Expired Domain Names

Good domain names are becoming harder to find. Most of the best domain names have been taken. However one potential source exists in the form of expired domain names.

Millions of domain names have been expiring over the last couple of years! Each week thousands more continue to expire and become available again.

These expired domain names are names that were previously registered, but when the registration were not renewed, they expire and become available for anyone to register again.

How do Domain Names Expire?

Domain names do not expire and become available the moment they are not renewed. There is a grace period of 40 days in which the domain owner may still renew the domain for a standard fee without penalty.

After 40 days are up, the domain’s status changes to “redemption period”. During this period of up to 30 days the domain owner may still retrieve the domain name from deletion by contacting the Registrar. However there is a fee involved and the amount depends on the registrar.

During the "redemption period", the domain is removed from the global domain servers meaning that any web site or email services associated with the domain name will stop working.

After the 30-day redemption period there is a 5-day pending deletion phase. During this phase no one can retrieve the domain and it cannot be registered. After the 5-day pending deletion phase the domain name is officially drop from the ICANN database and becomes available for anybody to register.

Benefits of Expired Domains

Aside from the possibility of getting a good domain name from the expired domain pool, there are other good reasons for buying expired domain names. Some expired domain names may have qualities favored by search engines such as age, good page rank, backlinks etc. They may also have existing web traffic due to good website promotion by the previous owner.

How to find Expired Domain Name?

After the deletion phase the domain name becomes free again and you can register it like a new domain name. This is true if nobody wants the name. Desirable domain names however can be grabbed within seconds the moment they become available.

There are several sources of expired domain name information. Some are free but some require payment of a fee or subscription. JustDropped.com is an excellent free resource. You can search for domain names by specifying several criteria such as words in the domain name, length, alphabets or numeral or both, expiry period and top level domains e.g. .com, .net etc.

If you are planning to buy domains with the intention for resale later, you are likely to face competition. While it is still possible to manually register some expiring domain names near the moment they become available, the competition for desirable is so strong that are likely to be unsuccessful using just this manual method.

Many companies have pop up to service this demand. These company will help you to backorder, snap or grab these expired domain names for you. One of the bigger names in this business is SnapNames.com. They will help you to register or grab these domains for you for a fee. Success is however not guaranteed but the odds are better. It does not end here. If it is a highly desirable domain, there is likely to be competition and you may have to bid for it and end up paying more.

To increase your chances of getting the domain, you can register with several of these services as most of the time you are charged only if you are successful.


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