There are tons of expiring domains every day. Some are expired domains of developed sites and has traffic, backlinks and pagerank.
Ok, pagerank alone doesn't have value for Google but still there are tons of people buying backlinks valuing them from pagerank :)
There are 3 categories of drops catching
1. expired domains to get flipped - these domains might have just some value when sold to others. Money invested might not get back if You don't get buyer.
2. expired domains with traffic - domains that has traffic from backlinks -> their traffic decrease by time, but You can get some profit by parking them or develop MFA site or make new serious project.
3. expired domains with pagerank - these domains has pagerank from DOFOLLOW backlinks. There are marketplaces where You can sell backlinks. Google doesn't null pagerank if You create new similar content as backlinks that have generated pagerank usually stays as they are.
Catching domains for flipping doesn't make much profit and You can't be sure if there would be any.
I suggest You to buy domains with pagerank or traffic, as you can count how much minimal profit You can get and You know if it's enough to pay domain cost and make $ above cost.
Where to get good domain names? Plenty of main domain registrars have aftermarket for such domains. You can also buy domains that have expired for regfee only but they barely have some value.
I mostly use
Godaddy.com aftermarket as there are domains with hundreds of visitors/day or PR3-PR5 easy to get won in auction.
Really it's worth to buy domains in auction as they are sold before they are trully marked as expired so You keep site sequeantly running and keep Pagerank.
But how to find really good names?
I use these two tools as they are probably best:
http://www.freshdrop.net - huge list of expiring domains at
Godaddy.com where You can set filters and line-up on different criteria (traffic, overture, etc.). The also show if it suppose to be real pagerank or spoofed (fake).
Another cool tool is:
http://www.domainyank.com/listing.php -> You can line-up by alexa rank or pagerank. These domains are picked from all in godaddy listing and there are some awesome domains with high PR.
Remember, PR3-PR5 domains are mostly spoofed by redirect so check backlinks
Any domain with PR3-5 should be listed here (if this tool doesn't show any result or result is different domain then searched, it means PR is probably spoofed):
http://www.google.com -> info:domain.com
Should have from 5-100 dofollow links in this search (this tool doesn't work perfectly and number of search results doesn't show all dofollow links indexed). PR2-PR3 should have about 5-20 results, PR4-PR5 should have atleast 20-50.
http://www.google.com -> link:domain.com
What about traffic? Godaddy shows estimated monthly traffic and You also have alexa rank to know if it's true and longterm traffic.
Ok. I've picked domains, domains have bids, what now? What domains are worth to invest?
Traffic domains: If You got traffic (by godaddy estimates) 100 UIPs / day, then You can
1. Park domain -> You will lose almost all search engine traffic (might be up to 50% of annual traffic). But You have high CTR (up to 20-30% if You pick right keywords matching previous domain content).
2. Build small blog or site with few content and adsense or adbrite ads and wait for clicks.
To estimate maximum BID that can bring atleast invested money + some profit You need to count.
You got domain about religion, average religion PPC at
Parked.com is 50-60 cents, and You got 500UIPs stimated by godaddy. Lest say, You lose 30% of traffic from search engines so You have 350UIPs.
350 UIPs / 30 days = 12 UIPs/day. If You got 5-20% CTR on average You've got 0,6-2,4 clicks / day and that is 0,3-1,2$ a day.
Each month You got 10-20% decrease in traffic. So first month You got 350UIPs, next is lets say 300, 270, 230 etc.....
So in first 12 months, average traffic is around 50% of first month traffic. So that's maybe 170UIPs on average, let's say minimal 5% CTR and 0,5$ PPC = 4-5$ a month = 50-60$ a year.
That is absolute minimum but if You want to be sure, don't spend more then 40$ on such domain. It's just safe path as You probably have CTR around 10%.
Various domains works better with various parking companies -> this si some small comparison:
http://www.webmasterinter.net/2008/09/parked-sedo-namedrive-or-fabulous
Domains with pagerank: You can sell backlinks at backlinks marketplaces.
I suggest you to use these two mayor marketplaces as You can sell tons of links there:
Backlinks.com
Text-link-ads.com
Text-link-ads.com
(TLA) have tons of advertisers but You only earn about 35-40% of monthly price. But You sell enough backlinks with price that would be added by TLA stuff.
Backlinks.com
got 50% commission and enough advertisers to sell maybe 5-6 links.
Backlinks got static earnings for each PR, prices are low but You sell enough links: (PR5 and more are worthless to sell at Backlinks)
PageRank (PR) 1 homepage $.50 , subpage $.50
PageRank (PR) 2 homepage $1 , subpage $1
PageRank (PR) 3 homepage $2 , subpage $1.50
PageRank (PR) 4 homepage $3 , subpage $2
PageRank (PR) 5 homepage $4.50 , subpage $3.50
PageRank (PR) 6 homepage $12.50 , subpage $10
PageRank (PR) 7 homepage $30 , subpage $25
PageRank (PR) 8 homepage $75 , subpage $50
So with PR3 domain, and You sell 4 ads at TLA (15$ price and about
6$ commission) and 6 Backlinks ads, with 2$ for homepage, You'll have 24$+12$ = 36$ monthly. But as we all know, google will update pagerank in 2-3 months, so then You'll probably have PR2. PR2 will earn You about half of that, so You've got 18$/month for next 3 months. And after another update You're gonna have PR1 for maybe 6 months
So Your estimated earning might be about 36$*3 months + 18$*3 months + 9$*6 months = 216$.
If You buy PR3 domain for 60$ then it bring You about 150$ profit in year, and all the work is to find such domain and set blog or very simple site from template and put TLA and backlinks code there. It's worth a try :)
Enjoy Your nice and easy earnings :)
About the Author:
Webmaster and domain trader with tons of experience just giving few hints so people get better and newbies can step in
Expired domains with pagerank and traffic
