sdsinc

27 Proven ways to lose your domain name(s)

1. Do not keep a list of all your names and the respective registrars
2. Rely on the registrar reminders when renewal comes due
3. Do not renew until the last day or better yet after the name has expired
4. Attempt to transfer the name when it has already expired
5. Make sure your whois info is not accurate and up-to-date. In particular use a free E-mail account as registrant contact. Accounts like hotmail have low quotas so incoming mail will bounce or be purged after a certain amount of time. Your account will be disabled if you don't use it often enough so you will be unable to read important registrar notifications or reminders.
6. Never ever register for more than one year in advance
7. Do not use the auto-renew featured offered by the registrar. If you do, make sure your credit card info is not current or use a card number that is maxed out.
8. Do not register the names yourself, you have better things to do than bothering with such lowly things as your virtual estate. Delegate the task to your ISP or hosting provider instead. The advantages are numerous:
- you need to beg every time you need to make changes to your domain parameters like DNS or change of ownership
- they will charge you a fee for doing so on top of their inflated registration fee
- you will pay way more than if you did register them yourself
- if you are lucky, high staff turnover will result in the company losing oversight of the names and they will eventually drop, yet they continue to charge you so you don't notice your names are gone
- in case of billing disputes your names will be held hostage
9. Do not the park your unused names. So you have no idea of traffic or do not notice drops in traffic which may reveal domain/DNS issues. Do not take advantage of parking & PPC revenue on your unused names.
10. Register names that suck so you will regret it within minutes of registering them. You won't want to renew them anyway.
11. Do not ask for appraisals from other people so you have no idea of which names are worth keeping.
12. Register names that blatantly infringe on well-known trademarks. TM Lawyers for the fat cat corporation need to justify their fees so they will be happy to take your names away from you or have you delete them (for a fee).
13. Do not check TM databases or search engines when considering the registration of a domain name.
14. Register names in restricted TLDs that you are not eligible for or that leave you open to disputes. Good examples include .ca, .fr, .com.br
15. Never check the whois on your newly-registered domain names. Registrations are always successful at the first attempt. Period !
16. Do not use the REGISTRAR-LOCK on your domains. Make sure this option is disabled by default for newly-registered domains.
17. Use the most expensive registrars like R****.com or N****S****.com
18. Use dirt-cheap registrars like R****.com or O******.com. Hey thousands of customers can't be wrong !
19. Use a shady, fly-by-night reseller rather than dealing with an ICANN-accredited registrar direct.
20. Use registrars which only accept exotic payment methods like cash, wire or DumbPay™. Paypal and credit cards are best for other purchases.
21. Use registrars that do not have strong security policies. Pretend you have lost your login information and ask for it by E-mail. Customer-focused registrars will readily provide you with the information requested without any cumbersome security checks. Why would someone want to hack into your registrar account ?
22. Never read the fine print. It's always nice being charged $200 for an outgoing transfer or $30 when somebody serves you with an UDRP on your name.
23. Use your names for illegal contents like warez or otherwise objectionable purposes.
24. Register names that are of no use or that no-one will remember, including you. ROAD2-F0RTUN3.com is really cool and smart.
25. Do not read the registrar reviews on domain names forums. Do not pay attention to repeated complaints about certain registrars.
26. Use a weak registrar password that is open to brute force attacks or can be easily guessed. By the way use the same passwords for all your logins. It's way more convenient.
27. Do not use anti-virus software. Do not check for spyware/trojans on your computer. Anti-virus software is only for the noobs.


Actually I am sure there more than 27 ways to lose or otherwise compromise your domain names. To end on a more positive note I realize not everybody is keeping a close eye on their names so I though I might attempt to lend a helping hand.
I am enclosing a sample (very basic) Excel sheet to help the lazy among us keep track of their assets. Not sure this can be useful but who knows

Attached Files

domains.zip (2.5 KB, 43 views)

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carltonleon

Excellent post Sdsinc.
Rep added

weblord

thanks, nice negative lists

Fleege

27 excellent lessons.

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domainprince

Great post! Rep added.

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banksta3

You forgot to mention registering .biz in general

sdsinc

Tip #28 so ?
I will update the list later, it shouldn't be that hard to reach 99

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admans

Nice topic. THanks for the xls file Will use it now onwards!!

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btrader

I have a few suggestions;
* Not using Lock on your domains to prevent domain from being hi-jacked
*Not using an escrow service when getting ready to sell a domain name, a reputable escrow service...
* Allowing others to have access to your email address, or email account - thereby having the right to approve transfer outs

- hope this adds some value to a great thread!

sdsinc

REGISTRAR-LOCK already mentioned (tip #16).
Queuing in the rest

Glad you like it. As I said it is ultra-basic, but unless you have 100s of domains I think it's enough, well as least it's better than nothing
Feel free to enhance the sheet as you deem fit.

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Jo

Great list!

How about: Start your auction on Ebay for a penny and forget to set a reserve price.

stscac

Nice List.

-Steve

jstep

very sarcastic, I love it

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Devil_Dog

Nice.



out

gamex

Haha, I have actually lost a few because of some of the reasons on here . After that, I created a list of all my domains (though I dont have a lot), with their registrars and date of expiration

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