“Domain Hell” - Thoughts on Expired Domains

This weekend an incident got me to think about expired domains.
My girlfriend’s domain name all a sudden disappeared …. After some research and yelling at the hosting company, we realized that the domain had expired!!
Well, this triggered my interest in the matter.

How many companies loose their domain every day?

According to statistics at DeletedDomains.com over 700.000 domains were deleted in the past 60 days - 700.000!! I can imagine some are domains that have never been connected, but I am also sure that some of these are businesses that are not even aware of what’s happening to them…

The Problem:
1. “One year registration”: Most novice domain registrants register a domain for one year only. At the time that seems like long time. Also, considering the cost of ~$30/domain/year most people feel that they should start out “small”.
2. “ISP email address”: You have to have a valid email address to register a domain. Most people use an ISP email address such as AOL or Earthlink which they do not have access to one year later.
3. “Hosting companies and domain registrars”: Hosting companies like to offer “free domain registration” as a value added service. One should know that webhosting and domain registration are two separate things. If you switch webhosting companies, it might be difficult to re-gain control over your domain.
4. “Domain Sharks”: Your domain is worth money! There are ‘domain sharks’ registering any domain that expires, primarily for the ‘link value’ or the pages that are listed in searchengines.

The Solution or “How to smartly register a domain name”

1. Web Hosting: When choosing a webhosting company, ask for their nameserver and IP entry , they should give you two names and two IPs. Nameserver entries usually looks something like: ns1.hostingcompany.com.

2. Domain Hosting: Register a domain with a domain registration service. To do this you have to know the nameserver entry of your webhosting company. A list of these companies are listed below.

3. Domain Hosting Period: Register your domain name for a longer period. If you register your company’s name, why not register for 5 or 10 years? There are several companies who offer domain registration for less than $10 per year - take advantage of this.

4. Email Address: Register your domain name with an email account you will still have in 5 years. If you don’t have one register a free web-based email address like Hotmail or Yahoo Mail. You will get any notification and communication about your domain through this email account - check it frequently.

If everything else fails:
5. Domain Grabber: Setup a “domain grabber”: This is a service that monitors domains as they expire and “grabs” them before anyone else does.

More resources:
Sitepoint article: Help! I’ve Lost My Domain Name!

Domain registration services:
GoDaddy - ~$9/year
My choice: RegNic - ~$7.50/year
Google Search for cheap domain names

Domain Grabber services:
Snap Domains - ~$70/year
My choice: Pool.com - free to monitor, ~$60 if domain is successfully registered
GoDaddy Backorder - ~$20/year

Free email address services:
Hotmail
My choice: Yahoo Mail
Google search for free email account

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Good luck with your domain names.

November 30, 2003 | Filed Under Thoughts |