Erik’s Blog: Board Shorts and Business Suits

When I purchase domain names, they tend to be on a whim and I’m unsure how long I’ll want the domain name. Therefor, I usually only opt to register them for a year, and uncheck the auto-renew box. I don’t want to be stuck with a name a year from now that I bought because one night I thought it was going to make the next golden Blog.

I also buy typos and type-in names that I park. Most of these names have completely arbitrary renewal dates that I don’t even look at after I decide whether or not the renewal fee + purchase price makes the purchase a smart buy. I just add it to my Go Daddy account, change the name servers and forget about it.

Then every once in a while I’ll get an email from Go Daddy that says 90 days renewal notice, or 60, or 30, or 15, or 10, or 5,4,3,2,1, they never end. So I just delete and forget, knowing that I’ll eventually make it back to Go Daddy to check on the names and renew.

Well, the other day I remembered that a name I currently own throw Air Depth had sent me an email that I promptly deleted or filed away. Only problem was, I remembered that the notice said 5 days to renew and that was 20 days ago. Ug! It was a $80 domain name! Now that’s chump change to these big wig domainers but to small peanuts McGee over hear that’s a good portion of money that I could pay bloggers with.

So I quickly called AirDepth to see if I could recover the name. Low and behold it turns out they hold it for 30 days and allow me to renew within that time period. (probably if no one else wants it, who knows)

I renewed the name but learned a valuable lesson. The second you realize a domain is worth something to you, renew it for a couple of years. Worse that happens is you can fact in the cost when you sell the domain name.