Talking about registering keyword-rich domain names, a Malaysian blog advertising network, Advertlets made a serious mistake for not renewing their domain name. Their mistake caused their ad publishers’ blogs redirected to a domain parking page!
Image: Advertlets.com domain parking page
What happened?
The domain name “advertlets.com” was created at Jan 4, 2007 and expired 1 year later at Jan 4, 2008. Advertlets didn’t renew the domain name before the expiration date, therefore the domain redirected to parking page after expired.
Advertlets apologized for the mistake and promised compensation payout for the issue. They have renewed the domain name to year 2010.
It can be avoided
Now, I am surprised that the company only registered the domain name for ONE year. Did they mean to run their business for 1 year only?! You should register your company domain name for at least 2-3 years if not 5 years or even 10 years.
Generally, a domain registrar will send out domain name renewal notice around 60 days before the domain name expiration date. Not sure if Advertlets didn’t get the email or they didn’t pay notice to it.
Anyway, I am sure they learned the lesson. For domain name owners, have you checked your domain names’ expiration date? Check it now before too late. ;)
[Thanks to everyone who send the tip.]
Related book: Domain Names for Dummies
Advertlets case has created a alert of many webmasters as well. I wonder how many of us re-WHOIS our domain to double check the expiry date after Advertlets forgot to renew their domain.
It is such a good information. I already extend to 2 year my company domain registration today.
Guess how much they paid to get back advertlets.com domain name.
Advertlets sucks!
There is also an auto renewal function in most of todays domain name control panel. Just enable it. Once your domain name come to an expired date, the system will automatic renew the domain name.
Seriously, i must be aware of my blog expiry as well before i get the same problem. :)
i have already renew it..
It was a huge mistake on advertlets part. I personally set important domains on auto-renew.
this is not something that people like that would do. there’s no point to apologize. take google and wordpress.com as example to go as high as them dude.
This is the biggest mistake I heard! :)
–blog for dream–
If you have domains registered at network solutions, it’s possible to renew up to 100 years!