"You must renew your domain name to retain rights to it on the Web". This is very true. You don't want all the time, money and efforts you have taken to build, market and nurture your website to be completely unraveled by a thing as simple as a domain expiration. Working for a web host, as well as hosting many of my own domains, I've seen many attempts to try and get the domain owners to transfer their domain over to a new registrar. What is the domain registrar? A domain name registrar is an organization or commercial entity, accredited by a generic top-level domain registry (gTLD) and/or by a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry, to manage the reservation of Internet domain names in accordance with the guidelines of the designated domain name registries and offer such services to the public (wiki link).

Let's say you purchased your domain a while ago at GoDaddy for a cool $10/yr. You're site is solid, running, no worries but it's a few months away from it's renewal date. If you purchased a domain without private registration, your information is easily looked up with a public WhoIs search. Try doing a WhoIs lookup for microsoft.com at http://whois.melbourneit.com/ and you'll see the contact information for the domain Admin, Technical support, and sometimes the Billing contact.

To the right, I've inserted a recently received solicitation from Domain Registry of America. On first examination, it appears to be a legitimate bill. It has my name and contact information, domain name, as well as when the domain expires and what I can do to make sure my domain doesn't expire. One paragraph states "Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result  in a  loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customers and friends to locate you on the Web". Hey now! That sounds pretty serious! I better get this taken care of right away! 1 year price, $30?! I thought it was only $10/yr! Not so fast...

I've seen these received many, many times.  Registrar companies sending solicitations that are formatted to look like an invoice or bill to renew your domain, but instead it's an authorization form to transfer your $10/yr domain name over to them, and let them charge you $30/yr or more (My dad has a website where he is the owner of a domain name and he gets the same types of solicitations, but the company trying to get his business was charging $75/yr!). These can be confusing, but there are a few things that can help ease some of the confusion of registering a domain name:

• Read Your Domain/Hosting Bills: Make sure that the bill you received is a legitimate bill, and not a solicitation to transfer your domain. Most registrars will use email to communicate notices or information in regard to your domain or hosting packages. I don't think I've ever had a direct snail-mail from any of my registrars or hosts in the past 5+ years. Email is faster, and less costly than snail-mail, so it's unlikely that you'll receive anything through the post office from your host.
• Domain Privacy: How do you think that company got my dad's or my personal information to send this junk mail to? It was most likely through a public WhoIs search. What can be done about this? Most registrars, including GoDaddy, Register.com and many others, offer (for usually $9-$11 a year) private registration where they will mask your information in the public WhoIs searches. This will make sure that when companies search through the public WhoIs, they will only see the registrars information on the domain, and no personal information about who registered the domain, or who owns it.
• Keep Records: Make sure to keep copies of all your domain purchases so you can easily go back and look up the details of the registrar and any information on their renewal procedures. Many times if had clients register their domain first, and get a 3rd party web or email host. You may loose track of who hosts what for you if you're not paying attention. Good record keeping is always good policy.
• Keep Bills Paid: A few years ago, I built a website for a small local coffee shop. The site turned out great, and they were very happy with the results. They had purchased the domain a few years prior, but never really had much of a website on the domain. Unfortunately, a year or so after my services were complete, they lost track of their domain account and renewal information, and the domain expired. I had warned them that they would need to keep the renewal up on the domain, but they didn't put it as a high priority. Since the domain name was quite sought after, it was quickly picked up by another coffee shop in a different state.

Being aware of these points, and shady marketing tactics can help cut down on unneeded confusion and stress of the domain owner.