UK Domain Names Reservation Expiry

For the last 5 years UK domain names ending in .uk have been reserved for you. If you held a .co.uk domain 5 years ago then you could also get the .uk version. This period is expiring.

If you have a .uk domain name like this - "thewebbooth.co.uk" or indeed of any other description and would like us to try and register a domain like this " thewebbooth.uk" then get in touch and we will try and secure it for you. Registration will be about £24 for two years.

I always had a pretty good opinion of Nominet but I think they have gone over to the Dark Side this time.

Apparently "But before that date, .uk overlord Nominet has decided to create a special one-week registration period solely for its members – the registrars that sell the domain names – who will be allowed to register whatever domains they want from the list at cost price, and then sell them on for a fat profit."

It seems if you want to go racketeering then Nominet can offer you a scale of fees...

£450 - six domains per minute

£4,500 - nine domains per minute

£45,000 - sixty domains per minute

£90,000 - 150 domains per minute

Err - wow!

I would like to make it clear at this point that The Web Booth pass on all domain fees at cost.

The decision you need to make is whether you want to pay about a tenner a year to protect you brand. For me the rather nasty taste this whole practice leaves in my mouth is enough to make me shy away from just registering everything. We have grabbed a couple of domains and that's it. So my advice now is - if you do want to protect your brand for about £10 a year, now is the time to do it before some chancer with ninety grand to spend hoovers up everything that is left.

Note that, for search engines like Google, these domains are useless. Holding the .uk domain just prevents someone else using it either to set up in competition or to extract money with menaces.

I wrote about this back in 2014. If you want to get in touch to discuss domains - 01725552430 chris@thewebbooth.co.uk

Note that if you hold your own domain then try your registrar's control panel or just contact them. If we hold your domain then you need to contact us.