Although many people say, “I own xyz.tld” (where xyz is the domain, such as apple, and tld is the top level domain, such as com), people don’t really own domain names. Instead, they are leased to an individual, business or organization for at least a year, and at most 10 years.
While domain names can be renewed in perpetuity, often times domain names will expire. If you desire a domain name and do not want to approach the owner about buying it from them, you can simply wait for it to expire. But how do you determine when a domain name will expire?
Follow these steps to determine when a domain name will expire:
1. Start a WHOIS Lookup
A WHOIS Lookup can be performed on many different websites, but the easiest place to do a lookup of a domain name is at DomainTools.com.
Visit https://whois.sc to begin the process.
2. Type In The Domain Name of Interest
In the “Enter a Domain or IP Address…” input box, type in the domain name of interest, such as DomainSherpa.com, and press the “lookup” button.
3. Scroll Down to the Bottom of the Record
At the very bottom of the record, you will see some timeline information for the domain name, such as the date the domain name was created (“Record created on”) and when the domain name is due to expire (“Domain expires on”) should it not be renewed.
As you can see above, the DomainSherpa.com domain name is due to expire on March 14, 2020, if not renewed prior to that date.
If the domain name is renewed prior to the expiration date, or within 30 days thereafter (many registrars allow a grace period), an additional 1+ years is added to the domain name registration. In this case, continue to monitor the domain name using either a free DomainTools.com account or DomainHole.com account.
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