Pros and Cons of buying an expired domain

[swapnil90]

Hey

What are the pros and cons of buying an expired domain ??

Pls let me know as I want to buy one soon

[macy]

It has already gained some popularity. Sometimes it was already a PR domain so it would be a lesser effort on your part marketing your site if its an expired domain.

[Fishnagles]

Sometimes expired domains see a Google penalty..... Just be aware that domains which expire sometimes have to build back a google trust to get indexed and ranked in the search engine....

Doing a search on Google for "Expired Domain Penalty" gives some interesting results...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=expired%20domain%20penalty

[LeeAnn]

It has already gained some popularity. Sometimes it was already a PR domain so it would be a lesser effort on your part marketing your site if its an expired domain.

I would think twice about buying an expired domain, unless for a very specific reason. Researching the previous owners would be a must, since I would likely be connected with them in the public eye, until they learned otherwise. Especially for professional websites, I would not want incorrect assumptions made.

[Fishnagles]

If you're looking at an expired domain, the internet archive is a good way to see what they were doing with the domain when they owned it... It's like a window into the past: www.archive.org (great tool)

[Neoakenz]

So, how long do u have to wait to buy an expired domain?

[macy]

I will use that tool as I have actually bought an expired domain yesterday. Hope I will find nothing surprising.

[Neoakenz]

I just found out that the PR on an expired domain will be lost, once the domain is expired and transfer. This really sucks cause I though of buying PR7 sites and selling them but they expire as soon as google update, unless you just want traffic, the page rank system doesn't transfer on.

[Stealer]

I just found out that the PR on an expired domain will be lost, once the domain is expired and transfer. This really sucks cause I though of buying PR7 sites and selling them but they expire as soon as google update, unless you just want traffic, the page rank system doesn't transfer on.

I thought the same thing. But then I put my word cloud in the Google Predictor and i said it would gain .69% so who knows I will find out when the Google update actually happens It would be nice for it to stick to a PR-5. So I can finish making profit as I have already sold enough links that it has paid for itself.

[Relient]

Personally I would never buy an expired domain, unless it just had a massive amount of hits every day.

[Stealer]

Well you really don't know what your missing out on ;). I got one expired domain name that sold for 500$ I bought it for 8$ good deal all around :D It is great to buy expired domain names ( I also recently got one for www.5to4.com ) it is worth mid to low XXXX Already..Appraises for 188,000$ on leapfish I know they exterdate things but it still would sell for a couple grand was a banner exchange for 7 years..Perfect branding there as well as old people from the old site I am sure check it out.

[sufi]

I think expired domains have following pros and cons

Pros:
1) PR
2) Traffic
3) Goodwill
4) Backlinks


Cons:
1) PR often vanishes (not all time but often)
2) Badwill?
3) Might be banned from search engines from old owner's spam.

[business opportunities]

You could benefit more if you keep the use of the expired domain name the same as it was before the expiry. For example, if you were to register this-expired-directory.com, and created a web directory on it, you should not be penalized. For all the search engines know, you just remodeled the site (think of a little home renovation), but keeping the function of the site the same, you shouldn't see any penalty.

[macy]

I bought 2 PR4 domains but then I just sold it as I can't think of a topic that will suit to the name. And the history of the site is too far from what I planned.

[rudz005]

From what I see both have the pros and cons.
No different actually. Please seek other advise also for this.

[LennyP]

The main factor is your motivation for purchasing said domain. If you genuinely want the domain then there is no reason not to buy it just because someone else owned it before. If you are looking to turn a quick buck then you are being dishonest and in many cases your plan will backfire.

[SuviCyriacNadakuzhackal]

There is a chance Google might penalize expired domains. So that would be a negative point unless you are planning to build PR all over again.

[Steve Turner]

Overall, buying an expired domain is valuable to your business. Check out this article http://myhostingcompare.com/blog/2009/08/benefit-from-expired-domain-names/#more-97

[letrono]

good domain name means big property,if you think this expired name is helpful for you, i root for you, but it's not easy to get it, because expiration date usually one month, i means even your domain name expired,you can renew it within one month, after 30days,you can book this name,about last 2 month, the book result will be shown,if you want to know details ,you can contact me, now i'm working in a domain name registrar http://www.todaynic.com/index_en.php always deal with these problems,good luck to you!