I recently lost a domain that I had held onto for quite some time. I had expected the registration to have been lost quite some time ago but it managed to stay active for much longer than I expected. This is chiefly because domains do not expire quite when they are set to.
I am now considering grabbing a domain which is already owned. Before I just placed a backorder for it I looked up the technicalities behind it and found that I could save a lot of money for not jumping on the domain right when it was supposed to expire.
A brief visit to Whois will let you know who controls the domain and when it is set to expire. Check here first for some basic information.
How Domains Expire
Domains simply do not expire when they claim to, instead their expiration date is is the start of their expired status. Typically there is a 40 day grace during which the current owner can simply renew the domain as per usual. Now after this grace period the domain enters into a redemption period.
At this point the initial owner will incur a fee in order to renew the domain. The length of the redemption period and the fee associated with it will vary from host to host. If there is no renewal in this phase, then the domain will go into the deletion phase. At this point the domain cannot be renewed and will be up for grabs at the end of deletion.
Grabbing the Domain
Now then, after all that time, lasting in total about 75 days, the domain will be put up for grabs. Now, when exactly the domain becomes available again cannot be certain and there is no guarantee that you will be the one to grab the domain. If the domain is desirable enough, then other people will likely want it as well.
A number services can can allow you to go into the race for the domain. It is possible to snag the domain on your own, but if other people want it and are using services like GoDaddy, then they will get it. There are a few popular services that are all worth looking at. The more you try the better your chances will get, but the more expensive the process will get.
The Services
Snapnames is one to look into for sure. The benefit to Snapnames is that they have an exclusive partnership with Network Solutions, which is a rather popular service. The partnership allows Snapnames to have first say on newly available domains hosted by Network Solutions. If the domain was is held by Network Solutions, then it is a pretty safe bet to use Snapnames.
Snapnames will charge you $60 flat for the domain, but if multiple people are competing then this can cause a bidding war to begin. In all honesty, this is the trend that I hope will continue with some of the more popular domain hosts, wherein they allow people to bid on the domain instead of trying to randomly pick it up by chance by investing in a large number of services.
Pool is presently the most popular service and considered by many to have the best success rate. Pool also charges $60 as an opening bid for the domain. After they successfully grab the domain Pool moves onto a second phase of the purchase even if no one else was initially interested in the domain.
Pools second phase involves a secret bidding war that lasts three days. In this stage you wont even know how many people you are competing against. You could simply be bidding against yourself. If there are multiple bidders, the top two, as well as everyone involved in the bidding war who was within 30% of the top bidder enter phase three of the bidding war. Each party in phase three has a one day open bid over the domain.
Pools method is a little bit shady, but because of how reliable they are, and how popular they are, they can get away with it. The method makes them a lot of extra money, but is unreasonably frustrating for the buyers.
Enom is another popular service which only charges $30. The twist with them is that they will devote more resources the more that an individual pays. How much more likely you are to grab the domain, and how much more resources they devote is hidden. The way it functions, its essentially like the bidding war begins even before they manage to grab the domain.
Cross Your Fingers
At this stage in the chase all most people can do is hope that they get the domain and to hope that if they do get it, that they will not have to deal with Pool. Aside from using all three services, there is not really anything that can be done to help your chances. You can try investing in less popular services but they will likely not help your odds too much.
If you do end up having to deal with Pool remember that typical eBay rules apply during the final stage so go ahead and wait until the last moments of the auction to try to outbid your opponent.
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