Keith Goodrum

This is truly a fun & exciting way to waste a serious amount of your time. Really it’s not, but it is a serious time bandit.

If you let your domain expire you might loose it. No really, someone might buy it because they have an idea for a website.

Then all your hard work building up the domain is gone down the drain. Well it’s not really gone because the next person will benefit from your link building, and PR.

Unfortunately, not all people want your domain for their new website.

You see, there are people (and I use this term lightly) out there who make money off this situation. They’ll grab your domain & hold it hostage try to sell it back to you.

So for kicks, I decided to let a domain expire. Don’t ask my why… I’m just funny that way.

The Journey Begins

The first thing I did when I realized my domain expired was to see if I could get it back. It had expired at 10:30am, and it was now 5pm. It couldn’t be gone that fast. I mean it was only a few hours.

Nope it was already grabbed by someone.

So, I had to wait…

In a couple of days this person(again I use this term lightly) had slapped up a MFA site. MFA stands for Made For Adsense. Basically, it’s a sites with no content, and adsence links everywhere.

And this one was no different… links everywhere. They also put a link at the bottom telling the visitor this domain maybe for sale. Of course this link is mainly for the person who just lost the domain… Me!

So, I clicked on the link and went to a page which said:

We have your domain, and if you pay us ransom we will return it to you safe and sound.

Opps, did I say that out loud?

What they really said was:

This domain maybe be for sale & if you ever want to see those back links again… you’ll pay $XXXX.XX amount… or else!

NO WAIT! That’s not what it said…

Here’s what it really said:

This domain maybe available for sale. Please contact the…

RAT BASTARD WHO SNAKED IT OUT FROM UNDER YOU!

No, no sorry… sorry… that’s not what it said.

Anyhow, you get the picture. The ransom price was considerably more than a domain renewal.

There’s no way I’m I paying that much to get the domain back

At this point I didn’t know what to do and figured it was lost forever. But, then I remembered reading that sometimes these people would just reserve a domain for a few weeks and let it go if it didn’t sell. I decided to wait and see what would happen.

After some time passed, I went to see if it was released… No such luck. Apparently this person was waiting it out convinced I would cough-up the ransom asking price.

Not sure what to do next… I waited some more. Then I remembered Jeff Herring had a similar experience. And since I was a member of his AMTC membership I thought I’d ask what he did. It was a few weeks until the Q&A, so more waiting.

Stay with me here… all this waiting is important.

I asked my questions, and Jeff gave me some ideas. Then one of the other members Pat Shanks pointed me to an article on Ezine Articles. It said you could get a domain back by contacting your domain register within 30 days.

Guess what?

Yep, I had waited past the 30 days. Oh well, time to move on.

Fast forward to this past Friday

While on my domain register I decided to check for my lost domain name. Who knows maybe the person had given up and let it go. Hey, we can dream… can’t we?

I type in my domain name… and… and…

IT WAS FREE! I can’t believe it… it’s actually available! YES!

I quickly bought it. I was so excited… I got my domain back! I even Tweeted about it!

Now, all I had to do was wait for it to propagate and we are back online. Man I was jazzed…

You noticed I said jazzed… as in past tense. That’s because the next day when I typed the URL into the browser, it didn’t go to the landing page I had set up. It’s wasn’t working. And I didn’t know why…

Re-type the URL and bang… the same thing happens. It’s not going to my website. One more time… same results. What is going on here?

It turns out the I had misspelled the domain. I switched two letters… Two LETETRS! Not only did I not have my old domain, but now I had a misspelled version… just great.

At this point I threw in the towel, and gave up. That domain is gone.

So, what’s the moral of the story?

Don’t let your domains expire…

“Doh! How do you do that… Einstein?”

Simple:

1. Check to see if your domain register has email alerts, and sign up.

2. Actually pay attention to those emails. (I obviously didn’t)

3. See if your domain register will auto-magically renew your domains.

4. Put your domain expiration dates on your calender.

These are a few tips to help you remember when your domains expire. What about you? Do you have any tips you would like to share? Go ahead and leave them below.

There’s this bloke I met from Australia named Ed Dale:

Me & Ed Dale In NYC

And every year he has this thing called the The Thirty Day Challenge. During the month of August Ed, Dan Raine and the rest of the crew put on a day by day, step-by-step training to start an online business.

It is also for anyone who has a “brick-n-mortar” business, and wants to create a online presence. There are plenty of small business owners, artisans, musicians and others who have used this training to get themselves online.

This is ideal for anyone who has no idea how to set up a business online. They take you step by step from the very beginning all the way to up and running. Now, it does require you to actually do the work they ask… but there is plenty of support from the forums, and the training is very easy to understand.

The best part? It free… gratis… complimentary. Or as Ed likes to say: “There is no charge for awesomeness!”

I’d encourage you to head on over there and join, check out the different sections and start on the pre-season. It kicks off on Saturday, and it’s something I highly recommend. In fact, I’ll be going through the challenge myself.

Here is the site again…

http://www.ThirtyDayChallenge.com

See you there!

Last week we went on vacation. Had a great time… even though it was with the In-Laws (oops – Did I say that out loud?)

We had to put Gypsy “The Wonder” Dog in a kennel. Wait… it’s a Resort and Spa for dogs. The place we always use is called Best Friends Pet Care. And they always go out of their way to make us feel special.

Study and take notes on how they create an experience instead of a transaction

When we dropped off Gypsy the staff fussed all over her, and told us how much they liked her personality. Of course being the proud parents of Gypsy “The Wonder Dog” we got a real kick out it.

Now, Gypsy only understands a few words… some of which she chooses to ignore on a regular basis. Some of her more words are: cookie, scooby snack, walkies, car ride, do you want to go?

So, with her limited English… most of the praising sorta went over her head. Although she did enjoy the pets and back scratches.

About half way through our vacation Becky was checking her email. And excitedly showed me an email we got from Gypsy…

Having a blast at Best Friends Chestnut Ridge…wish you were here!

I’d love to tell you all about it, but since I can’t talk my Best Friends agreed to send this photo along to you instead.

See you soon!

Love,

Gypsy

Attached to this email was a picture they took of her in the Play Room. Of course my wife started forwarding the email around to friends & family. She thought it was so cool to get an email from Gypsy telling us how much fun she was having.

Here’s the picture…

We came home & went to pickup Gypsy…

We got back this past Saturday, and went to pick up Gypsy. The girl behind the counter quickly pulled up the records on the computer. She then started telling us how much fun it was to have Gypsy stay with them. We were given the report cards to look over.

The report cards are comments left by the staff members who are taking care of Gypsy. There is a place to leave comments about how things went. Most of the comments said things like: “Gypsy is such a sweetie! She really is a cuddle hound… Gypsy is always a treat to have stay with us!”

How do I know what the comments say? Simple, my wife has kept all the report cards! I’ve been reading them while typing this post.

I then handed them Gypsy’s leash so they could go get her from the back. We paid the bill and waited for one of the staff to go get her.

But, wait it didn’t stop there…

There is a large screen TV hanging up behind the counter. It usually shows rotating pictures of the “Spa & Resort”. Usually it has a live shot of the doggie playroom. And you get to watch the other dogs romp around playing with each other. It can be fun to watch most of the time.

As we watching the picture changed. It was showing the picture of Gypsy in the playroom she had sent us in the email. The caption read something like we have arrived to pick up our best friend Gypsy. Of course we got a big laugh out it, and it was a nice touch.

This is getting long so I’m going to stop here. In a couple of days I’ll talk about some of the marketing lessons. And how you can apply them to your business.

But in the mean time… why don’t you add your comments here & tell me what you think made this an experience vs a transaction.