Getting a domain name of our own is an essential part of owning a business online. However, nowadays most of the popular domain names are either already registered or owned by some other business. This means that you need to think up of creative domain names to get noticed on the internet. This can sometimes be a challenging thing to do.

However, the bright side to this is that most of the domain names that were already registered could have expired. It could be because the company may have closed down or the owner of the domain name may have changed his website. These domain names may now be available to you.

In order to either register or renew a domain name you need to follow the given steps.

While registering a domain name you need to remember that you are registering it only for a period of time. It could be a year or 10 years, but not for a lifetime. Hence, it would be wrong to say that you own the domain name. All the domain names need to be renewed or re-registered upon expiry. A domain name goes into an expired status for 40 days after it expires. This status changes to the redemption period if the owner of the domain name does not renew the domain name in 40 days. During this period all of the owner's information is erased like they had never owned the domain name. This leaves the domain name open to buyers. The final stage after the redemption period is called the locked period. This is usually a period of 5 days. On the 5th day, the name is officially dropped from the ICANN database and the domain is up for sale again.

Domain auctions help people who are looking out for particular domain names. Many domain names are sold to domain auction companies for this purpose.

There are different Domain Auction formats:

1. Public Use: Anyone can participate in this Domain Auction.

2. Private: You need an invitation to participate in this auction

3. Consignments: The seller decides a minimum amount for his domain. The domain will not be sold till this amount is met.

4. Open Auction: People place their domain name for bidding to see how much attention it attracts. You need not sell in an open auction. Many people, in order to find out the market value of their domain names, participate in open domain auctions.

Many domain hosting companies buy domain names in bulk so that they can resell these to other people. However, if you want to register a domain name, domain auctions could be an expensive way of doing so. This is because only high value domain names are offered at these auctions.