What Happens to Your Website When You Die?

If a drunk driver slammed you into a casket tomorrow, would your family and friends know what to do with your personal internet information? Have you prepared a will that dictates what will happen with your website, email, blogs, usernames, passwords, banking information and let your contacts know of your passing?

Without proper planning and documentation your data becomes inaccessible and eventually everything you've invested into the internet, whether it's banking information or an online personality, ceases to exist. Here are just a few things worth thinking about before you write your living will.

Managing Your Web Site from the Grave

If you run a website most likely you will be the only one who knows how to do what you do. Every webmaster runs their website differently and passing along detailed instructions on the day to day operation can be overwhelming for the recipient as well as the not yet deceased. One of the first things you should decide on is whether or not you want your website to continue running when you die and who you trust enough to carry out your wishes once you're gone.

If you decide to shut your website down upon your death, you will need to put together a plan that details how it is shut down, when it should happen and who should do it. Also, decide whether or not you will want your website to be archived and stored on CD. How will you want it remembered?

If the answer is yes, there are a few things you can do to help the process and ensure it runs as smoothly as it can. First and foremost is to create and burn text file to CD detailing your web hosting login and payment information so that the benefactor knows how to access it. Secondly, put that CD in a safety deposit box and bequeath it to a certain someone that you know is capable of operating your website.

One of the best things you can do to prepare the benefactor is to teach them how you run your site by setting up a copy of your site as a subdomain for them to operate. This will give them the opportunity to run their own website and learn how to do it from copying you.

If you have the talent, you can always create a manual that specifies the step-by-step procedures you use to operate your website.

Aside from the mechanics of operating a website legalities must be considered when leaving behind a website. Things to ponder are, who gets paid from your efforts and how does the company know to pay the benefactor, as well as how the domain name gets transferred to the benefactor. A death certificate and a legally written will should clear these things up. Always be sure to consult with an attorney for the proper way to handle these legalities.

When leaving a website to an heir a few things are extremely important to remember. Be sure to leave behind password and contact information for advertising programs, affiliate programs, partner contact information and backup details along with copies of your written code, graphics, text and contractual agreements.

Things to Know About Leaving Behind Your Passwords

These days, passwords are a part of every day life. When you prepare a list of passwords to leave in your will you need to consider such things as eBay, gmail, hotmail, aol, banking logins, credit card websites, Paypal, iTunes, etc. You will want to create a list of all the websites you have passwords at that you'd like to have notified of your passing.

Logically, it doesn't sound that difficult to just make a list, however, this task is made more difficult when we change or lose our passwords. There are attorneys that suggest creating an estate planning document but you should know that in some instances certain estate documents can become public records. This could be a problem when it comes to banking and tax records.

There is a program called Dead Man's Switch that will allow you to specify certain tasks be done in the event you don't log in within a particular time frame. Dead Man's Switch will automatically delete files, send emails, post to websites etc. This is a great way to send a ledger of your passwords to someone when you die.

Internet Obituaries and Death Notices

The web is a unique community that allows us to become friends with anyone from anywhere in the world. Given our human nature, a person can develop friendships, romances and relations hips without anyone in our immediate circle knowing about it. Because of the privacy of the internet it is hard for others to know how close the bonds are with our internet pals and when we die those without access to that information can unknowingly sever those ties.

The honorable and compassionate thing to do is to leave a contact list to someone you trust to let everyone know you have died but sometimes that isn't an option. When you have no one you can share this information with consider sharing it with a company on the internet. There are quite a few internet companies out there that will allow you to send email notifications to other people in the event of your death.

Whether you are trying to preserve your personal website, ecommerce business, email contacts or flickr photos, the question at hand is, how important is your online presence to you? If it's important enough to bequeath to someone then by all means do so otherwise when you die all your internet data dies with you.

Resources for Planning Your Internet Presence After Death

Post Expressions - online obituary notices
The Last Email - prerecorded email messages
Dead Man's Switch - self-managed time sensitive data storage
You Departed - Personal information storage and notification services
Death Switch - Information Insurance
Private Matters - Online estate planning