Generating Profit from Expired Domain Names

July 17, 2007 – 6:28 pm

What is an expired domain name?

When someone buys a domain name (URL) gererally you buy the rights to it for 2 years, which will cost anything from £5 to £10. If after the 2 years the person forgets to re-register the domain name, the domain name simply goes back on the market and is available for anyone to purchase.

Why would buying an expired domain name be a good idea?

One of the hardest things anyone will find when they build a website is getting traffic to visit your site. There are billions of websites out there why would anyone want to visit yours?

One way to get an instant source of traffic would be to buy an expired domain, which would already have an established source of traffic and link popularity. If you bought a domain name which had originally been selling something similar to what you would be selling they you would have traffic that could potentially convert very well and generate you a lot of profit.

How do you find expired domain names?

Since buying an expired domain name could be quite a lucrative source of income some companies will charge you to look at expired domain name databases. One such database is http://www.bizmint.com Bizmint change you a monthly fee to gain full access to their expired domain name database.

One expired domain name database which is free to view is http://www.deleteddomainnames.com, but if you Google for expired domain names there are a few databases out there.

Other ways to find expired domain names

Another way to find expired domain names would be to run a script off your computer to search for you, if you try visiting http://www.hotscripts.com and search for “expired domain names” you should be able to find a script that will do the job.

Generating a profit from expired domain names

Ok I am probably making this sound too easy, the majority of expired domain names are next to worthless, so don’t expect to hit an instant gold mine. Finding a profitable expired domain name does require a lot of research, you will need to find suitable domain name in the first place from a database. Then do research to see how popular the domain name is; check out who is linking to it on Google, you can do this by typing link:www.theydomainnameyouarechecking.com into the Google search box. You should also check how many pages of the domain are indexed in Google, to do this type site: www.theydomainnameyouarechecking.com into the Google search box. Another thing to check would be the Google page-rank you can find this out from your Google toolbar if you have it or visit http://pr.blogflux.com

I have written a thread in the forum with some useful SEO stuff there is also some useful websites that you could use to further investigate the expired domain names you are researching.

Once you do find that profitable domain name you will need to register it, I use uk2.net.

You could then do several things with it:

• Use it to direct traffic to a website you already have up and running.
• Use a domain name parker like Sedo.com to advertise Google adverts on it.
• Develop a completely new website selling affiliate products targeted towards the traffic already going to that domain name (For example if the expired domain name you bought used to receive visitors interested in fishing, build a website selling affiliate fishing products). If you have no idea what affiliate (affiliate marketing) is then read my article about affiliate marketing here. Affiliate Marketing

Problems with expired domain names

There are some possible legal problems that could arise from buying expired domain names. For instance if a store forgot to re-register it’s domain name and you bought it and copies the contents of the store but put your own adverts on the site, you could face copyright problems.

Also issues can arise when you buy domain names that have any copyright text in it. Legally whoever owns the copyright can demand it back. If you want to see an example read this article about a guy who bought domain names with the word Tesco in it. In theory a good idea, the guy made a lot of money until Tesco found out. Elogicom Article

In reality buying expired domain names is something that does work and can make people a lot of profit. The key is to do your research first before you buy anything.