More recently, Snapnames has failed me every time. Those are names that (I think) I should've gotten. Domains with a limited audience and no links to them.
I'm starting to think... am I drawing attention to these domains by putting a Snapnames on them?
The one thing I changed was, scouring lists with domains that were just put on hold, versus domains with PENDINGDELETE status.
Are there people who test if about-to-expire domains have a snapnames on it, and if yes, try to get them first?
I'm sitting on 8 snapnames subscriptions now and by the way things are going, some might expire after a year with no successful snap.
Thanks in advance for any advice, comments, etc.
The one thing I changed was, scouring lists with domains that were just put on hold, versus domains with PENDINGDELETE status.
If a domain is pending delete and the snapname slot has not been used - it is just about certain that there is not alot of desire for that name.
Once you moved to domains on hold, you are now working on domains that the masses have not really looked at ... yet. Soon, they will discover the value of the domain, find out that the 1 snapname slot is taken and then move on to several other domain catchers.
Basically, you are now attempting to register domains that may be more popular. If you really want the name you should attempt to 'snap' it by using multiple services.
Maybe I need to start using them.
On the other hand - I heard that a lot of professional domain catchers use their own systems outside of Pool, Snapnames, etc.
Can anybody give an estimation, what the numbers are? Say a domain is in medium-high demand. Not worth "thousands of dollars" but more like "hundreds", at the most. If I use Snapnames, Pool, Namewinner and whatever else is out there, will the success rate of getting the domain be - 100%, 50%, or lower?
I just want to know the order of magnitude, not exact percentages.
I have the feeling that the time and $$$ amounts spent if buying in an auction, are not worth it if other people have much more efficient tools at their disposal.
If others have the same pattern of behaviour, that could go a long way towards explaining what you are seeing.
But, now that you've mentioned it, I went back and checked the WHOIS of several of the recent names that I "lost". On three of them, the whois query times out and I don't get the names of the actual registrant. No page loads under the domains either. The ICANN registrar of the three is one I never heard of before, namejuice.
Does anybody know, what kind of capture service can lead to registration through namejuice? Are they part of POOL?
Well, recently there has been a lot more competition for drops and Snapnames have lost many of their registration partner registrars. They simply can't pay out the same profit share as Pool (for example) since Snapnames maintain a flat fee structure whereas Pool domains can reach thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars at auction.
As you can imagine, a percentage of the final Pool price sounds more tempting than a cut of $69 so there have been a lot of registrars "defecting" to Pool.
With every registrar that leaves, Snapnames gets weaker and Pool gets stronger, to the point where Pool is now IMO the #1 public dropcatcher (i.e. dropcatcher where anyone can pay to play) and Snapnames is back in the chasing pack with most of the other players.
pool by 2:1 over the others, then
namewinner
buydomains
ultsearch
snap
if you've got a snap and are in on the auctions at pool and namewinner, you've got a pretty good shot to be in a position to bid for your must-have domain.
I've been looking for an excuse to get out of the domain snap business, at this could be it :-) I don't want to spend more than $69 on a domain name or more than a couple hours per week watching domains.
I guess I'll leave the table to the big boys.
<leaving the casino...>
