Keep an eye on your domains.

This post was received by Anthony De Rose who requested it be published:

I actually owned this domain not long ago. I simply forgot to re-register it and allowed it to slip. Best of luck to you with it, looks like an interesting blog.

Lesson learned, stay on top of your domain expirations!

Anthony

Thanks for the post. We actually did NOT get this domain on the drop, we bought it the last silent T.R.A.F.F.I.C auction held in Miami last October $1,180. We were the only bidder.

We bought this domain for the purposes of starting a blog about the domain industry.

Although we already owned other domains that we could have used, we wanted to take a domain we did not own that had no traffic and see what we could generate with it starting at zero.

The results have really been amazing. In under a month we have gone from a zero Alexa ranking to somewhere around 200,000. We do have the huge advantage of having some great friends with very successful blogs who helped greatly to get the word out.

You basic point is correct, like any valuable asset you have, you need to keep your eye on your domains.

I always think of domain registration costs as real estate taxes (obviously substantially less).

If you don’t pay your real estate taxes the government sells a tax deed on your home and you lose it.

You don’t simply forget to pay your real estate taxes because you know you will lose your house.

Of course with domain registrations you can pay them up to 10 years ahead so you don’t have to worry about renewing them every year. Make sure you have your correct contact info at all times on your registrations (this is required anyway).