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?
Topics: 
