The ‘second-hand’ domain name market – Part I

Whenever new markets develop and mature, second-hand markets tend to follow quickly. Take a look at the second-hand markets in cars, computers, video games, household goods – in fact, it’s a very, very long list.

And now, you can add domain names to that ever burgeoning list.

Whether it’s existing domain names that are auctioned off or expired names that are re-registered by new owners, there are many benefits of buying ‘second-hand’ domain names.

For example, a domain name with an associated website would have been indexed by search engines. It may have attracted significant traffic. In other words, it would have built an online presence. Certainly this would give you a head start compared with launching a new website under a brand new domain name.

Of course, from a cynical point of view, one might wonder as to why anyone would want to sell or allow to expire a successful domain name.

Well, actually, there are some fairly good reasons. There are plenty of people who simply register and sell domain names – that’s their business (and some are doing a roaring trade). There might be others for whom the business hasn’t quite delivered the returns that they had planned for and either sell or simply allow their domain name to expire. By buying that domain name, you are also getting the associated traffic.

So what kind of second-hand domain names could you benefit from?

Well, let’s start with variation of your existing domain name. Perhaps with / without the hyphen, a .com, .co.uk, .net or dot something else you don’t already have. Then there may be competitors who’ve allowed their domain names to expire. Potentially, all the traffic that was previously going to their website could now be directed to your website.

Of course, you don’t have to limit this to domain names related to your existing business – you might find yourself inspired by some of these second-hand domain names to start a new venture!

And the cost of registering an expired domain name? No more than registering a new one – in fact, most UK web hosting companies offer .co.uk domain names for less than £3.

Now, before you part with any money, there are a few key questions you might want to consider:

• how do I keep an eye on domain names that are coming up for renewal (and might not be renewed)
• what Google page-rank does / did a specific domain name have?
• how many inbound links are / were there to that domain name?
• what sort of traffic does / did it attract?

This is the equivalent of getting the AA to run a detailed check on the Porsche you are about to buy – except that it’s free, you can do it yourself and you won’t get any oil on your hands!

However, we’ll do this on our next blog – together with answers to above questions, we’ll direct you to some useful websites that will allow you to assess the real value of a second-hand domain name.

auctioning domain names · domain name · second-hand domain name