Domain Name Analysis Tools

So many names, so little time

[jdancing]

I can download the expiring domains from Snapnames, however, the list is 100,000+ and impossible to go through. If I narrow the list down using their filters, I can view the results online but can’t export the results. Paging through their web-based results, even for a few thousand names, is quite tedious.

Are the any domain tools available that would allow me to load a huge CSV list of domains so I can quickly sift and sort through the names every which way? Perhaps even something that will also pull in some extra information on each domain? If not, I may need to develop something on my own.

What are some techniques used for finding the few good domains among the 1,000s of worthless expiring domains that expire every week?

[Frequent]

I still pretty much go by gut instinct and manually.

If it's a domain that was obviously used for a real business or organization, often a crappy domain name such as johndoesexamplellc.tld I will usually do a little digging to see how many links come with it, if it was banned, etc.

If it's a domain that is just perfect for a planned project I will also dig.

If it's a domain that's just "to good to be true" I'll often spend my money and let the chips fall where they may, just in case it isn't banned.

I agree it is tedious but there's a little thrill there kinda-like the good old days on a certain auction site that everyone loves to hate.

Freq---

[Webwork]

Pull a domain list into a spreadsheet, visually scan about 1000 domains a minute, pluck the good fruit, enter the domains onto Typepad, copy and paste that list into your dropcatching service.

Piece of cake.

Of course, for several hours after doing my mental domain processes cause my other mental processes to hang and I have to continually reboot my brain.

Try this: Limit your domain size to 12 characters, no numbers, no dashes, no .net/.biz. Cuts the list down considerably. Above 12 characters the domain names tend to get a bit more . . . crappy?

[jdancing]

Try this: Limit your domain size to 12 characters, no numbers, no dashes, no .net/.biz. Cuts the list down considerably

I can do this at snap names but as far as I can tell there is no way to export the filtered list. Their export gives me everything. I guess at minimum I could dump the list into MS Access and write a few queries to cut down the listing.

[bhartzer]

Forget about expired domains--you need to focus on domains that are still in the search engine indexes and haven't technically 'expired'.

Just about anything can be scraped--once you get scrape the domain list (whichever one you're using), it's fairly easy to check the backlinks on the domain. I know that backlinks aren't necessarily an indicator, but it helps to further narrow down the list.

[jdancing]

I guess what I have is a list of 180,000 names "about" to expire (so the have not technically expired). So how do I check backlinks of 1000s of domains in an automated fashion. I am looking for an automated tool for doing such things.

Backlinks and PR would be nice.

[stu2]

That would be nice :)

I have a simple batch file using grep and rexx which strips out everything but the .coms for any given date. Reduces the snapnames download file from 4630k to 80k. You could probably adapt it if you wanted to slice 'n dice by some other means. It's a very simple rexx script, so if you wanted to use some other scripting language I'm sure it would be very easy to translate. Anyhow, if you are interested, just sticky me.

Oh, and if you find the tool you are looking for, would appreciate a head's up.

[domainstalker3]

There are a lot of desktop software and a lot of scripts that can retrieve backlinks in an automated manner. Just make sure they get updated often by the authors.

[edited by: Webwork at 9:32 pm (utc) on Jan. 9, 2006]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]