Should I renew my TLD?

January 2, 2009 5:41 AM

Internet Domain Filter: In 2000, I started a company (Company A) and registered a matching top-level domain. In 2005, I converted Company A into a holding company, and started a second company, which is now the operating vehicle for our consulting business. The domain registration for Company A will soon expire. Is there any point maintaining the registration? The domain name won't have a high resale value and I'm not planning on resurrecting Company A as a public business. Is there anything I'm missing?
posted by quidividi to computers & internet (8 comments total)

I know nothing about companies but IMHO keep the domain, they're dirt-cheap and it's just possible you might want it again. I just checked on godaddy and it's £1.36/yr for a .com domain.
posted by katrielalex at 5:48 AM on January 2

I suppose you might also want to consider what happens if someone else buys the domain and uses it for something with which you might not want to be associated. But it sounds like you've already considered things like that.

I'd say keep it for a year or two more and discard it if it's still of no value.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 5:53 AM on January 2

If the domain receives a decent amount of daily traffic (an amount that might be useful to the newer company), I think it's worth keeping it for now and redirecting it to your newer company's domain. Then keep an eye on the traffic to the original domain--once it peters out to almost nothing, it's worth getting rid of.
posted by dayintoday at 6:10 AM on January 2

I'd hold on to it for a year or two. The cost is minimal compared to the "well, crap" feeling you'll have if you let it lapse and a few months later discover a great new use for it.

FYI: you didn't register a TLD. You registered a second-level domain. TLDs are things like ".com" and you can't really register them. The second-level domain is the "whatever" in "whatever.com".
posted by toomuchpete at 6:35 AM on January 2

When in doubt, keep the domain. Always keep the domain. The costs of maintaining a domain for any business are minimal compared to the costs of reacquiring the domain later when you realize you goofed.
posted by jzb at 6:51 AM on January 2

Echoing the above. Eight years ago you thought you needed that domain. In eight years, you may decide again you need it. For under $100 you can hold on to that domain name for the next 15-20yrs and never think about it again until you need to.
posted by wile e at 6:59 AM on January 2

In my experience, lapsed domains tend to get sucked up by spammers / domain squatters. Thus not paying your $9 to renew it for a year almost guarantees that it will be taken. They'd probably charge hundreds of dollars (or more) to sell it back.

Also worth considering: are you using CompanyA.com for e-mail or as a nameserver? I own a handful of domains, and DomainA.com is the one acting as a nameserver for all my other sites. I forgot to renew DomainA on the day it lapsed, which essentially brought all of my sites offline. (Fortunately I was able to renew it before spammers scooped it up.)

Assuming you're not in a situation like that, it seems that there's no real reason to renew it. But $10 seems like good insurance against any potential problems. (This all assumes that you don't want Company A to be kept a deep, dark secret, in which case, you should definitely not renew CompanyA.com...)
posted by fogster at 7:41 AM on January 2

Domain names cost less than $10 a year. Definitely keep it.
posted by 2oh1 at 11:53 AM on January 2