Good question domainer. While I imagine there's probably several ways to do this, here's our approach:

• Browse on over to Namecheap.com and select their "Bulk Search"
• Copy and paste up to 30 domain names, without spaces, and including their extension (ie. exampledomain.co.uk, not example domain .co.uk)

A good way to get multiple domains into a well formatted list is to copy and paste your list of names (ie. "example domain", etc.) into one column of an Excel sheet. Then copy and paste the domain extension (ie. co.uk) into another column. In the third column, you'll want to concatenate (merge) the first two columns with the following command: =CONCATENATE(A1,B1)

Finally, we'll want to remove the white space between the words. In a fourth column, use the function =SUBSTITUTE(C1," ","")

to remove the whitespace. Drag all the columns down so the functions will be applied to your entire list. You'll end up with a list of domain names that are formatted properly and ready to import into NameCheap's bulk domain search box (remember you can import up to 30 at a time).

Is there anywhere I can search in bulk for domain names ending in .co.uk? My registrar, Fabulous.com, allows me to search in bulk for up to 1000 .com domain names (which is great), but it doesn't support .co.uk.

My UK registrar - 123-reg.co.uk, appears to only support searching for one domain at a time.

Any suggestions?

The WS Domain extension (ie. example.ws) was heavily marketed (via an MLM, ie. pyramid scheme) as an alternative to the dot com domain name, beginning in the late 1990's, by the company Global Domains International (GDI).

You're right in that the ws domain extension is much more popular than it should be. It hails from a tiny island in the South Pacific - Samoa, whose population numbers less than 200,000.

Regardless GDI used a pyramid/ commission structure to setup a multi-level sales force to get the word out on WS domains. As a result, quite a few people registered WS domains, and if you look at the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), you'll find quite a few established sites with this extension.

Interestingly, country coded domain extensions are often used as an acronym - for example, the .tv extension could be used for television domains, the .us extension (United States) is a classic; used by the popular social media/ bookmarking site del.icio.us.

The WS extension could be used, for example, by anyone from the town of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is a legitimate domain name, but I wouldn't focus too much energy on it. .COM is still king, and generally you want to get this, followed by your country domain extension. But most important are the keywords you select for your domain name. Read our articles on Keywords in Your Domain Name and Domain Name With or Without Hyphens? for insight into how to effectively choose a domain name for your business.

What is the WS domain extension all about? I'm guessing it's a country extension, but it sure seems like it's more popular than the average country extension...just curious what all the hype is about regarding the ws domain extension.

Here's how the domain expiration timeline works, in a nutshell:

• After one year from the date of registration, a domain expires and enters the redemption period.
• It stays in the domain redemption period for 30 days. During this time, a domain owner can still renew their domain name, usually for an additional fee (we've seen the fee range from $50 up to several hundred, depending on the registrar)
• After the 30 day redemption period, a domain enters a 5 day pending delete phase. During the pending delete phase, the domain is not accessible by anyone. During these 5 days the domain goes into the process of being returned for public registration. After the 5 day period, anyone can register it.

We should point out that some registrars (such as Fabulous.com) are putting domains in the redemption period into a DDN network where they may be purchased by buyers, with your authorization, before they enter the pending delete phase). Normally the registrar splits the proceed of a sale with the domain owner.

I forgot to re-register my domain name - it just expired. I heard that there was a domain name redemption period, in which I still have time to renew my domain? I'm not sure how this works, however, or if there's an extra fee?