Mostly I’m with decent well known providers who email me a bunch of times as the renewal gets closer and closer.  One even has the domains on “auto” renewal which is pretty good, since I’m mostly likely to want to renew rather than not.

I’ve had issues in the past with a crap company that didn’t email me at all and just let the domain lapse.  It was an .eu domain which, for some completely bizarre reason, have to be renewed each and every fecking year.  Only the EU would insist on this level of unwanted paperwork.  All my other domains (.com, .org .et.al)  are all pre-paid on 5 or 10 year programmes, depending on how flush I was at renewal and how well that site is looking.

Loosing a domain name is a serious issue.  The system is pretty much working for you with a period of grace if you forget, but 10 years is a long time and addresses change (virtual ones maybe more frequently).  This reminded me how important it is to keep those domain details up-to-date.  If you aren’t getting the emails, then maybe the first sign you have of your domain being expired and sold off is when you find your blog replaced with some shiny edifice with the sole purpose of parting fools and their hard earned ASAP.  At this point it’s all too late to moan about your lot.  All you can do is re-domain yourself and stick up a new sign, while the aforementioned medicament merchants bask in the warmth of your hard fought page-rank until it’s all gone and you’re blackballed at your club.