How Long Should You Register a Domain For?
If you are going to start an online business one of the first things that you have to do is register your domain name. One key question is how long should you register it for? You might also ask yourself this question for the domains that you already own and are looking to renew. In my experience you should do two things, register the domain for as long as you are comfortable with (I normally go 10 years) and set reminders to check the expiration dates for your domains. Why should you register for the long-term and not just renew every year?
Your Site Could Go Down
If you are going to renew every year, how many months in advance are you going to set your reminder? I had a friend who was ill recently and the doctors had to induce him into a coma for over a week. Needless to say he had other things on his mind for several weeks after that, but imagine if something similar happened to you and your domain was set to renew during that time period. Your whole business goes down and your email addresses are lost.
Worse yet, someone else could come in and take the domain away from you. Even smaller domains have value. Most of them have some sort of backlinks going towards them. Customers might even have them bookmarked. Even if you only get 50 visits per day, if I was your competitor I would gladly come in and take those visitors for the low price it costs to register a domain name.
SEO
I don't know this to be 100% true, but it makes sense. What site is Google or Bing going to value more, a site that has been registered for 10+ years and is registered for 10 more, or a site that was just created and expires in less than a year? Spammers and low-value sites register for short periods of time, established, reputable companies don't have a problem paying $100 to lock up their domain name for the next 10 years.
Those are just two reasons that I register my domains for as long as I possibly can and I recommend that you do the same. Set yourself a reminder with Google, Outlook, or whatever platform you use. Set an alarm every three months to check your domains and make sure they are covered for years to come.