[ikk157]

$4.15 for a .com sounds like a steal.  I've decided to work through my blogs from Thursday onwards, and who knows, maybe I'll purchase a new domain through porkbun.  Should be fun to do after such a long time.

You're right.  Having so many domains was chaotic.  I use an Excel spreadsheet for my domains.  Arranged by Name of domain, Registrar, Web Host, and Due Date of Renewal.  I arrange it by due date.  I'm more or less OK with renewing paid domains, but every now and then with Freenom, because it only gives you 2 weeks before the due date to renew, I've forgotten.  Sometimes I then got lucky to reregister the Freenom domain, but have lost the odd domain that way.  But since the Freenom domains aren't a big deal for me, I just get a new extension.

I'm aware of their business practices.  I guess it makes sense as that is why the domains are given free.  They want you to build traffic for them in exchange for getting it free.  The part that is very unethical for me however is that friends of mine have built huge traffic, and then when this happened, they weren't given first choice in purchasing the domain. The domain just disappeared overnight without advance warning.  So I'll never use a Freenom domain for a Website that may get traffic.  I used to have a great number of Freenom domains at one stage.  Think it was around 2014 when Freenom was dot.tk, that some bright spark decided to check through all domains.  I then lost a few.  That was the time when I noticed the greatest number of Forum discussions and complaints about their business practices.  I also sent complaints to dot.tk as the domains they removed had been active.  I didn't receive any responses.  But since then complaints seem to have quitened a little.  Also, I only have 3 Freenom domains now and make sure they are always online.

I do have to say, having some sort of database (excel in your case) to keep track of all of your domains is quite smart... certainly gets the job done.

I believe the complaints on freenom’s shady tactics have quitened down simply because people now avoid them unless they’re hella desperate to get a free domain name. While trading the risk in for getting the domain free might seem reasonable, it doesn’t justify the fact that freenom doesn’t warn people even before they register their free domains on what could happen if their domain receives enough traffic (unless it’s hidden somewhere in their terms that no one ever reads).

And good luck getting anything productive out of sending complaints to freenom against their own business tactics... they will for sure see it and ignore it.

As for you deciding on working on your blogs, would love it if you could link us to them! Obviously, like myself, you might not want to have people over here looking through your stuff... in that case, it’s completely up to you whether you’d want to share your blog with us or not.