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In most of my articles, as well as most pages of my web site, I keep telling people that the internet is changing and evolving constantly. One of my favorite ways of putting this is that the only thing NOT changing with internet is that the internet is changing constantly. And this is especially important for an online entrepreneur.

I am not going to get in too many details about this in particular. This article is here to warn and inform you about a relatively new trend.

What in the world am I talking about?

Have you lately clicked on a link and ended up on a website looking like a directory or a mini-search engine which definitely had nothing to do with what you expected to see? And you start clicking on links hopping that the webmaster just had a bad day when he/she designed his/her website. But it doesn't really take you too long to realize that what you are seeing is nothing but a directory of "sponsored results". So what is going on?

This is a result of probably the latest gimmick in making money online. Believe it or not there are people "stealing" popular domain names. And then use them as their own money making machines. Whoever came up with this idea in the first place is absolutely a millionaire by now. Lately, though, more and more people started using this "opportunity". So, I believe it's fair to say that the level of income per person has gone down a little bit. On the other hand more and more of those who spend a noticeable amount of time on the internet know what's going on. But not to worry, there's still plenty in the un-know about this, so it will be a little while before we can talk about saturation.

But let me go back to explaining the mechanism. There is one site (actually, by now probably more than one) that lists the most popular domain names - high ranking with search engines, thousands of visitors a month etc. - together with the date they expire. And all of its members have access to this list.

And this is where I wanted to get. Are you the owner of a popular domain name? Do you know when it expires? Have you renewed it yet? If the answers are Yes-No-No, then you might be the next victim. One of the members of the above mentioned site might be up for stealing your domain name. Once they do that, they set up a PPC directory/search engine and the money kind of start rolling in. The person benefits from all the traffic your site (actually it is not yours anymore) gets from search engines, affiliates, links from other sites, etc.

But how is it possible for someone else to steal your domain name? Well, apparently, there is a grace period of 40 days in which you can still renew your domain name. If you haven't done so in this period, there still are about 35 days before it becomes available to others. How and who is the one that will eventually get his/her hands on your domain name is a different story. It's a different battle that is not the topic of this article. One thing is for sure though: all those hoping to get your domain names place back orders on it even before it expires. And if for some reason - it is quite hard for me to imagine that someone would not claim back their domain within the grace period, but, believe me or not, it has happened with some of the most notorious websites - so if for some reason you haven't renewed your domain name within the grace period, off it goes! You lost a whole bunch of hours and money spent on making your web site a success.

Is it right what these people do? It seems that from a strict legal point of view, there are no regulations against such practices and chances are there will never be any. I personally believe it is not a fair practice. But it is something it happens. So make sure you renew your domain name on time, before someone else steals it from you.

About the author:

Cosmin Miclea is the owner and webmaster of CosminPTR.com Make Money Online (http://www.cosminptr.com) where you can find Online Home Based Business Opportunities, tips, advice, tools and resources to help the new and experienced online entrepreneur.