Say you’ve purchased your domain from a company, like GoDaddy. And now you want to transfer it to a different company, like DreamHost. Here are steps you need to take. I’m going to keep them general enough so that you should be able to transfer them from and to any domain registrar.

1. First off, check that the domain’s email is yours. Use a service like http://whois.domaintools.com/ to make sure that the email listed is yours. Or conversely, login to your current domain registrar and double check that the email associated with the domain is yours. This is important, because later in the process an approval email will be sent – and you need to be able to receive it.

2. In your current domain registrar, you need to do two things. First you need to UNLOCK the domain so that it can be transferred. The second things you need is the AUTHORIZATION CODE. Depending on the domain registrar, this may be tricky to locate – if you have trouble, call them.

3. Now login to your new domain registrar and submit a request to transfer the domain. It will ask you for the authorization code you got in the previous step. (At DreamHost, this is under Domains-> Reg. Transfer)

4. Next, your current domain registrar will send an email to you (that you verified you’d receive in step 1). You will probably need to click something in this email to accept the transfer away.

5. You may also get an email from your new domain registrar asking for approval.

6. Wait. Sometimes it takes two weeks for this process to happen. I often ask the new registrar about the transfer status, because sometimes they fail for different reasons and you need to do things over again. But eventually, if all goes well, the new domain will show up in your new domain registrar’s account.

If you found this article helpful, please take a moment to share it with your friends, it will be much appreciated. Thanks! Jill