Yesterday I received an email reminding me that a domain name that I’d registered last February expires soon. Logging in to renew presents me with a list of all the domains I have. It’s a bit like walking down memory lane, the online equivalent of visiting somewhere you used to live. The domains range from my first domain registered back in the late 1990’s, and still live though not updated in a couple years. Most are in use and supporting live web sites for myself or for clients that I’ve consulted with.
More interesting are those just sitting there at the moment. I’ve learned to register a domain name when I get an idea after finding one no longer available when I went back a few years ago. Some are registered for projects on that someday/maybe list. These are the ones I’ll get to when time and priorities allow. Others remind me of projects that never came to pass. There’s a photography project that didn’t come about, but I later reused for something entirely different. There’s a side business that didn’t work out. Most are sitting there waiting for the day when they’ll be needed.
Some I wonder if I’ll ever use. A project I investigated a few years has little chance of coming to anything, but I still keep the domain name just in case. I’ve been surprised sometimes when an old name suddenly becomes useful. As I mentioned, a photography project that didn’t work out left me with a domain name that sat idle for a couple years before working perfectly for a completely different project last spring.
I also don’t let domains go because of a lesson from a friend. She owned a domain that she let expire. It was immediately snapped up by someone else and she’s not had the chance to get it back. There are ways to get them back, but the time and cost are not trivial and she’s never felt the urgency to pursue it. Still not having the domain limited her options and I don’t want to wind up in that same place.
In the end those unused domains are options. Having them gives me options and I like that.