Alex Pooley's Blog

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I’ve been travelling down the expired domains path quite intensely for the last few days. There is plenty of opportunity and potential. There is also lots of competition!

Domains have to be renewed. If they are not renewed then they expire and after a certain period they are released back to the public. However, the larger domain registrars have teamed up with companies such as “snapnames”:http://snapnames.com and “pool”:http://pool.com to pass back domains through a domains aftermarket before the domains officially become available to the public.

I’ll cough up some details tomorrow with actual specifics. For now, I’m trying to enjoy what’s left of my holiday!

Well, I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much money on a hunch as I have with this expired domain stuff. It actually hasn’t been _that_ much money, but it’s more than I would have been comfortable investing previously. The problem with the domain market is that you really need to spend money to get anywhere in the industry. There are hierarchies in the domain after market that essentially dictate how expired domains are filtered through to the public and people in the hierarchy only want one thing - money.

Well, I’ve spent a bit of time researching how to make money in the domains industry and I have found the whole industry very interesting. My focus has been on the domain aftermarket where expired domains end up. This business is one of those areas I always thought formed the seedier side of the Internet. It turns out it’s really not _that_ bad. Many people simply give up on web sites. These web sites can sometimes have profitable levels of traffic flowing through them due to left over search engine links. Sometimes people also give up on _nice_ domain names which have value for several reasons.

This is a real industry. There is plenty of open and friendly information to read on the web and there’s even conferences to attend! You do need to do some research and play it smart. Personally I’ve found that you need to spend some money to get anywhere, and it definitely pays to research before putting your money anywhere.

I believe this industry will become more influential as the Internet matures and that domains will inevitably parallel the property markets.