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Ask Slashdot: Smartest Way To Transfer an Old Domain/Site?
An anonymous reader writes "Back in early 95 I registered a domain name and built a website for a hobby of mine. Over time the website (and domain) name have built a small but steady stream of traffic but my interest in the hobby is essentially gone and I've not been a visitor to my own site in well over two years. I'd like to sell the site/domain to a long time member who has expressed interest in taking over and trying to grow the site, however I use the domain for my own personal email including banking, health insurance, etc. How have fellow readers gone about parting ways from a domain that they've used for an email address?" More generally, what terms would you like to include (or have you included) in a domain transfer? Old horror stories could help prevent new horror stories.
I'd create a new domain for yourself first...you need to get off the old one.
Disclaimer: I have no experience in this situation this is just my take on this so take with lots of salt (well.. try and keep it under 1500ml if you are watching your sodium.. )
I’d move the site to a new domain name owned by the new guy, keep the current domain name, and just set up a friendly redirect page (with an appropriate explanation to users).
Eventually people/search engines will learn the new domain name (and even if they don’t.. keeping the redirect up forever is probably nothing) and you can start migrating to a new email address while keeping the old domain name “just in case”.
If other people have email accounts or rely on other services on the current domain... then it gets more complicated.
Also I’d personally like to thank you for asking a question that is:
- non-trivial
- can benefit from the vast amount of diversity and experience within the slashdot crowd
- will probably generate interesting stories
- and most importantly, isn’t depressing as hell nor a reminder that everything is falling apart in our industry
This is what "ask slashdot" could be! We really need more of this!
I'm sure he's a nice guy, but migrate everything away from that domain before selling. This means adjusting every account you've signed up for using that email address/etc. Then wait six months and see if anything new comes in. Under no circumstances should you expect to receive any forwarded mail without someone having read it.
There's no clean way to ensure a new owner will provide service for your old email address to your satisfaction.
However, it is ridiculously easy for you to set up a permanent redirect from the front page of the website to a new location managed by this guy who is interested in being the new maintainer.
You could even set him up with a subdomain of the current domain name so that folks feel comfortable that it's the same old site they've been visiting for years. This requires very little effort on your part and you maintain control over your email address.
Might it simply be sufficient to transfer your site hosting to the other party and point the DNS records for the site itself to whenever they want? You can then have your mail hanging off the original domain and retain control of it.
Why do you want to transfer the domain when you can just give him/her control of the web site? You can continue to own the services on the domain that matter to you (mail) and they'd own the HTTP service on the IP address you point the domain to. This could even be an intermediate step to full ownership transfer once you've moved your identity someplace else and are comfortable with the new owner of the domain taking more ownership over it.
Keep the domain, yes, but "lease" the rights to the www version of the site. Your DNS record can point the MX record to your mail sever (or Gmail, or whatever), while the A records for the domain and www host to wherever he wants to host it. You may wish to setup forwarding on certain addresses for him, like webmaster@, but make sure the domain is locked and secured to you first.
Over time the website (and domain) name have built a small but steady stream of traffic but my interest in the hobby is essentially gone and I've not been a visitor to my own site in well over two years. I'd like to sell the site/domain to a long time member who has expressed interest in taking over and trying to grow the site, however I use the domain for my own personal email including banking, health insurance, etc.
There's nothing for it but to just suck it up and keep your yahoo.com e-mail.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
my interest in the hobby is essentially gone and I've not been a visitor to my own site in well over two years.
CmdrTaco, is that you?
As Anrego says, I'd suggest not actually handing over the domain. Instead, rebuild the site under a new domain while updating key content such as contact links, and then set up an "HTTP 301: permanently moved" redirect to the new site on the new domain. This will transfer your pagerank to the new domain and makes search engines happy. Then, you can keep your email and other domain services under your own control.
Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. - Will Rogers
If there is a little bit of trust between you and the buyer the following will work.
Change the MX record on the domain to point to your own mail server. You'll continue to get the mail and can forward all of the site mail to the new owner (using some other domain).
Get a new email address and update all your accounts to point to the new address. After 6 months or so, just hand over the DNS control to the new owner.
If there is no trust between you and the buyer it's going to be complex, involve lawyers and probably an escrow agent. I'm guessing the site doesn't generate enough revenue to be worth the compexity. If there isn't trust, unless the site is worth more than $20K (or so) it probably will cost more in legal and escrow fees than you'll get for the domain.
thanks for reminding me to not couple my personal duties with my interestes/domains/sites.
interestes and hobbies come and go, seems the easiest way to handle this is to never have to.
Moving your email address is a hassle. Let's just assume you don't want any hassle at all, at the cost of the new guy not quite getting everything he wants (yet still be dealt with very reasonably).
Sell the site, not the domain. Keep the domain either for the rest of your life, or until you're so bored out of your mind that you have the time to deal with moving your email (i.e. hopefully the rest of your life).
On the still-yours domain, have a web server reply with 301 redirects to the equivalent page at the new domain. Then after a while (a year?), have it reply with 410. Then after a while, uninstall the web server. There may always be some stale links, but there's nothin' to do about that.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Move all of your accounts to a new email address ASAP. Then, over the course of a few months, watch the old email address closely. Watch for any straggling emails going to the old email. Fix any stragglers. When you are comfortable that the only thing showing up is SPAM, then transfer the domain.
Look, there's no way you can be 100% sure. The best thing would be to trust the new guy.
Speaking of stragglers... Just today I noticed that two large companies (one named after a large South American river, the other is a giant Bank in America) that were still sending stuff to an old email address after I had changed my account preferences. Obviously my old address lingers in their databases without any user interface to clean it.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Step 2: Run *both* domains for at least six months.
Change all mail that's in databases (bank, etc), tell as many friends as possible to use the new address.
Set up mail forwarding to the new domain so you always hit 'reply' from there. Never reply on the old domain.
Meanwhile, give your friend access to as much of the site as possible while still keeping the admin password to yourself. Most servers allow separate FTP accounts, etc., he should be able to change files without admin access.
No sig today...
DNS A records (i.e., the ones that provide IP addresses to web browsers) are different from MX records (i.e., the ones that provide IP addresses to MTAs), and in your domain you already have both.
Just keep the ownership of your domain, point the A record to the new guy's server and keep the MX record as it is (or point it to Gmail, to finally move all the email addresses off your SquirrelMail thing...)
"Back in early 95 I registered a domain name and built a website for a hobby of mine"
Nice try Mr. Goatse. We're not falling for this one again.
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'd create a new domain for yourself first
No. Do it the other way around. I would create a new domain for the new guy taking over your site, or let him do it. Then transfer the web content to the new site, and set up a redirect on your site to the new one.
That way, people going to the old web site end up on the correct new site, but you don't have to change or worry about anything related to your personal email addresses.
If your web site also used email @yoursite, then YOU take care of setting up a redirect or whatever solution seems best.
You don't want to have your personal stuff at the mercy of someone else, or to have to call him to find out what the problem is if he made some configuration mistake or whatever.
Set up mail forwarding to the new domain so you always hit 'reply' from there. Never reply on the old domain.
Also if you filter the mail into a separate folder it helps you to find contacts and services still using the old address.
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