Domain Drops

Domain names are good business opportunities and at the same time horrible examples of mistaken identity. I was searching the name Gianna Cardinale last night to check if I can still rush to a domain registrar and have my website registered. The web search gave me two matches of Gianna Cardinale.

The first one led me to home.pacbell.net/bill_gi/gianna/, a website that deals with Ornamental Horticulture. Here, you can get information about color spot nurseries and herbs owned by Mountain Valley growers. The second match is about a twelve-year old Gianna Cardinale, a winner in the fun run of the Los Gatos Elementary Education Foundation. I'm not exactly 12, and I'd rather have asthma than run a hundred miles in a color spot garden. Jeez, I'm a lover of the Internet, but with these silly results cropping up, I might as well do a rally for Internet censorship.

It's a good thing Yahoo already launched their cheap domain registration service. Imagine for only $9 annually, Yahoo will provide web services to your domain and bring-in web messages and traffic to your site. I've already registered my own domain name last night. But don't worry, you won't see any horticulture issues there, nor a Gianna vying for the Olympics.

Owning a website has its perks and privileges. But it also means a great deal of responsibility. Imagine if you're a proud owner o a domain name, then you log-in one day just to discover that you're site belongs to the list of domain sites that gets an error message or worst you find your domain name containing rows of ads. Then you realized, you failed to re-register it. You're right, it has expired and you're out of business.

As much as you want it to be one of those bad dreams that you have at night, that's far from possible. This happens in real life because of what we know as "domain drop catching." And mind you, it's a completely legit process. It's where people snag your domain names which you have ignored for a long time without renewing. Thereafter, these same people resell your domain names at better prices or fill it up with loads of advertisements. Good news is you can do something to prevent being a prey of drop catching. All you have to do is to keep track of the relevant dates regarding your domain names. That is you have to be mindful of the expiring dates and even the grace period for salvaging your domain names. Don't just depend on the renewal notice that your registrar sends you. As what I've told you in previous articles, take note, as in write down the dates and keep yourself informed.

If you have a collection of domain names under your belt, what would you do to keep track of them? That sounds like a daunting task, but managing your domain names and their expiration is just a walk in the park. Since you only have to renew your domain names every year, you need not have an entry in your handy Palm organizer to keep you reminded (but if you must, it's fine). Your domain registrar will send you email regarding info on when your domain names are expiring.

But the big problem that usually startles us is that domain names don't usually expire exactly on the date that they were registered and that's a fact. You have the so-called grace period to fix things. After that and you haven't done a thing then it will be free for dropping. But another problem: since you have multiple domain names registered in multiple domain registrars, what on Earth can you do? No, the Excel is not a solution not even your secretary can keep track of that. Enter the Whois database! Like what I've said in my previous post, the Whois database keeps track of every necessary info about your registered domain name. Every registrar has that. Now that you got the information that's the time you will need your MS applications.

As I was doing my research for this blog I came to realize one thing: in the real world, not every domain name that you have ever dreamed of is yours for the taking because somebody may have already registered it. However, if you still want to go after your dream domain name then you would have to wait for it to expire. If that somebody didn't care to renew it, then consider yourself lucky. You can catch that domain name the moment that it drops right at your doorstep. But to make it easier, why not hire a domain drop catcher?

Domain drop catchers are people who earn a good healthy living by catching or hunting for the release of domain names. It's a skill that they have already mastered. So when you're eyeing for that dot-com of your dreams, it’s time to hire these drop sharks to do the job.

Some of the major drop catchers in the dot-com industry include Pool.com, SnapNames and eNom's Clb Drop. All of these drop catchers work in the same way. If you want to register for an expiring domain name, you have to register or sign up. After signing up, here is where the action all takes place. They scan their registry and monitor those names that are about to expire. The moment the domain names become available, these drop catchers immediately register it under your name.

Recently, I found myself wanting to register a domain name which apparently was registered to someone else. Luckily, the domain name was expected to drop or expire in a week. It instantly came to my mind to snatch that dream domain of mine and renew it under my name. I consulted the registry dealing with the domain name and found out that the person whose name it has been registered is nowhere to be located. He probably went to vacation not caring to renew his domain name. And so what I did was to place a backorder through a domain monitoring site and paid a fairly reasonable price. In just a few weeks I am the proud owner of a domain name, shiny and new.

Domain names do not live perpetual lives; as such they are bound to expire contrary to most other people’s beliefs. We call this in techy terms as domain drop or expiration. If a domain name-owner does not renew an expiring domain name then it is up for grabs by anyone. Eventually, that anyone can register the domain name to himself once the grace period of 40 days lapses.

The grace period is given to the original owner of the domain name to salvage his domain name. If it, however, lapses he will never have it back but only if he will pay a standard renewal fee. If a domain enters this period, it is a good first indicator that it may not be renewed, but since the owner can re-register without penalty, it can also just be a sign of laziness or procrastination.

Domains have life cycles of their own. The most common life cycle of domains is hard to predict. There is, however, a general pattern that is applicable to most COM, ORG and NET domain names. The life span of domain names usually lasts for one to ten years during which time the customer has the option to renew.

The domain registrant will receive renewal notices as the date of expiration becomes nearer. If no response is received from the customer within forty-five days from the date of expiration, the domain host will delete the registration. There is however a 30-day redemption grace period provided. Then another five days for registry hold before the domain name will be available for re-registration.

Shifting from one web hosting company to another may be a good move for trimming down business expenses. The only inconvenience is that you cannot immediately use your former domain name when you are registering to a new web server provider. After a contract expires, a domain name remains unavailable for more or less than two months. This rule applies provided you haven't purchased your domain name.

Yet is a name worth the long wait? Remember that this is also your chance to make the necessary change if there is any. Yet, your domain name or rather modifying your domain name can either be a boon or a bane to your business and you need to weigh things well.

When your contract with a company ends, your domain name does not drop instantly. In other words, it does not become available immediately especially if you want to register the same web domain name to a new company with a lower charge.

You have to wait, of course. Yet how long? Some say it takes more than two months but no one really knows the exact date. Is the wait worth it? Why not consider getting a new one? Who knows? A good change may do good for you and your company.