Why You Should Always Auto Renew Your Domains
I have never let a domain expire that I didn’t want to keep however it has happened to a few friends. Particularly when I have registered a domain for them and pushed it to an account and told them how to renew it every year. They inevitably forget about renewing it and then email me about why their website has stopped working.
Small businesses who are not familar with the internet and have no technical employee are also prone to letting their company domain expire. I’ve helped a few companies who registered a domain via my domain reseller website only to let it expire a year later and then panic when they realise they can’t access their email!
The danger with letting a domain expire is that someone else will register it. If you just used the domain so that you had your own personal email address then it may not be reregistered however any website with traffic and/or a pagerank will be snapped up quickly by domainers via backorder.
I read about such an incident today. The Domainer reported that the owners of GeorgeWBushLibrary.com let their domain expire recently. A company in Raleigh NC, Illuminati Karate registered the domain for $10 after it expired and has since sold the domain back to the original owners for a whopping $35,000!!!
So remember, always set the domains you want to keep to auto renew so that your web properties don’t slip through the net 
Link : This is Why People Squat On Domains: GeorgeWBushLibrary.com Sold Back For $35K
Success University Review | December 12th, 2008 at 4:06 am #
I just renewed my main domain for another 3 years, 2 months early. You can lose all your hard work as easy as forgetting to renew your domain. Costly mistake for the bush library.
Jason
How to Blog ~ Jonathan | December 12th, 2008 at 5:02 am #
Yeah, way to many people make that bad mistake. My site had about five days on it left when I renewed it, but right now it’s not that popular so I doubt people are waiting to snatch it up anyway. But yeah definitely do it early like Jason did. And also, it helps with your SEO rankings as well. Google likes sites that have committed to a longer payment, because then they’re less likely to be spam in their mind.
Money Making Ideas ~ Suzanne | December 12th, 2008 at 9:15 pm #
Great reminder! I am starting to move the sites that I work hard on to at least 5 years out … and then I will still renew them every year for a year to KEEP them 5 years out. I’ve heard it helps … and what’s the worst case if it doesn’t? LOL *SmiLes* Suzanne
cheap guitars | December 13th, 2008 at 9:29 am #
It is safe to use credit card for auto renew the domains?
Gerri | December 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm #
Nice tip, but dont renewal notices get sent out just before a domain is about to expire?
Kevin Muldoon | December 14th, 2008 at 4:46 pm #
Yes it’s safe to use your credit card.
Gerri – Yeah reminders get sent out but they can easily be missed or placed in the spam folder. Why take the risk.
Best internet Marketing | December 31st, 2008 at 5:05 pm #
Thanks for this tip! I have to check into that now. I need the money makers.