Top 5 Domain Marketplaces for buying expired Domain names

1. What are expired domain names?

Once said by the marketing master class creator Torsten Mueller, domains are basically never really owned, they are just rented for a certain time. So, expired domain names are domains for which their owner stopped paying the rent. They were in use previously and may have been registered as a commercial website with great traffic or in personal use. Later, for some reason, when the time came for the registration renewal, no action was taken.

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Top 5 Domain Marketplaces for buying expired Domain names

As people purchase domains for various reasons, they also let them expire for various reasons. At times, domains expire by mistake. When registering, they choose not to auto-renew the domain and stop checking the email account on file with their registrar after some time. That being so, they end up missing the alerts on upcoming renewals.

Sometimes people get some domain names as placeholders and leave the less suitable ones as they are. Or their project was short-term. So, the registration on these domain names expires and becomes available for potential new buyers.

2. What happens if your domains expire?

What if the registration on one of your domains expires by mistake? Let’s say, you were so busy and couldn’t monitor your email. Then, one day you opened your site and got the message from your hosting company that your domain has expired. If it happens, no need to worry. There are still chances for you to recover your domain.

If you have a generic top-level domain like .info, .com, .org, etc., it enters the grace period of 30 days after getting expired. During this period, you can renew the domain without penalty. Such on-hold domains are blocked only for transfer. Later, the registry initiates the redemption period having a similar length to the grace period. Even at this point, you can get your domain back by paying some extra fees. See more Expired Domain Deletion Policy on ICANN

3. Auctions

The registrar also has a choice of entering the domain into the auction during the redemption period. The resulting sale will only become final if the domain isn’t redeemed before the period ends. And if the domain doesn’t get recovered, auctioned off, or reserved by the registrar for their own reasons, it will then enter the Pending Delete stage. After five days, this domain will enter the daily list of names released for purchase in the marketplace on a first-come, first-served basis.

4. Buyers of expired domain names

Many buyers focus on the domain names as commodities. Domain parkers, SEO experts, and domain flippers have quite different interests. But the whole market has come up catering to their requirements, like domain-analysis tools, rating services, auction sites, and more. Experienced people will say to the beginners that now the domain market isn’t what it used to be. Now, it is a fully-developed market having so many advanced players who build their data centers to become more successful.

But what about the more casual levels of domain interest? If you want to drive your traffic on an ad-supported site or increase the profit from the website, an expired domain name can be useful to get an additional boost from the site’s history with the search engines. And if someone is looking for a sleek domain for a smooth domain for your upcoming idea, the logical way would be to purchase the expired domain at auction. It can save you a lot of money in the future, no matter if it is done by yourself or an SEO expert. There are also many useful tools for full-time domainers.

5. Advantages of purchasing expired domain names

5.1. For Sale

When you are looking for the domain names, you’ll come across some that appear to be appealing at once. Many have trendy keywords and will be in the famous domain zones like .net, .com, or .org. These are the domains that you thought to be costly, but you’ll see that there are no bids. People put their eyes on domains that will give them 10x or 20x what they paid for it at auction. However, the reselling of domains also requires great investment. Domain reselling is an interesting activity for normal participants as it can teach you a lot about the internet and technology. In general, it is considered a type of gambling.

5.2. Benefits for Search Engine Optimization

The website’s background is the ultimate attraction when purchasing an expired domain to boost the ranking in search results. Expired domain names are not just as good as new, but something even better. The domain that once served content related to any niche probably has become popular and created lots of backlinks.

A greater amount of quality backlinks is important for Google ranking. Many services maintain the metrics of backlinks for several domains. They are responsible for creating models to check the authority of the linking websites. With this, they give a measure of the quality of any expired domain’s backlinks.

5.3. Redirects

The history of a domain can be harnessed with great backlinks in a number of ways. The simplest way is to redirect the visitors that still come to that domain to the website you are maintaining. If the previous subject area is the same as yours, those visitors might adopt your site for future needs. And with the 301 Redirect, it can be hoped that crawlers from search engines will update your page with the previous rankings. But it is possible the organic traffic from the expired domain name will not keep up. It will take great efforts to build a successful SEO infrastructure on the expired domain names.

5.4. Private Blog Networks (PBN)

You can put your domain haul to use from the expired-domain sale in a more involved manner. One way to improve your discoverability in the search results is to build a network of interlinking content websites. This strategy of building a PBN is arguable and Google, along with others, has been looking for the sites that shockingly coordinate their self-promotion. But according to niche site builder Ben Starr, many of the sites ranking in competitive niches will have PBN behind them.

Your content should be original to get authoritative backlinks and interesting enough for good human browsing metrics. And to attract the right type of attraction, you need to check how the blend of links within the network and links to the outside works. Next, there is technical work required for limiting the traceability:

Different content
Different CMS
Different hosts
Different registrars

6. Top 5 Domain Marketplaces for searching for expired Domain names

	Number of Domains	Buyer Fee	Analytics Stats	Listing Fees
Godaddy	Tens of millions	$4.99/year	Domain age, # of bids, traffic stats	20% ($15 min)
Expired Domains	4+ million	Free	Alexa, Majestic stats	n/a
DomCom	21+ million	$64/month	Whois, Alexa, Estibot, Moz, Majestic stats	n/a
NameJet	7+ million	2.5%	Estibot Domain Appraisal	n/a
Domain Hunter Gatherer	Tens of millions	Freemium $17/month Professional $97/month	Moz, Majestic stats	n/a

6.1. Expired domain names marketplaces details

NameJet is a top place to purchase expired domain names. They use the latest software to get the list of names for individuals, small businesses, and domain experts. Here are their display categories:
- Hot Picks – search-friendly keyword domain names chosen by professionals
- Last Chance – expiring domains; ready for auction
- Open Auctions – displaying action in open public sales
GoDaddy is one of the biggest marketplaces having several great value domains at any instant. Simply enter a keyword and find a domain fitting your requirements at a reasonable price, thanks to the depth of their name collection.
DomCom is an exclusive domain search engine providing millions of new domains each month. With its advanced filtering techniques, less valuable domains can be removed. Its niche-topic relevance indicators in the search results let you get to the deepest levels of domains that best suit your needs.
Domain Hunter Gatherer features different filters for refined searches. You can find unlimited keyword domains acquired from every major auction website. Also, you can save different customized searches.

6.2. Active domain sales

Some people got the domains registered and paid the rent for one or more years but later decided to sell it and get their money back. Or, they have purchased the domains with the intention to sell them once their value increases. Such domains enter a different kind of auction – active-domain sale.

Registrars who don’t run the expired-domain auctions usually offer this service to their users. They also build partnerships with marketplaces like Sedo and Afternic to provide several domains. As these domains are already owned by people, they offer the same benefits as expired ones. Apply a similar methodology to check their viability for your purposes.

7. Final Thoughts

Getting your dream domain is an involving procedure that leads to amazing websites in the time to come. Many registrars have tools that help in searching through expired domain names to help increase their visibility. They are integrated with premium marketplaces where active non-expired domain names are presented for sale by other users. These domains can be bought using such registrars. Since such domains have previously been in use, they have the same benefits and risks as expired ones. So, the techniques discussed here will be of use for the analysis of active domains.

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Top 5 Domain Marketplaces for buying expired Domain names in 2021