Must change URL

Will this kill my listing?

[msr986]

I have a great Yahoo listing that has existed for about 9 months. This is a paid business listing included before the recurring annual fees.

This listing is NUMBER TWO for a premium industry keyword :).

Since this site is regional in nature, I decided to use a cctld that was marketed strongly in the Los Angeles area. (I love the url, it's perfect). Now I have one big problem!

The registrar [la...] does not seem to be taking renewals :(. The phone numbers from the website do not work. No one answers the email. The secure certificate for the website is expired. The domain is still resolving, but who knows for how long?

WHAT DO I DO???

Do I keep the url (that I love) and see if the registrar gets it's act together? ("Dot la" is held by Sterling Holdings Limited, a HUGE company. The services are provides by i-dns, another HUGE company).

Should I try to use the Yahoo change form to change the url before the url goes dead? (If it goes dead?)

If I try to change JUST the url, do you think that Yahoo will keep the same description and title? (If they change the description or title, I'll probably loose the number two spot).

Does Yahoo pay attention to the change form at all?

How long does it take for Yahoo to change the url in a listing?

How big of a fool was I to invest in a ccTLD URL?

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

-Marty

[Drastic]

I think you'd be a lot better off transferring the domain to another registrar, if possible.

You can register .la domains at other registrars, so I would think you should be able to transfer it?

That would be a lot easier than trying to get Yahoo to change your listing.

[Lisa]

Drastic,
What Marty is describing is the .LA Registry. This ccTLD is run by one group. There are no Registrars. So transferring is not an option. It is like if Verisign shut down then the whole Internet would stop.

Marty,
I don't think you are in danger of losing your domain. The root LA zone will not be changing that is it. They would face a big class action lawsuit if they just terminated like that. I would keep your domain and keep trying to renew.

But at the same time in parallel I would design a second site (not just a dup site) and start running that.

[msr986]

Drastic, The only other place to register a .la address in english is bulkregister.com, but they are also using the dot.la system.

Lisa, I am nervous because dot.la does NOT have a way to renew URL's on their website. I have been checking several other domains that have been registered, and it seems that NO one has renewed. The good news is that although these domains are expiring, they continue to resolve. I have until the middle of May until my name expires. I'm wondering if dot.la will simply "pull the plug".

This is the question on my mind: Is it better to take a chance on the existing .la domain, or should I try to change the URL for my Yahoo listing BEFORE I have problems. If I wait until my domain does not resolve, will Yahoo make the change BEFORE I'm deleted from the directory? Should I flip a coin? I'd rather not "rock the boat" because I am extremely satisfied with the listing.