Is It Time to Register Your Domain Name?
Overview of this week's e-Newsletter
Often we forget to pay our annual domain registration fee for our domain name and this can lead to some big problems. This week I wanted to give you some pointers on remembering to renew your registration for your domain name and give you a feel of what happens if you don't pay the fee, you might be surprised!

First What's A Domain Name?
Basic overview of what a domain name is and how it works.
First for those of you who might not be familiar with what a domain name is, I want to give  you a brief definition. A domain name is the web address that you use to navigate to a particular website. Example: www.Google.com or www.YourName.com are both domain names. The real addresses to websites are actually a numerical address called an IP address (example: 24.239.124.199). But it would be hard to remember all those number to get to some one's website, so to make it easier names are assigned to these numbers and this names are called domain names.

Domain names are purchased from a domain name registrar and are usually purchased on an annual basis, for example a 1 or 2 year period. The problem here is that you have to pay this annual fee to remain the owner of the domain name and sometimes we just forget about paying it.

Why Do You Need To Pay A Domain Fee?
Why do you have to pay a domain name fee.
A domain name has to be paid annual as it's actually a license for the use of a particular name. You don't actually own the name you own a contract or license to use the name for a given period of time. Therefore you have to pay the actual owners of the name. Which is a non-profit organization called ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). They're in control of all domain names and allow domain name registrars to sell licenses for these names as a third party (you can't purchase names directly through ICANN).

Tips On Remembering To Pay The Domain Fee.
Some tips to remember paying your recurring domain name fee.
Lets dive into some tips or tricks to remembering to pay your domain name fee. I've outlined a few below.

1. Register you're domain name out a few years. Most domain name providers will allow you to pay for a few years out on your domain name fee. This is a great way to avoid having to remember to pay it. Of course the down side to this is you'll have to remember to pay it in X number of years.
   
2. Set your domain name to auto renew. Usually domain registrars will have an auto renew feature that will allow the fee to be automatically charged to your credit card when it's time to pay the annual domain name fee. Just have to make sure you have funds available in that account and this is a pretty good solution.
   
3. Post a reminder in your office. Have a reminder on your computer calender or an office calendar you have hanging somewhere.
4. Keep your email address you registered with correct and check it often. Most domain name companies will send you a reminder via email to let you know that it's time to pay your annual fee. So I would suggest keeping your email address with them current so that you get these reminders
   

Well, that's not a complete list but it should give you a few pointers.

What Happens When You Don't Pay It...?
What happens when you don't pay your annual domain name fee.
Hopefully this doesn't happen to you but you should be aware of what happens if you where to forget or just plan don't pay the annual domain name fee.

With most domain name registers just before it's about the time your domain name expires they will send a warning email notice. But sometimes these emails can get overlooked or filtered out by a spam filter. So what happens next is that if you don't renew it and the domain expiration date passes the domain name register usually will hold on to the name and keep it attached to your account for a give period of time. Usually something like 1/2 month or a month. Although most domain registers at this point will suspend your domain name from working. After that grace period, where they hold your name (in which you can still get your name back - but you might have to pay some sort of fee for them holding it) the domain is pushed back into the open market. At that point anyone can pick it up and purchase a license for it.

Another thing to note is that some people put domain names on backorder (meaning the domain is still owned by someone else but they place an order for it if it ever should expire and not be renewed). When a domain is back-ordered they have first priority to the name. So once the domain is flushed back into the market it is automatically picked up and purchased by the back-orderer. I've heard of people losing their name this way and having to pay the guy who back-ordered it on top of any domain registration fee to get the name back.

Final Words
Ending comments
So the basic point here is make sure you keep an eye on your domain name and when it needs to be renewed. Use the points I've outlined above and you should not have to worry much. But if it does expire with out you knowing remember that most domain name providers will hold the name for a given grace period. So all is not always lost!

Well that's it for now, look for next week's newsletter where we hope to provide you with even more useful tips and advice. If you have any suggestions about topics you would like to hear more about please send us an email with your thoughts.