your thoughts on multiple domain names

[trafford]

hello folks, just wondering how important you think it may or may not be to have/own multiple domain names??? we've been using our .co.uk address now for maybe 5 years but started out with a .com address.
the .com was meant to be redirected but it's not working and the renewal's coming up for it in january, used to be about £25 a year if memory serves but since we changed hosts it's suddenly hiked itself up to about £120 !

with this in mind and the fact that we would only 'advertise' the .co.uk address do you think it's really worth renewing the .com again, obvious comment i know would be that a competitor or worse could purchase it and for the sake of the amount in reality it's not a lot to keep hold of it but . . . . where would it end? you could say the same for .net .org etc etc

do most of you have more than one domain name for just one site or just stick with one main address?

[pinbrook]

transfer the domain to a registrar who charges a smaller amount to renew, and allows you to park or forward.

for the sake of a few quid its better to own both the co.uk and com - just to stop anyone else getting it.

As you say £120 is excessive

123-reg is £9.99 pa for a com

[Duncan Rounding]

I would certainly keep the .com with a redirect. many people just type the domain name without the extension in the browser and would end up going nowhere at best or off to a competitor if they snatched up the .com version.

£120 sound far to much to renew for a year. I agree with Jo - find somewhere cheaper and redirect it again.

[trafford]

i did look into transferring a little bit a while ago but if i remember rightly, easyspace, the old host was asking a similar amount to transfer it or maybe i didn't inderstand it properly - do we have to 'buy' it off them in order to transfer it?

[trafford]

aaahhhh no it's not it's £15 . . . . . . think i'll crack on with it then, thank you for the advice

[Sean Williams]

Keep it!
Stops some scum squatter or worse queering your pitch.

We had the .com to one of our sites for several years, after which Network Solutions deftly sold it to someone else, even though we'd paid our renewal!
In the end, they simply said 'Sue us'.
Wasn't worth it of course.

Has caused us no end of hassle.

(we need a smilie to give the impression that one is "madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of this year's Mr Madman competition"