It was in last year I sent an outbound email to one of the prospective buyer for my domain name. The deal didn’t went through. But, the other party was having some questions with regards to domain names which I answered promptly.
That party was having some good dot-com domain names which he bought for starting and building a business on those domains. But, then recently I received an email from him. He said, “I failed to renew one of my domain, the renewal notices must have been went to my spam folder.” And, was asking my help.
But, when I checked the expiry date and the current date. It was well beyond the 80 days time-frame. And, that domain name were then irretrievable as it already went through the pending delete/prerelease auction.
Some points which I noticed and I alarmed him before was these:
1. For your personal domains use your own domain/email address or gmail. But not the company email where you work. This person was using the company email for his own personal domains. For example: If you’re working in an xyzcompany and your email is ‘myemail @ xyzcompany .com” then don’t use that for managing your personal domain names.
2. Always, maintain an excel record for your domains. If they’re are very few. Set alerts. Or mark at least those on your calender. Losing a good domain on account of non-renewing is really painful.
3. Review monthly your domain name status. So, even if you miss the renewal period. You can still renew as long as 80 days are not passed. Although, you to pay a redemption fee of $80 which is OK for a good domain.
4. Blaming the registry after the domain enters the pending delete status is of no use. When you buy or keep a domain with a registry the terms are clear. They try their best to keep you informed about the renewals. If you don’t listen to them, they sell and make profit. It’s business for them!
5. Always keep your contact and emails upto-date.
Domain investors are well aware of all the above points, but, there are so many who don’t have the domain knowledge. When they forgot to renew they lose a valuable domain name. And, interestingly, many businnesses or individuals who own domain doesn’t know that their exists an aftermarket for domains.
I usually try to renew domains 6 months in advance. So most of my domains hitting expiration date are from May-June 2018 as of now. I think it’s good for someone seriously involved into domaining. And that keeps me to avoid of risking any mishap.
Thanks! This shows how confident you’re about your domain names. It’s a good strategy to drive sales too. The would be buyer will not wait upto renewal time.