Domain Registration Fees to Go Up in October

Somehow I missed the announcement in April: ICANN and Verisign announced that the domain name registration and renewal fees would increase by 7% and 10% on October 14, 2007 for .com and .net domains.

Between us, Patsi and I own 130 domains, all of which are .com and a couple of .net and .biz. You can bet we're going to be doing a very careful review of our domain library to see what we can cut out and what we must keep.  It's not unusual for us to buy a number of domains every time we create a new product or have a new idea. It's the best way to protect your idea and capture the domain for eventual use.

We register our domains at All in One Biz Tools for $8.75 per domain, a very good fee for registration when you compare it to Network Solutions or Register.com at $35 per domain.

Imagine this: if we renew all our domains for 1 year at All in One Biz Tools, it will cost us $1,163.50. If we were to use Network Solutions, it would cost us a whopping $4,550! It pays to shop around. You can usually save more if you register your domain for multiple years and in this case you'll be locking in your lower rates for a longer period.

Now's the time to take action:

1. Review the domain names you currently own and determine the ones you must keep and want to protect and hang on to.

2. Review the projects, products and programs that you're planning to introduce in the next 12 months.  Do you need specific domains for these products?  Each product should have a sales letter which means you need a domain name.  Make a list of all the possible domain names you many need/want for these products.

3. Before October 14, go to a domain registrar and do a search for the domains you want. Lock in all the variations of the domains if appropriate: .com, .net, .biz, .info. Buy the domains for as many years as your budget allows.

4. Do the same for all the domains you currently own. Again, lock in the low fee on the domains for as long as your budget allows.

As a business owner, you know it's important to save money where you can. Take the time to do this important exercise before October 14 and you won't get caught off guard.

Thanks to Karyn Greenstreet of Passion for Business for alerting us to this important news.

Comments

[Debra]

Thanks, Patsi and Denise, for this timely reminder message and timely tip. True to your niche name, you offer the BEST BIZ TIPS!

Another reason to check your domain and renew is looking toward the end of tax year 2007. Some of us entrepreneurs like to expense as much as we can to save on income taxes. Here's one more way to adjust that balance sheet if you need to.

I appreciate the heads-up. Where else can we get such great biz tips? NO Where!
Debra

[Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound]

Denise, how many of the active domain names you are using are for blogs, vs. traditional websites?

[Denise aka The Blog Squad]

Good question, Joan. I don't really know, other than the fact between us we have about 12-15 blogs set up that have unique domains mapped to them.

We don't really make the distinction between blog domain and website domain. When we have an idea or a new product, we register domains in order to protect it. Then if we need the domain for a blog or a sales page or website, we use it.