I'm often shocked at how contemptuously a lot of site owners treat their domain names. Losing your domain name can ruin your day, but it happens repeatedly. Don't let it happen to your business! In this case experience is an exceedingly ruthless teacher, so PLEASE just trust me about this one: Do not register your domain a year at a time. Your domain is an important firm asset, and must be treated with respect. It won't be expensive. Domain name registrations cost $10-$15 a year. Protect your domain. Don't just register it for a year at a time.

A lot of us don't treat our domain with the reverence it deserves. We ignore emails from our registrar, and sometimes even un-subscribe to them altogether. It's really no surprise that each year thousands of people find themselves in the same boat. If you should inadvertently let your domain name expire you will soon face some, if not all, of the following challenges:

Hijackers

People out there want your domain name. You've spent years building up search engine authority and driving traffic to your site, and they want it all. Your domain is quite a bargain! Sound bad? Well try this on for size; they'll be able to intercept any email sent to the domain and map your website address to a porn or gambling site. There are a lot of domain squatters out there, and one of them may very well have an order pending for your domain. The only way to know for sure is to let your domain expire.

Don't think that just because you're domain is obscure or specific you're protected from hijackers. The people that hijack domains can find out pretty easily what your rankings are in Google, and they know darned well that if you have a good ranking you'll pay to get it back if you've got a good ranking. There are a lot of ways they can make money off your domain even if they don't resell it.

If a hijacker gets your name you're beaten. If you have a hot domain name it's going to be sold to the highest bidder, and if it's too obscure or specific to be auctioned off they have a dozen way's to blackmail you into buying it back at a ridiculous price. If there are no other bidders expect to pay $500-$1000 to get it back. Be polite and professional with the squatter. A lot of these bottom feeders think of themselves as businessmen, and once they take over the domain they hold all the cards. Hijacking a domain by squatting on it when it expires is completely legal. If the hijacker walks away from the table he's only out about ten bucks, but you're out your domain.

What a Hassle!

Once you've lost your domain you could spend hours trying to get it back.

You may decide to get a new domain rather than pay for the old one, but if you're trying to avoid paying off a squatter be warned that this decision may have significant consequences. Most domain hijackers are just plain nasty people. If you don't give them what they want they can, and often do, hurt your reputation by mapping the domain to porn sites or landing pages announcing to the world that your site is down because you don't pay your bills.

Website and Email Interruptions

Your website is going to go down. That's how most people notice their domain has expired, but it get's worse.

If you've set up email at your domain you'll lose the ability to send or receive mail. Don't lose this link to the lifeblood of your business or blog, once it's gone you're organization could be crippled for weeks.

Who hasn't had their email go down for a few hours at some point? You already know how frustrating that is. Think about this for a moment. Imagine how much worse it would have been if it had gone down for an entire day! How about a whole weekend or longer? If your domain was hijacked it can take days to get everything up and running again. How angry will you be with yourself when you realize it's all your own fault?

Added Fees

Many domains have a grace period that allows you to reclaim your domain name up to 30 days after it expires. Needless to say this is a good solution, but there's a price for this level of security. If you let your domain name expire it will cost you about eighty bucks to get it back.

So, how long should you register your domain name for? As a minimum go for 5 years, it would be better to go for 10 years. Domain names are not expensive. Why chance losing it evermore when just about all registrars offer a discounted rate for multiple year registrations anyway?