One of our first SEO experiments was finding and purchasing expiring domain names.

Where Can I Find Expiring Domains?
Anyone can download Expiring Domains with an account from http://www.pool.com for the next 5 days. An expiring domain name will have been in a “Pending Delete” status for around 90 days prior to the day it is released.

Why Would I Buy An Expiring Domain?
The attraction to an Expiring Domain might be as simple as a current link in DMOZ.org or the Yahoo Directory. These links can be difficult to get and take lots of time, so an expiring domain found in one of these directories can yield instant traffic and link popularity (or PageRank).

How Much Does It Cost?
Pool.com and SnapNames.com were two of the companies we used and they each charged around $60. When we tried to capture the Expiring Domain, we used Pool.com and they only charged our credit card after successfully capturing the Domain. GoDaddy.com has a back ordering service that only costs around $20 per Captured Domain but they do not have as much success capturing sought-after domains. Note: These fees include 1 year of domain name registration.

How Should I Determine The Value of An Expired Domain?
We used two metrics to determine the value of the domain: a) Directory listing in either DMOZ or Yahoo b) Current links to the domain name in Yahoo or Google To find these domains, we used a third-party software/service that checked 100′s of expiring domains daily to determine which one’s had value. Once identified with potential value, we would check the link and indexed page quality in both Yahoo and Google.

Is Purchasing Expiring Domains A Good SEO Business Practice?
We purchased 3 expiring domains for $60 each and placed content on the sites. In the first 90 days of owning these domains, they have generated approximately $20 worth of Adsense revenue collectively. Based on the amount of work involved and the competition from other SEO players, we decided to experiment with other SEO strategies.

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