GoDaddy Adds “Estimated Monthly Revenue” to Auction Pages

Elliot Silver
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5

If you are a regular bidder on GoDaddy Auctions, you likely noticed a new design on individual domain auction landing pages. On each page, GoDaddy shares a variety of data about each domain name, including the following attributes:

  • Age
  • Type of auction
  • Auction page visits
  • Appraised value
  • Parking statistics

When a GoDaddy-registered domain name expires, the company takes down whatever website existed and puts up an expiry notification landing page. The purpose is to notify the owner that the domain name expired and to let visitors know the domain name is coming up for auction. The company also monetizes landing pages with pay per click (PPC) links.

Of note, the company is now sharing “estimated monthly pageviews” and “estimated monthly revenue” for each expiry auction domain name. Paul Nicks, VP of the Aftermarket at GoDaddy told me the estimated monthly revenue takes into consideration the PPC revenue earned from parking in the 20 or so days the company has control of the domain name and that figure estimates out 30 days.

One of the domain names coming up for auction on GoDaddy is nairobisiri.com. You can have a look at the actual domain name landing page, which I don’t recall seeing before:

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Six Continents Lets Valuable Domain Names Expire

Elliot Silver
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19

If you follow the domain name drop lists, you probably noticed some high value hotel-related domain names coming up for auction. It looks like a major hotel company let some valuable domain names expire, including the following names:

  • AtlantaHotel.com
  • HoustonHotel.com
  • HollywoodHotels.com
  • OntarioHotels.com
  • LosAngelesHotel.com

These domain names seem to be pending delete, and I could be wrong, but I do not believe they can be renewed at this point. There are other hotel related domain names not included in the list above that appear to be in a similar status. The domain names show the registrant as Six Continents Hotels, Inc. This company operates well-known hotel chains around the world, including Intercontinental Hotels, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, and Staybridge Suites.

These domain names are registered at

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MillionDollar.com: Expiry Domain Name with a $900 Minimum Bid

Elliot Silver
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3

MillionDollar.com is coming up for auction on NameJet. From what I can see, the minimum bid is listed at $900 rather than the standard $69 minimum bid amount:

Based on the “pendingrenewalordeletion” email address, it looks like this is an expiry domain name rather than a private listing. The NameJet auction page also confirms that this is an expiry channel listing rather than a privately owned “Direct Lister” listing.

The high bid is listed at $69, and there is one bidder for this auction at the time of publication. I believe people can place the $69 minimum bid to observe the auction, but if it ends at below the $900 minimum bid, the domain name will not sell. I am not sure whether the

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Municipalities Shouldn’t Let Old Domain Names Expire

Elliot Silver
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1

Saving money is important for municipalities. Taxpayers tend to ask their elected officials to spend less money, and elected officials probably want to save money however they can. I urge municipalities to not let previously used domain names expire!

This afternoon, I noticed a domain name formerly owned by a local municipality coming up for auction. This .org domain name is a pending delete domain name, so I do not believe the former registrant can renew it at this point in time. The domain name appears to have been used as a website, but the website is now resolving on a different domain name affiliated with the municipality. The Twitter account for this town agency still has the old domain name listed in its profile (the domain name that is coming up for auction), and I presume there are probably quite a few backlinks that reference the domain name.

Once the domain name goes to auction, it is almost certain that a third party will own the domain name unless someone from the town (or a benefactor) decides to re-purchase it. My guess is that the backlinks give this otherwise

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Carrot.com Saved From Expiry By Industry Veterans (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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34

If you follow expiry auctions, you likely noticed that Carrot.com was coming up for auction via GoDaddy Auctions. Carrot.com is a fantastic domain name, and the auction price in the mid $60,000 range reflected how desirable the domain name is. The domain name was renewed at the last possible moment, so the auction was halted.

Expired domain names get renewed all the time, so having an auction taken down isn’t an uncommon occurrence. In the case of Carrot.com, it took quite a bit of effort from two domain industry veterans to ensure the domain name would not be lost by its owner.

A couple of days ago, I noticed that Name Ninja’s Bill Sweetman had posted an update on Facebook asking his network if they knew a Canadian artist or his family (out of respect for the artist’s family, I refrained from publishing his name). I realized why he was searching for the man, and I reached out to see if he had made any progress. Bill responded and told me he had been working behind the scenes with DotWeekly’s Jamie Zoch and some other people who Bill did not mention by name.

Yesterday afternoon, a friend messaged me

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Attributes I Look for in Expiry Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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7

I am a regular participant in expiry auctions. Expiring domain name auctions can be a good place to acquire domain names, although some would probably say that auction prices have gone up considerably during the last few years, squeezing out quite a bit of the domain investors might need. Buying expiring domain names can be more cost effective than trying to purchase them from domain owners though, and expiry auctions remain one of the better ways to acquire good inventory.

I want to share some of the things I look at when evaluating expiry auctions. I think every auction participant has their own set of attributes they consider, and here are some of the things I consider when backordering domain names and bidding on auctions. These are not necessarily in order of importance. Your additional thoughts are invited in the comment section.

Generic nature – It is very important to me to only buy domain names that are generic in nature. I have no interest in buying a domain name where there

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