MYKIKAYSTUFF.COM: Suspended

Hey everyone! I haven't been on blogger mode in the past days because of a nerve wracking dilemma, my domain's registration expired. For those of you who don't know, a domain is your identification in the world wide web, in my case it's "mykikaystuff.com". I bought this domain last year and was given a notification via email last month saying that my domain registration will expire soon. Problem was, I've been running around in circles trying every troubleshooting procedure I could find just to renew my account but nothing worked! As expected, my domain expired and my blog was inaccessible for a few days.

I never thought I'd get to renew my registration and retrieve my domain name until today. So what finally worked and got me back my domain name? I'll walk you through each step and if you're experiencing the same problem, hopefully I can lessen your anxiety and help you through it.

Before your domain expires, Google Apps will send you an email notification as shown above. In this email, you will be given a chance to renew your registration by redirecting you to Google Console after clicking the link "turning auto-renewal ON". 

My first problem was every time I signed in using the same email address I use to sign-in to my blog, I'm being prompted to "sign into one of the existing accounts of mykikaystuff.com". To do this, sign in with the email address you created when you registered your domain which usually has the format username@domainname, in my case it's jing@mykikaystuff.com. 

Can't remember your username? Go back to the email Google Apps sent you and check the recipients of the email. One of them is your current email and the other one is the email you created upon registration which bears your domain name.

Luckily, I saved my password so I was able to sign in immediately. If you forgot yours, just click on the "Need help?" option for further instructions on how to retrieve it.

Once you're signed in, click "Billing" to check the status of your domain registration, in my case it was suspended as seen on the image above. On the same page, click "Verify billing information" and fill up the blank boxes provided. 

Once verified, click "change" found opposite the renewal option, choose "Auto-renewal" and you're done! Your domain registration will immediately change from suspended to active. 

Image courtesy of smallbiztrends.com

I felt the need to post this experience to help those of you who might encounter the same problem in the future and to keep you from going nuts over a dilemma that can be solved provided with the right instructions. 

Image courtesy of Google

I also have to give credit to Google Apps Support for providing the necessary information in renewing my domain name. I have to admit being disappointed upon learning that Google doesn't provide phone or email support to free Gmail account holders like myself, good thing Google Product Forums exist and they have been most helpful. That's about it, I hope you find this post useful and if you have any questions or clarifications, you may leave them on the comments section below. Thanks for reading and have a great day!