Domain Name Registration and Renewal Fees to Increase on October 14

Back in April 2007, ICANN and Verisign announced that the domain name registration and renewal fees would increase by 7% on October 14, 2007. It's expected that all domain registrars will pass this cost increase on to their customers.

However, if you renew your domain registration before October 14 (even if it's not due to be renewed yet), you can lock in the current fee rate for as many years as the registrar will allow. For instance, GoDaddy's current domain name registration fee for .COM names is $8.95 per year, and they will allow you to register that domain for up to 10 years at a discounted $8.49 per year rate.

Here are two things to do before October 14:

1. Look at your existing domains and determine which ones you want to keep/renew before the price increase.

2. Decide if you are comfortable with your current domain registrar's prices. Some companies are offering a great deal on "transfers" of an existing domain from your old registrar to a new registrar.

It pays to do some shopping around. While GoDaddy's domain name registration fee starts at $8.99 a year, Register.com's registration rate is $35.00 a year.

Let's put this price difference in perspective. I own 21 domain names.

• If I were to renew with GoDaddy, it would cost me a total of $188.79 per year.
• If I were to renew with Register.com, it would cost me $735.00 per year.

That's a steep price difference, especially to self-employed people who try to keep their expenses down. And, yes, my domain registrations (and my hosting) are through GoDaddy.