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Exploiting
the Power of Pre-Owned
Domains
by Edwin Hayward, Internet Goldrush®
Every
day, thousands of
previously owned domain
names become available
again. You may be
wondering how this is
possible - well, it's
quite simple really:
their previous owners
did not pay the bills
when it came to renewing
their domain names
(remember, you have to
pay a fee every year to
keep control over a
domain name!) and, after
a suitable "grace
period" has
expired, the registrar
that the domain name had
been registered with
released the domain name
back into the pool of
all available names.
So
what? Well, a pre-owned
domain name can, under
the right circumstances,
be a very desirable
commodity.
Picture
this scenario: the owner
of a website gets busy
with other things, loses
interest in their site
and - for whatever
reason - does not renew
the domain name
associated with that
site. Now, this website
has been on the Web for
a while, and many people
have visited it, found
it interesting, and
bookmarked it - or
linked to it from their
own sites.
Since
the domain name is no
longer registered, it
does not point at any
site and so does not
"resolve"
(instead, potential
visitors clicking on a
link to the old site
will get an error
message in their
browsers).
And
here's where the
lightbulb should go
off... You could
be bringing these lost
visitors to your own
site!
If
you
"reactivate"
the domain name by
registering it and
pointing it at your
site, all the people
clicking on the old
links associated with
the domain name will end
up at your site -
bringing instant
traffic! This is great,
especially if you can
find a "dead"
name associated with a
site that was similar to
your own, e.g. if you
can find a
"dead" pet
shop domain, and you own
a pet shop. That way,
the visitors you pick up
won't find themselves
too disoriented!
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IMPORTANT:
You need
to be very
careful when
approaching
previously owned
domain names,
because there
are many
potential
problems
associated with
them. For
instance, the
previous owner
of the domain
name could go to
court to try and
get the domain
name returned to
them (or at the
very least, to
stop you from
profiting from
all their hard
work)
While
common sense
must be your
guide in any
such transaction
(and Internet
Goldrush
explicitly
disclaims all
responsibility
if you decide to
register a
previously owned
domain name that
was pointed at
an active site)
here are a few
pointers that
may help:-
A)
Is the domain
name
trademarked, or
does it contain
clearly
trademarked
terms? You can
research US
trademarks for
free at MarksOnline.com
- so be sure to
take the time to
investigate
possible
conflicts up
front.
B)
Was the domain
name owned by a
company of the
same name? (e.g.
fishingbait.com
previously owned
by Fishing Bait
Inc.) If so,
it's best to
avoid the domain
name since it
will be much
easier for the
previous company
to stake a claim
to it (after
all, they filed
incorporation
documents
bearing the same
name as the
domain!)
It's
pretty hard to
find out who
owned a domain
name before it
expired, but
there are a
couple of tricks
of the trade
that may
be able to help.
-
Alexa
maintains a huge
database of
countless
millions of
websites,
tracking all
kinds of
popularity and
other data about
each one. You
can access their
statistics for a
particular
domain by
cutting and
pasting the
following URL
(remember to
replace
DOMAIN.COM by
the domain name
you want to
investigate!)
http://xslt.alexa.com/data?cli=100&url=DOMAIN.COM
There
may be no useful
Alexa data on
your previously
owned domain
(Look under the
"Contact
Info"
section to see
if you can spot
the previous
owner's
registration
details)
-
Google
caches many
sites that it
spiders. You may
be able to visit
a cached copy of
the site, and
from there see
copyright or
other
information
indicating who
owned the domain
name previously.
Just go to the
Google search
box and type in
the domain name,
including the
extension (e.g.
fishingbait.com).
REMEMBER to only
visit the cached
results for the
site, since the
site itself no
longer exists!
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Now
that we've covered the
dangers of a pre-owned
domain name that used to
belong to an active
site, it's worth taking
a quick look at the
upside: a domain name
that used to be
connected with a busy,
popular site could still
bring several hundred to
several thousand
visitors a day, even if
it has been dormant for
a while!
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If
you would like
to know whether
a domain name
you're
considering
registering was
previously used
for an active
site - and just
how active the
site was - there
are a few tools
that can help
you in your
investigation.
MarketLeap's
Link
Popularity
tool should be
your first stop
on your quest to
find out all
about a
previously owned
name. All you
need to do is go
to the site and
type in the
domain, and you
can instantly
see how many
references to
the domain are
stored in six of
the main search
engines.
If
a domain has
ZERO links to it
registered in
any of the
search engines,
then it was NOT
an active domain
(or used for an
incredibly
unpopular site).
If however one
or more search
engines still
register links
to the domain,
then it clearly
used to be used
for an active
site.
There
is some
correlation
between the
number of links
to a given
domain and the
popularity of
the site it was
associate with,
but the
connection is
tenuous: it's
quite possible
for one domain
to have 200
incoming links
and another to
have 2,000
incoming links,
yet the first
was associated
with a much more
popular site.
This
is where a tool
we looked at
earlier on this
page comes into
play again: Alexa.
By following the
same research
technique
outlined in the
previous
"Help"
box, you'll be
able to find out
all kinds of
things about the
domain name. If
you're lucky, it
will even come
with an Alexa
"ranking"
(look down in
the "Site
Stats"
section for an
indication of
the amount of
traffic that
came to the
site, and the
number of visits
from Alexa
users)
While
Alexa is a very
blunt tool, it's
great for
determining
order-of-magnitude
popularities.
For instance,
it's impossible
to really say,
just from Alexa
data, that a
site rated
200,000th is
busier that a
site rated
300,000th since
the data isn't
very precise -
but it's a safe
bet that both
sites are busier
than a site
rated
3,000,000th!
By
making good use
of both Link
Popularity and
Alexa research,
you'll be able
to see whether
the domain name
is an exciting
investment - or
a complete waste
of time!
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One
more thought to leave
you with: in your quest
for previously owned
domains, most of the
value will be in the traffic
- so it's relatively
immaterial if the domain
name doesn't sound so
good. So long as there
are plenty of incoming
links, the domain name
will produce relatively
steady traffic - again
and again, day after day
- all for the price of a
simple, low annual
registration fee!
Good
luck in your hunt to
land a big domain
fish...
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Introduction