Domain Name Renewal – Don’t Forget Or You Lose

Here is some information about domain name renewal that is interesting to know and vital if you don’t want to be the next innocent victim who forgets to renew their domain name and the next sad thing is the realization that it’s too late.

Don’t let that happen to you!

Through “my own personal experience” I have come to realize that for someone who has never owned a domain name before, then our topic today about “domain name renewal” is not information you probably are aware of even if you have vast computer knowledge because it isn’t something you need to know until you actually own your own domain name.

For a complete newbie you are likely to have completely different worries right now associated to domain name registration. It’s for that reason that I have assembled two very useful resources to guide you thorough the whole domain name cycle.

1. Sure fire how to, domain names tips and articles
2. All about domain names, revealed like never before

For those of us who are pretty much at ease and comfortable with this topic, you soon discover that no matter how long you have your domain name registered for, it is very easy to forget to renew your domain when that domain name comes up for renewal.

That is especially so if for some reason you fail to get a reminder mail that your domain name is up for renewal from your registrar. It sure happens. That mail might never arrive due to various reasons.

Therefore you should have a system in place that reminds you when your domain will expire or simply log into your account on a set day each year, like your birthday, and add more time to your domain. If you let it expire, you will lose your domain to someone else and there is no way you can get it back. Let us look at how you can prevent that from happening.

What is domain name renewal

Domain name renewal is simply the process of buying additional time to use your domain name. When you originally purchase your domain name, you don’t buy it outright, you simply lease it for a set amount of time, usually one year.

If you want to keep your domain name after the year is up, you have to renew it. You can renew it at any time, but it is usually done close to the time the current registration is about to expire.

You can renew your domain name for a one year duration or you can renew it for longer periods.

Currently, the maximum length of time you can register a domain name for is ten years. When the ten years is close to being up, you can renew for another ten and in that way hold onto your domain name for as long as you want to.

However, it is important to keep in mind, the only way you will hold onto a domain is if you renew it before it expires. Otherwise if you wait too long beyond the stipulated period, you will surely lose your domain name. That can be a major set back for you especially if you have been making use of that domain name and have achieved some form of page rank and traffic levels.

Be aware of domain name renewal scams

You may run across a company that offers extended domain name registrations like for one hundred years. You should know that such claims are either scams or they simply renew your name for you every ten years instead of you doing it yourself.

In other words what you are essentially doing is trusting them to be in business for that long and that they will be there for you to make sure that your domain name gets renewed on time. That might be a very risky thing to do.

Of course, you don’t ever want to lose an important domain name and that is why people like to have them registered as far in advance as possible. However, ten years is the limit. You can renew your domain at any time you like, but you will always just have a maximum of ten years at any given time.

Bear in mind also that the benefit of registering your domain name for longer periods is that the price per year drops when you register for several years at a time. When you register for one year you may pay nine dollars per year and when you register for five years the price may drop to eight dollars per year.

Domain Name Disputes Help Combat Cybersquatting

Let’s take a closer look at domain name disputes.

Domain names are a vital part of doing business online. There is a lot of on-going discussion about finding good domain names and the benefits of holding onto them. Unfortunately because of that, just like with any other aspects of business, conflict eventually arise over domain names ownership.

Now, if you are new to online business and internet marketing, you may not be familiar with all of the problems of owning a domain name and might not even know that such problems exists.

Luckily for you though, below are two important aspects you need to know:

Cybersquatting – main cause of domain name disputes

Cybersquatting was widely practiced at one time and still is today by unscrupulous sorts. For the most part, domain name registration happens on a first come first served basis. So if someone buys a domain name before you get to it, you are out of luck. If you really want the name you can negotiate with them and try to buy it. Of course, if it is a valuable name, they are not going to part with it for a cheap price.

Cybersquatters are particularly interested in domain names that would be of interest to big businesses or celebrities that have deep pockets. They buy domains with product names, celebrity names, or trademark names in them and hold onto them in hopes the rightful owner is desperate to buy.

Since domain names are fairly cheap to buy, under ten dollars in a lot of cases, cybersquatters can buy them by the hundreds and hope for just one or two big sales. However, cybersquatting can lead to domain name disputes.

For one thing, it is illegal to buy domain names with trademarked names in them if you are not the owner of the trademark. In those cases, the rightful owner does not have to pay to get the domain from a cybersquatter.

• The rightful owner can demand through a court of law that it be handed over

Another reason cybersquatting can result in domain name disputes is when they are put up for auction for large amounts of money simply because they have the name of a famous person. That is tantamount to making a bundle of money off of that person and the person has a legal right to a domain name dispute resolution.

Since there is so much money to be made when it comes to the buying and selling of domain names, it is very difficult to control the problem of cybersquatting.

When it comes to using trademarks and company names, the companies with big budgets can squash cybersquatters with domain name disputes. However, hundreds of other domains that cybersquatters do buy and profit from aren’t so clear cut and end up in disputes.

The way the domain registration process works today makes it easy for problems with domain names to arise and the problems don’t seem to get any better. That’s why it is always a good idea to protect your domain names.

It’s important also to understand and know that sometimes when there is a clear cut case of illegal use of your domain name by third parties, you might be able to gain control of your domain name by taking advantage of the “domain name dispute” resolution.