If you have a domain name or two, then it’s really important to “manage” them.
By manage, I mean keep all the registrant contact details up to date; make sure your emails are working; and renew them before they expire.
Elementary I hear you say. But you’d be surprised how many people don’t do these simple things. Seriously. You just have to look at the expiring auctions every day.
If You Have A Portfolio
Should you have many domain names, then it is vital that you have a good failproof system in place to manage your domains.
Sounds like common sense, but once again, I’ve seen many people that just make a half-hearted attempt to keep control of their cyber assets. They tend to rely on Registrars to remind them when domains are due for renewal. This can be a recipe for disaster.
But I’m not talking just about renewals either. You need to have every bit of information about your domains at your disposal. And you need to keep it up to date! (Recently I was found wanting with one of my domains – I hadn’t marked it off as “sold” over a year ago. Fortunately I was able to make good with the prospective buyer with another domain).
Believe it or not, a lot of people who purchase domains from me don’t do anything with them for a long while. They don’t even update the “nameservers” – which simply means that the domain name remains on my parking page with Fabulous! And so I keep getting offers through for domains I no longer control!
This happened again this morning – which prompted me to write this article. Get your act together Beth. 😉
What I Do
I’m a bit old fashioned, and I don’t rely on software programs or “portfolio managers” to look after my domains. Though there are some good ones as my friend Luke Summers pointed out in his excellent article back in May 2015.
I keep an Excel record of all my domains; and my son Luke helps me manage this. As part of my daily routine, I look at all domains due to expire in the next 7 days. Then I make the decision which ones I’m going to renew (or not).
This is the info I keep:
- Domain Name
- Category – e.g. Geo or 3L
- Statistics – Google exacts and CPC (my son updates each month for the month ahead)
- Date first acquired; Expiry Date
- Entity – in case you have more than one
- Purchase price
- Registrar and Nameservers
- Comments
This list is also saved in multiple places – including Dropbox.
Hope this helps some of you.
Haha! Thats why I leave them with you so you can look after them for me! And you got me a sale!
Send Bollinger!
Since I wrote that article in May, the proportion of my total portfolio that’s represented by .au domains is even higher now (approaching 70%). As an aside, that’s a pretty remarkable shift over just a few years, considering my portfolio used to be almost entirely .com!
Unfortunately though, this means that some features in the software I’ve used previously are no longer automatic for the bulk of my portfolio – namely expiry dates for .au domains.
This prompted me to ‘go back to the drawing board’ as they say, so now I’m using a more sophisticated version of the spreadsheet I previously used alongside the Domain Punch Professional software.
I have less automation with the new portfolio management system, but in some ways a spreadsheet is actually more powerful, because it has the flexibility for me to keep adding features as needed.