It's funny. I was thinking about the last time one of my domains expired and whether or not I changed the contact e-mail address to something I actually check so such a thing (an expired domain, that is) wouldn't happen again.

But I didn't (change the contact e-mail address). And it did (the domain expired).

I renewed the domain, and a couple of others, one of which was set to expire a few days from now.

The domain on which this site lives is pretty much all the way back. Chances are DNS will work and you'll get the site, but it could be a day or so until some DNS servers catch up.

The moral of the story: Keep an eye on your domains.

• Make sure your contact e-mail addresses are up-to-date (and maybe filter that mail so you'll stand a better chance of finding it)

• Make a list of your domains, their expiration dates and where and how to renew them. Keep this in a list with the other important information about your web site.

• Make a habit of doing some web-site maintenance. Go through your site(s) and:

  1. Make sure all services you're offering are actually working

  2. Get rid of files and directories you no longer need

  3. Do regular backups and keep a backup archive (yearly, monthly, weekly ...)

  4. Check on any applications (like WordPress) that require a software update/upgrade.

  5. Watch for things like expiring domains.

Do you have any other webmasterly maintenance chores that belong on a list like this?

The next day: Google's DNS finally caught up, and I can see the site from my laptop that uses those DNS servers.