So how do you actually buy an existing domain name from someone else?

If TV ads for GoDaddy and the like are to be believed, finding the perfect domain for your business is easy.

You just go to the website, type in the domain you’d like and voilá - if it’s available, it’s yours. But what if it isn't? You could find that someone else already owns the domain and is prepared to sell it to you.

If you want to buy a .com domain that is only available by purchasing it from someone else - like Novanym - how does that work?

Transferring a domain name

Essentially, once you’ve found the domain you want, agreed a purchase price and made the payment, it’s actually fairly straightforward. What you’ve actually done is agree to pay the current holder of the registration to transfer that registration to you.

All the current holder of the registration needs to do is ‘unlock’ the domain and send you what is known as the Authorisation Code (ie. a string of apparently random digits and numbers).

Now you just need to find a Domain Registrar - they’re the same people who try to sell you domains and web hosting - and request them to accept a Transfer of Registration. You’ll usually find this option in the area where they talk about ‘Domain Only’ packages - because you don’t need to purchase webspace or hosting for them to hold and manage a domain registration for you.

Simply type in the domain name you have just bought and they’ll ask you to enter the Authorisation Code you have been given.

Then sit back and wait a few hours (or occasionally it takes a few days). In the background the original owner of the registration will receive an email from the Domain Registrar asking them to confirm that they are happy for the transfer to complete. Once they’ve done this, the transfer will be done.

The perfect .com domain is now yours. You can use the Domain Registrar's control panel or management area to set-up an automatic redirect of all visitors to the new domain directly to your website - whether you host the website with the domain registrar or elsewhere.