If you maintain your own website, you may have already discovered what I am about to talk about in this blog. As a webmaster you will acquire multiple different user accounts or identities. These accounts are important and should definitely be stored for safe keeping. Im going to go over a few of these different accounts, and explain exactly what they are for. Many people receive these accounts only to store them in a folder somewhere without ever knowing what these accounts are for. Obviously some of the accounts I will mention, you may use regularly. But it is important that you understand what these accounts are for, in case you ever need to access them for any particular reason.

Billing Login

If you have purchased a hosting account from a web company, chances are you will have a billing login to pay your due invoices. This login will give you access to your invoices, products and order information. In some cases it will also be your access to support, such as a support ticket system. It is important to hang on to this account information. Even if you are billed automatically, you may at some point require this login in order to cancel your services.

Website Back-End Login

If you are using a Content Management System such as Joomla or Wordpress, you will more than likely have a back-end administrator login. With this login, you can access the administration section of your website. In most cases you will be able to modify, remove, or add new content to your website. This is important to keep up with, as it gives you direct access to your website. It is very important to keep this login information out of the wrong hands. If someone gains access to your back-end login credential they can basically hijack your website, and even lock you out.

cPanel/ Hosting Account Login

Many website owners will recognize the image to the right. This is the login to your hosting account. This is often confused with the Billing Login. This account is probably one of the most useful of all of your accounts. With your hosting account you can create email accounts, databases, ftp users, ftp accounts, and more. In most cases you will also have access to many 3rd party systems such as forums, emails list, live support systems, Content Management Systems, guest books, and the list goes on and on.

Domain Registrar Login

If you own your own domain, you will have a domain registrar login, such as Godaddy. Your domain registrar is the website that you used to actually register the domain for your website. In some cases this will be the same as your billing login, but also confused with the hosting account login. With this account you can access your domain settings such as nameservers, forwarding settings, and sometimes email accounts. If you ever need to point your domain to your hosting account, this is the login you will need.

FTP Login

Your FTP login can be created within your hosting account. In some cases your FTP login is the same as your hosting account login. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is used to access the files for your website. With FTP you will have 3 items.

1. Host; This is usually something like ftp.domain.com, but you can also use your servers IP number or even the domain name itself such as domain.com.
2. Username
3. Password

MySQL Account

MySQL is a database system. If you are using a CMS, Forum, or other database driven system on your website, you may at some point need this. Any timer a database is created, you need to assign a user to utilize it. MySQL databases and users can be created within you hosting/cPanel account.

Social Media Accounts

If you have a website, I hope you are using the wonderful social network sites that are available to the public. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter Linked-in, etc. offer a great opportunity to webmasters to share the website with others. You will more than likely have a different set of credentials for each different social site you are a member of, however some allow you to connect different accounts.

Well that's it for now, just a quick rundown of all the various accounts that you, as a webmaster, might want to know about. If you are pretty active with maintaining your website you are probable familiar with most of these, however if you do not maintain your website, you should defintely get the credentials for any of these accounts that your webmaster may be using, and save it for your records. I have heard horror stories time and again about website owners not having access to their own websites.

Until Next Time.....

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