Today I'm Not Renewing 40+ Domains!

When do you know "it's time to let go"? What does it take for you to let go?

[HuskyPup]

All widget trade related .coms except for 9 .mobis.

I just know I'm not going to get round to developing them and I can't be bothered to put them up for sale with the outside chance that someone may want one or two of them.

Even with their personalised splash pages they weren't earning enough AdSense to justify keeping.

Come the beginning of April I have a whole load more to make a decision about...it's quite strange, some of these names I've had more than 12 years...at least when one's children leave home one knows they will return for a visit occasionally...hopefully!

[edacsac]

I'm in a similar yet much smaller boat, but I feel ya. I have a handful of domains I bought based on ideas/interests/hobbies at the time. Some of these ideas have clearly past, and I have no absolutly no interest in developing these names. The only reason I keep them is the money invested in yearly renewals. It's a sad cycle really.

[Webwork]

Admirable executive action, HuskyPup.

I invest time and effort in every domain choice I make. I research search volume, PPC, SERPs, etc. I evaluate trends. I assess "web friendliness".

And then I pony up the money.

So it pains me, just a little bit, every time I . . take a deep breath . . and change a domain's status to "Do Not Renew".

I try not to see what follows because, more often than not, the domains I drop are promptly picked up . . sometimes . . just a little bit . . making me sigh, wonder . . and just a little bit second guess myself.

The only + side to the re-reg is that it could represent - empahsize "could" - a tiny validation of the initial choice.

More likely it represents just another . . . (insert pejorative word here)

PS: Dang! Just checked one list of domains I dropped and ~85% were picked up, by all sorts of players, including some of the big ones . . who I thought . . were smarter than me. :P (Probably are. Argh. Never shoud have looked. :( )

;)

[dailypress]

Congrats HuskyPup. I also dropped many domains and they were immediately picked up because of the back links they had. One of the domains I had is now an established website (well designed). I had also used this domain to build a small website but dropped around a dozen websites including their domain + domains that I had only parked.

I am also happy with my decision.

[wheel]

I'd like to take this time to thank you all for your old dropped domains :). they've been most helpful.

[jeyKay]

I'd like to take this time to thank you all for your old dropped domains :). they've been most helpful.

lol. good one.

I try to register my domains for as long as possible, making me save and also kind of gives me an incentive to do something with it.

[balour]

Long time ago, I register a domain, lost it, made some mistake at the renew time, The domain was pick by a small player, who grab many others domains, but don't renew after 1 year. The domain was available again when the grace period expired. So, I renew for myself and the domain come home safely.

For the record, I use a sub domain of the domain, as a catch all when I register to some site. After more than 2 year of inactivities for this sub-domain, I continue to receive email/spam from where I let my email. From major and small site. No descrimination. Very SAD!

[tangor]

I feel like a lightweight... I maintained three (3) domains for 10 years and finally let go. Made me look... a year later nobody has picked them up. Must have been really primo, right? :)

[CenSin]

I wonder what is the motivation for you guys to hold those domain for so long? 10 years are very long time for holding undevelop domains.

[Swanny007]

CenSin, the reason is once it's gone, it's gone (most times). If someone else picks it up it costs more to get it back than it does to pay the $10/year to just keep it.

I had a bunch of domains I let go last year. One was almost 10 years old in a good niche. Problem was I had no interest or really knowledge to develop the site. Now a domain parker has it and may be making money off it, I don't know. I have a few more domains that I will let go this year too, if I haven't done anything to them in a few years I'll let them go. I have too many domains as it is...

[CenSin]

Hi Swanny007, while you still don't have any idea for your undevelop domain, why don't you park them and earn for whatever earning they can give? Is there any other reason beside of your main reason above?

Or, maybe put one index page of some general information related for that domain keyword. And place some ppc ads too. Who knows it can generate some earning to pay for yearly domain register.

[Swanny007]

I've never gotten into domain parking because they were new domains and I don't think there would be much (if any) type-in traffic. I should give some thought to even putting up a splash/index page in the mean time...

[onlineleben]

I only let go a domain once as the subject was too competitive and I had not enough time to fully develop. It got picked up immediately and is parked since (almost 5 years). The ads it is showing are not really good and they advertise the domain for sale @ 399 USD.
Seems that my non renewal was a good idea.


The problem is that I have more ideas than time and money to follow up with - letting go is a hard decision
HuskyPup, good that you now have 40 things less to worry about :)

[BillyS]

I let a domain name go and it's for sale for $2,600. I'm not sure they will ever get someone to buy it, they've been selling for over three years now. According to Alexa (yes, I know) it gets close to zero traffic.

I've also been trying to buy the .com version of my last name. Someone has been parking it for years. Not for sale, just sitting there forever. What a shame. They renew every September like clockwork.

[jmccormac]

I've been watching a developing trend in some of the gTLDs (biz/info) and the sTLDs(.mobi and .asia) over the past few months where registrants are dropping them but hanging on to the .com and sometimes the net/org. It is a classic recessionary pattern where non-essential domains in less trafficked TLDs are dropped. Though another interesting pattern seems to be the evolution of .com registration and .ccTLD registration pairs. People register their .ccTLD domain and then register the .com version. Roughly 82.95% of .com (over 70.23 million domains) was unique (the domain didn't exist in net/org/biz/info/mobi/asia/tel). The Uniqueness for the other TLDs varied depending on how recently the TLD was launched. Only 38830 domains were present in com/net/org/biz/info/mobi/asia/tel. Some of the current pricing on domains for sale is reminiscent of the domain bubble prices (unpronouncable four letter domains in particular). The ccTLDs are rapidly erroding the values of .com domains and the new city gTLDs that will launch in the next few years may also affect the prices of .com domains. These city gTLDs may end up nuking the value of city type geo domains as well.

Regards...jmcc

[Emilio]

If they're not making money and are parked I don't ever renew after a year.