HotDoodle Support

An administrator user within a site can make any changes within the site but cannot get into the HotDoodle main site from where payments are made and the domains are adminisitered. Only the site owner can do that, and a site can have only a single owner.

Changing ownership is easy:

Establish separate user accounts
Change ownership of the website
Have the new owner make independent payment arrangements

There is an alternative approach of Taking Over Someone's Identity.

Split Billing

HotDoodle allows the creation and hosting of multiple website from one user account. Sometimes though, the additional websites may be for different businesses and need to be billed separately from a personal website.

Separate billing is easy, is it the same steps as changing ownership except that there might be sites, funds, or projects remaining in the original owner's account.

Establish Separate User Accounts

To be independently billed or paid, the websites need to have separate HotDoodle user accounts.

If they have different emails:

To establish a new account with a separate email, please fill in the form at

http://www.hotdoodle.com/?section=registration

They will end up on a mostly blank My Stuff page, but that is ok, it will not be blank after the site ownership is transferred.

If they have the same email:

To establish a new account with the same email, you will need to self-assign usernames. Normally usernames are taken from the email address, and that works except in this case of one email and multiple accounts.

To self-assign a username,

1. Login into HotDoodle.com in the old account
2. Click "My Info" in the upper right of the screen
3. Assign a value to the "Username" field. Keep the email unchanged. Save

Now the original account has a different username, allowing the email address to be reused.
To establish the second account, please fill in the form at
http://www.hotdoodle.com/?section=registration

Change Ownership of the Website

Write to help@hotdoodle.com to request an ownership change of the website. Be sure to be clear about which website by identifying the Site Directory Label and which account by identifying the name and email address associated with that account.

Unless explicitely requested, no funds will be transferred, so the new account will have a zero balance unless the new user adds funds.

Sites will transfer with the same paid-through status, so a site paid throgh the 12th will still be paid through the 12 after the change of ownership.

To the billing engine it will be business as usual. So if the prior owner received a notice of site fees due the billing engine will consider the owner as having been informed and will not resend to the new owner except as per its usual schedule.

PayPal subscrption payments are not automatically adjusted by a transfer, so the prior owner may need to review their status and make adjustments, and the new owner may want to establish an automatic payment subscription.

Make Independent Payment Arrangements

After HotDoodle has changed the website ownership, each account will have independent billing. Use the normal "Add Funds" to make payments or start payment subscriptions.

Taking Over Someone's Identity

Sometimes the prior owner is becoming completely disassociated with the site (such as if they are relocating). Instead of creating a account for the new owner and changing ownership you can simply take over the identity of the prior owner.

To take over the identity in the HotDoodle main site:

Have the current owner log in to the HotDoodle main site and then click "My Info" in the top right.
Edit as needed, changing the first name, last name, and email addresses
Save.
If so desired, click My Info again and then click change password.
Be sure to tell the new owner what emails and passwords you used.
Extra Step: Review your payments. You may have a subscription tied to the prior owners PayPal account or credit card and should use the Add Funds link from the My Stuff page to cancel and then have the new owner resubscribe as appropriate.

To take over the identity within your HotDoodle site:

The process is pretty much the same, except that the "My Info" link will be wherever the login block is located. If the site does not have a login block use Administration / User Accounts to find and edit the owner's account.
Edit as needed, changing the first name, last name, and email addresses
Save.
If so desired, click My Info again and then click change password.
Be sure to tell the new owner what emails and passwords you used.

This is a safe operation. Internally ownership is reflected by unseen user id numbers, so changing the names and emails associated with a user id has no unexpected side effects.