Can You Buy A Domain Name Forever? (Preventing Cybersquatting!)

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Having a great sounding and easy to remember domain name is incredibly important for many businesses and individuals. Such a domain name forms the brand of an individual or business and becomes a part of the identity, but can you ensure that you will have your domain name forever?

Can you buy a domain name forever? You can only register a domain name for a specific amount of time. After that, you will have to renew your domain registration. So technically, you cannot buy a domain name forever, but you can keep renewing your domain registration forever. This means that theoretically, you can buy a domain name forever as long as you keep renewing your registration.

To help you in doing this, many domain registrars offer a 10-year purchase period. After that, you can renew your registration again.

But…

Why Should You Even Try To Buy A Domain Name Forever? A Case Of Cybersquatting!

In this day and age, the web is to us as water is to fish. We’re so connected nowadays that stepping between the online world and the “real world” doesn’t feel strange at all.

In this sense, a domain name can represent your digital life online. Whether you have a business or you want to brand yourself online, a catchy domain name can really become a digital home. It can allow you to connect with people from all over the world.

This is why once you buy your domain name, you should try to retain it forever.

Also, online real estate can be pretty tough to get. In fact, there are lots of people who make a living out of buying expired domain names and then selling them off at a significant profit to people who want them. This so-called cybersquatting has been going on for years, and lots of people have made big money out of it.

There have been numerous attempts at cracking down this practice though, especially when it concerns a domain name that is someone’s name. This is especially the case when it comes to celebrities.

One of the most famous cases involved Madonna. The domain madonna.com had been registered in the late 90s by a guy who was running multiple objectionable sites to make money. Of course, up to that point, the web was still not exactly mainstream. Celebrities such as Madonna didn’t quite see the need to do much about this sort of thing from a legal perspective.

That all changed in 2002 when Madonna wanted the domain name for herself and complained to the World Intellectual Property Organization. She actually won the case, and a precedent was set that has seen other big names do the same thing.

In these cases, the celebrities argued that their stage names are a big part of their identity. And low rent cybersquatters were seriously ruining their brand reputation and stealing part of their online identity.

You can see that there’s a good point to be made in these cases, and it’s a great reason why you might want to buy a domain name for longer than the one or two years that’s most common.

Making Sure That You Get The Domain Name You Really Want!

This case alone should make anyone seriously think about buying a domain name for more than the regular period. In fact, lots of people accidentally let their domain ownership lapse, and this is when it can be snapped up by someone else for unscrupulous reasons.

This is definitely a good enough reason to buy a domain name for 10 years. And the other thing is that catchy domain names aren’t always that easy to come by these days either.

The early days of the web are far behind us now, and it’s no longer like the digital wild west. Everyone is tech-savvy these days, and buying a domain name is no longer a huge deal. Lots of people have them, but this also means that lots of other good domain names are already gone.

If you’ve been watching a domain name for a while and it has finally expired, then it’s a good idea to snatch it up. You should get it registered so that no one else can get it.

Registering Your Domain Name

Once you’ve decided on your domain name, you need to register it through the domain name registrar. This is a straightforward online process, but here are some tips:

  • Make sure you register the domain before someone else does.
  • Read through the terms and conditions and choose the longer registration period possible with the registrar.
  • Write down or digitally store the expiry date of your domain name so that you can renew it in good time. This will ensure that it doesn’t lapse and become unavailable.
  • Renew your domain name at least 30 days in advance of it officially expiring so that you can make sure that no one else gets a hold of it.

Here’s a detailed step-by-step guide for registering your domain name: How To Register A Domain Name (and Why You Shouldn’t Get It For Free)

And here are a couple of more articles that might interest you:

Take Control Of Your Digital Life!

For those of us who remember what the early days of the web were like, the modern online world might seem very cut-throat.

There’s some truth to this as more and more people are now online and are vying for attention.

Getting the right domain name in this environment is not always easy or inexpensive, so it makes good sense to register it for as long as possible to protect it.

I hope you have now got a good idea of how to get a domain name forever. But if you still have any questions, then please ask them in the comments below. I will be happy to answer them.

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