Expired Domain Names

Here is a really simple way you can use expired domain names to secure a good domain name for your business or start to earn money from buying and then selling expired domain names.

As you very well know a domain (or host) name is how the internet identifies a computer or group of computers. It is part of the uniform resource locator (URL) and many times mistaken as the web address. This is the identifiable part of the web address. For instance google.com is the domain name for the Google search engine.

A business pays to register a domain name, and uses it for their website. The registration only lasts a certain amount of time. If the domain name isn’t registered again, the domain name expires, and anyone can pay to re-register it. So in short, when Google’s domain name expires, someone else can pay to register it. That person then puts the domain name on another website. So when a user types www.google.com, now they are re-routed to a website of the new owner’s choosing.

Expired domains can be found through several websites that search domains that are about to or have expired. This websites makes it easy for anyone to search, find and register the thousands of expired domain names that become available every day.

Generally speaking, the more well known the domain name is, the more profitable it can be. There are several ways to make money with expired domain names that you purchase. Here are a few of them:

Auction Sites - Just like anything else, you can sell domain names on auction websites. Depending on the popularity of the old website or the versatility on the domain name, you can sell the name for quite a bit.

Domain Name Websites - Domain name websites are sites that are specifically for selling domain names. For a small fee, these websites will let you post the domain name you would like to sell. If it sells, they get a percentage of the sale.

Building Mini-Websites - If you buy an older expired domain names that have a lot of keywords in them, the search engines are more likely to hit on such domain names. You can buy these expired domain names and build miniature websites. With the increased search engine ranking, more users will be sent to this website. You can then use this website to sell products and services, or you can sell the domain name along with the miniature website for added value.

Redirecting Users to Your Existing Sites - You can purchase expired domain names that are rich in keywords, and have those users that click on it, redirected to a website that you already own. That way when someone types in keywords, not only your website pops up in the search engine ranking, but so does the two or three other domain names.

Now the user has multiple links in front of them that all lead to your website, and traffic to your website increases. This is particularly profitable when you are able to purchase expired domain names that belongs to an existing website that already has a lot of traffic. A good portion of that traffic will now be directed to your website.

Market Affiliate Sites - As above, you can purchase expired domain names and have them redirect people to a different website, but this does not have to be your own website. You can make an agreement with another company, that when your domain name ranks in the search engine, once a user clicks on it, that user will be directed to you affiliate’s website.

Speculative Trends - You can also buy expired domain names in hopes that they will increase in value. This is done by purchasing domain names that contain keywords associated with growing trends. Expired domain names can be purchased based on technological trends, anticipation of upcoming events, and any other speculation on keywords that are might become popular searches.

Additionally you want to keep in mind that it only costs $14 to register each expired domain names that you buy. Many people will buy a few, and try to sell them for thousands of dollars. Unless the domain name is something really well known and sought after, this isn’t practical.

Most people have better luck by buy many expired domain names and selling them for a few hundred. This way there is still a substantial mark-up, but they sell much faster. If the higher your turn-over, the faster you stand to make money, and you can purchase your next batch of domain names just that much sooner.

As you can see there are many ways that you can make money with expired domain names, but the key point is that like any other business, decision or choice one has to make, you have to be practical and carry out a good research and only buy those expired domain names that will return a profit.

Quit wasting your time on domain names

If you are really very lucky then you can sell your domain name and hit the jack pot. But as is always the case, chances of that happening is slim to negative infinity.

But I’m not here to discourage you, if you still believe, are inspired by and still imagine that you can be the next guy to sell one of your parked domain names for millions then go for it!

At this age and time, cyber squatter still exist on the internet, at this age of social bookmarking and social networking, it makes me wonder. They are in the business of buying names for speculative purposes. They think and hope that some big multi - corporation will somehow buy that name for a fortune.

Seriously speaking, I think it’s only a mismanaged, vision-less and outdated company that should do that. If you think I’m wrong or probably that I should go see my doctor for mental checkup, think for a moment, go through the list of the top 100 and for that matter 500 websites on Alexa rank.

Now tell me, how many of those companies bought their names? Did Google, Yahoo, Myspace, Flickr, Squidoo, and all those names I see there. Maybe I’m wrong, tell me did they their names?

Well managed, futuristic, trend changers and upcoming companies somehow have a way of theirs in coming up with unique domain names. It’s the average guys who know how to waste their money buying good but useless name that they have no idea on how to use them.

The power is not in the name, it’s in what you can be able to do with it.

5 Factors Good Domain Names

5 Key Factors That Make Up Good Domain Names

Apart from the bolts and nuts of how, where or why to buy good domain names, below are 5 factors that you can add up to your check list.

1.) Buy a variety of your domain name – dot com, biz, org, Asia, Mobi…

It’s important; if you are in to succeed, then set yourself in the right mind frame. I know most articles will tell you to buy only dot com of your domain name.

Considering that this is going to cost you, (most of the variation of your domain name will cost you less than $10 dollars to register, some like dot TV or dor MOBI tend to be more expensive.) most people will balk away with such negative thoughts like – what if I FAIL?

And that brings me to my second point.

2.) Buy your own personal name. You will be thankful five years down the line.

Think success. Five years down the line, you have succeeded, what better way is there for you customers, business clients or partners to be able to remember you or find you than through your own personal domain name.

“Google” your last name or full name and see what comes up.

As online business becomes more competitive, due to more internet scams and hackers destroying online trust; more and more people are putting more weight to websites or blogs that they are able create trust and credibility.

By buying your own domain name you will be able to put your name to work for you. Naturally we all want to be good. When you know your name is at stake, there are high chances that you will give your best. That best is what is going to differentiate you from your competition.

3.) Be careful to check if your domain names have any unintentional or odd meanings.

Recently I wrote a free traffic report, innocently named it 69 ways to attract traffic. Nobody was downloading the report. Later a colleague pointed out the 69 to me. Funny enough when I changed that to – 67, I started having a positive result.

It can be the opposite. You might choose a name that sends the wrong traffic to your site. Of course it will be good that you are having free traffic, but is it the kind of targeted traffic that you need for your site?

Getting traffic that you don’t need will only clogs up your system, increases your bandwidth usage or might even put pressure on you or your customer service with unnecessary inquiries.

4.) Buy spelling mistakes of your domain names.

This is just a human error; some of your site or blog visitors will mistype or misspell your domain name. Log in to your statistics and check some of the keywords that brought visitors to your site.

Be on the alert to note those common misspelling and typos that recur over time. You know what to do, don’t you?

5.) Quality of good domain names.

Last but not least, there is no such thing as good domain names

Truth About Domain Names

A lot has changed about domain names. Business, small and big alike continue to invest resources and energy towards securing a good catchy name.

Do not drive yourself crazy, some people still invest hundreds, thousands and in some cases millions just but to buy a unique domain name. But here is the simple truth it’s not how much it costs that make a good name. No it’s not. We are now living in the year 2008 and beyond.

When starting out, what really matters is not your name, rather – it’s what you can do with that name, the product, service or brand… the truth about domain names >>

Free Internet Domain Names

You know, it’s amazing, there are so many people still searching for free internet domain names. How I wish they knew…knew that there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Here is what you should know. Next time you see free - - just know that there is a catch. It’s a give, take world.

• catch number one.

Yes, they will give you as many free internet domain names as you want. In return when you put up your site expect to see all kinds of advertisement banners on your site that you will have no control over.

• Catch number two.

99.9% chances are, the domain name you get will be a sub-domain name. For instance here is my ugly domain name www.your-inforcom.com Now when you sign up for a free internet domain names what you actually get is not a domain name, like the one I have show you above, but a sub domain name, here is how a sub domain name would look like www.domainnames.your-inforcom.com

I think that’s obvious to you, the long name (sub-domain) will be hard to:

1. Market and promote.
2. Memorize or remember.
3. Brand with your product or service.

But forget about the catch for now, Let us get serious here. The main big reason why you should never even think of getting a free internet domain name is this. Ask yourself:

• What if your website becomes so successful in attracting a lot of visitors?
• What if your site gains credibility and search engine ranking - high pr?
• What if you have spend so much money to advertise and develop your site?

And then you want to move your site to a new host or obtain a new unique domain name (which is actually less than $10 right now). I will save you the trouble of thinking. Here is the most likely scenario.

You will not be able to move your site, unless you are willing to start all over again from scratch.

It’s your choice; get a free internet domain name if you are just pursuing a hobby that you care little about even if you were to lose everything associated with your hobby.

On the other hand for any serous activity or business, do yourself a favor forget about free internet domain names and secure one today.

If you are new to domain names, download a free internet domain name ebook here