Put it this way. Right now at name.com you can get a 4 year reg for $40. Or a 2 year reg for $20.
One year at $10.99 is a far better deal than 2 years at $20 or 4 years at $40 given that most of the names registered will end out being dropped and most people are probably buying domains with an expectation of a return greater than 10% annually.
Besides, if there is a crap name with 2 years on it, an idiot like me my pick it up for $5 to see if I can move it out of morbid curiousity!
So someone should spend $9 more because a worst case scenario (in your opinion) is someone might pay $5 for it? That doesn't make sense. They could have let it drop after the year or given it away and been ahead $4.
One *assumes* you do some research when buying a name and you're not buying a name with zero potential.
If you don't have some faith in the name to begin with then don't buy it in the first place.
Right but what does that have to do with registering a name for multiple years? You should have so much faith that you should register something years in advance?
That a bit like taking a girl out on a first date and buying a wedding ring on the way to pick here up. You like her and you think you'll be together forever, if you don't have the faith to make a long commitment upfront don't ask her out in the first place! [/end worthless analogy]
Also. A lot of investors, like yourself, would recommend that you don't play in this market and go with a strong .com in the aftermarket.
I recommend the same thing in all extension, don't register names for multiple years unless it is of definite value (not reg fee names), don't register something and then pick up a whole lot of other extension as well. You are just doubling, tripling, quadrupling your costs. The main place I've seen people recommend this strategy of registering names years in advance is in .tv and I think it is a legacy of ridiculous premium pricing,
The argument went something like this,
"This name might be unaffordable, in a year you could be broke and won't be able to renew, register it for several year in advance to avoid this"
Of course the argument was flawed. The solution wasn't to register for years in advance, the solution was not to register at all!
I think that is a LOT more daunting for a beginner. Nothing like spending a couple of thousand $ on a dud in one go.
Personally I suggest people buy names of definite value when starting our. Start with the auctions, not registering stuff. Registering stuff fresh is for people with a lot of experience in my view because most lose at it, it is like buying land in desert, cheap doesn't aways mean good value.
