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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.
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!
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
Sounds reasonable.
Once he's convinced his bank, health care provider, and generally everyone outside an extremely small group of people of this.. he'll be all set! (well, except that this doesn't really protect against the new owner killing his email service outright either).
(All kidding aside, it's a lost cause. PGP isn't simple enough for the masses, doesn't work well with the whole webmail thing (aka how just about everyone access their email these days), and in the few cases where it works, ironically makes non-geeks more nervous (why does this email say something about security, am I being hacked!!!).
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...
"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.
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.