My Domains Are About To Expire. What Should I Do?

It is something that every webmaster goes through, the dreaded expiration notice for the domains they own. You originally had all these ideas when you first bought all of those domains. Now another year has gone by, and you have your domain registrar messaging that you have to spend $90 to renew all your domain names. You might be thinking whether it is worth it to renew your domains or not. What options are available?

1. Take no Action

Although it may be hard to believe, most people actually do this. Their theory is that they only have two choices: pay the fee to renew their domains or decline to do so. Although this is not the only choice available, people still choose to take no action.

2. Park it

Paying for your expiring domains is the only dilemma that exists when renewing them. So, if your domains wer e to pay for themselves – problem solved. The way to do this is to ‘park’ your domains, where the companies offering the service share the ad revenues produced by your domains with you. Sedo is arguably the biggest and most popular company offering this service, but Sedo and all other big players should be avoided. All they do is fill your page full of ads and results in stripping your domains of organic search engine traffic and pagerank with Google. The best option is to choose a smaller, niche player in this field (for example, Finnish startup BenePark.com) that will continue to add new links and original content to your sites. Doing this will not only give you the money to pay off your renewal fees (90% of domains accepted to BenePark’s system get $5-$30 per month), but it will also boost your organic traffic and pagerank for your domains over time.

3. Auction them Off

Auctioning off your domains is a viable option and there are plenty of companies that perform this role. The aforementioned Sedo is probably your best option, whilst BuyDomains.com is another good choice. The auctions these sites host attracts thousands of domainers, who aim to purchase domains for resale, development or parking. The biggest negative towards going down this route is that, in these ‘domain marketplaces’, the more premium domains receive the most attention. If your domains are long-winded, then they will be overlooked for the snappy, one-two word domains that are available.

4. Visit Domain Forums

Nearly every large domain forum (for example, DNForum.com) has a section that allows you to sell and/or appraise your domains. Although you will never get that much money from your domains on these forums, you might, however, be able to regain your costs. Plus, the appraisals on these forums are generally accurate. If your domains are seen as worthless, then you will be told that they are worthless. However, if the domains are worth something, then you will start to receive offers st raight away.

5. Sell Directly

You may have had big plans for your domains, but time and effort got in the way, and you abandoned the idea. So rather than keep them on the shelf, you could email eBay sellers or existing stores that are relevant to your domain names. Propose to them that you are willing to sell your domains for $50 each, or they can have them for exchange of links or products.