You can browse Expired Domain names here by filling your keyword in the box above, Search Results are sorted by Domain Length (Sorted by number of characters in a domain)
Expired Domain Names that you will find by browsing are
Smart Domain Generator is a website dedicated to explaining and facilitating the process of searching and buying expired domain names, This website is meant to serve as a tool and guide to finding domain names from a database of expired domains. Smart Domain Generator is a system that displays expired domain names by keyword, ordered by domain length.
This website also aims to help you obtain the expired domain name you want in case the domain has not been returned back to the availability pool (By providing instructions and information), and how to compete on obtaining the domain name as soon as it is available, this is commonly known as backordering which is not a very straight forward process.
We have been developing a system for this specific purpose for some time now, POLODOMAINS Smart Domain Generator allows you to enter the keyword of your choice, and it will display expired domains for that particular keyword ordered by a domain name's length, so ExampleX.com is displayed before ExampleXY.COM simply because it is 1 letter shorter.
We think that this system is the best system available for finding expired domain names, It is constantly updated, and searches for keywords anywhere within expired domain names.
In most cases, an expired domain name you find at POLODOMAINS should be available for registration (for the normal Domain yearly fee of $8.49), if that is the case, an expired domain name works in the same exact way as an unregistered domain, because it is by all means unregistered, the fact that it has previously been registered becomes irrelevant 76 days after expiry.
Domain names are available for registration some time after expiry, 76 days after expiry in the case of .COM and .NET, Domain names are not available to register again once they expire, The expiry date on a domain is simply the date that the domain stops being functional (for it's purpose and owner), Once a domain name expires, it enters a 40 days grace period (Where your registrar will put it up for auctioning), followed by a 30 day redemption period where the owner can still renew the domain for a $80+ redemption fee, followed by 5 days pending delete, Therefore, 75 days after expiry, a domain name is released to the public for registration again on the 76th day after it's expiry date.
A backorder for an expired domain name is sufficient to secure the domain only if you are the only person who placed a backorder on the domain, if you think you have found a super domain name, backordering is not enough, as your chances of Snatching the domain become smaller and smaller with every new person who places a backorder for that particular domain name, So if you really want to secure a domain that has expired, or that is about to expire, you need to get a bit into more details on the "Expired domain business" .
To place a simple backorder for a domain name, simply search for it from the box at POLODOMAINS, Scroll down to where it reads backorder right beside a tick box, put a tick on the backorder and proceed to checkout.
If you are more serious at obtaining a domain name, You can proceed to the next section where choices need to be made.
Jump Directly to Where do i start
If you have read this far, then you are obviously serious about the domain name you are looking to buy, And therefore there is information that you need to know about the domain name system, Registrars, ICANN regulations, defacto practices, and finally, how to compete for your dream domain name.
The domain name will become available again for registration at a random moment in a (4+/-) hour span after 2PM EST, The 5 hour span is probably an update process at the VeriSign registry, and how long that will take probably depends on the amount of registered domains, and the percentage that is to be dropped, and therefore, not easy to predict, aside from the fact (That could change) that the process starts at 2PM.
You could, but you will only succeed if no one has backordered the domain name already, here are the details.
Every registrar has credentials that allow them to Order domain names, If the registrar tries to register a name continuously, requests for registering that domain will stop going through (To protect the registry from DOS attacks), this is why if you take a look at the list of ICANN accredited registrars, you will find that some registrars have multiple entries in the list, this is because they are trying to add to there registration attempt capacities, one particular registrar has over 100 entries in that table all bearing there name. So in short, if someone has backordered the domain name, you will not be able to snatch it manually.
If you try placing a backorder at GoDaddy, and you do not see a backorder option at godaddy, You will be sure that someone has already placed an order at godaddy, There are also other ways to know if someone is getting ready to snatch your domain, but the other way around is not true, there is no way that you can be sure no one is trying to get the domain you are trying to get, NOTE: Even if GoDaddy does allow a backorder, it only means that no one has backordered a domain at the GoDaddy website, but this does not apply to GoDaddy and WWD resellers, every reseller is separate.
WLS is a backorder at Verisign (The .COM and .NET registry), Mostly based on Snapnames SnapBack, VeriSign submitted a request for the system in 2002, it was approved for a 1 year trial in 2003, then, many lawsuits later, it was shelved.
But even if WLS is to come back (Unlikely), most registrars now don't really release a domain to the registry if it has been backordered, See your domain registrar's license agreement to see what i am talking about, Click here for more information on WLS.
If it is very close to expire (A few days), DO NOT contact the current owner, if the owner renews the domain, you can then contact her.
The reason is simple, if a domain name is set to expire in a few days, chances are the owner has decided to let it lapse, simply contacting the owner of the domain name would make the owner renew the name, and then think of the name as an opportunity (Which is legitimate IMHO).
Start with the WhoIs information for the domain name, The WhoIs info should tell you which registrar the domain is currently at, and if the domain name has already gone into redemption, the History WhoIs copy is usually kept by most WhoIs service providers.
Now, the odds are the domain has been registered with one of the big registrars, and if that is the case, and the domain has not entered redemption yet, You should probably get it while the registrar auctions it, since if someone buys the domain as it is auctioned, they will not get it no matter where you backorder it.
If you are the only person who is interested in the domain name, you will get the domain no matter what service you use, if you are not the only one (Which you can bet is the case for a too good to be true domain), you need to have an edge over the other bidder for your domain.
To begin with, you MUST have a backorder with the current registrar (In the whois) or there affiliates and partners, you can tell from the table above
| Backorder Service | Affiliates and partners (Current registrar) | Price and system |
| GoDaddy, WWD | Godaddy, GoDaddy Resellers (Wild West Domains Re3sellers) | Alone, With no partners/affiliates, GoDaddy is the largest Domain registrar and Backorder service provider. If the domain is registered at GoDaddy or WildWestDomains, i recommend starting by placing a backorder at GoDaddy or EasyWebDNS (A reseller) |
| SnapNames | Network Solutions, Moniker, and others | A 2 level auction If the current registrar is NetworkSolutions (Fourth largest), SnapNames is your best bet. I would not call you lucky if the domain is registered with Network Solutions, SnapNames is the exclusive partner for backorders, and is more than likely to catch the domain as it expires, but they play the "Maybe someone is after your domain game"
|
| NameJet (F.K.A. Club Drop) | ENOM and others (10+/-) | Starting at (Opening a bid) is $69, The highest Backorder bid becomes the starting price (With proxy option)
|
| Pool | (60+/-) registrars |
Short Answer: Google will take away the PR of a website as soon as it is dropped, but if the backlinks continue to exist, and the website hosts relevant content, the PR should come back (Seen many times before).
First of all, you probably know that this defeats the purpose of PR, and therefore, The only way to know is to put ourselves in google's shoos and try to predict (The predictions here are affected by our previous experience on the matter).
Click here to read more on this
Domain Tasters
A domain taster, usually an ICANN accredited registrar who practices the act of domain name tasting
Domain Name Tasting
"Domain Tasting" is the registration of an expired domain with the intention of "tasting" it's potential to generate traffic, either residual, or due to the domain name's nature (Such as misspellings of a popular domain). Domain Tasters use the five-day grace period during which the registration fee was fully refundable. The purpose was to test whether the domain name would pay it's registration fees, either by forwarding traffic to the registrar's advertisements, or by selling it at a higher price. Domain Tasters registered thousands of names, monitored these domains for traffic and interest, and refunded the vast majority of those domains.
Domain Tasting Today
Domain Tasting is no-longer as much of an issue as it once was before 2008 when the ICANN has added a non-refundable registration fee to the equation. In 2009, ICANN introduced another measure to eliminate such practices by adding a penalty fee to those whose domain-deletion exceeds the norm, while still allowing a registrar to refund domain names where there were spelling mistakes, fraud issues with payment, and other legitimate refund reasons.
Domain Kiting
Domain Kiting on the other hand is different, Domain kiting is the act of registering a domain name, refunding it just before the refund grace period ends, and re-registering it again, therefore, holding and using the domain name, without ever needing to pay for it, this as well is possible and automated for domain registrars, and whoever they wish to make there resources of refund and buy possible (For example resellers of certain API reseller systems)
How do I find the expiry date of a domain name?
The expiry date is mentioned in the Whois data of a domain name, A WHOIS lookup can be done with the Linux whois command, or at many websites such as "POLODOMAINS/Whois section".
The Expiration Date is listed in the whois data along with the date of when the domain's record was first created and last updated.
What is the official place that has the WhoIS data of Domain names
Let us assume that the domain name you are asking about is a .COM or .NET, Part of the whois data that lists the expiry, the registrar, the domain name's state, and more comes from the .COM/.NET registry which is a company called verisign, the rest of the whois data such as the Name of the registrant, the administrative contact and more comes from the registrar, So when your Whois program contacts verisign, verisign redirects the program to get the rest of the whois from the registrar !
Can I still know the expiry date of a domain if its' owner uses private registration?
Yes. In cases of privacy-protected registrations only the owners' information is masked. Creation and expiry dates are listed in all cases. this is because the part that contains such data comes from the registry and not the registrar.
Which Whois website gives the most up-to-date data?
As a rule of thumb, use the domain's current registrar for most current version of the whois, any recent updates on the whois data can be cached at other registrars and not appear instantly. Each registrar has its' own whois webpage / Web Application
How do i know what registrar was used to register the domain name if that info is already in the WhoIS
You can start by looking up the whois data at whois.polodomains.com
Is it possible that the whois record displays different results on different internet-connections?
Yes, the possible scenarios are, if it is a web whois server, there could be caching proxy caching the results, or the servers responding could be on AnyCast meaning every connection connects to a different server, the anycast expiration could also apply to the Whois server inquiry (With the linux whois command tool)
But in general, it is very unlikely that this would happen.
While looking up a Whois, could an expired domain appear as renewed while it's not?
Though most registrars stopped doing that, the answer is Yes. Sometimes this occurs when the domain gets in fact renewed and refunded within the five-days grace period by the registrar. Registrars stopped doing that since the ICANN $0.18 fee became non refundable.
Is a domain owner notified about the whois queries made for his/her domain?
Unless the domain owner is the registrar, or the owner of the website you are running the whois at, or using a service where one of those would notify her, the simple answer is NO, the people who usually know about your whois inquiries are the TLD registry (Verisign for .COM and .NET), the registrar, and in case you are using a website to query the registry on your behalf, that website.
Other people that can know but are very unlikely to monitor your connections are the ISPs that connect you to the Internet since WHOIS web pages and Whois protocol inquiries are not encrypted, but again, those are not very likely to be looking at whois lookups with intentions of obtaining your domain name.
Using the domain's expiry date, how do I calculate its' "drop date"?
Counting 75 days starting from the actual date of expiry (which matches the date of creation + the number of years it was registered).
The seventy-five days are the standard period for a registrar to drop a domain. However, dropping a domain is controlled by the registrar and can be done at anytime after the expiry date (Or even before, even though it is illegal without your permission)!
When is the best time to backorder a specific domain?
Backordering a domain can be done at anytime as long as it is not available for registration. You are advised to back-order a domain before the "pendingdeletion" phase starts and that is because it may affect the sequence of the registrar to try and snatch domain you're interested in.
So is it okay if I backorder a domain that doesn't expire until two or three years?
Yes, you may back-order a domain that will expire in the coming millennium. In case we are talking about a godaddy backorder, you would be stopping others from backordering it.
When I am a client for a certain company like Network Solutions, does that give me the advantage over others when backordering a domain name from them?
Not that we know of. Backordering
works in either a first-come-first-served way or in a two-phases-ending-in-a-bidding way. Having an existent account doesn't give you any benefits over other competitors.
Does using multiple drop-catching services improve my chances of getting the domain?
Theoretically yes. But note that backordering a domain from its original registrar (When the registrar has a catching service that they guarantee to succeed) is the what really improves your chances of getting the domain name you want. In the case of godaddy, last time we checked, they used to guarantee capturing a domain if already registered at godaddy and there resellers.
When backordering from many different companies, do I have to pay for the ones which fail to grab the domain as well?
In most cases, No. Almost all domain catching services take nothing if they fail to capture the name, but some credit your money back into your account and do not refund it back to your credit card, so you can use it to try and capture a different domain name, but not back to your bank.
Who are Domain Snappers? And does "Snapping" pay back?
Domain Snapping is re-registering an expired domain name while taking advantage of its' past backlinks, PR, or existing visitors. Generating money by adding parked ad pages, redirecting traffic, or reselling the domain at a much higher price (maybe to its' past owner!)
Will I be participating in a bid after backordering a domain?
With some companies, the answer is "Usually YES", Many companies allow more than one person to Backorder a domain name, and when more than one person does, they will all be bidding for that domain name, if you are the only person interested in the domain you will not be bidding since there are no bidders against you, for other companies the answer is NO, they will only allow one person to Backorder a domain name (Like GoDaddy).
What is not clear about GoDaddy is that it allows you to backorder the domain name at GoDaddy, and will also allow you to backorder at any of it's reseller websites, whether the main godaddy website always gets the domain, or whether the process gives it randomly to one of the bidders is not known to us.
Is the final bidding price confidential?
Well yes. But it also depends on the bidding website you are using. You can check their own policy to be sure.
Do some companies cheat using Robot Bidders?
We have come across users who claim that they were bidding against "someone", lost the bid, and five-days later the domain was vacant and available for registration. That implies that the bidder on the other end could have been a robot, but it could also mean there was a problem with the process, there was a problem billing the other user, Or surely, that the other party was only attempting to raise the price and could have been "a robot" from the catcher company's end.
Can someone end up competing against oneself in a bid?
Not very likely, Unless you start more than one account with resellers of the same company In that case, you could end up competing against yourself. It may happen, But, wouldn't you notice ?
Can I skip auctioning and contact the owner of the domain directly?
Sure, if you want to take no chances, and offer the owner a sufficiently large sum of money, he might be willing to sell it to you, but sometimes you fail to contact the owner, and if there is no history whois data on the internet, you might not even know who she is !
Also, you will probably be paying quite a bit more than what you would pay in an auction against other bidders, you could also bring the expiring domain to the owners attention and the owner might want to keep the domain !
How do I sell my domain name to interested buyers? How do I reach for them in the first place?
Once you've decided to list your domain name for sale it is easier to use a professional third-party instead of posting a "this domain is for sale" note on the front page of your website. A direct-cash-for-domain escrow service provider can be used to handle selling your domains. A famous example is sedo.com.
I found a domain for sale with a price that is too-good-to-be-true, is there a catch?
Well if the domain name sounds too good for the price it is sold at then we recommend running a background check. Some good names have been compromised due to their "bad" past with search engines and spam-monitoring-sites. A domain with a history of malware, porn, or trojan is not so good with search engines for example. So remember to do your homework before re-registering a domain name.
Is there a search tool where I can find a list of valuable expired domains?
Yes. there are many Domain search tools out there, commonly called domain name generators, Our own Domain search tool (Which we think is the best) is called POLO's Smart Domain Generator, What it does is that rather than using a thesaurus, we see what Human picked expired domain names are, and display them ordered by length, So http://whois.polodomains.com/exp_word/DOMAINS/1.html would display all expired domain names that have the word DOMAINS in them shortest first, Also notice that looking for Domain will include Available Domain Names with the word DomainS but searching for DomainS will not show results with the word Domain, so searching for shorter words yields more results, but then you will have to scan across much more domain names.
Also, a guide to Finding a domain is available on that website including tips on what makes a good domain name.
Do those who have access to "domain-zone-files" acquire much more information that add to their chances of catching domain names once they are available to the public ?
The short answer is NO, but it could help in certain scenarios, The domain name Zone files from let's say Verisign (For .NET or .COM) do not help much in this, the Zone files contain the association data between a domain name and it's nameservers, also it contains the host records of nameservers, this tells us very little about what domain names are about to expire, unless you start timing now, and doing the differential extraction every day, then 1 year from now, you will have a bunch of domains that are 1 year old (you can tell from the domains added on the second update).
Also, even when you do this, some websites like POLODOMAINS give you better up to date data on expired domain names and those that are about to expire, as well as those that have expired...
So in short, The zone files do not help much in this regard.
Is there are any legal consequences for catching an expired trademark domain name which belongs to another party?
In most cases, the copyright owner will ask you for the domain name back, but in general, they will not tap into there pockets for the name, but rather for a lawyer, and in most cases they will get there domain name back since registering a trademark you know is there's is illegal. So unless you can prove that this name is not
Yes. Registering a domain that belongs to another party with a registered trademark is illegal. Unless it can be be proved that the domain was first registered before the trademark firm ever existed.
But what if i registered my "Trademark" domain before that company even existed ?
In that case, you should see a lawyer to find out about the odds, since in general, this differs from state to state, from domain name to domain name, and from owner to owner.
What is Manual Drop Catching and how do I do it?
It is when you manually calculate the days and check for the about-to-be-dropped name to be vacant and available for registration again. But we must add a couple of things which helps you understand the misconception of manually-capturing a domain. In general, domains that got potential, in this industry, are usually snapped by backordering companies secondS after their release. That, leaving no chance for manual catchers to acquire the domain name they are after.
You should also note that most registrars cache the availability result of a domain name, so even when it is free, there is a good chance the tool you are probing with is serving you data that is minutes or even hours old, making your mission impossible.
How do these backorder affiliates work?
Almost all registrars have an exclusive agreement/relationship with an affiliate, Sometimes the registrars themselves have backorder facilities. And just like any partner, the registrar's expired domains are smoothly passed onto it's partner. However, if that partner has no related backorder requests, (the) domains are dropped from that registry and your backorders with other registrars / companies will have a chance.
What is Shill Bidding and how does it work?
Shill bidding is when one of the bidders has an under the table agreement with the auction house (On the internet, this can be a robot), the shill bidder, although not interested in the domain name, raises the bid price serving two goals, the first is to make the actual buyer pay more for the name, and the other is a psychological game where the buyer feels other people's interest in the domain and becomes willing to pay more as she senses the importance of the domain name.
Some say that a few of auctioneer companies used to use "Shill Bidding", but not anymore. Others claim that it is still infact used when companies feel the need to, but the one thing that is for sure is that there are many ways a registrar can deploy shill bidding without getting cought, so the answer would be that no one really knows.
Is there away to predict what registrar a certain bid-on domain will be registered at ?
With some auction companies, you can not predict where the domain name will end up regisetered, the reason is that such companies promis registrars to register domain names with them in return for the "Drop insight". Lots of winning bidders realize that their domain is registered with a registrar in a foreign country, and they end up struggling with a non-english control panel with minimum functions. Some registrars requier the registrant to wait 60 days to transfer, some will allow the transfer instantly !
Does backordering a domain from a party other than the registrar or it's exclusive affiliate mean that I won't be acquiring the domain name?
No. if no bidders are bidding on that domain name at the domain's current registrar, you have a good chance with any other backordering company, However, if someone else placed a backorder request at the affiliate site or at the registrar's site, your chances of getting the domain are close to null.
Is it possible that a certain registrar (Or it's affiliate) fails to captcher a domain they registered ?
Technically, on most systems, if you place a backorder at the right place and at the right time "before the domain is already dropped and registered for another year", the affiliate won't fail to grab the domain. However, some systems may not work this way (Although the majority do).
When is a domain name usually dropped (And available to the public again) ?
Domain names are usually dropped at a certain period of time each day, also called the Gold Rush Hour. The watching hour, where the domains are statched for deletion, is said to be between 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm EST (the .COM and .NET / VeriSign domains).
When participating in a domain name bid, will I be asked to give my credit card information prior to winning the bid ?
Yes, most bidding websites will be asking for your valid billing info before allowing you to participate in a bid. That is how things took a turn after some bidding companies had their share of fake-bidders and/or unverified payments that resulted in a no-winner bids, Also, the backordering service may block that account from your credit card in advance to make sure they can collect it if you win the bid.
An obviously good domain name is never easy (or cheap) to obtain, especially if it is a .COM, but if you take a look around, you should be able to see that the (now popular) guys often did not try to go for the flashy domains, instead, they go out and be creative in combining short words to make new meaning, saving them many thousands as they are starting, But a good flashy name is often (And not always) a good choice if you can afford it.
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