What will be the future of my old domain name?

Letting go of a domain

[contentmaster]

My eight year old website's domain is about to expire in a couple of months. It started off as a hobby website but now I want to shut it down as I do not have the time or the inclination to maintain/update it. Since I have never closed down a website before, I am unsure of the future of such websites.

1. What happens to the domain name once I let it go and do not renew it?
2. Is there a way I can sell the domain name to someone who may be interested to build it further?
3. I have put in a lot of time, effort and funds over the years, building this information website. Is there a way I can sell it off or spread the word about my intention to let go of the domain?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

[tangor]

First, don't let it die. Keep it active. Else you have nothing to sell.

After that make those inquiries you expressed.

If the site goes dark you have nothing to negotiate.

[robzilla]

1. What happens to the domain name once I let it go and do not renew it?

What happens to most expiring domains that have a fair amount of traffic and/or backlinks: it will be picked up straight away by someone who'll park it (and often put it up for sale) or turn it into a spammy blog. If it's not too costly to uphold, it'd be a shame to let it expire. If there are similar sites, contact their owners and ask if they're interested; go where those people are who are interested in your topic. Finally, there are several good marketplaces where you can put the site up for sale, and perhaps you can save some money by moving the site and domain to a different registrar and/or web host, if you're concerned about the costs.

[lucy24]

Are you looking at the $10/year for the domain name or the $100 or so for hosting (assuming it's the only site you've got and you really meant it about hobbyist-level)?

I don't believe you're that pinched. Seriously. If you were hurting so badly that this tiny amount of money made a difference, you wouldn't be posting here. You'd be out pumping gas.

Keep it.

[jtbell]

What happens to most expiring domains that have a fair amount of traffic and/or backlinks: it will be picked up straight away by someone who'll park it (and often put it up for sale) or turn it into a spammy blog.

When I read this, I thought about a well-known site (a large photo gallery) in my hobby area. The guy who maintained it died some years ago. Someone else in the hobby took over the site and kept it going, but apparently he wasn't able to hang onto the old domain name and had to get a new one, so now it's "new<olddomain>.com". Just now I went to <olddomain>.com to see what happened to it. It now points to a blog on a completely different topic, in Thai (I think)! I don't see anything that looks like advertisements, though. Weird...

[contentmaster]

Finally, there are several good marketplaces where you can put the site up for sale

Could you name a few?

you can save some money by moving the site and domain to a different registrar and/or web host, if you're concerned about the costs.

One of the reasons why I want to close the site is because I am not able to devote enough time to it. Moving the site will require more time and efforts.

Are you looking at the $10/year for the domain name or the $100 or so for hosting

I am concerned about the hosting costs. Perhaps, I need to reframe my question - Does it make sense to retain the domain and let go of the hosting? <confused> :(

[lucy24]

Keeping the domain but dumping the hosting only makes sense if you're planning to come back to it within a reasonable time. You also need to find out what your current registrar and/or DNS does with domain names that have no physical presence. Will the user see an advertising page from the registrar, or will they get a browser error saying "Though the site seems to be valid, we can't find the server"?

Is this really the only site you've got, at all, anywhere? Otherwise, it seems like you should be able to piggyback your inactive site on some other site's server. And, again, if it's a site getting next to no traffic, you shouldn't be paying more than $100 or so/year for hosting. Why not keep it as a test site? That, by itself, should be worth the hosting charges.

[Hoople]

I let two domains die as they has a period of time of applicability that has since passed.

Both are now in folders (example.com/old-domain-1 and example.com/old-domain-2) with no change other than taking up disk space. The example.com domain is my primary parent domain of my various projects (part time hobby webmaster)

Those that research and write about the history of my niche of a niche or more exactly a sub-niche of the second level (blue widgets with a handle) can then find the info. My intent was to keep it available but at zero additional cost as the original domain sponsors have either passed on or lost interest.

[robzilla]

if it's a site getting next to no traffic, you shouldn't be paying more than $100 or so/year for hosting

That's still pretty steep. $25/year is perfectly possible these days, even including domain registration, so long as you're not expecting 99.9% uptime.

Could you name a few?

Not sure what the policy is on naming companies here these days. You'll find plenty of options searching for "places to sell website".

Moving the site will require more time and efforts.

Some hosts are happy to assist you with this, if you become a customer. Shop and ask around. But yes, it's going to cost you at least a little bit of time and effort. A hobby site is probably not all that complex, and a static or PHP+MySQL site is pretty easy to move around for an experienced web host.

Does it make sense to retain the domain and let go of the hosting?

Some, but not much. You won't lose the domain, but it will lose much of its value if the website is gone.

[keyplyr]

One of my web design clients wanted to dump his site. I talked him into letting me just maintain it until it sold. His DNR did all the work, taking a cut. I took a cut and the owner had enough left over for pizza.

[tangor]

One of the reasons why I want to close the site is because I am not able to devote enough time to it. Moving the site will require more time and efforts.

FTP the site to your hard drive (start at the var root and copy everything).

Let the host go.

Keep the DNS paid up. You might change your mind at a later date and want to start it up again. You might even want to start it up again with a different slant/niche using the same name.

[robzilla]

How many pages are we talking about anyway? How many visitors/day? Is the content still valuable to them? How much revenue, if any?

[contentmaster]

I talked him into letting me just maintain it until it sold.

Where and how was it sold?

FTP the site to your hard drive (start at the var root and copy everything). Let the host go.

Makes sense, thanks.

How many pages are we talking about anyway? How many visitors/day? Is the content still valuable to them? How much revenue, if any?

About 100 pages or so. The content is informational and most of it is evergreen content. About 45,669 hits in December, so far.

[keyplyr]

@contentmaster

As I said, the registra advertised & sold it. Most of them do this. Many let you set price range, all automated.

But you don't need to sell it where you registered the domain. Go to any of the DNRs and research who has the features you like best. Search for domain name registras or registration and see who has the bigest footprint.

[robzilla]

About 100 pages or so. The content is informational and most of it is evergreen content. About 45,669 hits in December, so far.

How many unique visitors, though? "Hits", in the strictest definition, include bots and other non-visits.

Have you tried to monetize it with Adsense?

[contentmaster]

Search for domain name registras or registration and see who has the biggest footprint.

Thanks, Keyplyr

[tangor]

Another thought on this subject.

Over the last 20 years I have had a number of domain names that once were gold, then got old, and faded (retired, no longer on web), but I have not let any of those go. Still pay the domain registration for those simply because I do not want anyone else to have them. Some of this is I might what to revive the site. Some is I don't like to share or play well with others. The main reason is I don't want any of that history available to others, and make no mistake, search engines never forget a url they met.

By the same token, in that same time frame indicated above, I have sold off a number of domains WHEN THE MONEY WAS TOO GOOD TO IGNORE. Those sales covered all my historical costs for that site, extrapolated income for five years, and future projection. Even at those valuations a few, while lots of money in pocket, went "cheap", half mill or less (mostly less), simply because the next step to grow them would have cost just about that much. :)