Q: I hear about webmasters who buy domain names that have expired. What I want to know is why do domains expire? If I made up the name, don’t I own the domain forever?

A: This may sound wacked but no, you don’t own your domain forever. Registering a domain name is like registering license plates for a car. If you don’t pay for up-to-date plates, the law can take your car away from you. If you don’t re-register your domain when the deadline comes due, your registrar can take your domain. You can pay for multi-year domain registration if you want to. You can pay/register for as many as ten years at a time.