Registrars losing money

[Dimitry]

Registrars loosing money

Are registrars actually loosing money when they mark domain as renewed for another year when it expires (sounds confusing).

Say I don't renew blah.com (not my domain, just example) and it expired on Feb 23, 2004. Registrars will 'renew' it till Feb 23, 2005 using their funds correct? Then let it drop in whatever days it is if you don't renew it yourself for their price.

Say you DONT renew 'cause you dont want it, will they loose money by renewing it till next year? Or is it just a temporary 'flag' they set?

Dimitry

 

[Jeanco]

Its just temporary, they don't renew on their own but the domains into a registrar-hold period until they're dropped.

 

[CoolGuy]

I've lost a few domains this way

 

[Donny]

Re: Registrars loosing money

Originally posted by Dimitry
Are registrars actually loosing money when they mark domain as renewed for another year when it expires (sounds confusing).

Say I don't renew blah.com (not my domain, just example) and it expired on Feb 23, 2004. Registrars will 'renew' it till Feb 23, 2005 using their funds correct? Then let it drop in whatever days it is if you don't renew it yourself for their price.

Say you DONT renew 'cause you dont want it, will they loose money by renewing it till next year? Or is it just a temporary 'flag' they set?

Dimitry welcome to the world of domain registrars. Since I work for a domain registrar, I know exactly how much money we have just sitting there at the registries on domains that we may not even collect money on. It's pretty scary to be honest with you.

With most registries you get 45 days to delete the domain, say you normally delete them on day 40. And something happens and you don't delete the domain until after 45 days, guess what, you just ate the renewal.

Fun!

Donny

 

[armstrong]

Originally posted by Jeanco
Its just temporary, they don't renew on their own but the domains into a registrar-hold period until they're dropped.

Right. If they drop the domain within the defined deletion cycle limits, then they get the renewal fee back.

With most registries you get 45 days to delete the domain, say you normally delete them on day 40. And something happens and you don't delete the domain until after 45 days, guess what, you just ate the renewal.

Interesting. When this happens, does it mean that you, the registrar, now own the domain? I thought registrars did not have the option to keep an expiring domain. Otherwise, why don't the registrars simply 'forget' to drop the valuable names, such as 3-letter dotcoms?

 

[Donny]

Interesting. When this happens, does it mean that you, the registrar, now own the domain? I thought registrars did not have the option to keep an expiring domain. Otherwise, why don't the registrars simply 'forget' to drop the valuable names, such as 3-letter dotcoms?

Technically domain registrars are not supposed to own domain names. We can if a domain is charged back, but that's about the only reason. If a domain is not renewed, I must delete the domain name. If I don't and somebody complains, ICANN could pull our accrediation. A 3 letter domain name is not worth losing that over. And to be honest with you, I know more about the worth of a domain than most people and 3 letter domains don't make that much money on a daily basis. I would take a dictionary word or even a misspelling 95% of the time.

We have customers that have hundreds of 3 letter domains, and they make them no money at all. And we have about 50 or so 2 letter .com domains. All of the 2 letter domains resolve, but I have no idea if they are making money or not.

Donny

 

[Dimitry]

Thanks all for information.

Clears stuff up for me
Dimitry

 

[Anthony]

Donny, welcome to NamePros and thanks for the inside look at the registrar business!

 

[pelican]

welcome donny

 

[Donny]

It's my pleasure. But I won't promote the company I work for, that's just not my thing.

Maybe we will all be lucky and WLS will not be approved on March 6, 2004 in Rome or we won't have to worry about domains much at all anymore.

Donny

 

[Raf]

Thanks for the info guys, I learned quite a bit.

 

[Riceman]

Good "inside" info

 

[domdom]

many registers hold on to valuable names, for a year or more.

if you check any high traffic or valuable keyword domain, many of them will be put on hold for 1 year or more, after its expired.

that is just corruption. i knew some names which had expired 3 years , they had not been released

 

[Donny]

Technically it's not possible to put a domain on hold and it not automatically renew every year. It must renew every year.

Donny