A warning about expired domains
 

Just wanted to relate this morning's stress and the lesson learned.

I have over 100 domains and most of them auto-renew but I have some listed with a company that does not offer auto-renewal.

So I wasn't paying enough attention and one of my domains expired on the 17th June. It didn't help that said registrar did not send any warning emails about the expiration. In fact, the last email I got from them about the impending expiry was 2nd June.

Today I discovered that the domain is redirecting to an ad page. Cue panicked visit to registrar. I get a page that says "This domain is expired and cannot be renewed." Naturally I got rather grumpy because you're supposed to have 1 month's grace. Turns out you can renew via a "reactivation" link but it took a discussion with support for that to be made apparent.

So I wanted to post because I feel like there's a bit of unethical stuff going on with some registrars. They are probably making good money when this sort of thing happens. A domain with good traffic expires and they IMMEDIATELY switch the dns to their own server and start serving their own ads. Certainly they don't feel motivated to send out any warning emails when there's a bit of extra cash to be made.

Don't get me wrong - it is my own fault for being forgetful and to make matters worse it's the second time it's happened this year. I'll probably lose a good google listing thanks to this stuff up.

Even so, I feel that the lack of email alerts and immediate DNS change to ads is pretty dodgy. I think I'll be moving my domains to another registrar.

Just a heads up for others to check their renewal list and make sure their registrar does the right thing by them.

yea i feel you

that happens is a big headache

I'd dump that registrar in an instant. There are more the enough out there that don't pull that shady stuff...

I have lost a couple of domains this way so I can understand your frustration. I have many domains with GoDaddy and they dont waste a second before switching dns and taking a days worth of your traffic before correcting it.

I now have a daily task of making sure all expiring domains get renewed well before the expiration date.

+1

many have felt that

Lost one the same way.

From that point forward all domains are paid for 2 yrs in advance. Every month I check to see which ones are down to 1 yr and just pay for the second year.

I challenge anyone to find a registrar that doesn't change the name servers on an expired domain. I don't see how that is in any way shady. The domain is expired, meaning no longer leased to you. What are you expecting to have happen?

I don't have anywhere near 100 domains but I recently switched the ones I do have to auto renewal.


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Clean Sites

I feel your pain. I'm my own registar, and I recently let 10 or so domains go, so it was a shock last night when I got a call from "Pixel Pie Domains" about my expired domains. I thought someone was scamming me, using MY name to call me about it.

After getting it straighted out, I found that was a service that they did for all anyone who registers though my service if domains expire, in addition to nagging you with emails, and offering auto renew. So sorry your registar was such a pain in the ass.

My point is that this particular registrar didn't send warning emails and they made it tricky to renew the domain. That feels pretty shady to me.

Karen, I love my registrar. :-) The good thing is that it's associated with my hosting company, whom I've been with for over ten years. I get a 90 day, 60 day, and 30 day warning from them. I have three domains with another registrar that I keep forgetting to change over to my main one, but they send me just as many reminders. The one I have the worst problem with is NS. I've only got two domains with them but trying to get information from them is almost impossible. One of these days I'll have enough patience to transfer the domains. I ended up having to pay well over $100 one time to get a domain back that was in that limbo period.

If you want the name of my registrar, just email or PM me.

I like ENOM, except the practice you're talking about here. If I register a domain and then don't update or use it straight away they send it to their own ads.

I don't really want my domains first viewing to the world to be ads.

I've just had the same... it wasn't Pl*net d*main was it :(

gaymovies.com expired on me last year. Talk about a wake up call :)

I got it back up and running, but damn it sucked.

I have everything hosted with network solutions. This domain was never switched after purchase. when you have a large collection of names it's easy to lose track.

Speaking of domain registers...
GoDaddy VP Caught Bidding Against Customers

Really the only part I find truly shady is the fact that you received no renewal notices. DirectNic starts sending mine 90 day prior to expiration and then 60, 30, 2 Weeks, 1 Week and the day of expiration.

There is no reason all registrars can't at least offer that courtesy.

You have to be careful about the opposite thing too. This month we decided to let a few unused domains expire. There was still a couple of months before they were due to expire when Network Solutions nicely auto-renewed them for us for 2-years. They say that they did it for 2-years since that was the original term for which the domains were registered and that's what they go by if there are no other instructions. Also, they say they always do it 60-days before expiration date.

NetSol will not cancel those registrations or refund the money, so the lesson here is to be sure to turn OFF auto-renew on any domains that you want to let expire at least 61 days before their expiration dates.


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For those of you relying on auto-renew, it is not foolproof. Credit cards have expiration dates. If you tend to be forgetful about renewing domains, your best bet is to renew your domains for several years at a time.

search engines tend to like long registered domains as well.

I'd recommend 3 years minimum.

On a similar note: One of my affiliates let his domain expire.
He makes about 400 a month on the domain.

I've been emailing him, calling, no response.

Make sure your contact info is good with your sponsors as well.

Don't forget to follow your own advice. You should renew GayMovies.com before it expires (Sept 2, 2008) on you again. Better yet, you should get rid of NetSol altogether. They have a lousy reputation. Just do a search for "Network Solutions front running".

One important step to prevent losing your domain names is to whitelist the email address of your registrar. Otherwise, spam filters may stop you from getting the renewal notices. This is especially important for those using free email services like Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail.