people buy dozens of empty lots all over the city, hoping they will one day become valuable. This is the domain hoarder. A smart entrepreneur, however, focuses on buying one great lot in a good location and then building a fantastic, profitable business on it. A single, well-developed brand on a great domain is infinitely more valuable than a hundred undeveloped domains that are just sitting empty, collecting dust and renewal fees.
The #1 hack for Geo-IP routing without a fancy CDN is using a DNS provider with that feature built-in.
The Smart Switchboard Operator
Imagine your company has an office in New York and another in London. Geo-IP routing at the DNS level is like having a magical, hyper-intelligent switchboard operator. When a call comes in from the United States, the operator automatically and instantly connects them to the New York office. When a call comes from the UK, they are sent to the London office. This ensures every user is connected to the server closest to them, dramatically improving speed without the complexity of a full CDN.
I’m just going to say it: Your clever, misspelled domain name is just sending traffic to the correctly spelled competitor.
The “Kwik-E-Mart” Problem
You open a new store and cleverly call it “Kwik Stop.” But a much more famous, established store across the street is called “Quick Stop.” Every time you tell someone your store’s name, half of them will misremember it and walk into your competitor’s store by mistake. A clever misspelling or a cute play on words in your domain name is a marketing liability. It will almost always cause confusion and send a significant portion of your hard-earned traffic directly to the owner of the correctly spelled version.
The reason your site is flagged for phishing is because a previous owner of the domain used it for malicious purposes.
The Haunted House
You buy a house at a great price, only to find out it has a terrible reputation in the neighborhood because the previous owners were criminals. The domain you registered might have a similar dark history. The previous owner could have used it for spam or phishing, getting it blacklisted by security services. Now, even though you are a legitimate owner, you have inherited that bad reputation and have to work to clean up the “house” and prove to the world that you are a trustworthy resident.
If you’re still using your server’s IP address directly, you’re losing the portability that DNS provides.
The GPS Coordinates vs. The Street Address
Giving someone your server’s IP address is like giving them the raw GPS coordinates to your house. It works, but it’s ugly and hard to remember. More importantly, if you ever move, those coordinates are now useless. Using a domain name is like giving them a simple street address. The address always stays the same, even if you move to a completely new house (a new server). You just have to file a simple change-of-address form (update the DNS record).
The biggest lie you’ve been told about brand new TLDs is that they will be the “next big thing.”
The “Up-and-Coming” Neighborhood
Every few years, a real estate developer will hype up a remote, undeveloped area as the “next up-and-coming neighborhood.” They promise it will be the new downtown. But in reality, it almost never is. The established, trusted, and well-known neighborhoods remain the most valuable. New TLDs are the same. Despite years of hype, .com remains the king. The new extensions have not, and likely will not, become the “next big thing” in the minds of everyday internet users.
I wish I knew that transferring a domain adds a year to the registration, so you don’t lose any time.
The Rollover Minutes
When I first wanted to transfer a domain, I waited until the last minute because I was afraid of losing the months I had already paid for. I didn’t realize it works like rollover minutes on an old cell phone plan. When you transfer your domain to a new registrar, you pay for one additional year of registration, and they add that full year on top of whatever time was already remaining on your contract. You never lose any time; you just extend it.
99% of startups make this one mistake: building their brand on a domain they don’t own, hoping to buy it later.
Building on Rented Land
This is the digital equivalent of building your multi-million dollar dream house on a piece of land that you are only renting month-to-month. You are pouring all of your time, money, and effort into a property that you do not own. The moment you start becoming successful, the landlord (the domain’s owner) will see this and will either refuse to sell or will demand a fortune for the land you have so foolishly built upon. You must own the land before you ever break ground.
This one small habit of checking your domain’s health with a tool like MXToolbox will change your email delivery problems.
The Annual Health Check-Up
You go to the doctor for an annual check-up to catch potential health problems before they become serious. A tool like MXToolbox is a free, on-demand health check-up for your domain’s email system. It will instantly scan your DNS records and tell you if your SPF record is invalid, if you’re on a blacklist, or if your mail server is misconfigured. This simple, 30-second habit can diagnose the root cause of email delivery problems that would otherwise be a complete mystery.
Use a registrar that provides clear and simple instructions, not one that hides everything behind a confusing interface.
The Clear vs. The Confusing Instruction Manual
You buy a piece of furniture. One comes with a clear, simple instruction manual with helpful diagrams. The other comes with a single page of badly translated, confusing text. Which one will be less frustrating to build? A good domain registrar invests in a clean, intuitive user interface and provides clear, step-by-step documentation. They make it easy for you to manage your own property. A bad registrar makes you feel stupid and lost, often by design.
Stop pointing your www and non-www versions to two different places. Do standardize on one and redirect the other.
The Two Front Doors
Imagine your house had two different front doors, but they led to slightly different versions of your living room. It would be incredibly confusing for visitors. Your website’s www and non-www versions are those two front doors. You need to choose one as the single, official entrance. Then, you need to put a permanent, automatic redirect on the other door that instantly sends all visitors to the correct entrance. This prevents duplicate content issues and provides a consistent experience.
Stop just buying a domain. Do set up Google Alerts for it to monitor for brand mentions.
The Neighborhood Watch
Owning a domain is like owning a house. Setting up a Google Alert for your brand name is like joining the neighborhood watch. It’s a free, automated service that will send you an email notification anytime your address or family name is mentioned anywhere on the internet. This allows you to track your reputation, find out what people are saying about you, and quickly spot any unauthorized use of your brand.
The #1 secret for a highly available website is using a DNS failover service that automatically changes records when your server is down.
The Magical Ambulance
Imagine your store has a medical emergency. A DNS failover service is like a magical, fully-automated ambulance. It is constantly checking your store’s vital signs. The very instant it detects a problem (your server goes down), it doesn’t wait for a phone call. It automatically reroutes all of your incoming customers to your designated backup store at a different location. This happens within seconds, ensuring that your business stays open even when your primary location has a catastrophic failure.
I’m just going to say it: The domain name is more important than the logo, the design, or even the business plan in the early stages.
The Address of Your Business
You can have the most brilliant business idea, the most beautiful store design, and the most incredible products in the world. But if your store is located at an undiscoverable, unmemorable address down a dark, confusing alley, no one will ever find you, and you will fail. The domain name is that address. It is the single most important foundation of your entire online presence. A great name in a great location is the essential first step before all others.
The reason you can’t get your domain back is because you fell for a domain slamming scam.
The Fake Landlord
Domain slamming is when you receive a deceptive, official-looking letter in the mail that looks like a renewal bill from your current landlord. In reality, it’s a tricky contract from a new, more expensive landlord. If you sign it and pay, you have unknowingly authorized the transfer of your lease. These scams are designed to look like legitimate renewal notices, tricking you into transferring your domain to a different, often much worse, registrar.
If you’re still using a registrar that plasters its ads all over your parked domains, you’re losing professionalism.
The Billboard in Your Front Yard
A parked domain is an undeveloped piece of property that you own. A registrar that puts ads on that page is like your real estate company putting a giant, ugly billboard for their own services in your front yard. It looks tacky and unprofessional. A good registrar will allow you to park your domain with a simple, clean, ad-free page, or better yet, allow you to easily redirect it to your main website, maintaining the professional image of your brand.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about domains is that you need dozens of them to protect your brand.
The Unnecessary Fortress
Some gurus will tell you that you need to buy every possible variation of your domain name to protect your brand. This is like believing you need to buy every single empty lot in your entire city just to protect your one coffee shop. In reality, you only need to secure a few key properties: the .com, your local country code, and any obvious misspellings. Anything beyond that is usually an unnecessary expense that distracts from your core business.
I wish I knew how to do a “glue record” when setting up my own custom nameservers.
The Post Office Inside the Building
Normally, to find a building’s mailroom, you first have to find the building. But what if the mailroom is the building? This is the puzzle of custom nameservers. If your nameserver is ns1.mydomain.com, how can anyone find mydomain.com? A glue record is the solution. It’s a special note you leave at the central, top-level registry (the .com post office) that provides the direct IP address, the “GPS coordinates,” for your nameserver, solving the chicken-and-egg problem.
99% of podcasters make this one mistake: not setting up a custom subdomain for their podcast feed.
The P.O. Box vs. The Shared Mail Slot
Using a generic feed URL from your podcast host is like telling all your listeners to send fan mail to a shared mail slot at a giant warehouse. It’s messy and you have no control over it. Setting up a custom subdomain, like podcast.mybrand.com, is like getting your own dedicated P.O. Box. It’s a clean, professional address that you own. If you ever decide to switch podcast hosts, you just change where the P.O. Box forwards to, and your subscribers never have to change a thing.
This one small action of setting up a PTR record (reverse DNS) will improve your email deliverability from your server.
The Return Address on the Envelope
When you send a letter, you put your return address on it. This allows the recipient to verify who you are. A PTR record is the internet’s version of a return address. When your server sends an email, the receiving server can do a “reverse lookup” on the IP address. If the name associated with that IP matches the name of the server that sent the email, it’s a strong signal that you are a legitimate sender, not a spammer trying to hide their identity.
Use a combination of a reliable registrar for holding your domain and a high-performance DNS provider for serving your records.
The Bank and the Armored Truck Service
It’s a smart strategy to separate these two functions. Your registrar is like a secure, stable bank vault where you store your most valuable asset: the deed to your domain. You want them to be reliable, trustworthy, and secure above all else. Your DNS provider is like a high-speed, global armored truck service. You want them to be the absolute fastest and most efficient at delivering your DNS records to the world. Often, the best bank is not also the best armored truck company.