How do I change the owner of a domain name?

September 29, 2008 4:54 PM

A friend is buying a website that I've built, as well as the domain name. He's taken possession of the actual site (i.e., the software that runs it), so now I need to make him the owner of the domain. How do I do it?

I've been googling like crazy for "sell a domain" and "transfer a domain", but neither of these seem like they describe what I'm trying to do. The worst part is that searching for terms like these inevitably yields me a bunch of spammy results.

If anybody could give me some concise instructions on what to do here, I'd be most grateful :)

Thanks!

posted by inkedmn to computers & internet (3 comments total)

You have to do it through the registrar you used to register the name in the first place. You should be able to change at least some of the info yourself through the control panel. You may have to have the registrar change some of it.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 4:59 PM on September 29, 2008

First, do a Whois search for the domain in question. Determine who the current registrar is. This company should be familiar to you. It's either your web host or someone else you've done business with.

That registrar is who you'll now have to deal with. You then have two options: transfer, or re-assign. If you want to stay with the current registrar, simply work directly with them to put the account in your friend's name. This will likely require his active participation.

If you want to transfer to another registrar, which will not affect your website at all, then do some price comparisons between the various ones out there. I'm partial to DynDNS myself. Set up a new account in your friend's name at this new registrar, then start the transfer process. This varies from one company to another, but is usually well documented.

That being said, be absolutely sure your friend understands the concept of a registrar and a domain name, especially how to ensure that it doesn't expire. It sounds like you may not understand this very well yourself, so you may also be interested in doing some reading on Domains and Registration concepts.
posted by odinsdream at 5:13 PM on September 29, 2008

where's your domain registered? some registrars make it really easy to shift a domain from one account to another, others will only allow you to completely transfer the domain away.
posted by phredgreen at 11:30 PM on October 1, 2008