Deleting Tonight: Make Money on Your Expiring Domain Names

WhenI visited  DeletingTonight.com, I immediately thought of the saying, “one man’s trash is another’s treasure.” A Facebook friend posted a link to the site on her wall, and I thought that this was a great idea and has some serious potential with some additional work.

Owned and operated by Tasha Kidd, DeletingTonight.com currently lists her inventory of soon to be deleted domain names that are for sale inexpensively. The first to agree to buy the name before it deletes gets it with the next year renewal paid. Instead of making no money on domain names she plans to drop, Kidd is selling some of them.

At the present time, it only appears that Kidd’s names are for sale, but I can see some potential for the site. If she permitted others to list their dropping names on the site and then connected via API with Freshdrop and/or DropDay, it could be a very good opportunity for others to pick up names inexpensively, without having to compete at auction.

Yes, you are buying names the owner doesn’t want to renew, but it may be a deal for both parties.  Domain owners would get some compensation for names they otherwise wouldn’t keep and buyers would get some good deals. I think it’s a pretty good idea.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

16 COMMENTS

  1. I have been reading domain blog for a year now and still don’t quite know what it means when a domain is dropped. Can the owner still get the name back? I assume not right? Otherwise, why would anyone bid in auction for a “dropped” domain that can be taken away if the (previous) own choose to take it back.

  2. @Elliot
    Funny thing is I remember reading that post when I first started reading domain blogs. I will read it again see if I understand it this time around. U know people are poor for a reason. 🙂 in my case I am just not very bright. Haha

  3. Poor uncle,

    I hope Elliot doesn’t mind if I answer your question.

    When your domain reaches expiration date and is not renewed, it goes through 3 phases.

    1.Expiration
    2.Redemption
    3.Deletion

    During Expiration phase, you can renew your domain for the normal renewal fee.

    After Expiration phase, domain enters Redemption phase and can still be renewed by the Registrant but at a much higher fee which can be $80 to $100 or more depending on the Registrar. This fee is higher as it’s more like a reclaim (redeem) fee.

    If the domain is not redeemed it enters Deletion phase and it can no longer be redeemed by the Registrant.

    When the deletion phase is over, the domain is supposed to be released (dropped) and it is up for grabs. This is where drop catching enters the arena.

    Some notes:
    GoDaddy auctions off expiring domains registered there that are in the Redemption phase. If you win an expired auction at GoDaddy, the current Registrant could still pay the reclaim fee and you will get a refund instead of the domain.

    Some Registrars (like Tucows) often cherry pick expired domains registered through them for their own portfolio. Those domains never complete the Deletion phase. See: YummyNames.com

  4. One comment on the Mike Industries article.

    Those time periods (x # of days during expiration, etc.) should only
    be considered as guidelines.

    If those numbers were true then every domain dropping (deleting) today would all show the same Registration Date and Expiration Date but that is simply not the case.

    Many Registrars shorten the time for a particular phase.

    Some Registrars like 1and1 delete your expired domains pretty quickly. That’s their policy and they are not doing it to keep the domains for themselves.

  5. @Trico

    Thanks for taking the time and effort to answer my question. Your response adds to mikeindustries’s article.

    I have 2 follow up questions to see if I really understand.

    1. With regard to godaddy auction off the name during redemption period. Then what is stopping the previous owner of said name to reclaim the name and try to sell it to the winner now that he know his name is really worth something? 🙂

    2. Do all tld extension has similar grace, redemption and deletion period? I dropped some .co domains and it goes to redemption right away I was told by goaddy rep.

  6. “…what is stopping the previous owner of said name to reclaim the name and try to sell it to the winner…’

    Nothing except I don’t believe the Registrant would know who won the auction.

    All Bidders are identified just by a number.

    For example, Bidder 1, Bidder 2, etc.

    However suppose you were a bidder and lost a GoDaddy auction but you really want the domain. You can use your knowledge that the Registrant can redeem the domain and contact the Registrant and offer him some $ amount above the domain redemption fee if he’ll redeem and transfer the domain to you.

    This would only work if you can identify the Registrant via WhoIs and if the Registrant agrees.

    But if you pay before the domain is transferred to you, you are taking a risk. Similarly if the Registrant pays to reclaim the domain but you bail on the deal ,he’s stuck.

    You do also take the risk that just by showing interest in the domain that the Registrant will redeem it and cut you out.

    If the Registrant learns about the auction and the auction reached a decent $ amount with a number of bidders, he may then redeem the domain and try to benefit from a hopeful sale.

    In actuality it seems that most of the time the GoDaddy auctions just close and the winning bidder gets the domain.

    “Do all tld extension has similar grace, redemption and deletion period? ”

    No.

    And as I pointed out even with .COM and .NET, some Registrars shorten the timer periods.

    If you look at any .COM and .NET deletion list, you will see that the expiration dates differ on domains dropping on the same day.

    If all Registrars followed a pre-set pattern, the expiration dates should match…but they don’t.

  7. Aha that is some good information. Whatever loopholes there maybe I am sure the pros have already covered and exploit. It is just my way of learning by playing devil advocate. Thanks.

  8. Thank you, Elliot, for the mention. I’ve had a note on the site from the beginning for others to contact me if they want their deleting domains (.com’s, mostly) listed, but before we formalized it and promoted it, we were working out the wrinkles, since it’s a new idea, and a new site. As the “Advertise” Page says, there are those who will just can the list to see if they want to pick up a name on the drop, and that’s okay. There are others, who want to pick up a name before the drop, without the risk of competition that comes with the drop, and then use the service. It requires for us, and those who would list, to be on top of their email to do the renewal before the delete, so it’s not for everybody who don’t monitor their email closely.

  9. *everybody; those who don’t monitor their email closely will not be able to respond in time to a “sale” to renew the domain before the drop.

    [Sorry Elliot; late at night mistake; you need to give us the ability to edit a comment!]

  10. One of the tools are use to find expired domains name is installed on my server.
    Tool can be found at http://cachelogic.net and provides your visitors direct access to thousands of expired domains names.This tool can be installed on your server. If somebody registers domain, you get a commission.

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