GoDaddy is one of my favorite backorder service sites. Their backorder service is reasonably priced, it includes a nice horse stable of catch registrars, it has great horsepower, but it lacks the strength to catch anything valuable. I made it a point to contact GoDaddy during 2012 to alert their staff & backorder department that they need to step it up a bit.  Everytime I simply got back a cookie cutter response. Instead of listening to my gripes about their lack of strength they can apply to catch domains, I got the common response which looked very similar to this response:

GoDaddy Backorders

The problem here is quite clear, I simply tried to alert GoDaddy about their backorder flaws & instead I was alerted about their job position openings. In my eyes, all I was trying to do was alert GoDaddy that if they hold upwards of 10+ domain catching registrars then they should be able to compete with Snapnames, Enom & others like: HugeDomains – Andrew Reberry, BackOrderZone.com & the like – eg, Name.com, Dynadot.com so on & so forth. GoDaddy has always been at the edge of cutting edge technology, but they are dropping the ball with their drop catch – backorder service. I wish they would have simply paid attention to my remarks & made a sensible reply to make things better for all drop catch / backorder customers.

GoDaddy is the number one registrar of all time & they preposterously hold their value of holding the most amount of domain names under thir belt. I believe it is upwards of 65 million domain names under their registrar & affiliate registrars. I understand that GoDaddy has one of the biggest domain aftermarkets around – TDNAM – but would a better backorder service hurt them? In my eyes, getting extra help wouldn’t hurt anything but secure more customers to add to their already top notch & stable domain retention numbers.

Maybe I am dreaming, but if you own as many registrars as GoDaddy does, I would be owning the drop catch field. Anywhere from CCC.com’s to the domain’s that attract less traffic & go under the radar. Something that I have noticed is that once a domain backorder attracts more than one backorder @ GoDaddy, their drop catching service goes after that domain name much stronger. It must be because they want to initiate the auction process to start for such domain name backorder & increase their revenues. What they are failing to understand is that if they simply catch expiring domain names for their customers, their catch rate will attract many more new customers. It’s like a domino effect which other domain registrars are striving their business upon, but I believe it will be a matter of time before GoDaddy latches on & overcomes a market they created.

If a GoDaddy employee happens to read this blog, I would highly recommend that you utilize your drop catch strengths on each domain at a time. Each PendingDelete domain has a time frame / order it will drop in. Rumor has it that hand reggers can beat out GoDaddy backorders because your service needs help. If that doesn’t make sense, then you should compare your member backorders to what you actually catch & notice that your compettion is eating you up in your own game.

For all domainers, I would recommend that you not lose hope in GoDaddy’s backorder service. There will be light at the end of the tunnel & perhaps it will take blog posts like this one to enlighten GoDaddy & other registrars to take action to increase their drop catch strength – not for themselves, but for the sake of customers who believe in the services such registrars provide to the general audience.

Happy Domaining..

Dan

Lately, I have been looking to backorder sites in hopes of securing domain names that I want to backorder. One of the sites I visit most are namejet.com & backorderzone.com. I have to admit that most of the backordered domain names make absolutely no sense to me.  It must be that I am used to cherry picking much better domains on my own behalf. However as curiosity,  I find myself scrolling through the backorder / auction lists to find that the names seem of less quality to me. Not only are the backordered (PendingDelete) domains backordered terrible, but the bids placed on each makes me feel like I am doing something wrong. Why would someone bid hundreds of dollars on a useless domain name? I run my proprietary domain check algorithms & find nothing good / special about these domains backordered with astronomical figures.

NameJet.com backorder domains

I can see how the pre-release backorders may have value – but I clearly don’t see the value in the PendingDelete domain backorders. Perhaps it’s the fact that everyone is getting more & more into domain warehousing & the best domains are  being warehoused by domain investors. It may be that the days I decide to checkout the daily backorder, only junk domains have been put a hit on. It may be that the real domains of worth are not included in the lists, but overall all I see is junk being offered for sale & soon being auctioned for sale on NameJet’s platform. While most valuable domains from the deleting list get backordered at the these outlets, I am scratching my head why. Why would someone settle to pay $69+ for a domain backorder barely if not worth the backorder price? Is it because there’s all there is out there to catch? I know that the PendingDelete lists have a lot more to offer, but domain investors still don’t have the resources to do their diligent research. To further investigate the full list of dropping domains & pickout the best ones. I understand that noone has this much time on their hands, but what happened to the old days of scanning the drop lists manually? Furthermore finding a diamond in the rough that noone else detects.

I still believe that there is a good percent of good drops dropping daily. These expired domain names end up in my lists & I choose to not chase such domains to see where it will take my judgement & domain wants. For example, if you were to scan the full list of 70,000 (approx) .com & .net domain names dropping tomorrow, you’ll find a lot of treasures that simply make sense. But instead we are (us domainers) are plagued by the theory that if someone else wants it. we must have it! What happened to just laying low under the radar & letting our own instincts take over? I think the pattern I am seeing will slowly deteriorate the  appreciation for domains we are used to & will get more & more used to automation drop list prediction with stats that don’t always point us in the right direction.

From experience, the best domains I have sold have been domains that I eyeballed from the drop list. These domains usually have zero stats & would have gone undetected under the radar. However I managed to sell them for good profits. For example a domain with no stats whatsoever no other TLD’s taken and a good purpose in my eye has rendered over a 100% profit. Eg, I bought the domain for $8.99 via a domain registration API & sold it for $949 or more.

This post should hopefully influence domainers, investors & entrepreneurs to do additional work on their  domain strategy & figure out that there’s always a lot more than meets the eye. Never giving up has been part of my moto & the more I find these droplist cumbersomeness the stronger my strategy gets.  The glass can always be half empty or half full & it depends on your perspective to figure out how to turn the matter in hand into your advantage or give in like the rest of the crowd.

Happy new years / 2013 & good luck domaining. I wish everyone the best of luck in this new year to catch valuable drops &  fill up your domain portfolios with domains others don’t notice, but you do

Hello everyone,

I have been in the domain business since 2003. I really got active around 2006 & 2007. Since then, the dot com bubble has fizzled down immensely.  Something I’d like to touch on today is how your online reputation means a lot to your customers.  I’m sure most online entrepreneurs have experienced going the extra mile for your customer(s).  The saying goes that if you’re doing something right, you will get complainers – usually your competition. If you do something right, your customers will complement you.

I want to shed some light on people who go through the same stuff I have & ultimately the customer comes first. I have reputation across the domain forums and the google checkout score for the company I am running – Pykos Inc. based in Chicago IL. I sell a lot of domains to domainers & endusers along with the drop catching software found at dropking.com & subscriptions to the expiring domain lists with times at dnmeter.com. With each sale comes a need to make sure that the customer is happy and received something they can use.

It’s nice to keep a good record going where a new buyer can verify that you are a good seller. It gives the buyer a piece of mind to see your online reputation. Another factor that helps a lot is wom – word of mouth. Often times a buyer will purchase drop catch software from dropking.com becaue a friend recommend the software since it works for them. Other times a domainer’s competition will catch a domain with the dropking software & the domainer will buy the software to fire back at the same level as their competition.

This is a snapshot of my reputation at the domain forum: namepros.com.

Expron’s NamePros Feedback Score

I mention that you can lose your reputation in an instant because there will always be a complaining customer that tries to ruin your rep. The best thing to do is be responsive with such customers & provide the best customer care you can while treating each customer equally.

Often times a customer will not feel satisfied with a domain purchase or product purchase. In which case, I like to step back & put myself in the buyer’s shoe. If they feel the price wasn’t good, I work with them. If I feel the support or instructions on the software wasn’t all there, I issue a refund to the buyer. It helps to keep a good online reputation if you think like your customers & go the extra mile instead of thinking profits and how to make your own pockets bigger.

Something I feel helps is to open communication with your customers. Let them voice their complaints & work through each complaint & issue one by one until both parties are happy. I always feel that if my customers aren’t happy, then why should I be happy? If they are struggling to figure out how drop catch software works or how to understand the dnmeter.com lists, then I need to step up with the support factor & make the customer happy by maximizing their use of the domain, software or drop lists they have purchased from me.

I worked for Sears Roebuck & CO as a teenager. I worked at one of the biggest malls in America – Woodfield mall for nearly five years. This was one of my first part time / full time jobs. As a sixteen year old, I learned that Sears is in business because of it’s customer loyalty. If Sears didn’t have such customer service, they would have been out of business a long time ago. Hence that Sears may go out of business in the future, their customer loyalty is what has pulled the company stronger & bigger since the turn of the century. Sears taught me that if the customer isn’t happy, we need to make them happy with everything in our power and stick through thick & thin until the customer was happy & appreciative of the product or service they have purchased.

You can lose you online reputation in an instant if you become lazy, overwhelmed, busy or just plain stop caring about your customers. This is something I try not to do & motivate myself to be there for others just like I would like to be treated. If my customers aren’t happy, then I am doing something wrong. Likewise if my competition is bashing me or complaining then I am doing something  right where they are lacking strengths and I’m filling voids they can’t.

I know we all get flooded with work on a daily basis, but something that keeps me going strong is the compliments my customers send over. A simple thank you for the best drop catching software or a thank you for the help provided have gone very far for me. Since I have provided such great service, new doors have opened up to me ranging from free domains to hospitality and customers looking up to me. All this stuff matters to me & is what keeps me going strong daily.

Don’t lose hope & keeping your customers in mind will go very far. Your reputation will grow stronger & the best marketing strategy of all time is word of mouth. If you do something right, your customers will appreciate it. If you take care of your customers, they will be by your side and help you fruit a better business relationship that should flourish for a long time relationship.

As most of the readers of my blog  know, I offer expired domains drop catching software. I recently have been getting good feedback about certain API’s that seem to be outperforming others. For instance, lately, the namesilo.com API seems to be catching a lot of domains for my customers. It’s great that the namesilo registrar & Michael Goldfarb have been really good at taking care of their customers. The namesilo API offers a feature that other registrars don’t, It’s called a “registerDomainDrop” API call that instantly goes after expiring  pending delete domains to register them into your account.

Another API which has been really getting good remarks from customers has been Moniker. Moniker’s API has successfully beat out multiple backorder services such as backorderzone.com, enom, pool & snapnames. Yes,although rare, Moniker seems to have the best API out there for drop catching expired domains. The difference is quite simple, while the other registrars simply go after one domain at a time, Moniker goes after all your domains at once – sometimes as fast as one try in bulk (up to 100 domains) per second. If you add in multiple API accounts & some strategy, you can save a bundle vs backordering domains by simply using Moniker’s API & paying regfee for each domain.

Dynadot’s API although over-subscribed still holds good value in drop catching as well. I know that Todd Han, Peter Do & support team from Dynadot are working diligently to add more registry connections to their powerhouse registrar. The end result will be more drop catching connections for dynadot’s API customers.  Which will mean more successful drop catches & happy customers who chase  expiring domains which end up in their accounts.

What is the main difference between all? I would say luck, but regardless – it’s still very possible to catch expired domains for a reasonable cost with little overhead. I have seen dynadot’s api beat out moniker’s api while I have seen moniker’s api beat out $59 – $69 backorders. All I can recommend is for you to not lose hope & give it a try. It may surprise you to see what you catch by trying & not give into the major backorder services that end up charging you $69 per backorder & pay $8 & some change for the same expiring domain names.

I am proud to offer drop catching software for the internet.bs registrar API. This software seems to be really fast at hitting Internet.bs’ API and securing expiring domain names on your behalf. Internet.bs has a really good api system which hits the central registry at a good rate. In my testing, I was able to attempt to register domains (.com & .net) at a rate of 1-3 tries a second. Something that I noticed also is that the realtime attempts were going through fast and their API doesn’t seem to be over subscribed like most other API’s.

Internet.bs supports these domain extensions for drop catching extensions & prices:

.com $8.49
.co $25.99
.de Free!
.nl Free!
.net $7.75
.eu $6.37
.org $8.50
.it $6.69
.fr $7.31
.info $7.95
.tel $8.99
.us $6.49
.biz $8.25
.co.uk Free!
.in $9.99
.mobi $12.50
.asia $11.99
.re $8.03
.be $4.76
.tv $32.99
.cc $29.00

I am not really sure how the free registrations work, but it is listed on their website at time of writing.

Hope this is another tool expired domain drop catchers can use to catch valuable domains!

You can view more information about this drop catching tool here: INTERNET.BS Drop Catcher

Sell Your Domains

Hello, I am in a position to purchase domain names at wholesale price. I invite you to submit lists of your domains for sale. Your list can be one domain, multiple domains or hundreds / thousands of domains. I am looking to acquire domains I feel are re-sellable to end users. I use a strict system I developed to determine the liquidity of domains submitted so please keep in consideration the quality of domains submitted.

The budget varies from $x – $x,xxx per domain or portfolio you submit & we agree on pricing. The domains I am looking for should be brandable or generics which you are ready to let go at a cheap price. They do not need to be developed or have parking stats. I will simply know if the domain is worth buying once you let me know what the domain is & your price per domain.

It doesn’t matter if your domain is expiring soon or has been registered for years to come. However, a higher price can be expected for good domains that have years of registration remaining under their belt. I am looking to pay wholesale price so please don’t expect to receive end user offers. If you have domains laying around you’d like to sell at wholesale pricing, let me know. The registrar they are registered at doesn’t matter.

If you’re interested, please submit your list of domains with a price for each domain or a price for the lot to: support <at> expron.com. You can also post the domains you have for sale here in a comment, but please specify if the list should be made public or remain hidden from readers of this blog. I look forward to doing business with you and purchasing your domain names.

registerfly.com

It’s not often that I notice a pending delete domain that reminds me of the past. However, upon scanning tomorrow’s drop list of pending delete domains I noticed that the domain registerfly.com hit pending delete and will be deleted from the central registry. Tomorrow the domain will expire and become available for registration to anyone. RegisterFly was an ICANN accredited registrar that lost it’s accreditation in 2007. The basis of losing it’s accreditation was based on customer fraud because one of the owners was using company funds for personal use. I remember domaining in 2007 and registerfly always had coupon codes for cheap domain registrations. RegisterFly was one of the most popular registrars across the forums and a hot topic discussed as these news became public. When they lost their accreditation, the news spread like wildfire across the forums with uncertainty of what was going to happen to domains held by the registrar. RegisterFly held over 2 million domains and about 900,000 customers. Some customers included pop star Michael Jackson, charity organizations and the government of Thailand.

Immediately panic followed as registerfly’s customers closely monitored the registrar and it’s legal battle. During the legal woes, the registrar was forced to place notices on the website stating that registerfly’s ICANN accreditation had been terminated.  After that, the registrar began operations again under different domains such as regfly.com & registerfly.net. Later registerfly.net was deemed a phishing website for charging customer’s credit cards for sales, but unable to provide a product or service.

News about the registrar appeared in businessweek and other news broadcasts. ICANN was heavily critized over it’s handling of this matter and it’s approach to rectifying customer complaints. Customers of registerfly struggled to manage their domains, receive support or refunds or managing of their funds held at the registrar.

It will be interesting to see who ends up chasing & snapping up registerfly.com tomorrow. I assume this expiring domain will draw attention and will most likely be captured at one of the major backorder outlets (Snapnames, Enom or Pool). The domain will probably hit auction with multiple backorders and the bidding should yield a good amount for the final amount. It’s not everyday you see a domain like this drop, but I don’t see much use for the name after such a tarnished past.

Reseller Club Drop Catcher

Directi (resellerclub.com) offers a powerful drop catching API. This API is good for catching expiring domain names into your resellerclub account. The pricing is reasonable and the API is capable of sending up to 100 calls every minute. The calls are usually to register domain names during the drop window. Directi allows a maximum of 1000 calls every ten minutes which makes this API a good choice when trying to register dropping domains.

Directi has been very effective at registering .com & .net domains – but it’s main focus should be considered for domains in other extensions. In the past, I have noticed directi being very effective at registering .in, .co.in, .mobi & .me domains. Directi offers various pricing slabs starting at a $99 prepayment to start using their API & catching domain names into your account. Directi has been in business for a long time & are one of the first registrars I knew about to offer API access to it’s members.

DropKing offers a server based script that is easy to install on a PHP server. Using this script, you can set domains you’d like to catch & the software takes care of the rest. Directi has expanded it’s customer base over the years to over 200 countries & holds control to over 5 million domains in it’s registrar. Their customer support has always been extra “nice & helpful” to me with any issues or questions I have presented.

These are the domain extensions that Directi offers registrations for:

.com
.net
.biz
.org
.name
.info
.pro
.in
.mobi
.co
.asia
.ru
.com.ru
.net.ru
.org.ru
.de
.es
.us
.xxx
.ca
.com.au
.net.au
.co.uk
.org.uk
.me.uk
.co.uk
.org.uk
.me.uk
.eu
.co.in
.net.in
.org.in
.gen.in
.firm.in
.ind.in
.cn.com
.com.co
.net.co
.nom.co
.me
.tel
.tv
.cc
.ws
.bz
.mn
.co.nz
.net.nz
.org.nz
.eu.com
.gb.com
.ae.org
.kr.com
.us.com
.qc.com
.gr.com
.de.com
.gb.net
.no.com
.hu.com
.jpn.com
.uy.com
.za.com
.br.com
.sa.com
.se.com
.se.net
.uk.com
.uk.net
.ru.com
.cn
.com.cn
.net.cn
.org.cn

If you are a serious drop catcher, I recommend directi’s API to your toolkit. It is a reliable API system that is easy to use & will scoop up domain names the second they become available.  They are a top choice registrar that also offers web hosting & domain related services. They offer LAMP & .net hosting armed with Plesk or Cpanel management for reseller hosting plans.

Expiring Domains Drop Order & Drop Times

I encourage readers of my blog to take a look at the service provided by: DNMeter. DNMeter takes the daily list of pending delete domains, places the domains in drop order & assigns an estimated time each domain will become deleted from the central registry and become available for registration again.

The registry fluctuates when dropping domains from the zone. I notice sometimes the registry drops batches of domains at a steady pace while other times it stalls on a batch which freezes on the batch & holds up the rest of the drop.

It is difficult to determine the exact second a domain name will drop, but the DNMeter service does a good job. Below I will outline several ways the service can be of use to help expired domain catchers catch the names they want.

1.) It provides a method to gauge the time window between drops. Eg, If you are chasing three domain names today – You can determine the window between each domain. Here’s an example:

Domain Time
Domain1.com – 1:07:15pm CST
Domain2.com – 1:26:03pm CST
Domain3.com – 1:57:44pm CST

The example above would indicate that domain1.com will drop around 1:07pm, Domain 2 drops around 1:26pm & domain3 drops around 1:57pm. So it wouldn’t make sense to chase all three domains during the entire drop window, but instead only when it’s getting close for each domain to drop.

2.) Knowing the time a domain will drop allows me to focus all my strengths to catch the domain. Weather it be refreshing a registrar checkout page or using API’s to catch the domain – knowing when it will drop greatly increases my chances to catch the drop.

In the future, the drop catching software at DropKing will incorporate the drop order to sort and adjust the dropping domains into the software so you can achieve maximum results at registering dropping domains.

If you’d like a free trial of the dnmeter lists, comment and I will provide a five day trial to interested users. This is another tool to have handy if you are an active expired domains drop catcher.

Domaining seems to be a game of chance lately at how I monetize my daily activity. Certain windows open and close in life, businesses and ventures go up and fold while others breathe profit & take off running. The money in my bank account influences my drop catching strategy.  I often compare domain names to small relationships. Eg, a girlfriend I can lease for a year or X amount of years if I like her.  I like to put away all my emotion and clearly look at a domain name. This helps to flip domains and turn a decent profit.

It seems like the same dating & marriage rules apply to a domain name. You clearly have to ask yourself.. Can I see myself with this domain 5 years from now? How about 20 years from now? Is it Mrs. Right or is it Mrs. Right Now? why am I hoarding hundreds of domains I have no connection with? Does it make me feel better to have a financial backing in worthless domain registrations? Why aren’t I a millionaire like I felt i would be if that domain had done this or that for me or sold for seven figures?

The issue at hand is that while domains are liquid assets, the price still lies in the buyer’s eye. If there is an interest for a domain name you own, how do you handle the sale? The best advice I can give is to give the domains you sell a solid price. Trusting in  valutations and previous sales may sound good, but how can you connect with your buyer at a price that suits him or her well? Most buyers are newbies and don’t want to learn about DNS, hosting, additional web design / development and don’t care what a domain registrar is.

So this post will go on to mention things to avoid and things I like to look at in determining if a domain hold resale value.

Things to avoid if you want to sell domains:

• Quantity of domains you hold under your belt will never compare to the quality. I’d rather have a handful of good domains versus a boatload of worthless domains.
• The domain extension matters. I try to invest in .com domains only. Lesser extensions will not yield as big of a sale as you’d expect.
• Don’t under-price your domains. It’s ok to dream up a big price. Don’t leave money on the table.
• Follow through on your sales & inquiries. Don’t let time slip between an inquiry or offer to counter. Engage quickly & accurately.
• Do not use domain privacy in your whois records. Place a valid email in your domain’s whois so people can contact you easily.

Things that help me sell domains quickly:

• Price is key. try to nail down a good price in your head or on an offer page & stick with it.
• Having an email that reaches me in the whois record for each domain.
• Setting a BIN (buy it now) price on a sales lander page or parking page.
• Easy payment & checkout / escrow capabilities.
• Developing the domain in wordpress or other platform.
• Posting my domains for sale on an outlet domain. For example, I am working on orbitnames to showcase the domains I own & want to sell.

The best tool I find in acquiring & selling domains is Google. Google provides a fast way of determining if a domain holds value. If you find longer domains that hold your domain in it, then it may be a good sell. I would recommend to stay away from these items in selling your domains:

Things to avoid in selling your domain names.

• Domain Appraisals.
• Bulk Email / Spamming such as leadrefs.com & estibot’s lead generation service that provide cookie cutters.
• Setting your prices too low. Always aim for the stars.

I hope this helps fellow domainers in selling their domains names for big bucks. Never forget that sometimes setting a higher price is ok & it does work. If anything, work with the customer in setting a price you are both comfortable with.

Following these experiences will hopefully assist you in putting your domains for sale & securing a sale for your domain names.