Stratgies and Tools for Snapping Expired Domain Names
As you may know, all good domain names are already registered, so the only way to get decent domain names now is to buy them in the aftermarket, or to snap up domain names that the current registrant has let expire. In this article we'll provide you with some information and tools for successful domain snapping.
There are several companies that will snap expiring domain names for you. The price of the snapped domain usually starts at around $59, and if there are other customers also interested in that domain name, the domain goes into a bidding auction and will be bid up from the starting price.
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While there are quite a few companies that offer services to snap up expiring domain names, these three are the most popular and most successful:
- SnapNames
- NameJet
- Pool.com
You can find lists of expiring domain names at NameJet (see "Resources" section below). The domain lists are offered by expiration date, and you can scan through these lists (often containing 60,000 or more expiring domain names). The problem is that companies like SnapNames and their network of affiliated registrars will snap up virtually all of the expiring domain names each day, and then attempt to auction them off with a starting price of around $59.
If you're the only bidder, you'll end up getting a $9 domain name for $59. If you're not the only bidder, the final price will depend on what other bidders are willing to pay for the domain.
The disadvantage of investing in expired domains this way, is that for many domains you will pay 6x what you could have paid if you registered the expired domain name on your own.
An alternative to using services such as SnapNames, is to get a software such as NameGrabber, which will allow you to snap domain names from your desktop PC. You simply enter the domain names you're attempting to register and the date range for the requests, and the software takes it from there. NameGrabber can pay for itself with just a couple of domain registrations, and is definitely worth a try.
And if you find that the big companies are getting the domains first, keep in mind that SnapNames, for example, will drop the expired domains that it snapped up after the 5 day grace period if the domains don't sell at auction. Just set your NameGrabber time period to cover the date 4-5 days after the original drop.
Resources:
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