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Can you grab your expiring domain? |
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Monday, 05 March 2007 |
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The process that a domain name goes through at the end of its paid time
is not as clear as one would think. If the domain is not renewed by
the expiration date then it becomes "expired". Now in the account of
the registrar the domain sits for 40 days in this status, all dns is
shut down, no email services exist and it usually gets pointed to some
parking page to generate ad clicks. During this period, you can still
renew the domain, usually without penalty simply by paying the
registration fee and the domain will get turned back up.
After the 40 days are over, the domain goes into "redemption" where it
will now cost an additional fee to turn it back on. The redemption
period lasts about 30 days and during this time plus the "expired"
time, only the domain owner can renew it and only with the original
registrar. Once this redemption period ends, the domain gets locked
down and spends a five day period in the "deletion" phase. At the end
of this five day period, or a total of 75 days after the expiration
date, the domain gets "dropped" by the underlying registry and is
available for anyone to purchase. In theory that is.
You see, there are many businesses out there that are electronically
tuned into this "drop" and have their computers on the ready to snatch
domains as they fall out of the database. If someone has their eye on
the domain and has put an order in with one of these services, then
they might snatch up the domain before anyone else has a shot at it.
In fact, you can put an order in with multiple services and let them
fight it out with each other. It does not matter which one wins as
long as it's one of the services you enlisted. Some services are
directly tied to the underlying registry and have an advantage at
acquiring a dropping domain. Others rely on sophisticated programming
to beat the odds and be the first to grab it.
Even more interesting is that some of these services will then hold an
"auction" for the domain name, especially if there are multiple parties
that put in an order to get it. There are many of these services out
there, for example Pool.com, Enom.com, SnapNames.com, and GoDaddy.com's
Domain Alert to name a few. You can expect to pay as little as thirty
dollars and maybe up to a few hundred dollars using these services to
get your name back.
So if your domain name has expired with RF and it's close to ending the
redemption period, you need to do some research and start acting if you
want a shot at claiming it back using these domain name drop services.
You may have legal rights to the name and all the documentation in the
world, but the process could be long and hard to get it back using
these channels. Perhaps using these "drop" services might be a
shortcut to getting your name back within a reasonable time period and
for a reasonable price.
Written by member: MikeInMass
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