Are you renewing your domain name soon? Do you even know when your domain registration is up? I bet a lot of you reading this don’t even know. Heck, I’ve even forgot once in awhile. Do you know how much it costs if you let your domain slip for too long? I do. I have had several people have to order their domain back from www.namenova.com since they let it go into limbo for too long. It cost them $90.

Now lets say your domain is up soon, there are several things you need to look into. Is the place you registered your domain name the cheapest place out there? Are they reliable? What services do they offer?

If your domain name registrar isn’t helpful, or they over charge you it is definitely something you want to look into. I had several domains at other registrars since I purchased them second hand so I had to go and do a domain registrar change. This actually worked out for my benefit. Have you looked into doing this? You could be a registrar hopper! My domain was going to cost me $10 dollars to renew with one host, I thought that was a little much. Heck all the domains I’ve been purchasing haven’t ever cost me over $9.25. I own a domain registrar, however I don’t know all my prices off hand, so, I went and looked and I saw that my transfers start from only $6.95. The best part is when I transfer to registrar I want to be at instead of paying $10 dollars to renew I only paid $6.95 + icann fee. Since it is a dot com, I can renew the domain again at $6.95 + icann fee a year.

Which happens to be an amazing discount from other registrars. Now when you registrar you automatically are extending the life of a domain for one year. They don’t want you sitting in their registrar for free so that is why they have you pay to renew the domain for a year but at a discounted rate. This entices you to say hey I want to be with that guy. Which is fine, and more than normal.

If we didn’t go out and look for lower prices domains would still cost $70 dollars for 2 year (which was the minimum) like it did when I started. Granted some domains are much pricier than others. I love .nu domains and unfortunately they are $30 a year, with a register of 2 year minimum. But once the 2 year minimum is up you can renew at 1 year. So sometimes it is worth that little investment.

But always do your research, if something is cheaper at another place but you really love your register try registering it and transfering it. You may be able to get that domain for 2 years for half the price you would normally!