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Expiring domains are names that people don’t want and allow it to be released to the public. They either forgot to renew their domain or they decided the domain wasn’t of use to them anymore and allowed it to be released.
You will have to be careful of trademark violation when backordering or registering expired domain names.
Before I became a domain investor, I provided web design services on a full time basis. I had a few personal websites that obtained decent amount of traffic. Naive to the value, I allowed several domains to expire with no recourse as to what income these expired domains would bring in.
That’s a common problem (or in our case, a benefit) of what is going on today. Most domain owners do not realize the value in their domain name or domain traffic. They allow their name to expire due to several reasons: lost interest in maintaining the name, want to move on to other projects or simply forgot to renew their domain.
Whatever the reason, these domains are a great value for domain investors. There is a lot you can do with expired domains. You can park the domain at a PPC service or develop the domain into a full website. Whatever you do, it is a sure way to earn revenue with the correct name.
Different domain companies have different policies for expiring domains. Here is a general overview of the top companies. If anything, this should teach you to keep your domain names renewed before they expire to avoid redemption period.
Network Solutions – About 35 days after the expiration date, domain will enter pending grace period. Network Solutions reserves the right to sell your domain to a 3rd party on your behalf. Expiration date + 36 days begins the Redemption Grace Period (RGP). During the RGP, if you’d like your domain back, you will have to pay a $150 fee to release and renew it. After the RGP, the domain will go into Pending Delete status for about 5 days.
Enom – They give you a period of up to 30 days (called the reactivation period) after the expiration date to renew your domain. It also reads:
“You acknowledge and agree that we may make expired domain name services(s) available to third parties, that we may auction off the rights to expired domain name services (the auction beginning close to the end or after the end of the reactivation period), and/or that expired domain name registration services may be re-registered to any party at any time.”
Expiration date + about 42 days is Redemption Grace Period (RGP). The fee is $160 to get your domain out of RGP.
Afterwards, When your domain name is expired, Enom is reserving the right to repark your domain to a PPC solution and they may or may not leave your whois details in tact.
GoDaddy – GoDaddy doesn’t attempt to auto renew (if you have this feature enabled) until up to 12 days after the expiration date. Redemption Grace Period (RGP) begins 12 days immediately after the expiration date and lasts for up to 30 days. One week into RGP, if not renewed, the domain is placed in a 10 day domain auction. The winner of the auction obtains the domain registration ownership two weeks after the end of the auction if the original owner fails to renew the registration by the end of the redemption period.
More:
“Once the redemption period ends – and the domain has neither been renewed nor obtained through auction or backordering – the domain is deleted at the registry. The domain name re-enters the public pool of available domains. It is no longer redeemable.
Though this 30-day period extends the time available to renew an expired domain, all names that enter the redemption period are removed from the zone files (the list of domains currently in the global DNS). Therefore, any Web site or email services associated with the domain name will stop working. It is, therefore, strongly recommended that you renew your domain registration before the domain name enters the redemption state.”
GoDaddy has the best renewal price at $80 during its redemption period. Benefits Vs Downsides Benefit: Obtain instant traffic. Downside: However, traffic will decrease over a period of just a few months unless developed into a full website or resold quickly.
Benefit: Fastest way to earn a return. Downside: It doesn’t reap in long term revenue benefits unless developed into a website or resold quickly.
Benefit: Owner’s ignorance to its value. Downside: You still have to compete with other domain investors to capture the same name. Using Drop Services Finding a domain name worth backordering is almost like finding a needle in a haystack. It requires research and searching but the benefits are worth it. Thankfully, there are many tools to make the process easier and less time consuming.
Pool.com – Pool.com is one of the best drop services around. You can search by keyword or by date. I’ve found the best quality domains listed here. It’s worth shelling out the few dollars to join.
JustDropped.com – Just Dropped provides dropped services for free. However, I’ve seen a lot of crappy domains. It is free… Backordering Backordering is the process to attempt a capture of an expired name. After you choose the domain name you want to backorder, you place the order with a Drop Registrar such as Pool.com, NameWinner.com or Spaggle.com. These companies use server side software to ping the domain companies at several intervals in attempt to register an expired domain name before anyone else.
In theory, you could be competing with several individuals or companies for the same name. Using an appropriate backorder service will help increase your chances of a successful backorder.
To backorder a domain, first search for the domain name you want to capture by applying the methods in the previous section A. Using Drop Services. Next, go to Betterwhois.com and find out what domain company maintains that particular domain. The backorder company you use should depend on who the domain company is. For example: SnapNames.com as an affiliation with Network Solutions and are more likely to successfully capture an expired name.
Here are some other affiliations:
Domain Company: Network Solutions Use Drop Registrar(s): SnapNames.com
Domain Company: Enom.com Use Drop Registrar(s): ClubDrop.com
Domain Company: GoDaddy.com Use Drop Registrar(s): The Domain Name Aftermarket (GoDaddy)
Domain Company: Moniker Use Drop Registrar(s): SnapNames.com
Domain Company: DomainSite Use Drop Registrar(s): SnapNames.com
Domain Company: Dotster Use Drop Registrar(s): NameWinner.com How to Determine Value It’s hard to determine a value range on expiring names due to lack of traffic and revenue stats. However, you can make wiser decisions and decide if a domain is worth back ordering or not by following a few simple guidelines: What Are Your Plans? You should decide what you’re going to do with an expired domain before you start searching for one. Will you park it, develop it or resell it? Google It
Type the domain into the Google search box without the “www” and within quotes. Example: “Spaggle.com”. This will return references and links to the domain. If Google produces more than 500,000 results, the domain is safe for parking. If under, only purchase the domain if:
- You plan to develop the domain into a full website to maximize its revenue or - You have the ability to resell the domain to another investor in a short amount of time.
URLTrends
For further stats, visit URLTrends.com
Overture
See Overture.com When to Sell
If you park the domain, it is natural to notice a decrease in traffic as the search engines de-list the domain from their index. When the domain hits below the $5 a month marker, its time to sell.
As for full websites, only sell when you’ve exhausted all ways to monetize your domain and sell at its peek revenue point.
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