Renewing Domain Names: A Lesson From Sony

No-one’s immune from domain name expiration – not even big companies like Sony. Here’s how to avoid it…
Renewing your domain name is an easy process. In fact, you can set it up, so renewal is automatic. Yet, thousands of web address names are left to expire every month, by mistake.
Last week, mega entertainment company Sony, let their domain SonyOnline.net lapse. The related suspension of the nameserver SonyOnline.net led to the outage of SOE.com, which is better known as Sony Online Entertainment and a popular game network. Thousands of gamers were simultaneously throwing their controllers in protest.
To explain the downtime John Smedley, President of Sony Online Entertainment tweeted “DNS issues may take up to 48 hours to resolve. We are really really sorry on this one folks. Embarrassing and preventable. We screwed up.”
These are the lessons we can learn from Sony’s mistakes…
1.      Always keep your contact information up to date so that your hosting company can reach you for renewal.
2.      Put domain expirations dates in your calendar. Some hosting companies will allow you to register for up to ten years, although the date is far away, it is still very important to remember.
3.      Set your account up for automatic renewal whenever possible. Just in case!
4.      Spot check your site often. If your domain happens to expire and you haven’t received any word due to outdated info, you only have a certain amount of days as a grace period to renew.
5.      Keep your payment details up to date in your Midphase account. This way, if you have selected auto-renewal, the renewal will go straight through.
6. Check your SPAM. On the odd occasion renewal notices can get stuck in your junk mail folder.
To find out more about the exact rules surrounding domain name expiry, read this Midphase blog.