The idea of leasing a domain has never appealed to me but as I was driving back from the beach this morning I had the radio on and there was an ad for the theatre production “Rent” with the domain rentauckland.co.nz. No, not rent but rentauckland!

Suddenly I understood how leasing a domain can really work for both the customer and the domain owner.

With a premium domain like rent.co.nz (within the NZ market) the price to purchase would be high and unjustified for a show doing a season here.

Renting the domain would have been much more realistic and would have been just one more item in the marketing budget.

The owner would retain control and after the contract expired the domain would have gained any number of inbound links from promotional sites & personal blogs.

I wonder if the renting option was ever explored? If not, it was a wasted opportunity for both the owner and the theatre company.