Annual Domain Transfer for Profit

Since my first domain name in 2006, I have purchased several domain names for my various websites. A few years ago, I discovered a secret in the domain registration business: many registrars offer a cheaper price for domain transfer than domain renewal, as a means to attract new customers. Therefore, if I transfer my domain every year to a different registrar, I would pay less than renewing the domain at the same registrar.

DNS services for a domain used to be associated with the registrar. When I transfer a domain away, the DNS server of the old registrar would stop responding to queries regarding my domain, and the DNS server of the new registrar does not yet have any records about the IP addresses of my web server. Therefore, a domain transfer would usually cause the website to become inaccessible for a day or two. Typically, I post a tweet when a domain transfer is about to happen, so that my readers could know why my website is down.

Nowadays, I'm using Cloudflare DNS for most of my domains. Cloudflare DNS server is independent from the domain registrar, so that my website continues to resolve correctly throughout a domain transfer, as long as neither registrars modify the name server delegation records. In case the new registrar automatically updates the delegation records to their DNS servers, I have to quickly login to the control panel and change it back to Cloudflare, which would then cause a brief downtime of the website. Having done so for many years, I am accustomed to this process.

Transfer of ndn.today