eBusiness Naturally

If you have a significant amount of resources invested in your domain name, don’t lose it! Here is what happens when you let your domain name expire:

When your domain name expires, you have a 12-day grace period in which to renew it. When the grace period is complete, it is sent back to the registrar.

Note that the place your registered your domain name is most likely a “domain reseller” — and not necessarily the registrar you registered it from or that “issued” it to you. Who are registrars? It is likely to be GoDaddy, Verisign or Wild West Domains.

The registrar then puts your domain on a 10-day auction in order to make the most money they possibly can from it before they put it back in their database.

Once your domain has gone to auction, you still have 42 days in which to reclaim it; however, you will have to pay the registrar $80 and the  their standard annual fee — usually from $8-35 per year.

If you reclaim your domain, then you must set it up once again as you did when you originally registered it — through the reseller — by pointing it to your web server, etc.

If you do not reclaim your domain name during the 42-day waiting period, then if someone bid on it at auction, they will be the new registrant.

Here is the story of Mike Davidson and his quest to register an expiring domain name.