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Renewing Your Expired Custom Domain Registration

Some Blogger blog owners, having overlooked the reality of custom domain renewal, discover their mistake too late.

We see various queries, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about domain registration, after it's too late.
My blog now displays a search page! Have I been hacked?
or maybe
My blog is showing content that my kids should not see!

The possibilities, for renewing a domain registration after expiration, will depend upon how the domain registration was originally purchased.

Domains purchased directly from a registrar - whether using eNom, GoDaddy, or a third party registrar, will have to be renewed directly from the registrar - and renewal after expiration will depend upon registrar policy.

Once you purchase domain registration from a registrar, you are on your own.

If you do not renew registration on time, depending upon the registrar, the domain may be changed to point to a domain parking server, where the registrar will serve ads. Some registrars will serve ads which you, or your readers, won't appreciate.

If the domain registration has expired, and the domain was purchased from Blogger / Google, you may be able to submit late payment, and renew now.
If your original charge fails and you’re unable to resolve the form of payment issue within 7 days, you may still be within the grace period for renewals. If you’re still within 19 days of the renewal date, you can try again using any Google Wallet account by visiting http://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/renew-domain/primary-domain-name, where primary-domain-name is the domain name you are trying to renew.

In some cases, once late payment has been processed, your registration may resume, with no long lasting ill effects. In other cases, you may end up having to setup the DNS addresses.

If you wait past the grace period, you will have to pay more than the original registration fee. If you wait past the redemption period, you have to pay substantially more - if the domain is available.

The best renewal experiences, of course, start with renewal before expiration.

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Comments

Tito Dutta said…
(Not best providers like Goddady), but there are some domian providers who don't even mail/remind you before domain expiry. Auto-renewal should be the best option, but, people like me who don't have online payment options need to add a (email reminder) in Google Calendar or somewhere else.
Nitecruzr said…
Tito,

Good points.

One of the advantages of Blogger blogs, and custom domain publishing, is that it lets you publish a Blogger blog as part of any non Blogger hosted website, and hosted by almost any domain registered by almost any registrar.

This is similarly one of the disadvantages of Blogger blogs. Too many registrars simply don't provide the right features to support their customers. Some features (or lack of same) are not discovered immediately.

Some Blogger blog owners may cause this problem, inadvertently. People who buy a domain, and hide their email address, use a bogus email address, or change email addresses without updating their email address with the registrar, won't get any reminders - even when sent by the registrar.

This is a constant problem, with Blogger blogs, too. One of the most common problem, reported in BHF, is from people who have lost access to the Blogger account that's needed to publish their blog - and who don't have email access to regain access.

You cannot force people to help themselves.

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