Expired Domain : Good Or Bad

[yommys01]

Does any one have any idea about expired domain names. I have some of them and I have noticed many of them seems to be getting tons of good traffic without any major promotion. I bought 2 expired domains name ( one in the acne niche the other in the dating niche ) about 2 weeks ago, I install wp and then wrote 10 articles on each. I also submitted the articles to EZA and here is the results so far.

Acne Niche : Page 1 position on yahoo and aol search for the the main keyword.
Unique visits : getting about 50 unique visits daily ( 50 % from EZA, 35 percent from Yahoo and Aol and 15% from google.
Revenue : Made 7 dollars in adsense in the last 5 days

Dating Niche : Page 5 position 3 for main keyword on google
Unique visits : 35 daily ( 80 percent from google, 15 % from eza and some useless visits from sites like digg, reddit and propeller useless cos bounce rate is 95%)
Revenue : Made 0.74 from adsense.

I am not sure if this is just a concidence as I have read many books that claim Google doesn't like expired domain names. I am a bit confused, I have so many other names I will like to pick up but what is the point if Google doesn't like them.

Does any one have any clue? Do you think it is a good idea to flip these sites and sell them at sitepoint?

[Ron Killian]

If they are getting traffic, I wouldn't be complaining.

You could flip them, but can't say for sure the traffic will stay, as you don't have a track record. Course new sites are always being sold. All you do is try.

Your right, I've heard that G was quick to drop expired as well. Maybe not.

[Lindsay Brynn]

I would flip them after you have made some proven money with them. Then they will likely go for more.

I bought my first expired domain about a month ago and so far I haven't ranked for the main keyword yet. I haven't done too much promotion on the site yet though.

[yommys01]

Originally Posted by linm

I would flip them after you have made some proven money with them. Then they will likely go for more.

I bought my first expired domain about a month ago and so far I haven't ranked for the main keyword yet. I haven't done too much promotion on the site yet though.

I guess I am just lucky. I would like to know if it is a good idea to build a landing page to capture subscribers ?

[JOhnny Depth]

If you are getting some earning from it then why are you bothering to ask about it. I don't see any problem but the Adsense which I will be replacing with an affiliate program. You traffic are targeted that can be converted to sales.

[Leron Ford]

If you want to improve your chances of buying expired domain names with traffic, before you purchase the name, plug it into the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive (archive.org) and see if anything shows up.

If it does, not only will you be able to see how far back the site goes, but you should be able to use the meta data (by viewing the source code) in promoting the domain.

Hope that helps,

Leron

[Alan Petersen]

It depends on the backlinks. If you have an expired domain and all the links are porn sites or other "bad neighborhood" sites then it's not a good domain and could hurt your site in the rankings. If the links are good it's a good find!

[yommys01]

how do you know if the backlinks of an expired domain names is good or bad.

[Alan Petersen]

Originally Posted by yommys01

how do you know if the backlinks of an expired domain names is good or bad.

Do a search:

link:domainnamehere.com

Also check with Yahoo since they list more links than Google. You'll get a better picture using Yahoo Site Explorer.

[yommys01]

Is there a special tool I can use to register domain names? I have been using Oddity software which is free but they don't offer good service again.

[Alan Petersen]

I just use FreshDrop.net - The Domain Searching Platform but I prefer to pick up closed out domains that way I keep the original registration date. I've picked up a few great domains with original registration dates of 1998 and 1999 for only $5 plus the one year new registration fee. So for around $12-14 you get a nice aged domain. If you pick up an expired domain the registration date begins when you registered it.

[yommys01]

Is there any difference between expired domain names and closed out domain names?

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Alan Petersen

It depends on the backlinks. If you have an expired domain and all the links are porn sites or other "bad neighborhood" sites then it's not a good domain and could hurt your site in the rankings. If the links are good it's a good find!

Your incoming links don't matter, only what the domain was originally used for. If it was used from spamming, pharma, malware, hacking, porn, etc then you might run into trouble. But if the domain itself was clean then the incoming links won't count against you.

[yommys01]

Originally Posted by Alan Petersen

I just use FreshDrop.net - The Domain Searching Platform but I prefer to pick up closed out domains that way I keep the original registration date. I've picked up a few great domains with original registration dates of 1998 and 1999 for only $5 plus the one year new registration fee. So for around $12-14 you get a nice aged domain. If you pick up an expired domain the registration date begins when you registered it.

I don't seem to understand how freshdrop.net works. Is there a way one can do an advance search?