As a web developer who constantly deals with domains and emails being transferred, I’d like to set a standard guideline on how one should manage their domains and email in order to maintain autonomy and control over your own material, while eliminating the chances of losing domains through silly administrative mishaps.

1. ALWAYS keep a public email with hotmail, gmail, yahoo etc., and check it regularly.
   Occasionally you may drop a domain name altogether, or stop working for a company, or cut partnership with a company. That means, your old email at john@oldcompany.com is no longer accessible to you. Regardless of what email you use as a primary email, you should always keep one email address active through a large public email platform such as @hotmail.com, @gmail.com, @yahoo.com etc. By having one of these emails as the core email, you have 1 email address that you can ALWAYS fall back to. I have my email at @jeffkee.com and on @synchronous.ca, but I always keep my @hotmail.com account active.
2. ALWAYS keep your domains under your name.
   It is not a good idea to let somebody else have control over a domain name. Not even your web designer should have complete ownership and control of your domain. Your domain is your property. Worst case scenario: If you have a fallout with a web designer, and the guy decides to screw you – you’d have to basically pay him whatever ransom he requires to regain your domain, OR go through a lawsuit to recover a domain (if it is an option – based on how your company is registered, it may not even be possible). If you’re curious how your domains are handled, visit WHOIS for domain lookup information. Some domains are privacy-protected. But you can still see which registrar holds the domain information. Contact this registrar to make sure that your name, as well as your primary email (as mentioned in point #1) is listed on the WHOIS contact information. Otherwise, you can be in big trouble later!
3. ALWAYS use your public domain email as your domain contact email.
   On my registration for www.jeffkee.com, there is a contact email address. It would be foolish to have this email entered as anything other than my @hotmail.com account. Why? If I lose any other domains, I lose the key point of contact to manage this domain. Let’s say I registered my email from @synchronous.ca as a contact email. Imagine in 3 years, I got rid of the @synchronous.ca domain after I re-brand. Then, the important domain related emails (especially renewal reminders) will still be sent to the @synchronous.ca email, when I don’t even have that account anymore. For that reason, your key contact email for any of your domains should be a @hotmail.com, or @gmail.com type of an account that will NEVER disappear. This way you make sure that you always maintain contact and control over your precious domains!

Hopefully this gives everybody a clear guideline of how to best manage your email addresses and your domains.

If you have questions about the best way to set up your email addresses on a private domain you just obtained please check out my other post about using Google Applications and Gmail as your primary email and collaboration system.