Contrary to popular belief, domains do not expire when they say they do. If the owner of a domain does not renew by the expiration date of the domain, the domain goes into “expired” status. For 40 days, the domain is in a grace period where all services are shut off, but the domain owner may still renew the domain for a standard renewal fee. If a domain enters this period, it is a good first indicator that it may not be renewed, but since the owner can re-register without penalty, it can also just be a sign of laziness or procrastination.

After 40 days are up, the domain’s status changes to “redemption period”. During this phase, all WhoIs information begins disappearing, and more importantly, it now costs the owner an additional fee to re-activate and re-register the domain. The fee is currently around $100, depending on your registrar. When a domain enters its redemption period, it’s a good bet the owner has decided not to renew.

Finally, after the redemption period, the domain’s status will change to “locked” as it enters the deletion phase. The deletion phase is 5 days long, and on the last day between 11am and 2pm Pacific time, the name will officially drop from the ICANN database and will be available for registration by anybody.

A domain name is the name by which an organisation's presence is identified on the internet

Your choice of domain name can have a big impact on the image and prestige of your company and also has an influence on the success of your activities on the world wide web. At present there is not a great deal of regulation controlling who can have what domain name. This is good in one sense since it gives a company freedom to choose the most appropriate name. However it also means that the name or names you want can easily be registered by someone else, even if those names have less relevance to them than to you. If you are too late with your registration the chance to choose the name you want may possibly be lost forever!

So even if you are taking your time in assessing how, or even whether, you should be present on the internet you would be well advised to take steps now to protect those names which will be of importance to you in the future. Fortunately this is easy to do and doesn't cost a fortune.