Things I Look for in Expiring Domain Names

I’ve been buying and bidding on more and more expiring domain names at NameJet in the last couple of years. I wouldn’t say I am a big buyer, but I do spend quite a bit of time searching for good dropping domain names to buy, and I’ve had some success flipping auction purchases (never sold to a former owner though).

I want to share some of the things I consider when buying names on NameJet and Snapnames:

  • Previous owner
  • Development status
  • Inbound Links
  • GAKT information
  • Number of results for the keyword in Google
  • Potential TM issues
  • Age
  • Other TLD registrations and usage
  • Whether it’s a private sale

I weigh each of these factors differently, depending on the domain name, and quite a bit of my interest still boils down to a gut feel.

One thing I do is filter the names that have bids with an hour to go before the bidding deadline, and I analyze those based on gut feel. I figure I can check the analytics/stats during the auction, since as second or after bidder, I won’t be the leading bidder. Most of the time I place a bid on names of interest in that list and decide whether to be aggressive after the fact.

What do you look for when buying expiring/dropping domain names at auction?

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

30 COMMENTS

  1. Hi Elliot & community, I’m curious which tools you use to analyze dropping domains?

    Elliot had an earlier post commenting on the quality of the NameJet keyword search alerts (are people happy with these alerts?) which caught my eye, and I’ve released a script that goes deeper on a keyword basis:

    https://github.com/mikejarema/purgatory#readme

    I’m juggling whether or not to build a web service around this script and any input would be much appreciated.

  2. @ Elliot

    FreshDrop looks amazingly comprehensive, thanks for the reco.

    I’ve been viewing dropping domains from a “branding” perspective that doesn’t carry the existing SEO, PR, inbound link, etc. considerations. Hence my focus mainly on keywords and word play.

    I’m going to dive in and give this tool a trial run.

  3. I have found expired domains at name.com that have yielded me a nice profit. Picked them up for around $8 and used my common sense to choose the names. Recently I picked up StudentCreditRepair.com which will yield a nice price when I develop it into a blog.

    I have sold several education names picked up there for $8 and then sold them for around $1k.

  4. Wow dude already back to work dropping posts to monetize the blog

    Do you consider your blog more business to make money off advertising or more personal?

    Seems like you churn out a lot of bs posts just to get traffic no offense just saying

    • @ Domainer

      Yeah it is business… earning a lot of money. Flipping names is my primary biz though. I enjoy writing my blog, but it’s clearly more biz than personal. I think yesterday’s post was the first personal post in months.

      Anyway, I wrote a few posts that I saved for this week knowing I’d be busy. Advertisers paid a lot of money, and although I am sure many don’t care about me taking time off, it’s not fair to them.

  5. Again, if everyone is using the same tools, it means all of you will be competing against each other.

    As for me, I use God’s given talent-Human Creativity

  6. Traffic is #1 for me.

    I like real traffic that is that will not go away for the foreseeable furture.

    You don’t really even need to have the traffic number told to you. If you have been doing this enough time you can estimate the traffic to almost any domain.

    I look for inbound links, but I consider any inbound links to be a negative against the domain as far as analysis. I prefer domains that have zero links to them, have direct navigation traffic, and have never once been used for anything. That last one is tough to find but there are plenty of domains people have been sitting on for years and never did anything at all with, and I don’t mean domain parking.

  7. “Whether it’s a private sale.”

    So is this factor a positive or a negative to you (and to anyone else who’d like to chime in)?

    It’s never mattered to me; a good deal’s a good deal; regardless of source.

    Why would anyone care?

  8. Appreciate the honesty

    Best of luck to you with everything

    Crazy to me that blogs have become more about making money with advertisers than personal opinions/thoughts

    But hey name of the game is time is money

    As long as you are transparent I have respect

  9. I use a lot of what you posted.

    Exact match – there is a certain number I look for in generic terms, niche type stuff, that’s pretty easy to rank for if you develop. When I say develop, I’m not meaning made for adsense type sites, articles by other people, rss feeds etc. I’m talking some actual work, effort.

    I like to see if it’s taken in other extensions, shows interest in that keyword, and those are potential buyers as well, because most of the time, they really want the .com.

    Check for trademarks.

    Check to see if PPC ads are showing, more potential buyers.

    I also check how many results show for the keyword, certain number I look for.

    I like generic .coms usually or brandable type .coms, terms that might not get a lot of searches but sounds good, I can picture a strong site with that name.

  10. ‘”Crazy to me that blogs have become more about making money with advertisers than personal opinions/thoughts”

    Was that stand up comedy ? Where did Silver say it was about more ? Of course blogs are a business, the first second you take advertising dollars. So you work for free ?

    And how was this post BS ? What have you done in domaining that’s meaningful. Please show real examples of what you have accomplished.

  11. @Elliot

    Bruce is referring to the “Name.com Happy Hour” where you can get pre-release domains from Name.com at hand-reg prices.

  12. @Domainer 007

    Quite honestly if there’s anything BS about Elliot’s blog is the 2 posts that I’ve read of yours!

    I thought it was crystal clear to most that the whole idea of starting a blog was with a view of turning it into a profitable business – Have you seen “John Chow’s blog”? Do you know how he started initially and how much he’s earning now? (Beyond Your Dreams!!)

  13. Namejet seemed like it was great; until I realized a major loophole that all domainers should realize regarding “PENDING DELETE” names. Even if you “snipe” a name with only 5-10 seconds left (before the 12 o’clock cutoff) and are the only bidder, other people can still see that you bid on the name. Even though the domains aren’t “searchable” via the Namejet interface after the cutoff, you can still simply type the domain in the URL, and see if someone sniped a bid. Then you simply go to Snapnames or another catcher and place a bid there. I imagine people have software that can already do this. In other words, people have 1 1/2 hours to figure out what names were sniped (take advantage of other people’s hard research work) and place bids on those names on the far superior Snapnames, or Pool, or whatever else. Too many shitty to mediocre names that I snipe on Namejet, and am the only bidder, end up being caught by Snap with 1 or 2 other people. But those same names or even those of lower quality where I SKIP Namejet and just place the bid on Snap …. I am almost always the only bidder on Snap in those cases.

    Namejet, get your sh*t together and close this loophole- make auction pages for PENDING DELETE completely unscannable/unviewable after the cutoff- you are (inadvertently) letting people take advantage of your customers and giving their business elsewhere. This isn’t a complaint against Namejet, it’s an actual loophole !! Think about it.

    Sorry Elliot, had to vent! I hope someone from Namejet sees it.

  14. The other TLD usage is a good signal for me. If a .com looks good, but i see that none of the other extensions (net, org, biz, info) were registered, it makes me think twice before going after it.

    … about NameJet, I don’t think I’ve won a single PENDING DELETE name with them out of the last 6 or 7 backorders I’ve placed.

  15. – Registration date
    – History of the domain (‘s website)
    – Possible trademark issues

    These are most important ones.

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