Ian McMillan registered the internet domain name TrivialPursuits.net and won the right to continue using it, after a challenge from Horn Abbot, the makers of the board game, failed to stop him using the domain name. The makers of the Trivial Pursuits board game failed to obtain the TrivialPursuits.net domain name from the person who said he registered the name to lament life’s loss of individual creativity.

This decision has gone against the long established principle that once a brand is "well known", the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)1 part of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), would be able to effect the transfer of the name. However, in this case, the panel was unclear about the intentions of the respondent, and his motive for registering the domain name. The panel did not believe that there was enough evidence to support an application for bad faith activity on behalf of the respondent.

Respondent Ian McMillan informed the WIPO panellist that he bought the name with with the intention of creating a website dealing with "the 21st Century’s unique trivial pursuits, specifically the fact that most aspects of life now involve a commodity as opposed to individual creativity, from sex to salvation via surgery and sweeteners". Currently, the site is only one page long, and refers to the WIPO case as "a fine example of a quite unnecessary and utterly trivial pursuit," adding that more content will be added, "but at the convenience of my lazy nature."

There was little evidence of bad faith found by the panel, although McMillan does not appear to have intention of using the website.

Comment: Usually in cybersquatting cases where there "is no use of a sign in the course of trade" plus difficulty in establishing trade mark infringement or passing off, the UDRP approach is the recommended recourse as it is far cheaper and sometimes quicker.

If you require further information contact us.

Email: enquiries@rtcoopers.com

© RT COOPERS, 2005. This Briefing Note does not provide a comprehensive or complete statement of the law relating to the issues discussed nor does it constitute legal advice. It is intended only to highlight general issues. Specialist legal advice should always be sought in relation to particular circumstances.

Rosanna Cooper is a partner in RT Coopers Solicitors. The firm is a full service commercial law firm covering areas such as E-Business, Education Law, Commercial Litigation, Data Protection, Intellectual Property, Corporate Finance and Commercial Contracts.

Contact us at enquiries@rtcoopers.com. visit our website at http://www.rtcoopers.com

It begins as an idea — a company name, a business venture, a personal project. You research available domain name options, choose the one you want, and finally register it. Or perhaps the perfect domain was in use before, and you register it after it completes the domain deletion cycle.

After going through the selection and registration process and then using the domain to brand your business, do you want to risk losing your domain?

Of course not.

THE LIFE CYCLE OF A DOMAIN NAME

To avoid losing a domain after you’ve registered it, let’s look at the stages that each domain goes through.

It’s available

When you look up the domain in Whois records, it’s available for registration. It may never have been registered before, or it may have already been through one or more domain name cycles.

It’s active

Someone has registered the domain for the current time period. Domains can be registered for a minimum of one year and up to 10 years at a time. Some country-specific domain name extensions (e.g., domains ending in .uk and .au) can be registered for only shorter time periods. When a domain is nearing the end of its active period, an email notification is sent to the address in the record for the domain name registrant.

If the registrant renews the domain before it expires, it stays active. Otherwise, the cycle moves to the next stage.

It’s expired (on hold)

A registrant had the domain name registered but didn’t renew it before the expiry date. The domain name registrar may hold the domain to allow the registrant to re-register it, which would return the domain to active status. This time period is typically 45 days, but it may be longer, shorter, or non-existent, depending on the registrar.

The website and email for the domain might still work for a few days after a domain enters this stage. The domain cannot be transferred to another registrar at this stage, however.

It’s in the Redemption Grace Period (RGP)

The domain is held in a 30-day redemption period, during which the registrant can still re-register it, perhaps with an additional service fee at this point. The website and email for the domain no longer work. However, the domain is not yet available to the public.

It’s pending delete

This registry hold period, the last stage of the cycle, is five days.

It’s available

Anyone can now register the domain name. The cycle can begin again.

THE BENEFITS OF LONG-TERM DOMAIN REGISTRATION

It’s more convenient

When your domain is registered for several years, you only have to renew it once every several years. You also avoid the inconvenience of possibly having your site and email go down if you miss an annual renewal deadline.

It’s less expensive

Some domain name registrars offer a discount when you register a domain for multiple years. In addition, you reduce the number of occasions when you might have to pay a service fee for renewing your domain late.

It’s more secure

The chances of your losing your domain because you were away, busy, or didn’t receive the email notification about its due date are reduced.

It’s more legitimate

It’s believed that Google weighs the length of the domain registration when ranking a website. A site with a domain that’s registered for several years would benefit from the long registration time over a site with a domain that expires in less than a year.

Savvy customers will also notice how long a domain is registered for. A company with a domain that’s registered for a few years is more likely to be around in a few years than one with a domain that’s registered for only one year.

THE MANAGEMENT OF A DOMAIN NAME

To keep your treasured domain name from going through the above cycle after you register it, take these preventive steps:

• Register it for several years at a time.
• Register it with an email address that doesn’t go with the domain name — you need to be able to send and receive email about the domain if you accidentally let it expire.
• Keep the address in your Whois records current so that you can receive renewal notices from your domain name registrar.
• Set up a reminder in your calendar to renew your domain at least two months before its expiry date.

These security steps will help protect your domain name:

• Use a complex password with a combination of letters and numbers for your domain name account.
• Turn on the "lock" feature if the extension allows locking. When a domain name is locked, no changes can be made to it. Some domains (depending on the registrar or extension) can’t be locked, but other security measures are usually in place to prevent unauthorized transfers or other changes.

Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

It’s surprising, at least to me, the amount of Affiliates who aren’t aware of the value and flexibility that the ‘sub-domain’ can give their promotional website activities. Set up in the right way, a single domain through a host who includes multiple ‘sub-domains’ in their hosting package can fill ALL the online needs of even the busiest and most diversified Affiliate.

Firstly, for those who need to know, a ‘sub-domain’ is simply a separate, individual web folder, which can be attached to a ‘main’ domain and treated in all respects as a separate entity online. It is similar to a ‘sub-web’, which most hosting facilities include except that it is, in it’s own right, treated as a separate domain by the SEs rather than a sub-folder under a domain.

The way in which they are represented online as URLs is as follows:

For instance, if you have a domain name, ‘domain.com’ and you add a sub-domain named ‘bubble’, the URL to that particular ‘website’ (which is what each sub-domain amounts to, a separate website) will be ‘bubble.domain.com’. No doubt, many have seen these types of URLs online and in promo emails etc. The ‘dot’ between the sub-domain and main domain is not to be confused with the ‘dash’ that can be used as part of a main domain. For instance, ‘bubble-domain.com’ would need to be registered and propagated in it’s own right whereas, sub-domains can be created under a main domain in a matter of seconds, with their own FTP password, image, private and cgi-bin folders etc.

What makes them so valuable a tool, if it’s not so obvious already, is that an Affiliate can create a separate website for totally unrelated products or services, fill each website with the necessary pages of content, links and facilities etc and promote each to the Search Engines and other directories, virtually as if it were a different main domain. As I’ve said, the SEs treat each sub-domain as a separate entity and categorize them as such. A very handy ability when it comes to Affiliate programs that supply a website or webpage for their Affiliates to use and promote. In such a case, you can basically make that page or site your very own in every respect, optimizing for SEs and presenting it how ever you please (provided no agreements are broken).

Obviously, having a ‘generic’ main domain name is essential to getting the best out of this cost, time and trouble saving method of creating multiple websites. If you have a main domain name ‘pillshop.net’ (perhaps your initial Affiliate endeavor involved promoting this type of product) it is really only going to be useful for the one type of product or service. Alternatively, something more generic like ‘online-plus.biz’ is going to be useful for promoting almost anything because it has no specific meaning. For instance, in the case of promoting a Singles Dating Affiliate program, something like ‘singles.online-plus.biz’ would work as well as ‘pills.online-plus.biz’ or even ‘dogs.online-plus.biz’. However, ‘singles.pillshop.net’ just doesn’t work, does it? (Although, I have seen some pretty weird URLs around!)

The only problem you will be presented with, concerns the traffic ranking facility Alexa. Alexa will read all sub-domains as their parent ‘main domain’, so the traffic ranking for each website will be the same, as will all the other Alexa information. However, this isn’t such a great problem when you consider that the total traffic indicated for each website will actually be the total for ALL of them. In my opinion, not so much of a problem, at all.

So, for the Affiliate at least, choosing the right type of domain name and a hosting facility that includes multiple sub-domains in their package is very important, especially if there’s any possibility that you’re going to be venturing into promoting unrelated products and services. The first hosting facility I was involved with a few years ago, charged $10 to create each sub-domain. The one I’ve been with for the last couple of years, allows unlimited free sub-domains (contact me at one of my websites if you want to know who they are).

The 2005 Edition of Steve Brennan’s popular ebook title ‘The Affiliate Guide Book‘ is available now. He also operates a number of Affiliate wesbites which include Hair Loss Remedy and Diet & Weight Loss Place.

Does the length of your website’s domain name registration affect the search results at Google? This question has come up recently and a lot of website owners have been wondering about it, especially since it was mentioned in a patent awarded to Google in April. According to the patent, "Certain signals may be used to distinguish between illegitimate and legitimate domains. For example, domains can be renewed up to a period of 10 years. Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith." According to this statement in the patent, domains that expire in 10 years are more valuable and legitimate than domains that will expire in less than a year.

Google, in general, is always looking for ways to weed out the bad (spammers) from the good (legitimate) websites. I suspect that they looked for a pattern among the good, legitimate websites and found that most good, legitimate websites have a commitment towards their business and their domain name-they register it for a long period of time. In other words, the theory behind all of this is that if you register a domain name for several years it shows Google that you’re committed to that domain name. If you register a domain name for 1 year then you’re not as committed to that domain name. A lot of spammers use "throw away" domain names and register them for only a year. So, Google uses the length of time that a domain is registered to determine whether the owner of that domain name is committed to it or not.

One domain name owner I talked to recently told me that renewing his domain names once each year was a part of his business plan. He made a certain amount of money each year from each domain name/website, and he didn’t want to cut into the profits of each site by renewing each domain name all at once for several years. "Renewing a domain name for 10 years or even 2 years ahead of time means that I have to spend more money. If I have to come up with $50 or $100 more per year for the domain renewal fees it cuts into my profits", says John, who wished to remain anonymous. John’s website is probably exactly the type of website that Google wishes to identify. Google is looking to identify quality, well-established websites whose owners are committed to their domain names. According to the statements made in Google’s patent, Google thinks that websites that have been renewed for a long period of time meet that standard.

Should you renew your domain name for a long period of time? And if so, how long is long enough? If you want to stay ahead of your competition, then you might consider looking at the length of time your competitors have registered their domain names. If your competitors have generally renewed their domain names for one or two years, you might consider registering your domain name for 5 or 10 years. While putting off your domain name’s expiration date might help your search engine rankings, keep in mind that this may be only a small boost (or a "tie-breaker" among two websites) when it comes to the actual search engine rankings. And, be aware that just because Google has a patent on the idea it doesn’t mean that they’re actually using that criteria now to rank websites. They, too, want to stay ahead of their competition (mainly Yahoo! and MSN).

I’ve registered the domains that I really care about for at least 10 years. Initially, I registered these domains for a long period of time because I didn’t want to lose them-and I didn’t want to go through the somewhat-lengthy annual process of renewing them every year. Since most domain names I own come up for renewal at different times during the year, it seemed as though I was renewing a domain name at least once a month-and renewing them for a few years put it off for a while.

Expired domain name buyers are prevalent nowadays. If your domain name expires, there’s a good chance that someone watching will register your domain name within seconds after it expires. If, for whatever reason, you don’t renew your domain name, someone watching a ‘watch list’ of expiring domain names will try to capitalize on the online business that you’ve built over the years. They know that there is potential website traffic they can have simply by renewing your old domain name. By renewing your domain name for several years, your domain name won’t expire for a while, and it won’t be opened up to expired domain name buyers.

If you really want to stay ahead of the competition, you might consider registering or renewing your domain name for 100 years. Currently, Network Solutions (www.netsol.com) is the only registrar offering the 100 year option, which costs $999.00. GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com), currently offers to renew or register a domain name for 10 years, at a discount of $6.95 per year. Dotster (www.dotster.com), another leading registrar, offers domain name registration and renewals for up to 10 years at a cost of $129.95.

What’s the bottom line? If you’re committed to your online business, your website, and your domain name, then renewing your domain name for a long period of time will not only stop expired domain buyers from registering your domain name when it expires, it will show Google that you’re committed to it-and that may give you a boost in the search engine rankings, as well.

Bill Hartzer is a successful writer and search engine marketing expert who has personally created hundreds of websites over the years. Extended bio info:

Bill created his first website back in 1996 to help promote his former database software business. It was then when he learned about the power of the search engines and web search, which helped potential customers find his business online.

Bill Hartzer has over 15 years of professional writing experience. He has survived stints as a writer for television, as well as a technical writer for several computer software companies in Florida and in Texas. Mr. Hartzer combines his writing and online skills to create compelling and useful websites for corporations worldwide. Mr. Hartzer focuses on the optimization in the business to business arena, but applies these optimization skills to business to consumer websites, as well.

You want your own online business? Good because it’s one of the most fun things you can do with your spare time and can be very profitable.

Remember that just because it’s an online business doesn’t mean that you should treat it with any less professionalism or seriousness than you do your daytime job.

Why? Simply because when you run an online business it’s a serious business. Well it should be taken seriously if you want to make serious money.

One of the most important aspects of any online business is the domain name. This is where the vast majority of new online entrepreneurs make their first big mistake - they choose one of those free domain name providers to represent their business online. This is a critical mistake.

Let’s say you’re starting a computer repair business. Which one of the following domains looks better:

‘www.computerfixer.com’ or; ‘computerfixer.freehosting.com’

The truth of the matter is that computerfixer.com is a top level domain and computerfixer.freehosting.com is a sub-domain. These free domain providers would have you believe that their cheapo subdomain is as good as a top level domain - this simply isn’t so.

Online shoppers expect your online business to be located on a top level domain. If they find your website on one of these cheap or free domain services you’ve just lost 50% of your potential customers. They’ll click back and look at the next search result in Google, Yahoo or MSN.

Free domains make you look cheap, show that you don’t want to invest in your business, that you don’t take your customers seriously, look terrible on business cards and make you look like an amateur. There aren’t any benefits to cutting corners on your domain name.

A domain name costs, at most, $15 per year. That’s 4 cents per day. If your business can’t afford this then you really shouldn’t be running an online business at all.

This article was written by Niall Roche and provided courtesy of http://www.domaintutor.info. This website has lots of informative and useful articles on the topic of web domains.

You go to work every day at the store you own, and one morning, your key to the door doesn’t work. You look in the window, and the display items have changed. A stranger is behind the counter. But when you call the police, they can’t do anything because the company papers now indicate that the store belongs to the stranger.

The above scenario isn’t likely to happen with a bricks-and-mortar store. Because of insecurities in the domain registration system, however, information highwaymen could take over your online business.

As with identity theft, domain thieves steal your identity — the identity used to register and configure your domain name. After that, your website, your email, your online business, and possibly your reputation are theirs.

Domain names at risk of theft

While theft is a risk with all domain names, domains most at risk are more valuable ones. Domains with dot com extensions have a higher resale value than domains with other extensions, and domains with high traffic or valuable keywords are also more likely to be targets.

The motive behind domain hijacking is usually monetary, but it may be personal. If anyone wants to attack you, stealing your domain name is one way to do it.

How domain theft happens

When domain hijackers steal your domain, they gain access to the domain’s Whois records. They can modify the domain’s nameservers so that the domain points to a different server. They can also transfer the domain to a different registrar.

Either way, site visitors will find themselves at the website of the domain hijacker instead of at your site. All domain email will go to or through the other server instead of to you. All you’ll have left is a website without public access because your domain isn’t pointing to it any more.

How can this happen?

Domain hijacking methods

• Domain hijackers send forged faxes to the domain registrar, impersonating the registrants.
• Domain hijackers hack into the accounts of free email addresses listed in Whois records and use those addresses to obtain domain account information.
• Domain hijackers send out fraudulent email renewal notices, and registrants unknowingly transfer their domains to the thieves.

Registrar non-action

• The gaining registrar (the registrar that the domain is transferred to) doesn’t obtain approval from the domain name registrant or administrative contact as required by ICANN Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy.
• The losing registrar (that the domain is transferred from) doesn’t notify the registrant of the transfer during the five-day pending transfer period. During this period, the registrant can cancel or deny approval of the domain transfer — if the registrar notifies the registrant of it.

Registrant carelessness

• The registrant forgets to update Whois details or to renew the account.
• Someone with access to the registrant’s records steals the information.

Domain name disputes

If you discover that your domain has been hijacked, contact your registrar immediately. If your registrar is unable to resolve the situation, the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy (TDRP) applies.

By going the above arbitration route, you don’t have to argue your case in person. On the other hand, all you can get back in the process is your domain (and not necessarily that). For a lot more money, you can take your case to court, where you can seek compensation for damages in addition to the return of your domain. This process takes more time, however.

You may be able to proceed both ways – get your domain back via ICANN domain dispute resolution procedures and then go to court to collect damages. You can also appeal a domain arbitrator’s decision in court.

How to protect your domain name

Protecting a domain name is similar to protecting a bricks-and-mortar store from burglary. With a combination of precautions in place, thieves will find it difficult or impossible to gain access.

Your domain account information

• List your name for the administrative contact, and use your full name.
• Create a complex password with letters (both upper case and lower case) and numbers. Don’t use any real words or personal information in it. Make it long. Make it unique – don’t use the same password for anything else. Change it periodically.
• Keep your domain login name, account number, and password in a place where only trusted people can access it.
• Use a valid contact email address that doesn’t use the domain it’s for. Be sure that this email account also has a complex password. If you’re going to be offline for more than a few days, have someone else check the email for this account.
• Don’t use a free email address such as a Hotmail or Yahoo address. Domain hijackers target domains with free email addresses in the Whois records. After they’ve cracked your email account password, the support you need to get your email account back will probably be slow, giving the hijackers plenty of time to take over your domain.
• Update your Whois record whenever the information in it changes.

Your domain account features

• Choose a domain registrar that sends registrants transfer pending notifications when a domain transfer is taking place.
• Consider protecting your Whois details with a registrar that offers a private domain name record. With this feature, your registrar’s data appears with your Whois record rather than your data. The downside of using this feature is that your business may have less credibility because you’re hiding who you are.
• Register your domain for a long time period, and set up calendar reminders to renew it before it expires.
• Set up your domain to be renewed automatically if your registrar offers this feature.
• Use the Registrar-lock mechanism if it’s available through your registrar. When a domain is locked, it cannot be modified or transferred unless the registrant unlocks it or follows the domain transfer process.

Other domain security measures

• Set up a free Whois monitoring alert email service and add your domain to your monitoring list. You will receive email notifications whenever the expiration date, registrar, or status of a monitored domain changes. (Whois does not have data on all domain extensions.)
• Make sure that someone checks your website every few days, preferably daily.

Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

Choosing a domain name is one of the first items on any online entrepreneur’s to-do list. Once you have taken the time to choose the “.com” to represent your company your next step is finding the best deal possible to acquire it. If you’re a savvy buyer you would like to get the most bang for your buck. The 3 points to look at for whatever you’re buying is Price, Value, and Service. Here’s what you should be looking for before purchasing a domain name.

Price

Domain names are usually purchased from web hosting companies on an annual basis. You’ll have the option to prepay multiple years. Prices range from just a few dollars per year when you catch them on sale to upwards of $20 or $30 annually. Try to stay on the low end of that range. You should not pay more than $10 per year for your domain. There are so many domain name registrars it will be tough to choose. The difference in them lies in value and service.

Value

You want to get as much with your domain name as possible. One of the most important and yet simple marketing devices is e-mail. Having your own e-mail account associated with your domain name helps to build your brand. It’s much more professional for to respond to customer questions from support@yourdomain.com and people will remember your domain name. Get one that includes an e-mail account.

Some other features to look for are free “For Sale “ pages or starter pages while you get your website ready, free domain name forwarding if you already have a website, and free change of registration if you sell the domain name. You should not be charged for any of these.

Service

This is the simplest of the bunch. You want 24/7 customer service for those of us who work nights, a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section provided by your web hosting company for quick solutions for common problems, and Email Support. These will help you get your problems fixed quickly and efficiently which will save you time and money.

For more information send an email to info@301concepts.com or visit http://301concepts.com/

Eric is founder of 301concepts.com and has a background in web development and business administration.

Ever been in a hall of mirrors at a circus or carnival? You go in, and you think you’re heading in one direction only to find out – bonk! – that was a mirror or glass, and suddenly you’re headed in a different direction all together.

That’s what domain name forwarding is like.

Say you’re on the Internet and you hear about a great new product and you can find out all about it at newproduct.com. So you type “newproduct.com” into your browser.

Only you don’t end up at newproduct.com. Instead, you somehow end up at othersite.com. You’re not too concerned, because there on the page is the product you were looking for as well as some other products besides.

But how come you didn’t end up at newproduct.com? And if the people with the product wanted you to end up at othersite.com, why didn’t they put that domain name instead?

To answer the first question, you probably ended up at othersite.com instead of newproduct.com because of domain forwarding. If so, the people who set this up did the following:

·They bought the domain name othersite.com and created a website there with all their products.

·They bought the domain name newproduct.com and told people that’s where the new product info is.

·They used domain forwarding so that whoever went to newproduct.com would get forwarded to othersite.com. They could use domain forwarding with other domain names as well, such as bigproduct.com, smallproduct.com, and tinyproduct.com. No matter which domain name you went to, you’d end up exactly where they wanted you, which was at othersite.com, where ALL their products are.

To answer the second question, the reasons they’d do this are:

·Instead of having different websites for each product, people often put all their products on one site, or at one domain name, but advertise the products individually using product-specific domain names. Why? (see below)

·It’s more impressive to have a product-specific domain name (e.g., superbike.com) than just a generic domain name (e.g., bikestore.com). It’s also more likely you’ll remember the product-specific domain name.

Now, most of us would only be mildly confused to end up on othersite.com when we thought we were going to newproduct.com. In fact, a lot of us wouldn’t even notice we didn’t end up at the domain name we thought we were going to – not unless we looked at the top of our browser to the URL address of the webpage we ended up on.

But where it can get confusing is this. The people with the domain name newproduct.com could use masked domain forwarding. With masked domain forwarding, you’d type in newproduct.com, you’d end up at othersite.com, but the fact you were forwarded would be masked. In other words, the URL address at the top of the browser would indicate you were indeed at newproduct.com, when in fact, you were at othersite.com.

And to make things even more confusing, no matter which page you went to on othersite.com (which is where you’d really be), the URL at the top of your browser would still read newproduct.com. Now that’s confusing!

Either way, masked or unmasked, domain forwarding simply spins the visitor around a bit, moving them this way when they thought they’d be going that way.

And that’s why domain name forwarding is like a hall of mirrors.

Copyright (c) Grant Pasay 2005. All rights reserved. You may forward this article in its entirety (including author bio/links) to anyone you wish.

Grant Pasay is a professional website copywriter, advertising copywriter, and SEO copywriter serving clients in Vancouver, BC and everywhere. Grant is also the author of the FREE e-book, "The Internet Is Like A Refrigerator."

For copy that captures your business message without any of the hassle, go to http://grantpasay.com/

Check out Grant’s FREE e-book at http://grantpasay.com/refrigerator/

Domains do not simply "expire." The process involves a few steps and understanding them can be important to understanding why there is an additional fee for renewals in certain circumstances.

Domain expiration can be a frustrating experience. The advent of the "redemption period" has caused a lot of sticker shock to unwary domain owners when they seek to renew an expired domain. Understanding the process of domain expiration is a crucial first step in avoiding having to pay additional fees. Understand the steps in the process described will always be the same, but the amount of time each step takes is, with one exception, determined by the individual registrar. Only your registrar can provide the specific amount of time they will start sending renewal notices or keep a domain in hold status, so it is important to know your individual registrar’s policies.

Step 1: Active Status

Domains within their registration dates are generally on "active" status. Some domains may be in a "lock" status as well, either by the registry or the registrar. This means the details of the domain cannot be changed without the lock status being removed. This is generally a security measure to prevent a domain from being tampered with or transferred to another registrar without the owner’s approval. Active status means a domain is live and visible, depending on the status of the server hosting the site. At any point in its active life, a domain can be renewed for an additional term of one or more years for whatever the individual registrar’s going annual rate.

At some point near the end of the current registration period renewal notices will be sent. The exact time is determined by the individual registrar and could be anytime from one to six months in advance of the expiration. The notices will be sent to the contact email on the domain. This is probably the number one cause of unwanted domain expiration, inaccurate contact information. Always make sure the contact information on the domain is up to date. Be aware that making changes to contact information with a hosting company will, in virtually all cases, not update the information on the domain. The contact information on a domain must be kept current via the domain’s registrar.

Step 2: On-Hold

The "registrar-hold" status occurs when the domain expires or shortly after, depending on the discretion of the actual registrar. Domains in the "hold" status will cease functioning and the site they reference will appear to be "down", even though the webserver hosting them is likely up. Some registrars will provide a short grace period of active functioning after the domain expires and before placing it on hold. When a domain is on hold status, it can be renewed for the standard fee charged by the individual registrar. This is the last point at which renewal at the registrar’s normal rates is possible.

Step 3: Redemption Period

This is a more recent development, one created by ICANN, the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers, ostensively to allow domain owners a "second chance" at renewing their domains and preventing their loss to other parties. Though useful, this "service" doesn’t come free. Like most elements of this timeline, the fee will vary from registrar to registrar, though it will generally be in excess of seventy dollars. Prices can rise up to $150 dollars or more at some registrars. The one difference here is the time period, which is always 30 days. The actual start date can be determined by the registrar, but once initiated, it will be 30 days, unless the customer chooses to pay the fee and redeem the domain.

Step: 4: Pending Delete

The final step prior to complete release of the domain for anyone to register at any registrar. Pending delete status follows the 30 day redemption period and lasts up to 5 days. There is no way to renew the domain once this status is reached, including paying the redemption fee. The only option is to wait for the domain to be purged and then re-register. There are various services from a variety of registrars that claim to offer "backorder" registration services for expiring domains, essentially attempting to pick them up as soon as they are released from the registry. Though none of them provide 100% guarantees of success, it may be worth considering if the domain is in danger of being picked up by other parties.

Conclusions

Always keep domain contact information up-to-date. This point cannot be overemphasized. Keeping that one rule in mind will help avoid having to deal with redemption fees for an important domain. Multi-year registrations are a double-edged sword, useful to lock down a domain for up to a decade, but also making it more likely contact information will change over that long period and requiring further vigilance on the part of the owner. The domain expiration process is not straightforward and can result in a hefty fee. If the domain is important, then it is important to keep track of it and make sure the registrar can provide notification of impending expirations.

About the Author:

Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers.

Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support.

Note: These articles are provided for general interest and content purposes only, and should not be construed as "support" materials. Apollo Hosting does not guarantee the information contained within. All articles are free to reprint so long as they remain unchanged, the "About the Author" section remains, all hyperlinks are preserved, and the rel="nofollow" tag is not added to the hyperlinks.

Your domain name is you on the Internet and not many people realise that it may be at risk of theft! It’s a fact that many people leave themselves exposed to the risk of domain name theft, when all they need to do is take a few simple steps to significantly reduce the potential problem.

The root of the situation is that there are some significant weaknesses in ICANN’s rules, which all accredited Domain Name Registrars must comply with.

The two main weaknesses are :-

1. You are only allowed to use one email address as the Administration control email, if you loose control of that email address then you loose control of you domain name as well!

2. Surprisingly none of the details that are given to a domain name registrar are checked in any way, this is wide open to abuse and allows a potential thief to operate freely.

There are other weaknesses and they all combine to make it easy for online crooks to steal your domain names and use your site and the hard won traffic you have built up for their own purposes.

So what can you do to protect your domain name?

The first and most basic thing you can do is not to use a free email address for your Admin Email Address, always use a regular POP email address in every case, it may not be quite as convenient but it is more secure.

Be prepared to register your domain names for more than one year at a time, the longer the better, but of course you do have to bear in mind the additional costs involved.

Be sure to change your password on a regular basis, at least every six months if not sooner and make sure that you use a secure password, no pets, children or spouses names!

Always lock the name you register with the Domain name Registrar and use whois guard or masking so you details are hidden. Again this costs extra but it is well worth it and it has the added benefit of reducing the possibility of spammers getting your details.

Finally keep a hard copy of all your details and passwords then you are covered when your hard disk goes down.

By taking the few simple steps outlined above you will be able to significantly increase the security of your domain name, but what can you do if the worst happens and you domain name is stolen.

The only person who can help you and restore the stolen domain name is your registrar, they will have come across this problem and will have a set procedure that they follow. It is going to take some time to sort out and the sooner you get in touch and the more information you can supply the quicker your domain name will be restored to you.

To keep up to date on developments in the domain name arena check out http://www.domain-fame.com

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